What can I say? There and back again, just like Bilbo Baggins. Some initial confusion, got lost, darn cold.

Looks like I'll spend part of the next three weeks prepping - and spending.

We thought we had plenty of time. Go up to London Monday a.m., find lunch somewhere, then go to St Barts for 14:00 appointment. Simple! Get Elizabeth Line direct from Paddington to Farringdon, then walk about half a mile. What could possibly go wrong? I missed the turn at Smithfield, went under Holborn Viaduct, then wondered where we were.

Did I mention it was cold? Freezing! I'm just glad I'm not a Brass Monkey. It was so cold I was walking slower and slower and no idea why. It must have taken us an hour to do around a mile.

Actually got there and arrived with five minutes to spare, once we found the right building. Had a long chat with a specialist nurse - who I think was Filipino, very friendly and efficient. Then off to have an X-Ray, a blood test and ECG. There was a wait for the blood test so I had the ECG done while-U-wait; it took longer to put the sticky things on and take them off again!

The blood tests were somewhat comprehensive and because I am already a Renal patient and signed up for such things, the results were all available on-line by the time we got home again. There are some odd things in there which don't look heart related; I need to talk to someone but that's for the future.

There is a Premier Inn just opposite the main entrance at St Barts and we stayed the night rather than fight our way home in the (post-Covid) rush hour mayhem. It was partly for that and partly to check it out for my partner to stay in when I go in for the op. Somewhat expensive; there are other hotels around London with tube access which are half the price, we have time to do a consumer survey. (Can't complain about the one we were in, it was fine for the job it did. Food was good too.)

I would add that this is the City of London. It is all offices and suchlike, so hotels are further away. When we lived in the outskirts the City used to be dead at week-ends, things may have changed lately but it still looks very commercial (and dead, apart from tourists around St Pauls).

Yesterday we walked around St Pauls, then caught a tube from St Pauls to Oxford Circus and did a tiny bit of shopping before going back to Paddington on the Lizzy Line. Still very cold, was glad to get back home again to defrost!

It looks like I get admitted 16:00 on the 15th May for operation at 09:00 on the 16th. They will take a 'spare' length of (unspecified) pipe from (one of) my legs to make the bypasses from. I can't imagine why they think it is spare, if I have it I must have it for a reason! They keep me in ICU until I waken and then try and get me out of bed, wires, tubes and all. This is said to help recovery. After that it is four days of recovery, doing more each time and even wearing my own clothes for the last day.

There will be minimal dressings. Things have changed since my partner had hers done and they prefer to let the air get at wounds to help them heal quicker. This does mean that everything has to be extremely clean and I'll have to buy some new gear just to take in. Three sets of pyjamas, for example, one per day.

They also want me to prepare three days beforehand for the op. I was given a special antiseptic wash to use every day and it will mean more new, clean clothes to wear. I'll be in a mini-lockdown of my own for a while. I'm not even allowed to travel into or out of London by public transport to arrive or depart. That will be fun to organise, especially with St Barts being inside both the ULEZ zone and the Congestion Charging zones!

I should have time to still be here, assuming I can still log in - the site was off-line this morning. I'll have to stop before I do the lockdown because we all know that keyboards are filthy.

I just hope it is warmer when I go in.

Penny