Monday and I wake early and then get taken hostage by warm blankets for another two hours before I rise up and take my vitals and get on with the day. Todays getting on with it is firstly training, so I get into my kit, down my morning meds, get my earbuds in and go to the garage where the rower was waiting for me. It’s four days since I trained so it has to be an hour session. I strap in and panic a bit as I note my fitness tracker is low on juice but I get going any way. Its a tough a session and I fall below my preferred level, but after a four day gap this some times happens. It takes time to warm up and get some of the stiffness out of my back . By the end of the session I am pulling well and working hard, not bad for a Monday.

I grab a Red Bull and record the session and then there is some admin to do. Most important of all is that my partner has cleared out the kitchen cabinets of all the old cookware we do no use and got it ready to go in the Hippo Bag. I load the the stuff up into the Hippo Bag and then arrange to have it picked up. With that done there was time to visit Moon Pig for some cards before finally getting some soup and bread for lunch. My partner and I have a good look at the garden bed by bed and decide what work needs doing and how we want the garden to look over the next few months and what is likely to flower this year or next.

With the plan made it was time to go to the village shop and pharmacy to pick up a few things that we need before going away on our two night trip to the Shropshire Sculpture Park. Of course as soon as I am home I get going on the days crosswords. I do three each day when I get the paper, they are simple (mostly) but keep me thinking and working at words and phrases. With the crosswords done I start to pack for the next two days. I am trying to keep it as minimalist as possible but with a dodgy weather forecast for the next three days its a challenge. With the bulk done I start to draft the blog being interrupted by the Tesco delivery. Its that time of day when a meal signals the start of the slide into evening. I am hoping I have the gumption to light the chimenea and burn a few confidential documents before giving into TV, a shower and finally bed. I note that the book I was reading is looking abandoned on the coffee table and promise myself to take it with me on the trip.

The things that I really want to have are messages from my possible new editing/publishing team so that The Cancer Years: Ordinary Brave can move forward and of course how my friends are. I have been very inattentive to them recently as I have not written letters, something I hope to put right in the near future.