My Eulogy To Val

Val and I met 50 years ago, teenagers both.  I could never forget that day on Shephall Way in Stevenage.  This gorgeous girl was talking to a friend of mine.  On seeing her, I had to stop to talk!  Artie, my friend, wanted Val for himself. That was’t what Val had in mind at all.  Artie had been pursuing her for a while, and maybe she saw me as a way to stop him pestering her!  She’d even been asking for her managers help to check that he’d gone home before her.  Whatever the reason, we remained together from then until now. And, Artie was history for us both.

Val and I married on March 23rd,1963 at St Georges Church in Stevenage after a very cold and prolonged winter.  Snow was still on the ground, as it had been since new years eve.  We then went off to Ilfracombe in Devon for a week stopping off at the Russell Hotel, Russell Square in London for one night courtesy of my Grandma who also gave me a five pound note as we left the reception, held at the Mecca Ballroom in Stevenage.

David came into the world in 1965, impatient as ever, weighing a skimpy 5lbs – look at him now!  Val had been hoping that she was going to be able to spend the summer sunbathing in the garden after leaving her job at Kodak only two weeks earlier. This was not to be as he arrived six weeks early.

Sally arrived in 1968, a very different affair to David’s arrival.  Both were home births being born at 58 Raleigh Crescent, Stevenage.

David came into the world to a bedroom full of people;  two doctors, midwife and various members of her family.  A room full of people.

Sally, on the other hand, arrived with the midwife, me, and of course Val.  Ah, I forgot Candy, our dog!  With me assisting the midwife.  We still have the “Spencer Wells” somewhere that was used to clamp the umbilical cord.

A few years trundled by… Both David and Sally married, and as these things so often go, the absolute joy of our lives, grandchildren, shortly followed. Seven of them!  All who are here today; Thomas, Robert, Tiffany, Matthew, Christopher, Robyn and finally, young James.

During our journey, together, we have made many friends.  So many of you are here today.  Pam knew Val for longer than I did, along with her husband, Bob.  Pam first met Val at school 55 years ago, when they were 11 years old. And they have been friends ever since. Pam, Bob, you’ve always been here for us, even now. Thank you.

We have been fortunate enough to make friends in the many facets of our lives – work, holidays, neighbours. One facet that had the biggest impact on our lives was the 15 or so years that we spent as members of the Knebworth Variety Club. One of the most memorable times was when we all travelled to Chatelaillon-Plage, France which was Knebworth’s twin town.  The performance I’ll always cherish was Val playing a scullery maid with lines such as “I’m just a simple scullery maid, I’m what they calls no class”.  Of course, Val was always a classy gal, right up until the end, when she really dressed up well to go into hospital for the last time.

Val wasn’t allowed to stay in school for her ‘O’ levels (GCSE’s for you younger ones), as her father thought it was a waste of time.  After all, he thought she was only going to get married and have babies.  That was how people thought in those days.  Women didn’t have careers!

Val had many jobs throughout her life, from being a scullery maid, sorry Val, a cleaner at John Lewis, a barmaid at the Coach at Horses, right up to co-owning DCS, which started with just her and her business partner, and when she retired, ten years later, was employing 60 people. So much for not having a career!  Just imagine how much more she could have done if allowed to continue her education, possibly through to university.  But then again, we probably wouldn’t have met, so I preferred it the way it turned out.

We had many holidays over the years, from caravan holidays in Clacton-on-sea to exotic cruises in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the Norwegian Fjords!  When Sally was old enough to leave alone, we had our first of many holidays with Pam and Bob at the Isle-of-Wight.  Great holidays, once or twice a year.  Memories too numerous to mention.

Val was very gifted in so many fields.  She had no problems with technology, unlike me – how will I operate the video recorder without her?  She was very good with words and poems, and always had an artistic streak.  Flower arranging, reading, crosswords, knitting, computers, crafting, nothing phased her.  The most recent activity was her crafting, which she tackled with her usual determination, producing all her own Birthday, Anniversary and Christmas cards. The quality, of which, was outstanding.  There are many finished cards that she produced that I will be sending out as the time comes.  I’m afraid that once they are gone, it’ll be back to Clintons or Tescos!

