Well, thanks everyone for the kind words and reassurances.

I saw the specialist yesterday and had cryogenic surgery to weld back a tear that had developed in my left retina. While this was about as unpleasant a way of spending half an hour as you can imagine, it was over eventually and hopefully will fix the problem (that's the good news). Bad news is that I apparently have the same problem developing in the other eye so will have to be a bit careful for a while. I still have the "floater", which has now settled down to being a black blob surrounded by a grey cloud. It's apparently caused by blood leaking into the vitreous fluid and should resolve with time. At the moment it has become a source of interest in naming the various shapes that it takes on - currently it looks like a fish (possibly a Mudcatfish....). But thanks again everyone - particularly Mark (Oneeye) Clark.

And finally, Guess what was the subject of the Radio 4
broadcast I was listening to this morning? A
documentary about the charity that arranges for
doctors to fly around Africa in a
specially-fitted-out aeroplane, doing eye
operations! Including some rather graphic
descriptions of exactly what they were doing....

A bit too close to recent events for easy listening, but
thinking about it brings home just how lucky I
was being here in Belgium - firstly to have a qualified opthlamologist
on emergency duty at St Luc's on Saturday, then to
have had a world-class retinal specialist
available for consultation, then the operation
itself, on Monday. The poor folk in Africa had all
been waiting for years....

Even in the UK, I expect I'd have had to wait six
months or so.... That charity will certainly be
next on the list for a donation from the next St Andrew's Folk Club
funds!