DVT DAY 68

This is a good day. Primarily because today my blood tests came back and I have yet again managed to force down my PSA level. It’s now 0.2, just over a year ago it was 147. Go me. Go everyone who wishes me well and encourages me. We are for the moment seem to be holding the cancer at bay. As the oncologist said, It’s as good as it gets.

Apart from the anxiety of the results and then the relief that they fell about right I spent my morning planting dahlias and sowing cornflower and sunflower seeds. I find it therapeutic to grow things, it appears I am quite good at this growing lark to the extent that my greenhouse is full. Having sated my growing need I settled down to write a reply to a letter that I received some days ago. It was not until my eldest daughter popped into the shed to ask about lunch that I realised what the time was. As my partner was dealing with wall to wall meeting calls my daughter put lunch together, which was good of her considering she had just done an on line job interview. Apparently, it went okay, so we are all waiting to see what the outcome will be.

So, lunch done it is time to open the post, and to see what Mr Amazon had brought me. Nothing more exciting than a VGA lead and a couple of very long LAN wires with a view to running Wi Fi direct into the shed.  So having had a bit of a post lunch rest I get ready to go for my garden walk. My legs are not keen but before I get going I have the pleasure of a call from a friend. It was good to hear from her and helped sort out some of the things I had been thinking about. So then I am off to walk my garden for an hour. It went okay but I was pleased to get the hour over and to rest for a while. I sorted out the shed and refilled the pond that had been lowered by the solar fountain in the morning. With things cleared away I took more photos of the flowers in the garden, It really is being magnificent this year. It is a gift that goes on giving.

• 

• 

• 

Get indoors, clear the kitchen and then fit the VGA lead to my partners work laptop so she can use the large monitor.

At this point my partner goes to do yoga, talk to her mother and begin to cook dinner while I slump in front of the TV and start the blog. As I type away my eldest daughter comes in from her walk bearing a bag of iced buns, very naughty, and suggests we could celebrate. She had just heard that she is joining the team at De Montfort University as a lecturer in the criminology department, training police officers. We are all pleased to say the least. She is doing the phone calls to tell people and I will open the bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling wine tonight plus of course nibbling the buns.

So, I look forward to an evening of celebration and joy. This has turned out to be a very good day. Oh! I almost forgot, the company that miss sold me a weights bench is going to come and collect it. An even better day.

DVT DAY 67

Suns up and so am I, breakfast, shower and trousers. Yes trousers. Today I have to give blood to track my PSA level. Cancer is such fun, like the Lone Rangers horse, a four-legged friend, never lets you down. But first a team meeting on TEAMS to discuss my contribution to our ten week programme. Ends up with me agreeing to re-record my blog and to add a couple of bits to some info cards. I duck out of the meeting on time to go to the GP surgery. My partner drives me to the surgery and I am left in the car while my partner books me in. I am beckoned out of the car and directed to the back door, yep the back door. We shielded get all the best care. So I am in the back door, straight into the clinical room and before I can start anything resembling small talk the needle is in my arm and I am two vials light of my precious blood. No time to tell her I am on blood thinners so I press extra hard on the cotton wool ball she sticks to me punctured arm.

I get driven home the long way round and I go to the shed having hung my washing out. There I try to re-record the video but all to no avail. I have a sound problem and will need to use the main system in the office when I can get in. Lunch time, sandwiches, fruit and an unexpected letter to read from an old colleague before I set up for the afternoon open forum. The forum went okay, time for a walk before I write up my notes. A sunny day deserves a longer walk and that’s what I did, an hour and a half today. My i-pod plays me a rich selection as I walk until I finish by flopping on the garden swing seat an listen to my favourite Bette Midler track.

I retreat to the shed and start writing my notes up. My eldest daughter comes to see me and presents me with two face masks. I try them on and find my ears are not elastic friendly and it takes a while to get the hang of securing the mask to my face. I have a sense that this will not be my last mask and look forward to see what the fashion world of the mask has to offer.

Dinner time and I abandon the shed for tuna pasta and a seat in front the of the TV. By the time it was through it was time for my partner to set up for her virtual singing lesson and for me to clear the shed and bring in my washing. So here I am in front of the TV writing the blog to a background of unremitting virus misery, the unfortunate and the dying. I think I will give up TV, I no longer give a toss. Tomorrow I am spending all day on the garden inspired by my grandfather’s irises starting to bloom with an incredible scent.

