Getting on with life

Tuesday, 20th April 2010

Well today is one of best friends birthdays.  Today I want to surprise her and have decided, even if it kills me that I will going to her Birthday tea and the local Chinese restaurant. I know I will pay for it Wednesday but it is for a good cause.
Phoned my friend and told her about my surprise and she is over the moon that I can join her. She has said if by the time they arrive I have changed my mind then not to worry.
Well I glammed up and was mistaken by some as Annie Lennox, I am sorry to Annie  as I think she looks fab and am only a pale imitation.  Still who would know what I am going through if I can look that good.
We had a great night with good conversation and a lovely meal.  At one point I did think of asking for the ice cream to be mircowaved as it was too cold for me.

Wednesday, 21st April 2010
As foretold I was not that clever on Wednesday but I had to get myself down to my local GP to get my 'fit'note and other forms. She was pleased to see me and thought that I looked really well.  Will people learn that I am going though some strange stuff and I am not supposed to look well.

The rest of the day was spent lying on the bed and listening to Classic FM, it has been my regular listing for a while but I am now addicted.  I know some purists will not enjoy the fact that they only play excerpts but as of an evening they do play the full works.

Thursday, 22nd April 2010
As the weather has been really nice I had transferred my arrangements from the lounge to the conservatory. I can still watch DVDs or listen to CDs but I can do it in the warmth of the sun. I also get company from the cat that has adopted us.
I had a visitor today in the form of a girl from work. It was really nice to have a good chat and talk about other things that what is going in my world. She is due to leave work soon to have a baby and so we talked about that and the fact that we are going to Stratford in July to see Romeo & Juliet.
Today is Toastmasters and I do feel a little guilty that I am not going, but you can not do everything and you have to selective about your invitations.

Friday, 23rd April 2010
I am now feeling a lot better today and could even pass as human.  Well I definitely think that being off work is going to cost us a fortune! I have just found another fantastic programme on the BBC called Cracking Antiques. They take a room and put in High Street mock antiques and show that person what they can do if money was no object, the current episode showed a lounge and it cost over £13,000, they only have £2,000 to spend.  They did it and was actually under budget if you excluded the curtains. The big thing for me was they took a £90.00 Chesterfield sofa and recovered it for just under £600 and it looked fab.  I mentioned this to Ivan in the morning and by the afternoon a local upholsterer had visited us and given us a quote for out suite.  I also had a glazing company visit for a new garage door, which Ivan broke the other weekend. So by the end of the day I had spent big!!!!
My last visitor of the afternoon was my shopping.  I have now decided it is best to do online shopping that way we do not get side tracked into buying all sorts of things we don't want.  I still managed to order stuff that we didn't want or need on reflection.
Now that all my scheduled visitors had left the building I have decided that the idea of going into Manchester to see my ex-work colleagues from the local paper was a little too much at this time. Maybe next time.

Second Treatment

They said it would and it did.  That is get worse. Thankfully the anti sickness drugs are doing what they say on the tin, it is just all the other internal side effects that I just can not reconcile.

Friday, 16th April 2010
So a week last Friday I went to the drugs party at Halton Hospital. Met up with the Breast Nurse and one of the Oncology Doctors, all very happy with me and my progress. My hair was doing well and hanging on in there!
Ivan spent the time listening to Robin Williams on his iTouch.  I on the other hand had a lovely conversation with one of the nurses who was in charge of 'feeding' me the drugs.

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April 2010
That weekend I stayed above stairs and gave the excuse to view trash TV on BBC iPlayer, 4OD and other catch up TV websites. I also watched one of the best F1 races this season, what overtaking and the rain really sorted the men from the boys even the self appointed Rain-Meister Schumacher struggled!!!!

Monday, 19th April 2010
By the Monday I had enough of sharing the bed with a Yeti and bath looking as though I bathed with one, so I called a friend and she came over and shaved my head.  This will not reduce the hair shedding but it will not look that bad and it won't be so noticeable.

