To operate or not?

That's me in Belfast now having a few days with Mum and seeing the surgeon for my back. Wednesdays cooking went well and I have some photos of my handiwork attached. Other than that things have been pretty quite since I arrived back, I cooked for Davey and Mum on Thursday night, we had penne with mushroom a la creme and creme caramels for dessert with lovely caramel sauce, they actually worked out quite well, much better than the scones I attempted to make on Thursday day time, must remember when halving a recipe, half ALL the ingredients!! They turned out more like rock cakes! I also managed to see the doctor on Thursday to get my referral letter for the surgeon. 
So Friday came and to be honest I was pretty worried about seeing the surgeon about my back, although I do talk it up on occasions and make like it has been getting better, it has pretty much deteriorated over the past 18 months and I cannot go on like this, so off to the surgeon I went! I was presented with two options neither very good, the crux of the matter is that I have both back and leg pain, they are relatively successful at fixing leg pain, they know very little about back pain. Option one was a spinal fusion, the likelihood being i would need another op in about 3 years, option 2 was a lower lumbar discectomy to remove the bit that is squashing and irritating my nerves and it might result in a lessening in my back pain. So option 2 it is, hopefully week commencing 13 December I will be getting the crab meat (how the surgeon described the consistency of the disc, luckily or unluckily, I did take a crab apart last week and know exactly what he is talking about, although lets hope he is more delicate than I was!) removed. So the good news is that unless my disc completely ruptures into the spinal canal, I should (with the help of Mr Codeine) be able to complete my studies at Ballymaloe!
So I am 24 hours on from receiving the news and feel a bit better about it, spoke to my friend Kerr last night, he is convinced that once I am fixed, he with his dodgy knee and metal ankle and me with my dodgy back should be able to make ourselves available for selection to the Scottish and Irish rugby squads for next years world cup!!
So that's is from sunny Belfast, back to Cork tomorrow, talk soon!
T

Summer Pudding