DVT DAY 66

Up early with the knowledge that today I have a video to make. The plan was to get it done and out there so I could get on with other things. All went well, a first take that I was happy with apart from the last tongue-tied element. I thought that cutting the end off would be easy. How wrong could I be. Nothing on any of the systems that I have appeared to be able to do this simple task. What started then was a hunt for suitable software that would do the job. I trialled a couple of packages but they were either clumsy or in comprehensible. I finally settled on a package and set to trying to get it to do the simple things, I ended up with two versions of the package but eventually managed to lop off the section I needed to. That took me most of the morning and by the time I got it off to colleagues to view it was time to join the TC open forum.

Todays Open Forum had 17 people join it and I thought my colleague who was hosting it did splendidly well in holding it all together on TEAMS which is a pretty poor platform for this kind of work. During the forum I manage to slip in an advert for a virtual conference that is to take place in November. I have foolhardily said I would help curate the third day, which will focus on the Criminal Justice System, so this is a group who could contribute.

The forum over I pick up a couple of e-mails and then I get ready to walk. Today I walk for an hour twenty minutes, and it feels like I am beginning to make some head way toward some sort of fitness again. All I can do is persist, not expect too much of my self and be patient. I finish my walk and retreat to the shed with a drink and cook down for a while, by the time I am ready to return to the house I am quite cold. I change, clear the kitchen and then settle down in front of the TV and begin to write the blog. My evening will see me eat chilli, write the blog and prepare for tomorrow. I have a rare sojourn into the real world to have a blood sample taken. It’s a full day with a meeting at 9, blood sample at 10:15 and a forum at 1 o’clock. It doesn’t sound much when looked at cold but with all the faffing, fannying and farting about that attends all these activities it will be a full day. In the midst of all this there will be a Sainsbury’s deliver to take in. I am looking forward to Friday when I can spend time in my garden and nurture the dahlias and the seeds that have been delivered this week.  

DVT DAY 65

This is an interesting day. I get up, have breakfast and head for the shed. My intention was to make a couple of videos for work but one of my neighbours decided to get his power jack hammer drill our and construct something in his garden. No chance of me recording anything in the shed so I settle down to write a couple of notices to the accompaniment of power tools going full blast.  Eventually I give in and settle down to write a letter. So by the time lunch comes around I am feeling under achieving and vaguely homicidal. Beans on toast sees me right and I return to the shed.

The neighbour has fallen silent, I maliciously hope he is attending A&E with a non-minor laceration. I asset the shed up to video. Not easy but I eventually get my best look and slip into a real shirt, a floral shirt. I reasoned that of I was inviting people to a forum one needs to look partially respectable, even in lockdown. The fact that I was wearing my Mr Pepper Pig lounge pants would be my private satisfaction. I have several attempts at a two-minute advert until I finally get something passable. By the time I get it finished I’ve had enough for one day. Its walk time.

I change into my walking gear and set my i-pod to Rammstein, loud. So, for an hour I walk my gardens from back to front. I range across a number of fantasies and have at least two conversations with myself until the hour comes around. Having had to edge past the hedge during the walk I took the shears to it and filled the garden recycle bin before putting it out for collection. Being on a roll I dissemble the cardboard art instillation that has developed in the hall way and box it up for the recycle collectors tomorrow. My bin duties done I finally get to change out of the walking clothes and check my e-mails. Dinner time comes around, which was very welcome.

My friend rings and we chat about the day and the intricacies of organising a daughters birthday party. I am left alone as the rest of the household disappear to bathe and work so I get to start on the blog sat on the sofa.

I am tired and I am twitchy about not knowing what my cancer is doing. I need to book a blood test and check my PSA level. As the world worries about COVID-19 I wonder what my invisible invader is doing to me and whether the stiff legs and aching back are related to it. It is very easy to fall into the story of being a vulnerable person isolating and living out a structured lifestyle. Too easy in fact. It was the result of one of the conversations I had with myself when walking. In fact it was a conversation with my transitional cancer fighter, Rocket. I ended up having a conversation with him about how the battle was going and he noted I was a bit distracted lately and where was my latest blood results. Bingo, I realised I had stop paying attention to the important issue. I’m back on track now.

