Now I am tired

I whacked a week's worth of lessons into one day and feel really tired. I needed to catch up after falling behind about a week ago. I got my assignment in on time and I am really hoping for decent marks in that. This module on Faraday was a big one this time and whilst I know a fair bit about it already (I trained as an electrician so should know a bit about him) it was still quite an eye opener to learn about the Institution and his lectures.

Tomorrow - Stalin. I know a lot about him from my recent reading of Martin Gilbert's History of the Twentieth Century. This section is about Myth, History and Reputation.

I've done enough today so I am going to go and watch the TV or listen to some music.

Top of the world

This morning - I haven't felt this well for a long time. The sun is out, I had a good evening. The household was all smiles, cheerfulness and light this morning and all seems set fair today.

I was meant to be at a tutorial in London but I have too much on my plate at the moment to manage that.

I just listed the stuff that I need to do and it is a bit terrifying as I only realistically have three weeks to sort it all out. I cannot see that happening as things stand - I really do have too much work on.

Today I intend to sit down and do some planning. I need to work out what is achievable in the time available.

Anyway - nice day and feeling good so who knows what I can achieve if I put my mind to it.

Beer and a Ruby

An impromptu evening with lovely friends and it is so nice to have a belly full of laughs, beer and food once in a while. A couple of pranks and some lewd and even occasionally intelligent humour across what was honest food and service can only but set the weekend up :-)

I do enjoy meeting up with my friends and I value their company more than they will know or more than I dare let on.

Relaxing and Chilling

It is a lovely day outside. I've been for a short walk this morning and I may go out for a few beers and a curry this afternoon/evening which will wrap up a quite strange week.

I must have been a bit stressed about the talk last night. I needn't have been at all - I get up and talk to people all the time and I am often left to do impromptu talks. The reason I say that is I feel really quite well today. I had a bit of the old leg cramp troubles again this morning (heavy bag last night?) but other than that I feel much better today than I have for some days.

Difficult to describe but my skin feels warm almost tingling which is how it felt after some of the earlier treatments. Things don't look so bad and I'm feeling quite upbeat.

It has also taken me a while to get back to understanding that I cannot control everything and that sh1t happens occasionally. Some deadlines are being missed and not because of me but other people are screwing up. I've stopped blaming myself for missing these deadlines knowing full well that it is way beyond my ability or sphere of influence to do anything. It just bugs me that no one works to the deadlines they agreed to.

So maybe I was getting a little too stressed out last week? Who knows but anyway TGIF!!!

Bakers Hall

Wow - it really is good to go to these Livery halls. I did my presentation which went down quite well. As usual - a lovely meal and nice wine and good company - I really couldn't ask for more. The Hall was slightly more modern than I expected but some of the old artifacts were hundreds of years old - the Farriers were a 1300s Livery. The Bakers Hall is a lot more modern but they still had their old charters on the wall and it really did look like a court too. These are fascinating places.

I need to trim down my bag when I go to one of these next - It feels like a bag of lead :-)

Anyway, I did my first public talk about the Charity and it went down really well. A friend said to me today that it would be OK as I would have done these a Zillion Times...

I have tomorrow off - Brilliant. Not so brilliant is that I need to catch up on my work and a hundred million things. Never enough time is there..

I get concerned

that people don't believe I am tired or lost for words or just can't get up in the morning.

Why the hell should I be worried I often wonder or give a toss what people think about me? I suppose old habits die hard. I never used to take time of or whinge like I do these days about how I don't feel quite right. It annoys the hell out of me because it stops me doing what people pay me to do!

I'm tired all the time, I put on a good show but boy do I pay for it later. If I overdo it or take a few long days I am wiped out. It is so unlike me. I give everything 100% or try to and feel I come up short (not sure I actually do) but it is the bloke with the "Gravity Switch" that gets me every time.

Tomorrow I will be flying. By the time I get home I will probably have done 15 hours. Friday is a day off because of that - I know full well what I'll be like with the adrenaline rush tomorrow evening on my solo presentation.

