Filling in the Blanks

I realise that between May and December of last year I somewhat neglected this blog so this is an attempt to fill in the blanks. In May I took up Couch to 5K and made good and steady progress reaching Week 8 and completing several 30 min runs. I was doing really well until at …

Under Attack!

The phrase “it never rains but it pours” describes the current situation in my family at the moment. This blog post is a bit different as it concerns not just me but many of those in my family. It would be true to say we are under attack. For those of you who share my …

It never rains…

It never rains but it pours. This English idiom describes the fact that just when you think it can't get worse something else comes along to make you re-evaluate your thinking. Such has been the past 48 hours or so.

Reunited

The photos tell it all. Picked up the family at Heathrow this morning - Reunited.

Change

Recently in Mwanza a group of expats and Tanzanian nationals have started up a group called Mwanza Storytellers. The aim is to allow people to share their stories on a chosen theme. So approximately once a month they have  gathered at the Yacht Club. Anita was asked to talk at the most recent (and her …

In my room

Even with sleeping tablets last night I was asleep much later and awake quite early - so I'm chilled out in the the bedroom late this Sunday morning. Having got up a bit earlier and been to the early service at St George's Church (in truth this early service was a bit too traditional for …

Brother

It's nice to be able to connect with family and today my brother and sister-in-law are up in Lincoln. A good chance to touch base. After a trip to to Go Outdoors to pick up a cycling jacket we had a chance to have a Costa Coffee and a chin wag.  No iced drink following …

Family

These past three days we've been on a journey. Travelling south to visit family. A chance to touch base. We left Lincoln on Saturday (Mum and I) heading down to Oxfordshire to my in-laws where we celebrated my sons 19th Birthday on Sunday.  Then yesterday we headed with my son up to London where we …

Out of Routine

It's nice to get away. To break the shackles of the chemotherapy weeks. The biweekly trips to clinic 7 and Ingham award which force me to be in Lincoln. Every third week is a week off - it's a small respite as Instill need to visit my consultant on Thursday but it frees up the …

Dawn Chorus

The blackbird chirps away behind my window. Gladly greeting the morning. Regret not taking the sleeping tablet. It's been a steroid sleep. Wakeful hours. Toilet trips. Soon the midsummer sun will rise. A new day. An Abingdon day. Here to celebrate. A birthday. Nineteen Years on. Happy Birthday Son!

A Strange Father’s Day

For the first time in living memory I am a Father alone on Father's Day. I know it's a commercial thing (unlike Mothering Sunday) but even so it has amplified the absence of family. My own Father died in 2006 of Motor Nueron Disease a rapidly developing disease which took him from an active man …

Sands of Time

It seems hard to believe that I have been back in the U.K. for two months. I arrived on the day they called an election, which has now passed. I arrived just after Easter and now the summer Hilidays are fast approaching. Today at my school in Tanzania they will hold Prize Night that end …

Doldrums

It would be fair to say that life is becoming routine. Six weeks after my return to England and three weeks after I was released from hospital there is a new equilibrium.  Life has changed do much in the past month and as the tornado disperses I am now finding myself in a calmer place …

Fellowship

This morning I had the opportunity to attend my church of 26 years St Mary's Bletchley. It was great to be back at a service. I had been there on Friday for Rachel's thanksgiving service, but this was a chance to attend a regular service. As with so much of my weekend it was a …

Meeting Up

One of the good things about being back in the UK has been the chance to reunite with family. I have made much of the fact that my wife and daughter remain in Tanzania and this has been hard. However, my son is studying here in the UK at Chichester University and being here in …