Saturday and its holiday day. We are going to Mundesley in Norfolk but as we cannot get into our accommodation until 5pm we have a morning to do things in. I take the car to the garage and check the tyres and top up the tank before backing it into the drive to load. The parcel I prepared yesterday gets taken to the post office and starts its second journey to Sweden, hopefully this time it will make to its intended recipient. Its then time to pack. A fast and mundane job as its only for a week so there is not much need for any creativity or thought. With the cases packed and loaded we sit and watch some of the Olympics. Our “star” woman sprinter doesn’t make the final and weeps on TV about having a torn hamstring and it was a miracle that she made the games. Everyone is supportive and saying how brave she is and I am think less charitable thoughts. She knew she could no twin yet went anyway and robbed someone else of the chance of going to the Olympics. She used a place for vanity. What is more , what where her coaches doing letting her run in that state, could no one say no to her? We drive off to holiday.

It all goes well till we get to the junction of the A47 and the A1065 and then it all grinds to a halt. Several police cars zip past in full blues and twos. This is not good. As luck would have it we are at a roundabout so we retrace or route and stop at a retail park on the edge of Kings Lynne and indulge in pizza and coke followed by coffee. I plot a new course and we set off to Swaffham and then onto our destination with out any further problems. we arrive at Sea Lavender and let ourselves in and pack the food away before half unpacking and going for a quick walk to find the sea. Pictures will follow tomorrow. I realise that I have not packed my spare drugs pack for the week that means that one I have will run out on Thursday so I spend time juggling the dosages over the week to even things out. There is nothing life threatening in this, just a minor inconvenience. I settle down to write the blog and sort out the WiFi code and get going on the blog. It feels like a long day so an early night maybe in order but I suspect it depends on what is happening at the Olympics, which one child on the radio described as “Sports day for adults”, genius!

Friday and its Enabling Environment forum day. So its a rapid bowl of muesli and I am in front of the laptop logging in to the forum. After some networking time the forum starts with an intense and quite brilliant presentation from the key note speaker. And so the day goes. I chair the rest of the presentations except the last live podcast interview of the out going programme director. During this time I take a call from a friend to check something out. The forum comes to an end and the team debrief and think about follow up actions. We say farewell and sign off. I discover that the post office has returned my birthday present to my granddaughter in Sweden because there was no customs form on it. I go to the post office and pick up the right customs document and return home to put it on the parcel. The evening arrives and we do dinner after which I write the blog but my IT is playing up and I cannot get it to save. Eventually I give up and will return to it in the morning.

Thursday and its another meeting day. So I’m on my laptop with one eye on the silent TV as the Olympics grinds on. The meeting is mostly about tomorrows annual forum and there are some logistics to sort out. The main meeting ends and there is some time to catch up with colleagues. After the meeting there are a number of admin things to pick up in order to prepare for tomorrow. My next meeting cancels so there are more emails to send and issues to sort out. By lunchtime I’m hungry and need the omelette that I make. I set about the chores that need doing and then pay some attention to myself. Nothing like trimming the beard and clipping the claws to make me feel a bit better groomed for tomorrows chairing duties. I head for the garage and the rower to stretch myself out after yesterdays efforts. As I start to row a friend calls so I am able to keep a slow and steady pace as we talk about beaches and possible new holiday destinations. I finish the row and get ready for tea. My evening is one of frustration. IT gives with one key stroke adn takes away with the next. I try to merge files to a single document and time and time again I am thwarted. I think and try again, thwarted again. I change tack and sort out my banking and then settle down to write the blog. Its been a low key day with a mixture of the mundane and the odd jewel and tomorrow its going to rain.

Tuesday and its my eldest daughters birthday. Of course we watch the Olympics together for the morning and then lunch lightly. I get myself ready to train and head for the shed. I’ve decided to go with the bike today, a gentle turn over for the legs to give them a break from the rower. So I clamber aboard and go for a gentle hour. It turns out a reasonable session.

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I am dripping sweat and sitting on the sofa recoding the session in my journal when both my partner’s brother and the garden guy turn up. It coincidentally starts to rain. I excuse myself and get out of my training gear and then make the garden guy a tea before settling down to a couple of alcohol free beers with my brother in-law. We chat about how we are both waiting on the medical profession to make decisions and general family stuff. My partner joins us and we talk more family business. He had walked round, but now its throwing it down so I give him a life home.

The garden guy leaves a bit later and we sit down to a birthday tea with the traditional present and card opening. I blow my austerity week with a large wedge of coffee sponge cake. We settle down to more Olympics but I notice that when I go for a pee that there is some blood, just like previous times after really hard cycle sessions. As the evening goes on it clears, once again like previous occasions. What is clear is that it takes less effort on the bike to induce some blood in the urine. What ever is going on it is probably related to the rise in PSA so its timely that I am going through new scans and have an oncology appointment in the near future. Tired I reach the end of the evening and take myself to bed.

