Tuesday and I wake up to the sound of my partner going out to the physio. I get up, do breakfast and just as I am downing my fresh coffee my partner returns. A five-car pileup on the way out of the village has prevented her from getting to the physio. An alternative time has been arranged. I saunter about doing Christmas admin stuff for a while and then go to the Shed to write letters and to further surf the net looking for meaningful presents for people. I have some success. I do manage to write a letter and then find I have only one stamp left. By lunchtime I am hungry and retreat to the house noting on my back to it that a rose bush is flowering. I ask you it’s almost December and yet this plant has lost all sense of propriety and is blatantly going out on a stem.
My partner returns from her lunchtime walk clutching (no pun intended) a dozen eggs. She has discovered that where Tesco (multinational food giant) has failed to provide our local shop and post office has succeeded. We celebrate with soup and a roll before she returns to the office for a team meeting over Teams. I pop over to the post office to send items and buy stamps. Of course, while I am there, I snaffle another dozen eggs, a paper and some non-alcohol beer for tonight’s big match. England play Wales in a must win game at the world cup. My afternoon is listless. I feel cold, its 15 degrees in doors. I put the bins out for tomorrow’s collection and move the cars onto the drive in the right order to facilitate my partners travel needs tomorrow. I retrieve a touch activate bedside lamp from the garage and spruce it up so my partners mother can try it out tomorrow to see if it meets her needs. Then I try to contact my sister, but she does not answer the phone, I assume she is busy and leave her a message on her mobile and then send her an email. My afternoon drifts and I feel as if I have a cold coming, I am half waiting for a mystery DHL delivery which I am assured by the tracker is out for delivery and will be with me soon. I am intrigued as I’ve no idea what it can be. By half four I notice that it is dark and after checking the updated energy bill for the month, I put the gas fire on for a while to thaw out and start to draft the blog.
The evening will be football and if I am lucky the penultimate episode of Wednesday while sipping a chilled non-alcohol beer. I had a strange craving for a medicinal brandy the other day. I am sure its related to Christmas coming and the old memories of my nondrinking mother who dead on 10 o’clock on Christmas morning would propose a sherry for everyone. It seems strange not to have a little something at Christmas, yet I’ve managed it for the last three years and prior to that I had periods in my life when I did not drink for years at a time, so I suspect the urge is something more than just a Christmas thing. I have friends who clearly enjoy the festive booze and I suspect I am jealous of their freedom to be able to indulge. I am conscious that I am having a set of bloods done and the results through in Christmas week, so I will be getting an up-to-date indication of how well my kidneys are functioning. As tempting as it is, my strategy is based on sabotaging myself as little as possible as I grapple with my cancer. Large amounts of alcohol are probably not wise no matter what the celebration. I end todays blog with the news that England won and play Senegal on Sunday in the knockout stage. I finish the Wednesday series and thoroughly enjoyed it. Night meds and bed.
