Holiday and Birthday Party

Friday 1st August
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.

Busy at the moment

Hi everyone,

I had my chemo on Tuesday 22 Jul so I'm still feeling a bit grotty but will soon be looking up. My hands have been particularly bad this time but have just got good enough to allow me to type. Other than that everything is well in the Bradley household. I'll be pretty busy for the next week so don't worry if you don't hear from me before my next chemo session.

Hugs to you all

Wednesday 16th July 2008

I know that it’s been ages since I posted and I apologise to anyone who was worried but now it’s summer we are trying to make the most of sunny days and I may be remiss in my posting so don’t worry if there are gaps in my postings.

Wed 16th July
Travelled down to Kent to see Scotney Castle, weather was fantastic! hot and sunny like a proper summer day. The castle grounds were lovely and although we couldn’t get into the old castle (they were working on it) we did get some pictures of the outside. See a couple of pictures below and I’ll probably post some more on Flickr soon.





We bought some local strawberries from a farm shop on the way home and they tasted sublime (best I’ve tasted in years).

Tues 15th July
Weather was not so good so we went to see Mamma Mia at the cinema, it was fantastic! The story was totally crap and the plot had so many holes you could drive a truck through it but the music was great as always and it was a real ‘feel good’ summer movie of the best kind.

Mon 7th to Mon 14th July
Tired on Monday so we rested up after our busy Sunday. Tuesday was chemo day so spent it at the hospital; everything was okay so it all went well. I didn’t have a bad cycle this time but still quite fatigued so didn’t do much for the rest of the week except knit, take short walks in the woods and play on the WII.

Phil has bought me this wonderful game called endless ocean, you can deep sea diving and see lots of fishes. There isn’t any time constraints on doing stuff and it’s not energetic like the sports games so it’s ideal for bad days. It’s a special boon on days when my hands are sore so I can’t knit because I can use the hand controller and forget my woes in the ocean.

On Saturday Phil took me to visit a local yarn shop I’d discovered on the net and it was wonderful, they were really friendly and I found out that they also do knitting circles twice a week so I’m going to try sometime soon.

Sun 6th July
Fab day, we went out urban exploring with some friends, the place we originally intended to visit had guards so instead we took them to North Weald Redoubt which has some very interesting history.

It makes life some much easier now that I have the little portable seat we bought as I can sit down for a bit of a rest whenever I need to.

If you are interested in the pictures I took you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jill_bradley/

Fri 4th to Sat 5th July
On Friday we went to Costco and then the Borders bookshop which is always fun and always expensive! On Saturday we visited Dad for a while.

Thurs 3nd July
Better day so we went to the reservoir for the first time in ages ansd walked for about 45 mins which I was very pleased about.

Tues 1st to Wed 2nd July
Not such god weather so the only exercise I had was playing a bit of tennis and golf on the WII. I’ve also been knitting like a thing demented, I’ll post a picture when I finally finish something but don’t hold your breathe

Mon 30th June
Nice day again so Phil took me to Sutton Hoo which I’ve wanted to visit for ages, the museum bit was a slight disappointment but we walked out to the mounds and they were very impressive

Tues 24th to Sunday 29th June
I had chemo as usual on the Tuesday, mostly sat around for the next few days apart from the occasional walk when the weather was good. I did go to a craft shop with my friend Sam on the Saturday but it was mainly card and scrapbook stuff which is not my thing so I sat on my portable chair and enjoyed the warmth while she shopped. On the Sunday I was a bit better and the weather was okay so Phil drove us to a different county park for a picnic.

Monday 23rd June 2008

Mon 23th June
Taking advantage of our new NT membership we decided to come home via Corfe Castle or maybe Avebury. The decision was made for us when I realised I’d left my camera at the hotel reception when I settled the bill and we had to drive back to pick it up. Luckily we were only about 20 mins into the journey when I discovered it’s loss but it still delayed us long enough to make Corfe castle a step too far so we did Avebury which is the more direct route home.

While we were there we bought a new waterproofed picnic blanket and also a tripod folding stool (like a sort of shooting stick) for me to be able to have a sit down when out shopping or walking.

Sun 22nd June
Our last full day away and happily the forecast was again much worse than the actual weather. As Phil had been doing so much driving and still had the trip home on Monday and then the drive to Marsden on Tuesday we decided to stay a bit closer to the hotel today.

We went to a castle for a wander around (free as we are English Heritage members), there was a nearby Manor House which was National Trust and lots of other local Nat Trust properties so I suggested we find out how much it would cost to become NT members. We prefer the English Heritage but are running out of new castles to visit we often just was a quick look at a place and the cost of entry to NT properties makes that an expensive proposition. Anyway we did sign up so we’ll give them a year and see how it works out.

In the evening we went to a super restaurant called the Olive Tree which was lovely.

Sat 21 June
Phil checked on the net and we found the best beach for fossil hunting, the weather was still forecast to be very bad on Sunday so we decid3ed to try the beach again while it was only light rain. It might have been light but it managed to get us thoroughly wet together with the spray coming off the water. We didn’t find anything on the beach but after a warming cup of tea I found some nice examples in the fossil shop (grin).

