Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary

Training Day

All the children had a day off school yesterday, so after a lateish morning (for me and Cindy, anyway) we went into to town and had brunch at Meltons Too. John had a full english breakfast, with bacon, sausage, 2 fried eggs, black pudding, lambs kidney, mushrooms, grilled tomato and a grilled muffin. It certainly filled the plate, looked delicious and was all eaten up (Cindy had the kidney, and I had most of the mushrooms). I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, Toby had a bacon and egg butty and Rose had a big piece of chocolate cake. Much enjoyed by all.

While Cindy took the children home, I dashed off for my regular game of badminton with Simon. He won again, but it wasn’t the awful walkover of last week. 2-1 to him with the last game very close.

Cindy went to bed when I got home, John and Rose made cards, Toby pottered and then had to go to the dentist to have his brace tightened again. The dentist says that he should be able to have his brace off by Easter next year.

In the evening we watched Shrek 2 and kept nice and warm indoors.

Most exciting of all – John got a Blue Peter badge.

York Christmas Lights Turned On

I got back from town with the children just a couple of hours ago. We’d been into town to watch the lights being turned on, but the big attraction were Huge. They played for about 45 minutes before the lights were turned on – which was very dull, with the Lord Mayor, Sherriff, someone from Nestle and a couple of boring Radio York presenters – and then for about the same time afterwards. All their usual songs – Jungle Book, Walking on Sunshine, American Pie, Build Me Up Buttercup, Sit Down – and almost all with audience participation. I really enjoyed it and so did the children. It was exciting being out in town in the dark.

The photos are more impressionistic than realistic. It was dark and too far away for the flash so most of them are a bit blurred, and possibly look all the better for that.

The rest of the day – I went to yoga and the supermarket, the children to school and Cindy rested. She’s ok, but has some aches and pains and feels drained.

Chemo Number 3

Cindy went over to the Cancer Care Centre for a 9:45 appointment this morning for her third round of chemo and an appointment with Dr Bottomley.

Again the chemo wasn’t too bad, a couple of hours on a drip and not too uncomfortable. On her way home she “popped into town” to do some Christmas shopping – where does she get the energy?

She seems fine this evening, we’re expecting that she will have a few more days of feeling exhaused and that more hair will fall out.

She is due to have another scan on Thursday, and we should get the results of that next week.

Day Out with Ted

I had a great day today. Immediately after dropping the children at school, I went to the station, met Ted and went over to Leeds for the day.

We spent the morning looking around the morning looking around the art gallery. Unfortunately, the main part of the sculpture gallery was closed while they were setting up a new exhibition. We looked at the pictures though – some Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Francis Bacon and Bridget Riley stick in my mind. There was also a 6ft tall model for a 150ft tall brick man by Antony Gormley that never got built and a rather dubious video art installation.

Then we went for lunch at an Italian restaurant that was recommended by one of Chris’s friends and ate and drank well!

Then back to York in time to pick up the kids – or rather go to a talk/show by Kjartan Poskitt plugging his new book – The Magic of Pants. Kjartan did his usual amusing mix of maths tricks, magic and banter.

Toby cooked tea, John and Rose went to gym and are finally in bed (just) and I’m hoping to watch Teachers with Cindy soon.

Quite a contast to Cindy’s day.

Lunch with Kath

Cindy and I had lunch with Kath Pringle today. We’ve seen very little of her since she, Marcus and Louis left York 3 years ago. But since Marcus’s death earlier this year she and Louis have come back and are currently living over in a friend’s flat in Heslington. Louis has gone back to the Steiner school for the one remaining year that he can go there, and Kath has got a job in a special school in Knaresborough.

It was great to see her, and lunch turned into 3:30 by the time she left. She looks just the same as when she left York. Louis who we saw briefly a few weeks ago doesn’t, of course. He has grown a lot and at the moment looks ages older than Toby, even though they are about the same age. We’ve arranged that she and Louis will come over on New Year’s Eve, unless they arrange to go to Spain to see Marcus’s sister.

Dance Festival

John’s Saturday morning dance group were part of the city’s Dance Performance yesterday afternoon. His group had prepared a dance based on Hilare Belloc’s Matilda – a poem about a girl who told lies about fires and so ended up being burnt to death! I really enjoyed his bit – the whole lot was thought up and choreographed by the children, with lots of help from Janetta no doubt.

As usual there were lots of other good dances from primary and secondary schools from across York. It’s really interesting looking at the different range of types of dance and level of skill that’s going on in schools

Badminton

Normal service has been resumed. That is, Simon slaughtered me, again, as usual.

I didn’t even win the third game – often he wins the first two and I manage to win the third.

Pah!