Val wanted her family to know more about her life than she knew about her own parents, so for the past six years she has been writing a biography, which she recently completed, except for the one chapter I was supposed to have written!  So, now her grandchildren can discover a bit about where they came from. When I have written my chapter, I’ll make it available to anyone who is curious…

In summing up, Val loved and enjoyed her life to the full, and it is a tragedy that it was suddenly curtailed, at a point that she had such hope for the future.

Val, my love, my life, is sadly no more.  But, you will still live in our thoughts and memories.  Thank you Val for sharing your life with me.

It was hot, hot, hot and all everyone wanted to do was chill out and relax and take frequent dips in the pool and that is pretty much all we did for two whole weeks – lovely! Apart from 4 excellent meals out partaking of ribs, paella and fish meals we had wonderful meals at home once the sun had gone down of meat BBQ’s, fish BBQ’s, pasta dishes, salads and Chinese takeaways. Sally and I played our usual Backgammon tournament throughout the holiday and I think the result was pretty much a draw. We all played games of Yahtzee and Rummicubs in the evenings and sat dangling feet in the pool relating tales of our lives which was lovely as the kids were sooooooo interested in all the stories we had to tell. Our only excursion out was to go to a local Irish pub to see a rock duo playing when we had a great night out.

A few days into the holiday we were treated to the most amazing lightening storm one night and stood and watched the sky for over an hour. It was uncanny as it was totally silent with the sky lighting up like day and fork lightening crossing every which way. This was followed by torrencing rain later in the night and all through the next morning but then the sun came out and every day thereafter just became hotter and hotter until we were basking in temperatures in the high 30’s and low 40’s.

All too soon it was time to close up the house and wend our way back to the UK well rested and with batteries recharged. When we will go back is anyone’s guess. Perhaps for Christmas but we will have to see how things go for me.

Last weekend we went to a 40’s dance in a hanger at a disused airfield in Upwood, near Ramsey with our friends Pam and Bob. It was a great night and nice to see the effort so many people made in dressing 40’s style.  It was obvious that these 40’s dances have a great following as so many people knew all the dances of the time and some of the jitterbugging was brilliant to watch. We stayed overnight with Pam and Bob and then went to the Mad Cat Pub at Pidley for an excellent carvery lunch.

Apart from food shopping, me cleaning washing and ironing and Peter tidying up the garden we have not done much else since we’ve been back. In fact we’ve carried on just being totally lazy and chilling out while poor Sally has gone back to a very busy time at work.

David, Alison and James have been in Brisbane, Australia for the last two weeks and are traveling back home as I write, arriving in the UK at 9am tomorrow (Sunday). By my estimation they are probably about to leave Singapore at the moment. The idea of the trip was for it to be a holiday and a bit of a recce but I think there was more holidaying than recceeing! We were able to speak to them all and see them via video link every day on Skype. What a wonderful tool that is and it is true that the world is a much smaller place with today’s technology. They have had a wonderful time out in Os and are keener than ever to make the move permanent.

You may be wondering why Tiff did not go to Os with the family – well, she was living it up with friends in Amsterdam and from all accounts had a great time too.

September and October look to be months full of medical appointments. I have to go to the Diabetic Clinic and am waiting to see how I’ve fared not being on any medication for the last six months and I then have to have my annual sight test and retinal screening. Both Peter and I have dentist checkups looming and we both think that we will need treatment. We have been under the care of a dentist in Spain for the last few years so were very lucky to get into an NHS practice here in Warboys. And of course I then have my reversal op looming so I have to go for a pre-op assessment and then my op which is on the 23rd September (not 25th as I previously said). The next thing I must do is make an appointment with a chiropodist and get my feet sorted out and I will have had my full MOT!

End of news for now! Byee!

First of all medical update. I have finally finished my 6 months of Chemo treatment and am happy to say that I got through it very well. I had a CT Scan 2 weeks ago which showed all clear and I have now been discharged from Oncology. I then saw my consultant earlier this week and he has confirmed that he will be carrying out the colostomy reversal op on 25th September. So I am very nearly at the end of my journey and looking forward to getting back to leading a normal life again. The euphoria of all the good news has been dampened somewhat by a very heavy summer cold and hacking cough which I have had for 2 weeks and can’t seem to shake off. Of course being a sharing person I let Peter have some of the germs too so we are suffering together. At least we have a sensible GP who has confirmed that we are correct in saying it is not Swine Flu but then I don’t think a lot of reported cases are anyway -pandemic – I think it is more pandemonium!

