Month: August 2022

Oh, dear! John, bless him, has been so busy on his car that he quite neglected himself this week. Apparently, on Monday evening he found he’d run out of tablets. Rather than rush out to make sure more were forthcoming, he carried on regardless until this morning when he admitted to me that he hadn’t had any medication for 36 hours.

Hmmm…… I could tell. He wasn’t great at all. He’d got up and gone to the chemists to see about getting some more tablets, only to find that the lady who does them wasn’t in until this afternoon. After a bit of kerfuffle, I persuaded them to give John his anti-depressants at least, and then toddled up to the chemist’s shop myself this afternoon to have a word. All sorted by this evening and it looks like the ol’ man is getting back onto an even keel. But note to selves: mustn’t do that again. It’s not good for either of us!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch……. I was supposed to go over to Lizzie’s yesterday morning for a cuppa, a chat and a cuddle with baby Arthur. However, she texted first thing to tell me that, although she felt OK for me to visit, she had a headache and a tickly throat. Hmmm….. we took a rain check. I’m still cautious about any infection.

Instead of visiting, I took the opportunity to do some resting. I worked a bit on chores, then took myself out into the garden for a cuppa and sat in the sunshine. It was lovely to take in the last of the summer days in the warmth of the day.

I left John beavering away on his car, unaware of the impending ‘tablet-gate’ and sauntered off into town in the afternoon. Traded in my old phone in the Apple shop; upgraded my contract for airtime and popped into John Lewis to buy a new side table for the lounge.

That last bit wasn’t so easy. They thought they had one in stock. “Here, take this receipt to the collection point and they’ll give you said item.” Ha! Of course not! John Lewis no longer stocks anything. So I had to go back into the department to arrange for delivery instead. All in all, it took a bit of sorting out.

By the time that little purchase was completed, my nerves were on edge, it was twenty to four and the traffic was building up. I put off my planned trip to Melbicks Garden Centre. The M42 was rammed.

Despite John feeling very unwell this morning, he had an appointment at the dentist in Kenilworth, so we went. One of his fillings had fallen out so a refill was necessary.

Once we were home, John rested and snoozed in his armchair and I successfully went on the trail for drugs and came home, triumphant, with the antidepressants. We had a bite to eat, then both of us snoozed in our chairs this afternoon. Golly!

I finally woke up about four o’clock, did the final push for all of John’s medication and prepped my kit for an open water swim. I met up with Linda and we had a really good swim. We didn’t push ourselves, but I couldn’t help counting…… did 12 lengths @ 50 metres per length. Pleased with that! Not yet brave enough to do the circuits though……

Home again, and John was looking a lot brighter. Phew! Too poorly to join in with Quiz Night this evening though, so I went solo. It was our turn to be Quiz Masters but, knowing that I was going to be late back, Hazel sat in the hot seat for the first half of the evening, for which I was very grateful. And the quiz evening was fun. So lovely to be among friends and to have a laugh. Lifts the spirits no end.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day yesterday was her ‘regular reminder that ‘lalochezia’ is the use of swearing to relieve pain, anxiety, or frustration.’ Might have found my self in that particular situation several times today……..

Take care everyone. God bless.

As all days now seem the same to us, we don’t really count Bank Holidays, but we know other people do, so it’s always a delight to entertain whenever there is an extended weekend.

On Sunday, we had invited Michelle and Tim to come and visit. They had hoped to come the previous weekend but, with hospital visits and so on, it wasn’t quite the right time then. So they made an extra-special effort to come back up the motorway to see us yesterday. And what a lovely time we had.

The weather was warm and balmy; we had seats and tables outside to sit at; we had food and drink available – so we relaxed into a few hours of chat. I was particularly interested in seeing photos of Michelle’s son, Paul, and his fiancé, Zoe, getting married on Thursday. It looked like they had a fabulous day and they, and their guests, looked beautiful.

Michael and Danielle called in after they had been to a christening and were delighted to meet up with Michelle and Tim. It had been a while, I think, since they had seen each other.

The children were very well-behaved, so we were able to carry on chatting and not be distracted too much. Although I couldn’t resist, and neither could they, of course…..

