Tuesday and I wake up early after a really bad nights sleep. Once again I retreated to the spare bed just to try and get comfortable. Once awake I go through my routine of checking messages and emails. Then I check my vitals and record them. I dress and go for breakfast and morning meds before borrowing my partners car and going off to the nearest Wickes to get some outdoor wall filler and some appropriate trowels. I take the opportunity to top up my partners car on the way back.

From then on its all drains. It is clear that the drain from the kitchen to the main drain is not draining and is therefore in need of unblocking. This needs to be done before I can do the work I need to do to ensure the water butt overflow is set in at the right height. I set to work trying to unblock the drain at the kitchen end but because of the configuration it is not possible despite my creativity. Only one thing to do and that is to lift the manhole cover on the main drain and rod it. So I unleash my rodding set and get to work. It becomes apparent very quickly that I am doing battle with my very own fatberg. It is disgusting, smelly and repulsive, but I rod away until I get the the blockage dislodged. It takes all morning to rod the damn drain clean till it flows clear and evenly. I have the hose down the kitchen drain end while I rid through, a kind of flush and floss technique. At last enough is enough and I pack up the kit and stop for a well earned rest and lunch. A lunch during which the squirrels sneak p behind me to steal peanuts from the feeder.

Once lunch is over I can get on and cement in the water butt overflow at the right height. The stuff I have bought is good stuff but in this heat I have to work fast and a pretty finish is not going to be possible, maybe I will paint it a bright colour when its set properly. I finish as much as I can and then clean my tools and put all the tools I have used away. Its now gone three o’clock and I am knackered.

Its time for a siesta. I strip off my work clothes which go straight into the washer and I lay nude on the spare bed taking another set of vitals (all good), and then doing the crosswords. The garden guy arrives and is set to chop our laurel back of the grass. After some time I get myself up and start to transcribe my sisters attempt at a family tree onto the one the one I have bought for the purpose. I beaver away until it is all transferred. Now I need to order some pens and family tree labels so call a halt. Phase two will be to add all the birth and death dates along with marriage dates if known. Its time for tea, which is taken on the patio followed by hot chocolate, a treat. I notice that the garden is continuing to bring forth flowers, including some that do not always bloom.

In a burst of energy I put the bins out and get the light weight duvet out of storage. My partner and I change the bed and then finally we retreat to the sofa, me to write the blog and my partner to watch Hotel Portofino. I’m almost totally spoonless and of all the things I need to do it is to shower. So I shall shower and hope that I get a sound nights sleep.

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.

Sunday I wake up apprehensively after a reasonable nights sleep. I am wondering how I am and the answer seems to be “so far so good”. I get up take my SATs and make drinks, returning to bed to chat to my partner for a while. Having chatted we get up and eat bacon bagels on the patio as the sun shines. I spend a long time putting some of the family history documents into plastic pouches to protect them. In doing so I unearth some more information about my grandparents generation. I dig out the family tree my sister started to produce and tried to identify some gaps and questions about some of the couplings. I know there is a lot to do but to start with an updated family tree is needed so I order some proper family tree sheets.

These activities take up a lot of time so my partner and I go to the village shop for a paper and ice creams. On the way back we buy tomato plants from a table outside a neighbours front garden. It is Open Gardens in the village this weekend but the place is very quiet and there does not appear to be many people around. Once home I get in to my garden gear and set about planting the tomato plants into big pots. With that done I start to weed out one of the back garden beds while my partner does another. After a period of intense gardening the whole family indulge in a Solero lolly sitting in the garden and being aware that the squirrels are around us as are quite a lot of young birds. I water the garden. Thirty minutes later there is a thunder storm. I take time out to take a second set of SATs. They seem to be okay.

The family dines and then we ring my youngest daughter. We end up having an executors meeting and discussing the intricacies of paying death duties. It ends with me agreeing to draft a letter to the solicitor. I fill the soap dispensers and then return to the sofa to continue the blog for the day.

In terms of my new chemo therapy it appears that I am doing okay although I have moments of feeling tired. I am not sure if it is any worse than usual or if I am looking for signs a result of hyper vigilance. So first chemo day done, I settle down to watch some TV and will down my new meds and go to bed and see what comes along tomorrow. Somehow death admin seems to have crept into the day again, so tomorrow I need to do something outside the home, gym probably.