Peter has finally finished the garden here in Warboys and it is really looking lovely and is very colourful. We decided to install a watering system which has not been needed since installation as it has rained at some point almost every day since but it will be very useful once we return to Spain on a more permanent basis. Always looking for something to do the paint pots and brushes are out again and he is busy decorating the kitchen and utility room and it really was in need of a freshen up. Trouble is he is planning to move through the house and attack other rooms when that is finished.

I have been doing painting of another sort with much smaller brushes and have been trying my hand at water color painting on a small scale. I am quite pleased with the results and have incorporated some of the designs into Christmas cards. A month ago I started to panic that I had not started making this year’s cards but I have now made over 100 so panic is over and I still have a few months before the Christmas season is upon us.

Son David is still living with us Monday to Friday working on a contract in Peterborough. He has just been advised that he will be required for as long as he wants so it looks as though he will be with us until he is ready to move with his family to Australia later this year. I haven’t mentioned this in my Blog before because it has been a very long process in obtaining a visa but the expected date for this coming through is looming now and as they have now made it common knowledge I feel it safe to refer to it. They have sold their house and are starting to clear out and sell unwanted items. It was a big shock when they told us of their plans a year ago but I can see their reasons for making this big decision, have now come to terms with it and wish them well for the future.

Sally is doing well in her new job with the police force and is enjoying it. She picked up her spanking new car this week which caused great excitement. It is so good to see her life turning around and seeing her so happy as she has been through a tough time. Well done Sal, life really did begin at forty for you. Grandchildren Tiff and Matt are on countdown to getting their exam results later this month. I do hope they a happy with the outcome but at the end of the day they can only do their best.

We have our eldest grandson Tom with us for the weekend and tomorrow we get to meet his girlfriend who is joining us for the day. His Dad David and family are also coming tomorrow for the day and on David’s insistence I have to cook roast dinner for 8 of us! Oh joy!

On Thursday we will be flying back to Spain for another glorious two weeks and Sally, Matt and Rob are coming with us. Grandaughter Tiff is off to Amsterdam with friends and David, Ali and James are flying out to Os for two weeks for a combined holiday and reconnaissance trip in Brisbane where they are intending to live, so the Angier family are all globetrotting to different climes.

Well enough rambling. Watch this space for more news to come…..

I found time to spend a couple of afternoons with my friend Lin who progressed my sketching and water colour painting ’skills’a bit and I produced a very acceptable painting of which I am very proud. Peter managed to fit in a session hitting some balls at the driving range and sinking a few balls on the putting green.

On Sunday evening we spent a magical 3 hours watching the Moors and Christians Parade through the town of Moraira. It was lovely and the costumes were spectacular, as were the fireworks that followed.

Then Wednesday saw us traveling back to the UK when after battening down the hatches at the villa our friend Peter picked us up at 12 noon to transport us to the airport for our flight back. Normally we check in at terminal 2 and that is where we asked Peter to drop us off. Sods law on this occasion no desks were open in terminal 2 so we had to walk through to terminal 1. We were surprised at how quiet the airport was as we remember taking friends to the airport at this time last year and it was heaving. This is an indication of the reduction of visitors to Spain, certainly at the moment.

Check in, arrival of wheelchair and security was speedy, again due to the low number of fellow travelers although our flight was in fact full.  When we got up to the departure level our gate was not showing and when it did eventually come up we found we were boarding at gate 1B which was right at the other end of the concourse to where we were waiting and where we normally depart from so it was a long, rushed haul again for Peter pushing me in the chair. The flight was good although I do wish they would not keep up a continuous stream of announcements as it is not conducive to having a good nap!

We took off late but landed at Stanstead 20 minutes early only to wait for one and a half  hours for our luggage to appear. That was a pain not only for us but for friends Pam and Bob who had to sit in hot sunshine in their car waiting for us to appear.

