Easter

Ah what a lovely break for Easter. I hope that you all had a nice time with good company and you enjoyed the rest. Shame about the rain!
I had a great break from hospital - although we did have to pop up to the Cancer Centre today to get some blood taken. It was very quiet and the two nurses were only working until 12 noon. They'd had over 30 people in for bloods though. It didn't take long and we were soon back outside in the rain.

It has been a pretty quiet day. I tried to keep myself occupied so I that I wouldn't think too much about tomorrow. As I reckon I won't be eating very much next week I did a naughty thing today. Went to MacDonalds Drive-Thru and had a cheeseburger. It was rather delicious, with hot, salty fries and then one of those scaldingly hot apple pies to follow :-) It was like the condemned person's last meal - heehee. For a while anyway!

So tomorrow I have to be back at the hospital for 8.30am to have radiotherapy. Then it is upstairs to the Chemo pod for my last chemotherapy. I can't say that I am looking forward to it - but at least I can get it done and then I won't have to worry about it again. I just have to recover and then I'll be all good.

I am going to take a book in with me this time. I have started re-reading Therapy by David Lodge. I love his books, they are funny but also intelligent and informative. Remember Nice Work? They did a great adaptation of it on the telly. I think Warren Clark was in it. David Lodge lived in Edgbaston and I remember reading most of his books when I worked at the BBC at Pebble Mill. There were some VERY nice houses in Edgbaston - I used to wonder which one was his :-)

This one has always been my favourite one though. He talks a lot about Kierkegaard and philosophy as well as catching up with an old flame who is doing the pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago, in English - The Way of St James. it is quite an epic journey, across France and Spain that has fascinated me for a long time. I have two other books about it too, including one by Shirley MacLaine, the actress who has also completed it. People do it for all kinds of reasons, not just religious ones. It always seem to change them in some way.

Maybe I should make an effort to try it once I'm better. I did read the other day that some people were trying to reinstate a more local ancient pilgrimage route from Chester to Lichfield, which used to go through Stone, where the pilgrims would lay stones on the graves of two early Christian martyrs.

"It is told that the great Mercian king, Wulfhere, who had a palace at nearby Tittensor, was horrified when his two sons, Wulfad and Ruffin (also Rufin), converted to Christianity.

The legend says the two boys followed a white stag into the forest - where they met St Chad, who persuaded them to become Christians.

But when he found out, the angry Wulfhere killed his sons; and on that same spot their sorrowing mother buried them under a cairn of stones. A church was built over these stones in 670, just one of the buildings that was predecessor to the present church of St Michael & St Wulfad.

And that is how the town around it, 'Stone', got its name."
BBC News

So maybe I'll start with one a bit closer to home :-)