Costochondritis!

Doh! Grace has discovered that the Boat-Painting Course is full, so that's off our agenda now.

The mouse traps continued to be "unused". Yet the droppings still appeared. Do the local mice not like peanut butter? Then, as I was picking another bowlful of tomatoes yesterday, two fat caterpillars fell out of the plants - instantly becoming fish-food! It dawned on me, and I went to Google and searched for "caterpillar droppings". You'd never imagine just how many pictures of caterpillar poo there are on the web! And yes, the droppings are from these little beasties and their mates. How they manage to produce poo the size of mouse droppings beats me, but that's what it is on our roof. I'll have to make daily searches for more of the little pests now.

OK, so this is NOT a tomato plant; this is just for sake of illustration.
I really could't bring myself to take photos of caterpillar poo.

Does anyone need a pair of unused mouse traps - of the fatal type?

Having slept for only two and a half hours on Monday night, I woke up and knew I'd not be able to get back to sleep again. The pain in my ribs was mild by the standard set on Sunday night, but it was far too much to allow slumber, so I got up, went into the saloon, wrapped myself in a spare duvet and read for hours - with bouts of getting up and wandering around, because sitting wasn't too comfortable either. I think I might have dozed off at around 6:30am - just half an hour before I normally wake. At 8:00, I was on the phone to Crick Medical Practice. I had to register as a patient (for three months) over the phone, then they offered me an appointment at 10:20.

I was seen promptly by a very pleasant lady doctor who was duly thorough in her questioning and examination. Having ruled out the possible nasties - aneurism, pleurisy, heart attack or angina - she agreed with me that the pain was being caused by inflammation of cartilage and/or muscle in my ribcage - costochondritis. A course of Ibuprofen should put it right. We had none of that on the boat (otherwise I would have been taking it), so we stopped off at the shop on our way back, to get some. I took four single-tablet doses during the day, went to bed with absolutely no pain, and had a very sound night's sleep. The painlessness continues today. I even did a 10km cycle this morning. Phew! I'll be able to do next week's cruise.