CUP Awareness Week

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Buy a pin - only £1!

CUP Awareness Week: 23-29 Sep 2013.
The ten times campaign

Hi!

Today is the start of CUP awareness week. After I was diagnosed the only place I managed to find information and support and hear stories from other CUP sufferers was on the Jo's Friends website. They are also raising money for research into Cancer of Unknown Primary and also raise awareness.

They have challenged us to sell 10 badges each - which means that 10 more people will know about CUP!

So, if you'd like a pin - let me know. I still have a few left!

Have a look at the website: Jo's Friends

Also - good news - Tracy passed her HGV test!! Congratulations to her - there'll be no stopping her now!

Sherlock - the jewellery!

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Hi

Before I say anything else - I just want to say "Good luck!" to Tracy - my colleague and friend who is taking her HGV Driving Test tomorrow! How brave is she?? You wouldn't get me near the cab of one of those monsters. Tracy seems to revel in it though  - and can even reverse one into a tiny space.
Just remember Tracy:

We are busy getting ready for our trip to Eurogamer 2013. We set off on Thursday so just three days of work before then :-) Two in the library and one for the Parish Council. I am a bit sad that I won't be at work for the return of the awesome Keele Poets - but I am very happy that they are coming back to the library for another year.

We have had a fun weekend - visiting parents and making plum wine! Actually we've been making the wine all week- it is at the "bubbling away in the lounge" stage at the moment. The shed is far too cold now so we've had to bring the operation indoors. As we are making this one from scratch and not from a kit - it may not be ready until Christmas. The Rosé we did last time is pretty nice too - we are down to our last bottle!

I've also bought myself a new vacuum (I know - exciting stuff eh?) I only mention it because we've gone for a high tech cordless one that weighs very little. The old one wasn't picking anything up on our really thick bedroom carpet - but this one is amazing! It works so well - but with much less power. It's called a Gtech AirRam - have a look at the website if you are interested.



Sherlock-inspired :-)

This week I have mainly been wearing...my new bracelets made by my talented niece: Sarah. She sells them on the internet - on Etsy.

Her shop is called Mystery&Charms.

I chose the ones with the Sherlock theme (I love that TV show) so they feature a violin and a scarf! They look pretty cool on!

I have spent most of Sunday afternoon  looking for my American tax number. You need one if you want to publish books world-wide on Kindle. Usually you have to call the USA for one - but I remembered that I'd been given one when I lived in South Carolina back in the year 2000. Eventually I found it!

The book is in the editing stage now - Nathan is proving to be a fab editor - he has an amazing attention to detail. So, it should be published in the not-too-distant future.

Have a good week!

Trip to London

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Hello

Things are pretty quiet around here - working and stuff - all is well. We did get chance to take a day out and go down to our wonderful Capital City for the day.



Centrepoint

Nathan had wanted to take his dad down there for a while - and at last he succeeded! His dad hasn't been to London for around 25 years - although he used to work there. He wanted to see the places he used to work and drink beer all those years ago!

We went from Stafford on the train and arrived at Euston around 11am ready for a day of sightseeing and reminiscing.





Charles II - "the king who brought back partying"

We got the tube to Tottenham Court Road and emerged under the shadow of Centrepoint -  N's dad used to have an office nearby and looked out onto this building - one of the first skyscrapers in London. Amazingly - it is now only the 27th tallest building in London.
We had a wander round and saw that brightly coloured apartments had been built where his dad's office actually used to be. We saw St Giles-in-the-Fields Church (not actually in a field anymore) and Soho Square where we came across Charles II.

N and I both started singing the song about him - from Horrible Histories -it always makes us laugh!



Liberty's is well-guarded!

We also visited Carnaby Street - where N's mum and I went into a fabulous shoe shop with the kind of shoes we'd never seen before! One pair had one of the seven dwarves (from Snow White) as their HEELS. We didn't buy anything though :-( I shoed them Choccywoccydoodah though - although they had never seen the Good Food Channel TV show featuring this chocolate shop and its wacky creations. I think they were quite impressed!
I got my photo taken outside Liberty's though :-)



We were feeling a bit hungry so we headed back to the tube and changed at Embankment to get to Blackfriars.

