turps

James goes back to work today. Despite a phased return it's a weird shift starting at 8 and ending at midnight, so he won't even leave the house until 7. We suspect it's because his immediate boss is on nights and wants to be there for James going back. But whatever it is, it's a positive step forward. Health wise James is much better than he was, and we're still getting out for daily walks which is helping him a lot.

Of course the weather changing for the better is helping that too. It was such a lovely day yesterday, I could even go outside without my hoodie on, which hasn't happened for ages. Though we did spend most of the morning at the limb centre again. James was expecting to pick up his new leg but the stump cover didn't fit right, and of course that needs to be perfect, so it meant hours waiting around while he got another cast done, plus, the shop wasn't open. Which was just wrong, no cheap coffee for me.

After we dropped off Easter eggs for Corey and his girlfriend and eventually headed for home where on the night we watched three episodes of The Rookie, which was decent enough, but nothing stand-out.

The trip to Edinburgh went really well on Tuesday. It had a rocky start as when we arrived at Durham station we discovered that one side of the road was blocked off and you had to park on the opposite side and walk a long way down a hill and back up to get to the other platform as the lift was blocked too. Getting to the other side we found out there was a little golf cart thing that would transport people with mobility issues from one side to the other, but considering we knew nothing about it and it wasn't signposted on the shut side, it wasn't much help to us. But, we were on the train for 7:20 and apart from someone sitting in our booked seats, everything went great. The woman left with an eye roll and as the seats were priority ones were so much easier to get to with a bit extra leg room. Then, two hours later we were at Edinburgh, and went on to leave the station in completely the wrong direction, ending up in this out of the way area. Though it actually ended up good for us as we arrived in this deserted part just as a taxi was dropping some people off, and the taxi driver was great. First telling directions, then telling us about a taxi app that we could put on our phones and both get a £15 first use credit, which meant we got free trips to the zoo and then back.

We were at the zoo gates just before ten, so got in for opening. And man, that zoo is big. It's built over a huge hill so some of the top parts are really steep. To help people with mobility issues they have two converted cars that will drive you where you want to go. Which is a really good idea. What we did was walk the flat parts at the beginning and then got a lift to the top and walked down. Even so, it was a load of walking and step wise I did well over three times my average. James did well but was exhausted by the time we left. We'd had vague plans to visit the castle too, but in the end we left the zoo much later than we'd expected, and James was done. All he was good for was half an hour snooze in the Costa near the train station then a slow walk along the nearby park. Then, back to the train station and home by nine. I had to laugh coming home as we discovered the station was massive with loads of shops and eating places. Where we'd ended up in the morning I've no idea, but we'd seen no shops at all.

I have to admit, I'm conflicted about zoos in many ways. I've seen some bad ones, but Edinburgh zoo had huge areas for all of the animals and are doing good work in terms of conservation, but at the same time, the animals are still caged. So, yeah, conflicted despite enjoying seeing all these fabulous animals. Highlights were the pandas and strangely, the colourful birds area where a bird took a liking to James' hair and beard and sat on his head plucking out hairs.

I've put some of my favourite animal photos behind the