Monday, and my car is last on the drive, that’s an early start for me then. I moved around in that semi conscious staggering state and trusted to luck that my clothes were on the right way round and complete. Today has the added fun of defrosting the cars. So there I am with two cars with their engines running while I scrape ice of the windscreens. I dump my portable office back pack and my gym kit in the boot and reverse out into the early morning traffic. I figure that if I missed the gym yesterday I might as well get myself to the gym early and burn off some flab.

The gym was surprisingly full; there is clearly an early morning club that gets in early for a pre work work out. I down a large black coffee and get up onto the gym floor and clamber up onto a cross trainer. I grit my teeth and set the resistance at 15, my pre chemo resistance level and start out with my i-pod blaring random music in my ears. Fifteen minutes in I realise I have not got a bottle of water; I grit my teeth harder and press on. By the end of the hour I’ve done 804 calories. I am back on track; the next step is to add in 15 minutes on the rower. This will get me over the thousand calorie mark. That will begin to shift the weight. I have to be patient and to work to get myself to my old standard, then I will see some more pronounce effects. I clamber off my machine and check my steps count. Not enough; so I walk the gym floor until my Fitbit vibrates and tells me I’ve reached 10,000 steps. It’s time to head for the showers and that good warm clean feeling before the luxury of hot chocolate  and tomato soup. I sit in the lounge and recover whilst making calls and checking my e-mails. The lounge fills with ladies who coffee and lunch, its time for me to move on.

I drive to my local B&Q where I search in vain for a connector crimping tool and crimpable connectors. Nothing to be found, the odd pair of crimpers, but no connectors. I go back to the car and order a set from Amazon that will be with me tomorrow. Who needs shops, especially when they do not stock in their shops what their website says they do.

I drive home and settle into opening the post. My new debit card has arrived and I foolishly decide to activate it via online banking. What a performance just getting into my account, but eventually I realised that my answer the question “what is the meddle name of your eldest child” was one where I had been creative and bears no resemblance to my eldest child’s middle name. Now that’s what I call security. All I have to do is use it with my PIN and I will be able to wave it around to spend money, or at least £30 of luxury and frivolity. I take a break and eat dead flesh of a pig and a coke before refilling the bird feeders. In doing so I find that an enterprising mouse/rat/hedgehog or Silurian slime worm has nibbled out the corner of the peanut bag and had themselves a banquet. Feeling virtuous I take time out watch the couples indoor bowls final, which was an interesting show of old people watching young people play an “old peoples” sport. The excitement was almost too much to bear, how all those old people in the arena manage to stave off heart attacks is a mystery. So having indulged I return to the computer to write the blog.

Tonight I shall be joining friend for dinner, which will be nice, except the drive to the venue which is close to where I once worked and oversaw a large prison therapeutic community. As the days pass I realise that there are just three more days before the Civil Partnership ceremony. Plan for the worst and hope for the best springs to mind.