CYCLE 2 DAY 9
Another ordinary day, can it be going so well? An early rugby world cup game and a chat with our garden man about violas and harvesting the last of the tomatoes, then off to the GP surgery to book my next pre chemo blood tests. All this and a breakfast of giant eggs before 9:30. Once the crosswords have been done its on with the butler tasks for the day. A quick dash to the charity shop to drop off another bag of clothes and I am back in time for the second rugby game of the day. All the while I keep an eye on my Amazon app as I am expecting things for the shower room and the office to be delivered.
I wander down to the village and pop into the chemist to buy lip balm as it feels like my lip is getting dry and threatening to split. I recall reading that this can be a side effect of chemo for some people and decide not to take a chance. There are it appears several options for lip balm but in essence they are all vasolene with added colour and fanciful advertising. Nevertheless I ponder over my choice not sure which to go for, in the end I go for the “rosey” and the “aloe” versions. So for the rest of the day I have been balming my lips on a regular basis. We will see how long this latest fad lasts.
At last Mr Amazon arrives with my goods and I am bemused. There is a huge box. I’m sure I did not order anything that big, so of course I open it first.
The mystery parcel was in fact a shower room duck board which is at best an inch deep. It came in a foot deep carton filled with enough of Amazons packageing paper to keep a small infant school in rough paper for a year. It was a major recycyling project in its own right. I cannot help but think that Amazon might be responsible for a fair chunk of the real Amazons demise. The rest of the goodies were far more sensibly packed and I set about squirreling them away in cupboards and storage spaces. Whilst stashing my four litres of mouthwash, which were bought in anticipation of my new dental regime due to chemo, I came across another reminder of my Jamiacan experince of earlier in the year. I’ve mentioned before that when I was in dialysis a woman wandered around and provided mints to those of us plugged into the machines. There in our outside store cupboard was a giant bag of the very same mints.
I have no idea how or why the bag is there, I can only assume that at some point we were given the bag as a friendly gesture. Seeing them again brought alsorts of memories back but mainly one of the gratitude I felt toward the woman who suplied them as they gave me something with a distinctive taste that I could deal with. At the time I was having trouble eating. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do with them, so I suspect they will remain where they are.
My other surprise of the day was an egg. I was bringing in the washing I had hung out when I spotted an egg in a hanging basket. On inspection it was a pigeons egg intact. I cannot believe that any self respecting pigeon would mistake a hang basket for a viable nest. On the other hand I cannot believe that a squirrel having robbed it from a nest would carelessly leave it laying around. My best guess is that a a pigeon finding itself with egg at an unseasonal time has abandoned it and got on with its winter preparations.
The rest of my day has seen me prepare this evenings meal and preparing for my trip to London. Its my one to one with the Enabling Environment project manager. Hopefully as I get the hang of this chemo lark I will be able to get back to making a reasonable contribution to the teams work. My priority is to get an early night and be organised for the day tomorrow. Once again I will get to see my favourite Tracey Emin.