It is interesting that Steve is now getting the classic BCG symptoms on his treatment. It is just so bizarre - unless as an old girlfriend once accused me of having my brains where my ***** is :-)

Well its near enough your bladder anyway!

Busy day and still yawning

I decided that I would have to have Friday off as I am still feeling not all there and I need to get in touch with a load of people to sort out arrangements before I go into Hospital.

With my colleague off at work and all sorts of things going on it is just amazing how quickly time is pouring away.

I am out tomorrow to a meeting in London. More after the event. It will be at a Livery Hall and to a Livery Lodge which I am looking forward to immensely. It will be my first speaking engagement for the Charity outside of the Forum I did earlier but I will be flying solo tomorrow.

I am certainly feeling the pace at the moment. I finished my assignment for my Uni course and got that in tonight. I feel quite good about it. It could have been better but I really enjoyed doing it and I am sure that the next ones will only get harder. At least it is a major worry off my back and I don't need to do another until January which is cool.

At least another long weekend coming up to try and solve the tiredness problems - I really could sleep for a week.

A day back at work

Felt like poo to start with. Tired and yawning all day but managed to get through a load of work but somehow feel empty and not really great about things.

My poor colleague has been in the wars. We may see him for a day or two next week but thereafter he will probably be out until 2009. In 3 or 4 weeks so will I!

Why on earth have I taken on all of this stuff when I have been ill? Sorry it is rhetorical I think. I've done it to occupy the time and take my mind off things. I really fancy going to the Tarn area of France and spending 3 months soaking up the atmosphere, Fois Gras, Monbazillac and Cahors wines. Sitting by the pool and reading a series of books. That is what I really fancy right now - whether I can afford it is another matter!

Go on - one more screw won't hurt

Like hell it wont. Gee how much more can I absorb this week. Loads of things happening and I am trying like mad not to get too much as I am due in Hospital on the 9th December and I've less than a month to get all these things sorted out. I'm going to go pop like a balloon I reckon.

I'm ending up with so many things to do and I am the one who is meant to be ill and should be in recuperation mode :-)

DOH!

I have a special meeting on Thursday night that I hope will go down well and I've got to have Friday off so I can catch up. My assignment is due in Thursday and I should have started the next module by now and it is half way through the week.

Oh well - I always did like working to deadlines....

Time it is just accelerating away

I picked up far more work than I really needed tonight. I've got home with a list of things to do and there is hardly anytime left to fit it in.

Suddenly there is a wall of work and muggins is going to have to find time to do that and in four weeks realistically. After that who knows what I'll be like after my operation? I'm thinking that I'll need a good week off at least after that and whilst I might be able to work on some stuff I wont be up to much as I can't sit in the office chair for long periods.

I've still got some time to come off from work so I can use that and I have almost completed my assignment for this side of Christmas but will need to keep up with my studies and I am about 3 days behind which is a worry I need to get back on track.

There are many competing things going on for me and prioritising them and ensuring all the balls are in the air is going to be interesting. I think that things are slightly quieter at work or should be and I'll find out tomorrow as I need to plan the next 4 weeks out with them too.

It will all get done of course. It always does :-)

Heady and Tired

Well, it still feels as if there is a cold trying to get out of me but it is as if it is trapped in a small concentration at the back of nose and throat. It is quite a strange sensation. I feel the smallest headache and as if I am about to come down with a cold with this "feeling" high up in my nose and yet that is all there is.

I had a pretty poor night's sleep and didn't go to work. It worries me that it is easier not to go but I made myself do that. Some time ago, I probably blogged about it, I realised that it isn't worth fighting my way into work if I feel like a bag of poo when I get there. Also it isn't worth making myself worse or exposing myself to more risk trying to do it. Prior to this I'd have turned up with my arm cut off but these days it isn't worth doing that. Whilst my immune system may be firing on all cylinders I don't want to test it on anything other than doing its job.

Feeling rough

For the first time in a very long time I actually feel unwell. I may get tired and depressed and run down but I don't often feel ill. Tonight I do and that is surprising as the Immunotherapy seems to have kept everything away from me for a while.

It may just be a glitch and nothing to worry about. I'll see how I am in the morning.