Wednesday and its breakfast followed by the Olympic catch up. Once I had breakfasted I retreat to the Shed to write letters. I tried to fill my new triple ink well straight from the ink bottle. That was a tragic mistake which just created a mess which took time to clear up and prompted me to order a filler bottle and some more ink. I finally get to write my letters. I get post that tells me I have a new CT scan date, so I shall return from holiday and then get scanned on Monday. I get to lunch time and decide to bring the bin in and find it is stinking and rancid so end up hosing it out in the garden. One of life’s surprise jobs. An omelette lunch and then a walk across to the post box before I get ready to train. I take a call from my friend on holiday and discover that it is raining up north. Its going to be a hard session on the rower, its time to find out how hard a full resistance session is. So I get changed and make my way to the garage to train. My expectations are met, its bloody hard but I make it and I am surprised that I have rowed further at this level than my personal best at the lower level of resistance above maximum. Go me.

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Well being pleased with myself I take a bath to ease my muscles and then sit down to tea. Time to write the blog and to watch Baptiste. Tomorrow is all work.

Monday, the Olympics is of course still going strong but today is a work day. I do breakfast and settle down to listen to a podcast by Sophie Ellis about her work and research into the role of prison psychologists over history. Its a very interesting listen and takes me up to the time of my interview. Sophie starts me off and I am away. I just talk and talk because I can about a lot of people who I knew and worked with and at some level miss. The time went very quickly and it was soon time to wind up and do the pleasantries. A quick coffee and I am back in front of my laptop and in a meeting with a set of services doing a review of the enabling environment progress. Some are doing well despite the COVID difficulties, others are facing real challenges. The attrition rates on some staff has been high and as a result the progress has been lost and a new process put in place to restart the journey. I ring the hospital to rearrange the appointment that has come through for my CT scan. Sods law it fell in the holiday week. So I now wait for a new date having given them my availability.

Its my eldest daughters birthday tomorrow so I take a trip to the garden centre to buy her favoured cake and pasta dish. On my return home I find that Tesco have delivered and finish off the squirrelling away of the goodies. My partner and daughter go off to see a friend in the village. I head for the garage and the rower. This is the start of my austerity week to get fit for next weeks holiday. The goal is to be 92 kilos again by weigh in on Sunday.

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It takes me a while to recover, this was a tough session, but I am glad that I made the effort. Dinner follows and what seems like endless Olympic highlights play in the background. The rest of my evening will be wrapping presents and resisting more food.

Saturday and its all Olympics from morning to night. After an initial Olympic blast, breakfast and waving our youngest daughter off my partner and I set to and clean the house in an attempt to clear the house for the week. After a veritable orgy of hoovering, dusting, polishing and putting away I moved onto cleaning out the fish tank. An hour later the fish are waving out the clear front of their tank and generally joining in the social milieu of the lounge. The evening gets taken with a film, “Domino” an appalling film but based on the life of Domino Harvey, a woman born in Hammersmith, London and after time as a DJ ended up in America as a bounty hunter. She died as a young woman from an overdose. Her life story sounds intriguing but the film that used her as a vehicle was a sad parody. Perhaps one day someone will make a more honest film about her.

Sunday and its more early morning Olympics over breakfast. It is disturbingly addictive even when the Brit looses. However life cannot be all TV sport so I relocate the track camera in the garden and clear some of the pond weed. My partner and I indulge in a scone and then head for her mothers. I take my tools and set about trying to mend a couple of broken light weight hoovers. I sit quietly trying to sort out whether I can cannibalise the two machines but ultimately I end up using glue and tape to make a usable single unit.

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We return home after coffee and biscuits and set about having an evening meal before I settle down to write the blog and wait for the next episode of Baptiste.

Tomorrow is a full day for me with interviews and work sessions. I tip toe towards my next oncology appointment not sure of direction or whether what I am doing is helping. It makes keeping the routine of looking after myself hard. I need to suck it up and grit my teeth and make this coming week one of strict diet and training before we go away for a weeks break. I need to reassert my control over my intake and keep my discipline, there is a battle to be fought. There is no winning this but it is how it is fought that counts. I must not let myself lose sight of time.

Thursday and I am up and in meetings by 9 o’clock. The meeting and work go on till 12 o’clock. The afternoon meandered by into the early evening when my youngest daughter arrived to stay the evening. The following day we faced the prospect of collecting her engagement ring and being faced with a demand for more money.

