Happy New Year!!

Boodle - completely unconcerned by the New Year.

Happy New Year!
I am a little late getting the blog off to a start in 2014.

I have  already had my first hospital visit of the year - last  Monday. I now go every three months, so it was the routine check-up. I saw a consultant I have never seen before - a Mr Smith. He was very smart and charming and seemed to know all about my case - although he did say "Oh, so it's a year since your Radical Neck Dissection" - when it is actually TWO YEARS since I had my op! I was a little disconcerted when he came at me with the nose camera - I told him Mr Hughes had said last time that there was no point in doing that anymore - due to the adenocarcinoma not likely to be in the mouth or throat. However, he looked so disappointed when he said "Well, you don't have to have it done if you don't want to..." I let him go ahead anyway. I guess it can't do any harm - except make my eyes water!

He also had a feel round my neck and declared that everything looked and felt fine. That is a relief as always! As Mr Hughes had said he'd arrange a CT scan this time - he said he'd put that into motion for me - then see me in three months - all being well with the scan. They are so efficient - within a couple of days I'd had the appointment for April and a form for a blood test to be performed before the scan. I just need to wait for the date for that - then pop down the road to Bradwell Hospital to let the vampires do their job.

With Mr Hughes not being there - I forgot to ask the questions that my brother had told me to ask. He is Head of Bioinformatics in the Department of Biology at the University of York.
Has immunohistochemistry been done on the secondary cancer?    Has gene expression profiling been performed? Maybe I'll save that for next time! He did give me an interesting article to read about progress being made in diagnosing the Cancers of Unknown Primary. It was Molecular Diagnosis of the Tissue of Origin in Cancer of Unknown Primary Site: Useful in Patient Management by F. Anthony Greco, MD

I am so happy to know that good research is being done into this.

Enough of medical matters. I hope that you all had a good Festive Season. We had a lovely time - it did go quickly being in the middle of the week I was soon back at work! Otherwise we've spent a lot of time lounging around in our Onesies keeping warm and eating too much!

 Let me show you a couple of my favourite presents:


This is S a strange book that looks like an old 1940s library book inside a slip case - the pages are foxed and stained and two people have written to each other in the margins all the way through. Also - the pages are packed with loose ephemera, like photos, newspaper cutting, postcards, notes and even a napkin with a map drawn on it.  It's a beautiful object and two stories in one book.


I haven't decided on the best way to tackle it yet! It was conceived by J J Abrams - the guy who wrote the TV series LOST. it's going to be fun deciphering it!



Then there is my Writer's Toolbox - which will give me inspiration for my writing! Hopefully it will get me writing something new this year!

There are some fun ways of getting new ideas inside it!





I like Nathan in the Breaking Bad t-shirt I got him. We are coming to the end of the whole series - we are almost half-way through Series 5. What on earth are we going to watch when that's done? :-)



I also had my birthday at the end of the year, which was lovely. I even enjoyed being at work on the day! The evening was spent at my parents' New Year's Party as usual. We had some fun new games to try too. I had some beautiful flowers from Cousin Anne in Chesterfield. Thanks-you!!

 Today was Nathan's dad's birthday! We had a nice lunch out at Taybarns. I think by now he might have sampled the Jim Beam Honey Liqueur we got him too!












 Happy Birthday Mr Beardmore Snr. :-)

So, I wonder what 2014 will bring? I think there are going to be some changes.  I will call them opportunities I think :-) The library service is definitely going to change and I feel it might happen quite quickly. We know that the management are looking at the service and how people use it and there will be more emphasis on online services like e-books. downloadable audio books and e-magazines, than on tradition services like books in buildings.

If you believe The Sentinel - all branches will close and only the towns like Newcastle and Leek will keep their physical libraries!

The County Council have promised to hold consultations with library users and communities to find out what they want from their library service. So who know what will happen? You can't be a luddite about this - you have to keep up with the times and the technology. Public Libraries are slower to embrace it than Academic Libraries - but we are getting there. I do feel like somewhere like Silverdale, which has a high proportion of older users, would be sorely missed in the community. I'm sure there is still room for both!

However, my job could change - so I have decided to equip myself with a few more skills. I'm going to learn about making phone apps - in Windows 8 initially. Then I may be of use in the Brave New Library Service - or failing that I can help Nathan in his business!

This could be an amazing year!!