Once we’d dried off a little the weather took a turn for the better so we went on to a deserted village further along the coast that Phil wanted to see, it was very interesting if a little sad.

Fri 20th June
We were quite keen to do a bit of fossil hunting so we drove down to the south coast and tried to find a good beach for fossil hunting. The weather wasn’t great but much better than the forecast. Phil found a fragment of fossilised shell but we didn’t have too much luck so we headed north to Bath where we had dinner in one of our favourite eating places (the Walrus and the Carpenter) our very favourite restaurant in Bath used to be the Wife of Bath but that changed hands last year and we still miss it dreadfully.

Thurs 19th June
We stayed in a Premier Inn at Bridgewater just a few steps away for the conference so we were able to sleep in a bit on Thursday, Phil keynote speech seemed to go well and we left shortly after so we had a good part of the day to sightsee. As Thursday was the only day that was forecast to be nice we decided to trot over to Glastonbury to see the Chalice Well and mooch around the shops. We drank lots of water from the Chalice Well and sat in the beautiful peaceful gardens for a while and then bought some bits in the shops; I got a lovely rose quart crystal which sits in my palm like it was designed for me.

Afterwards we drove back to the hotel we had chosen near Bridgewater; it was a lodge hotel which we’ve not used before but it was nice having our own space in a little lodge rather than a conventional hotel.

Wed 18th June
Phil was giving a talk in Cambridge in the morning and then speaking at a conference down at Bridgewater on Thursday so we decided that as I had a bit of a chemo break we’d take advantage and have a long weekend away. While Phil went off to his morning talk I got everything ready to pack so when he got home we just had to have lunch and then throw some stuff into the suitcase to get off.

Tuesday 17th June
We were BADDDDDDD today!!! We went out and bought a WII console and then spent ages trying out the boxing, golf etc. It’s fantastically fun and addictive and hopefully will give us some fun exercise when the weather is too bad for walks.

I’ll let you know how we get on with it as we have time to see if it’s something we really use.

Monday 16th June
Lovely day so we went to Wat Tyler park and wandered around for a couple of hours (with frequent rests I admit). Part of the reason for our wanderings was that we have friends coming down from Scotland in July and we’ve promised to show them the strange little wooden figures they have in Wat Tyler Park so we thought it might be a good idea to make sure we could find them again.

Last year when things were low my friend Gaynor bought me two rose trees one had just bloomed and the roses are beautiful; the rose is called ‘Simply the Best’. I took some pics and I’m going to try to load one so fingers crossed (Phil loaded the last couple for me but I want to try to do it for myself this time).




Sunday 15th June
We went to a county type fair at South Wield, there were craft tents as advertised but only very small ones and not much to see. We did walk around and look at the vintage cars and Phil has some brill photos of them that will end up on his Flickr account I’m sure.

Before we went out I bid on some fantastic looking hanks of designer yarn, they were very low starting price and I confidently expected to be outbid on most if not all but I thought “what the hell” and bid on 6 of them. Oops! I won all 6 auctions, luckily they were very reasonably priced, absolutely gorgeous and I’ll save on combined postage. All my family can expect scarves for Christmas this year.

Saturday 14th June
Obviously it’s really Father’s day on Sunday but Dad goes to his Day centre on Sundays so we went down to see him Saturday instead. Richie and Caroline were there too so it was a bit of a family occasion. We always get Dad cards but don’t usually bother with Fathers day presents (he’s hard enough to buy for at Christmas and birthdays) but this year I knitted him a scarf in the great chunky chenille that he’d admired when I showed him the jumper I made with it. (I discovered that chenille makes a lousy jumper cos it doesn’t have any stretch in the fibre but it does make a lovely warm scarf)

Friday 13th June
Weather looked threatening and the forecast was for rain so we decided to have a bit of a wander in Chelmsford instead of walking at the reservoir, of course as soon as we had gone far enough in the direction of Chelmsford to make it a pain to turn back the weather took a dramatic turn for the better and the sun came out!

Anyway we had a great time mooching around the shops and discovered a wonderful strawberry vinegar in the ‘Oil and Vinegar’ shop.

Thursday 12th June
Phil was out training so I ironed a couple of shirts for him so he wouldn’t have to do it when he got home. I was going to iron all the ones that were clean but then my tummy intervened so I only managed 3 shirts but at least that should see him through the next couple of weeks. When he got home we went out to the woods for a bit of an evening walk which was lovely, there is honeysuckle along the easy path and every so often you get this beautiful scent drifting down.

Wednesday 11th June 2008

Wednesday 11th June
Still suffering with the runs but we had promised to go over and see Dad so we did that and watched a film with him. He’s still got the cat for a little while in case we want to go away for a day or two when I’m feeling a bit better.

Tuesday 10th June
Not much but a bit of shopping again, the diarrhoea is still bad and that’s wearing me down a bit. Still my fingers are good enough to let me knit which is at least something.

Monday 9th June
Still feeling fairly grotty so didn’t do much but a bit of shopping and watched telly. Phil drove to St Albans to get the car window fixed but we agreed that I wasn’t really well enough to go too. Jill sulks in a most childish manner!

