Crossroads

Travel plans for this year are currently in a state of confusion. I may have mentioned before that my son's intended wedding in Mauritius has had to be deferred because of their financial commitments. That leaves a big blank after early March, when we shall be returning to West Cornwall.

Recently the main preoccupation has been with my eyesight. I was referred to a consultant surgeon, who thought I had not sufficient trace of cataracts to account for loss of vision on this scale. Hence I had the backs of my eyes photographed in the expectation that the photos would show macula degeneration.

Only the right eye showed any such symptoms - with the result that for the left eye, cataract is the prime suspect and I'm fixed to have the cataract on the left eye removed next Wednesday.

Meanwhile a friend who had taken a house in the Faroes in July found members of her family could not be there with her for a long enough time and has invited Pam and me to stay for 10 days. That sounded like something too good to refuse and we were pretty excited.

However, by the time I had passed a night asleep I wondered about medical facilities in the Færoes for my ICD [implanted defibrillater/cardioverter] The website of the company shows facilities in Torshavn for pace-makers but none for ICDs. So at the moment I have out three lines of inquiry about what would happen if I had a problem. Even if this resolves, there will then be the question of travel insurance.

In short the best advice for others who are still fit is to make no assumptions about the future but to tarvel as soon as possible to places they particularly want to see. Meanwhile, as far as our personal plans are developing - watch this space!