The soggy adventures of Beaky

I’m working from home today and as well as lots of work to do, I need to pick up the car and drop some shopping and tablets round to my mum who is in a bad way at the moment. The bone strengthening infusion they gave her with her last chemo has rendered her almost immobile. For several days she could barely walk and now is reduced to hobbling around using a stick. So I’m taking over some supplies and a couple of DVDs (nothing worse than daytime TV when you have no choice about the matter) at lunchtime. The chemo is destroying her feet so walking was becoming a problem anyway, but she was coping really well with the huge doses they’ve been giving her. But this has been a set-back.

We want to take her to Paris for her birthday (November) but we might have to sit down and talk to her about it (it was going to be a surprise) because nobody but the person themselves knows how much they can cope with and what will be too tiring. We can always do something else it’s just that she’s always wanted to go to Paris…

The car is – we think – doing well. I’ve just spoken to the delightful woman at the garage whom I think suspects I’m a bit of an over-anxious idiot but manages to hide that opinion of me, most of the time anyway. The problems are not extensive and despite the drama of being ‘recovered’ (I don’t know why I always put it in bunny ears) by a man with a very big beard, Victor will be ready this afternoon to return to the bosom of this over-anxious idiot…

Pluto is chewing contently on his beaky (once a woodpecker, now a series of strips and two large furry feet hanging on for dear life – it was given to him by my best man and is his favourite toy), but really he would like his walk so I may have to stop this blogging nonsense, grab a shower and put on some clothes. More things to do…

Wheezer

Well, we're off in about an hour and a half. We seem to have pretty much the same amount of gear going to Cornwall for three days as we did going to Scotland for two weeks... to be fair, we are taking some equipment down for my brother-in-law's band, but even so...

People will look at us and think, now those people know how to camp! With our folding chairs and table, bar-b-q, fancy tent, solar powered lamps, air bed, duvet (I can't do sleeping bags, how can a bag that you sleep in be so complicated?!); we'll be toasting the stars with a bottle of pink fizz we bought especially, and eating fine food...

My asthma was - in the words of our young people - well dodgy last night. I had to get an extra pillow and take extra Ventolin. I must say it was a bit worrying the day before we were due to set off. My problem (and it's a bit of a paradox) it that I bounce like a rubber ball. If I'm ill I tend to get ill very quickly, but I also normally get better super quick. I just seem to be generally quite a healthy person and everything kicks in and within a short space of time of getting the right medication or resting, I start to show real improvement. Of course, it sometimes means you do too much too soon but as I loathe being ill I can't complain. The upshot is that I need to remember that I'm still ill and take it very easy...

So no blogging over the weekend. I'm hoping we miss the rain just long enough to put up our tent and that the good weather forces its way through... hope you get some sunshine wherever you are too!

(PS. I have a feeling we'll be taking the opportunity of being in Cornwall to visit some wedding venues!)