Me posh!

Well it's an exciting weekend ahead, today we are childless for the afternoon, a rare event. We are now planning where to go. Adam stayed the night with a friend and is in Bath today and Vaughan is going to watch the Rugby in Bath this afternoon with one of his friends. Livi is working, but she doesn't count as she will be out the door and off in the car (using my petrol!) as soon as she gets home. We drop Vaughan off at 1 and will be looking for somewhere to go in the north of the county straight afterwards. Dyrham park might be nice. Tomorrow it's rugby at Marlborough, more on that later.

Another quiet week (for me). Radio therapy ends next week which means the end of the regular visits to the RUH. Tracey becomes a pills only patient. This is a big milestone, our visits started last June and have occurred with monotonous regularity ever since. I for one won't miss the place and of course we will be returning again and again and again. Tracey is on Radio 17 Wonderful radio Kazakhstan (one just for you Trace). I don't know what Trace will be doing with her weeks but she needs some time for her after all this.

That aside we have been quite busy, we had a lovely, therapeutic stroll around Stourhead, there can be few better places to trundle around on a winters afternoon. We took a bucket full of pictures. The walk was just the right length, not too muddy and just distracting enough.

So back to the rugby. Marlborough as you might guess is very posh. The town itself is full of coffee shops and tourists and is dominated by the school. I naturally feel like a peasant whenever I go there, which is no bad thing because that is what I am. If I ever begin to feel at home with these people it's time to give it all up. The rugby pitch is on the edge of the town, on the top of a hill, exposed to the elements. The pitch is awful and the clubhouse is a long way from the pitch. We have played them a few times before. Last time we played Vaughan said to me that they were very posh " they've got a Dexter and a Marco playing for them". I took a few moments to think about this. Vaughan plays for "working class" Corsham. On the present team sheet there are 2 Tristan's, a Zach, a Leo, a Louis and an Alistair, not to mention a Will and Harry, Ross and Taylor aren't playing and have I mentioned Vaughan? A fine set of working class names. Now I could be wrong of course, I played rugby with a Clarence, but he was a farmers son who the last time I heard was a milkman. I suppose posh is whatever you think it is.

Incidently between writing the opening and this paragraph we managed to have a very cold walk around Holt. Lovely!

Finally 2 pictures, one from Vaughan one from me. We are having a bit of a boys competition here. Vaughan is convinced he took the best photo, I disagree. If you have time could you please vote on the best Robin photo, there is a poll on the right of the blog for you to use.

  

Picture 1

Picture 2

Cheers
Chris x

After years appart

Things have been very quiet for me on the treatment front lately. Of course I am not the one being treated, but you know what I mean, I am not involved with radio therapy so I have lost my connection with Tracey's treatment. I'm starting to think she hasn't really been ill. That is obviously rubbish, but I have spent many years talking rubbish. I don't miss the trip to the RUH but I do miss taking part in the treatment in whatever small way possible. The only taking part I have managed is one attempt at applying cream to the irradiated area, but I think I am just a bit too heavy handed.

So we have been moving on, I do the kids in the morning, drop off at Corsham, drop off at Lackham, get to work after 9:00, leave late. Tracey does the afternoon, RUH for 13:00, pick up kids from Corsham, pick up from Lackham, get home and crash. It's different but it works at the moment. Trace is on radio 12 (Wonderful radio Slovenia) so is over halfway through this stage of her treatment. 

This then is mainly why I haven't blogged for a while, nothing to report.

Well not nothing, Vaughan has scored his first try for Corsham, against Bradford on Avon. Yes it was a tough local derby. Sadly we were watching from the bottom left hand corner of the pitch and the try was scored in the top right. We only knew it was him when they all started shaking his hand (and they were also 50 points down at the time). Nevertheless it was great for us both to be there to see it and it was hard to wipe the smile off his face for a few days.

Also I have managed to be ill, had a couple of days off work. I had not been feeling well for a while. I had a complete loss of my positivity, become a miserable bugger. How would you know the difference I hear you ask. On Tuesday morning I woke up with a start to the alarm bleeping. Unfortunately I had been lying funny on both my arms and had lost feeling in my fingers so I couldn't feel the buttons on my clock and struggled to turn it off. After bashing it for a while till it went silent I realised I was having trouble clearing my bleary eyes. It was only when I went to the toilet and turned the light on that I was in the middle of an ocular migraine, there was an arc of pretty kaleidoscope colours across my vision. If you have ever suffered from one of these you will know that you just carry on and they go in about half an hour. Unfortunately they leave me feeling washed out. So I waited and then did the kid run once the eyes had settled, by the time I got home I was totally washed out so phoned work and went back to bed till midday. I feel much better now, perhaps I was building up to this.

Finally it has been a good week on the friend side. After around 20 years I finally got in touch with an old good friend of mine, Graham. Graham became a friend of mine through an old girlfriend though we really became friends in the middle of a tackle on the football field. Graham was a big lad, we were in the process of forming a football team for a local pub and he was showing off his skills by fending off a few of the other regulars who were frightened to tackle him. I had been playing rugby for years, although I was not the bravest rugby player, I got a bit fed up with the messing about and hit him really hard with a tackle. He started laughing in mid air and on the way back to ground and a great friendship really began. He was an usher at our wedding. Together we drank away my mid 20's in a frenzy of fun and vomit. But not in a bad way. But then we drifted apart, suddenly. I went to Plymouth he ended up in Weston-super-mare. Recently I found him on Facebook, exchanged a few emails and finally got to talk on Wednesday night. He sounds like he hasn't changed, moved on yes but not changed. I'm sure I will get round to seeing him at some point.

Well that's the end for today.