Friday and I am up and showered early so I could accompany my youngest to the jewelers to collect her ring. We have small breakfasts and I then drove her into town. We headed into the jewelers with masks on and determined that we were about to enter into the arena for a difficult discussion. We presented the receipt and sat and waited. The pleasant assistant sat down at the desk with us and began to interrogate the IT system. There was clearly a difficulty but we held our tongues adn waited. The ring appeared and sat in front of us, having come out of a bag with a price on it. We had bought the ring in a branch of this jewelers which had since closed and there had clearly been a difficulty transferring information about outstanding sales. Another assistant appeared with a key pad, not a good sign. The assistant says something about there being money to pay and we confirm without being asked that it was bought in a sale. There was more key tapping and she conferred with another assistant about how to put it through but eventually a receipt was printed, my daughter slipped the ring on, we took the paper work, thanked the assistant and we left, waiting till we were well away before smiling and being relieved. We drove straight home and celebrated with coffee on the patio. I noticed a hover fly on the flowers of the Hosta.

I spend the afternoon doing the crosswords and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics games. My youngest daughter goes off to get her hair done. Inspired by the concept of the Olympics I decide to train and get myself into my kit and head for the garage to the rower. Its time to do an hours session after having been on holiday and only trained once since coming back. So I climb aboard and set off.

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It turns out to be a good session and I am surprised it has gone so well. Perhaps the walks on the beach last week preserved more fitness than I thought. I’m probably at least two kilos more than I want to be but that will come off over the next three weeks. I change out of my kit and order the family Indian take away for the evening meal. We eat as a family round the table and just chat about the day and the various things that are going on. I settle to catch up on the blog while the family watch a program about Amy Winehouse followed by a recording of one of her Radio one sessions. Tomorrow starts the great Olympic watch in between the Lions tour and catching up with the garden and the house work.

Wednesday and its race day but first there is breakfast to have and chores to do. I take a leisurely muesli breakfast and coffee on the patio before taking the car to the garage to refuel. A casual stroll to the village shop gets me todays paper and a copy of the Racing Post. So I am quickly back on the patio doing the crosswords and then studying the form for tonight’s race meeting. The whole process is quite complicated and it is easy to see how people can become obsessed with the racing scene. Having done my homework I have lunch, soup, and then get myself geared up to train for the first time since before going on holiday. I decide a half hour at my usual level on the rower will be enough in this hot weather.

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A refreshing shower and I am ready to be picked up at 4 o’clock to go to Leicester Race course. Our friends pick myself and my partner up and drive us to the course. We have been booked into the restaurant so we find ourselves at a table that over looks the race course.

Its a lovely summers evening so we have a drink and go to look at the horses in the parade ring. I’m none the wiser in terms of there ability to win and, they all have a leg at each corner, head at the front and tail at the back.

We return to the restaurant balcony and sort out a bookie to go to. We place our first bets and then eat the melon starter before the race. We do not win and look to find a better selection in the next race. We are served our main meal, a huge roast with trimmings. We have chosen wisely for this race and our horse wins at 20 to 1. The evening progresses and we get paid out in four of the six races. The bottom li ne was that we paid for the extras on the bill at the end of the evening out of our winnings, so goodies for free.

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The last race of the evening see us pick up second place. Then its time for home feeling very satisfied with our evenings endeavours. Our friends seem to have done well as well. There is time for a beer on the patio before I start the blog and head for bed. I notice that my 28 day jab is feeling less sore, perhaps winning at the horses helps.

Tuesday and I spend the day at Yorkshire Sculpture Park walking, talking and eating a picnic. A rare moment in COVID to stop and think.

Monday, one of those Mondays, a jab Monday. I’m up early, shower and eat muesli and drink a coffee on the patio before driving down to the GP surgery. The nurse is very good and takes her time with the injection. I think a combination of prophylactic paracetamol and her care and consideration make a difference. I return home and retreat to the Shed to write letters and take a call from a friend. I write a couple of letters and pop into the house to find that the specialist lagging that I ordered had arrived. So as the household take a lunch time walk I re-lag the outside boiler out flow pipe work to stop it freezing in the winter. It goes reasonably well, but the proof will be in the winter. Its a wait and see situation.

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I make a lunch time smoothie and return to the shed to write another letter and take another call. . I close up the shed and wander over to the post box to send my letters. I clear the kitchen and then take more pictures of my garden that again has given me new flowers. The sun has spurred everything into flowering.

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I settle down to watch the recording of the Elders meeting that I missed while on holiday. At first it was good to see and hear the participants but I was not ready for a piece of shock news. A colleague in the therapeutic community fraternity has been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and is waiting to start chemotherapy. I am taken aback and I am not sure what to think and then find that another of the group had had the experience of being diagnosed with cancer. I am stunned as I had just posted a letter to the person. I never knew. I suppose there is no reason why I would know if they wanted to keep it secret. In the background the buffoon Boris is blustering about COVID and the need for personal responsibility to avoid COVID. Somehow the two just do not compute. I cook a poor version of a Spanish omelette which the family eat on the patio before face timing our youngest daughter. She is in the process of buying a house so is going through the usual hoops of such a transaction. I clear the kitchen and then settle down to watch a programme about investigating people traffickers. Then its time to write the blog. Tomorrow I am going on a picnic at YSP.