THE ALARM goes off at 6.30am – not only do we have the heat pump guys coming to start the install today, but I have a 9am appointment at the hospital in Glasgow.

I get to the hospital in good time for my ‘ultrasound-guided biopsy’. The surgeon and nurse are fantastic and make the process as ‘comfortable’ as I can reasonably expect given that the tumour they’re sampling is on a nerve sheath.

Twenty-minutes or so later and I’m done, patched up and pick up plenty painkillers and some shopping on the way home.

There’s radiators, pipes and cylinders everywhere when I get back and the fitters seem to be making reasonable progress. Margaret’s unhappy with a couple of the radiators – looks like the installation engineer was pretty prescriptive in what we could get and we’re not sure he gave Margaret the correct options. In fact, he didn’t give her any options! We’ll deal with that later.

I have a couple of online guitar students, and one in-person then I get some work done in the studio. Too cold in the house with no heating or hot water.

The WIldcats’ livestream on Facebook is a banjo fest tonight with three songs I haven’t played in a long, long time. A bit rusty but fun.

I’m back home for dinner soon after 9pm then we have an early night – there’s no heating or hot water!