Another Spin Around the Sun.........

 
I hope you read my last post as then all I need to say is Saturday morning breakfast for six of us lasted till noon, then they all moved around the house gathering all their stuff together. Lots more hugs and we waved them off. Very special friends that had bought me a very special and thoughtful birthday present (related to my health issues).

Not much later on Saturday another early birthday present was delivered. 

These had been sent by our friendGC, an old school friend of Hubby's so my friend too for all the time Hubby and I have been together. He's never done birthday presents before so this feels very special too. 

Sunday my favourite visit from Son and fiancé. They bought me this beautiful Celosia plant, also known as cock's comb. What a stunning colour!  

This is a multi purpose scarf/shawl/blanket and is part of the same design set as the jewelry box they bought me for Mother's day. So soft. 

And I was presented with an illuminated cake.

Monday was my actual birthday and of course we started with coffee morning. Hubby bought these for us to share with our lovely neighbour-friends

I'm amazed at this large collection of cards and enough gifts of flowers that needed six vases! 

I spent a lot of the day replying to all the wonderful online messages. 

Five different pubs that want to treat me to birthday food or drink (along with buying of course).

And even a message from my Google account. 

Tuesday was much calmer as we had Daughter's dog here..... After Hubby had picked her up from home and also taken R to work. 

We had our usual Wednesday group gathering at the pub that evening, although we have missed three Wednesdays while friendM had been in Spain so plenty to catch up with and this time friendHM joined us. 

Thursday and Friday were both Doggy Day Care days and she really is no bother. 

My birthday celebrations are going into the coming Sunday and Monday but I'll write about them in next week's.

Enjoy your weekend too.

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Tragedy and Comedy.......

 
O aka Charlie Blackwood has released his third album of all original tracks. Always available on all the places that stream music. So very proud he's achieving what he's passionate about and loving it. 

A quick medical update on us both (never my favourite stuff to report on as it's rarely fun) however, Hubby's back is improving and he's managing to stay sensible and not do too much. Hubby also had a dental appointment where he was told it would need an extraction but a more senior dentist saw him and offered another solution as the tooth looked healthy to him and it was the receding gum that was exposing the nerve so he used a resin to fill the gap and they will monitor in a couple of months. Fingers crossed. 

For me it's been an uncomfortable week with the medication side effects. Up to now they've recommended stopping for a few days when needed to let things recover but as the consultant has just increased my dose that seemed like undoing any good so I rang the care team for advice. They confirmed I should briefly stop and also referred me to the Palliative Care Team (surprised I'd never been told about them before) as they can offer expert medical help for my whole wellbeing and not just my cancer care. Happy to accept all the support available. 

Friday evening Hubby and I together with friendsL&K and friendsL&M were out for an early dinner at as pub near Sutton Hoo. Then we all went to see Hamlet at the Theatre in the Forest. My second time of course! 

It was brilliant as I knew it would be and my whole group thoroughly enjoyed it with one saying it was better than when they'd seen it in the West End.  

Then all back here for a sleepover (there's been quite a bit of housework done in preparation so friends don't see how we normally live like slobs).

Now our friends are all getting up so I'm off to make them breakfast. 

I'll leave you with a thoughtful Hamlet quote "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so".

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End of July.......

 
With the garden looking almost all green at the moment Hubby couldn't bear to pull up the big weed by the wall because it has bright yellow flowers! 

R gets Sundays and Mondays as free days during the Hamlet run and Monday afternoon she came over with Daughter to get this huge crop of plums picked and prepped. 

I open freeze on trays

Then bag up. Now there's a drawer full which I need to weigh as Daughter wants to make chutney so we will need to do the maths and buy the ingredients for my favourite recipe.

Shame this freezer is quite a bit smaller than my old one as now it's quite a squeeze.

One of our neighbours brought Hubby up a jigsaw she'd done because she knows he loves them and humorous snooker which is the subject of this one. 

He has started it but while the weather is good it could take a very long time as he prefers to be outside. 

As I've said many times Hubby is a very active person and gets frustrated when he can't do stuff, especially while having a painful back. 

As I've also said before we have very low water pressure which has annoyed Hubby for years and he's desperate to find a way to improve it even though many plumbers, British Gas and Anglian Water people have looked at it and failed to come up with ideas. 

Another idea came to Hubby about the pipework he had changed around when he rebuilt the bathroom twice. So still recovering but declaring his back is worse when he's resting, he had to lift carpet, underlay and floorboards in the bathroom. 

He checked it all and explained to me what pipe did what job and decided there really was nothing wrong with what he'd done. So floorboards and carpet went back. 

I'm so hoping now he can manage to live with what we have. 

Had a call from the oncology consultant with the scan results. There has been some growth that he said was not enough for me to worry about but enough for him to suggest I increase the dose again or try a different drug that does the same job but my body 'may' tolerate it better. For now I've agreed to stay on this drug and the side effects I'm learning how to deal with, I'll take 1x40mg and 6x20mg each week so a minor increase, and hope it doesn't change how I feel too much. He will review again after the next scan in about four months time. 

Another week gone and also another month! Time just whizzes by! 

See you again in no time at all.

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