Val & Petes Weblog

10th June 2008! Yes, that was my last entry on my Blog.

I was talking yesterday to a very dear old (that’s old in how long we’ve been friends, not in age!) and she told me how she had missed my blog entries – and I thought no-one bothered to read my ramblings, how wrong can you be! So here you are Marg, I’m back to bore you and anyone else that has the time to peruse my life.

One of the reasons I stopped writing was that I can no longer import photos into my blog to make it that bit more interesting, perhaps son David will come to the rescue and give me some help once again! But the main reason for not writing was lethargy and disinterest as I have been very ill since my last entry.

I will not go into great detail as it is nearly history and I am now well on the road to recovery, but after suffering much pain for many months I was diagnosed in September as having a diverticular disease that had caused an abscess in my lower bowel which burst through the wall of my bladder. I had an op in November 2008 and the lab report afterwards showed also showed up a malignant tumor which had not been detected. This had been removed intact and there is no concern of a recurrence or of any escape of cells to other parts of the body. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment purely as a precautionary measure but I am alive and kicking, feeling better than I felt in months and very much looking forward to the future.

We had a string of visitors join us in Spain during July and August and although we greatly enjoyed their company it was clouded somewhat by my illness. I do hope I did not spoil their holidays too much and hope it has not put them off coming again.

In September we came to the UK for just 2 weeks and here we are still here 6 months later and likely to be here for yet a further 6 months. However, if I continue to feel as well as I am at the moment I have been told that there is no reason why I can’t travel to Spain for 2 week breaks and we are planning to take the first one, fingers crossed, in mid March. So watch out Spain, are you ready for this, as here I come!

Obviously events have prevented us doing much of interest except to shell out cash here, there and everywhere on uninteresting but necessary items. Having two homes has taken it’s toll recently but hopefully that is behind us too. A major undetected water leak at our Spanish home resulted in a bill for £2000 for a 2 month period. Having located and effected the repair Peter has persevered in his dealing with the water company and just last week we received confirmation that they have reduced the bill by half. Well done Peter!

Then we were advised that we needed to replace our oil fired central heating boiler in our UK home and we were quoted almost £10,000 to do this. Again Peter beavered away and the result was that we had gas laid onto the house and changed over to a gas heating system for less than half the price quoted to change the oil boiler. Were they taking the pee, do you think! But well done again Peter for your tenacity!

Having a car in both countries has also proved painful over the last year with both of them needing costly repairs to keep them on the road and we still have one outstanding costly exercise to come in the Spring as our swimming pool in Spain needs to be emptied, repaired, chemically cleaned and refilled as after 7 years the water has become tired and Peter has had problems maintaining the chemical balance. Sigh!

I think we must be well overdue for a premium bond or lottery win to boost the coffers don’t you!

One major disappointment we had was that we had planned to make a much overdue visit to Peter’s niece in Australia in November but because of my illness that has had to be put on the back burner. However, we intend to do it in 2010 and hopefully will be there in October for the wedding of Peter’s great niece who we have not yet met.

Well, I’m signing off now but please do watch this space for future ramblings.