Tuesday and its June, it is also sunny. The road outside is still sporting temporary traffic lights and the garden continues to grow. My partner goes off to a physio appointment and I do breakfast and sit on the patio listening to the birds. My partner returns and we do coffee and chat after which I get on with the gardening. I work at it for hours and occasionally stop to take a picture of something that catches my eye. Every where nature pushes through to promise a summer of flowers.

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I do not stop for lunch and keep on going, moving on to weeding out the pots and reclaiming the raised beds. By the time my partner returns from seeing her brother I am tired and happy to share coffee and cake before getting ready to train. Today is a rowing day, so I decide to go for the full hour as the weather is warm for a change. The garage is at an unheard of 20C.

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A post row shower and then pizza and yogurt tea before watching the Professional Bake Off. More towers of chocolate, sugar, spray booths and macaroons. There were the usual moments of admiration but also the entertainment of seeing confectionery unable to defy gravity and tumble to the floor. Then it was head for the laptop to write the blog. It feels a strange half term time but the real world continues on. Tomorrow my partner has her second vaccination and a new TV is being delivered. A slight increase in size in the hope that it will be possible to actually see the puck skim across the ice in the ice hockey matches I’m watching. Of course the European championships are soon followed by the Olympics and Wimbledon. I also have a Zoom meeting tomorrow with two people I do not know who I am doing a webinar with in July. It seemed like a good idea at the time but now I am not sure. I think I know what I want to do in my slot but not certain yet, hopefully tomorrow will help with this. Its more the rummaging around in the technology to make it happen that I find a challenge.

Monday a slow start and a simple breakfast. Its sunny so its time to get out to the garden centre and get the garden sorted while the good weather lasts. My partner and I go to our most local garden centre and invest in three hostas and a dozen tomato plants. Back home and I head for the garden adn start work on planting the hostas and setting up the green house as a tomato factory.

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Having got everything into the ground and the tomatoes in pots I set about clearing up the mounds of old plants pots and pot containers. Eventually I am satisfied that I can do no more. At this point I get into my training gear and head for the Shed to bike for an hour.

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I head for the shower and then cream my surgery scar before settling down to a tea of fajitas. The evening I settle down to read Shuggie Bain. This is a book that sets a new high bar for misery and unrelenting depression inducing reading. I cannot believe I am still reading it but I think it because I’m suffering survivor hope. Like someone who is doomed but clings to a spec of hope that I will survive against all the odds. I’ve no doubt it’s well written as its so convincingly depressing. In the end I am saved by the Tesco delivery man. So with everything stowed I watch an NCIS and then write the blog. I’m tired and hope for a sunny day tomorrow, the sort of day that makes ferrets play and gardens bloom.

Saturday, its a rude awakening as a Tarmac lorry explodes on the main road of the village and traps two households in their homes as the pitch spews out over the road and foot path. Very quickly we have emergency service vehicles of all types flashing along outside outside our house. Firemen frantically cut turfs from the wayside to build earth damns to stop the hot tarmac dripping into the drain system. The road is very quickly closed.

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The work continues all day as the teams work to contain the spillage and to figure out how to deal with it. We have a delayed breakfast and then start to work on the garden. I spend the day planting out all that is left in the green house and planting up all the pots and returning them to their places in the garden. It comes round to three o’clock and I step up my activity level to occupy my mind as my team, the mighty Brentford, are playing in the championship play off, which if they win means they get to play premier league football for the first time in my life time. My phone buzzes a couple of times but I ignore it having promised myself not to look until at least half time. After 45 minutes I peek at my phone, 2 -0 to Brentford. I work on hoping that they do not blow it in the second half. Another 45 minutes later they are playing over 6 minutes of injury time. At last its over.

I finish the garden for the day and shower which means I get to cream my surgery wound and spray it again with liquid plaster. Tea comes and goes and I settle down to watch the European cup final. It’s a good game and ends with Chelsea winning. I am tired and decide to sleep early as I can but end up watching some trash TV before I finally get to bed.

Sunday and I wake up to the sound of machines out side as workmen make an early start on re-surfacing half the road. It seems that the damage is so bad they are going to have to do one side of the road and then return the following day. Its Sunday so I weigh in.

91.5 Kilos, In my range.

We go to the garden centre using the village diversion and pick up some provisions. On our return we have to slalom thorough the road restriction avoiding knocking over the workman that tries to stop us. A late breakfast and we head out to a different garden centre to buy plants for the last big task of the garden and that is making up the hanging baskets. We buy a trolley full of plants and return to home and I once again I set about the garden tasks. For hours I plant up baskets and troughs while the workmen outside continue until they install temporary traffic lights, unheard of in this village. I go out to see how its going just in time to watch some knob head shoot the red light and disappear in a cloud of dust out of the village.

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I finish the garden and have a look in pond and play spot the frog, enjoy the fun.

So the evening arrives along with tea after which I shower and cream my developing scar. I watch the baby face space professor review some of his series and asks the big questions in cosmology like how far can we go. At this point I write the blog as my partner goes to bed and I listen to my eldest daughter dropping the weights bar in the garage periodically.

