Helena, who had met Isobel when they shared a room in Kings College Hospital at the time that Isobel had her operation in January 2008, went in at lunchtime with her mother to see Isobel. When they met in Kings College Hospital we found out that in an odd double co-incidence, I had taught Helena's sister at Dartford Tech and also both Isobel and I had both worked with Mark Armstrong who collaborates with Helena's father on astronomical research. Helena thought that Isobel's symptoms had not changed a lot since she last saw her. I am not sure when this was, maybe six to eight weeks ago. She did of course have some difficulty understanding what Isobel was talking about for some of the time. Helena brought some profiteroles, no doubt remembering the "cream bun diet" we used to joke that Isobel was on in 2008 when she had lost so much weight.

Helena and her mother joined the overwhelming majority in the vote for the new living room wallpaper - either it is a more obvious choice than I had thought or everyone will love it when the renovations are complete. This weekend the living room has stood empty, all twenty seven and a half feet of it, apart from a filing cabinet and the piano. Paper stripping should start on Tuesday morning.

I went in to visit Isobel in the afternoon. At first she was rather irritable, and we had a conversation at cross purposes about why I had not found out what was in Nigel's shop. Obviously Isobel was not talking about Nigel (who does not have a shop) but I could not make out what she was trying to discuss, which just annoyed her more. It is often impossible to resolve these misunderstandings; Isobel knows what she wants to say but different words come out of her mouth. Eventually we just settled for eating the profiteroles, which was much more fun. I was keen to see these consumed before I left as they were very generously covered in chocolate and would have been impossible for Isobel to eat herself without making a huge mess. I watered the various plants, but had forgotten to bring in another bottle of squash, Isobel has enough for about three drinks left. Tea was rather later than usual but I stayed to help Isobel eat it even though I had arranged for Iona and Jon to come round for a curry. For tea Isobel had tuna, lettuce, coleslaw, tomato, beetroot and cucumber; the last time I fed her this I made a mess over her clothes and on the bed, but this time passed off smoothly. For desert she had pear flan with cream and ice cream. After giving Isobel a mug of tea I went home at twenty past five.