We were delighted that Michelle and Tim stayed well into the afternoon, but they had a two-hour journey home, so the farewell came all too soon. We were on the doorstep saying goodbye when I suddenly remembered that I’d wanted a photo of us all together. Photo duly taken, Michael chuckled, “That’ll be appearing in the blog tonight!” Ah……. maybe not. Tim wasn’t too keen, so we had another one taken with Michelle…. and here we are! Don’t we look good?

After Tim and Michelle left, we carried on enjoying ourselves en famille, playing in the garden, playing in the house, eating an evening meal together, bathing the children and putting them to bed before we settled to an evening chinwag. Ah….. bliss!

This morning I was up with the lark. At 5.45 William came through and told me that he was awake. “Ahh….. you’re awake?” inwardly groaning, I played for time…… “I think it’s a bit early to get up, so let’s rest for another half an hour, eh?” William, as good as gold, went back to bed for twenty minutes.

Of course, it wasn’t long before Thomas was awake, too. The dog had barked, hadn’t he? Michael wearily came downstairs, Thomas in arms. Gosh, neither of us were on top form at that time in the morning!!! But the children were….

Anyway, we soon got the hang of it and I took the boys back upstairs to play in William’s/Freddie’s room for an hour with the door shut, so that everyone else, including Michael, could extend their shuteye for a bit longer.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our day. We had breakfast of course, early on, but treated ourselves to a mid-morning Bank Holiday Brunch in the newly-decorated dining room. We played a bit and, while Thomas had his nap and Michael and Danielle went to a Garden Centre for an hour, we watched TV a bit, too. When the grown-ups got back, they brought a cream tea home with them for a treat which was lush! I had lots and lots of cuddles with baby Oliver and we felt blessed for the company of family. Bank Holiday? Don’t mind if we do!!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Well, yesterday turned out quite nicely! We had been waiting for the electrician to call and had half-thought that we may need to do the job ourselves in the dining room if he didn’t turn up. But, lo and behold, first thing yesterday, he and his son both arrived to finish the sockets and fix the light fitting in the ceiling. They were done and dusted and on their way to another job by 9.15. Yay!

I was pleased because it was another step to getting the room finished. The blinds arrived yesterday afternoon, which John promises to fit tomorrow, and I had a phone call this morning to tell me that our table and chairs would be arriving next Friday. Boom! It’ll be done then. Nice. Anyone want to come for dinner?

After the electricians had gone, John was up and about and we were on our way to Birmingham to drop the rear bumper from the Lotus in to the metal finishers to be chromed. Nice, easy journey there and we found the place in depths of Smethwick very quickly.

John hopped out of the car and went in. He was ages. I was beginning to wonder where he’d got to when he emerged. It transpired that the chap was a lovely bloke and he and John had got chatting. Well, that was nice, wasn’t it?

Home again in time for lunch and to prep some bits and pieces ready for a barbecue. Paul had phoned earlier and wondered what we were up to. Not a lot in the afternoon if they wanted to come round? Yes, that would be lovely thank you. Fancy a barbecue? Don’t mind if we do!!

We had a great time. We cracked open the bottle of champagne that Paul had given us on our wedding anniversary and we’d had on ice since then. We chatted and laughed and ate and drank and generally enjoyed ourselves. Freddie was in a bit of a funny mood, but once he started playing with the seed pods from the irises in the pond, he was absorbed and as good as gold.

There was a marvellous moment as we sat at the table when all three of the men reached out and held hands – John, Paul and little Freddie. Male bonding – wonderful.

This morning, John and I had a long lie-in. It was the brandy wot did it! We were alright until we had a glass or two of that last night – hehehe. Neither of us wanted to get up early so we determinedly stayed in bed until we’d had our sleep out.

When we did get up we were equally determined to have a day of rest today. Watching the cricket; watching a bit of Grand Prix practice and qualifying; a little potter here; a little potter there. It’s been a relaxing day. Makes a change from rushing about like a lunatic!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Round and round and up and down we go! We had a lovely morning this morning. Danielle texted to ask if we were up for a visit and I naturally said yes! We try not to turn down an exciting activity such as seeing the family, if we can help it.

