I’ve spent quite a bit of time with family recently. It’s a busy time of year for birthdays, anniversaries and rained-off BBQs. And I’ve noticed, amongst all the pleasantries (you know, in that bit when you’ve just arrived, before everyone enters that weird timewarp where grown adults suddenly mutate into moody teenagers and find it…

I’m a rubbish swimmer. I mean, really rubbish. My version of breast stroke is probably closest in style to a semi-paralysed frog. And attempting front crawl generally results in well-meaning passers by offering assistance. Which, on occasion, I’ve been known to accept. I’ve just had a little holiday – four days in France – and…

Somehow, suddenly and quite surprisingly, it seems to be the middle of summer. This year is behaving quite strangely, sort of like a young and not very well trained horse. Not that I have any experience of those, obviously. But the period between November and March progressed with all the speed and enthusiasm of a…

I’ve had to do some quite creative stuff with hair clips recently. Twisty, layerering, plastered down, not-a-great-look kind of stuff. I mean, I’ve drawn the line at comedy cartoon hair clips, but still. I’m basically at that stage of in between bald and having an actual hair style, where the only two options are look…

Karaoke happened. In the event, I neither shone nor basked in reflected glory. It was a very dark room.  Which was probably a good thing. In summary: power ballad / Disney / rap fusion. Inflatable guitars. Much laughter. Much alcohol. Much regret at never having taken singing lessons. Tempered slightly by the sad realisation that…

A member of my team at work is leaving this week. Cue the traditional exit strategy: a string of dubious singing performances accompanied by a significant amount of cake. Hence the rehearsals (both singing and cake related). So I’ve been debating with colleagues in advance of this evening’s karaoke extravaganza, the relative merits of singing…

Following the success of my wheel-procuring ventures last week, I have just spent a bank holiday weekend swanning about the country in a new car, mainly attempting to work out the function of the huge number of buttons, dials, knobs and screens that modern cars contain. So far, I’ve discovered that my car doesn’t agree…

Only last week, I had a superfluity of wheels. Of the sort attached to motorised vehicles. Roll on (sorry) a few days, and I’d struggle to cobble together the basic components of a unicycle. Most of the events leading up to this (temporary) state of affairs were intentional. Some, however, were not. The decision to…

My last post was concerned with how much I enjoy looking forward to things. And I really do. Directly linked to this, I really hate surprises. This, I’ve always been convinced, is due to the missed opportunity for looking forward to the surprise. If I knew what someone was planning to surprise me with, I…

Easter Day. Started well, got better. Mainly down to chocolate. Friends, family, the world’s best nieces. And my favourite dog. An Easter egg hunt (more chocolate). Cuddles with the cat.  Easter bank holiday Monday – similarly, started well… I’ve had a couple of weeks off work. Birthday celebrations blending seamlessly into Easter bank holidays. Lovely….

I’ve had a weekend of catching up with things and people. It seems I had got quite behind with both. But I’m pleased to say, I’m now right back where I should be. Or at least, some of my friends now remember who I am, and I’ve got some clean underwear again. It’s tricky keeping…

I realised, when casting about in desperation for a tenuous parallel to build into a recent blog post, that I always feel the need to draw some sort of parallel between my random thoughts and observations, and something to do with my cancer or treatment in these posts. I think it’s because of the fear…