On the way home we stopped at The Mill in Huntingdon and had a very nice meal and a natter before going on to our home in Warboys.

Holiday over but only 6 weeks and we will be back there with Sally, Matt and Rob for another lovely 2 weeks. But for now it is now back to reality – today I must do a pile of ironing while Pete goes off to the supermarket to stock the food cupboards.

Thursday morning it was up bright and early  to be at the Chemo Clinic for 9.15am. All was well and I am now on my FINAL round of treatment, YIPPEE!!!!!

We have come back to find our garden in Warboys a mass of blooms and looking really pretty and our friend Bob had cut the grass so it was all looking trim and tidy. Seeing the garden here in the summer months is a real novelty to us as it is the first time we have been in residence here at this time since we have moved in. The roses are really spectacular and all the new plants we added earlier in the year are now established and are an absolute picture.

I should think Peter will be kept busy for a few days pottering and dead heading so that should keep Mr Thrower happy for a while! He’s always at his happiest when he can be out in the garden.

I really must get down to some serious crafting as it is time to start making the Christmas cards even if it is only June!

We had a good journey over on Sunday. Pam and Bob picked us up from Warboys at 1.30pm and kindly took us to the airport for our 3.40pm flight. Ryanair was even more chaotic than ever. I question what advantage there is at having to now check in on line as the queues to drop off luggage were just as long and the check in girl went through all the procedures that she would if she was checking you in fully. Ours is not to question why though is it – it’s probably just a ploy to make more money from those poor souls that don’t have a computer!!!

Once again I was glad that I had the good sense to book a wheelchair as this time the gate was even further from the departure lounge – a 25 minute walk which would have finished me for traveling any further! It is good to have the chair as you get priority treatment at the airport, on the plane and at the destination. I still say I will use the facility when I am totally recovered just for the speedy route through security and the reserved seats! We’ll see if I have the cheek when the time comes! Today, Tuesday, I am still feeling very tired and lacking energy after the journey but I should be fine by tomorrow.

Friends Lin and Bob were there to meet us at Alicante and the 1 hour 20 minute drive to our villa sped by as we had so much news to catch up on. When we got ‘home’ at 10pm we found that other friends Mick and Maggie had left us  food essentials so that we could have a cup of tea and a roll before going to our lovely clean bed as Maggie had washed the bedding and towels after we left last March and we also had the where with all  to have breakfast the next day so there was no panic to go shopping.

My tubs and baskets on the terrace and porch look fabulous with hoards of blooms. Maggie has obviously looked after them a treat while we were back in the UK and the plants benefitted from the good pruning that Peter gave them back in March. 

We are so lucky to have such good friends in both the UK and Spain.

The gardeners and pool cleaner that we took on board in March have done a good job, the garden looks very neat and the pool is sparkling clean after its big clean and the added sea lion in the bottom of the pool looks great. We haven’t ventured in yet as the cover had been left off and it is only reading 21 degrees. That is actually lovely for swimming if you can get the courage to just get in first, which we haven’t yet!

Needless to say, the brown sandy rain has come to Spain from Africa again during the time we have been away so terrace was very mucky and the bugs had somehow got in and died all through the villa. So our first jobs as usual were for Peter to power hose the terrace down while I got rid of all the dead bugs inside the villa. The pool man said the brown rain came three times and it was the devil’s own job to keep the pools. He was not a happy bunny!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am off to meet the girlies at the craft group while Peter goes off with the guys to hit a few balls at the driving range. Then on Thursday evening we are meeting up with friends Lesley & Peter and Jenny & Nigel for a meal at one of our favorite local restaurants and no doubt there will be many other get togethers over good meals with other friends while we are here.

As you have probably realised we are very happy to be here and now the chores are done we are just going to just relax and chill out.

Tuesday we went to Letchworth and lunched out with our friend June at the Three Horseshoes in Norton. Meal was a bit disappointing but the company was good. When we left June late afternoon we decided to return to our last roots before departing for Spain, the wonderful hamlet of Radwell where we dropped in for afternoon tea with our friends Denis and Muriel. It was lovely to see them and June again as once more it is a year since we got together and once more we had just loads of gossip to catch up on.

