Graeme,
Hope you are feeling a bit better and the a/b’s are having an effect.
Best wishes,
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Thanks for the advice but I’m not going to mess with the steroids. This ride is a bit too rough for me to make balanced judgements. I’m just hanging on in there while the prescribed drugs do what they might (or might not) do.
Statement of the obvious perhaps, but feeling better is a two-stage process. First the drugs have to nail the microbes (if they can) then the lungs have to recover from the harm the microbes have done. The NHS reckons it could be 72 hours before I start to feel better Amoxicillin: antibiotic to treat bacterial infections - NHS.
Given that I started the tablets about 24 hours ago I was always going to be worse today, and sure enough I have been. O2 sat below 90% for most of this morning. That makes you feel a bit shit. The fever makes you feel a bit shit too. The bugs fire up an immune response and the overheating immune system then attacks the insulin you inject. So your sugars go through the roof. Which (surprise, surprise) makes you feel a bit shit. Long story short - I’m feeling pretty shit. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
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Hang on in there Graeme, Hopefully things will start to improve.
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Off out to the very scenic and cosy Gunton Arms near Thorpe Market today - beautiful pub set in an enormous deer park, but which has only actually been a pub since 2011, before which it was an estate lodge of some kind:
We had a potter about after a couple pints - Tara naturally wanted to chase the ~300 strong herd (obvs never comes off the lead), Max just wanted to eat the deer-shit… 
TGA have a terrific quality genuine giant deer skull over the main fireplace in the dining-room, too - often called ‘giant elk’ they’re actually an extinct species of red deer which flourished in periglacial conditions 10,000+ years ago, and which used to be recovered in considerable numbers from Irish peat-diggings before they were mechanised. 
Not sure what was going-on in the dog-pic before we went out - Max never used to tolerate such overfamiliarity! 
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Just started making juice again today.
Made a pint of carrot,apple and ginger.
Think I put to much ginger in,I feel sick.
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Impressive rack! So how old would that example be? Were they hunted into extinction?
drink some more, ginger is good for feeling sick
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Hoping all goes well for you over the next few days Graeme 
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Going to phone 111,see what they have to say.
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Hope you feel better soon Graeme!
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Hard to be sure of age, loads were collected as decor items in the C19th as a profitable sideline by peat-diggers, so there was no data associated with them (they still show-up in auctions from time-to-time). They may have appeared at the beginning of the Pleistocene around 1.2 million years ago (pretty much depends on how you define the species…), then flourished for a long time and finally became extinct just 7,700 years ago (well into the Neolithic / Holocene). Most are Irish, and those are usually between 25,000 - 10,000 years old.
The fact that they survived peak human hunting pressures into an era that saw farming largely supplant hunter-gatherer culture supports the long-held belief that climate change was the chief factor in their extinction, perhaps coupled with habitat loss due to anthropogenic changes to the environment.
They could get BIG - shoulder-shoulder with an Indian elephant, though obviously much more lightly built.
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O2 sats 91-92% this morning (40 hours on the penicillin). That’s the first day that they’ve got better rather than worse. I might even be feeling a bit better too.
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What’s a decent number for the sats?
In a perfect world they’d be 98% or more. As long as they’re 96% or more they won’t attract any attention from the medics. 94% or less means there’s definitely something wrong. 92% and you’ll be fatigued/breathless. Once you’re down into the high 80’s the advice seems to be ‘get to A&E or call an ambulance’. I was there yesterday (88-89%) but since I had the antibiotics and since A&E is rarely any fun I decided to sit it out at home. TBH there’s a lot of flu and RSV about and if I ended up sharing the air with other coughers I feared I might pick something else up.
Actually the advice does vary a bit. These people would have me calling 999 now.
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This week saw us walking (without dog) out on the Cornish side of the Tamar around Saltash.
The area is defined by two significant historical figures in Francis Drake and I.K. Brunel. We set out next to the Tamar passing under Brunel’s Royal Albert bridge which carries the Great Western railway down into Cornwall and the 1961 suspension bridge which carries the A38.
There are still quite a few older buildings down on the waterfront including the striking Union Inn.
and they also commemorate Brunel and Ann Glanville who was a celebrated rower who’d often compete with & beat men in races.
Further away up into the town we came across the whitewashed 16th century childhood home of Mary Newman who married Francis Drake when he returned from an expedition spent alongside her father. They eventually became Mayor & Mayoress of Plymouth.
Our route took us up under the railway which sweeps along the edge of the Tamar and its tributary the Lynher across several further impressive viaducts.
We then followed a quirky path up through Coombe woods where various elf & fairy themed miniature buildings decorate the way.
Nice view back across the junction of the Tamar & Lynher towards Plymouth with the dockyard on that far bank.
Beach on the edge of the Lynher.
HMS Raleigh has a small naval training centre upriver here which appears to be mostly equipped with dinghies (for teaching watercraft & navigation)
Forder valley is a beautiful & mostly quiet tributary of the Lynher. A small village, Anthony Passage clings to its entrance.
On the Western side the bluff cylinder of the Norman, Trematon Castle can be seen here under the viaduct.
It was here that Drake’s vast haul of plundered gold & treasure, stolen from the Spanish, who in turn had taken it from the Inca & Aztec civilisations in Central & S America was locked away safely on his return from that expedition. In today’s money it had a value of almost half a Billion pounds.
Following the valley up to the village of Forder.
From there a climb up St Stephen’s hill & back into Saltash.
I liked this brutalist 60’s/70’s abandoned petrol station.
and the 20m tall Cornish Cross built in 2013 using modern (local) boat building techniques/materials but decorated to celebrate the mining heritage of the region
Back under the bridges.
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Love it!
Another great walk / history lesson.
Staying near Ecton (and Thors Cave) this week.
If anyone knows any decent walks pls message.
We tend to try and do moderate circulars with the dogs, starting at easy places to park.
I think we are good for a few right out the door.
One of the dogs is going to be carried most of the way now, due to ACL issues. Good job he’s 5kg!
@stu came along for the walk too then?
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Receiving texts from friends informing of their whereabouts.
Friend a: We’re in Ghent!
Friend b: We’re at the Corinthian in Glasgow!
Me: I’m on a bus going to Brixton
Feeling pretty damned exotic right now.