Danielle and the children arrived about ten o’clock. We spent the morning playing with the toys, mostly mixing the plastic food in pots, cooking it in the ‘oven’ (which was under the coffee table or the radiator in the hall) and then doling it out to each other to ‘taste’. Mmmm, sweetcorn leaves? Delicious!

William was keen to go upstairs and play in his ‘space ship’ in the Harry Potter cupboard. “Not you, Thomas,” he said, “Just me……..” and then as an afterthought, “…….and Grandma.” Well, that was fine for a while as Grandpa was entertaining Thomas, but it didn’t last long and everyone bar Grandpa came up to find out which planet we’d landed on.

William really wasn’t keen to be sharing ‘his’ space with Thomas. I think it’s a sibling thing, because he’s always perfectly happy to share the space with Freddie!! Anyway, after a bit of wriggling and squirming with his emotions, I could see he was struggling in coming to terms with the sharing notion of this particular place.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s go and find a space ship for Thomas!” We all trundled into the newly-carpeted main guest bedroom; I put baby Oliver into the very centre of the bed (remembering the latest rolling thing he’s developed); and opened one of the recently-emptied cupboards. “In here!” I declared, setting a blanket inside for them to sit on. “I’ll get a torch.”

I left Danielle holding the baby and, when I came back, found that both the boys were keen to play in the new ‘space ship’. Thomas didn’t mind sharing his space with William at all. And William didn’t mind sharing the space either.

“Get in,” Thomas commanded me. Oh, crikey! Was I going to fit? Yep. I did. There was just enough room for the three of us. The boys were in and out like Jacks-in-the-Box. We landed on a new planet every few minutes, Thomas shutting the door on me every time, with the command: “Stay there!” Both boys peeped in through the window in the cupboard to check I was still there before they went off to search for ‘treasure’. Marvellous fun.

They all went home at lunchtime and John and I had a bite to eat before setting off to Heartlands for an appointment with the oncologist this afternoon.

The news is not quite what we’d hoped for, but were half expecting. The scan has revealed that the cancer has escaped from the prostate. It also revealed that there is an enlarged lymph node nearby and a spot on the pelvis. “The treatment is to carry on with the Bicalutamide drug you started three weeks ago,” said the consultant. “We’ll check your PSA levels today and I’ll phone you on Monday with the result. If the levels aren’t reducing, we’ll start you on another drug, Enzalutamide, instead.” Right. OK. Containment.

So there we are. This is life as we know it. Happy times with the family (and friends) and irritating times with b****y cancer. We both feel exhausted with it all and John feels angry that time elapsed at what may have been critical points of his care. Of course, we can always get in touch with PALS, but have we got the energy? We’ll see. Not today anyway.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Positive thoughts and prayers still appreciated if you are so inclined. They hold us up, knowing that people are thinking of us, so thank you to all who do. Much appreciated.

We are both keen to get things done! Neither of us is very speedy in our respective jobs however, and so the toil continues.

John has carried on with his car. However, he is very tired at the moment and struggling to drag himself up the stairs for anything other than bed. Although he did make it as far as the shower today, after he’d been working in the garage.

He still has the residue of the pseudomonas infection lingering, so I suggested that he might like to get a sample down to the doctors so that more antibiotics could be prescribed if necessary. It may be the chest infection that’s causing him to be tired. We don’t really know. Fingers crossed that’s what it is and it can be sorted quickly.

Of course, his tiredness was nothing to do with entertaining grandchildren yesterday afternoon, was it? We popped over to Michael and Danielle’s for a couple of hours to offer a little bit of relief from the non-stop childcare of 3 children under the age of 5.

What is delightful is that the children are all live wires, with enquiring minds and increasing levels of independence. Makes for great fun when you’re trying to look after them all and attend to their differing needs – honest!!! It’s a bit like herding cats – especially as Oliver has now decided he’d like to roll over. From his back to his tummy. The trouble is, he can’t do the reverse – roll from his tummy to his back, so he constantly needs rescuing. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so exhausting – he’s a bit like a beached baby whale and makes everyone aware, very loudly, that he is stuck!!