Saturday, todays the day I start my new chemo but not until I have met friends for a late lunch in the afternoon. So I start the day with a muesli breakfast and then I catch up with some admin related to my sisters estate. There is a STATs session to be done to complete my pre Chemo SATS record. It goes okay, and it seems all my figures are in the normal range. I load my car with some beads and a work box that I have promised to a friends crafting group and then drive off to meet my friends. It is lovely to see my friends and to eat a meal out with them. It is a time of change for several of the group and we chat and catch up with our news. At the end of the meal I hand over the beading box to my friend and then drive home dropping one of my friends off on the way.

By the time I get home there is a chance to do my second SATs reading of the day and then its the European cup final. I watch the game and then start to draft the blog while half watching Have I Got News For You. Its time to take my first new Chemo drugs. I am apprehensive having read all the information that has been sent me by the oncologist coupled with all the additional monitoring that is being required. The message is one of toxicity but then the experience of people taking it is wide ranging so it feels like I am about to play medical Russian roulette. Saturday nights all right for a fight and Rocket is up for it. See you on the other side.

Friday. Awake at 9 o’clock and doing my SATs soon after. Breakfast of toast and the then I fill up my drugs wallets with my new chemotherapy drugs. They come in some cool packaging but still look menacing to me.

Chore done I head for the garden. I focus on the front garden for hours in order to clear it of weeds and prepare to plant out the seedlings in the greenhouse. I flog away at it all morning until my partner feeds me at lunch time. Then I am back at planting out and tidying up in general. Along the way I take pictures of the amazing flowers that are appearing in my garden.

Eventually I run out of steam and retreat indoors and do another set of SATS to see how I am after all my gardening efforts. They turn out okay so I decide to grit my teeth and go for a training session. I change into my kit and get in the garage. I set up a half hour session. It goes quite well given my training schedule this week and I end up making my standard goals for half an hour.

Back at the sofa I record the session and then go and shower before going out for a meal with friends. Its a really pleasant evening, good food, good company and good conversation. On getting home I draft the blog, take my night meds, then I head for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day but will end with me starting my new chemotherapy. Scary but necessary. So this is the end of Armed and Ready and the beginning of Chemo II.

Thursday and I wake after a reasonable nights sleep. It looks like sunshine, which is cheering. I go to the spare room and do a blood pressure and SATs rehearsal. It goes okay so I go downstairs and make breakfast. I get my kit bag ready to go to the gym and sort out some admin. I go to the front door to get my shoes adn to my surprise I find a parcel in the porch. I’ve no idea what it is. On closer inspection I note that the funeral directors address is on the label adn then it dawns on me, this is my sister ashes. I am stunned and no idea what to do with them, frankly I cannot face opening the parcel and put it away unopened in my wardrobe. I go to the gym perplexed.

At the gym I get up on the gym floor and get a cross trainer. I set myself up for an hours session and set off with Rammstein in my ears, loud. I plod along and grind my way through the session, drinking water as I go. It is not my best session on a cross trainer but it has got me out of the house. I manage 6 kilometres and burn 600+ calories.

I cool down and et myself to the changing rooms and a long shower. As no one else is around I blow dry my hair and then head for the lounge. I’m fed up with cold drinks and decide on a hot chocolate and bacon roll. It is a very pleasant change and I enjoy them as I mull over the problem of what to do with my sister ashes.

I drive home, dump my gear and find a letter waiting for me. It turns out to be the copy of the oncologists letter to my GP outlining the fact that I am starting chemotherapy and all the things they should look out for. There is of course reams of paper all about how shit the experience could be not to mention life threatening.

Having noted that today is the day I am supposed to be starting my new drugs I phone up the specialist cancer nurses. They are not in so I leave a message. I’m wondering what I am going to do first in the garden when the cancer nurse rings back adn leaves a message. They can’t tell me if my drugs are ready but she gives me two numbers to ring. I phone the hospital pharmacy and they find my prescription. If I like to rock up after four o’clock I can collect my new drugs. I have not got long to wait before I can drive into town to collect them.