Week and a Half after Chemo

Cindy is doing fine, but is absolutely exhausted. Today, all she has managed to do is pop out in the car with me for an hour or so to look at kitchens (obviously we only like really expensive ones). She has had a long rest this afternoon and so far is doing ok this evening.

This version of chemotherapy is much better because she doesn’t throw up for two days after each dose, she doesn’t have a Hickman Line, she doesn’t have the continuous infusion and she doesn’t throw up for two days each time.

Badminton

I said the reiki made me feel more energetic – here’s proof (perhaps).

I beat Simon at badminton (notice Simon doesn’t mention the result here). I very rarely beat him and today felt really good. I always enjoy playing and feel I get a lot out of an hour of frantic running around.

Reiki

So (see comment here), what was reiki like?

Well… while trying to remain scientific and sceptical – I certainly enjoyed it and definitely feel more energised yesterday evening and today. I think I felt an unusual amount of heat from Robert’s hands and a sometimes a peculiar tingling sensation where his hands were resting. Is this just because he has warm hands and my legs were falling asleep. Hard to tell. I definitely felt slightly spaced afterwards for a while, and more awake. I’m sure that just talking to someone for half an hour and then having a rest/snooze has some effect though!

Will I go back – at the moment I think I probably will, I’ll see how I feel in a few days.

Late Night

After a busy day and evening yesterday, I managed to go to bed fairly early, but just as I was drifting off to sleep (11:15ish), my dad phoned.

He was in a lot of pain from an overfull bladder that he could not empty (ugh). I phoned the out of hours doctor service, spoke to a nurse and then a doctor and then a doctor came round. It ended up with me taking him to casualty, the doctor phoning the urology oncall person ahead and him having a catheter put in. Once that was done he felt hugely better and once they’d found him a bed on a ward he was able to get some sleep, and I was able to come home (2am).

We expected that he would have to stay in for a few days, but he was discharged this afternoon and is at ours at the moment where he is going to have tea. He still has the catheter in but he is able to go normally. He’s going to be put on a waiting list for some sort of prostate operation. He seems fine though.

I hate hospitals and I seem to be having to go to them far too often at the moment!

Oh well, tomorrow I’m going for the more alternative health care end of things. I’m going over to Leeds to go to Robert Maida, the reiki person that Cindy has been going to for a while. I know she has got a lot out of it, so I will withhold my total and utter scepticism and see what it’s like.

Day Out to Harrogate

After I’d dropped the children at school, Cindy and I went over to Harrogate to the Turkish Baths (recently renovated). I really enjoyed it, as always, and spent a lot of time in the steam room and the plunge pool. Cindy, however, found it too hot, too exhausting and spent her time either in the coolest dry room or relaxing on the day beds. We left earlier than we might have done otherwise, but it did mean that we arrived in Betty’s just before the queue started.

We had a lovely lunch, as you can probably see from the photos – rosti with smoked salmon for her, and rosti with scrambled egg, mushrooms and tomatoes for me. We walked back to the station and then arrived back in York just in time to pick up the children.

In the evening, I took John and Rose over to gym, where I bumped into Saffron – Nok has joined the same gym class as Rose. So I was able to chat for an hour instead of sitting reading, much more pleasant.

And after that, Sam came round to babysit for a couple of hours so Cindy and I could go out to Gill’s fiftieth birthday party. It’s difficult to believe that she is so old, she certainly doesn’t seem it. I suppose that 50 isn’t that old nowdays. Chatted to people about the oddest things – Cindy’s electric bike, reliable garages (Clive Hartley if you’re local and don’t already know), drumming and various other odds and sods.

Very nice day all in all.

Bonfire Weekend

We’ve had a great weekend – two bonfire parties and visitors to stay.

On Friday evening we went to John and Katie’s house and then allotment for a fantastic bonfire, lots of sparklers, red wine and port, then back to theirs for pumpkin soup, bread, cakes and Rose’s extra special chocolate brownies. Unfortunately Cindy was too worn out by her treatment to come to any of this – she sat on the sofa and dozed and then went to bed early.

While we were at John & Katie’s, Simon Palmour told me about his new blog.

Then on Saturday afternoon, Lal and Pauline came to stay, bringing a lovely butter dish for Cindy’s birthday. We went to Steve and Sam’s for another bonfire party – lots of fireworks set off by Tom, Josh, Toby and even John lit a couple. We had soup, veggie burgers for the children, quite a lot of red wine and a very pleasant evening. Cindy had to go home about 9 o’clock and was soon followed by all the others. Once we got home, we were all feeling rather peckish, so we got a take away curry.

Today, we all went to Meeting, while L&P cooked lamb for us. Toby missed the meal, because he had to go and play football. Yet another loss for the Panthers.