CYCLE 2 DAY 10

Today was a London day, a St Pancras day, a Tracey Emin day. It also meant an early start. All my pre planning of the night before paid off as I was able to get up and out quickly to drive to the station. Leicester station is the not the most welcoming of stations and seems this morning to be sadder than usual with its statue of Thomas Cook standing outside, going nowhere. So now Leicester can boast to be the home of the last king to lead his arm into battle and to become the first to be DNA tested and the first, and now defunct, package holiday company.

Once on board an earlier train than I booked I settle down to reading papers for the meeting I am going to and trying to make a work “to do” list. It seems I have quite a lot to do and need to use part of my meeting to prioritise what needs doing. But most of the time I am fascinated by the man opposite me, a sort of large, shambling sort of chap with a variety of leads, ear buds and phones, which he seems to continually adjust and juggle. The most intriguing thing about him is his baseball cap. It is emblazoned with what looks like a genuine coat of arms with the words “British Embassy” written around it. Was it genuine? I cannot believe that anyone thinks there is a business case for selling whimsical embassy wear to anybody. Add to that the fact that the coat of arms looked like it had been embroidered properly, I was inclined to think it might be real. If that was the case then the hat did not match its owner, unless of course he was a spy. Clearly that must be the case, any other explanation just isn’t good enough, certainly not as much fun.

I get to the RCP (Royal College of Psychiatrists), chat to the receptionist and head downstairs for the café. There I sip coffee and eat sausage croissants, an invention of my own and wait for my meeting time to arrive. The manager of the project I’m working on joins me and we decide to stay put for our meeting. Closer to the coffee. We spend a couple of hours going over work issues and thinking abut the work that needs to be done by me and by when. We inevitably talk about my cancer and how I am and managing it and its effects on others. We check diaries and sort out some dates for future meetings. This includes dates for the annual Therapeutic Communities conference in Windsor in November. My place is being funded by the project, which I am very grateful for. This will be the last time that the conference will be held at the Windsor venue, its 41st convening. I calculate that this will be my 30th attendance and has always been an important part of my professional development and identity. The people who I regard as my professional peers in my area of specialism all attend and I feel part of a strong intellectual and cultural group. Given my circumstances I have no way of knowing if this will be my last conference and given that the conference will not be coming back to this venue I sense that there may well be strong and useful reflections to be had. It is a generous gift, which I am touched by.

I leave the RCP and head of to catch up on other things but eventually end up on the underground, that is weirdly quiet. The usually packed tubes are strangely empty.

So empty in fact I felt safe enough to take a photo without fear of being harassed or accused of being some kind of photo weirdo or just plain iffy. At St Pancras everything fell just right, straight onto a Sheffield train with its first stop Leicester. I wrote a draft of a piece of work I had promised in the morning meeting and by the time I got to Leicester I was feeling comfortably smug that I had completed a task. I drove home and found the porch full of Amazon parcels. I happily opened one and found the new squirrel feeder I had ordered and being the child that I am immediately had to put it up. A simple one screw job but very satisfying. The only possible fly in the ointment is that our one and only local squirrel is a young one and I have to say not the sharpest claw on the paw. If he is going to get fat for winter he is going to have to learn to lift the lid to get the food. I am not confident and wonder if I have over challenged the youngster. I guess evolution will decide.

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I butler for a bit around the house avoiding opening the huge parcel. I think its a pond liner that is folded in half. At the moment its contained in the box, once open it might spring into full size and be a nightmare to store. So for the moment it stays where it is. During this mornings meeting my manager talked about two books that she had liked and thought I might enjoy and appreciate at this time. I looked them up and ordered them for my Kindle. I’m looking forward to reading them as I have not done much recreational reading recently and I want to do some more of that. My new reading is below:

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My youngest daughter and her boyfriend arrive for the weekend and so the evening is food and chat while I do stuff, including writing this. It feels good to have all the immediate family around and to look forward to a weekend of relaxing, world cup rugby, maybe a bit of pond digging and whatever else people feel like doing.

Today has been another good day. I am a bit restless in that I’ve not been to the gym since Tuesday but I guess I can live with that. There is still a sense of loss of sensitivity in my finger tips but I am not sure if this is the typing or the chemo. Its not serious or annoying, just there on the edge of my awareness. I will keep an eye on it and perhaps read some more. Tomorrow brings rugby, bacon sandwiches at half time and family fun.

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