My Favourite T.V. Programme

Radiotherapy ~ Day 3 (11:50)

When I was very young I loved this ....

I can remember this being a 'must-see' as a family in the Sixties

The Seventies brought The Onedin Line and Poldark ....

 Brideshead followed ...

and of course ... the magnificent Mr Darcy!!!!

I love a good Dickens ....

Can you see a trend here?

I'm afraid I'm addicted to costume drama

- even better if it's shown on a Sunday evening -

For a whole blissful hour

there's no sport,

no reality singing and dancing,

no jungles

no Rovers or Queen Vic

no guns, no violence ...

just a wrap around cosiness

chasing away that

'Sunday night - so it's school tomorrow' feeling!

Lately I have enjoyed Cranford

wonderful, wonderful characters ...

and so many of our fine actresses in one drama

.... but the one show right now that wraps me in a warm, fuzzy glow is:

Larkrise to Candleford

There are rumours that Series 4 will only be 6 episodes.....

there's got to be a law against that!

My Favourite Film

Radiotherapy ~ Day 2 (15:40)

Well, I've thought long and hard about this one,

and there are so many to choose from

Far from the Madding Crowd

Dr Zhivago

West Side Story

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Nun's Story

The Railway Children

The Way We Were

Love Story

Chocolat

Atonement

I could go on!

But in the end I've decided to plump for the film

that has probably given me pleasure for the longest time ....

How cheesy I hear you say!

I make no apologies!

I was taken to see this film when I was a child, and actually had an L.P.of the sound track!

We sang the songs in the car on our journeys to North Wales for our summer holidays

(no CD players or radios back in the day!!!!)

Then, of course it was on TV every Christmas.

When I was little I loved all the scenes with the children ..

... and got very bored at the slushy love scenes!

However, with the passage of time, I realised that the Captain wasn't mean at all!!!

This is my very favourite part of the whole film now....

~ such a romantic setting ~

Don't you just long for a summer house like this?

A few years ago, the film was taken to a whole new level with the coming of :-

Sing-a-long-Sound-of-Music!

You've never lived till you've participated in a

Sing-a-long-Sound-of-Music

SCOUSE style!!!!

I went along with my sister about 8 years ago -

and it was probably one of the best nights out we'd ever had.

 Surrounded by people dressed up as brown paper packages, Nazis and nuns

we sang our hearts out,

waved our sprigs of eidelweiss and green curtain fabric

in all the appropriate places,

and laughed

till tears rolled down our faces

as Liverpool wit rang out all around us!

Fantastic!

So, yes, I think it has be The Sound of Music

which has kept me entertained on so many levels

for more than 40 years!

25 Days/25 Things ... other than radiotherapy

Radiotherapy ~ Day 1 (12:40)

Now that my radiotherapy has started I'm pretty much going to be doing the same thing every day for the next five weeks - so - rather than drone on about the treatment, which, today, seems to stretch endlessly in front of me, I've decided to take a lead from Lyn at  Everyday Life, and join in with the 30 days/30 things tag.

Except, I've adapted it to 25 days/25 things 

.... one for each day at the hospital.

I'm also taking liberties with the order of some of the list ...

So my Day One ....

 a photograph of you taken more than ten years ago

This one was taken exactly 31 years ago!

Today is our wedding anniversary ...

to have and to hold from this day forward

for better, or for worse

for richer, for poorer

in sickness and in health

to love and to cherish

from this day forward ......

well, we're still waiting for the 'for richer bit' ....

but I think we've pretty much fulfilled the rest of the vows!!!!

I love the bemused expression on my new husband's face as I drag my dress into the car....
he's been looking at me that way ever since!
 

A Postcard from the Lakes ....

Well, we had one afternoon like this .....

and three days like this!

But each afternoon, the rain stopped, and although we didn't see blue sky again

we did get out and about ....

Market day in Keswick ....

walking in Nether Wasdale....

Inca did lots of this ... as usual ....

she just loves to swim ....

... we saw lots of these ...

... we walked along woodland paths ....

....and imagined life in a house like this!

So what if it rained a lot?

We still had a lovely time.

It was peaceful, quiet and most of all, very very restful ....
it was exactly what we both needed ...

the lovely Mr B. never gives himself  time to just slow down for a short time....

... he leads such a very busy life.....

so it was particularly good for him to sit still and relax
while we were waiting for the weather to clear.

.... and with a view like this from our bathroom window

who could possibly complain about a bit of rain!

Last Day .....

