Medical

The dr was pleased with my eye yesterday (as am I), so that's that, except for a couple more weeks of eyedrops. I can see like a hawk. The effect of having so important an organ replaced with plastic is more than a bit Stepford Wives.

I'm still slightly lame in the left foot, but it's much better than it was. The x-ray showed "only minor changes" and there is, apparently, nothing to be done.

Knitting

I've done repeat no #75 of the Princess Shawl edging. It remains but to count down the last 10. It would be a good idea, I think, to stop after 82 or 83 for the Big Count, just to be on the safe side. Counting isn't easy.

I'm six inches or so into the Wallaby sleeve. I think I had better re-calculate the increase interval today, to make sure it won't come out too long. I am a great believer, as I've said before, in not making children's sleeves too long.

I've decided to do both sleeves and attach them to the body, and then lay the Wallaby aside to finish the Baby Surprise, due in November. As expected, I didn't get very much done at the hospital yesterday.

Strathardle Highland Gathering

We turn at last to events on the field. There are the usual heavyweight things, caber-tossing and the like, big men in kilts, as on Come To Scotland posters. There is a sweet little piping competition, over in a corner. Children compete at Highland Dancing all afternoon. There are also races and things which anyone can enter on the spot -- including the annual Pillow Fight, pictured above.

The competition is savage. We've entered a few times before -- Theo even tried once, and he's tall and strong and young -- but have always exited instantly. This year, my brother-in-law Roger had a go. He watched for a while, and decided that the trick is to sit still and let your opponent unbalance himself with his first swipes, and then whop him. Roger entered, and applied this principle, and came second.

Roger must be in his early sixties, several decades older than any previous contestant in the history of the Pillow Fight. But he is very fit.

Alas, I missed the whole thing, being in the Home Industries Tent at the time.

Current Affairs

I have been surprised all along that collecting the dead has had such a low priority in New Orleans, (a) on grounds of hygeine and (b) on grounds of respect.

The Americans and Iraquis are currently zapping Talafar, near the Syrian border. Before they started, they set up a refugee camp outside the city. That would have been a useful thing to do in New Orleans.