We had a bit of a shock in the house on Saturday morning - perhaps it is that? Not going to say a lot about that but I really could have done without a weekend of upheaval when I am trying to get my assignment finished.

How your mind works

Tonight a good friend showed me some photos of his party 17 years ago.

I did and didn't recognise him. You see how he looks to me today is how he has always looked.

Not sure if that makes sense but that is how it is or was to me. You see, my father and my Uncles have always looked like their most recent pictures. You don't notice the passage of time even over quite long periods.

Tonight we were reminded that some of the people I knew when I was initiated into the Lodge 26 or so years ago are in fact very old men now. They are frail and in their late 70s and 80s but they have always looked liked they are tonight....

I do not recognise the passage of time with my friends that I meet a lot - we all grow older together.

My friends photographs of 17 years ago were so different and he looked SO young it was almost impossible to reconcile with how I remember him. To me he looks today like he looked then.

The mind does some interesting tricks in this respect n'est pas?

What part did I NOT make clear

I find that there are a number of times that I go the extra mile and let people have their head and let them get away with more than they should.

My reward - in many cases - is to get screwed for letting them take the extra inch and make it into a mile.

I've always let everyone have the benefit of the doubt because - once in a while they pay you back and reward you. It makes up for the 99 who shit on you. I got dumped on today and I find that unacceptable as I went way beyond the extra mile to accommodate their stupidity.

Sometimes, I wish that I'd just tell people in the first instance to shove off and not take the second insult from them.

People are very disappointing to me these days.

Maybe I expect them all to have the same standards that I adhere to?

Maybe I am too old fashioned myself?

A different way of looking at things

A guy I knew once told me that he needed to "mess with his brain" - well actually he put it a bit more crudely than that. What he meant was he needed the challenge all the time to make him tick. he didn't do social niceties and he didn't do friends (the people not the show) that much etc.

I'm just doing my first assignment for my Foundation Course but also finishing off the section on Paul Cezanne. Now, before I'd spent much time on this, I'd have told you that the guy surely couldn't command the sort of respect when (and I have actually seen some in the flesh) he couldn't paint and that there was little that made me want to get involved in the picture. Interesting because anyone who knows me does know that I try and give everything a fair chance and if it doesn't float my boat I'll just move on.

So Cezanne; what can I say but a new way of looking at it. It isn't a 2D flat, did you run out of paint half way through? Type of view now. I'd never ever thought of art as emotion on a canvas. A Dutch Master like Vermeer - now that was always my view of the world and suddenly it is quite liberating to "get it" after all these years. Cezanne's work now looks very different indeed after going back and looking at it again with fresh eyes. Bring it on!! :-)

I find this whole learning process messing with MY brain - and do you know what? It's really great. I feel quite cheated that my old school and the system never gave me this opportunity when I was younger. In a way some of that is my fault too but you don't get it when you are a kid and certainly not when you were turfed out of school at 16 into the real world to go get a job.

Better late than never and I hope it opens my mind to some more of this that tears down my long held views and makes me look at things differently. Who knows what will happen next?

Amelie and assorted French Films

Well you never thought I was going to be someone who thought Top Gun was a good film now did you?

I have just watched one of my favourite films - Amelie - it always cheers me up and ties me in knots at the end. It is a lovely little film but best watched in French without the sub titles if you can manage it.

Delicatessen would probably be up there with City of Lost Children, Belleville Rendezvous and A Very Long Engagement.

Of course there are others that I like watching but these tend to pull me back more often than not as I enjoy the unusual plot and the wonderful photography involved.

Anyway, it was a nice change to sit uninterrupted for a few hours, on my own watching a film that I could concentrate on. It makes a change.

Friday Reflections

It has been a busy old week one way and another. Luckily I have had time off in between and recovered from the late nights. It is one of the surprising things to me that even now my ability to do more than a couple of late nights gives me so many stamina problems but then I am getting old and I've had a good reason why I'm not as fit as I used to be.

Certainly this week has been easier because I planned to take time off, like today, to compensate for being out, having big meals and having a few glasses of wine with them.