DVT DAY 64

My word what a day. The getting up was pretty routine as was getting my breakfast but I ended up eating it in the shed due to the aversion I have for the smell of boiled eggs, which my daughter insisted on eating in the lounge in front of the TV. I returned to the house post egg pong to set up the lounge so that I could attend my zoom meeting. Including 45 minutes for a lunch break this was a solid wall to wall Zoom fest from 10am to 3pm. We discussed, we SWOT analysed, bickered a bit and maturely parcelled out work and planned a not too distant future. That was most of the day over, at least I have tomorrow free now to set about the work and finish my tasks.

At the lunch break I check the post and find a card from a friend and in it there is “gold”. My friend has sent us yeast, yes yeast! Apparently, the good burghers of York have a supply and my friend parcelled some up and sent it in a card. I carefully decanted the yeast to an air tight jar as it had come loose from its containing brown envelope and sounded as if it might be a glitter bomb. So, a double pleasure of a card and the prospect of home baked bread. It was the most welcome diversion from the meeting to which I returned.

From meeting to walk. I don my walking gear and proceed to walk my front garden to back garden walk for over an hour. Although my legs ached from the other days the actual walk went by more quickly and I had a sense that my body was beginning to get the message that it was going to be doing this everyday from now on. Having included the patio in the walk my Fitbit tells me I am doing more floors than usual. I rest at the end on the garden swing seat contemplating the peony that has not taken kindly to the sharp drop in temperature over the last couple of days. Back in the house and I change back into my lounge gear and check my e-mails and my latest Amazon parcel. Canes for the garden and a couple of Sweet Pea rings. I clear the kitchen and settle down to watch the latest episode of Killing Eve. The end is inevitable but I found myself really not wanting to be so. No spoilers here, just watch it.

My evening will be filed with reading and watching Grayson Perry’s Art Club. There is something magical about his relationship with his partner and the way they have a feel for what is important to each other. I watch it for this more than the art content. Just a different form of art I guess. Speaking of art I need to find out how to include information cards in videos. One last thought, anyone else confused by the latest COVID-19 advice?

DVT DAY 63

Its Sunday, so a lazy coffee and a chat to start off with, all very relaxed. Actually, I had just been to the bathroom to conduct my once a week weigh in. Disastrous really, I weighed in at 101.1 kilos. This is not good and means I am not exercising enough and have slipped in to eating too much sugary foods. It means sweets, puddings, biscuits and honey need to go and go from now. While we are talking about this I get a call from a friend who is out and about already desperately seeking pants for her fast-growing daughter. My daughter sits on the end of or bed and chats about face masks, what’s cool, what is not and where to get the best ones. We go to Cyberdog website and are not disappointed as they specialise in rave gear, so if you want your mask to light up in UV light then this is the place to go.

We negotiate breakfast and settle on scrambled eggs and salmon. So a gentle start to the day before we go our separate ways to prepare for the days activities. I climb into my BAM shorts, pull on a top and track suit top and head for my garden to garden walking circuit. Today I incorporate  the patio into the route so I have to climb the couple of steps and down the other side twice on each circuit. Its cold today so I put on a hat and set off with Rammstein cranked up on the i-pod to training pitch. When I trained at the gym I used Rammstein as my training music to provide motivation but more importantly to shut of the constant chatter of fellow gym users out. There is a breed of person who seem incapable of doing anything without running off at the mouth about the most trivial of trivia and doing so incessantly as if everyone else has an innate interest in their life, attitudes and opinions and my god are not short of those. Any way Rammstein provide me with company and motivation to keep going. I have never seen them, although my son has. I read with regret that they have just cancelled their summer European tour, so I shall have to wait even longer. The walk goes well I do just over an hour. I rest on the garden swing seat and my partner brings me a post walk pint of orange squash.

After a rest and another negotiation I head to the bathroom and run myself a hot relieving bath. I lay and enjoy the heat and try to relax. I pick up my book that a friend sent me. It is a collection of short essays on a wide range of topics. The author is an ex prison doctor and psychiatrist who writes about whatever seems to catch his eye in the papers or from conversations with guests at his French house. I found myself intrigued to start with and the views expressed interesting in a strange way, I wasn’t sure why and how. As I read more I began to recognise some of the issues and where the opinions where coming from. What started to make me twitchy was the fact that I began to spot things that were not as my understanding have them. Having spent many years in prison working with offenders and staff I began to find that my experience did not lead me to the same conclusions as the writer. I think the moment when I began to doubt this person’s perceptions, understandings and conclusions is when he appeared to have misunderstood Virginia Wolf’s Three Guineas book. After this I began to read with a more critical eye and found that things that appeared to be asserted were not necessarily accurate. Having said this, I continue to read his essays but with a renewed interest. I will no doubt finish the book, but the most important thing is that this gift has got me reading again, for which I am very grateful.