But John and I did find a lovely few moments with him in the garden when he wasn’t rolling around though. Smashing. You can tell we’re all smiling – even baby Oliver.

We had planned to call in to see Paul and Harriet too, yesterday, but when it came to it, John was absolutely shattered and it was ‘Home, Jeeves!!’ instead. We treated ourselves to fish and chips for our evening meal. We nearly needed a mortgage to buy one portion of fish and chips, a curry sauce and a pot of mushy peas. £13.10!!! Crikey!! We’re not going to be doing that again in a hurry!

My focus for today was to clean and tidy the main guest bedroom after the carpet fitter had been yesterday. I did get it finished, but it took me all day. This is what I mean about toiling. Nothing is speedy any more!!

John, meanwhile, was focussed on working on the Lotus again. Well, after he’d spent the morning inspecting the back of his eyelids, that is. And then inspecting them some more after lunch. About 3.30 he roused himself and said he’d get out and do a bit, which he did. I think it was a fairly successful session but the poor man was shattered by his exertions and had to fairly haul himself upstairs for a shower and to set up Quiz Night this evening.

I had left him in the garage and had gone off for my open water swim, so I wasn’t there to help. He did manage, but the minute the quiz was finished he was off to bed.

For the record and for those who might be interested, I thought I ought to let you know that my swim was successful. I went on my own (mind you, there were 199 other ladies in the lake at the same time!) and without the support of my dear friends. They were both doing something else this week. I managed to get into the water without too much difficulty and swam 400 metres. Regrettably, I didn’t do the open circuit – just stayed in the lanes. I didn’t quite have the confidence to tackle it today, despite the fact that I’d promised myself that I would. Next time, maybe?

Take care everyone. God bless.

And anyone so inclined, please send positive vibes and prayers for John. We see the oncologist tomorrow.

It was Pete’s 70th birthday last Thursday, so as a celebration, he and Dawn invited us and Carol and John round for Sunday lunch. “Can I come and help do the prep?” I asked. Well, naturally, that would be very nice, thank you, they said. “Shall I bring the puds?” offered Carol. Agreement all round. Brilliant. So we were set.

Apparently, Pete and Dawn have a very special way of cooking chicken which I didn’t know about. Also apparently, Dawn was panicking by nine o’clock as I hadn’t arrived to put the chicken in the oven yet……oops. Anyway, all was well in the end. I did arrive and put the chicken in the oven in time. Between us, Jack and I managed to get that cooked along with roast potatoes and parsnips, plus ‘all the trimmings’ and a pile of veg. And pretty much on time, too.

For once, Pete didn’t have to cook. He was able to sit back and enjoy his glass of champagne before lunch and then tuck into whatever was on offer. Judging by the food piled high on everyone’s plates it was definitely a ‘winner, winner, chicken dinner’!!!

Dessert was on the winner list, too. I mean, an exotic fruit salad? Yes, please!! And a second pudding? With cream? Don’t mind if we do!!!

What a fabulous time we had. So very lovely to eat with friends and spend the afternoon together. In fact, we were so enjoying ourselves that we couldn’t drag ourselves away and it was well into the evening before we said our goodbyes. “Hang on!” I said as we were halfway out of the door. “We haven’t had a team photo!!”

Of course, by then, we were giggling so much that I couldn’t take a decent selfie at all. Poor John is very blurred…..

After the day’s shenanigans we were tired so we were straight to bed once we were home to be ready for an early-ish start this morning. John was to be at Heartlands for 10 o’clock to be injected with a radioactive substance in preparation for a bone scan later on in the day.

It all worked out quite smoothly, in fact, but John has felt pretty tired all day. In between the journeys there and back, John rested while I fiddled about with more painting. This time, it was the skirting boards in our old bedroom that were the target. We’re having a new carpet in there tomorrow…… that’ll be nice. Might have the house looking decent soon.

Take care everyone. God bless.

The weekend starts on a Friday, right? Well, at least, for some reason this week I thought it did! I thought yesterday was a Saturday and today I’ve been thinking it’s Sunday, so I’m very confused!

