Party Party Party

In bed by 10.45pm, woken at 12 by WWIII outside.
Half the neighbourhood, spends their Christmas bonus on fireworks for New Year or so it seems. Miraculously the boys slept through, while we grumbled our way into the next decade..

A salutary reminder

When you're at home, in your own environment, you develop a pattern over time. A daily rhythm - you know your limits, what works, what you can and can't eat, how much sleep you need etc.
Now that we're away from home, i've become disorientated from my straight and narrow path and i'm now learning how quickly all this steady progress can go to pot.

I'm lying in bed, feeling as sick as a pig.

Good food, great company and a familiar place (Claudia's sister in Bielefeld, Germany) is a potentially dangerous mix. Fine if you're particularly disciplined.
If you're like me, you get lost in the moment.
Conversation, croissants, coffee, cheese, nutella, salami, orange juice - NB this is a continental breakfast!
I'm forgetting things that have been carefully learnt - subtle mealtime choices that make the difference between a good day and a nauseous one.
I have to remember (and i'm reluctant to) that i'm not 'normal' anymore, in the eating-department. I cant just forget or i face the consequences.

Christmas

If you're still not getting into the spirit by now, its getting a bit late.

So if you're having trouble, this might even possibly sort you out...

Rejesus Website Karaoke Carols

Its so good, it makes the King's College carols service sound like dragging fingernails down a blackboard.

5 months on

Claudia and i were re-living some of the immediate post-op moments last night, over pizza in our fab newly opened local.
While she has a fantastic memory for the details of what happened in the day or 2 after the operation, i have only vague recollections.
Maybe its my subconscious suppressing that nightmare time. Maybe it was morphine saturation.

Well, 5 months on and the Beau's Lines - nail furrows - caused by the trauma of the operation have grown out. Look at this google link to see examples. Mmmmm!

As far as eating is concerned, my 6 mini-meals-a-day schedule has become a bit blurred. I now mostly fit in with the 3 main mealtimes at home with a fair amount of grazing in-between.

I always hoped that Christmas time would be a recovery threshold and it looks like it will be. Happy days!

Getting into the spirit - part3

The internet is amazing isn't it?
Slowly but surely over the last decade, it has snaked its way into our lives, to become an indispensible means of communicating, information gathering and gemming up on other people's mind-boggling trivia (like mine for example!).

Things like: did you know that its only 8 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem? - if you live in Pennsylvania (US), that is.
This was the first option Google Maps threw out when i wanted to know how far Mary and Joseph had to travel.

The recommended journey through (today's) Israel avoids the West Bank, is about 100 miles and will take 1hr 50min in a car.

Poor donkey.

follow the link below to see some academy award deserving nativity musical talent, in honour of our much-forgotten 4 legged friend

Little Donkey

aaaaah

Getting into the spirit - Part 2

Following my Advent rant, click on the link below to see:

A Nativity Play in the wrong hands

Banned after Ofcom received nearly 800 complaints, this commercial was deemed to be in breach of Advertising Standards Code Rule 6.1 (Offence)...

The Nativity Story... offensive material... hmmm.

I love it!

Getting into the spirit

I can remember saying during chemotherapy, "bring on Christmas!!"... and we're nearly there.
In those dark old days, i reckoned the worst would be over by late December and that i'd be a good distance on the road to recovery. That just about sums it up which is great.

Christmas is a funny old time. On the one hand it marks the tentative arrival of history's most famous infant. On the other, it marks a frenzy of consumption on a quite unimaginable scale.
Which ever way you look at it, we are being encouraged to celebrate the retail madness, and pass by the "reason for the season".
It fascinates me to see the lengths organisations, companies and councils will go, to avoid references to the word Christmas or any christian aspect of it.

I was in the bank the other day, which was bedecked with colourful adverts for Merry savings accounts, Festive mortgages etc. Not an angel or shepherd to be seen...!
We recently bought Max a childrens magazine stuffed with seasonal stories and activities. Score: Santa/Elves/Rudolf - 100 / Baby Jesus - 0.

Has the Nativity Story become offensive material (not PC enough) or become so irrelevant that its just not worth the mention?

There are still zillions of people who celebrate the Christ-part of Xmas, so it seems quite weird and myopic that large parts of the media ignore it. Or is there something more sinister at work? (don't go there Pete - not this time!).

Anyway, Claudia and i are terrible at sending out Christmas cards. Its not because we object at the volume sent - 1 billion (UK/year) - or feel sorry for our under-appreciated Postie. We're just not organised enough.

So as a substitute, please follow the link below to experience the Nativity Story in all its paperless/dramatised/webtastic/cheesy-cool glory:

www.paperlesschristmas.org

Not quite over yet

Hopes of being discharged on Thursday last week were frustrated by the consultant's absence. He had been delayed in theatre (surgery), so his clinics were being conducted by a registrar, who would never discharge a patient without a consultant's consent.

She was quite pleased with my progress but suggested i come back in 3 months time for another clinic. Having been geared for a cheerful farewell, i guess i was a wee bit disappointed. I'd even bought the consultant and my nurse specialist (Jo) some chocolate... But it's just a formality and will have to wait till February.

This blog has been granted a last minute reprieve!!