Saturday 3rd January 2009!
I am sure I am losing the plot. I usually start buying Christmas presents in June. This year I seem to have blocked the whole idea of Christmas, and by the actual day, I had done hardly anything. It was like I just couldn’t get my head around the whole idea of festivities. It doesn’t help that usually we are in the hot, sunny Gambia at this time of year, and as the country is half Muslim half Christian, Christmas is a lot less 'in your face' over there. So the UK brashness seems a bit vulgar – buy this, buy that, you 'must' have all of these...oh for heavens sake. Can’t we just have a lovely rest and a big dinner and have done with all this spending on things no-one really needs? Which is what we did. Our families were great and we all just swapped cards, calls and some little gifts, so we didn’t have to travel anywhere except to London...phew.
For our Christmas dinner the kids came down, I did the fabulous 5 Hour Duck [it seems an infallible recipe! see it here: the Five Hour Roast Duck ], Andrew managed to stay on the sofa for the weekend and dole out pressies and then they all went away again, stuffed to the gills. Perfect!
Our Christmas was extra muted anyway, as Andrew has had that vicious flu almost all the time we’ve been on holiday. The trip to London was amazing, and of course we saw our lovely friends up there too - the ballet – fabulous, I LOVED it but when we got back that was it, Aj went into melt down and has been in and out of bed most of the time. We looked forward for so long to having these ten days to have some fun that it seems a bit harsh that he’s been so sick. But he’ll get better and that’s all that matters. I am sure the flu hit him this hard because of the stressful year he had last year, and it was nice for me to be able to look after him for once. Although it freaks me out that he has been so ill – God knows how he felt about my illness!
London was interesting for me, as it involves LOTS of walking, the tube stations involve LOTS of stairs and the weather was chilly – although we were lucky, as it was mild enough to walk everywhere without going blue. I had a few peculiar moments, where we had to stop and rest for a bit, as I was shattered from walking, but I managed to enjoy the three days immensely, even with the fatigue. If I use my head and stop soon enough, I can re-gather my strength within about an hour. The only thing I am really having trouble with is the cold – it makes the site of the surgery really hurt and it drains my strength really quickly. Lots of nifty stabbing pains in my tummy and that’s always scary. But it resolves itself if I rest – but usually takes a nights sleep to really go away. So, I now hate the cold even more than I ever did, as it debilitates me so much. Grr. I need an electric suit that I can switch on when I’m outside! Toaster Woman...
So apart from that I have discovered that eating too much [and that’s not an awful lot either] leaves me with a painful tummy too – better to eat little and often or suffer the consequences. So I have been happily munching my way through lots of pâté and crackers etc – and not at all concerned about weight...until TODAY!
Tadah! Monday is the start of the New Regime. As in; I have GOT to stop being so self indulgent – just because I had cancer doesn’t mean I have to look like the Dunlop man for the rest of my life. I have tried this already and failed, but now I am determined. Chemo is 5 months ago – time to get a grip. Monday and Wednesday evenings I am off to Julie's circuit training class. It’s just for women, and lots of different kinds of people go. So that’ll be an hour each time. I am sure I will really struggle at first but I don’t care - I am going. Then I am going to go back to the slimming class I did before - oooo, groan.
Exercise AND healthy eating?? It’ll probably kill me!
I am sure I am losing the plot. I usually start buying Christmas presents in June. This year I seem to have blocked the whole idea of Christmas, and by the actual day, I had done hardly anything. It was like I just couldn’t get my head around the whole idea of festivities. It doesn’t help that usually we are in the hot, sunny Gambia at this time of year, and as the country is half Muslim half Christian, Christmas is a lot less 'in your face' over there. So the UK brashness seems a bit vulgar – buy this, buy that, you 'must' have all of these...oh for heavens sake. Can’t we just have a lovely rest and a big dinner and have done with all this spending on things no-one really needs? Which is what we did. Our families were great and we all just swapped cards, calls and some little gifts, so we didn’t have to travel anywhere except to London...phew.
For our Christmas dinner the kids came down, I did the fabulous 5 Hour Duck [it seems an infallible recipe! see it here: the Five Hour Roast Duck ], Andrew managed to stay on the sofa for the weekend and dole out pressies and then they all went away again, stuffed to the gills. Perfect!
Our Christmas was extra muted anyway, as Andrew has had that vicious flu almost all the time we’ve been on holiday. The trip to London was amazing, and of course we saw our lovely friends up there too - the ballet – fabulous, I LOVED it but when we got back that was it, Aj went into melt down and has been in and out of bed most of the time. We looked forward for so long to having these ten days to have some fun that it seems a bit harsh that he’s been so sick. But he’ll get better and that’s all that matters. I am sure the flu hit him this hard because of the stressful year he had last year, and it was nice for me to be able to look after him for once. Although it freaks me out that he has been so ill – God knows how he felt about my illness!
London was interesting for me, as it involves LOTS of walking, the tube stations involve LOTS of stairs and the weather was chilly – although we were lucky, as it was mild enough to walk everywhere without going blue. I had a few peculiar moments, where we had to stop and rest for a bit, as I was shattered from walking, but I managed to enjoy the three days immensely, even with the fatigue. If I use my head and stop soon enough, I can re-gather my strength within about an hour. The only thing I am really having trouble with is the cold – it makes the site of the surgery really hurt and it drains my strength really quickly. Lots of nifty stabbing pains in my tummy and that’s always scary. But it resolves itself if I rest – but usually takes a nights sleep to really go away. So, I now hate the cold even more than I ever did, as it debilitates me so much. Grr. I need an electric suit that I can switch on when I’m outside! Toaster Woman...
So apart from that I have discovered that eating too much [and that’s not an awful lot either] leaves me with a painful tummy too – better to eat little and often or suffer the consequences. So I have been happily munching my way through lots of pâté and crackers etc – and not at all concerned about weight...until TODAY!
Tadah! Monday is the start of the New Regime. As in; I have GOT to stop being so self indulgent – just because I had cancer doesn’t mean I have to look like the Dunlop man for the rest of my life. I have tried this already and failed, but now I am determined. Chemo is 5 months ago – time to get a grip. Monday and Wednesday evenings I am off to Julie's circuit training class. It’s just for women, and lots of different kinds of people go. So that’ll be an hour each time. I am sure I will really struggle at first but I don’t care - I am going. Then I am going to go back to the slimming class I did before - oooo, groan.
Exercise AND healthy eating?? It’ll probably kill me!
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