Monday I wake up to find the household ahead of me, this is tree day. A single text message changes all that, the weather is so wet the Arboreco team postpone their day up our trees. Tomorrow will have to be the day instead. So my day starts with toast and morning meds and then my partner and I set about planning the day and making sure that our house guest is okay. There appears to be an ongoing boiler problem so we have no hot water, in light of that my partner goes to her brothers to have a shower.

Well what is a chap to do in these circumstances, there can only be one answer; Christmas cards. As I result I spend all morning and part of the afternoon writing cards. Always interesting to note the thoughts and feelings that run alongside this task. There are moments of not knowing what to put in a card and others flow easily. I have of course got my list form the last five years, which has been amended over that time. The dead of course do not get cards, they are easy, but then there are those who seem to have fallen off the communications radar but not out of the address book. Further are those who have declared their hand by declaring that they just can’t be arsed for what ever reason or have chosen charity over the individual. I just decide to send to everyone in my address book because I am ethically and philosophically lazy. This year poses a unique question, do I send cards to the Scottish branch of the family. In previous years my sister has sent them cards and maintained some sort of contact. As the last of my generation on the London born side of family it probably falls to me to at least make the effort to maintain some sort of link if not for me then for the grandchildren who might want have an interest in the extended family. So that means another dive into my sisters address book.

At this point the boiler guy arrives. I do my best to explain what is going on. He checks what is going on and says “Ah”. He turns down a coffee and gets on with prodding the circuit board in the boiler. I leave him to it and renew my card task. After a few minutes the boiler guy gives me the thumbs up. Apparently having put in a new three way valve there is sometimes enough residual current to trip the really sensitive control boards in the boiler systems. This is so common with our particular boiler that the manufacturer has produced a specific new part to overcome this problem. Basically a capacitor that soaks up the additional current. My boiler man has added the part and tested the system so now the boiler switches on and off as it should.

Before I get back to the card task I check that our houseguest has all she needs and I find myself recommending a couple of books to help while away time. Having checked that she is good as can be I head off to the garden and remove all the things that might impede the tree folk tomorrow. So washing line, bird feeders, bug hotels, squirrel feeders and hanging baskets all get moved and tucked away. Finally I remove the trip hazard of the power lead to the Shed. I return to the Christmas cards and the radio, inevitably more Infinite Monkey Cage, before my partner returns home from greeting the new carer for her mother.

So another evening starts. No rugby, no football, no snooker, its going to be free view Crossing the Lines and some sort of preparation for tomorrow as its my partner’s birthday, and also the day Cycle 6 of chemotherapy ends and the day I need to collect cycles 7,8 and 9 from the hospital pharmacy, which I can only do in the afternoon. There is of course the excitement of the Tesco delivery to come as well. I end my day moving cars to facilitate the tree boys in the morning, then its night meds and off to bed.