Well Annie , that's the first time you've mentioned your son!  When is it your birthday ?  It sounds brilliant,  his job, one of my long standing friends has a son who looks after yachts for rich people and goes all over the word,what a fun job.  Muffin sounds cute and is obviously good company.  Today is cold,wet amd miserable so I've been to seeMary and had coffee,  back home two weeks ironing,  I do it in the conservatory,  I shut the door to listen to  top of the pops, steam everywhere like s Chinese laundry until hubby opened the door because I'd disappeared in a steamy mist!  My new driving licence arrived,  so there, pessimistic hubby, it didn't get lost in a big heap.  Last time I changed it a provisional licence came back, I'd passed my test in 1967, no speeding tickets, no parking tickets, so no record of me existed.  If I couldn't prove it I would have to sit my test again, the horror of that in mind I saw my MP and because I worked for Her Majesties court services it was sorted out.  Beware renewing on line, never again.  Hubby is happier today, pleasant and kind, he aches all over , his hands are a mess but the infection a lot better.   I should have known last weekend when he was so mean but other things crop up, like Monday's scan, so it's hard to know.  Take care all of you.  X

Hi Carol. Hope your eye is starting to feel better now and less uncomfortable . I arrived for Pet scan at Stoke for my appointment at 12 o clock. They said they were running bit late. Filled in forms and bit later had the radioactive injection and sat in isolated small room for one hour. They came to fetch me and said sorry but one of the cameras on the scanner was faulty and there was another delay. I waited roughly 40 mins before they came and I then had the pet scan which was 45 mins long. By the time it was over I was aching all over and so longing for a cuppa and something to eat. I’d had to starve since night before. They kept apologising and were so kind Bess them. Thank goodness two of my daughter had taken me and got me a cuppa and a chicken sandwich and we arrived back in Shrewsbury for 5 30. Long day but another hurdle over. Got to have biopsy now on the breast although it has healed very well. Don’t know what to think anymore. All up in the air. Hope you and hubby having good day. Lots of love xxx

Hi Golden,  what a mare you've had.  We think it's bad enough going through this without all the extra hurdles thrown our way,  life kicks you in the backside too often when cancer is involved .  Off for scan ourselves tomorrow,  see if the tumour has grown, very scary, they then move the results appointment back by two weeks, so on tenterhooks until then.  My eye is sore today and I've got a thumping headache.  It's making me clumsy, so I smashed a glass last night in the  middle of cooking tea, this morning I take my big glass fruit bowl out to empty dead fruit in the bin, dropped it, stared at all the broken glass, shook my head and went and had a coffee.  So boots on, bins all moved, broken shards brushed up and I then decide to take the dead hanging baskets down.  I'm now covered in dead flowers, bits of dry soil and water dripping on my head!  I really could do with a spare man in the cupboard!   My hubby has just asked me what misogynistic means as it's going to be made an offence, I had to smile, obviously all the times I've called him a misogynistic pig, he obviously didn't have a clue what I was talking about!  Have to love them. though.  Antibiotics kicking in now so he's feeling better.  Take care all of you. Xx

Oh Carol, sorry you are having such a rough time; I know a broken fruit bowl is not the end of the world but it can feel like it in your situation.  It would be so nice if you had someone with you to help you.  I know your hubby tries but well, you know what mean - it doesn't always fit the bill much as he wants to.  I started to write a response to you late yesterday evening when the front door bell rang at nearly midnight.  I jumped and in my haste managed to lose the whole post (this is not the first time I have deleted a post I had just written).  Anyway it was my next door neighbour Eileen who had got her necklace tangled in a knot around her neck and couldn't loosen/open it and she didn't want to go to bed until she had removed it.  Of course it was easy for me to do as I was standing in front of her.  Her husband died from cancer a couple of years ago and I was given a key to her house so she could ring me any time she needed me (he was having home care with nurses coming in regularly) and we generally help each other out as needed - she is 81 I think.  I was just a bit taken aback at the doorbell ringing so late but was pleased it was something simple (I have been called out in the middle of the night before now to take her son to hospital - he has panic attacks and sometimes stays with her!).  My son Ed, didn't realise I had not mentioned him - I suppose I would only mention him if I had just been talking to him or something dramatic happened.  I am so pleased he will be coming over here again.  His dad died from cancer six years ago (he lived in Cornwall).  I have been out in a local park with Muffin; we were happily playing with two other dogs when he suddenly took it into his head to run off across the park - he had remembered some food he had found (I dread to think what it was) and run  back to see if he could find some more.  Totally ignored me calling him so when I caught up he went straight onto his lead and we went home.  Will I ever have him properly trained; he should have been trained when he was young but obviously wasn't as he had three owners in the two years before I got him.  He has improved a bit but sometimes "forgets" to do do what he has been taught.  Dogs seem to have very selective hearing  when it suits them.  Look after yourself, Carol (and anybody else who is reading this and having their troubles).  Annie

Hi Annie, Happy Birthday for last weekend.  What a wonderful job your son Ed has.  Neil is in hospital at present, he came down with a temp Sunday evening, he has a chest infection, so with him not home I've had music going all day today, "British Hits from the 60's".  My daughter rang me and could hear music in the background, her comment, "What is that awful noise",  I have to admit though it was some obscure song that I doubt very much was ever a Hit in Britian or anywhere else.  Hope all is well with you.  Sue

