What has filled a two week gap?

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?  As the saying goes. 

Well, it does fly and it has been busy. 

Of course.

So, what have we been doing?  Immediately after I finished the last blog entry, waxing lyrical about how pleased we were that Alex had skipped any of the side effects of the chemo - they started.  I think his body finally just gave in and admitted that it's been through the wringer, and the "tiger in the tank" decided to make its presence felt.  Fortunately the bouts of nausea have now stopped.  Alex seems to be getting the side effects in his mouth and we think this is a mixture of the predicted chemo side effects and a belated result of the last bout of his glowing sessions on his neck.  As a consequence, his taste buds seemed to have taken a holiday elsewhere and eating became difficult.  This meant he was losing more weight and seemed to be shrinking in front of my eyes.  Definitely worrying.

At the moment though we're pleased that his taste and appetite is returning and this makes a huge difference.

We also spent the first few days trying to adjust to NOT having hospital appointments, or doctor's appointments.  This was very strange but its been wonderful to not be turning up there on a daily basis.

We have been in the office every day, and out and about doing deliveries.  The sad news is that there were NO coffee shop visits because of Alex's side effects.

We've been lucky to have many visitors, and on the 12th Tracey and Mike came over mid afternoon.  My computer was very ill, and Dr. Mike spent hours fixing it.  As with most things computerish, what is in theory a "quick and easy" job is anything but.  I think the only "quick and easy" things on a computer involve accidentally deleting (usually important) stuff, oops, files.  My computer had got to the stage where even switching it on was possibly easy but definitely not quick.  They stayed for dinner and left about 1am but the job still wasn't done and so Mike spent the next few days still fixing it, working  remotely.

I had to reload all my missing programs, and after the first few hours it started misbehaving again.  Alex phoned Mike to confirm my diagnosis and was then able to operate - successfully!

Last Wednesday we should have had a party.  This was the time limit given to us by "the Doctor" and according to her, he should no longer be residing on Earth.  We did try to have a joke about it, and we thought that sending her a letter, or a postcard of somewhere remote, along the lines of - "G'day.  Because of your verdict we sold the house and sold the business. But Alex is still here.  Wesley Mission have paid for the stamp.  You can't reply because we don't have an address.  Now what?"

We realised of course that the best way of dealing with it is to continue counting our blessings every single day and for Alex to continue his fight.

And because of this, we decided on Thursday to have a bit of a blitz and tackle a few of the things that "we'd been meaning to do" for some time.  I'm sure you all have those sort of little jobs that never seem to get done.  In 2008 we went to Turkey.  We had a blast, and we came home with a couple of small momentos - well, these have finally been hung.  Of course in order to get this done, we "had to go to Bunnings" and - as you do in Bunnings - we ended up getting a few extra bits and pieces such as plant tray and some herbs to grow.

And our Turkish fish ...

... and plate, as well as one from Rome purchased a couple of years ago

 

Really, the buzz we got when these were finally done was great.

On Friday morning, Pete and Willie arrived back from their trip in Japan, so Alex collected them at sparrow-fart time from the airport and we went to Sideways for breakfast.  This is one of our favourite local cafes, and just down the road I'd spotted this doorway and had always promised myself to get a shot

The menu at Sideways was much more appealing, and we had a great time hearing about Pete & Willie's exploits in Japan.

Breakfast was delicious.

Back at home, we also had a couple of signs we'd been meaning to hang around the deck

and since it was late afternoon when this was finally hung, we decided to do as it said.  The weather was perfect and the BBQ was fired up.  Lamb was on the menu, and apparently this is now a treat for Kiwis since most of their lamb is exported and you need a second mortgage to purchase it from the butchers.

The boys went over to help Simon with some concreting on Saturday morning.  Yesterday we ended up at the Art Gallery of NSW to have a look at the Eugene Atget exhibition and then we stopped at Deux for lunch.  We had time to look around the shop area at the bikes and clothing and I loved this sign.  "Please do not sit on this motorcycle or your legs will be smacked".

 After a quick circuit or three, and deciding not to purchase anything, we headed to the cafe area.  This really is another of our favourite relatively local cafes.  We had a quick lunch and reflected that so much had happened since the last lunch Alex and I had eaten here.

We were all invited to Nerida and John's for dinner last night.  John had spent most of the day preparing his signature paella dish, and we all voted this as the most scrumptious paella any of us had eaten.

We had a great evening and there wasn't much left over.  We all waddled back home and collapsed on the lounge. 

This morning, Alex decided it was time to try this:

Roger and Jenny - please note!  I had purchased this back in May (this year) from a supermarket in Cape Town.  I was amused by it, and so I bought a packet for Alex and Roger.  If you haven't tried yours yet Roger, you may want to skip over the rest of this blog and perhaps my next entry.  Jenny, you know what's coming I know.

Alex decided it was time to try it, and so decided he'd mix up 3 litres worth.

We were all glad we'd had breakfast by this stage.

Pete had to come and check it out - I don't think he believed Alex that what he could smell was the beer in process.  After much mixing and whisking to get rid of the stubborn lumps, the bowl of beer is sitting and peacefully (so far) fermenting on the kitchen bench.

The boys have all headed off, with John, to the Motor Show, and it is due to be tried later tonight.

So, stay tooned ... !!!