Bob & Betty go British

Life, sans gall bladder

Yes, I took the plunge and had my first operation. I had my gall bladder removed on April 23rd and spent 2 nights in hospital. They kept me in an additional night so that my wound was able to drain for longer. Apparently the gall bladder was still quite inflamed and this meant additional drainage was required. Luckily I only had the keyhole surgery so recovery has been quite speedy. I'll see the specialist again next Wednesday at which point I hope to be able to remove the dressings and see how my 4 little holes are healing. Sorry, no hospital photos this time - perhaps some scar shots later on :-)

I didn't exactly have a relaxing time once I got home either as we had to move. As Robert was still waiting for his new UK license to arrive in the post he couldn't hire a van to move our stuff and so we made many many trips in the Porsche to take the stuff to our new home. Luckily it's a quick trip around the gyratory to our new place.

We're very happy with our new home. It's quiet, spacious, modern, and comfortable. It's nice to have room to swing more than one cat for a change. We ended up buying a small bookcase and a storage unit for the bathroom (nothing like a new development for skimping on things like storage). Robert is particularly impressed with the Bang & Oulfsen flatscreen widescreen TV that comes with the flat. Now we just need our broadband hooked up and we'll be set.


Aside from moving into the new pad we've also done a few other exciting things in recent weeks. The weekend before my operation we went to visit a friend of Robert who lives in Milton Keynes. We met up with David and Brit (his girlfriend) at a local pub for lunch and went for a very plesant stroll around the a lake. After that Robert and I took a detour on our way home to Bedford, the place where Robert was born. See photo of Robert standing outside the entrance. Not sure that part would have been there back in 1966 but it's the thought that counts.


The weekend after my operation we went for a trip to Windsor Castle. It only takes about 30-40 mins to drive there but then it took us another half hour to find a parking spot. There were people everywhere and queues out the gate at the ticket office. I had to keep reminding myself that it would be even worse during the summer and tried to cope, despite being a little tired. We saw only saw the state rooms as the queue for the dolls house was even longer than the ticket queue. Still, we filled in a little form which allows us to go back any time we like in the next 12 months and not have to buy another ticket! Not sure how likely that is. Still, I've put up some pictures of Windsor Castle on flickr. You'll be pleased to know that the Queen gets plane noise, just like we did in Stanmore!


This past weekend was a long weekend here in the UK but unfortunately Robert had to work on Saturday so we didn't go anyway. Aside from that I was feeling exceedingly tired from having done a full week back at work. On the Sunday we went to a party down in Surrey for a 60th birthday and 30th wedding anniversary party for my boss. It was a very plesant afternoon of eating, drinking talking, croquet, tennis, golf and clay pigeon shooting - Robert was quite good at the shooting and managed to hit the clay both times he had a go. On the Monday we went to the Imperial War museum for a few hours but otherwise we had a reasonably quiet day.

Now that I'm all better we can start to plan a few more trips. In the meantime I have to concentrate on recovery and putting on some of that weight that I lost. Looking forward to eating chocolate and cheese once again :-)

posted by Elisabeth @ 3:27 PM