I climb from the bath a little less stiff and more relaxed than I started. I could hear the sounds of house cleaning and hoovering getting closer and sure enough my partner appears to clean the bathroom. I go down stairs and grab and apple and some cheese as I realise that I have not eaten for 6 or 7 hours. A brief break to see Charlie Dimmock work her magic on a back yard and I go to the kitchen to cook tonight’s meal. A chicken curry with ginger and red chilli. I merrily chop ingredients to the voice of Pavarotti  and prepare the dish until I reach the “leave it alone to simmer” stage, from that moment I have and hour to start to write the blog. It is all carefully timed so that the family can eat before Boris pops up on TV to tell us all about what our future holds. Not a lot is the answer. The R values seems to be the key, but my daughter observed that it should be called the “R we there yet”. I listened very carefully but heard no mention of the “Shielded” so I assume my initial house arrest date remains the 14^th of June. I reconcile myself to yet more weeks of my circumstances.

The TV continues to tear the arse out of the whole broadcast and state the obvious and stir the differences between England and the rest of the union. I abandon it in favour of Van De Valk .

Good night.

DVT DAY 62

I woke up this morning feeling very iris and grandfather, which will become clearer later in the blog. Some days I just get the sense of something brewing, often it’s a poem other times its something else. But first things first there is the delight of a bacon sandwich to look forward to. My plan for the day is to reclaim the world, or more specifically to make the world come to me. If I cannot go out to walk for an hour then the walk comes to me and I use what I’ve got, to wit, a front and a back garden and a side way between them. So I have a circuit and the decision to take back my walking hour in the world. And to do that I need feet that can walk, all this shielding in slippers has seen toe nails grow beyond the comfortable length for walking in trainers. So first order of the day, after bacon sandwich, is to sort my toe nails. Your be relieved to know there is no gory video or pictures, so I move onto the walk. I don gym clothes, clip on my i-player, ramp up Rammstein and slap on the sun hat with visor. I am ready to walk. Walk I do for 1 hour and 7 minutes around my home route. All went well and I end up sitting happily on the garden swing seat happy with myself.

Lunch comes around, sandwich and apple and time to do the crosswords. I put my fleece into wash and get my camera to take photos of the pond, but I find that because the pond is netted the camera will not focus on my frog friend who is sitting in the middle of the pond. Sometimes things are just not meant to be. I decide its time to re-pot the four big tomato plants that have outgrown their pots. Always an enjoyable task to provide a small plant with the growing room to blossom into a full-grown specimen. It’s even more rewarding when the plants were looking droopy and lacking vigour who then perk up no end in their new pot with plenty of water retaining compost. These four plants responded splendidly and have settled down nicely.

I retreat to the shed to read and take my notebook with me intending to start the blog before tea time. What actually happens is I write a “poem” about irises and my grandfather.

I wake up all irises and grandfather.

Suddenly that blacksmith turned gardener

Is alive and well in my garden.

An army man, a mule man,

Returned from Empire

To find nothing to do

Only to remember.

His arms and chest ablaze,

Tattoos of a young soldier,

Bright, brazen, patriotic and oriental,

Artwork that cost him his bed

As his wife withdrew in shock

Only to forgive two weeks later.

Eight years of India and a sock full of rupees

That bought no work or bread.

Warrior no more it is the streets,

To search for work amongst

So many returning heroes disposed of.

Wandering and meandering along the river

From Chiswick to Kew Fred walked

To find an old veterans scheme.

For sixpence a day he could dig

And later plant and tend.

Kew Gardens was his work,

For life he would be natures manicurist

Whilst at home gas light turned electric,

Range became gas oven,

And the radio played music

While he still played dominoes.

One job lives on.

As great houses closed the garden collected

That which was rare or prized.

That day it was Irises, purple and sky blue

With scent sweet and strong.

My mother said he asked,

But a man who traded booze at the Khyber Pass

Under the cover of dark with locals

And then fought them in the light

Was not a man to ask,

I think he rescued them.

He brought those rare rhizomes home

To flower in his tiny garden.

When another war was waging

His daughter, with one of her own

Tucked under her arm found a flat

To which she clung for her returning man.