Sunday 8th June
Feeling pretty grotty which is expected cos this is usually my worse day. The good news was that it didn’t seem quite as bad as usual and we did a bit of shopping and a short walk in the woods. Apart from that I just lazed around while Phil did some gardening. I hate that I can’t help with things and that I have to sit around and just watch him doing stuff, specially when I know he’s tried and frazzled.


I realised that I just was going to be able to adjust to sleeping in the wrong side of the bed so we’ve changed back, we may need to do it while I’m connected to the pump but we’ll see how it goes next cycle.

Saturday 7th June
Out for a quick shop then my friend Sam came to visit, we haven’t see her for a few weeks so it was really good to see her. Then there was a very happy surprise! The phone rang and some very close friends who moved to New Zealand were calling they were back here for a visit and decided to surprise us and they came over about ½ an hour later. It was fantastic to see Mark and Julia and we just picked up as though we’d seen then a couple of weeks ago instead of more than a year. It was quite touched and flattered that they came to see us because they had a very busy schedule trying to fit in visits to their families and stuff.

I am quite torn about Mark and Julia, while most of me wants them to be happy and make a success of the move to New Zealand (they are!) there is a selfish bit which wanted them to hate is so they would come back to the UK.

Anyway they are loving it over there so I’ll just have to keep my baser half in check.

Friday 6th June
Tired due to the problems sleeping, we are trying sleeping on the ‘wrong’ sides of the bed now that my PICC has changed arms.

I felt bad cos we were supposed to be going over to visit Dad but I felt much too grotty and Phil had a raging headache too (I think it was the long day in Thursday and also that he was worrying about me all day which he was teaching). We did manage a 20 min walk on the easy path of our wood in the cooler evening though so that helped.


Thursday 5th June
They had to put the new PICC in my right arm at the elbow crook which is a pain but it went in fairly easily. It was a shame because apparently the only person who can use the special machine for putting the PICC line higher up your arm was away on that day.

As the tingling and numbness in my fingers and feet has been getting worse they dropped the dose of one of my drugs by 20% (Oxiplatin) and also gave my some B6 vitamins (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride) to add to my growing drug list J

It was a rather late day and as usual I slept very badly due to the steroids and also I think a reaction the B6 tablet which I took very late just before going to bed

Wednesday 4th June
Hospital on Thursday and Phil is training in London so we went over and stayed whih our friends Gaye and Paul, I’d been keen to out at least once during my chemo break so we treated then to dinner in and excellent Italian place near their house.

I was a bit worried bout having the new PICC put in so I didn’t sleep very well and Phil was therefore worried about me so he had a stressful as well as a very long day on Thursday.


Tuesday 3th June
Weather pretty grotty so we did that indulgent thing and went to the cinema in the afternoon. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie and it was good fun, exactly what you expect from an Indie movie; we reckoned it was a couple of car chase sequences too long and they could easily have cut the FBI stuff at the start which didn’t seem to go anywhere but that’s probably being a bit picky for what was a fun film.

Monday 2nd June
We wanted to do a little more castle visiting so we drove to Kent and went to see Upnor Castle. It was very good except for the horrible screaming kids who seemed determined to ruin the place for anybody else. To be fair (not sure why I feel obliged to be fair though) it was the adults fault because the kids were far to young to appreciate the castle and the adults seemed quite happy to let the all run about and scream for the whole visit with no concern for anybody else. I noticed that they went to sit a fair way away from where the kids were playing!

As we lest we were chatting to the two people at the shop and when I mentioned the screaming little animals (I was kinda pissed that they had spoilt our visit) the lady in the shop laughed and said to the bloke “so it isn’t only us!” she then said that they could hear then the whole length of the high street.

We had intended to go on to see Rochester Castle but when we got there is was raining, there was nowhere near to park, it looked huge and we were both feling a bit tired so we just drove home.

Sun 1st June
We were a bit tired after our Saturday expedition so we slept in quite late then pottered about in the house. We went off to buy a hanging basket stand which tasks 4 baskets and went we get around to it we’ll plant it up with baby tomato plants.

The stand went together much better than I expected; weeeellllll… to be fair it went together after we drove back to the shop to get all the fittings they hadn’t given us first time around.

Saturday 31st May 2008

Sat 31st May
We drove up to Suffolk and visited Framlingham Castle, as it turned out we had been there before but it’s such a wonderful castle it was well worth a second visit. One of the advantages of being English Heritage members is that you can just pop into places without feeling that you have to stay long enough to get your moneys worth. The previous visit had been on a very rainy day so seeing the castle in the beautiful sunlight was lovely.

We had a nice picnic lunch of bread and cheese with super vine tomatoes all of which we bought locally then we took a look at an abandoned industrial site nearby. It was so tempting because there was a loose door which we could have got through if we’d been just a little bit thinner and braver but Phil got some good pictures anyway.

We had packed the car in case we decided to stay away overnight but by 4ish I was feeling tired so we came home instead and watched the fantastic Dr Who episode which made for a splendid end to the day.