I hate commuting

It was OK this morning as the new Train timetable has an earlier train with longer carriages and so I get plenty of room.  They are still stupidly over heated even though it is minus 4 or 5 you don't need to boil passengers like they do.  Me?  I have to take off my coats and scarf etc. to sit down and yet others doggedly sit there with full hat, scarf, gloves and all on and honestly the carriage has to be 25 or more degrees C.  It is crazy.  Tonight I decided to get an earlier train and feel that I may now do that more often as it goes about 20 minutes earlier than the one I normally catch and is a little less crowded.  I still have these claustrophobic reactions and tonight needed to open the window on the train for 10 minutes or so before we moved off.  Again just so hot I could hardly breathe.

I notice that since my treatments I am a lot hotter than other people, I am always warm and need to be in cool rooms and transport.  If I have to sit in the furnace like conditions of some of these trains I get problems breathing which takes me a lot of effort to control.  

I have arrived home to find that a friend's wife has died over the weekend.  She had been ill for many years and had not been in great health.  I often hear the words "it was a relief" and maybe that is true for her and her husband but even so, it must still be a shock to the system and I've been asked not to call and so I wont.  I do not deal with death particularly well at the best of times and post BC find it acutely upsetting when experiencing it at funerals or similar situations.  I could handle it quite well before all of this and can gaze on my own demise stoically but show me anyone else suffering or losing a loved one and I find that I am not able to cope with it.  Let me talk to a cancer victim and discuss the symptoms, treatment, potential outcomes etc and I'm fine with that too.

Back to Work

No doubt the alarm will come as a bit of a shock in the morning and that the cold walk to the station will start the return back to work off in a not too pleasant way.  We are in quite a cold snap at the moment but we are not as bad as Scotland which appears to be in the -15 Degree area and that's Centigrade none of your woolly Fahrenheit nonsense.

I've spent the day plotting out what the year looks like in terms of appointments and meetings and so far it looks to be pretty much panning out to be suitably busy.  I have my wall planner set up and also a brought forward file to put all my paperwork in this time!  It makes for easier remembering where I have put things.

2010 is one of those years, I feel, where things are going to happen either planned or by serendipity.   Curiously, though, I don't have the usual plan worked out on what I am going to do and how I am going to get there.  

The adventure starts tomorrow - let's see where it leads me.

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life

It is strange that as you travel on your journey post Cancer that the threat exists for as long as you live and is always with you in some way or the other.  I was reading Steve Kelley's Blog and especially this really interesting piece mapping out the journey ahead.  It occurred to me being a Project Manager that the successful outcome of the journey would be to die naturally without Cancer having reoccurred.

You'll have to excuse the morbid way I just wrote that but actually that would be a result I think.   I don't think I am any more susceptible to another Cancer but I am perhaps more likely to get Bladder Cancer again.  I'm not planning on that but it is a possibility that grows more remote the more clears I get.

Going back to Steve's posting - the mapped out journey has no end date and as a Project Manager you always like to see something concrete delivered.  A Programme is slightly different as it can continue to move and grow and doesn't always have an end point defined at the beginning.  

Until I can get my head around not having a definitive end point I think that I am going to continue to struggle with coming to terms with Bladder Cancer.  I've reflected many times on the fact that if you break a bone or have an  illness, in general terms there comes a point in time when you were back to the way you were before.   That doesn't happen in cases of serious illness because it messes with your head as well as your body and I can't see a point where I'd be "back to normal".   I'm still amazed at how some people react when they meet me and find out I had Cancer, they almost do a double take and they just utter the strangest things.  I wonder if I would be one of those people if I hadn't have experienced this first hand?

Because there isn't going to be a sign off and a point where the Doctors say "go away" or  "you're all done now", because I am going to be having blood tests and check up every year and perhaps, like Steve's plan, a Flexible Cystoscopy for every year of my natural life, this will just stretch on to my last days.   I think that the UK might be different though in terms of moving the inspections to longer distances so they go out to 18 months, 24 months, 36 months etc.  I'll find out all about that in April and May of this year I hope.