Social whirl

I know I have not blogged for a while but I have been busy and tired in equal measure.

The last week has had some ups and downs.  Let us start with:

Saturday, 10 April 2010

One of my best buds came over we watched the Grand National, even though neither of us had a horse in our respect office sweepstakes, by the end we found out that my husband had the horse that came third but hats of finally for AP McCoy for finally getting round and coming first.  Before, during and after the race we played a game of Scrabble, a hard fought game with some very interesting words, and more to the point NO cheating.  The day was finished with a Chinese take away, not sure if it is something I should be eating but I enjoyed it all the same.

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

After a couple of days of playing on my laptop and sorting out files from my laptop on to the wireless external hard disk.  Also worked on my family history with some success but still working on how the software works and the reports it produces.

For today it was all about catching up with friends I had not seen for a while.  They are members of a PowerTalk group in Cheshire but also members of my club, Rovers.  We discussed the recent weekend in St Andrews which I had regrettably missed.  It was nice to see old friends and know that whatever is going on each other’s lives we can just chat about anything.

While in Knutsford I was very naughty, well not so naughty.  I visited one of their many antique emporiums and did a little bit of window shopping. I found a couple of Birmingham silver pill boxes, which I am partial to and then I saw a Victorian laptop, okay writing slope, but I just thought it was a little too expensive, maybe next time I visit I might have the confidence to barter.

Wednesday, 14 April 2010

Gee the days are rolling by. Today was another busy day. I spent my time relaxing before finally making the decision to go into Manchester latter than my original plans.  Ordered the taxi and then caught the train to Oxford Road.  Unfortunately it was the stopper, so all places between Warrington and Manchester were covered.  Did my usual trick of doing my make on the train, normally to the dismay of other passengers and if I have friends with me them too.  Wandered to my usual Starbucks and had a rest and my treat of Classic Hot Chocolate with Peppermint syrup.  While walking on to my next project I bumped into an old work colleague who thought I looked really well. I have to say that I don’t think I looked that good but they do say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I did not have a mirror handy to see what I looked like.

Went to another of my favourite places, Waterstones the bookshop, I bought a poetry book I had seen the day before in Knutsford and I also got an up to date copy of Romeo and Juliet in lieu of going in July.  Just for background.

After my little spending spree I then sat for a few moments in one of the nicest churches in Manchester St Anne’s Church.  If you have seen The Forsyte Saga with Damian Lewis, it was used as the location for a family wedding.

My friend and husband joined me in Pizza Express for a bite to eat before going on to the Royal Exchange to see Shakespeare’s ‘A Comedy of Errors’.

Thursday, 15 April 2010

I definitely did too much the previous two days and spent the day sitting relaxing catching up on TV.  The highlight was a visit from a couple of girls from work, so we sat in the conservatory and had a good chat. Very much appreciated.

How many women in the UK diagnosed in 2006?

In the UK in 2006 more than 45,500 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, that's around 125 women a day.

- Data from Cancer Research UK

Night Out

Well yesterday was all about getting ready for a night out.

I had an idea of what I was going to wear and had to change it as it just did not suit me since the op.  It looks like a new wardrobe is in the offing.  Still I had a relaxing bath and the usual ablutions.  I even went to the time and trouble to put make up on.

My chauffeur picked me up bang on time and we then made our way into Manchester.  Orators (Toastmasters) meet at the Rainbar, (if you want to come they meet on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month) in the boardroom on the top floor.  The one thing I was worried about was the stairs to the top, which taken slowly were no problem at all.

Fellow members were surprised and happy to see me, one even saying that I looked better now than I did before the operation and treatment so far.  What were they getting at?  (Answers on a postcard please...).

