Friday my partners last day at work, today she retires and she has gone to work for the last as I wake up. I check my vitals, all good and then my socials. There is time to listen to a new episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage before having a shower and attending to my hand. There is a quick breakfast before I walk down to the GP surgery for my pre-oncology review next Wednesday. All goes well but they take more blood than normal because they want to check that the Apixaban (blood thinner) I am taking is not doing other nasty things to me. So with a few vials less blood than I had before I return home.
In a last minute mission that I have been planning for a while I drive to the garage adn then into town. I know where I am going adn exactly what I want. The usual car park is almost empty apart form the three hoodie guys who are hanging about on the first floor stair well, clearly doing “stuff” by the smell of it and their shifty manner. Of course I adopt my confident stride in my hoody and sun glasses and stroll past them. With the the hoodies out of the way I make my way to the jewellery store where I knew I can get what I want. As I walk in still doing the “I am too hard to bother with” walk an assistant asks me if she can help me. I tell her exactly what I want and she suggests an alternative to one of he specifications, I agree to look. So I Am shown to comfortable desk and she scuttles off to return with a display board of options. I ask for a glass and she goes off to get one taking the board with her, bit untrusting I thought. She returns and I scrutinise the goods. I then produced my gem testing tool, smiled sweetly and told her my gemmologist sister would have ben disappointed in me if I did not check. Thankfully all the red lights came on and it beeped at me telling me it was real. I selected what I wanted and as soon as I did I got offered a coffee, which arrived with chocolates. The woman put it on so I could see what it looked like and the business was done. The item was taken away to be gift wrapped and I then paid and gathered up the certificates and the bill. We chatted a bit and she offered to email an insurance valuation adn I agreed and we discussed issues around insurance. As I was leaving I idly mentioned that I was about to go and brave the ne’er do wells in the car park and she spontaneously offered me a plain carrier bag, which I gratefully accepted. The return to the car park was uneventful as the ne’er do well hoodies had been moved on, I assumed by the security men who were on the floor where my car and the hoodie chaps had been. Content with my mission I drove home.
As I pulled in my partner was standing at the front door sunning herself with a cup of tea. So this was the start of retirement for her. I smuggled my plain bag in and then joined my partner on the front step in the sunshine and took in the moment but not before I had captured her sitting in the sunshine, on the step with her tea, which I thought was a great image to encapsulate the start of retirement.
After sunning ourselves we went off for a bite of lunch at a nearby garden centre and then we moved onto a super market to buy provisions for the visit of our youngest grandson and his parents. Hopefully we have enough now to comfortably feed everyone. Once home its time for a scone and to start to draft the blog for the day. Tonight I take my partner for a retirement celebration meal after which I will anxiously wait until my blood results come in just after midnight. Its a long day but one that has a lot of important things in, celebration and the continuing battle with my cancer to stay around as long as possible, and I think I am doing okay.
STOP PRESS: Midnight, my blood results are in and although they are roughly the same as always my PSA has risen marginally. Not ideal. I’m banking on a smoother routine after my next oncology review on Wednesday the 5th of March.
