Saturday. Breakfast and then a walk into town. We buy a paper and look in at the local art shop. Down at the water side there were queues for the boats. We went to a local pub on the waterside and had coffee before walking along the lakes edge. Sitting on a bench I do crosswords and read the paper. On completion we continued our walk to Cockshott Point where the ferry is. Apparently at sometime developers wanted to do things with the point but Beatrix Potter was so appalled by the plans that she sold over sixty of her paintings to American admirers in order to save it by giving the money to the National Trust. Respect to Beatrix.

We return to town and return to our favourite café where we eat a ploughman’s sharing platter and drinks. By mid afternoon we are done and return to the hotel. Its hot tub time. I bubble away till I have had enough but by then its almost time to get ready to go to dinner. We return to the same bistro as yesterday and get a warm greeting . We dine on good food as England get beaten by Hungry. Back at the hotel we watch TV, I mend my broken watch strap and draft the blog.

Its been a low key, meander of a day. I feel I’ve not done the Lakes justice but as a friend pointed out it takes time. I had hoped to write more than I have but these things come on their own and will not be rushed.

Friday, jubilee Friday and its raining as I wake up in the hotel room to the sound of my phone alarm. Its make tea and coffee time and then a trip to the breakfast room. I still cannot face fried breakfast and stick with grapefruit, strawberries and toast washed down with coffee. I and my partner retreat to the lounge while it rains and I write more postcards, fill out my food journal, scribble some notes and draft some early lines for the blog. Now comes the difficult bit, deciding what to do with the rest of the day and where and when to eat later in the day. What I do notice is that my site stats tell me I had 22 visitors to the site but here were 1142 hits!!!!!This is clearly wrong unless I have a acquired a very obsessive reader, in which case I say to you once or twice a day will do.

So in the end we return to the room and wait for the rain to abate before we go out to town to post the cards and buy a paper. We stop for hot chocolate and sandwiches and wander around a bit before returning to the hotel to nap, do cross words and then indulge in the hot tub. A leisurely afternoon that will lead in to a leisurely evening of doing little except perhaps visiting the bistro down the road for a light evening meal. Of course I need to get my hair brained before we go out to eat.

We make our way to the bistro and manage to get a table. We settle in and are really pleased with the variety and quality of the food. It is a good meal and I finish off with a lovely fresh coffee. We are so impressed that we book a table for tomorrow before we walk back to the hotel and a quiet evening.

Thursday and I wake to sunshine across Windermere. We get up and go to breakfast. I cannot face anymore fried stuff so stick to fruit and toast washed down with a jug of coffee. As the sun is shining we head for the boats on the lake and head for Ambleside. The boat is a slow relaxing way to travel to the northern end of the lake. Once alighted there is a walk to be had to get to Ambleside itself. We plod along until we get to a café and we have a chance to get a coffee and a bite to eat. I like holidays as I get to eat odd things that I normally do not think of, so this was an opportunity to indulge in a strawberry milkshake. We mosey around the town and take some pictures.

Having sated our curiosity for Ambleside we slowly walk back to the pier to get the ferry back. Was laze and watch the lake and the various activities going on.

The ferry arrives and we hop on board and relax on the journey back. Having got land side again I buy some more postcards before we head to a little bar which serves us a cream team. Again we laze before wandering back to the hotel. I have a panic as I am convinced I have lost my wallet, in reality it was sitting in a draw by bedside. Back in the hotel its time for a nap.

I wake from my nap and begin to draft the blog. Over the last couple of days my back has been aching and my gut has been off. Its uncomfortable and of course raised all my old fears of a Jamaica repeat or a reoccurrence of my kidney infection, or worse. However the restaurant table has been booked in town so I get ready and my partner and I walk into Bowness. We get seated in the restaurant and are pleased to find it is a proper Italian restaurant. You can tell this by the amount of arm waving and gesticulation that goes on. They also serve thin based pizzas not the revolting stuff crusted affairs that we (the Americans) have plagued us with. I choose the traditional multi bean soup to start and what a good choice it is. Delicious is the adjective to describe the soup. Its followed by penne al forno, again delicious but huge, I am out faced and can only wash it down with coffee and a free limoncello. As my partner and I eat our way through this lovely meal it starts to rain, hard, very hard, so that by the time we leave the pavements are literally flowing streams. We walk back skipping over rivulets and finally make the haven of our hotel room where we immediately divest ourselves of our clothes and rest and relax to let the food digest. A good meal it was indeed. I continue to draft the blog.

