CYCLE 6 DAY 2

The Christmas season starts as I wake up to my last shopping day of the season. Tomorrow is the Santa run to London and after that I will be surrounded so that secret squirrel activity becomes difficult. The best I can hope for is to lock myself in a room to do wrapping. So I am up and making toast and coffee once everyone else has left the house and preparing my hit list for the day. Breakfast done I can have my block dose of steroids and usual meds and get on with organising my day. At first I think I might have to drive out of my way to sort some things but realise using my phone as a phone really does save time. I make the call and confirm some arrangements and give the go ahead on. Obviously cannot say what but all is in hand now.

I drive into town and start my Christmas attack, I know what I want and where from so I am focussed and have little patience with those fellow humans who appear to shop by wandering around aimlessly like distracted supermarket patrons roaming the car park wondering where their car is. For god sake get a grip! So I dive into shops and take what I need in its most convenient form, which is code for pre wrapped and haggle a bit over other stuff. I surprise myself with an “off list” spontaneous buy, but an irresistible item that does not break the budget, unlike some others. My problem is that I find spending money really enjoyable once I get going and this is turning into one of those times. I think I have finished and retreat to a coffee shop for lunch. Hot chocolate, which is good for calming the anxiety of spending and a tuna melt with a mince pie on the side. It works and I consult my “to get” list. Just one more thing to get and as I sit in Costa Coffee I utilise my phone to complete the list. Job done, Christmas shopping done, time for home. As I climb to the roof of the car park I realise how breathless I am and just how much I am fighting the poison, that and the additional weight I am carrying.

 Home and I have a porch full of mail and deliveries, which I sort into neat piles on the kitchen table. Mine has a fat letter in it that states it is important from Saga, perhaps they have heard of my impending doom and are going to offer me a really good deal on dying, but no its just the house insurance renewal. I am pleasantly surprised to find it is £300 pounds cheaper this year, can this be true? What is more they are guaranteeing this price for three years! I ring them up, more real phone use, yes it’s true. I immediately transfer it to a direct debit on our new joint account, so another element of my affairs is tidied up. I wrap the London presents and head for the loft to disgorge the Christmas decoration boxes. In the process I manage to drop the door wreath down the stairs and discover it does not bounce but breaks into a thousand pieces of blown polystyrene and pine cones. No time today to get a new one but there is a man in the village that is selling new ones from his front garden so he can expect a visit quite soon. So for a couple of hours I play deck the tree with lights, my traditional job.

 Once done I clear the kitchen and sit to watch Liverpool play in the semi final of the world club cup. During this time my partner and eldest daughter appear and set about their end of work day routines. Dinner done and eaten they set to on decking the tree in tinsel and baubles, while I retreat to blog, but  I get side tracked by another idea for a present for my partner and a little more Googleing and Amazoning takes place. By this time my UV bulbs and table lamp have arrived and I play with illuminating my UV T shirts from Cyberdog. My heart and rib cage T-shirt now light up as they should. This is clearly something I am going to play with over the next few weeks with UV tapes and body paints.

I finally get to blog, still a bit earlier than usual, which means I can get an early night before facing the drive down the M1, M25 and M4 to get to my sisters in the morning and back in time to go to the gym. I conveniently forget that tomorrow is the first of the five self stab days I have ahead of me. The start of a new cycle seems to compress the need to keep direction and tests the resolve. Still a drive to London should prove diverting. Must remember to check the tyres and buy the wine gums, which stop me getting bored. Till tomorrow then.