Thursday 9th July 2009

Chemo Cycle 1 Day 11

Good day so far today. Feeling good and none of the lack of energy or sickness etc which might have been expected of the low week.

I finished my course of the Etoposide chemo tablets yesterday, so I am now just on the metoclopramide anti-emetic, the Omeprazole antacid and the Nystan anti-fungal until the next cycle starts.

The saga of my broken laptop has just had a miraculous turnaround as well. Although our IT department (based in Costa Rica I think) told me all sorts of things about a replacement not being possible, and having to travel to Warrington to get it checked etc, the reality was completely different. A third-party service company was contacted who were supposed to call me in three business days, but actually called me the same day. They knew nothing of me having to go to Warrington and offered me a repair service at home without question. They called me this morning and turned up an hour later leaving me with a nicely fixed laptop only two days after the problem occurred. Even I can't find anything to complain about with that service! Very happy.

Thanks JB for the offer of your old laptop - didn't need it in the end! Good luck with your new job by the way!

I've also made a start on the daunting process of having a clear out. I'm a bit of a hoarder, which means that I have a house full of stuff - some valuable, most not - which will have to be disposed of when I'm gone. I am conscious that some of the stuff is very specialised, like guitars etc, so I am starting to think about selling off some of these things in advance to make life easier if and when things take a turn.

I realise that even if I make a good recovery, I will never again need all the guitars I have for example. In the past I have bought new ones and always held onto the old ones even though I never play them any more - just couldn't bear to be parted. I'm now seeing a more practical side, and it's time to thin down the stocks and just keep the ones that I will play going forward. Today was the big first step of putting my old double bass on eBay.

I bought it about 15 years ago to use for busking, but never really got around to it and it's just been taking up space ever since, so I put it up with no reserve just to get shot. Crazy thing is that it has only been up for a couple of hours and it's already over £100. I only paid £150 for it, so I'm already delighted with the price - I would have given it away for free to be honest. With 6 1/2 days to go who knows where it will get to. I could get addicted to this selling malarkey!

Watched Slumdog Millionaire on DVD last night. Very good film in case you haven't seen it yet. Definitely worth a watch.

Finally, did you see Shaheen Jafargholi singing at Michael Jackson's funeral? Awesome! I can't believe he didn't win Britain's Got Talent. Still it is fitting that Susan Boyle hasn't been heard of since, and he has gone on to do this - it shows that true talent rather than tabloid hype always shines through. Good on yer son!

Hospital for blood test tomorrow - mmm needles ... :)

Cheers,

Col x