On Friday we met friends Jan and Bob in the Crown in St Neot’s. Over a 3 hour excellent lunch we talked our tongues off. We always enjoy their company and the time went by far too quickly. Looking forward to seeing them again when we are in Spain in June as they will be there at the same time.

On Sunday our dear friends Pam and Bob invited us to dinner which was excellent. The weather was excellent too and we enjoyed a couple of hours sat in their garden in the lovely sunshine and then languished on their sofas in the evening to watch some of our favorite programs on TV.

Monday was Grandson Matt’s 17th birthday so we popped down to Sal’s for the afternoon to sing at him! We went out for an impromptu meal at Frankie and Benny’s and it was yummy. Then it was back to Sal’s for 1/2 an hour for a cup of tea and a slice of birthday cake. God Bless my belly!

Yesterday Peter’s brother Richard and his wife Joan came down from Norfolk to visit us and so it was out for yet another lunch. This time went to the Ferryboat Inn and Holywell, An inn dating back to 560AD sitting right on the river Ouse and they provided us with another excellent meal. We had lots of news to catch up on as we have not seen them since they visited us in Spain last July. Again the time passed far too quickly but hopefully we won’t leave it as long before we see them again.

Today we are off out again. This time with Pam and Bob. We are going to The Mill in Huntingdon for lunch and then off to the cinema to see Angels and Demons which I have been told is a good film and better than the Da Vinci Code, then for the rest of this week we are not meeting anyone or going out and I think my body and particularly my belly needs a well earned rest!

Tomorrow I finish my 6th round of Chemo and although I still have the tired spells (not surprising really with all our socialising!) I have fared better this time around. Only 2 more rounds to go and a relaxing visit to Spain in between clinic visits. Unfortunately I have put a stone in weight back on since my treatment started. All the medical people tell me that it is good as I lost so much weight far too quickly when I was ill and that was not good. They also say that it is a good sign of healing. I have been told not to try to do anything about the weight gain while I am on treatment as I need the food for my waning energy levels. (That’s my excuse anyway!) Fortunately it only seems to have filled out the haggard and hanging bits of the body and all the new clothes I bought still fit me fine, thank goodness! Everyone tells me I am looking very well and I must confess that I am certainly heaps better than I have been at any time over the last year. Now all I’ve got to do is finish the chemo, have my colostomy reversal in September, recover from that and I will be back on track to enjoy my life to the full again.

In between all our hectic socializing, apart from pottering about the house doing light jobs, which still exhausts me, I have not done anything constructive apart from making the odd card here and there. I really must get back to writing my life story and to sorting out the boxes of photos too but I can’t seem to summon the energy and my concentration levels are not good. Unusually for me I am even losing more games than I am winning at my scrabble games but I will get on back track soon and probably then will also lose the excuse not to do the vacuuming and floor washing, sigh! 

Peter’s almost finished tidying up the corner of the garden where the oil tank was removed. He just has the slabs to form a a base for the wheelie bins to lay. I don’t know what he will do with himself when he has nothing left in the garden to potter about in.  However he is making a lot of headway into finding his way around the PC and spends at least an hour or two most days playing on it. I feel another lesson coming up as he’s not asking many questions these days!

Still very much on countdown for our pending visit to Spain – only 11 days to go now, all being well. Looking forward to it so much and to some constant good weather, the pool and seeing all our friends out there again too.

Well enough of my nonsense I must go and get ready for lunch out and flicks! Byeeeee for now.

We went to Peter’s Aunt Bett and Uncle Chas’s in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire for the weekend. Aunt Bett and I spent many hours chatting while Peter under very firm instructions from Uncle Chas worked hard getting their garden ready for it’s participation in ‘Open Gardens” on 7th June. He weeded, cut back and planted up both front and back gardens and left it looking very spruce and pretty. They are unable to do the work themselves and were delighted with Peter’s help and he was only too pleased to help and in his element working the soil as those of you who knows him well are aware that gardening is not a chore to him but a therapeutic hobby.

Our own garden is looking good now that all the new plants are established and Peter is now busy tidying up the corner where the oil tank was and he is making a hidden corner for all those ugly wheelie bins that we have. Today we have a carpenter here fitting a new cupboard in the utility room where the old boiler used to be. It will be nice not to have to look at all the ugly piping that was installed with the new boiler and useful to have another cupboard.