I hadn't really managed to grasp this point until I looked at Steve's chart and considered that this is no one off project it is a full on programme (program) which has multiple facets, multiple outcomes, hundreds of possible paths and priorities and Bladder Cancer is one of the major work streams pulling every other part of the programme along with it.  It is no single entity, not one thing to deal with, it affects everything I do and almost every decision I make.  It is a single reference point and commands the highest priority in decision making and actually, in that way alone it is also the commonest excuse for not doing something and procrastination.

Dealing with the "depression" that this brings is the most important thing for me this year.  I use the D word and yet whilst I am certain it is that - it isn't anything like the Black Dog Depressions I used to get a few years ago and which thankfully don't affect me any more.   This is the feeling that I am on the scrap heap job wise and all those years of experience and lets not beat about the bush, money that used to go with those jobs may well have gone now.  It was poignant when my kid brother told me he had to take a pay cut to stay in his job last year.  His pay cut was more than I brought in for the whole year.  That felt like a wet fish slap around the face.   Money isn't everything and I probably don't need to do that sort of work any more anyway and I don't really need the money I suppose.  However, that needs to be resolved this year.  The current job could be done in a few days a week not full time and I really want to get involved in my other business venture where I can.  

So one side of the problem - I'm not using my brain enough, my skills aren't being used and I'm well enough now (I think) to move on to something a bit more challenging but where that is I don't know.  Many think I should hold onto this job.  I'm good at it and I have the ability to make it my own, perhaps make a bigger role and I know that I am guaranteed work to 2017 - so what is the problem?  Many would say that you should accept and carry on - "go native".  That would never work I can't just 9 to 5 and not make a difference especially in an organisation that works like it is still in the 1960s.  

On the other hand - things aren't so bad with my health and coming out of the rough bit of the BCG treatments and being clear for quite a while should give me confidence to move on.  In fact I am happy to move on but I find that I will probably be plotting a solo course on this.  What I want to do and what everyone else wants to do are quite different and no one wishes to share that with me.  So another side of the problem is that try as I might to move things on, if I am not getting the support to do them, then this too will add to the dilemma.  

Some time ago I mentioned that the difficult part of the whole thing was that you can't change people's reactions to your Cancer.  They have to deal with it themselves and when I was at my most cynical a few weeks ago I dared suggest that perhaps they expected me to die rather than live and haven't worked out how to live with a ghost yet :-)  

So whilst everyone has been most supportive and stuck with me throughout this pretty torrid time,  they may not be the most appropriate people to go ahead with and move forward.   

It now depends how you value your friends and family and how whether you are prepared to burn bridges.   I would hate to do that and having lost a few friends because of Bladder Cancer (I'm still in touch but they couldn't deal with it and went into quiet mode), I'm not sure dumping those that helped me through the hard times is a good strategy and yet, it may be necessary for my own well-being and peace of mind in the long run. 

This may not be the first day of the rest of my life but I think that I have finally put a few more pieces in place to help me decide what to do next.   To continue in a way that sees me dissatisfied with life, the universe and everything is not the way forward.  I can take away the assumption that there is an end point to BC and remove that from my calculations.  I can take away the possibility of recurrence and just have to deal with it if it happens.  I have to tackle and weigh the options on whether to shrug off the hands that hold me back and go and do what I want to do rather than try and gain a quorum or gain levels of acceptance or grudging agreement.   I'm very good at keeping the peace, promoting the Status Quo and being the good guy, always bending to fit in but perhaps it is time now to change that and do something about it.

To vacillate or not to vacillate - that is the question......... or is it?

Life can be so complicated can't it :-)

New Year Resolutions

Easily broken in my experience. Mine are still to try and keep healthy and get better each day and to get out of the rut I'm in. The only thing stopping me is myself I reckon.

I really can't be arsed with work or much else at the moment - only in as much as I have other things to do and through wasting my time these past days just haven't gotten around to doing any of them. Even my wall chart is out of date, no calendars have been changed or anything so tomorrow (well later today) I ought to do that.

