Cheering up Friday

Phew, everything is back on track with Col's chemo. He rang me to say they had sorted him out and he should need picking up either Sunday night or Monday morning. They need to keep him in for a while after the two day treatment to make sure he is OK. I have to admit to being a bit worried and sleepless overnight and as he has 2 visitors lined up for today thought it best to stay at home rather than doing the 50 mile round trip again. I'll go early tomorrow and take the things he needs for his extra days.

When we went for the hospital blood test on Tuesday Col 'hovered' on the car park while I dashed along to Lakeland, which seems to be the only place to buy the tins of cheats marmalade nowadays. Got home and found I hadn't got enough sugar so called in to get some yesterday and made up the two batches of  marmalade this morning - one lemon and one orange and now all the preserving equipment can be packed into a box.

While in Tesco a bunch of their £1 daffodils flew into my trolley. I cut some of the variegated shrub we have - the one that's related to holly but without the prickles - and shoved them in the blue and white jug.

They really cheer up a grey day, and it's been dismal here today - grey and drizzley, cold and windy.


As it's Friday have I any frugal-type things to mention this week?
Just a few

• Mended a hole in a pair of my leggings
• Home made bread all week
• Burning free wood all week
• Avoided buying anything from charity shops etc
• Free hair cuts for both of us
• Got the hospital parking voucher for cancer patients so we can park 10 times for £3 instead of £1 an hour. 
• Filled in forms to claim any benefits he will be entitled to
• Made a very (and I mean Very!) small chicken stretch to make 4 + 2 + 2 soup meals.

More of Dickensian and Shetland tonight and 6 Nations Rugby starts tomorrow - look forward to watching, it doesn't seem a year since I said that.

Welcome to toni1nana, a new follower and thanks for so many comments yesterday.

Back ASAP
Sue

Would you believe it

Col had 2ml of the chemo and promptly had an acute allergic reaction - they had to turn it off quick. Now all the specialists will have to confer tomorrow to see what they can give him. He'll be in hospital all weekend, maybe more.
Ho Hum!

Back soon
Sue

Stage 2

" Ring at 8.30am Thursday morning " they said, to check there is a bed available. Then  at 3pm Wednesday afternoon  we get a phone call to say " can you come in at 7pm tonight?" "Oh bother" we said as everything was ready for cooking  for youngest and her OH to come round to a roast chicken dinner! The hospital didn't actually do anything Wednesday night but just got him in early to make sure he had the bed.
Perhaps it's best not to make too many plans around the chemo dates. This time the chemotherapy treatment is 4 lots spread over 2 days, which is why he has to stay in hospital. He may be home late Friday night or sometime Saturday - hopefully in time to watch the start of the Six Nations Rugby.

To make up for their missed meal, this morning I delivered some chicken and bread sauce ( our youngest Loves bread sauce)  and the lemon meringue pie I'd made for dessert, to the opticians where she works. Which she and the others there found very funny! While I was out delivering I popped down to Aldeburgh to see the sea and peruse the charity shops, no photos - it was too cold to hang around and threatening rain too.

Thank you for lovely comments yesterday

Back Tomorrow - if there's anything to write about
Sue

741.6092

741.6092 is the Dewey Decimal number of the book I've just finished but  it's wrong because 741 is the classification number for drawing and although this book is by a lady who is a fabric designer and illustrator it's actually a memoir of her very strange upbringing in Vermont during the 1970s. I have no idea where I heard about it, perhaps on someones blog? but the library had a copy.

 The author is Heather Ross and it's called 'How to Catch a Frog and other stories of family, love, dysfunction, survival and DIY'. It was an enjoyable read about a two sisters growing up in the country, how their life was shaped by poverty and the mother who couldn't cope, letting them run wild to swim and play. Funny but sad with some craft  and DIY ideas thrown in.Worth a read. But I think it should be in the biographies at 920ROS to make it more accessible.

 Yesterday we went to hospital for Col's pre-chemo blood test which will happen before each session of chemotherapy. We also saw the MacMillan nurse who advises about benefits and she said depending on how poorly Col is as the sessions progress will determine if we can get a benefit called PIP and if he is unwell then I will also be able to claim carers benefit. That's as well as the £73 a week support allowance. None of these are means tested.

I feel really embarrassed  about comments and  bad about making Sheila cry when reading yesterdays post. We are quite matter of fact about the whole cancer thing because of the amount of cancer in both our families, the diagnoses was a relief and not a surprise because it meant treatment would start.And I always have my hair short, so no sacrifice necessary! Regarding our daughter's ovarian cancer at age 18. It was spotted and treated very quickly, we hardly had time to worry, after surgery she had chemo but only as a just-in-case measure. It was an unusual type of cancer and as she was so young  had all the junior doctors in to see her, making notes for their studies. Her case was also written up for a medical journal. Although she lost some hair she was never ill before or after the treatment and had very few days off work. She will be 29 this November and is fit and well.