On Tuesday we spent another nice day with Sally. After going to Costa’s for coffee and a pastry Peter and Sally left me in HobbyCraft for a blissful hour of browsing, and a bit of shopping of course, while they went to look at cars for Sally. She is taking advantage of Gordon Brown’s offer of the £2000 trade -in on her worthless ancient car as a deposit on a new Ford KA. Good for her! We then picked Matt and Rob up from school and went to the Harvester for a meal, I’m not overly keen on the Harvester but I do like their salad bar and it is good value for money.

I did not fare as well on my last round of chemo treatment as on previous cycles but I was warned that it might get worse as treatment progressed. Nothing major but lots of little things combined with extreme lethargy and tiredness left me feeling like utter crap towards the end and after the treatment finished. The oncologist has reduced the level of dosage as she thought that would help with the effects I was getting and said it would not be detrimental. One good thing though was that my blood counts have not dropped very much at all since I started treatment and if that continues I am definitely on my way to Spain in 3 weeks time.  I started on round 6 of 8 courses last night and hope it goes a bit better this time. 

I have been busy on the crafting front and last week between jaunts I made 18 cards so I have a good stock in hand now. I think I might make a start on Christmas cards soon! I’m still finding my way around applications on my MacBook and still think it is wonderful. Peter is progressing well with the PC and is asking me for help less and less. I’m so pleased that he is no longer a technophobic!

Well that’s all for now folks. More boring ramblings in a couple of weeks time.

Peter has finished his major works in the garden and the new beds are all planted and ready now to give us much pleasure through the summer months. The oil tank has gone to who knows where but it’s removal was not without incident. A spark from the angle grinder set the residual oil alight and I shut myself in the house away from the terrible smoke and smell and waiting for the explosion. All was well though as the guys managed to dowse the flames before that happened.

Me and my MacBook are now firm friends and I love it. I bow to David’s philosophy and good advice and agree it is so much better (and quicker) than Windows. Peter is still making friends with the Dell Laptop but he is doing well and at least taking an interest, at long last, in modern technology. He quite enjoys sending his own emails and enjoys the replies even more. He’s even joined FaceBook much to the surprise of family and friends.

The weather over the last week has been very good, lets hope it lasts. It makes being away from Spain more bearable.

We had a very nice day out at Ely in Cambridgeshire last Sunday. We arrived at the Cathedral in the middle of a service and decided to sit and join in and the sound of the choir singing was awesome. After the service we had a look around and then had coffee in the cathedral pantry before ambling down through a lovely park to the river We walked along the river bank for a while and then of course had to go for a drink in a pub overlooking the river. It was then time to meander back through the park and quaint streets to find our car. Considering all, I did very well as we must have walked over 2 miles and I coped with it very well. The drive there and back through the fens and villages was nice too although at one point on the way home we did wonder if we would ever find our way out of the fens!

Since last writing we have been to the cinema twice with Pam and Bob and saw two very good films – ‘The Boat That Rocks’ was hilarious and well worth seeing and ‘State of Play’, although very intense, was also very good. On both occasions we went to ‘The Mill’ by the river in Huntingdon afterwards for a meal.

Yesterday we spent another lovely day with Sally. We hit the shops again and I got some nice clothes from M&S and stocked up on my Body Shop products. Peter got some more clothes from M&S and Primark so we are well  kitted out for the summer, if we have one!

Spending a  chillax weekend at home this weekend and I’m going to do some crafting. Then on Tuesday we are going out to lunch with some friends who live in Datchworth in Hertfordshire and next weekend spending a couple of days with dear Aunt Bett and Uncle Chas in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire.

On the health front all is good. Peter has had the results of  his tests and all is well. I went to see my consultant and they are scheduling my colostomy reversal op in for September, so that is good news and I will be glad to get rid of the bag. All was well at the Chemo clinic and I am now over half way through my 5th round of treatment without any major problems. Only 3 more to go after this one!

Started on countdown for our next visit to Spain in June, all being well. Only 38 days to go!

More ramblings soon. Bye for now!