I'm not happy with myself these days, I must tackle all the things I should be doing without hiding behind the fallout from my condition. It is time to try and wrestle back some control now and see where that gets me.

Happy New Year

Well here we are 2010. Another year and another one that I'm happy to be alive in.

I took myself off to the Hospital today to get a blood test for my GP so they can continue to prescribe me all my heart pills. It was a good move, I got up late and wandered down there gone 11 and there were 5 of us in the queue which meant about a 10 minute wait and I was done and on my way home. Suitably rewarded with some left over bacon from Christmas I decided I might as well finish off all the fatty, calorie heavy stuff now as I won't be touching that again for a long while.

I'm now going to concentrate on losing weight and getting back into shape again as well as trying to get back some of my lost get up and go which has got up and went.

A look back at the last 10 years tonight on TV gave plenty of food for thought and yet no one mentioned my little milestones - perhaps best left behind and move on. It's a bit like having had a very bad cold for 3 years! Not :-)

Let us hope that this next decade brings us a little peace in this world and some massive improvements in Cancer detection, prevention, treatment and cure.

Tiredness working out

Well for the 3rd day running I haven't got up past 11 in the morning which is a bit crazy.  I guess I ought to try and get going first thing tomorrow if I can as I'm losing half a day at a time this way.

I hope that I have managed to set up a new Gadget on the Blog that links to another resource for cancer.  Let's see how that works out.

One thing I am a bit remiss at is tagging my posts.   I need to come up with some simple headings I guess that filter searches for readers.  Something else on my growing "to do" list for 2010.

My DVD Player is driving me mad as it has a DVD stuck inside and will not spit it out.  The crazy thing is that it is a known issue but the published solution doesn't work!  Doh!  Tomorrow I will try a few tips off of the Internet.  As always happens with me the device is about 18 months old and out of warranty.  The Surround Sound DVD Player I have is working (when it feels like it) and so I managed to watch a few of my DVDs today.  

A managed to scratch her car today and is a bit cheesed off and upset with herself.  Not everyone gets it when all I ask is "Did anyone get injured or hurt in anyway?"  A bashed piece of metal is just a bashed piece of metal after all.  She is furious with herself for it but maybe she will see my way of thinking when she calms down a bit.  It really doesn't matter and in the overall scheme of things is nothing to get upset about.

Off to bed a little earlier tonight to see if I can get in a little less sleep than recently!

A Bit of R&R Coming up

It is one of the joys of Christmas meeting family and friends (and of course "Waste of Oxygen Man"). The trouble is, with so much entertaining you tend to wear yourself out pretty much and today was a chance to get our breath back and we did absolutely nothing after cleaning up the mess from the night before.

I can't say I'm in the best of humour as both my DVD player and recorder appear to have malfunctioned as does my Hi-Fi but hey, what are the January sales for otherwise!

I need to do a bit of taking stock tomorrow as I have managed to squander my days leading up to and after Christmas and have achieved next to nothing. This time next week I'll be back at work and so I ought to catch up with all those things that need doing.

Time to sort out New Year resolutions - I ought to go and look back at the last few years and see what I said then!

The Day After the Day After

I'm still a little stiff from my ice fall but otherwise I'm OK.   Yesterday the whole family (Mrs. F's side) A and her boyfriend and the rest descended on us.  The "waste of oxygen" at least managed to get through the day and to not vomit on my carpet like a few years ago so that was a result.  I can't believe how much he winds me up and I'm generally very good with most people.  Perhaps it is his complete disregard for others?  At least I don't have to see him until the next funeral, wedding or Christmas next year!

Why people tear arising around and get stressed out just because friends are coming I have no idea.  Of course they get even more stressed out when I tell them to slow down and take it easy.  This sort of stressy stuff during the holidays really isn't necessary.  Again we have 13 or so guests  coming around this afternoon.  I have slunk back here to my sanctuary to get a bit of peace and to also count to 100 before going downstairs and trying not to be flippant, sarcastic,  level headed, sensible and all the other things that people who know me would realise would stress anyone else out completely.  So I'm doing a bit of a United Nations bit, making a tactical withdrawal and will re-appear in time to take the plaudits or to wind Mrs. F up even more.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I can start to get some relaxing back into the Festive break.  We just seem to have been on the go non stop. 