I took part in the Table Topics, extemporaneous speaking of up to 2 minutes.  The theme of the evening was Community and I had to talk about what virtual community I would invent on the internet.  As I have started this blog and got into the swing of using FB and other networking sites I wanted to leave it as it was and use what was already there with the community set up with fellow bloggers etc. We have the ability to comment on blogs and share ideas through the words we type and the feedback we get from other likeminded people.  I have "virtually" met so many people through my blog and FB that I come to see that the world is such a small place.  Well words to that affect.

We had two good speeches an Icebreaker (first speech) and a final speech.  All very well executed and enjoyable showing how people can develop using the workbook within Toastmasters.  All the speakers, including the other five topic takers, were evaluated by other members.  Another learning experience for all, one to see if you agree with the evaluator and two to see if you spotted some of the same things.

At the end of the evening there is usually a vote for best Topic Taker, best Speaker (if more than two speakers so was not done last night), and best Evaluator.  To my shock and horror I won best Topic and my chauffeur won best Evaluator.  After years of not being very good at Topics I have now won best Topic two meetings on the trot.

The meeting finished early and managed to get home before 22:00.  I have had a slow morning but not feeling too bad today.

So far today I have watched the last episode of a series on Sacred Music by BBC Four.  All about one of my favourite composers J S Bach.  I recorded it a few weeks past and only just got round to watching it, along with the three previous episodes about the development of Sacred Music.  What a way to wake up in the morning!

Relaxing after Easter

I am sorry for not posting anything over the past couple of days but I have been a bit stupid.  As I posted on my Facebook status the other day I ate an extra portion of stupid on Monday morning.  I woke up early and decided to settle down on the sofa and catch up on the recordings from the night before.  The only problem was that I fell asleep, for some this is not an issue, but I fell asleep on my bad arm.  When I eventually woke up my arm was not well.  Finally today it does not hurt.  Before you all start telling me off, the pain enough to know that I have to watch what I do.  I have spent the past couple of days doing nothing and recuperating.

Easter Weekend

I have been thinking a lot about the Easter story this weekend, as well I should I hear shout at the computer monitor, but I think this year it has meant more than anything.  Not that I am religious but I do pray in my own way.  It is surprising that when I say this I am considered as some sort of freak or not even religious only on the grounds that I do not formalise my prayer with going to church and be told how to pray and when to pray.  My only other thought on the matter is that some unknown man we call Jesus died for something he believed in, I believe in chocolate, that Sunday should be a family day if not a religious day and that we should love our fellowman/woman/person (sorry Mrs Harriet HarPERSON - watch Matthew Wright for reference) no matter what.
Soapbox dismounted with full double back flip scoring 6 from the Russians (must have been impressive).  I am now sitting on this Sunday afternoon in the conservatory with iTunes on shuffle and the cat (he has adopted us) sitting next to me.
What a weekend.  Not only did the trip to buy the all important post operative underwear went better than expected but had the opportunity to play with my nephew on the wii and watch the grand prix (what were you doing Webber next time drive like you are an A380 so that Vettle can not pass you on the first turn and Button remember you can overtake a Ferrari when there is downshift problem just have the nerve you had in Brazil last year), sorry Murray Walker just took over there or something.
Finally I settled down to the listen to the chocolate voice of Mr Richard Armitage in the final part of Clarissa, as Valmont before him he stuck the rapier in deeper than it need to!!!  As much as it was a wonderful adaptation I have to that Sean Bean just edged it as Robert Lovelace, but I think that is because I could see the wonderful costumes.  They do say that radio has the best pictures but sometimes it can be a little difficult.
As with all things during this time I have set myself some small highlights and objectives my first one will be this week.  I will be attending my first Toastmasters meeting since the operation, I have a fellow member picking me up and will bring me home when it is all over.  I am really looking forward to seeing a room full of people and even getting the opportunity to see if I can still give a 2-3 minute speech.  To some this sounds like torture but believe me when you have taught the butterflies to fly in formation it gets easier (not easy but easier).
Please do follow the links on the left to some of my favourite blogs, websites (for more information) and have a go at the vote it is after all only for fun.