In a few weeks time I'll hopefully be getting towards the end of the major part of my journey. If all is clear the BCGs will stop, the operations will stop to be replaced by scope inspections (not nice but at least you get checked out). 2009 may well start with a new vision and perspective on life. I still think that I'm not really settled on what I want to do maybe I need to wait to hear the news and find out what it is before committing or deciding on anything.

Today - Interesting and curiously uplifting

I had a half day off and went to a lunch time gathering and met a lot of really nice people and bumped into someone I know.

It was nice to meet a group of people from a number of shared interests and had a nice meal and a chat. I got invited to go and give a talk to them in March and that will be good.

I feel a lot better and I have tomorrow off but have plenty to keep me occupied. I find that towards the end of the week I do get tired but these odd days I have had off have made a clear difference. I managed to get a few hours sleep in the chair when I got in but I had a few glasses of wine at lunchtime and that is pretty fatal that way!

All in all a bit better in terms of getting my head around things and a lot got sorted out today which was great. A number of projects are coming together nicely and I am going to be busy in the next few weeks.

My friend and colleague isn't very well though and is back in Hospital - probably in the same ward I was in. He is not at all well and came out only to return a day later. I hope they fix him up. I am picking up his stuff but I am due in soon - maybe 3 weeks time :-(

I don't mind picking up his work but if he gets caught up on long term illness and I disappear for a week or two it will give the charity a few headaches.

See it another way

The previous post is a bit strange unless you actually know me.

Consider that for 2 1/2 years all you have to focus on is battling something you can't see, that is treated in perhaps the way that you can't really believe it "ought" to be treated and it is all rather horrible. Now imagine that you protect yourself by screening it all out and then that you don't have any plans left other than getting better.

When you start getting better things have actually changed a LOT. You are a different person in many respects, you have changed mentally and physically and now you think about it, you really want everything to be better now. All sorts of things should be better too but the disappointment is that they aren't and aren't likely to get better.

So there is the dilemma. Through the past 2 1/2 years there is every possibility that you've destroyed existing relationships and friendships and of course you have made new ones but nothing will ever be the same again and you really don't know what you want anymore.

It isn't a single thing either that will help. Being fitter and healthier may not help my mental state and vice versa. It is all about getting the balance right. I haven't got the balance right and at the moment I am struggling to find out where the correct place is. I'm sure it is all part of the process. Most of these things are.

See I'm not mad

I enjoy talking to my fellow survivors. I went out tonight with a good friend and we got around to talking about this problem with the dreams, the fatigue, the not really satisfied with life bit, the lack of sleep, the way people treat you and the caution we both have. Then there is the reticence to get closely involved with anyone - all sounds strange unless you have been through the mental and physical fun of cancer.

I'm no nearer an answer for you but it goes something like this....

I'm not satisfied with what I have now, I feel it is all going to fall down and disintegrate around me and if that happens I'll tear down the walls and re-build. I have absolutely no idea what it is that I want now. I haven't thought through what would make me happy, how I want to live, what I want to do and where I want to go, to live, to work or anything.

I know that any ideas I do have are scrutinised and examined from every angle and I don't do off the cuff things, it isn't in my nature. To do anything different involves dragging a mile of baggage with me.

I'm not "screwed up" but having something like BC kind of makes you question everything and you are presented with questions like "Well, if you feel you haven't really lived and you have survived for a purpose. What is that purpose?" Now imagine all the variants of that question to surround your working, social and home life, multiply that by 100 and you can get an idea of the questions buzzing around in my head most of my waking hours.

It is pretty obvious that I don't have an answer to this at the moment but it is worth understanding how screwed up you get. Another common thing we both discovered was that we don't "get" people anymore. In other words, we don't react to signals from people in the same way we used to so cannot recognise a come on, a go away or any other sort of subtle inflection.

Interesting about the darkness and intensity of the dreams and nightmares and whether they are real or imagined. Some can merge with reality as if something actually happened and yet you know instinctively that it couldn't. It is very strange.

Anyway, what will be will be and it is just interesting that we are both having similar struggles.