More of the same – arm in sling, no riding, reasonable fall weather & trying to find a job. Tuesday was the day for my appointment at the Fracture clinic – I managed to show the registrar that I have reasonable movement in my arm. He then demonstrated that he could make it click & almost come out again quite easily. So I’ve got an MRI in a couple of weeks, followed by another appointment with the registrar. I suppose that, & the explanation he gave me of recurrent shoulder dislocations, means surgery may be a possibility. An idea I wasn’t particularly keen on, but if that would make my shoulder more stable I could be persuaded – especially as it hasn’t recovered so well this time. Today I was back at the hospital picking up another sling. This one is over the top compared to all I’ve had before (so it should be, retailing at £120) – with a strap around my belly it uses a metal plate to rotate my arm out. There’s a grip in the front of the sling to hold on to – with my arm straight out in front of me & my fingers wrapped around the grip I feel that I’m shooting from the hip, alas a six-shooter doesn’t come with the sling. It looks kind of goofy, but the shoulder joint is supposed to heal better rotated externally – or so some research says (of course, it’s easy enough to discover contradictory findings). It also proves difficult to take a webcam photo of oneself while wearing it.

Thankfully, I don’t have to wear it all the time as there’s a bit going on this week. Mum arrives early tomorrow morning – it’ll be great to see her – & we are heading west to stay with some cousins of hers (ours, I suppose) for a few days south of Bristol. I’m also looking forward to going down to see John, Anna & their young twins while Mum recovers from the flights – pity that there’ll be no big (or small) ride with John. It’s worked out well has I have two (possibly three) interviews in that part of the world next week. It was neat to catch up yesterday with Roger, a riding buddy from NZ is over this side of the world for a couple of months having ridden in the World Singlespeed Champs in Ireland a few weeks ago. I met him & Michelle at St Pancras a couple of hours before they were due to get the train to Paris – I was mildly jealous, it’s two year to the week since I made the same trip & loved every minute of it. After they left I enjoyed wandering in the sun down to Charing Cross checking out the British Library, the British Museum & stopping in nice sunny parks to read for a while.

Unexpected delight of the week was chewing through both series of Rizzoli & Isles (I have too much free time) – a TV show based on a series of books I read when I was back in NZ. While a gritty cop show, it’s pretty funny too & I was surprised to see how much one of the leads reminds me of a good friend back home. The subtle east-coast accent, intelligent professional, fashion enthusiast, loves to cook elaborate meals & a home stylishly decorated with everything just-so. Mind you, pathology & academia are quite different careers.