At this point I am utterly spoon less and know that I shall half heartedly potter for a while and then get snared by sleep. I’ve not kept my food diary and not written anything in my holiday journal, where has the energy gone? It feels as if am just getting by at the moment until I feel well again. Activity is the key and I’ve never had trouble with that before at the moment it is an up hill battle to get myself kinetic. Tomorrow is perhaps a good day to go for a swim in the hotel pool. My relatively new drugs continue to give me interrupted nights but the worst of all things is the continuing hot flushes. I had hoped they might die away but they haven’t and act as a constant reminder that cancer never takes a day off and as a consequence neither should I. Its just hard at the moment to fight for the first step.

Wednesday and a simple day. Got up, ate breakfast, wrote postcards ( I just know I’ve forgotten some people) and went to Beatrix Potter World. We queued for ages to get in but once in it was worth it. The children there liked it.

Resisting the urge to buy stuff we left empty handed but entertained. Next mission was to buy trainer socks which was not as easy as thought as the Lake District is all walking and climbing of the serious variety which apparently requires very special socks that cost the earth. eventually found what I wanted at £3:50 for three pairs. So it was time for a light lunch and a sit down, however before we found our arbour of respite we booked a table for tomorrow night in an Italian restaurant. Striking while the iron was hot as finding tables in restaurants is proving tricky at the moment which is why we are dining in the hotel tonight. We returned to the hotel picking up a dozen bottles of water on the way and lugging them back through reception where we picked up our Amazon orders. New water proof trousers and some tools and beads so I can braid my hair. A chaps got to look the part on holiday.

We return to our room, do the cross word puzzles and hit the hot tub. I draft the blog before grabbing a shower and tarting myself up for dinner at 6:45. No idea how the evening will go, but I know tomorrow we are going on a boat to Ambleside to mosey around and explore.

Tuesday and I wake up in a strange place. My phone alarm wakes me with Eric Sarte. We have an hour to get ourselves up and ready for breakfast, which a coffee helps us towards. We go down to the breakfast room, check in and then go at the buffet breakfast. We dine well and store calories for the day to come. A hearty breakfast indeed, so much so we take a coffee into the lounge and sink into large armchairs to relax and wait for our extensive breakfast to digest a bit. We decide to walk down into Bowness but we are thwarted by rain so we delay till it appears that the rain is abating.

We sprint into Bowness and find postcards, papers and a map. Down at the quay we size up the sky and decide to do the “island boat trip”, the shortest non stop available. We buy our tickets and go and look at the birds mugging people for food.

At the appointed time we go to the embarkation pier and queue to get on the tour boat. As we are let onto the quay to get onto the boat a load of pushy Asians who clearly have no idea how to queue just bowled down the side of the queue and barged their way onto the boat at the front, much to the annoyance of my partner who pointed out their rudeness. They of course took no notice.

We board the boat and take the decision to go aloft in the uncovered seats, because we are an ocean going nation and hardy, plus it was not raining. Almost as soon as we let go fore and aft the rain starts, drizzle first and then an increasingly heavy pour. The lake itself is awesome with some interesting sights around it including the odd cormorant diving for fish and young ducklings paddling for their lives. We had waterproof tops and a waterproof over our knees but the small children with a family had none of these and got soaked during the trip.

The trip comes to an end and we head back to the hotel for refreshment. Coffee and a mini afternoon tea is very welcome as it continues to rain heavily. We of course do what any good Brit would do in this situation, we head for the hot tub on the balcony of our room. Its a warm massaging bliss and we wallow for a long time before having a shower and resting.

We laze and slowly get ready to walk into town in search of an Italian evening meal. While we do this I am content that the water proof over trousers that I ordered today will be delivered to the concierge tomorrow along with some braiding tools and beads for my hair. Its rains again and we briefly opt for an in hotel option but as we wait to be served in the bar the sun comes out and we leg it into town. We cannot find anywhere that has room for us or is open. Restaurants close at 8:30 or do not open till 5pm on a Wednesday. Eventually we find a pub with food and chat to a couple of locals about the situation. According to them food places cannot get staff and therefore restrict opening times. The food at the pig was okay but nothing to rave about and the local people we were talking to were no impressed with their food and complained about it.

We finish our meal and walk back in the evening sunshine to the hotel. Silence Witness is on so we watch that and I then go back to drafting the blog. It feels like a full day and I’ve run out of spoons and run on the muscle memory of routine. I shall charge up the Kindle and find something to read till I drift off.

