Monday...

The man of the house here...blogging, after stuffing myself on some gorgeous chicken tetrazzini (never knew that word existed.....it sounds like some cheap Italian wine) but tastes wonderful....the Luce boys are once again hugely grateful to the LT Takeaway service from St. Catherine's. Jack misses out as he's on nights this evening....bad luck him...not sure if there'll be any left...even though it was a VERY big dish....in fairness though, we will keep him some.

We've cleared away...and the boys (plus extras this evening) are now engaged in a very deep and meaningful discussion about the "Stronghold" game that Jill mentioned last night. Apparently the version we now have is in "remastered HD'...a great improvement on the original, so they tell me....not that I'd know....as far as I can remember Stronghold is the name of the worming treatment we use on the dog and the cat.

Medical issues 1 ....minor news is that Dan's chin looks a little better, and he sounds a little happier...I think the swelling has gone down a bit....but he won't be fit for any Lifeboat duties for at least another ten days.....his refitted Lifeboat returns from the UK this evening (not the greatest day to come over from Portsmouth...even if you deliver Lifeboats for a living)....training starts tomorrow at 8...at least Dan can do the land based tutorials.

Medical issues 2 ....major news is that Jill's blood test went well enough today...well enough that she can have chemo on Wednesday (don't know whether to be happy or sad)....at least this is positive news....her blood has finally improved enough for more treatment. As our reader might have guessed, to celebrate her news about chemo, Jill has gone out this evening to play badminton....maybe she'll add a few more notes to this blog on her return.

For some inexplicable reason the computer game won't load from the laptop up to the TV screen...what a relief for everyone....the downside is that the many boys in the kitchen (there's an extra one every time I look up) now have Top Gear reruns up on the screen...debating the merits of supercars...specifically Audi v Ferrari v McLaren....not that any one of them will ever be rich enough to "cough up the loot"...even if they pooled all their (not so) vast incomes....or took out a loan on their (not so enormous) salaries. The funniest moment of the evening goes to (additional boy) SdG...who apparently put his back out this morning reaching for toothbrush....there are others literally falling about they are laughing so much.....others are suggesting (very unkindly) that my back goes out more than I do.

Dan is now trying to persuade me to fill up the 1000 litre fuel tank at the back of the house with car diesel "while it's so cheap"...the fact that 1) the bill for all 1000 litres would have to be paid immediately, and 2) that it would be ME paying it, seems to be lost on him. It seems that "we could just tell you when we've taken some and how much we've used" ...yeah right...does it look like I got off a banana boat sometime over the weekend.

My final contribution this evening concerns this evening's JEP....there's a photo of the Council of Ministers on page 6, with yours truly in the foreground looking away from the camera.....my lovely wife sent me a message late this afternoon to say that the photo had appeared, and that the back of my head was probably my "best side"....it's a sad day when that happens....lucky her birthday isn't any time soon. In truth she's probably right...but the truth still hurts!!

Bloods as follows
HB (Red cells) 11.0 
White Cells 3.0
neutrophils 2.04
platelets 236

Goodness knows what was in those injections, but boy did it make my bones 'ache'!!  Did the trick though didn't it?! 
Chemo booked for Wednesday afternoon- cross that bridge when i get to it. I also have to have another (new to me injection) after the chemo.. i'll know more later, I can hardly contain my excitement.....


Met PG and MG on the way into hospital, had a chat with them about operations and treatments etc, they are due to fly over to the Marsden next week, so hope we can offer some useful advice.

Also saw the very lovely LH, who like me was having a blood test with her chemo due tomorrow. It's fair to say we both look surprisingly well, considering we're not!!!

Lastly, a great badminton tournament tonight, had a lovely partner and we managed to win four games and lose two, so we were pleased with that!

Tonights quote taken from the wonderful Mother Teresa ....