Once in town I park at a hotel car park and walk down to the hospital and to the outpatient pharmacy. The is a note that there is an average of a 45 minute wait. There is one desultory person to serve the new comers. I eventually get to the front of the queue and explain my presence and my needs. They get my name wrong and have to check my details against the letter I have taken with me. The person returns adn says she has found it and I should be called soon, I’m hot adn need a piss so the thought of waiting around is not appealing. I watch a dispenser going about his business of trying to figure out which tray of goodies is to be dispensed next, it is painful to watch. I am sure that there are protocols to be followed in dispensing drugs, but the lack of urgency or appreciation that there are very many people sitting out in the open air waiting area in the sun is staggering. I get called and my name and birthday get checked along with my address. A bag much bigger than I was expecting is pushed towards me. I am further taken aback when the guy says to me “Four to be taken once a day”. I think “did I hear that right”. I checked and I had. I take my bag of drugs and wander off to the main hospital reception to find a toilet. The first two I found were in a disgusting non flushable state. I ended up in the cancer centre. Now comfortable I walk back to the hotel car park and drive home, where the first thing I did was look at my new drugs.

I settle on the sofa and think about my day and when I want to start my new chemotherapy. I have two meals booked with friends on Friday and Saturday and of course there is the European Cup Final on Saturday night at 8pm. So I have decided to round my Saturday night of with the first blast of the new chemotherapy.

My evening continues with tuna pasta and the start of drafting the blog. Its been a busy day and my aim is to cruise gently through the evening and get to bed at a reasonable time. Tomorrow is a garden day if the sun shines.

Wednesday, I wake in the spare bed after a decent nights sleep with no headache. I’m slow to get up and check my mail and messages on the way. Breakfast and then I am off to the Shed where I write letters all morning. At lunch time I take a break to load my partners car with plants for her mothers patio pots. I also snap a couple of photos of things in my garden, the poppy are out and the butterflies are visiting.

After lunch I return to the Shed to continue to write letters. Eventually I stop writing and pack up the Shed and return to the house. I take a quick trip to the post box to send my letters on their way. Then I spend some time practicing taking my blood pressure and SATs. Once I am through with that I clear the kitchen and then change into my training kit. Today it has to be an hour. I set the rower up and get under way. Again it is a tough start and by half time I am a minute behind schedule. I put in some effort and by the end of the hour I have caught up and made my standard of 12 kilometres. So another tough session but it is medicine and it has to be taken.

I record my session and change into easy wear and settle down for the evening. I am having a boys night out, I order Indian takeaway, pour a 0%beer and watch West Ham win a European football final. My final act of the day is to take my night meds and draft the blog. I’m off to my bed and will let tomorrow take care of itself.

Tuesday. A headache day. Started okay and was reasonable for a morning of paper signing. The probate papers get signed and I take them across to the post office to wing them on their way. Some men rob you with a gun others with a fountain pen. Once that was out of the way I returned to preparing for the task ahead of collecting my blood pressure, I have made up a journal to record the results alongside my SATs, heart rate and temperature so that I can refer to it quickly when the oncologist rings me. The sphygmomanometer is working as is the SATS and heart rate finger monitor. The thermometer required new batteries but is now working. Of course I give myself a trail run, it would appear that I am normal. I am going to practice each day now to get in to the swing of it all.

My afternoon is spent integrating the all the London house stuff we retrieved from my youngest daughter’s at the weekend into the stack of things we have here. I use some of the ear ring storage modules that I ordered and also order some more bracelet rolls to complete the integration. All afternoon I beaver away until I’ve got the number of boxes down to the minimum. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do with it all. By the time I have put everything away its gone five o’clock and there are chores to do. The bins get put out, the kitchen cleared and cleaned and then I cook myself an omelette and settle down to watch TV. I have a crap headache and just slob out until my partner returns from an after work meal date with a friend.

I draft the blog and take my evening meds along with some paracetamol, then retreat to bed in the hope that sleep will rid me of my headache. I’ve not trained, written letters or several other things that have “ought to” attached to them, but as a friend reminded me. what I’ve done to day will have to be enough.

