Thursday and I wake up after a reasonable nights sleep. I must be feeling perkier as I make myself a favourite fried egg sandwich to accompany my morning meds. I clear the kitchen and and then retreat to the recliner to watch winter Olympics. All morning various couriers deliver packages, my partner has obviously been busy while recovering from her bad gut. By mid morning the dining area is full of parcels. Not wanting to be left out I order a new frying pan as the old one is getting beyond being serviceable.
The post arrives and in amongst the usual fliers there is a package addressed to “Tufty Woodward”. I open it and find a Dockers Hat. My friend from Durham has sent me a new hat in response to my hair falling out due to chemo. Its a brilliant hat and just what I needed, warm, close fitting and plain, unlike the various ice hockey hats I have. I of course wear it immediately, it lifts my spirits.
Also in the post is a poetry book that I ordered a long time ago. Its John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs. Apparently he won a Pulitzer prize for it. On the other hand he committed suicide at the age of 57 due to a combination of mental instability and an attendant life style. I start to read the poems but it is clear from the off that I will need time to focus and read them properly. They are a series of poems about Henry and what affects him. Henry is both Berryman and not Berryman but with all the fault lines of Berryman. I anticipate an interesting read.
At lunchtime I make myself soup and watch my first ice hockey game of the day. The speed at which the men play is incredible, as is the physicality. By the end of the afternoon I decide to get off my arse and cook a proper meal. So in the late afternoon I set about making a pie. I have a standard recipe but today I make a plain mince filling with a plain mash top in the hope that my partner might be able to eat some. When my eldest daughter returns home the pie gets popped into the oven and twenty minutes later everyone is tucking into pie. I am glad I made the effort and feel much better for a proper meal. My partner was able to eat some, which I take as a good sign.
The evening is initially taken up watching the British ladies curling team painfully lose to China. The four person curling is boring and lacks any real excitement. It is all about spoiling the other teams efforts so it lacks creativity and any real competitiveness. With the painful curling out of the way I watch Brentford (my team) play Arsenal. Its a tough match and ends in a draw, an excellent result for Brentford. I draft the blog and clear the kitchen before taking my night meds and heading for bed. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th so I will be taking it steady.