Never mind, I’ll get the hang of it soon. Although, to be fair, John had a similar impression….. he wasn’t quite sure whether today was Sunday, either.

Despite my confusion, yesterday was a good day in that: a) I put the wallpaper up in the dining room; b) we saw two of the grandchildren, Lily and Freddie, which always gladdens my heart; and c) John got his windscreen fitted on the car.

Once we were up and about yesterday morning, I girded my loins to start on the wallpapering in the dining room and John girded his to get the windscreen ready to fit on the Lotus.

For the wallpaper, it was only one wall, so not difficult really, and the paper turned out to be good quality so easy to hang. It was easy enough, too, to interrupt the job so that I could help John lift the windscreen onto the car – which was a success. Woohoo!! (Does a little dance)

The grandchildren arrived after lunch. I’d invited Lily round. “Do you want to earn a few bob?” I’d asked her. Daft question really. “Yes, please,” she’d said. And I knew she’d be up for the job I had in mind: sorting out my kitchen cupboards. She loves organising things.

Anyway, it transpired that Harriet had a Zoom meeting and Freddie had asked if he could stay at our house too, so we had extra child slave labour on offer. He helped with the cupboard-clearing, not so much the cleaning and tidying mind you, as he found all sorts of exciting things to play with (and eat).

“Can I have this Boost we found, please?” he pleaded. Yes, of course. “Can I make a mixture?” he wondered. Yes, of course. “Use anything you like,” I said blithely, dispensing all responsibility while I finished the wallpapering. Ha! That’s a fine mess you’ve made there, Freddie!! “You’ll have to clean up after yourself, Freddie,” I warned. He was good boy and did wipe up the mess, but left us with his ‘mixture’ as a treat……. mmmm, lovely!

After the job was done and Harriet returned, I squeezed a little more slave labour out of the children. “Can I do some shredding?” Freddie wanted to know. I ummed and aahed a bit, because shredding requires supervision, doesn’t it? Anyway, in the end, I got the shredder downstairs and the boy worked wonders with a pile of papers that I’d had hanging around for the last few months.

They’d both earned their wages very successfully by the time they’d finished.

Today, we were up and about relatively early getting ourselves ready to go down to Pete and Fran’s for the afternoon. We had a good, albeit slow, journey down the M1 where there were lots of roadworks and 40/50/60 mile an hour restrictions. However, we weren’t held up in any traffic jams, so we arrived more or less at the time we said we would. Crikey! That’s a first.

We had a really lovely afternoon together. Fran, as always, cooked a great lunch for us, which we thoroughly enjoyed. As we sat there at the dining table, stuffed full of food, she said, “Cheese, anyone? Or perhaps later?” Yes, later, please!! Couldn’t have eaten another morsel just then. I mean, we had two puddings to choose from and we had to sample both, didn’t we?

We sat out in the sunshine with our teas and coffees and nattered away to our hearts’ content before the cheese and port came out. Regrettably, as I was driving I had to forego the port, but by all accounts, it tasted like nectar.

Not only did the cheese come out but cake as well. Once again, we had to sample it, didn’t we? I don’t think we’ll need to eat for another week!!! We waddled home…..

Take care everyone. God bless.

After the thunderstorms and downpours overnight on Tuesday I am delighted to report that John’s handiwork with the water butt proved to be perfect! It was FULL yesterday morning! Ooh, I can’t tell you how excited I was by the sight of water almost lapping the edges when we lifted the lid!! What a sight for sore eyes, eh?

Wednesday was quite a busy day for us one way and another. We were up early and out of the front door by 8.30, zooming off to Heartlands for John’s regular immunoglobulin treatment.

Bless him, he’d had a rotten night’s sleep and he was looking forward to a snooze in his comfy chair at the hospital. No such luck apparently. With new nurses on the ward, he was charged with calling the nurse back every thirty minutes so that they could check the flow of the infusion – to either speed it up or slow it down. That kept him awake. Not only that, he was waiting for a telephone consultation from Paneesha mid-morning, so that kept him on his toes and awake, too. By the time I collected John at mid-day, he was longing for his comfy chair and some shut-eye at home….

