Premio Meme Award

8th July 2009

While I was away, Audrey gave me a 'Premio Meme Award'. Thank you Audrey! What fun! Audrey is a blogger extraordinaire...check her out. I like this as it never pays to take yourself too seriously.

The rules are to tell you 7 things about myself, and then to pass it on to 7 other people. Any follower of this blog already knows most things about me, so I am going to try to think of some that you don't know...hmm, difficult.

1. I love reading...I will read almost anything at all. Except the newspaper, as it would make me suicidal...
2. I am outgoing and I love meeting new people, although I am always nervous at first, which makes me do a really demented laugh...and talk REALLY fast. So everyone thinks I am a bit mad...they are probably correct!?
3. I like gardening. Actually, it’s my favourite thing to do after drawing.
4. I love travelling, although these days the actual getting from 'here' to 'there' completely sucks.
5. I love my husband more than anything in the whole world. He is the most amazing man, and I am so lucky to have him. Eat your hearts out girls!
6. I vaguely resemble Jennifer Aniston from 'Friends' if I straighten my hair [this is according to MY friends...who are all crazy]
7. I am a Slimming World member. I have horrendous thighs!

Now, I get to pass this on to 7 unsuspecting victims...I mean, bloggers. And so, without further ado [I nicked this bit from Audrey!]:

Sam
Tracey

CJ
Nat
Laurel
Yoga Bear
Kia

oops

7th July 2009

Oops - I forgot this - Aj doing the breakfast BBQ [or braai for the normal people!]. Karen started at 5.00 [ what??] and Aj started at 8.00...cooking bacon and egg baps and sausage baps...

The last few weeks

7th July 2009

The last few weeks have been the total opposite of last June/July. I have been well. I have been having fun. I have also been forgetting a lot of things, and getting very pissed off with the chemo brain, but that’s another story.

I went to Portugal to work for a week, then Aj and kids all arrived at the end of the work week for a further week's holiday. We all bundled into the apartment where I usually stay in Espinho, and had lovely hot weather, spent most of the time at the beach and went to Porto for the festival preparations. Saw breathtaking fireworks, met up with my fabulous friends and ate too much. Perfect. We all came home brown and fatter - the only way to end a holiday.

Here is my gift from Bella on the first day - it lasted until the very last day of our holiday!


Here with friends at the Barco Boador


At the beach with the Littlest Kid!


Blowing bubbles...hmm. Well, Littlest Kid loved it!


My two beautiful step daughters...


And then, home again, home again....jiggety jig

Last weekend we had the Relay for Life in Tedburn St Mary.

My friend Julie did an amazing job of organising the event, and it went off brilliantly. She never stopped for weeks before the day, and just RAN everywhere all weekend. Her poem was so moving, and she’s an absolute star. Everyone had a great time and what better way to raise money than to be having fun? Exhausting, as it’s both emotionally draining and physically draining [well walking first thing after being up partying until 2.00 in the morning - what can I say?]. ;o)

There were singers, bands, a Samba band, drum majorettes, stalls...you name it, and we had it. Judi Spiers arrived in a helicopter, which tickled us pink, as we know her, so were able to take the Mickey unmercifully...she is a great support for us, and will open any event for Cancer Research, and she stays! She did the raffle for us on Sunday morning [hilarious - I wish I had a video of THAT!] and wandered around for hours selling raffle tickets the day before. Very cool. Hopefully we made lots of money!

Here's Judi with Julie and I

I’d like to say a HUGE thanks here to all the people who donated to my and Aj’s justgiving pages, and to everyone who was there on the day to support us. It’s amazing and touching how everyone has done some little thing to help. People even donated from Australia!!

So, you can see why I haven’t been on here! No time...and that’s a good thing.


Myself, Georgie and Julie waiting to do our Lap of Honour


Dancing [!?] to the amazing samba band, Jamme de Samba

The Survivors, guests of honour, doing the first lap

Julie, reading at the Candle of Hope Ceremony.


doing a lap to the tune of Rodrigo Y Gabriela

This time last year...

7th July 2009

OMG!! I can't believe it...it’s almost a month since I’ve blogged. I MUST be having a great time right? Well, it feels like it!

There's been lots of traffic on my blog recently for some reason, and I clicked on one of the search queries, to see what had brought ''the USA'' onto a specific post. The WHOLE USA?? Sometimes it says ''Europe'' - does that mean that the whole continent decided that my blog would be worth a gander? It would be fun if it actually showed who had been on the blog – but it just shows the city, country, OS, time of arrival/departure and the way they arrived on the blog. For example by searching for ‘wine’ and ‘ovarian cancer’ [you’d be amazed at how many people search THAT!] Or ginger and OC.

Anyway, enough foolishness...the link took me HERE...

A year ago I was soon to have my LAST chemo session. I am amazed – an entire year has passed! At that point I really didn’t think I’d ever be normal again. Yet here I am now, my hair is almost back to normal [hooray!! curls again and no more torturous straightening the stuff!] doing circuit training three times a week, gardening, driving for hours, lifting and carrying, travelling all over the place...generally having a really nice life. I feel better now than I have felt for 2 years. Carrying a big fat cancerous tumour around was pretty knackering. The very last chemo was on Tuesday 22nd July 2008.

Isn't it amazing? The first thing you think with the diagnosis is: ''I am going to die''. But now I just think; everyone is going to die – I will die when my time comes. I don’t worry about that so much anymore. Hmm. I lied. Perhaps in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. That can be bad.

And here's me now - nice and brown, look!! Hair almost back to normal [a bit short but do I care? er - no!]

check this out - please help with a vote?