Manon was truly beautiful yesterday. I was particularly struck by the dying scene at the end. It was so poignant and so very beautiful. The way the ballerina managed to drape her body and the emotion of her lover as he held her in her last minutes. I cried from the beginning of the ballet when I was so happy to be back at the Royal Opera House watching a real ballet. Not one recorded. Then at the end as you can imagine I cried lots! People around me must of thought how soppy I was !!! We had a lovely tappas meal ( Paul's first) which we both really enjoyed. Little dishes of different things so suit us. We managed to just miss the student protest which marched down The Strand just after we had walked down it. We could tell by the helicopters hovering over head and the large presence of police everywhere. I arrived home absolutely exhausted. I did manage to walk from Waterloo to Covent Garden and back again as the buses were cancelled due to the protest. Today I am regretting the walking!

I started today driving to Royal Berks at 7.45 to have my blood taken. Its a good time to go as the traffic is still not too busy and you can get a parking space. Its also a good time in the path lab. I only had to wait 5 minutes to be seen (my first time having my blood taken from a vein in nearly 16 months). The phlebotonist did a brilliant job using an old fashioned syringe and a needle rather than the new fangled bottles. I then had a lovely cup of coffee as a reward!! It was very strange going and buying my own coffee rather than being brought it in dialysis. It is amazingly busy at that time with lots of coming and going.

I then returned to the hospital to see the registrar in the afternoon - unfortunately he was still in Windsor! Ho hum! Eventually they found him and the nurses in dialysis reported my blood tests to him down the phone. My tests are mostly looking good - my diet restrictions are working. However a couple are creeping up and he thinks that is due to me not drinking enough!!!!! Goodness I feel like I can't win! So I am doing an input- output chart for 24 hours. I will have another blood test next week before going to the Kidney care clinic - sometimes called the low clearance clinic. - not a good name.

When my results came back today and they weren't as perfect as last week I felt quite anxious as I am beginning to realise how sad I would be to go back to dialysis now. I so love having more time and am really enjoying feeling normally tired rather than yucky every other day. In dialysis I so felt for the patients all having dialysis. They are really lovely and very happy for me but I know they wish it was them.