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Friday and I leap from my bed at an early hour for today is tree man day. I hear my daughter go to the bus stop early and I move the cars off the drive to let tree man’s machines in when they arrive. I say yes to a bacon bagel but before I can eat it my daughter returns to the house as the bus has not turned up so I drive her into town to the train station. By the time I get home tree people are cutting off branches and stacking them ready to be shredded on the front lawn.

During the morning tree folk cut and trim being careful not to disturb the nests they found, collared doves and wood pigeons. I write letters in the comfort of the back room vacated by my daughter for the day. By lunch time things are looking different in the back garden. The team clear up and leave and I head for the Shed. However I cannot get in as there are pots that have been moved left in front of the door. I spend an hour putting pots back in their places and then I notice that some of the dahlias in the pots are coming through at last so I replace them on the patio to get more sun. I finally get in the Shed and write another brief letter which I take to the post box before climbing on the bike in the Shed and grinding out an hour session. It was going to be shorter but once I was on board I just kept going for the full hour.

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I gather up my stuff and head back towards the house, as I go to switch off the power to the Shed I notice my gold ring sitting on the outside window ledge of the laundry room. I thought I had lost it on the day I did a lot of gardening and have no memory of taking it off and putting it on the window ledge but I would have thought that if the garden guy or the tree folk had found it they would have said something. Anyway its a truly serendipitous that I have found my ring again. I eat tea, noting that my daughter has returned home and then shower so that I can attend to my surgery wound cleanly. A couple of light TV views and I settle down to write the blog before bed. Tomorrow promises to be sunny and warm so I intend to sort the garden pots and baskets out and set the gardens course for the summer. It feels like moving forward. Shuggie Bain continues to be unremittingly depressing.

Thursday, a work day and a day on which the sun shines. Breakfast and drugs get me to be in front of my laptop screen ready for a quick meeting with a colleague via a quick call from a friend. The meeting is short but business like, which gives me time to get some of my ice hockey jerseys in to wash. This is a rest day from the ice hockey world championships and there is no football or rugby on to watch so I might as well wash my kit. Some new lights for my fish tank arrive so I set about hoovering the dust and food out of the light hood and install a new light tube. The fish are really pleased and wave enthusiastically at the tank. Its lunch time and I take a turn round the village with my partner before hosting an Open Forum for work. It goes well but today we sent a message to say that June the 17th will be the last one. I take time out for a leisurely coffee and the pleasure of reading a letter from a friend who like many are finding their way back into the world. I toy with buying more plants for the garden but resist in favour for a stint in the garage. So I get into my training gear and strap myself into the rower for 45 minutes on a lower resistance so as to be kind to the back I tweaked yesterday. The good thing about rowing is that I can take calls on my head set at the same time which is always very welcome.

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I go from rowing to collecting my washing off the line in the garden and the onto my favourite Thursday meal, tuna pasta. While my partner has her online singing lesson I take to the shower and tend to my surgery wound on my face, which I learned today will have its stitches removed next Thursday. I settle down to read Shuggie Bain the 2020 Booker Prize winner. My god its unrelentingly depressing so far, if it goes on like this I’ll not make it to the end. Suddenly I get a text telling me that my tree man is coming to do the work we agreed tomorrow and that he will rat tat tat on my door at 8am. This means a quick trip to the neighbours to let them know what is going on and to let them rejoice in the extra light their garden will receive. They seem happy and content for the team to go into their garden if necessary. I return to the miserable Shuggie Bain and soon return to the blog. An early night for me as I have a swing seat to move in the morning before tree man start their work.

Wednesday and I am up and ready to go gardening! This is todays plan so I down my grapefruit breakfast, take my drugs and then have a long phone call with a friend as she raids B&Q for paint and returns University library books. In the course of this conversation to things happened. The first was a genius idea to help my partners mother to make tea more safely by eliminating the tricky juggling act of using a kettle to make tea and replacing it with a mini water boiler. Definitely a brilliant thought will help my partners mother retain her independence with less risk. The second thing to happen was the observation that I refer to everything as a fight, and she was right. Having cancer put me into fight mode, which I think is a reasonable stance to take, I am aware that other options are available, but it may well have generalised to other areas of my life, like everything. Not such a good option so I shall take some time to think about that and hopefully get a chance to talk it through with others over the next few weeks. After our conversation I headed for the garden and then spent the next few hours on my hands and knees weeding out the drive and chopping back rouge Lilac. By lunch time I had tweaked my back and was ready for an omelette and a rest.

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Post lunch is all about getting into the Shed and training and easing my back. So I spend an hour on the bike getting myself hot and stretchy. It goes reasonably well, which continues a good week given that this week started with my 28 day jab.

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I shower and perform my new ritual of creaming my surgery wound with antibiotic cream and renew the spray on plaster protective layer. Its six days since the operation and the wound appears to be coming along nicely.