Christmas Morning Not The Start I Wanted

We departed our friends at about 2:35 in the morning.  As I approached the car I realised that I was, in fact, slipping down the hill on a sheet of ice.  Not good they live on quite a slope and carrying a box to the car, trying to retain my balance in new leather soled shoes - well, you can probably piece together the slow motion of the event.

At first it was slightly amusing as I started to veer away from everyone and then as I picked up speed and moved to retain balance realised that I was going down one way or another  The fact that I hit our friends car then fell into the road beside it may have been a good thing as I didn't career into the road itself!

There was lots of concern, of course, my injured pride and the annoyance of anyone who dared thought I may have drunk too much.  However, most were concerned that I hadn't broken anything and indeed, I don't appear to have done.  I landed about as gracefully as you can falling forward with the box in front of me which broke my fall, then on my knees and hands and smacked into the wheel of the car, gutter and kerb.  

I am very lucky as I just have bruised upper left arm, slight bruise to my left thigh and on the palms of my hands, again more on the left hand.  No grazes or cuts and no broken skin anywhere.  I was singularly unimpressed that the pavements (we walk on the pavement in the UK BTW - something lost in translation somehow) were left so bad, anyone older could have a broken hip or arm.  My friend managed that last year.    We tend to forget all about people and just look after the cars.

Christmas Day has gone well although I do find it a bit tiresome being with my sister-in-laws partner.  He really is a waste of Oxygen (and I'm being nice to him).  I'm very good that I share my Christmas with him and don't get him sectioned.  I have ever met such a total waste of space and he has the social skills of an amoeba and has quite the worst manners.  However, somehow we manage to "do our bit" for the environment and I suppose it is only once  year.  Unfortunately it isn't up to me, but if it were I would have to make an exception to "goodwill to ALL men" at this time of year.  It will be my turn to host him on Sunday but there will be more of us and we can amuse ourselves taking cheap shots at him :-)  I don't mean to be cruel but he doesn't like getting dragged along and makes that quite clear.  it is only my sister-in-law who doesn't get the message.  The things I do to keep the peace :-)

Oh well - it is Christmas after all.

Here we go

And the Honey roast Ham is cooked, and now carved up ready for three or four days worth of feasting. Mrs. F. and L are at Church and I am now ready to start my Christmas. I am ready to party and we are off to our long-term friends house to do just that - plenty of beer and lots of food.

Away Calories count half I think is the accepted rule and I am ignoring my normal diet and going onto the high cholesterol, high fat, one :-) Well may be not going that mad but for a few days I think I can let my hair down a bit. The New Year will see changes a plenty and I think I can let my self celebrate the end of a successful year which started badly with the infection from hell but got better.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here we go the run into to the Festivities

Much as every year - my place is in the kitchen preparing but not so much this year - just the Honey Roasted Gammon. Normally we would have everyone over here on Christmas Day (I know not last year) but normally we do. With A skiing in France somewhere and not due back until the late evening of the 26th we have half postponed Christmas Day until the 27th so I will actually be back in the Kitchen on Boxing Day and the day after.

I enjoy cooking and somehow have fallen out of the habit since the girls no longer go to church with their mother. I used to prepare the Sunday lunch for their return but we don't always get a one meal together these days.

I'm doing remarkably well at the moment in terms of how well I feel in myself and although I am tired, I am managing to get through most days albeit with the occasional snooze on my favourite armchair. Things are going well but I need to go and get a blood test done but have today noticed that the quack hasn't signed the form or told me what sort of blood test to have (normal or fasting) so somehow I need that sorted out PDQ. I was hoping to go tomorrow as there would be few who would go other than those required to do so on Crhistams Eve. That plan is dashed.

Everything is ready, the presents all wrapped, the baking is done and all I need to do is get prepped up for tomorrow and then we start the festivities with a visit to our old friends who we have known for 18 or more years now. It is a shame that A will not be home again this year to see them as we all grew up together and spent a lot of time in each others company on holiday and at this time of year.

