It's been – another – whirlwind week of social, medical, canine and feline.
Kicked off with Pam driving up from Totnes, where she now lives with her new lady (I say 'new', it's almost a year now but as they live in Devon I've only met Deni once!). Very good to have a much overdue catch up, though I did subject her to there worst of the three meals I had a go at cooking this week. Still not sure how I could completely misread two of the only four instructions to create a five ingredient meal.. Suffice it to say that the supposedly harissa chicken tasted of absolutely cock all and was pretty much poached in the vast amount of yoghurt I incorrectly 'marinaded' it in. Ah well, I did try – can I blame my crap cheffing on the chemo that afternoon?? (Totally not related tbh).
As Pam arrived with her mega beast, Finn (also known as a mastador), and Mark & Charlie's dog Lottie had arrived for an unscheduled 2 night visit that morning, the Dentastick moment was a trio of canine attentiveness that evening…
Tuesday night heralded Liz T coming over for supper, and she was lucky enough to score a much better effort by me, the chicken thigh and chorizo traybake with peppers and new potatoes. Chorizo is a godsend – flavour, colour and goes small enough that everything else managed to get crammed into the dish, hurrah. Liz came with 'Tinlin-friendly' homemade cookies which we managed to make complement the mango sorbet with ease.
Wednesday ticked the medicine box again with my 6 monthly bone marrow biopsy at Parkside. The usual shambles over timings began as I was driving there:
''Hello Mrs Hawkes, where are you?'
'I'm in the car, about 3 minutes away, I'll be arriving 10 minutes early still. It said 12 o'clock arrival on both the letter and the reminder text?'
'Oh. Umm…. actually there was a mistake – your theatre slot is at 12. If you could perhaps hurry?…'
Cue me speeding up further as I didn't want to miss my time – much better to be hustled through the paperwork, consent forms, surgical stockings measuring, blood pressure taking (higher than it would have been!) and tottering down to the theatre in my hospital robe and red socks, clutching a pillow (I know, they ask you to, but yes it is odd) all in 15 mins, than it is to be asked to come 2 hours early! My accompanying PET CT from last week has already come back as clear, so the next 6 months is pretty much down to what comes back from this one. Hopefully know next week.
Still, it was one that didn't hurt much afterwards, so I was back at pickleball on Thursday. Slightly regretting it when playing against a really good 14 year old (these school holidays can't be over quickly enough) – whose serve was so sliced that it was almost unreturnable (0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4 etc at a rate of knots) and who then played one shot through his legs, before then doing a full sarcastic 360 spin before returning another shot, to demonstrate just how slow it was. Little git. I dobbed him in to the coach, who then smashed a couple past him on my behalf..
Anyway – Fri was the day that Nicky and Sophie (plus 3 year old Martha) arrived for a chilled weekend at Dora. I knocked out another decent cooking effort (2 out of 3 meals this week is better than it might have been been) with a roast chicken, a goats cheese & butternut squash salad and a tortellini salad. Followed by a bit of cake as it was Soph's birthday the day before. Soph now sporting a different bandage from having had a screw inserted down her shattered thumb (yup, hockey incident), so is still rather ginger in her movements. (Martha's clothes on the dryer behind – no, mine haven't shrunk..)
We hit the Wimbers farmer's market on Sat morning – £5 for a slice of cake or brownie, so not surprising it was a bit quiet there), then had a pie-driven lunch back at 22, then out to walk the dogs in Wimbledon Park. Had a minute of Mummy scare for Sophie when we briefly lost sight of Martha before we spotted her again – massive relief all round. Reminded me of the perennial family story of when I got lost on a beach in about 1971 and after a lot of searching I was found happily sitting on a wall, eating an ice cream that some kind person had bought for me!
Sat eve was Thai takeaway and more decision-making about a possible job for Soph if she leaves the RAF. Involves a house move, pre-school move for Martha, different 'big' schools for Martha, moving from south to north and lots of other changes, so all a bit of a challenge. One of those that you could argue either way so have asked for an update in the week on the final call cliffhanger…
In between all of these I have been feeding Tabby the cat next door all week. She deigns to submit to a tummy rub or head scratch but picking up for cuddles is NOT allowed. She then waits by the food drawer until her guest human delivers the goods. Off there in a second for visit three today – also doing the bins of them, so today is as glamorous as it gets!
And the final bit of Sunday news is that Mr H is AT LAST due home tonight. Of course the Sleazy flight is running late so it will be after midnight by the time he rolls in. First stop – the shower! Then there might be a long overdue hug hello…. x