vivdunstan

Ok a few changes since last time. I've three rereads on the go, one for fun, one for my book club, and one for - yes well fun too - an annual pre Halloween tradition.

I'm also newly reading the poems book, in print. And continuing to slowly read The Bookshop Book and the book about the Eleanor Crosses.

This time doing a collage of covers using a collage program I have on my Mac. Which didn't exactly collage them for me, but I was able to drag them about to get the desired result.

Ordering us the new limited edition 4K+Blu-ray version of The Name of the Rose starring Sean Connery. I've never seen it right through, but should enjoy it. And though we can't play 4K yet we may be able to in future. Apparently the picture quality in this release is very good, with lots of bonus features, and an accompanying hefty book too.

Just got a phone call from the gynaecological surgeon with my pathology results. Clear for cancer, so mega woop. Of the two cysts removed, the left one was totally benign, the right one “borderline”, but not cancer. That right one was especially large and dangerous to leave in place, so I’m very glad it’s out. Big relief here anyway. We already had a dinner out booked for this week. It will be a celebration meal now.

Finally muting the AI tag on the intfiction forum so I don’t see any posts tagged with that now. I’d hung on for ages, but my patience has run out. It will make the forum a much happier place for me to hang out. Note the users of this forum are generally very against generative AI in creative work.

21 days post gynaecological surgery, and we've just done the last daily anti-coagulant injection. Martin is going to walk round to our nearby chemist to hand in the sharps bin. And we've also just uncovered the last surgical incisions. I had 6 surgical incisions from the robotic keyhole surgery, and they were slow to heal, unsurprisingly given my severe immunosuppression. As the days have gone on we've slowly uncovered more and more, rather than redressing. But it's taken until today to uncover them all. Some are still a bit scary looking, but no signs of infection. So progress.

Just phoned the health centre to see if they had the results of my latest blood test yesterday. Yes, and my kidney function is now normal. So my kidneys have recovered their full function after the major shock they took from my prolonged surgery. So relieved. I didn’t need long term kidney damage on top of all my other problems. Will tell Martin shortly. He is driving the car home from its MOT and service.

Down to just 6 of 21 anti coagulant injections left to go, so I’ll be done by Friday. Martin’s not keen on needles, but has proved very good at injecting. Though my upper thighs are, inevitably, covered with bruises. We were given a sharps bin by the hospital to put the used injections in. That will be handed in to our local chemist after we’re finished. Very possibly when I’m at the neighbouring health centre if my repeat repeat kidney function test this coming week is still too low and they ask me to come in again the following week!

One of the best signs of progress in my continued recovery after surgery is that my temperature regulation has finally stabilised. I was struggling with constant swinging hot waves, chills and feeling clammy in the days and first week after especially. Had no signs of an infection, and my other stats were good, but temperature regulation was bonkers. Not due to my ovaries being removed - I was already post menopausal and off HRT. Just the shock of the major surgery. But good now. Two weeks ago at this time I was under the surgeon’s knives, over three hours through a five and a half hour keyhole operation. Seems like an age ago.

Here's the BBC newly published invitation to tender for Doctor Who. Lots of interesting details in there about how they're envisaging future production.

Catching up with this, though my reading has a bit on hold in the immediate run up to surgery and since.

( earlier books )
1. Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Graphic Novel Biography by Jules Scheele
2. Sir Sherlock: The Red Letter Day by Kenton Hall
3. Theodora's Tea Shop by Christy Anne Jones
4. Nogmania by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin
5. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
6. Venice: City of Pictures by Martin Gayford

The Orlando graphic novel version was a read for book club, opted for after I struggled too much in my scared pre-surgery brain to have the patience for a reread of Virginia Woolf's original novel (I last read it in the early/mid 1990s). The graphic novel version is a good adaptation, great visuals, neatly condensing plot in places. Quite a treat, and just published recently.

I'm buying each Sir Sherlock audio in the new series starring Doctor Who's Tom Baker and John Leeson as Holmes and Watson, and also treating myself to the hardback novelisations. Sometimes you get a little extra in the book, or audio, or vice versa. The series explores an older Sherlock Holmes, with a new core supporting cast. This was the first story, and nicely done, with a mystery involving the British Museum, and an intriguing callback to Holmes's past.

I follow Christy Anne Jones on YouTube - an Australian writer and content creator who I find very inspiring - and I read her recently published debut novel, a 1920s inspired fantasy. In many ways with a feel of Harry Potter, but darker, and not the cosy fantasy that at least the UK publisher Headline has rather mispromoted it as. For a debut novel it was really strong, even if it slipped a bit in the third quarter. But I was still wowed, and not just as a long-time YouTube fan. I was able to pick up an independent bookshop signed copy from the Broughty Ferry bookshop.

I picked up the Nogmania book, published in 1977, after learning about it through the recent auction of Peter Firmin artworks. It's a bonkers book, full of Heath Robinson style large-scale inventions for the Noggin the Nog Viking world. Just joyful. I'm so glad I managed to get a copy secondhand, and also at a hefty discount. It's a rare and much sought book now.

The Spellshop was the cosy hug I needed before surgery, set in a fantasy world, where a librarian fleeing disaster tries to rescue magical library books, as well as find her place in a new home.

I was reading the Martin Gayford Venice art history book for months, slowly. But it was really good, and I learned so much. On the downside the illustrations only really work in the hardback copy - not the paperback, where they're heavily reduced, or the ebook version. So I ended up replacing a paperback copy with a hardback, and reading the text on my Kindle. Then now and then catching up gawping at the pictures. It is really well done.