I settle down for a treat but not before the garden guy rocks up and starts to mow the lawns. It makes such a difference to the garden, I am always immensely grateful when I look out over the freshly cut grass. So the treat was to watch GB ice hockey team beat, yes beat, Belarus, who are ranked several places above them in the championship rankings. The win moves the GB team up the ranking towards the quarter finals. So having eaten tea the evening moved on to Manchester United being beaten 11-10 on penalties in the final of the Europa whilst also watching the Great British Sewing Bee. So much excitement. I write the blog and retreat to bed with my freshly done washing to keep me company.

Tuesday, a work meeting day. The usual breakfast and drugs with the addition of post jab paracetamol and a call from a friend to start the day, a day that appears not to be raining. I attend to some work admin and review where I am with it. Another friend calls and we compare notes on gardens, allotments and recent family events. I get myself in front of the laptop for my one to one with the programme manager. It is a useful catch up and it is helpful to go over the review of my work. After the meeting I do some related admin and then have lunch. I am about to change into my training gear when I realise that GB are playing Denmark in the world ice hockey championship. I watch as GB get a point by drawing at full time but unfortunately in over time they loose another goal just 25 seconds to go to the end of time. Now I go and train in the garage with a 30 minute row, which starts slowly and builds to a decent session.

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I shower post training and attend to my surgery wound. The putting on the antibiotic cream is simple however spaying the liquid plaster on it is more tricky when looking at the phone in selfie mode. The fist time I tried I nearly sprayed my eye and as a consequents glued my eye closed, almost. Today forearmed with this knowledge the process went much more smoothly. The family eat tea and I settle down to watch Sweden play Switzerland whilst waiting for the professional bake off to come on. Watching professional chefs create elaborate pastries and sweets is fascinating and the range of cock ups is also an entertainment. The fun over I start to write the blog. Tonight I need an early night, my jab site is sore and I want to try to get out of the house into the garden and get to grips with my garden.

Monday and its raining and there is more to come but we soldier on. Up early for a grapefruit breakfast and coffee before popping down to the GPs for my 28 day jab. As I wait I realise I have not taken my prophylactic paracetamol yesterday or today yet. The nurse calls me in wearing a set of VW scrubs, brilliant, or at least I hope they were scrubs. She is very careful and notes that I have old injection “lumps” from previous jabs in my right side. She prospects my fatty bits and finds a place to jab, which she does very slowly and thoughtfully. I drive home and down some paracetamol immediately, it usually takes me a few hours before I start to feel “junkieish”. I have another coffee and then gather together my tools to replace a light switch in the back bedroom. Yes of course a have a new spare in my garage store of everything. So I flip the fuse off and take the plate off the wall and photograph the wiring . Mobile phones have made DIY to much easier, no more remembering or drawing.

After sending the Elders a few notes that I had written about my observations of us I get and early start on the blog but my Amazon order of Steristrips arrive so I re-dress my surgery wound before getting ready to train in the Shed.

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I go to the Shed and write an impromptu letter thinking to post it post training but decide to do it now and stroll over to the post box. Back in the Shed I train for an hour and try to push hard as I think this helps on injection day. I will know tonight. As it happens it turns out a good session.

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Unfortunately I discover that being actively sweaty and having a beard is death to facial wound dressings so I finish the session with my nice new dressing hanging onto my face by a single steristrip. It is a hopeless cause so I abandon the dressing, rub antibiotic cream into the wound and spray it with Spray Plaster. I just need to do the same thing after each shower for the next few days till they call me to take the. stitches out. Time to clear the kitchen ready to make tea and to receive our Tesco delivery later this evening. Its going to be an early evening bedtime for me as I try to sleep the jab reaction away.

Sunday and of course its weigh in day.

92.5 Kilos

This is two and a half kilo gain over two weeks, which given the circumstances is not catastrophic. I shall renew my diet and exercise in the coming week. Breakfast, and then I watch the England ice hockey team get beaten 2-1 by Slovakia. I check the garden for the work I did yesterday and tidy up some odds and ends but basically I have a sense of disgruntlement. Ultimately I got fed up with myself and headed for the garage to row for half an hour.

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While I row Leicester throw away their chance to play in the European champions league next season. Its all too much for a chap so after tea I retreat to a bath bomb bath and then write the blog intending to go to bed early. Like a life sentence prisoner I choose to sleep the time away until all I have to do is get up and go for my 28 day injection at the GPs tomorrow morning. I will attempt to replace my Steristrip dressing on my face tomorrow, I’m getting inquisitive to know what my face looks like with its new scar.

Saturday: Italy win Eurovision, England get beaten 7-1 at the world ice hockey championships by Russia, Brentford win a place in a play off for promotion to the premier division, FC Honka lose 0-1 to Lahti, I plant two dozen cosmos, trim the drive hedges, plant up three dozen plants, There is a brief expedition to the garden centre to buy lasagne, I avoid buying a 43 inch TV and substitute it by buying two pairs of “hippy trousers” and then, when my liquid skin arrives, cement my surgery dressing to my face. All in all an average British day.