Early Start

Up at six with a sudden glimmer of how to get round the Picasa problem. I used to post photos on my blog quite happily before I’d ever heard of blessed Picasa. Could I remember how to do it? Whatever - it didn’t work and I almost got registered with Snapfish (don’t ask) but chickened out before the final click. The good news is that # 1son and grandson are coming later this month and my grand-daughter – a computer whiz is coming next month. Yippee!

Last week was busy: the Reunion with the girls in Taunton was great fun and well worth the bone-shaker bus journey. Two of the girls have mobiles and also are now on line. ‘Be sure to charge your mobile,’ I reminded Margaret. We finally found her in Debenhams – she had dutifully charged it – just didn’t bother to switch on. I do understand, as I only grew out of that reluctance to use the battery when MTL was in hospital. My landlady gave me excellent advice:

‘Keep it on all day and recharge it every night.’ In that situation it worked a treat.

Same problem with e-mails: ‘Check your in-box,’ I beg them. The other day I got six e-mails from one of them with the sixth one – finally- completing the one line message.

We had coffee at Debenhams and then drifted round looking for somewhere nice for lunch. An expensive one looked a bit lifeless and we ended in the County Stores which has been done over upstairs, but still has a nice old-fashioned feel. The drill is the birthday girl is treated to lunch and she gets the wine. It was a long lunch and people kept stopping at the table to ask if it was someone’s birthday. In the end everyone was so relaxed they were not only pointing out the birthday girl but telling her age. Thanks guys! I felt like the prize exhibit.

We had a sweet waitress – Maisie, who kept stopping for a chat. She was small, blonde and attractive and told us she was 75. At one stage she was standing chatting with a laden tray which slowly tilted and deposited some of the left-overs on the ground. Nobody seemed perturbed and I had a vision of Julie Walters playing the ancient waitress spilling the soup.

At one stage Margaret in a fit of bonhomie handed Maisie a tip as she had been looking after us so well. We all did the same – not to be outdone - and Maisie confessed she wasn’t actually our waitress but seemed very pleased and asked when did we think we would come again. By now we were all walking on air, I bought some pretty handkerchiefs in the store – we ambled round the shops and slowly wended our way to the station where Margaret’s train and our bus departed from.

I suppose it is worse for Margaret – she has three people to miss but Margaret leaves a very large hole. With hugs and a few tears – but they were happy ones - we said ‘here’s to the next time.’

On Thursday I saw the physio back from her holiday in New Zealand and after a talk and a treatment we decided that with a 70% improvement on my neck I would be discharged, keep up the exercises and know what to do should it get troublesome again. Very satisfactory. On Friday C came for the last chemo. It was her birthday and fortunately I had got a little present and card as a thank you. She was impressed that the oncologist had said he didn’t want to see us again medically. Hopefully after we see the surgeon on the 14^th we can breathe freely again.