Its Monday and the first day of holiday. We are off to the Lake District, Windermere to be precise. So a slow rise and a leisurely breakfast before feeding the hedgehog, putting out the rubbish and loading the car. Having got sweaty doing the chores I take a pre travel shower and feel all the better for it. My partner collects her prescription from the chemist and then we are ready to play car shuffle and get on our way.

The journey to the M1 is smooth but its a different story once on the M1. There is obviously a problem and almost immediately we are crawling. Thankfully the crawl to the A50 takes us off the M1 and we then get underway. Stoke the M6 is okay and then of course the M6 starts t be the M6, it is intermittent progress. We stop earlier than I planned to get coffee and something to eat. Once past Liverpool things speed up and we get on with it. We get to Windermere and the fun starts. We go round and round Bowness and Windermere trying to find the hotel. Eventually we get there adn ae met at the barrier by a chirpy inquisitor who checked me out before he let us in.

We are greeted and helped to register in and given a guided tour of the facilities. By the time our guide shows us to our room our bags have been delivered. Our guide shows us how the hot tub works and wises us well. We immediately go to the “pub and swimming pool” for a drink adn a nosey around. Every where people are wandering around in white fluffy robes. It seems incongruitous in England but there it is. We go to the cocktail bar order drinks and then eat, drink more and have coffee while we chat. The nice thing about being in a hotel is that you can eat what you want and not be constrained by what is being prepared for the family. Feeling tired we return to the room and unpack and get comfortable. I take the opportunity to catch up on the blog against the background of Silent Witness. I’m hoping for a good nights sleep and a good first day of exploring. I have a clean notebook with me so I hope my exploring is more than geographical.

Sunday so no rush to get up, when we do its bacon sandwiches for breakfast and an hour long face time with our youngest daughter. I get the suitcases out that we are going to use from tomorrow and begin to pack, however I pop a few ice hockey shirts in to wash while I’m doing that. I am so irritated by the ancient vegetable rack in the utility area that I order a new one. I settle down to watch the bronze medal match at the world ice hockey championships. An interesting game but in the end the Czech republic run out comfortable winners over the USA. I do some more packing and then take the car to the garage to check the tyres, stopping on the way back to pick up some cash.

Once home again its time to give my eldest daughter a tutorial on feeding the hedgehog as that kindness will fall to her over the next week. It goes well, I think basically she is a natural. I download the garden camera and save the new pictures of the hedgehog and then return it to the garden. Time now to watch the ice hockey final, Canada v Finland. A rocking match, which is played at incredible speed and huge physicality. No score first period. Second period Canada goes 1 – 0 up. Third and final period the referees make a terrible decision which results in Finland getting two goals. Canada come back and draw it up to 3-3 with a minute to go. It goes to overtime. Its exciting. Finland nick it with an overtime goal.

So the rest of the evening is sorting out a Tesco deliver and finishing my packing. It will be an early night as there is a three hour plus drive to do tomorrow and all the excitement of checking into a new hotel and settling in. With luck I will get to look out over the water of Windermere before I sleep that night.

Saturday and I am up early to read Muriel Barbery’s The Life if Elves. I read and drink coffee until my partner gets up and we return to bed to read. Eventually we get up and have breakfast. I take my meds and find that I have come to the end of my course of antibiotics. I assume I am cured. I return to reading and finish my book. That is my fourth book this week.

There are things to do like fit a new windscreen wiper on the car, feed the hedgehog, fill the bird feeders and get the suitcases out. That takes me to the first semi-final of the world ice hockey championship. Finland beat the USA. Having seen the result my partner and I go to the garden centre and buy vegetables. While there we indulge in a late lunch scone and coffee during which the hotel we are booked into next week rang to ask me what our car registration is and what time we would like breakfast. Its a strange request to be asked when you are going to need breakfast for the next week. We plump for 9 o’clock. We drive home and I watch the second ice hockey semi final between Canada and Czech Republic. Canada come out on top 6 – 1, so the final will be a repeat of the last two finals, which stand at one a piece so it should be a good game tomorrow.

There is the odd chore to do like help put a new duvet cover on he bed, put my new book ends in the Shed before the evening meal. Its a heavy evening of European football final. Liverpool lose. Its time to draft the blog. Its been a day of contrasts, lovely book, nourishing, and self indulgent sport watching, which I think is my way of avoiding not training and the attendant fear of whether I will pass blood again. However I can feel myself getting fat which I can not tolerate so it is inevitable that I will train soon. Tomorrow is a packing day, a check the tyres day and most important of all, train the eldest daughter to feed the hedgehog day.

