Just back from a fortnight’s whistle-stop tour of the UK. Really fantastic. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so great, if I’m honest. I mean, I knew I’d have a good time. That winning combination of presence of good people, and absence of work, meant that was pretty much in the bag.  But using two weeks of hard earned annual leave essentially staying at home, rather than jetting off to some exotic location for fourteen consecutive days of excitement and relaxation in equal measure, well let’s just say I’d resigned myself to an element of disappointment there. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

There’s a lot to be said for sticking with what you know. There’s also, as it turns out, a lot that’s new and different about the stuff you think you know. Several childhood holidays in Cornwall, and all those conferences in Edinburgh, didn’t completely rid either end of the country of the potential for new discoveries and a whole heap of fantastic things to see and do. Underground cities, castles on islands, horses galloping along endless beaches (sadly not ridden by me, but still) – two weeks not far from home is practically a fortnight in a mythical paradise.

So, now back to reality. And just before the inevitable immersion, with fair chance of drowning, in work, I had a birthday party to attend. A birthday party that a lot of people I hadn’t seen for a really long time would also be attending. And if I’m honest, I was a bit anxious about that. Not about the party, I love a party. There was cake, for God’s sake. Not about seeing all those fabulous people, either. It was just the whole seeing people who knew I’d had cancer, but who hadn’t seen me since before I’d had cancer. They’d all be the same, and I’m not. They’d all be asking how I am, and how I’ve been, and my cancer would be The Big Topic, when I’ve just started to see other, more recent events as bigger topics. Or at least more interesting ones. Exploring Edinburgh’s hidden underground streets, for example. 

Well. Everyone asked how I was. No one asked about cancer. I asked how everyone was, and no one else was exactly the same either. Big topics? Bereavements, births, weddings, new jobs, house moves… the works. We’re all still the same people, and that’s the good bit – that’s the bit that means we can still get together and have a great time, and still feel we know each other, even though it’s been a while. But none of us is exactly the same. And that’s the other good bit. Stuff happens. We deal with it, mostly. Gives us something to tell each other when we do meet up.

So now it really is time to get back to the daily grind. And I have to say, if I open my emails in the morning to find no unexpected surprises, that’s one ‘same old same old’ I won’t complain about.