After a morning of catching up blogging, I visit Victoria Hospital to see Karen from the Eastern and Coastal respiratory team. My spirometry reading is better than one taken before I left - the key test, FEV1 (forced expiratory volumn in one second) shows a slight improvement. However there is a question as to whether my weight has been entered consistently both times which would invalidate the improved result.
Most of the day is spent on Nigel's computer and in the evening we go out to get fish and chips.
Saturday 3.30 pm:
Distance cycled: 5 miles (approximation)
Passing a burnt-out car, I ride out to Fowlmead Country Park, a SEEDA-led regeneration project which has turned the Betteshanger Colliery into a nature reserve and massive area for outdoor leisure pursuits. It contains an Olympic-level cycle track on which young children are performing wheelies. The track will also host hand-cycling events.
It is bleak and beautiful, and camomile-like flowers sparkle on the dark shale of the former slagheaps, which is all that remains to honour the toil of miners below ground.
At the visitor centre, Elliot is sweeping up outside. Fowlmead has only recently opened seven days a week and Elliot, a mathematics student, is working here for the summer. He agrees to put my project cards with the other leaflets inside the centre.