Many thanks for all the supportive comments

Back tomorrow.........probably
Sue

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

It's a fact - people having chemotherapy usually have hair loss.
In preparation, last week I cut Col's hair with the number 2 comb and yesterday went all over again with no comb. Just in time, as he found he could grab hold of bits and pull them out.
To keep him company he then cut my hair with the 4 comb - not quite as short but short enough!

Looking at the colour of the hair on the floor you would think we had  been shearing a badger!

Our youngest daughter had ovarian cancer when she was 18. She lost most of her hair and wore a scarf for the duration. When her hair came back it was darker, thicker and curlier than it had been before. If Col's hair comes back thicker and darker he will be well pleased!

Back Tomorrow, I guess
Sue

Old Things and Bird Watching

We don't have any antiques in our house, just one or two old things (plus me and him of course!)

This is my favourite

 It's just a small chest of drawers about 7 inches tall that I've had forever. I don't know where it came from but I believe it was made by someone in the family before I was around. All I remember is using it for plastic dolls cutlery when me and my sister played house. Sometime much later I remember buying and fixing the little brass knobs as before that the only way to get the drawers open was to tip them out. The key is even older and it came from the very old wattle and daub cottage we renovated in 1983. The key lives in the drawers along with random foreign and old coins, fuses and picture hooks.It deserves being used for something better.

Here's something much younger. This little fella crashed into the window as I stood here making a cuppa. It clung on - stunned - long enough for me to go and get my camera and take this picture.

I'm surprised we didn't have more crashes because our neighbour is away, her feeders must be empty and all the blue tits in Knodishall are round at our place eating us out of house and home!

Col didn't sit outside to do the RSPB Garden Bird watch as he did in 2015 but watched from 3 different windows and over the hour saw 

Blue tit 30+

Great Tit 30+

Coal Tit 2

Longtail Tit 6

Greenfinch 2

Chaffinch 12

Goldfinch 9

 Redpoll 2

Blackbird 8

Field fare 2

Wren 6

Robin 4

Dunnock 2

Green Woodpecker 1

Greater Spotted woodpecker 3

Collard Dove 2

Pigeon 6

Jay 1

Magpie 2

Kestrel 1

Sparrow hawk 1

Pheasant 1

Jackdaw 2

Rook 2

Carrion Crow 6

Today the garden is much quieter so our neighbour must be home and has re-filled all her feeders.

Welcome to SusanRD and Christine Grant who have pushed the follower numbers up to 336, thank you for comments yesterday and welcome back to Bridget and Julee two favourite bloggers who've been AWOL for months!

Back again ASAP
Sue

January - An expensive month

I do hope we don't have too many months like this one or the savings won't last a year, let alone until pension time.The money has zoomed out of the bank in all directions

Car Tax

MOT

New Mattress

New shoes

Electric bill 

Dehumidifier

Frying pan

Flea stuff and wormer for the cat

Bird feed
not forgetting the £2.99 for a new washing up bowl!

as well as the normal things like council tax, water and diesel. On the plus side the food bill was well down and my personal spending amounted to £2 for a bunch of flowers and £3.49 for 3 books.

Thankfully we now have 2 months without Council Tax and water and then we'll have moved, although the Council Tax in Ipswich will be the same as here - crazy considering the difference in size. In fact all our bills will be more in Ipswich which makes me wonder why we are moving!

 But we wanted to leave the garden looking like this

Summer 2013

rather than the completely overgrown wreck that we found when we moved here. We wanted to leave a campsite that could be taken on as a going concern and a house that was in good decorative order. It would have been difficult, even impossible, with Col's illness for us to do all the things that need doing when you own 5 acres  - and there's no way I could keep everything going on my own.
So we will squeeze ourselves into the little bungalow, get Colin well again and then decide "what next?" 

February will be better month on the expenses front. I'm having another no spend month - except food and diesel - like I tried last November, to make up for January I need February to extra frugal.

The form I mentioned yesterday wasn't too bad at all because at question 4 it said "do you have cancer?" and then  " if yes, you do not need to fill in the rest of this form except the last page". Col said "Oh yes I remember the Macmillan lady on the phone saying that!" So we just need to take the form to hospital with us next week to get the back page filled in by the right person and it can be sent. Good.We have a special ticket for cheap parking at the hospital - £3 for 10 visits which is better than £1 an hour and Col will get free prescriptions although he had a pre-payment card anyway because of the heart medications. So that's all that sorted.

I've just tuned into Andy M in the Australian tennis final and Oh Dear he's just lost the first set 6-1. Fingers crossed for rapid improvement!

(Edited in to say - just heard the sad news that Sir Terry Wogan has died age 77. I listened to him in the mornings way, way back in the 80s, he had such a good relationship with his listeners.)

Back Tomorrow - Probably but not definitely
Sue