My idea was to remove a row of paving slabs that abutted the wall of the house to create another flower bed and bring more color into the garden, easy, we thought, except that Peter has had to remove tons of rubble from beneath them. It’s done now though and tomorrow it’s off to the garden centre to buy more plants.

Peter has also drained all the oil out of the tank and sold it to various neighbors, that little cash haul at least paid for the plants! Now the tank has to be disposed of but the neighbors have offered to give him a hand to do that.

It’s not been all work though as last Tuesday we spent the day with Sally and family in Stevenage and while we were there we all went out for lunch, which was very nice. Then on Wednesday Pam and Bob took us out for lunch to the Ferry Boat Inn which is a lovely old pub dating back to 560AD and located right on the river. We had a lovely meal which was a belated anniversary celebration. Thanks Pam and Bob.

On Saturday morning we left Warboys to travel to Colchester to spend a couple of days with David, Alison and family, stopping to have yet another lunch out on the way. In the evening I went off to Wembley Arena with Ali, Tiff and James to see Torvill and Dean’s Dancing on Ice while Peter and David stayed behind to watch boy’s DVDs. Dancing on Ice was fantastic and brought back fond memories of when we went to Torvill and Dean’s celebratory show 25 years ago just after they had won gold for Bolero. Thank you David for giving me your ticket, even if you did have an ulterior motive as you didn’t want to go anyway! And thank you Ali for taking me, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Most of Sunday was spent with my changeover to the Apple Mac (see previous Blog entry – More Learning!). I don’t know what Peter was doing while all this was going on but he said he was happy just relaxing and in the evening we watched a very funny DVD! Then on Monday after a relaxing morning we went out for yet another lunch, this time at the Yew Tree in Horksley, another lovely meal.

We decided to leave as soon as we got back after lunch so that we were not too late getting home to Warboys. How silly that thought was! The first hour of the journey was fine but then we came to a complete standstill on the A14 and just sat without moving more than one car’s length at a time for the next 4 1/2 hours. This was due to a fatal accident and subsequent complete closure of the road. We had nowhere to go so just had to sit and wait patiently. Our major concern was that I had to take my chemo treatment at 8pm which must be taken with food. Thank God and David and Alison for the box of chocs they gave me and the bottle of water I always carry when travelling. A few choccies and a few slurps of water to take the 6 tablets and problem sorted! We eventually got home at 9.45pm when we should have been home by 5pm latest!  We were both exhausted and after a cup of tea went straight to bed. Needless to say, yesterday we sloughed and became couch potatoes, sleeping and catching up on all the TV programs we had recorded while we were away!

Tomorrow I finish my 4th round of chemo and have a break for a week before the next session. I’m half way through the treatment now and next week I go to see my consultant when hopefully we will talk about my colostomy reversal which I hope will take place in September.

However, his wife Alison has just upgraded her Apple Notebook and was trying to sell her ‘old’ one on EBay (old is not really the right word as it was an insurance replacement when hers got damaged only 2 months ago!).

My resolve slipped when we were visiting them last weekend when temptation got the better of me and before I knew what was happening David was transferring files over from my PC to the Apple Mac, just for me to try it out and see if I was comfortable with it and I was very quickly hooked!

There are quite a few differences which I am gradually finding out but I have to bow to David’s superiority and say it is much nicer to use and very much quicker and after 3 days I am feeling quite comfortable with it. Most certainly the changeover has been far less stressful than when I changed my PC 2 years ago and moved over from XP to Vista. I have lost some applications which do not work on the Apple but I will order some extra memory so that David can load Windows for me to enable me to use them on the Apple. I do still have a lot of learning to do though to master my new baby but it’s good to keep the brain working isn’t it. David and Alison have been a big help in getting me started, thank you both. Now it’s down to me and David retaining his patience with me over the next few weeks!

 My PC has been passed on to 2nd-hand-Peter to replace the one we gave to our Grandson recently. He says he will start to use it regularly and David and I are going to make sure he does as it is really time that he stopped being a dinosaur! He now has his own email account peter@angier.co.uk and today has been picking up, reading messages and deleting unwanted ones. Tomorrow he will set up folders to store emails he wants to keep and then create and send emails and then we will get him surfing the net. Watch this space, he might even take over the online banking from me!