A pain in the neck.

Woke with another stiff neck, the culprits a pair of ancient pillows whose innards have morphed, over time, into a bag of rocks. After breakfast and coffee, I feel much better, but I will need to invest in some decent pillows before long, my glasses have also sprained after horseplay with Louis, and fall of my face every time I bend down, fortunately my old pair are OK for distance work and I use these to take the dogs out. We are out early this morning, because I have promised to call and see how Leslie has settled in to Cedar Grange, later. It is a mild, cloudy day, with spots of rain in the air and a gusty westerly wind. The woods are now thickly carpeted with leaves but in the words of Jose Feliciano's "California Dreaming", all the trees are bare and the skies are grey. I packed a change of footwear in the car before setting off and in the process, have left Norman's lead behind. He trots along behind me unconcerned and as we are not staying out too long, as I am visiting Leslie, the only drawback is that I have to carry him the last few feet across the road to the car. After returning the terriers to Pip, we drive to Cedar Grange, where I park up and change from my walking boots into a pair of moccasins, before ringing the bell for entrance. When they let me in, I am told that Leslie has changed his mind and did not check in yesterday, so I go back to the car and drive home and then see to a few chores, before driving to the leisure centre for a swim. The pool is quiet before midday and I have a lane to myself, although I feel slightly out of sorts. I do what I always do in these circumstances and warm up on 400m backstroke, and then review the situation. Once my muscles, heart and lungs are put through their paces, I feel fine, so swim two more 400m on breastroke and freestyle, before switching to individual medleys and swim four 200m repeats, and then warm down with easy 250m each on back and front crawl. As I have explained before, my swims are active meditations. In passive meditation one focuses on the breath, or a mantra, to get beyond the linguistic mind. Beyond the running commentary and stream of consciousness dialogue, that accompanies our waking lives. With active meditation, the same effect is achieved by extreme concentration on the task in hand, in my case, swimming, but swimming in the most relaxed and streamlined way possible. It works for me and I nearly always emerge from the water more relaxed and refreshed than when I went in. Swimming medleys is also a complete full body work out. After showering and changing I drink tea and eat a few oaties in the cafe and then drive to Sarah's house, where I am due to collect Alice for an orthodontist appointment at three thirty. It is two fifteen when I park up and walk into town to see if my spectacles can be repaired. I am told they can have them ready for three o'clock, so leave them with the opticians and browse through town for half an hour. I notice Leslie has called and so call him back, his explanation of his actions concerns me. It seems the lift at Cedar Grange had not been repaired yesterday, so he delayed his admittance, which is sensible, but then claimed he later felt ill and called out the emergency doctor, who found nothing wrong with him again and referred him to his GP, who he saw today, about the slight stuffiness in his nose and insisted on being referred to an ear nose and throat specialist. He is awaiting the appointment for this, which is what he claims he wanted all along. Cedar Grange is deferred until this has taken place. I am afraid my old friend is starting to behave irrationally, I said I would call in and see him tomorrow. Serendipity, it seems, is working in my favour and I spot some goose down pillows on special offer for fifteen pounds in Boyes' store and decide to do my neck a favour and buy them. They come in a bag with rope handles and so I saunter back to collect my glasses, which are repaired and waiting for me, they also cost fifteen pounds, but that is £300 cheaper than new varifocals. En route to collect Alice, I call at the dry cleaners and pick up my Daks corduroy pants, complete with their new zip, another £15, but worth every penny, as they are by far the most comfortable winter trousers I possess. Alice is waiting for me and I drive her the half mile to the dental surgery, she is having spacers fitted today and braces next week. The dentist is unimpressed with her brushing and threatens to abandon the treatment unless her teeth are sparkling when she returns. My suggestion of pulling her teeth out instead, if she doesn't improve her oral hygiene, is discarded as being too radical. Ah in the olden days we had different ways to motivate kids! Alice has almost stopped laughing by the time I drop her off, " the dentist thought you were serious, Grandad", she hoots. "I was, I was", I reply.
When I arrive home, it is getting dark and Norman is waiting for his dinner, I am ready for mine as well, as I swam 2,500m at lunchtime. Lamb steaks, oven chips and salad are soon put together but Normy has to make do with a tin, as the steaks are too small to share. After dinner, I put clean pillowcases on my new pillows, hang up my pants and then take the dog for his evening walk. Afterwards I read until bedtime.