Friday 27th March 2009

Ok, stand by for a picturiffic post today!

First things first though - I now have an appointment with my oncologist on Monday at 1pm in Huddersfield. Good news.

Nothing much else on that front - I've been ok today. I've been experimenting with my anti-emetics and unfortunately for the NHS, it seems that the one which works best is the expensive one (just call me high maintenance!) I only have a few of those, but I'll get some more from my GP soon.

So, onto the exciting stuff ...

9am the doorbell rang ...

And there she is. Now this may not be a big thing for some of you, so let me explain. Girls, think of shoes. Now think of Manolo Blahniks, with maybe a buckle or lace by Jimmy Choo on top and you are somewhere close. In fact, I may have to sleep with it tonight ... ok, maybe not. I am a happy man, although I do appear to have driven Vanda out of the house!

So, next subject ... Here's a quick update of how the garden project is coming along. Still a building site, but all of the basic landscaping is done now, just waiting for the frost-risk to recede so we can plant/turf. Here's a couple of "work in progress" pics ...

This is a view from the bottom corner of the house looking up across the new bit of garden. Before we expanded, you couldn't see the old wall at all as it was obscured by a fence and a load of weeds. When it's finished, the mud bit by the wall (and another bit to the right that you can't see will be turfed, and the mulch area in the foreground will have fruit trees and some other shrubs. The natural stream in the middle (run-off from the slope) will have a feature on the plinth in the middle.

This is the view from the top corner of the existing garden, looking down the slope. The trees you can just see beyond the fence at the bottom are also on my plot (they are the ones I posted the picture of during the snow), but we're keeping that section separate as it would have made the garden just too big if we'd included it. It will stay as it is for now.

The bricked up tunnel you can see used to go under the main road and you could get to the Halifax rugby stadium which is the other side of the road. My friend Nova suggested painting a mural of a train coming out of the tunnel on the bricks and to put a big light on the front shining out. I might just do that for a laugh! (Anyone a budding artist out there? Sue maybe you could paint me one next time you're in the country?)

Hopefully all the work will be mostly complete in a month or so, ready for the rest of Summer (if there is any more to come after the brief flash of blue sky last week!). It's certainly not here at the moment, although we've had the old "Four Seasons in One Day" today, with sunshine, rain and hail all within one hour!

Finally, and deliberately left until the end, the updated scar pics, so Adrian, don't scroll past here! :)

For those who don't want to look, I'll say good night at this point! Looking forward to a weekend of bass-playing and Formula 1 - bliss!

Cheers,

Colin.




First the baby neck wound. Healing very nicely as you can see ...

And here's the big one. Again healing nicely, but still more pronounced than the other one as the staples came out over a week later.


Bullet hole at the back is the chest drain (only a small hole actually - most of the marks are from the sutcher. The three small scars are where the feeding tube went in and where it was stitched to me to stop it coming out. It all still looks very red, but trust me there is very little pain associated with it now - I haven't had a painkiller for about four days.

That's it for now. Maybe another installment in about a month if you want one.