It’s just occurred to me that I didn’t tell you the reason it was so important that I would be well enough to visit my family at this particular time. Well the 1st of August is a very special day for me; for one thing it’s Phil birthday and it’s also the birthday of my oldest niece Helen, this particular birthday was Helen’s 50th and my sister Anne had arranged a family party at Helen’s house to celebrate.
So the first order of the day was to give Phil his presents (books and Cds which I’d smuggled into the car and then wrapped while he was out photographing. He also had the few things he’d bought at the Everton shop and will have a very belated present of a computer program that we are still struggling to get ordered.
Anyway Helen party was good fun and we had the chance to see lots of family we haven’t seen for ages, in fact in the case of Lynn who is my nephew Paul’s partner I hadn’t met her before but I believe she’s a reader so Hi Lynn!
Here are a couple of pictures and you can see the rest if you are interested at my Flick account here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jill_bradley/
Phil and me
Me with my two sisters; Anne Kay and Jill from left to right
My sister Anne with birthday girl Helen
Thursday 31 July
We set out for Liverpool just after lunch and arrived in time to do a little shopping in the Everton shop before we went on to the splendid B&B we were staying at. For those of you who don’t know Phil is a devoted (fanatical) Everton fan; I sometimes joke that he only married my so that he would have somewhere to stay when he went to Liverpool for matches and we did come back early from our honeymoon so that we could go and watch them play in the Charity Shield at Wembley.
Wed 30 July
Visited another NT property; Penrhyn Castle, it’s a modern castle done in the gothic style and was absolutely fantastic. I was feeling better which helped but also the staff were helpful and pleasant which was a great relief after Tuesday. We had tea and cake in the café and the Bara Brith they make locally was so good we bought a whole cake to take home with us.
Tues 29th July
Visited Plas Newydd which is National Trust, the visit may have been coloured by the fact I still wasn’t all that well and that had a fete on so were busier than usual but we were very under whelmed. I nearly had my stick/seat taken from me but the woman eventually said she could see I needed it; the house was unbearably hot and about halfway through one of the dragons they have guarding the rooms suddenly barked at me to move my (tiny) backpack/handbag to the front of my body. Nobody else had said anything and I was feeling quite unwell by this time but the way NT structure their buildings you have to follow their route and can’t cut the walking short;. As you might guess Phil barked right back at her but it made us feel very unwelcome .
Sun 27th to Monday 28th July
Didn’t do much as I was still feeling a bit rough from the chemo (this is quite normal), still it was great to see my sister who’s been ill herself and Phil was able to go off with a friend to do some urban exploring/photography.
Sat 26th July
First stop on our family holiday was my sister Anne who lives in Anglesey, we set off latish on the drive because I wasn’t too great in the morning and early afternoon but it shouldn’t have mattered because we had intended to stop off and break our journey halfway. That was the intention and we’d been fairly sensible and booked a motel room on the motorway; however once we arrived it seems that they had double booked and as we were late they had guests in all the rooms.
We tried a whole pile of other places but they we all full as there was some sore of motor racing event on over the weekend; eventually we realised that we were only a couple of hours from Anglesey so phoned Anne and begged a bed for the night. Finally we arrived at our destination just after 11pm shattered but grateful to be able to lay our weary heads down. Poor Phil was worse off than me cos I had slept in the car but he had to drive the whole way. In the end we did the journey in really good time and have learned the lesson that sometimes motorway motels double book on the assumption that some guests don’t turn up so if you are going to be arriving late phone up and check that they will hold the room for you!
Wed 23rd to Fri 25th July
Rested up an Wed and Thursday cos I felt pretty ill but that’s to be expected in the first few days after chemo. Friday I was just well enough to pop over to Dad to drop off the pussy cat as he had offered to cat-sit for us.
Tues 22nd July
Chemo day, all went well which was great cos it meant that I would be able to go and see my family in my good week.
Thurs 17th to Mon 21st July
Lazy day on Thursday but on Friday we had lunch with friends at a super place Sam knew, afterwards we visited a huge deli supermarket I think it’s near Marks Tey but would have to check the exact location. We bought some bits and pieces and intend to go there again cos it had some fantastic stuff.
Afterwards we were still in a shopping mood so motored on down to Lakeside, got a couple of things in Costco then on to our favorite bookshop (Borders at Lakeside). Here we got the most miserable news that the shop was closing in early AugustL, is was a mixed blessing though cos they had all books and CDs at half price we spent £100 pounds and it would have been more if I hadn’t got tried after an hour of so!
Saturday we finally gave in to temptation and in the afternoon went back to ransack the shelves we missed on Friday sending another £100 (Oops).
Had quiet days Sunday and Monday but did manage to get a couple of decent walks in.
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