Friday and as treat I am brought a coffee in bed. I check my emails and messages and then get up and while away time till it will be possible walk down to the shop to get a paper and indulge in a village café breakfast. I finish the quick crossword before the breakfast arrives adn when it does its huge. I had forgotten just how expansive their English breakfast was. I eat my way through it as I do another puzzle. I idle over the food and the paper until its time for my first meeting of the day. I have just enough time to hang out the washing I put in earlier. It is my last meeting with my area contact and we decide how to tell the services that I am retiring and what the interim arrangements are going to be.

After the meeting I draft the notice and send it to the managers to edit and then send off. So another step on the way out and into my transition has been taken. I head for the Shed. I sit and write a letter. Once its finished I wander over to the post box and send it on its way. I return home and find my next Muriel Barbery book has arrived, title The Lives of Elves. I am hoping its not just a load of Hobbity tosh, but I think it unlikely. I settle in the Shed to read. After a while I am moved to write another letter, I had almost forgotten a friends birthday so I catch up with a letter. Again I take the trip to the post box. On my return I feed the hedgehog and water the pots at the front of the house. My washing is dry to I gather it up and put it away. I am now out of spoons and need to stop, its almost tea time and the family decide that as its national fish and chip day that we celebrate it appropriately. So while my partner and eldest daughter go to the chippy I start to draft the blog.

My back pain is back and has nagged me all day, I am hoping it will pass, so my evening will be lazy. I shall read and and maybe watch a rugby match.

Thursday comes around and I am relieved that I can get in to my website after the maintenance has been done. I spent my Wednesday evening reading and watching the Great British Sewing Bee. Yet a gain I have read a book in a day, I am clearly hungry at some level for something. The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery is my third book in as many days, it seems that my old habit of reading everything by an author once I have discovered them is still with me. Just one more of Muriel’s to go so I need to getting ordering. My one strange act before bed is to order a jacket pattern, inspired by the Sewing Bee. A jacket that I order arrived today and disappointed me with its lack of promised pockets so I decided that I will make my own and add as many pockets as I want. Can’t be that difficult can it?

So I wake on Thursday in time to check the website and then have breakfast with the all important coffee before logging on for a work team meeting. I spend about two hours chatting and listening. I do my update and then join in on the relevant discussions. I admit I am slightly distracted as I realise this will be my penultimate team meeting. Much of what is discussed goes beyond my time and of course I have the odd pang of regret, but I know it is the right decision. During the meeting I confirm a lunch date with friends in mid July. Post meeting I chat t a colleague about football, hotels and holidays until lunch comes onto the horizon. I heat and eat soup and get started on the blog. I am not sure if I am getting better or not but the kidney pain seems to be subsiding. I look forward to watching a video this afternoon of how to search a room. Don’t ask.

The video turns out to be quite interesting in the context of Enabling Environments and there is some thoughtful discussion afterwards. It as an unexpected diversion which was fun. I immediately settle into watch a quarter final in the world ice hockey championship. Its Sweden v Canada. Canada go two goals down and then 3-1 down with two minutes to go. They equalise and the game goes in to extra time. The Swedes give away a penalty and in the following power play Canada score and win. The Swedes look sick. An excellent game, such speed across the ice and real physicality .

I clear the kitchen and feed the hedge hog and take some photos of the flowers that are appearing in the garden despite the cool and dank spring so far.

Then settle back on the sofa however the garden guy arrives so I am on coffee making duty. I go out and chat to him and we discuss what needs doing. Always an interesting conversation about how we develop the garden and the various beds. Tea time soon comes round as I order another Muriel Barbery book. I then have another treat a second ice hockey quarter final between USA and Switzerland. I wonder how my inline roller blades are and I am tempted to have a look at them, I still hanker after seeing if I can still skate. I am aware that I am putting of going back to training and eating too much sweet stuff. I need to do some exercise to break the avoidance. It will either be okay or it wont, either way it needs to happen soon. The quarter final continues as my partner does her singing lesson. In the end the USA win. I sink into an evening of TV and reading before retiring for the night. I do however get my rollerblades out and check they are still in good working order and WD-40 the wheel bearings. They run beautifully smoothly. I might just give them one more run out.