Chris x

Wonderful Radio One

I thought up my snappy little title while I was waiting for Tracey to finish her radio therapy, which is a shame as this blog is mostly not going to be about it. The problem was that I took a day off for Tracey's first treatment just to see what it was like. It's not like chemo, I can't sit next to her and witter away aimlessly, I have to sit and wait, in the waiting room (good name for it I hear you say). When Tracey was called away for treatment I just sat down and waited, and waited, and waited. I was reading a christmas present, a book about my beloved Somerset cricket club, then decided to listen to some sounds on my Ipod. Imagine my surprise when I was woken up with a start by the sound of my own snoring. I quickly changed to playing games on the Ipod until Tracey came out of her treatment. That was that over, uneventful for me but I know she has a full account on her blog.

My real concern this week has been the demise of our upstairs cistern. I like to think it was broken by one of our children, Adam I believe. I am not a handyman, not in the slightest. I can do nails and hammering, I can fix computers, I can't do water closets. I have the flushing bits that have been broken, I have a manual for the mechanism. I have visited B&Q, Focus, Wickes and even the Plumb Stop. Plumb Stop was quite revealing, an intake of air through the front teeth and the immortal words "I've not seen one of these before".

My only option was to visit the local shop I bought it from, Melksham's Bathroom and Tile centre. The only problem was that it's a one man and his dog firm, meaning that they weren't open over Christmas or the new year. All this time we have had to remove the cistern lid and manually lift the mechanism to get the flush to work.

Today though was the day. I proudly walked through Melksham with the damaged part in one hand  and the manual in the other. I don't know about you, but these shops do intimidate me. I only want a couple of bits of plastic so I can join the mechanism back together, but that still doesn't stop me feeling like an 8 year old as I enter the shop (no I mean in age, not in any other way!). I should have known what was coming. "I've not seen one of these before". When I point out it was bought from his shop he starts to look at the manual. "Very good make these" slight change of tune from him, not entirely unexpected. "Do you know what model it is?". "Yeah it's a 1970 Ford Capri 3000, the one with the speed bump in the bonnet" I thought. Actually what I really thought was "It's a bloody toilet, I stand up and look down in to it, I sit on it. It's somewhere to think, it's somewhere quiet to read the Sunday papers" I have no idea what make it is or what difference that makes to the flushing mechanism. "It would have been a great help if you had a picture of it" he said. Funny that, forgot to bring the picture portfolio.

Anyway at the end of a very useful conversation it was decided, by him I think, that the best thing to do would be to ring the distributors direct and get them to supply me, the logic being that if he did it he would charge me extra for the phone calls etc. Part of me wanted desperately to say "Can you do it please mister" but I think I agreed,  left the shop and trudged home.

When I arrived home, still grasping my broken mechanism and my manual I decided the thing to do was to ring the supplier without delay. So I looked up their website and spent the next half hour looking to see if I could find the spare parts needed by myself. Eventually, realising I was well beyond my considerable intellect, I girded my loins and rung. Tina from Birmingham answered the phone. I explained my situation, "What model is it love" by this time I had looked again at the cistern and found a name "It's an Impulse, please can you help me"I said. " I'll just have a look at the manual" she said with a ruffle of pages. We compared manuals for a moment. "It would help a lot if you had a picture of the unit". What is it with these people and pictures. Anyway to cut along story short, I took a series of pictures of my toilet and sent it to a stranger in Birmingham hoping that she will be able to supply me with the parts I need. And if you don't believe me here are a couple of the photos.

I now have a folderin my computer picture library entitled Toilet.

I hope to be able to complete this transaction in a few days.



Cistern





Broken bit

 Finally I am pleased to say that the decs are down and the festivities are officially over in the house.

And on that note I shall say goodbye

Chris x

3-2-1-2011

And so ends a year, an ordinary one to some, a good one to others, a bad one to many and a difficult one for us. Nearly bloody impossible really. but we got through it and we will get through this one.

There has to be some perspective here. We have illness and treatment. When we have needed help people, doctors, nurses, just about everyone really, has been available for a kind word, new medication, or dinner. Thanks to all who have been there. Other people have not been so lucky, I am not sure how the parent and friends of the teenagers who died in the car crash at Rowde cope. My best wishes to them.

Still its been a while, without regular chemo I have little to report aside from the usual tales of Tinsley family life. Friday was a big day, it would have been the next chemo if there was 7, but there were only 6 so we could put our heart in to New Years Eve. A view of things to come on New Year, Olivia was out with friends and Vaughan spent the night with a friend in Broughton Gifford. So it was just Tracey, Adam and me, a perfect trio. And it was a good evening. Olivia was sleeping at home and her friend Alex staying.

Most of the early part of the evening was spent watching the girls slowly get ready. Lots of Archers was drunk and they eventually managed to get out just before 10. They were dressed to kill.

No man was safe.

Earlier that evening we had been invited next door to watch their fireworks. We don't often accept invites from our neighbours but this time we took them up on it. Armed with a bottle of wine we trudged over to Tony and Helena's and watched a very good display of pyrotechnics washed down by our very ordinary South African wine. Back to beer for me. It was good getting out, we have pulled up the drawbridge very high over the last few months and it did us good to let it down just a little. I drank too much wine, kept the neighbours up long after they wanted to go to bed and snored loudly all night. A resounding success.

We were in bed just after 2, the girls were home before 3 and Vaughan drunk in the new year at a friends house. I have no idea how much he had. Oh and Adam had a lager thrust in his hand to welcome the new year, a good start for him.

This year will be different. We went for a walk today from Smallgrain picnic site. It was lovely and short. Just enough exercise to start getting back in to moving again we need to get out and about, this was a small start. It was fun apart from the boys fighting, but hey, we expect that.

Oh well I will keep this short.

Happy New Year everyone

Chris x