Monday and I wake up thinking “gutters” on account of yesterdays thunderstorms that saw my gutters overflow. However before getting up from the spare room bed, it was unbearable hot last night, I take a set of early morning vitals. They are normal, which is good. I have no idea how long it’s going to take the Enzalutamide to get into my system, so each morning is a bit of a gamble at the moment. I get dressed and make myself breakfast, take my meds and then I am out in the garden preparing to clean my gutters and the water barrel with its overflow.

I have hedgehogs in my gutters to keep leaves out of them but I think when there are plants growing on them they are probably not doing their job. So I clamber about on step ladders held steady for me by my eldest daughter taking the hedgehogs out of the gutters. Then its all about clearing out the accumulated sludge. I have two down pipes, one to a main drain and one into the water butt. The one into the main drain was blocked on both sides of the down pipe. When I investigated what was the major constituents of the blocking material I found it to be full shell on peanuts! The squirrels over autumn and winter had obviously buried the whole peanuts in the gutter hedgehogs for safety. As it was they had formed very effective little damns and blocked any flow, hence the over flowing gutters. I spend along time clearing out the guttering and then I turn my attention to the water butt. After cleaning the inlet and the top trays I realise that the outflow pipe is not sufficiently downwards into the main drain. So I had to remove one of the bricks forming the square round the drain so that I could lower the outlet pipe. After a lot of faffing and swearing I manged to dislodge the brick and then relay the outlet pipe. Using a hose I filled the water butt and found the overflow now worked effectively. By the time I had got everything sorted and the tools away it was almost two o’clock.

I had lunch, did the crosswords in the paper and then spent time ringing my GP to book my next 28 day jab and order my next batch of drugs. I find a letter from my oncologist telling me that he is going to ring me on the 6th of July at noon. I thought it was really thoughtful of him to ring me on my birthday, and while I am on holiday too. What is more problematic is getting my next cycle of Enzalutamide, so there is going to have to be some horse trading to ensure I go away with enough to see me through. All this has tired me out so I go and do another set of vitals and move the car off the drive to facilitate the Tesco delivery. I return to the spare bed and have a nap, which the Tesco delivery brings to a rude end. With the weeks goodies stowed I wearily get into my training gear and head for the garage and the abominable rower. I set up for 45 minutes and get myself going in an unheard of 23 degrees. I am surprised but the session goes relatively well. I get over my target of nine kilometres and six hundred calories.

I retreat to the lounge and watch a spectacular thunderstorm take place. A good test for my gutters, which cope well, no overflow, but it is the main drain that is a problem. There is clearly a blockage so I shall be out last thing tonight pouring industrial strength drain clearer down it in the hope that it will do the job. I record my session and start to draft the blog before having tea. I am now tired and I know there are still things I need to do but I think my evening is going to be a slow sofa jog towards my night meds and bed. At the back of my mind there is a tingle that suggests that I maybe ready to start reading again.