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HI, Rusty!
Oh dear! I am sorry to hear that you are feeling rough - what sort of bug have you got?
Maybe you should have an early night?
It might help?
I hope you feel better tomorrow!

Good morning, Elle!
Feel a bit better today, thank you.
I have aching muscles and sore joints, especially fingers.
So no Fats Domino impressions today!
Bit cloudy here so far.
Hope you enjoy your family outing!

Malone,
Another one of these awful clues in Times today!
24d, Author spoken of one aspect of Tolstoy's epic (3)

Truly awful, Rusty!

Good afternoon, Rusty!
I am glad to hear that you are improving....... perhaps another twenty -four hours will hopefully see a big difference.
We have had a lovely day out, thank you!
Glorious weather - the temperature this afternoon was in the top twenties.
It was a much smaller farm than the one we visited previously, but very well kept and organised.
The areas for children to make immediate contact with the various breeds of animals were very efficiently planned.
And they were able to feed the goats and sheep provided that they used only the food specially provided.
We had lunch in a very nice cafe on site (I had a bacon buttie!)
Have you been well enough to take a walk? or did you feel the need to stay at home today?

I saw the crossword clue you put for Malone.......
There is no way that "Waugh" sounds like "war"!

Oh dear, the neighbour's yappy dogs at it again, about to spoil the evening.....
23 days ago my son hurt his knee. It took 3 and a half hours for him to be triaged, after which (and a X ray) they said they would send him an appointment for their physio and fracture clinic.
As he has had problems (and surgery) with the knee before, I decided to ditch holidays for a while and pay for him to see someone privately. He has a long-standing cartilage tear which suddenly got worse and the only treatment is (quite quick) surgery, which he is having on Monday.
Yesterday he got a letter saying the NHS were not giving him even an assessment appointment as "these problems often heal by themselves". Bucket handle tears of the meniscus do not, actually.
The Professor he saw privately diagnosed him in less than ten minutes with a history and an examination, though he did an MRI to confirm.
I am sure some of you have had excellent treatment on the NHS, as I have myself. But this really isn't good enough. Hobbling round on a damaged knee damages the other and leads to arthritis sooner.

Ros,
It sounds as well that you went ahead and got a second (private) opinion for your son's injury.
Especially from the time point of view.
Although, having aside that, we have both worked for the NHS (in a scientific capacity) for very many years and cannot really fault them in their diagnosis and treatment.
The time to make appointments, do tests, carry out treatment etc can take too long, yes - which is where the advantage of private practice comes in.......but as regards the efficiency and accurate of diagnosis, I personally do have faith in them.
(Although, obviously, as with any situation there will be exceptions to every rule, which is perhaps what has happened here in your son's case. )
One thing which always strikes me though is the NHS isn't out to make money out of its patients... Private practice is!

Good evening, Elle!
Your day out seems to have been a success!
Well done!
I am back to normal, nearly!
I have a theory.
I think an excess of sugar caused inflammation in my body.
I had several apple turnovers on Wednesday.
Maybe was not one of my better ideas!
Speaking of bodies.
I see in two reports on Sharapova that she takes between 18 and 30 medication supplements each day. Her medical team did not know of some of them.
Three of those are for heart conditions. !!!
As far as I know her heart is grand.
She is a cheat, plain and simple.
There will be many more like her in sport.
On a lighter note, Laura Muir ran very well last night and broke Yvonne Murray's Scottish record for the mile. Very pleasing!
No walk today.
Yes, I am glad I am not the only one who things that clue was howlingly bad!

I agree - it was excruciatingly awful (the clue I mean!)

Hi Elle
My beef is that no-one even attempted a diagnosis. Tim described what are classic symptoms of that particular injury, which does not heal itself, but no-one was listening. He didn't get a chance to be diagnosed by someone who knew about knees.