This is the story of Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd October 2009. In a deep dark part of Oxfordshire, nestling in the side of the Chilterns I awoke on the Wednesday morning with a knowing feeling...
Knowing, that is, that this day was to be one of reflection and deep meaningful thoughts.
That's right, I had work to do and sitting in my dressing gown having a lazy breakfast was not going to get it done. Don't get me wrong, I was not going to spend all day at the computer, I just wanted to get an early start so that I could pace myself throughout the day! So, the first email went off just after 7am and it felt good. :-)
I blitzed through loads of stuff and was able to take a long relaxed tea break mid morning that must have lasted about an hour that was only slightly interrupted by a couple of phone calls.
Next work was a session of designing on a couple of live projects that need to be sorted out this week so that we can start the presentation work and visuals next week. Sorting out the Pringles Leisure Centre (I know it is actually called the Pingles Leisure Centre but Pringles sounds much more fun!) was a key priority but then again West Cheshire College needed that final touch of genius to get it right!
I was cooking on gas!
And so I had another rest :-) and it was soon time for T's arrival home from her work. But she had a worried face on her when she came in? "I've just looked my bank account and something's wrong." I give a sympathetic look and ask what the problem was. "The taxman has put some money in my account".
Ok, not what I call a problem but I can see the point. If it's a mistake they will claw it back. Oh, what should we do?
So, we opened a really nice bottle of wine to celebrate our new affluence although I must point out that we are not talking a lot of money but we thought that T would be paying the taxman some money in January. Fingers crossed!
And so to bed...
And so to wake up at 3 in the morning. Bum pooh willie we fart!
Got myself a hot milk drink and read for about an hour then tried to drift off to sleep again.
It must have worked because the next thing that happened was the radio alarm going off. Why oh why do we have to get up and go to work? Snuggled up in bed with my loved one is just fab. So I turned over to give T a big cuddle and...
Oops, forgot I was still tethered to my night bag and I ended up nearly pulling my stoma bag off! That was close but I did give it a massive tug and sadly created a slight weep which allowed a small amount of wee to drip down my stomach. That certainly brought the cuddles to an abrupt end! Never mind, we do have plans for the weekend for Nutella sandwiches. :-)
Thursday morning thus started earlier than planned as I got up straight away with T and jumped into the shower with a spring in my step. Or was it just the desire to wash the pee off my stomach?
But it was still early and I bashed off loads of work during the morning, even managing to do almost instant replies to Mike from the office with his design questions about the Spice Route Restaurant project.
But it was soon time to stop as my son Phil was coming over for a long lazy lunch to celebrate his birthday. And so we drove into town and spent a wonderful 2 and a half hours just chatting and eating, putting the world to rights and just having a great time.
After Phil drove me back home we chatted again for about another hour and did a bit of internet searching and looking at the photos of the recent wedding. I'm pleased to say that he liked them :-).
But it was time for Phil to go and for me to have a doze on the sofa, as the doctor had ordered, whilst I waited for T to come home from work.
Some days with cancer are tough. Today wasn't one of those :-)
Andrew xxx