On Blackfriars Bridge

We walked over Blackfriar's Bridge This was the area where St Christopher House used to be - where N's dad spent many happy working years. It turns out that St Christopher House has been demolished to make way for Bankside 123.  Very swish apartments overlooking the Thames and St Pauls on the far side. Prices start at £1.25m up to £6.5m.

I don't know what SCH looked like - but it seems to have been considered an eyesore. There is only a little discussion on the web about it - here.

He was happy to see that the Kirkaldy Testing Works was still there - though now turned into a museum and only open on Sundays.







The local ale - Greenwich Meantime

We walked past Tate Modern and down the embankment to the Founder's Arms - an old watering hole for the workers of SCH, where we stopped for lunch!

It was really nice to sit looking over the Thames - with all its traffic - and eat a delicious lunch. We tried the steak and ale pie (yummy) and the puy lentil and mushroom shepherd's pie and the Tower 42 Burger.

Yes - you are right - the burger was Nathan's choice :-)   

His dad remembered a pub in the neighbourhood called the Black Friar that used to be well-known. We had not seen it on the way here - so he asked the waitress if she knew of it. She didn't - but went off to ask her manager - then returned with directions!

In order to walk all those calories off a little, we ventured over the Millennium Bridge and wandered around the back street near St Paul's. We were looking for this iconic pub and eventually came across it - right outside the tube station we had come out of earlier!

It was full of tourist with so many people outside taking photos of its various signs.

The Bar

It was very ornate and dark inside and I presumed it must be very old - but it was actually built in 1905 on the site of a Dominican Friary.


One of the jolly friars

Outside the Black Friar

It was designed by architect H. Fuller-Clark and artist Henry Poole, both committed to the Arts and Crafts Movement. Jolly friars appear everywhere in the pub in sculptures, mosaics and reliefs. We are lucky to still have it as the pub was saved from demolition by a campaign led by Sir John Betjeman!


We were ready for a sit-down and the bar staff made very nice lattes!
After that we headed of again - now in the rain - to look at Fleet Street and the law courts of the city.

Needless to say it wasn't too long until we saw an interesting-looking pub. This one was right next door to the Royal Courts of Justice and had some very impressive chandeliers. N's mum wasn't sure they'd let us in - but it as just a normal pub. It was called the Old Bank of England  It is a Fullers Ale and Pie House - and was indeed very grand inside.


Again, it was really pleasant just to sit down and rest our weary legs. It wasn't long until we had to get up again and back onto the tube. By now it was rush-hour - so we had to wait for around three trains to come and go before we found one that we could all squeeze into - standing up. It was good to find that people were so nice though - as someone let N's dad have his seat. Even after he said to him - "I know I've got grey hair but I'm only 30 you know!" Hahaha...

Below the impressive chandeliers of the Old Bank of England

We managed to get to Euston in time for our 7pm train home. By now it was raining quite heavily. It had been a really good day though - and in just 2 weeks N and I - with 6 others are off back to London for Eurogamer 2013

Watch this space for much game-related news.

Us and Sir Ken photo (plus 39 others!!)

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Sir Ken and his ken-friends

At last the photos taken of the ken-friends and Sir Kenneth Branagh have arrived. Here they are - can you spot Nathan and me? I am on the stage standing next to Toni - and Nathan is on the front row.

Not sure why they sent this particular shot!

They were taken by Robert Martin for the Manchester International Festival.

He did take quite a few on the day  - and I love the first one.

Not sure why we got the second one though - they must have been some better ones!

These were taken on the Thursday - just before the Q and A with Ken and his Lady Macbeth and MacDuff.



R.I.P Frank

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I was so shocked and saddened this weekend when I found out that Frank - my PEG buddy, who had CUP like me and who had his first chemo session the same day that I did, has died. I couldn't believe it - it happened back in May. I hadn't seen it in the paper - or heard about it from anyone at the hospital - but I guess patient confidentiality is sacrosanct. It was very upsetting to hear - after all we've been through together.

The last time we saw him in the hospital was back in February:

"We had quite a wait in the main waiting room. That was fine though - as we saw Frank and his wife waiting there too so we could catch up. It was so nice to see him!

 He was looking quite thin - but he said that he had his PEG out a couple of weeks ago (horrendous experience he said - and I would agree!) so was actually eating real food now - supplemented by the liquid food. So, hopefully he'll fatten up a bit soon. Nothing tastes nice though - and he can't eat a lot. He has a very dry mouth and needs water with everything. It is some progress though.