While John had been enjoying his morning at the hospital, I kept busy with a spot of painting, a bit of washing and hanging it out to dry (in a drizzle), tidying round, stripping beds and so on. Having spent much of my spare time titivating in the dining room recently, the rest of the house has gone to rack and ruin, so it was calling……. ah, it’s still calling, dagnammit!

After lunch I put a casserole in the oven, so that I could have an early meal before my open water swim later on at 6.30, and then I set on to peel, slice and freeze the pounds of apples that I’d picked from Paul and Harriet’s tree the other day. Great fun. There’s something very satisfying about ‘grow your own’, isn’t there?

I left John watching TV while I shot off for my swim. Just the two of us this time – Anita and me – as Linda is on her ‘olidays in Somerset. We enjoyed it again, and I thought I did a lot better at getting into the water. However, when I suggested such a thing, Anita said, “No, you didn’t,” making us both laugh. Oh…. alright then. Next time maybe?

We swam in the lanes again and did non-stop swimming to prepare us for the moment when we actually strike out of the lanes and get into the open lake. Yes, we agreed, nodding to each other, we can probably do the 250-metre circuit without a worry. Hmmm, hope so – planning to have a go at that next week.

After a significant lapse of time since Anita and I agreed we’d meet up in Solihull for a visit to the Apple shop and a spot of lunch, we finally made it today. And what a lovely day it was. We had such a lovely time together.

Anita planned to buy a phone. We browsed and fiddled with the display models; we chatted to the young man who was serving us. I thought I might buy a phone too. “Do you do deals?” I asked cheekily, “Buy one, get one free?” No, they didn’t – but they did price match. Boom! That’ll do. So we both bought ourselves a phone each. “There’s clearly no cost of living crisis in the Apple shop,” Anita observed, as she looked round the crowded shop. No, there certainly wasn’t. Ouch! I did feel a bit guilty about getting a new phone then. But I’d already paid, so………

Once the purchasing was over, we took ourselves off for a bite to eat. “We can try the Italian?” I suggested, thinking of Carluccio’s. Anita would have preferred an independently-run Italian restaurant. Maybe Cotes, which was next door? I baulked a bit at that one, it seemed to be very busy. We spied a Japanese restaurant across the road. “How about that?” I offered. We were a bit doubtful, never having eaten in a Japanese restaurant before. It wasn’t busy, so we braved it. And loved it.

John was busy on his car when I got back from town. “How’s your day been?” I wondered. “I’ve been asleep most of the day,” John replied, sheepishly. “Dunno why I am so tired.” Hmmmm, me neither?

“I’m just going to nip up to Pete’s,” I told him, “to give him his birthday present.” Right. John was just in the middle of gluing up his windscreen: “I can’t stop now,” he said. Well, I was only going to drop the present in, wish Peter a happy 70th birthday and not stop, so no worries. Hahaha. “John not with you?” they said; “Come in, come in.” they said; “Have a drink!” they said. Honestly, I really didn’t stop long.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Oh, by the way, Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is a reminder of ‘ipsedixitism’ (18th century): the assertion that something is ‘fact’ based on one person’s opinion. Once again, I have no idea to what or whom she is referring……chuckle, chuckle.

What excitement to have eldest son come over and help us put things back in our dining room cupboards this morning! What a blessing, too!

It wasn’t exactly like the Stacy Solomon ‘Sort-Your-Life-Out’ show, although Paul did suggest that we cut our belongings by 50%. I couldn’t quite do that, but he was able to persuade me to part with some of the stuff and take a bootful away to the charity shop. I mean, how many liqueur glasses do we really need? “But those were Nanans!” I pleaded, to no avail. Sentiment? Pah!

So, we’re nearly there on the dining room front. I won’t be boring you with it for much longer – just an additional coat of paint on the cornice, then the wallpaper to hang – and boom! It’ll be done!

Mind you, we’re also waiting for the electrician to come and finalise the plugs for us and hang the light-fitting……. wonder when that will be? ‘I’ll phone you tomorrow,’ he texted yesterday. Still awaiting the phone call, of course.

So that was my day – fiffing and faffing about in the dining room while John pottered on with some technical jobs. For example, he began to mend the wheel/tyre on the tricycle Paul had brought over. Thwarted on that though, as the pump has lost its end bit – he’s waiting for a new one to arrive in the post now.