Monday and it was a poor nights sleep, so I wake up groggy and mechanically go through my morning phone ritual of checking messages, mail and money. I get up, pack away my weekend clothes and then make toast and squash for breakfast to go with my morning meds. I search for some sort of solution to the numerous earrings and studs I have inherited, so I order some storage trays. One more step to being organised. I get my washing going and then I start to work on the sewing/jewellery work box that needs sprucing up and mending. The plan is to get it ship shape and to pass it on to a friend who runs a crafting circle in her village. Some of the beads will go with it so that if any of the circle want to start making jewellery they can. After hoovering it, filling the old screw holes with superglue and polishing it I can do no more until my new set of piano hinge screws arrive.

Having reached a natural pause its time to refill the squirrel feeder. The new young squirrels, two this year, are eating me out of house and home the rate they are going through the peanuts. I am impressed that they have both learnt very quickly to lift the lid to access the peanuts. I refill the feeder and then put in another load of washing. I’m feeling tired by now, not really tired but decidedly off it. I retreat to the sofa and start to draft the blog until my partner brings me a lunch time snack. A friend messages me and shares some information, it would seem that at last someone is being clear with her employer that long COVID is not a quick fix condition and that patience and rational thinking is required.

I feel decidedly not well and decide to make full use of the reclining sofa and have a nap. This I successfully do until the Tesco order arrives adn then its all hands to the pumps as my partner and I unload and squirrel away the goodies. I’m still feeling crap but I am irritated with myself at being like this and decide that I will train. Kill or cure really. So I get kitted up and go to the garage and strap myself into the rower. I can’t face an hour so I set it up for 45 minutes on my cruise level. So with Radio two in my ears I begin to row. It does not go well and my body is definitely not impressed but I row on, slowly. At one stage I thought I would fall short of my usual standard of 9 kilometres for this time. In the end I did not and I pulled over 1500 strokes, but I fell short of my 600 calorie target. Still my SATs was 98% at the end. At least I have taken my medicine for the day.

I return to the sofa and record my session in the journal. I want to get out of my training gear but I know if I do I will not get the washing in, so I head for the garden and round up the washing off the line. I take the fresh laundry upstairs and change just as the Amazon man delivers my piano hinge screws. I draft some of the blog before tea after which my intention is to finish the repairs on the sewing/ jewellery workbox.

Tea is eaten and then I get to work on restoring the sewing/jewellery work box, The long lid hinge needs to be reattached as does the lid restraint. I get the major things fixed and then I set about polishing and bees waxing it. By the time I have finished the box is looking quite good, I am pleased that the work has gone as well as it has.

I give the box a final polish and put it to one side and settle down for the evening. I return to the blog but also I start to make up a blood pressure monitor booklet that I can refer to when the oncology team start to monitor my blood pressure. I am hoping that our sphygmomanometer is still in good working order and will be giving it a test run soon. My aim tonight is to get to bed good and tired and hope for a consistent nights sleep. It is clear to me that my body is having trouble coming off both caffeine and the Bicalutamide at the same time but it seems to me the best thing to be doing. Those that know me know I like all my chaos in one go, I always thought that this maximises the potential for creativity and adaptation and so far it seems to have worked.

Sunday and once again I wake in the youngest daughters spare bedroom on a sunny morning. My youngest daughter comes and sits on the end of the bed and we chat all things, work, house, car, money and of course most importantly, the coming baby.

The family has breakfast bacon rolls and I continue to organise the things that have been brought from the London house and need to come back to Leicester with us. Eventually everything is sorted and packed into bags, so while lunch rolls are being made I load the car up. The family picnic in the garden and prepare for the drive back. Having miraculously got everything into the car we set off for home in the bright sunshine. It turns out to be a very good drive back, how motorways should work. There is one quick comfort break and then we are home and unpacking the car.

Of course I go and look at the seedlings in the greenhouse and water them. The sun shine over the last couple of days has meant that new blooms have appeared. There is a profusion of new flowers in the garden. It never ceases to amaze me.

I return to trying to sort out all the things that were brought back to Leicester. The bead necklaces I put into new jewellery rolls as I do the several strings of pearls. Eventually I stop the sorting and start to draft the blog and then stop again for dinner. My evening continues with the blog and background TV. I am fighting a headache. Since I stopped drinking coffee my body has rebelled and as a result I’ve been getting headaches. So I shall see this evening out, take my evening meds and go to bed in the hope of sleeping through as long as possible. Tomorrow I can start again sorting through the family memorabilia and history.