Wednesday 6 May 2009

Ruth and I made the most of the weather for the first part of the Bank Holiday weekend by going to stay at her aunt’s house, which is in a lovely setting near the Ridgeway and the White Horse of Uffington. Went for a pleasant walk on the Saturday afternoon, enlivened by meeting some chaps parked up on a footpath in white vans, whom Ruth theorised might have been planning a rave. Not sure what they were up to, personally, although they did invite us back later for an orgy, an offer we politely declined.

On the way back we stopped off at the Rose & Crown in Ashbury for a much-needed soft drink (also a pint of cider and in my case some Arkell's Kingsdown Special Ale). The car park was full of bikers on a stop-off - Ruth took a photo of this impressive number. The chaps were more than amenable to her request to photograph it, and in fact tried to persuade her to pose sitting on it, at which she became coy and we scuttled off.

The weekend included a brief visit to Lambourn, hub of all things horsey, where I’ve driven through a number of times but never actually stopped off before. We had a quick wander around the churchyard at the Church of St Michael and All Angels – not a particularly attractive church but I did take a photo of this jolly gargoyle. We then took a look around E J Wicks, ‘Saddlers to Champions’ – an amazing emporium stacked with all manner of riding clothing and equipment. Also a charming rack of postcards depicting countryside scenes and traditions (dogs with dead pheasants in their mouths, etc). Had to have it explained to me what a girth was, but feel better informed now.

Spent a rewarding chunk of today at the Royal Berkshire Hospital undergoing various gynaecological examinations to ascertain the presence of a polyp in my uterus – the culmination of which seemed to be “Yep, it’s a polyp” (which I thought we knew anyway). Apparently it’s Royal Berks’ policy to remove such things under general rather than local anaesthetic – something to do with the type of instruments they have (vaguely worrying – perhaps they are enormous Victorian cast-iron things. A friend of mine at university did her BA dissertation on ancient Roman gynaecological instruments – we’re unfortunately no longer in touch or I’d ask her for a copy and quote pertinent passages.) Have been helpfully supplied with a leaflet outlining what to expect during a hysteroscopy, although it’s of limited use as it keeps referring one to other leaflets that one should also evidently have picked up before leaving the hospital: along the lines of “This procedure will be carried out under a general anaesthetic. For what to expect when having an operation under general anaesthetic, please refer to leaflet 592.2.1, What to expect when having an operation under general anaesthetic.”

While trying to distract myself while undergoing a lengthy scan, I was charmed to note a poster on the wall entitled ‘Malformations of the Female Genital Tract’. The sort of thing that quite interests me, actually, but I suspect some women would prefer a print of Sunflowers or similar.