Sometime in the next day or two I will be giving thanks for once again making another Christmas that 3 1/2 years ago I never thought I would make.

Thanks to all who are trying to find a cure

I woke with a bit of a start this morning. You see - I had advanced to next April and in my dream was told that I'd have to go back onto BCG treatment. I wasn't happy and I wasn't dealing particularly well with that when I came around. Welcome to my world of doubt and uncertainty. Had it once and don't want it again but you never, ever know do you?

So today, I'm sat here and thinking to myself about all those people who research and practice in the field of cancer, prevention and cure and of course all of those in medical teams around the world who deal with cancer patients.

I think I'd like to say "hurry UP!" but they are working as fast as they can within the limits of funding and on the edge of medical science. So it isn't going to be a silver bullet but they do wonderful work and it changes lives. Then our medical teams and support personnel who treat each one of us the same and try and save everyone if they can.

I'd like to wish each and everyone of them from the bleeding edge scientist to the administrators, the consultants, nurses, doctors, janitors, orderlies and everyone a fabulous Christmas and New Year and thank them for all that they do for us. Keep up the good work, you save lives, it is noble work and really appreciated by those of us who have survived.

Talking to someone who has also had Cancer

Is great and I'll be out to lunch with an old friend of mine and we will be able to compare notes and discuss how we feel and all that good stuff.   We meet up quite a bit professionally anyway but we g=often do this and have done over the years.  He had his Prostate done about 4 weeks before I had my operation and we met up a lot to discuss things.

It is really cathartic to talk about some of the good and bad moments and some of the fears for the future.  He has some challenges ahead that need him to come to terms with what he had and the side effects.  Don't forget, he no longer has Cancer as it has gone and was cut out along with the organ it grew in.  I still have my bladder, I've had Cancer before and I can get it again.  So two separate types of experiences but actually we are really close friends now because of this, much closer than many of my long time friends.  It is a difficult bond to describe but one of shared experience, emotional and physical stresses appears to make for stronger bonds between us.  We can discuss anything which is great.

There are very few people I feel this close to and who I feel I can tell all (and I mean ALL) the detail to.  This blog gets about 90 to 95% I guess.

Looking forward to our lunch very much.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

And it certainly is - we cancelled tonight's meeting - traffic was going nowhere we had one of the heaviest falls of snow I have ever seen and all in the space of about 30 minutes the roads were impassable and traffic ground to a halt on the main road and stayed like that for about 4 or 5 hours. You may as well have just turned off the switch because everything has ground to a halt. The trains. planes and automobiles aren't working. Our train service is going to be a Saturday one as we are expecting more snow and freezing conditions tonight.

So it is pretty lucky that I am not going into work this week but some of my colleagues are out in the Snow and the Ice and some have had terrible journeys - one took 3 hours to do 2 1/2 miles!

I glad I'm inside I can tell you. A year ago tomorrow was when I had my Operation which had been postponed from a week or so before. That really wasn't a great thing to do just before Christmas - it would be pretty bad if it was tomorrow - I doubt half the staff would have been able to make it in.

I'm glad I'm indoors and most things are done. Somehow we have to do the final bit of shopping and as long as no one has panic bought the shops supplies we should be OK. They say it will get a little warmer after tomorrow - it needs to, it really does.

As usual, being British, we are asking how a little bit of snow has managed to completely overwhelm our services (given we all knew this was coming and had been warned for some days ahead). I'm sure the inquests will start pretty soon and we will still have the same problem the next time. We always do.

Reflection Time

Having finished work on Friday I had a sobering conversation with a couple of my work colleagues who had noticed that I wasn't my normal self on the Thursday.

It's true, I'm certainly not my usual self these days and I'm spending a bit of time working out why that is. I consider that it was seeing my parents but having yet another Christmas apart from them and that is a little upsetting. Seeing them again, realising I'm turning into my father probably didn't fill me with great optimism. Not in a nasty way - just how like him I am and how I see the way he is and dislike that in myself sometimes.

