The word is a very exciting place

 Something I had always wanted to do since seeing the film Enigma, was to visit Bletchley park to see the history of codebreaking, and to where Alan Turing and other codebreakers worked through the war to intercept enemy communications. It's so, so fascinating, even though I don't fully understand it, and they have made it feel like the codebreakers have just gone for lunch, and you're snooping about, which gave it a really fun edge. Even the typewriters had little messages on them!

 We got up early, grabbed breakfast and headed over to Ely Cathedral for opening. I've wanted to visit for a long time, ever since seeing it featured on TV in something I was watching. And it did not disappoint!

 September proved to be a month of escape. I had a long weekend off, and we decided to go away for a bit. James booked a cheap Holiday Inn, which was in the centre of Stevenage. We did the drive from Southampton, and made sure we had a few stops along the way to get out and explore.  We had what I call a travellers lunch (on a services, so James could use the toilet and I could get some more painkillers, as for some reason, I brought my Amitriptyline with me, but not any paracetamol & ibuprofen. I'd also forgotten to bring any socks with me, so I ordered some to be collected in Stevenage. I think the Amitriptyline was messing with my brain a little, at times it felt like it was really hard to concentrate and remember things.

August was a slower month. I was doing less because my back was flaring up, and was affecting my mobility. The GP increased the amount of painkillers again to make doing things like working bearable, but I was struggling to walk to work anymore, so I was now catching the bus, which took just as long as walking as it does a trip around the city before getting near work. The Musculoskeletal team had also booked me in for an MRI in September to see what was going on in my spine. I also had a couple of days feeling unwell due to my second Covid vaccination, but it had to be better than actually having Covid. 

My back was getting worse and worse, to the point I was starting to catch my foot on things while walking. I went to see the team at the Musculoskeletal clinic, where the team there told me I had a suspected herniated disk. They wanted me to have an MRI to be sure, but the closest appointment was in September. They did however confer with my GP and got me some stronger pain relief, in the form of Amitriptyline. They explained it was one that wouldn't start working for a while, because it needed to build up in the body in order to feel the effects. So they would start me on a low dosage, and go from there. The first week wasn't too bad, but the second week was when I started to feel a bit weird. I can't explain it, it wasn't paranoia or anything like that, but I had this constant gnawing feeling that something wasn't quite right. But it did give me some pain relief and gave me a temporary increase in my ability to live life.

The glorious weather continued. I swear the summers during the pandemic were the best we had ever seen? Or is it just me thinking that? Anyway, we continued spending time in the garden, and I picked up a load of of bedding plants from work to pop in between the strawberries for a bit of extra colour. We also tried to save water by wrapping the bottom of the baskets with bin bags to stop the water just coming through, as the birds kept stealing bits of the fibres of the base of the basket to use in their nests. It partially worked, we seemed to be watering a bit less, but the birds kept pulling the bin bags off! I think we gave up in the end. The strawberries were still coming through thick and fast, although other things in the garden seemed to be struggling in the heat.

June was in full swing, the glorious weather meant I wanted to be in the garden, but my bad back was getting worse. I thought it was maybe from working, with all the bending and lifting, but over the week off I had, it didn't improve. So I finally rang the GP surgery, and got a same day GP telephone appointment, she was brilliant, arranged for me to have some physio and referred me to the Musculoskeletal team for an appointment for further assessment. I was glad that something was actually going to happen about it, I think as well we were all being told not to contact the health service unless it was really necessary due to the lasting effects of Covid, and I really didn't want to bother anyone. But it had got to the point where it was really starting to affect me. Thankfully things were going to be sorted soon.

 The last day of our holiday was driving home from Swindon, where we had spent the night. James wanted to do a bit of shopping for some new clothes, so we headed to the Swindon Designer Outlet. I know I've blogged about it before, but it's such a fun place to be. Yes theres shops there, but the fact that it's all in former train engine workshops is brilliant. Everywhere you look there is history on show, the brickwork, cranes, even tracks can be spotted. There's a railway museum there too, which we've done before and didn't do on this occasion, but it's worth having a look if you're into railway nostalgia & shopping. I doubt there is many places that manage to seamlessly blend the two!