The lovely Mr. B. sprang out of bed this morning
shouting "Last Day!"

Anyone who works in a school will be familiar with that
spine-tingling excitement

conjured up by the last day of term 

.... I'm thinking of staff here

not children!

The joy is perfectly captured here :  School's Out!
This ad had me laughing out loud!

There are few sweeter moments in life than the final hometime of the school year ....

with the whole delicious six weeks holiday stretching far ahead of you.

 I am feeling very strange, because I haven't got that feeling today-

having been away from school for the last eight weeks!

but I'm so looking forward to having Mr. B. home with me for a while.

I've spent some long, lonely days here recently.

Tomorrow, we're heading up to the Lake District,

grabbing the four precious days out of the six weeks that we can enjoy away together

before the radiotherapy onslaught begins next week.

As I write this the rain is hammering down yet again ... so we've got our fingers crossed for some sunshine.

Actually, we don't care what the weather is like, we just need a change of scene,

away from our "world turned up-side down" unsettled life at the moment.

By the way, for those of you who have kindly asked .......

This is going to be a scarf -

nice and easy for someone who hasn't done any knitting for about 15 years!

Intrigued by this strange and rare activity, my lovely boy has requested I knit him a jumper next -

 he's 6 feet tall and has long, long arms ....

I think it would take me another 15 years!

Summer days ....

We've had a drop of rain on the Paradise Peninsula today:

In fact it's been raining here since the hosepipe ban was introduced recently.

To think I was worrying about how my plants were going to cope in the drought!

There have been flash floods around the region  ....

it's been one of those days when it's best just to stay indoors and find something else to do.

Seen around my house today:

Lots and lots of lovely summer flowers.

I would love to say that  I had grown them myself, but I have to admit they were given to me

by the P.A. at our school.

The lovely Mr. B. staggered in last night under an armful of beautiful flowers and said

"I don't know what you're going to do with these!"

Well, I gathered them up and put them into some vases.....

of course.

I love gladioli, they remind me of my childhood - we had them in our back garden, along with Michaelmas daisies and roses.

I don't grow late summer flowers myself, because we normally spend the whole of August in France ....

but not this year, sadly.

Also seen:

I've started my knitting!

Race for Life

Today we met up with our staff who were taking part in the Race for Life at  Liverpool's Sefton Park.

A bitter sweet moment for me, because I was the first from our staff to register for the event, when we found out that Ruth had breast cancer .... little did I know that a few months down the line they would be wearing my name on the back of their T-shirts too... and I would waiting on the finish line to take photographs, instead of taking part.

Joanne, Jenny and Linda were pleased that they finished in just under an hour as they had walked and chatted all the way round the 5K course.

A great team effort ..... rain couldn't dampen the spirits!

The whole event was incredibly well supported with almost five thousand women taking part, and all their friends and families cheering them on! There was a real carnival atmosphere.

There were lots of dogs having fun too ...

I wonder if Inca will be sensible enough to walk with me next time!

She's got a year to train up for it!

Distractions ....

I feel I'm in a bit of a fog this week ....
the weather has changed.
and leaden skies like this echo my mood...

It's not that I'm missing my job at all ...
it's quite nice being away from all that end of term madness...
but I am missing some sense of direction I think.
I'm usually a person who is very much in charge of things ...
(well, being a teacher I would have to be)
and right now I've had that snatched away from me.
This illness is calling the shots now and I have no control of my life whatsoever.
I feel like I'm just drifting along, waiting for things to happen to me.

I miss being me!

Well today, I've decided that things can't go on like this.
I need to snap out of this mood ...

I need some distractions!

So ....
I've been sucked into this knitting thing that's going on in Blogland....

I've bought some wool!!!!

Now, I can actually knit ....
I just haven't for a very long time.
I'm going to start with a scarf ....
that should be easy enough, and I won't need it until winter
so I've got plenty of time!!!

I've also acquired a little bird house to play with.

I've always fancied those decorative houses you see in fancy garden shops....
so I'm going to get out my paints and pretty papers
and see what happens.

I've also been watching the craft shows on a well known shopping channel,
I know, I know ....
too much time on my hands

and I now have enough sparkly things, and embellishments to make thousands of.....

whisper it quietly ....

CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!

in July!!!!!

Tonight is the staff night out .... so we might be going along to that if I can stay awake long enough!

My lovely girl is coming home for the weekend - always a pleasure- and we're all going to the Race for Life event on Sunday.

That should be enough distractions for now - I hope!

Have a good weekend whatever you're doing!