I haven't really come to terms with the "new" me either. So many vices and constraints of the past in terms of how I viewed the world, what I thought about myself and how other people treated me were cast off because these things can no longer hurt/affect me the way they used to. I find that I am rueful of having left many of these old thoughts behind me but it is no comfort having to come to terms with changes in lifelong habits and long held beliefs. Things have to be let go if you are to move on and what things are left behind and what collateral damage is done in my actions are the thoughts I have at the moment.

I said sometime ago that I thought that Bladder Cancer was a life changing event but that I didn't see the changes as being fundamental ones. Lots of things changed and as you may expect with that came a healthy respect for life, living, heath and the welfare of myself but also of others. Many of the changes are pretty obvious and many are what I feel to be good changes. A softening of my rather pragmatic way of working, I very rarely lose my temper but I make up for that these days with a rather poisonous tongue and some cutting remarks that wilt many but - in my opinion, you don't get a tongue lashing from me if you don't deserve it.

Inevitably it is the distance that now exists between certain friends and family that causes me the most anxiety. I've explored this before and comments also on this blog draw the same conclusion that it isn't my problem how other people react to me, it is their problem and that I can't help them to come to terms with what has happened to me. The trouble is that the distancing and loss of such people is one of the unexpected consequences of the disease and what it did to me and those who know me.

Isn't it strange that a Cancer that existed in my body only, that I had all the experiences with would actually spread beyond me to affect those around me and even now, some years afterwards, leaves me thinking about how I (who really can't do a lot about it) could possibly repair the damage that has done.

You may struggle with to understand what I have just written - it is not particularly eloquent - but what I am driving at is that the physical and mental damage this does to your body is one thing but Cancer appears to affect your friends and family too in a way that you would never have dreamed possible. I'm used to the 2 question approach that Steve Kelley once blogged about. This is where someone asks you how you are and they want answer 1 which is that you are OK and that you will live not answer 2 which is that you are going to die and probably a horrible death. There are no in-between states - non Cancer sufferers and warriors will not understand that. It is refreshing to talk to people who have or have had Cancer and just be totally honest and actually discuss all the nuances and facets, minutiae and gore and bits with them.

So, I'm rattling on here much as my brain is. I know what the answer is, I'm just not brave enough to accept it. Instead I try and moralise and analyse what is going and and try various strategies to cope with the situation and I know what I must do. This holiday period I have the opportunity to address the situation, to try and confront what keeps me awake at nights and what stops me stepping up to the plate, making the decisions I have to and to stop being a coward and to just get on and do something about it.

I should realise that I have probably been through something that stretched my mind and my body beyond what should normally happen and that in hiding from making and taking decisions I have been doing what must be done for self protection. Now might be a good time to look in the mirror again and see if I like myself anymore. I'm afraid I don't like what I see much these days.

It's the challenge of what to do now that I need to tackle. What to do with this new lease of life I've been given, what to do with that time, my talents, my experience and above all how do I get the best out of my potential for the betterance of myself and my fellow mortals? Does then in making that decision it cause those near and dear to me to suffer is the core of the second part of the question. It is a bitch of a question/dilemma without doubt.

A Couple of Weeks Off

I made it to the Office Party which was a quieter affair than I thought it might be.  The Summer one is a lot more interesting.  The snow had caused a bit of travel delays but it was OK and I got back at a reasonable hour and in a reasonable state of repair.  

The thought of two weeks off and some rest and relaxation appeals and I just need to get into the right mood and chill a little bit so that I make the most and recharge my batteries.

Funny Day at Work

It was strange and I must have been in a strange mood I think as I wasn't my normal self and it appeared to my colleagues that there were things on my mind. I wonder if seeing my folks and the change in them over the past 3 or 4 months might have something to do with it or my dissatisfaction with the job or perhaps some other reason.

