End of the week approaching and it's been a busy old week for me, with lots of lovely socialising - lunching with neighbours and friends, out at the theatre on Wednesday evening, Christmas shopping evening in a small local village last night to hear some singing by students from the Orpheus Centre, where Amy works - and two gorgeous running friends coming round for lunch today. Ceilidh at my church tomorrow evening so the weekend will be pretty full-on too!
Luckily, I seem to have coped with this level of activity okay and, although I feel a bit tired, my spirits are high and I am enjoying my week. Charley Boorman was excellent entertainment and we had a brief chat with him afterwards - Amy and her friend Caroline, who both did the Mongol Rally last year, talked to him about their adventure and showed him photos of the car they used to get to Mongolia and he was really interested in their trip and spoke to them for quite a long time. During his performance (is that the right word? It felt a bit like sitting in a large room listening to a friend chat - nicely informal), he mentioned that he had been diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer, and I thanked him for being so open about it and we chatted about being members of the Big C Club. Such a lovely man! It is sobering to find out just how many people have become members of this club over the years. Just goes to show that cancer has no respect for age, talent, wealth or anything, really - it just chooses someone to invade and gets on with its nasty business.
I went to the gym again this morning and did a small amount more than I did on Tuesday - not much, just marginal, really. I can really feel in my abs that I am not used to sit-ups!! I saw the friend who runs the bootcamp that I loved so much and we had a brief chat - I hope to be able to return to bootcamp in January or (more likely) February. It did me so much good earlier this year and, while I might have to adapt some of the exercises to accommodate my shoulder and neck, I should be able to do quite a lot of it once I have increased my base fitness levels. I am trying not to dwell on how fit I was earlier this year and instead am looking for the positives - for example, I weigh quite a bit less than I did at the beginning of the year, so some exercises will be easier on my joints. Result! I am also hoping that this return to exercise will help with my depression, so by the time I talk to my GP next week about it, I will have several gym sessions under my belt and might be able to see some improvement. However, I am not ruling out the need for a/ds if both my doctor and I agree they could help.
I was so cold last night just wandering around Westerham that I said to Neil I shall have to devise a cold weather clothing strategy for when we go to Vienna next month! I had on two long sleeved tops, a cardigan, a coat, scarf, hat, gloves etc and still needed to wrap a rug around me to keep warm outside. Methinks it might be thermals for Vienna - luckily I still have the thermals and buffs etc that I bought to climb Kili, so they ought to suffice, since I have never experienced cold like I did at the summit of Kili and Vienna should be milder - shouldn't it? I suppose I have fewer layers of fat to keep me warm now, which makes a bit of difference.
I tried a sip of red wine last night while we were out - the wine shop was doing a tasting as part of the Christmas shopping evening, and Neil tried a red wine that he said was really smooth, so I had a sip. Nope, total vinegar taste :-( Perhaps I am destined never to like the taste of alcohol again - which is fine, actually. Mind you, I have quite a few bottles of fizzy which I have been kindly given by friends over the past few months, so I might need some volunteers to help us get through them :-)
Once more, I send gentle hugs to my friend who is on Day 3 of her course of radiotherapy and feeling fine so far. And once more, my love and thanks to everyone for supporting and encouraging me as I take my small steps towards recovery.
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