He then set up the water butt that we’ve had for ages in anticipation of rain….. and we’ve actually had some this evening. I don’t know about John, but I am quite excited to go and have a look in the water butt tomorrow morning to see how much it’s collected!

Disappointingly, as he was doing the job, John moved one of the bistro chairs out of the way and one of the legs promptly dropped off! I wasn’t actually surprised. It had felt wobbly to me this morning as I sat on it. Ah well, another hunt will be on for a replacement, no doubt.

I think John also had a tinker on his car this morning, too, so he’s had quite a busy day!

We both collapsed at tea-time, having worked hard all day, and we settled to watch a bit of TV. I like to watch the athletics and swimming at the European Championships – John not so much, but he allowed it – and we had a comfortable hour or two just sitting in front of the box.

That is, until John reminded me that he’d mislaid his hearing aid. He was sure he’d lost it in his chair when he fell asleep yesterday. Could we find the darned thing? No….. we spent a good while hunting all around for it until, in the end, I said I’d do a methodical search tomorrow morning while he’s at the hospital for treatment.

One last push to find it? “Help me lift the chair forward,” John said. I helped, not expecting any result at all. “No,” I shook my head, “it’s not under there.” But eagle-eyed, John exclaimed, “There it is!” And sure enough, it was nestling at the very base of the chair just inside a fold of leather. Phew!

That’s what we call a success story these days……. finding something that is lost!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Another scorcher today, wasn’t it? So much so that I decided to get up at a reasonable time and do a little bit of painting before the paint clagged together again. Frustrated that I am so slow but determined to get the ruddy thing finished. Ha! Just got second coats, plus one more wall to paint and one to wallpaper……oh, Lordy! Finished? Ha! Maybe next week?

Anyhow, I finished the spot of painting by 9.15 and thought I’d ‘go to church’. Haven’t done a streamed service for ages. It was really good, with a great sermon from Moira; some rousing hymns; and some quiet time for prayer and reflection. Felt refreshed afterwards.

The service done, I suggested to John that we go over to the Kenilworth Originals. They are back from their holiday and we’ve missed them. Paul said ‘yes, come on over’ so we hopped in the car, whizzed the roof of the EOS down, put our hats and shades on, and set off in the sunshine as if we were twenty-somethings.

It was so lovely to see Paul, Harriet and Freddie that we quite outstayed our welcome and Paul had to offer us lunch…… then he offered us a paddle in the hot tub. Well, it was a cool tub. I mean, who wants it hot on a day like today? Apart from Harriet, that is! Hehehe. We even got the old man to dip his toes…… smashing.

I mean, in the end, we stayed pretty much all day until we had to leave to get John to Solihull Hospital for his CT scan. It was so lovely to spend some family time together. And Harriet and I picked loads of apples from their tree, which I have brought home to freeze. They are early, of course, just like every other crop right now. Looking forward to some tasty apple crumbles, apple pies, and apple turnovers in the winter. Yum!

John was quiet as we drove over to Solihull Hospital and, although I am not a mind-reader, I could feel his mood. ‘Here we go again’ runs through both our minds and we wish we didn’t have to. But the scan went reasonably well – although John thought, given his past experiences, that only two passes of the machine may be pushing it to get a good image. Fingers crossed we don’t get to the appointment with the Oncologist in a couple of weeks’ time for him/her to say ‘do it all over again’……. (grits teeth and adopts the prayer position).

Despite it all, John is an amazing patient. Although he rails at fate and the ongoing nature of procedures, pills, hospital appointments and invasive investigations, he mostly gets on with it all very philosophically and has to remind me to be patient.

But really, although we do try to keep our chins up, it’s hard for us both just now as we watch others swanning off on their hols seemingly relatively care-free, fit enough to run into the sea, leap on a quad bike or brave the swell of the sea on a fishing trip. Only a little bit jealous.

Never mind, we have loads to be thankful for and plenty of wonderful friends and family who keep our spirits up repeatedly, for which I thank the Lord.

Take care everyone. God bless