Ward One Again

I'm back in Ward One for my fifth chemo cycle and I've been here for four hours already. As my infusion has just started I expect to be here for another four hours and a bit, big bit probably. So might as well pass the time writing my blog. 

This is the first time that my chemo has started on the due date which was completely unexpected as I've been so ill since my last infusion three weeks ago. Most of my time has been spent resting in bed or later in the day in front of the tele. I've become quite fond of Dickinson and his Real Deal show. In fact I must be an expert now so reckon one of my first stops will be an auction once my treatment is over. I've also become a fan of Masterchef and am looking forward to finals this week. 

I've not been able to write my blog as I've been so tired all the time. There's a mental tiredness as well as the physical one. So concentration goes out the window as well. Sometimes I turn round in the kitchen and by the time I've turned I've forgotten what it was I turned for in the first place.  

So that's why there have been no postings of late. 

I'm no longer able to cook as I can't stand long enough. A shave or a shower is followed by an hours rest. I can only manage about five minutes activity at a

any one time and then a rest. My three flights of stairs are a daily struggle. But I need to go out every day otherwise I will be screaming my little head off. I had to call my doctor out to my flat last week and she advised me to go out every day as it's good for me and the stairs will do me good. Ho ho indeed. 

I hope you all liked my photos from Blackford Pond. The coots have had five little ones and I've got photos of the chicks which I will post tonight. You will be pleased to hear that the swans have produced their little lot too and there are five or six little signets now. My pal John L has been to see them and I hope to manage a visit this week to take some photos and check on their well being. 

 Very sad news about Gabriel García Márquez since my last post. He's easily one of my favourite authors. I reread Love in the Time of Cholera last time I was in Peru and I'm convinced being in South America and knowing so much more about the place made the reading a greater experience for me. Not that the lack of knowing South America at first hand should put you off reading him if you've not already done so. I've started rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude in the hospital today. Always worth a few hours of your time. 

I did make a start on Rembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Times depending on your preference) but Proust does not make things straight forward with his enormous long roving sentences so I've decided to give the good man a rest until my brain is back in order. I've given myself six years to read him which is a volume a year. No point in not being optimistic for the future or what am I putting myself through this torture for if it's not to read Proust and of course go back to Peru and maybe even visit Macondo. 

That's all for now. I can feel the chemo filling up in my arm and getting on with 

It's curing work. I just wish it wasn't so painful. I will post photos tonight. 

Back to Márquez now.