Thursday and I wake after a reasonable nights sleep. It looks like sunshine, which is cheering. I go to the spare room and do a blood pressure and SATs rehearsal. It goes okay so I go downstairs and make breakfast. I get my kit bag ready to go to the gym and sort out some admin. I go to the front door to get my shoes adn to my surprise I find a parcel in the porch. I’ve no idea what it is. On closer inspection I note that the funeral directors address is on the label adn then it dawns on me, this is my sister ashes. I am stunned and no idea what to do with them, frankly I cannot face opening the parcel and put it away unopened in my wardrobe. I go to the gym perplexed.

At the gym I get up on the gym floor and get a cross trainer. I set myself up for an hours session and set off with Rammstein in my ears, loud. I plod along and grind my way through the session, drinking water as I go. It is not my best session on a cross trainer but it has got me out of the house. I manage 6 kilometres and burn 600+ calories.

I cool down and et myself to the changing rooms and a long shower. As no one else is around I blow dry my hair and then head for the lounge. I’m fed up with cold drinks and decide on a hot chocolate and bacon roll. It is a very pleasant change and I enjoy them as I mull over the problem of what to do with my sister ashes.

I drive home, dump my gear and find a letter waiting for me. It turns out to be the copy of the oncologists letter to my GP outlining the fact that I am starting chemotherapy and all the things they should look out for. There is of course reams of paper all about how shit the experience could be not to mention life threatening.

Having noted that today is the day I am supposed to be starting my new drugs I phone up the specialist cancer nurses. They are not in so I leave a message. I’m wondering what I am going to do first in the garden when the cancer nurse rings back adn leaves a message. They can’t tell me if my drugs are ready but she gives me two numbers to ring. I phone the hospital pharmacy and they find my prescription. If I like to rock up after four o’clock I can collect my new drugs. I have not got long to wait before I can drive into town to collect them.

Once in town I park at a hotel car park and walk down to the hospital and to the outpatient pharmacy. The is a note that there is an average of a 45 minute wait. There is one desultory person to serve the new comers. I eventually get to the front of the queue and explain my presence and my needs. They get my name wrong and have to check my details against the letter I have taken with me. The person returns adn says she has found it and I should be called soon, I’m hot adn need a piss so the thought of waiting around is not appealing. I watch a dispenser going about his business of trying to figure out which tray of goodies is to be dispensed next, it is painful to watch. I am sure that there are protocols to be followed in dispensing drugs, but the lack of urgency or appreciation that there are very many people sitting out in the open air waiting area in the sun is staggering. I get called and my name and birthday get checked along with my address. A bag much bigger than I was expecting is pushed towards me. I am further taken aback when the guy says to me “Four to be taken once a day”. I think “did I hear that right”. I checked and I had. I take my bag of drugs and wander off to the main hospital reception to find a toilet. The first two I found were in a disgusting non flushable state. I ended up in the cancer centre. Now comfortable I walk back to the hotel car park and drive home, where the first thing I did was look at my new drugs.

I settle on the sofa and think about my day and when I want to start my new chemotherapy. I have two meals booked with friends on Friday and Saturday and of course there is the European Cup Final on Saturday night at 8pm. So I have decided to round my Saturday night of with the first blast of the new chemotherapy.

My evening continues with tuna pasta and the start of drafting the blog. Its been a busy day and my aim is to cruise gently through the evening and get to bed at a reasonable time. Tomorrow is a garden day if the sun shines.