The Simulation Appointment

This afternoon I had a gruelling few hours in Oncology to plan my radiotherapy treatment.
This involved a 40 minute wait in a cramped, hot, stuffy room with lots of people coughing around me,
before being called into the radiotherapy simulation room ... where I was asked questions like
"Do you know why you're here?" and "Do you think you could be pregnant?"  ....    really???

After what seemed like hours ....
of lying perfectly still on a hard bed with my arm raised above my head,
while people drew on me with different coloured pens ...
and the bed moving up and the bed moving down
and then up again
and great machines moved around me whirring
and beams of green light shooting across me
with lights going on and lights going off
and people leaving the room and whispering behind a panel about numbers and angles
suddenly it all went quiet ...

oh yes,

joy of joys,

the mighty machine had broken down ...

just like at home when your computer freezes
everything stopped
and I was left on the hard bed with my arm above my head ....
for a long time .....
getting cold...
while they whispered some more.
Eventually they decided to try another machine.

The bed had been left so high they had to send for a set of steps to get me down ...
obviously this is a normal occurence ...
why else would a set of steps be waiting in the wings ready to spring into action?

So ...
I had to get dressed  ...
go back to the hot stuffy waiting room ...
and wait till I was called ...

to start all over again.

This time it seemed to go much better ...
and they seemed happy with the results.
Apparently I have a very good chest wall!!!
I've never been told that before!!!
Then I had to have two tattoos to mark the exact position for the beams to line up with.
Nothing fancy, just two black freckles ...

should I have asked for a dolphin or a rose
or maybe the names of my children?

I emerged two hours late clutching a list of twenty five appointments for radiotherapy
starting on the 28th July (our wedding anniversary)
stretching through until September 1st.

I came home and sobbed like I've never sobbed before.

Peace and Freedom ...

First of all, apologies for my depressing post yesterday ...

but I felt like I had a silent scream trapped inside me

... and I had to let it out somehow.

Everyone I meet thinks I'm doing really well, but sometimes I just don't feel very brave.

Anyway, I've got it out of my system and I know I have to get on with things as they are.

I had some wonderful comments left on my post, so I'd like to thank you all for your wise words and messages of support .... they really are a comfort to me!

Today the lovely Mr B. and I went all the way across the river to the Albert Dock to visit the Peace and Freedom Picasso exhibition at Tate Liverpool.

Now, it has to be said ... I'm not Picasso's greatest fan.

I appreciate that he was a genius and his body of work is truly amazing

but if I'm honest,

I just don't like it that much.

 I prefer prettier paintings.

This exhibition focuses on Picasso's reaction to the horrors and atrocities of war

and it is all a bit sombre and dark in my opinion.

However, the lovely Mr. B. does appreciate a good Picasso on the other hand

and he really enjoyed the show.

In the end I decided I like his simple line drawings best ...

uncomplicated

This dove of peace was my favourite.

 A burst of colour at last!

Actually, the exhibition is very interesting,
has plenty of work to see,
and has had great reviews in the art world.

You really don't have to love Picasso to enjoy it!

We also enjoyed an exhibition of a wide range of sculpture

The gallery was bathed in light from an installation of illuminated floor tiles .... this was pink, but we also saw green and gold while we there.

This unnerving young lady is incredibly life like ... except she's about 8 foot tall!

and of course, Degas' little dancer ... so sweet!

After a tasty lunch here ....

We had a little stroll around the Dock ... come and have a look ....

The Tate Gallery is the home of modern art in Liverpool .... and it is housed in some of the converted warehouses of the old docks.

We can remember this place as a derelict wasteland ... it was converted in the late eighties and now really is a fantastic place to visit on Liverpool's heritage waterfront.

The warehouses now contain shops, galleries and places to eat as well as a wonderful Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit. There's a very good Slave Gallery here.... to remind us the shameful way  Liverpool's great wealth was made in the past.

You can also find out more about the Beatles ...

I confess I have never been inside,

so I can't tell you what it's like, but it does seem very popular with the tourists.

If you want to see more of the city you can take a ride/voyage on the fabulous Duck Bus ..

which takes you on a tour around our city streets, then hurtles into the dock as a splashing finale ... great fun ... but best on a sunny day. We went on a freezing October day many moons ago ....

not for the faint hearted!

The newest arrival on the waterfront is the Liverpool Wheel ...

We haven't been on it yet, but friends tell me it's brilliant!!!!

Of course, no trip to Liverpool's waterfront would be complete without a trip on the world famous

Ferry across the Mersey!!