Whatever, we managed to repair the relationship after I had been out to lunch with a friend and so all's well that ends well. The new train timetable kicked in today. The train up is much better, less people and a bit earlier and my cafe is closed so I cannot go and get something to eat in the morning like I normally do. It is 6 minutes earlier and arrives 10 minutes earlier but adds an extra station (don't ask me how). In the evening the train is 3 minutes earlier but takes 10 minutes longer?

We are planned to get a "significant" snowfall tonight and that means 120 to 200mm between 4 and 8 inches with drifting. Now given that a few snowflakes can stop our national transport system, I wonder what chance we have to get to work and have our Christmas Party? Time will tell....

Joys and Sadness, Darkness and Light

Had a great meal and the family had a lovely evening and really good food and drink was had by all. Appalling weather though. Arrived home to find that one of my 2nd Cousin's had emailed me to say his father had died. He was one of the first to get hold of me when I was researching the family and his father was such a lovely guy and died this morning aged 87. He had some wonderful memories and was one of my Great Uncle's grandsons. His father was the Town Clerk of Bethnal Green when the awful tragedy happened there during the war and he told me a lot about that and provided me with photographs of my immediate family and books and data.

It is so sad that he has died, just before Christmas and I'm sure his grandchildren will be quite upset as he was such a lovely man.

Life goes on like this and some friends of Mrs. F dropped us a line to say that their daughter (we had gone to her wedding) had died aged just 43 - no age at all is it?

On a happier note, I had a payment from Uncle Google from all the adverts you nice readers click on attached to this blog. It amounted to around USD 100 and so I decided that this tranche of advertising revenue should go to my co blogger's charity in the US this time (the last tranche went to my charity here in the UK). So $100 has been lodged with Steve Kelley's church so that they can establish a base for themselves and wish that they reach their target funding and are able to fulfil their dream. With young Steve involved I am sure they lack for nothing in determination and good old fashioned common sense and drive and commitment. More information here.

Back

It started snowing on my way home and the traffic was dreadful at this end. It's not as if the stuff has settled it is just the way people react to it I suppose.

Anyway, I had a good time with my parents and the talk I did on Monday night was really enjoyable and I had a good evening with the Lodge in the middle of the Fens. I was most impressed by their people and their friendly manner.

Back home for Mrs. F's birthday and she has opened her presents and seems pleased. We are out to dinner tonight as long as the weather holds out for us as it is a bit out into the country and over the hills from here.

It was good to see my parents who make a suitable fuss over me. Not sure when I can get back up there next. I will have to look for opportunities in the New Year to get up there a bit more often. As I constantly remind them and my kid brother, they decided to move 120 miles away from me not vice versa, I'm the one who has to do the travelling.

Off for a few days

Will be good to see my parents for a few days and I am looking forward to presenting to a local Lodge tomorrow evening.   It is Mrs. F's birthday on Wednesday and A decided to do a surprise birthday dinner but Mrs. F. doesn't like surprises so we had to tell her.  

I'll be driving back on Wednesday and will look forward to yet another meal.  Having had our Christmas lunch today (with second helpings) I am feeling somewhat stuffed.  Another couple of days of Mums and Lodge and Restaurant eating and I'll be like Mr. Creosote.  

Some old friends turned up today for the Lunch and it was great to see them.  Somehow they can get to my dos and I cannot get to theirs but in January I am hopeful that we can finally go to one of theirs.  It was also nice to hear that they think Ii look well.  In fact a number of people said that today and it was again quite surprising that I hadn't worked out myself at the time how "ill" I'd looked.  It was mainly worry I think.  I look back at some of the photos of the time and I'd agree that I look drawn and tense perhaps.  The only bad thing about looking good is that I've really put on weight this year and so after Christmas (all calories in gifts are of course counted as zero) I am going to set out a new diet and exercise regime to loose a fair bit of weight.  Perhaps 2 stone if not a bit more if I can.  I would need 3 stone off to get to my fighting weight when I was as fit as a butchers dog but I doubt that is achievable these days.

It is interesting that no one actually told me that I looked ill though - or I don't think they did.  I'm just glad that I am beginning to get back to some resemblance of normal.  Also glad that I am beginning to look good again.  Gee I must have looked bad.