At about 1.30am the bed was found to be slightly wet and was changed. Owing to tiredness I forgot to change Isobel's pants; the inevitable result was a completely soaked bed within a quarter of an hour. Isobel had to sit around for the best part of an hour while another set of bed linen finished drying. Isobel woke briefly at 8am but fell asleep again until 10.45am.

Iona popped in for an hour before returning to school for her after school club.

Helena, who had shared a room in Kings College Hospital with Isobel, called at about half two, within two minutes of Iona leaving. She brought chocolate eclairs which Isobel enjoyed eating. Isobel and Helena had a long chat, although Isobel's speech was not always easy to understand. Helena had just started her nursing training when she was ill at the start of 2007, now she is within a few months of completing it. By coincidence, not only had I taught Helena's sister science but also their father collaborates on astronomical research with Mark Armstrong who Isobel and I used to work with. Last year we spent an enjoyable afternoon at their house in Hartley where they have an observation dome and telescope on the roof. By the time Helena left, Isobel was fairly tired.

Isobel had beef and vegetable hot pot for dinner, followed by lemon pudding. She had a lot of trouble eating the hotpot and a lot of it ended up on her, her clothes and her chair. Usually she can feed herself without too much difficulty but about one meal a week she has real problems. Later Isobel had ice cream. She went up to bed at at about half nine. Although Isobel's walking was unsteady today, it was not quite at its worst. She did however have a lot of trouble getting out of chairs - this has been a trend over the course of the past few months.