The not so good news though was that he has another lump in his neck and one in his chest. So last week he was back having another scan. He was waiting for the results today. I hope it is not serious. On the good news side - they have booked a holiday and are looking forward to that in May."

The first time we met properly was in March 2012 - on PEG insertion day:

"So I turned up to Ward 107 yesterday at 8am with my little overnight bag and a sense of dread in the pit of my (empty) stomach. They didn't have a bed for me so sent me to the Day Room until they'd had the 8.30am Bed Allocation Meeting. In there I met a chap who was also in for the PEG insertion. I remember that I'd seen him before in the Radiotherapy Suite - he had a CT Scan with his mask just before I did. Another member of the exclusive CUP Club!

We exchanged stories and experiences so far - both very similar. He said that he'd said to his wife the day before "I want this day to go on forever" as he was dreading this morning as much as me. He said also that he was totally determined not to use this thing even though we had to have them put in. I agreed - although I guess one day we might just be glad of them. That's why I hadn't actually refused to have it done - though it was a close-run thing!

He hit the nail on the head when he said the worst thing was that we were going to be awake for the whole procedure. He'd had to stop reading the information leaflet before the end whereas I had read even more on the Internet and watched a video."

We saw him and his wife so many times in between - mainly in waiting rooms. He was always upbeat, cheerful and smiling. It felt good to be going through this with someone who had the same thing. We could compare scars and treatment plans. It won't be the same going for check-ups and not seeing him there. :-(

RIP Frank

Trip to Liverpool

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Friendly Local :-)

 Look who I met when I went to Liverpool for the day last week. Firstly the seagull - just sitting outside the Walker Art Gallery - which was out first port of call.

We went up there on the train with Nathan's parents. They got on at Stone and we got on at Stoke - it worked pretty well! We changed at Crewe - and got into Liverpool mid-morning.



Ken Dodd at the station - tattyfilarious!

We were lucky to have a warm dry day too to wander around. We went because Nathan was at University there and he and his parents spent quite a lot of time there over the three years. They had wanted to go back for some time - it was lovely to go with them! I used to live right next door - in St Helens for six years - so I knew it quite well too. Although it had been quite a few years since I had been there too.

We met Ken Dodd at the station - in a sculpture called "Chance Meeting" that also featured the former MP Bessie Braddock - who did much to improve the conditions of the working class.- she was  a British Labour Party politician. Known as an ardent socialist and fiery campaigner, nicknamed 'Battling Bessie', her special interests included maternity, child welfare and youth crime. I'm not exactly sure why she is holding an egg though :-)



 

Me and Ken Dodd!

Battling Bessie Braddock

 We had a look around the Walker Art Gallery first - attracted to the old building by the brightly coloured birds all along its roof and under its eaves. They looked very effective!

Walker Art Gallery and its Birds!

Then we walked down to the Liverpool Central Library which had a very interesting "Literary Pavement" leading up to it. Some of the words were written in red and they were supposed to give you a clue to one of the rare books housed within. We managed to work out the line "The Cyclops in the Wood"  - but we haven't managed to guess which author and title it refers to. Any help gratefully received - we could win a prize!!

Liverpool Library



Literary Pavement



Games Room!!



Nathan was very impressed that not only did the library rent out games - but they also had a Games Room where you could go and play them - with Playstations and X-Boxes.





There was a huge circular children's area and on the day we were there they had a clown entertaining them! He must have been good as we  only saw one little girl screaming in terror at him.




Nathan's Mum admires the Spider Crab

Further down the same road was the Museum of the World, where we saw more weird exhibits and visited the aquarium on the first floor. I liked the pterodactyl skeleton flying over head and I did NOT like the Spider Crab - far too big ( and spider-like) for comfort.




Times for Lunch in The Welkin

We stopped for lunch then - went to an old haunt of N's - The Welkin. It is named after an old word for the sky - in memory of the "Father of Astronomy" Jeremiah Horrocks, who was one of Liverpool's famous sons. It was certainly busy - but we managed to find a table and eventually get served at the bar!

After we'd eaten N's mum and I went off to do a spot of shopping in the city centre while N and his dad stayed to have another pint and reminisce.