Hello Sue and Carol.  Sorry that Neil is in hospital; I hope his temperature starts to drop.  I seem to have acquired a few Hits from Sixties type music, many of which I loved at the time!  And some less-than-well known ones, as you say.    Sorry you had the hospital parking hassle, Carol, there are never enough spaces and the prices they charge!    My ears get bunged up every 2-3 years and I now use a do-it-yourself kit to clear the wax as you have to wait weeks to see the practice nurse and in any event I have got the hang of using the do-it-yourself kit now.   I hope hubby's infection clears up quickly - for both of your sakes!  Isn't it dark early now?  It is 7.45pm in London and it gets darker earlier each day, Sue.  Leaves are starting to fall also.  A bit sad, this time of years.  Best wishes to both of you and your menfolk.  Annie

Hi ANNIE,  it's getting darker here even earlier, must be pitch black in Scotland!   Love sixties music, miss sound of the sixties. on radio 2, stupid Dermott O dreary on now, ugh.  I'll wait until he's better before I ask him about his ears, one problem at a time.  There are an awful lot of people logging on that are so worried about cancer and they haven't even been diagnosed.   Panic sets in and Google seems to be used and the worst case scenario jumped to.  I think our age group seem to take things more slowly and then panic!  I love autumn it's so pretty with the change of colour and Strictly has started again, bliss, large glass of wine, feet up and Strictly come dancing.   Love to you, Carol x

Hi again.  Yes, there are loads and loads of people (most of them quite young) who are convinced they have cancer and I try to be patient and helpful but hey what is going on.  Has it always been like this?  When we were young we were not bombarded with information from all sides in the same way and I wonder if this has made a difference?  I don't know if it is irritating for you guys who are in the situation of watching your nearest and dearest really suffering.  I remember when my son's dad was terminally ill and was listening to somebody on the train pouring out their imaginary health woes I felt like saying "Come with me and see the person I am visiting and tell me if you think you are in the same condition".  Yes, I know, unfair and ridiculous.  I like Strictly (I expect you have Strictly Come Dancing in Australia too, Sue).  Unpolitically correct moment coming up: why can they not just leave the show as it is - I have watched it since the beginning and have disliked some of the things they have done but the changes that seem to be coming, well....  A couple of gay friends told me that they would like their own show rather than being a small part of Strictly!  I like watching the man-woman coupling with the lovely costumes.  Of course it has not been the same since Brucie went but I suppose he could not help being ill and dying!  I am not a big fan of Claudia WInkelman but I can cope with her.  Moan over.  I need to get dressed, it is nearly 10am.  Hydrotherapy still ongoing for what it is worth.  Still it gets me out on my own.  It occured to me that I rarely get out on my own; it is always to give Paul a lift somewhere or take Muffin for a walk which restricts where I can go.  I seem to be really moaning this morning, don't know why.  Windy again today and I am trying to keep some control over the leaves sailing down from the trees.  I am losing the battle!  Sue, how is Neil doing?  Is he still in hospital?  Much love to all.  Annie

Well I've had an exciting morning.   Up early, hubby still feeling sick so doesn't want me to drive as he's not good when he feels sick,  I let him know he's not good as a passenger even when he's not sick.   Off we go, parking a machine takes my three pounds and no ticket in return, this annoys me more than normal as yesterday I spent my parking money on chocolate forgetting about today, so I had to make a special trip to the shop last night just to get some change..  I tell hubby to go in, push numerous buttons but nothing,  I give up and inform reception who inform security and it's still only 9.00 am.   Cup of coffee from new a machine, another man comes in, doesn't know how to work it, so I help, he's got a walking stick,  false leg and a wobbly paper cup so being me I offer help,  I've lost a  leg pet not a hand he says!  I go back to my book and he starts talking to me, he'd cut his toe nail last year which his wife had usually done,  she died so he ended up cutting his toe, this turned to gangrene and a lost leg.  Just goes to show how we keep our men alive and cared for, us women.  Hubby keeps going on about wanting his old leg back (the prosthetic not his real leg) but he moaned so much about it that it's gone permanently,  probably to some limbless African who was grateful for it, instead of a wooden peg.  Hubby turns up, Steve is going to try and get a moveable ankle,  whilst his telling me this he walks to the passenger side of the car, what are you doing I say, oh its because you drove here, no I didn't,  oh that's right We're at the wrong car he informs me, no we're not, oh my God, please let me drive!!  I'm home in one piece more by luck than good fortune,  a collapsed fork lift fallen off a low loader under a bridge, three fire engines, two police cars but not one person directing traffic,  we get through in one piece.   Faye rings whilst I'm on the journey from Hell,  Alfie's daddy thinks he's O.C.D.  I tell her there's not a thing wrong with him, in our day you'd be lucky if your parents noticed a broken arm.  I fell on my head once from the monkey bars, we were travelling South to my grandparents that night, old pair of White knickers cut up, butter on the bump and put on a mattress in the back of our converted van, see I survived to tell the tale.  Now where did I put the vodka?!