So maybe I *wasn't* being rubbish!

I aten't dead...

BUT I am also not apologising for being rubbish. When I saw my GP about a health issue recently I got a locum, mentioned I'd had highish but not high-enough-to-treat results for thyroid a couple of years back, and he cheerfully said, "Oh, I'll have you tested again to make sure nothing's changed."

Lo and behold, it has got worse to the point I am now treatable. 

So okay, I haven't felt up to doing much and I've got fat, but I've basically been fighting my endocrine system this whole time, because it wants me to be sleepy and chubby. Kind of like being a were-bear, but only my glands got changed, I guess. I'm now on thyroxine. Given thyroid can affect quite a lot of things, I'm really hoping for an improvement in my overall health, though it can take four to six weeks for changes to be noticeable. As a couple of other things have also worsened, probably thanks to the weight gain, I'm planning to do much more exercise once my energy rises sufficiently. 

August was a bit of a blur, but we did make time to go to Farleigh Castle, in Farleigh Hungerford near where we live, because Mr Robot wanted to play with his camera, so I took some pictures on my phone. It's a nice castle that survived the ravages of the Roundheads, unlike many, but then large chunks got pulled down to make a house a few miles down the road, which is a bit of the shame. And even then one of the towers was mostly standing till the mid 1800s when a bunch of local kids set fire to the ivy on it. (Yup, we've always had loads of little scrotes round these parts.)

That tower was the Lady Tower (not shown), which has that name because it's believed to be the one where Walter Hungerford, a close associate of Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell (the chap fictionalised in Wolf Hall), locked his wife up for several years, even trying to poison her. (He did not succeed; she was seeking a divorce from him when he was convicted on several counts, including conjuring and sodomy, and executed.)

Being a sad old goth, I did have a look at the lead coffins in the crypt. One has a face modelled on it that looks so much like a real person, it made me wonder if it was sculpted to look like the inhabitant. There are some impressive tombs in the chapel, too. The chapel and chaplain's house are still in pretty good condition. Much of the rest of the castle is just ruins, though. I wish more of it was still standing. 

It was really good to get out and potter around the castle for a couple of hours. Here's hoping for more energy (and blogging!) as the meds do their thing.