It's "Wind-Swept Man"

The centre was heaving with people and so many buskers and those live statues! We saw one called "Windswept Man" who was exactly that - he stood frozen in the middle of the square looking as if he was battling against a hurricane! There wasn't even a breeze! He got a lot of puzzled looks from passers-by. We thought he was brilliant! Lots of people were taking his photo and putting money in his tin. We stopped to watch some break dances too - they had a huge circle around them - you could hardly get down the street. What was sweet was an old chap who was trying to copy their moves. He was the star!

We visited some famous outlets and purveyors of fine clothes - for an hour or so. Didn't come back with too many bags! The boys were still in the pub when we got back!

Come On! We've finished shopping!



Into the Philharmonic Rooms

We then decided to walk up the hill to find The Philharmonic Rooms - a pub and old dining hall that used to be known as "the most ornate pub in England" It was most impressive with its wood panelling and stained glass windows and magnificent chandeliers.  We sat and had a drink before walking back down into the centre of Liverpool again.











The Bombed-Out Church - been like this for 60 years!

On the way we passed the Bombed Out Church - St Lukes. It has been stood empty with no roof since the Liverpool Blitz in 1941 when it was hit and burned out. Trees are growing inside it - and it does look rather nice.

 








N's Dad at The Adelphi Hotel

Before going back to Lime Street station to get our train back home we decided to go into the Adelphi Hotel - the one made famous by the TV series featuring it, with its staff and any visitors. We thought it would be nice to have an afternoon tea - as advertised in its glossy brochure in the foyer. Sadly though - due to staff cuts they no longer serve afternoon tea. They said we could sit in the sumptuous lounge and go and get ourselves a drink of tea from the bar down below. However - they would only let us take it in polystyrene cups - so we decided to pass on that.



It's "Windswept Man"



Water Feature in the City Centre





After that it was time to go back to Lime Street Station to catch our trains home :-)




The Famous Adelphi Hotel

The amazing library roof



I love this Library!!

Adelphi - nice but where are the Cream Teas????























Daleks and Willow Trees

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Had an unexpected day off today :-) At the last minute I decided to take the day off - thanks Tracy for covering!! I really wanted to go somewhere to take a photo for the cover of my book - so that I can launch it on Amazon Kindle. I wanted a willow tree on the cover - for reasons that may become apparent if you read it! :-)

My first plan went somewhat awry when I asked the National Trust if I could take a picture outdoors at Biddulph Grange - and they said it would be better if I used one of their photos (I looked - they all had people on them - this book is set in the Victorian era!) If this wasn't suitable I could take my own photo - but they would charge and I would need public liability insurance to do it!

Westport Lake

Cute pigeon :-)

So instead I decided to go some where public and take a photo there. I found many willow trees just a few miles away at Westport Lake, What a beautiful place! There was so much wildlife too - we were watched by an inquisitive squirrel from his tree truck as we walked past and a pigeon sat on blinked at us as we stood close to him. There were so many ducks, geese, coots, swans and moorhens on the lake.


Every time we stopped to look at the view some came swimming up to us at speed hoping for food. We felt a bit bad for not having brought any bread - but I have just read that they ask you NOT to feed them bread as it doesn't have enough nutrients to keep them healthy. It is best to buy special food from the new Visitors Centre. We'll definitely do that next time!

Nathan took lots of photos for me - he is great at framing shots correctly. There are quite a few to choose from - so I will have to look through them all carefully. :-)

We walked round both the big lake and the small one. There were lots of people there - in fact there was a Race for Life going on too - as we saw lots of ladies in pink with the numbers on their backs.



It turned out to be quite a warm day - so we decided to go off to Nantwich to Snugburys Ice Cream Farm. You may have heard of it - every year the build an amazing straw sculpture in their field on the approach to the place. We had heard it was REALLY something this year!!






We could see it from the road - but when we got up close to it we realised that it actually lights up, moves and says "Exterminate" an awful lot!





Very impressive - it is made from five tons of steel and six tons of straw! It certainly is a great attraction - you should have seen the queue for ice cream. They were offering loads of flavours and a special "Da-Lick" ice cream which was a cone with three scoops of your choice - and a dalek wafer in the top and two mint choc arms sticking out of the front. Of curse - we couldn't resist that!






 Nathan had mint chocolate, chocolate brownie and death by chocolate in his (you may have spotted a theme there) and I chose honeycomb, banana caramel and my absolute favourite - rum and raisin. Yummy!!!!