In that flat she raised the Irises of home

And to this day they bloom there.

Some good years, some bad

But they persist.

In my turn I set up home

And in turn my mother brings the irises.

In my turn I have lean years,

Sometimes years of abundance.

Recently the iris years have been poor

Despite my and Brian’s efforts.

Then this year in which I shield

From a world of threat

The irises set forth a profusion of flower stems.

Both beds are spiking skyward as never before.

I know not why but it is their time.

This summer I will smell again

Those childhood scents,

My own early family perfumes

And know patience and persistent care

Brings forth the beauty hidden there.

My world is, today,

All irises and grandfather,

Whose watch chain I still wear

As he did playing dominoes,

Smoking his pipe and answering

To the name of Snowy.                     

There you go, I just never know when they are going to make themselves manifest, usually they just remain as senses or feelings.

By the time I am finished its time to dash around getting the washing in as its started to rain. Panic over, washing in, its time to get indoors and get ready for tea and the rest of the evening. So chicken and desert later I settle down in front of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and write todays blog.

DVT DAY 61

Up early, empty Daisy the dishwasher, wash up the stagnant one pot that had been missed over the last few days. Then its muesli and coffee, before I open up the greenhouse. Today’s task is to pot up more of the seedlings, especially the odd vegetable collection. I spend hours potting up seedlings until I run out of shelve space for the pots. I was going to plant some of the seedlings out in the garden and was tempted especially as it is such a sunny day, but given the forecast says it’s going to get very cold over the weekend I shall resist the urge. So I hang up my dibber and sat and read my new gift book.

Lunch and more time on the patio reading and then a surprise, my partner presents me with an amazon parcel. Inside a find a seed box. It’s just what I wanted as I am about to embark on my second wave of planting. I of course immediately set it to use.

A little more gentle gardening and I can no longer put it off. The “it” being some exercise. Its been too long and I need to get myself moving again before I totally seize up. So I retreat to the back bedroom taking my notebook with me and change in to something gymish. I then become a silver swan for a while as I do my adult beginners’ ballet class. I am pleased that I manage to do both sides of the body by winding back the tape so that I can lead with the other leg. I take a photograph as a record of where I am and where I am is “fat”.

So, its into the garage for me and a first shielded weights session. Its been far too long myself and I am tentative. Again I video myself to see how much I have gone downhill. It feels hard work and I look appalling but I need to record where I start out from to give me an incentive to keep at it in the future. The video below is part of what I did. Not pretty but a reality check.

So having got myself sweaty I head for the bath with book and phone in hand. There I laze in dark blue water and read more of my book until delightfully wrinkly and prune like. I get out and get dry and indulge in my expensive smellies. Nice to smell good occasionally. So straight to dinner and then to write the blog while the family catch up with Killing Eve.

I feel like  am starting a new way to do Shielding and looking after myself in a more positive fashion.

DVT DAY 60

Up for a nine o’clock meeting, so a quick muesli breakfast and then its all down to setting up the computer system in the office. Today I get the office because my partner is having a day off. So off we go and I get into the Team meeting and almost instantly my computer says “No”, makes a howling sound and goes dark. I illuminate the air with a number of expletives as I dash to get my back up system and re-enter the meeting, no longer feeling cool in my skeleton T shirt and not that motivate. I join the general conversation and take the odd note until my partner pops a piece of paper under my nose with the magic words “bacon sandwich” written on it. At first I think this is some sort of surrealist art instillation, then I realise there is a question mark at the end of it. I give an enthusiastic thumbs up and continue with the meeting. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have a bacon sandwich sitting in front of you, off camera and trying to judge the appropriate moment to make it obvious to the other team members that you are eating a bacon sandwich in the middle of the meeting. I nibble and contribute as best I can, being mildly distracted by bacon aroma and salty taste. Eventually the meeting ends and three of us stay on to chat about future work. This turned out to be surprisingly productive.

Meeting over I retreat for a while and gather up the post. A lovely surprise of a letter and a invoice trying not charge me import duty on the bloody weights bench I did not want and have not paid for. I take to the e-bay e Mil system and send a clear and un equivocal, fuck off message, only in much nicer language than that, I think I added please to it. However, I made it quite clear that they are still the owners of the bench and if they want it back then they could collect it at their own expense. So, unless they have an agent in England then they have a bit of a trek from Hong Kong to get it. Having asserted my rights, I go to see the frogs in the pond and top it up.

Before I know it its time to get ready for my open forum group. Four an hour I have the joy of chatting to some real heroes dealing with some of the most difficult and risky people. At the end I feel quite tired, not from the people but from the strain of making Teams work, it’s a shit format for interpersonal work.

I have coffee and a choc ice. I find I am on my own in the house as my partner and daughter have gone for a long walk for their daily exercise. I sit on the garden swing seat for a while and read my letter. It is a delight and chuckle to myself. Feeling uplifted I got to he shed and start to write up my session notes, which takes quite a while as I try to organise my thoughts. I also finish off some of my Empowerment cards. I feel tired again and settle down to read “Farewell to Fear”. Before I know it my partner is telling me dinner is ready.

So, I settle down to a tasty meal and then we play hunt the Fitbit watch as my partner could not find hers after having had a post walk shower. Before we can find it a friend rings me and my partner goes for her singing lesson over skype. My friend is out for her walk and we chat about how things are and she tells me that she has found yeast and is sending me some tomorrow. Now there is a friend, what a star. By the time we finish our call I‘ve hunted down the missing Fitbit, which had hidden under the bed. By this time my partner is warbling so I have a punt on getting a Sainsburys slot and to my surprise find I can get one for next Thursday so fill a virtual trolley and head for the check out. Mission accomplished, I have a wave of smugness. So I settle down on the sofa to write the blog, watch “Have I Got News for You”, drink non-alcoholic beer and much crisps. Oh the riskiness of it all.

DVT DAY 59

Its been a strange day of “bits”, some a delight and some irritating diversions. Having got up and found my partner had already taken her morning constitutional I prepared my breakfast. In the back ground my partner was busily chatting away to work colleagues. I ate breakfast watching the TV pump out more COVID-19 news, by the end of my muesli I was beginning to experience a head ache and a bit of a dip pin mood. My conclusion is that COVID 19 TV cover is a virus in its own right. So  turning off the source of infection I feed the fish and fill my drugs wallet for the week. Then I am off to the shed to do something calming. I open the green house and settle into a morning of writing letters. I intermittently adjust the pond solar fountain to get the best effect. To my amazement the dead pond fountain in the bucket springs into life, I am coming to the conclusion that solar power is not the most reliable form of renewable energy.

The post man calls at about the same time as the meal deliveryman drops off our two posh meals for the week. In a blink of an eye Amazon man also delivers a couple of packets with my name on. Two packets when I am expecting one. The first one contains the external DVD disc drive I was expecting but the second is a mystery. I open it not sure what to expect and find it is a book and a gift from a friend with whom I correspond. The cover is striking and immediately makes me want to read it. But it will have to wait as I have some e-mails to deal with and a meeting to prepare for.

Lunchtime is close when a delivery arrives and turns out to be the refurbished HP Elite note book that we ordered for my eldest daughter. We are excited and open the package immediately. We write down the software activation code, plug the power cable in and switch on. Nothing, just a brightish screen showing the power is on but bugger all else. We try again, nothing again. Nothing for it but to ring the help line number that has come with the instructions.  Due to COVI-19 they only people the phones at certain hours and the earliest we can talk to them is 2pm. Now it is time for me to join the open forum on Zoom that I am part of.

I sit in on my the forum and then chat to the host afterwards and promise to write a brief suggestion paper. I return to the refusenik laptop and ring the support number, it rings, it goes dead, I ring again, it goes dead again and so it goes on for several minutes until I’ve had enough. I know that these laptops are easy to get into as they only have a single latch on the back. No pesky screws to deal with. The back pops open and it is obvious what the problem may be. One of the RAM cards is not in the RAM slot properly. I pop the card out and replace it properly and put the cover back onto the laptop. Power on and the machine springs to life! Go me I am a hero. The rest was just doing the set process and bingo the laptop is tip top.

Back to the shed to write a thank you card to my surprise present friend and to start to draft my promised brief proposal. I get this all done and return to the laptop to load Windows Office using the external disc drive that arrived today. All went well, mission accomplished. Time to slow down, I read the first essay in the surprise book and I am hooked. Soon tea is ready. So, tonight I am treating myself to read more essays, write and post the blog. What I notice is the lack of exercise and the effect that it is having on me so apart from the open forum I host tomorrow and my early morning meeting I am going to focus on doing some exercise. As the bank holiday Friday approaches, I ‘m going to have an exercise weekend and win the weekend Fibit challenge.