Family Matters

[Stanley]

Thanks again for your support. You are quite right Maz, the remission is in the symptoms, she feels well enough to come. The main tumour is quiescent at the moment, no sign of regrowth, the secondaries are marching towards us..... The end result is still certain.
Thanks China, I can't guarantee the snow but we have a hard white frost this morning.
Margaret has landed and had a good night's sleep. She visits me today so Xmas starts early! I have put on a clean shirt...... From what Susan tells me Friday in Derbyshire is firm, that is going to be quite a day..........

[Marilyn]

Maybe there is magic in Jaffa Cakes!

[Sue]

Have a wonderful reunion. Enjoy every second .

[Stanley]

Maz, I'm going to tell Janet that!
Sue, I will be doing my best, it's going to be a tad emotional though......
Part of me is still saying "don't count your chickens".......

[Marilyn]

No..don't count your chickens, Stanley.
Just "cluck" over them...with great joy and love.
( I worry what the travel will do to Susan. I'm always shattered by the time I get to UK, and I am a healthy person)

[Julie in Norfolk]

i read this string a little late, I know you will all enjoy yourselves. Great news Stanley.

[Stanley]

We shall be trying Julie!
Thanks to all of you, you're helping me to hold it together...... However, I reserve the right to become a quivering hulk for a few minutes on Friday and no doubt this afternoon when Margaret visits me.....

[Moh]

Great news Stanley, how wonderful to think you will be able to give her lots of hugs.

[Stanley]

To be quite honest Moh, It's frightening me! Margaret and Mick visited yesterday afternoon which was lovely. She filled me in as far as she could. As far as I know they flew out of Perth around Noon our time yesterday so they should be at Marmalade Cottage some time this afternoon. Friday visit isn't firm yet, depends on how Janet is after the flight. Big surprise is that Janet's children are coming as well so that's a bonus. I have my mate Phil lined up to look after Jack for the day and am under starter's orders. I think I'm holding it together...... No communications from Oz but that's understandable, they must have been rushing round like blue-arsed flies getting ready and of course radio silence for 24 hours during the flight. With luck I should get word the Eagle has landed some time this afternoon.....
Thanks to all of you, please cross fingers for me!!

[Wendyf]

I'm stressed just reading about it Stanley. Sounds like you won't get much time to spend with Janet...it won't be easy.

[Marilyn]

Are they not there for Christmas? ( is there a time limit?6

[Wendyf]

Maz it's Janet who is ill, Susan lives here but flew out to Australia to be with her.

[Marilyn]

Yes of course.... I get muddled between the two..
I don't get Mags confused and now I think about it, I don't have any confused...thank god Stanley doesn't have more daughters.

[Marilyn]

Put it down to an afternoon doing ancestry research....hours of names with no faces...and I have to keep stuff in piles to stay organised.
Think it is time to take a break...

[Marilyn]

I've turned that evil computer off.
Not sure all my limbs are working.
( and I thought that thought before hubby offered a glass of wine!)

[Stanley]

You're getting more wound up than me Maz! If I have got it right they will be arriving at Manchester sometime around now. If I knew the airline I could check the flight..... I shall just have to be patient.

[Moh]

Every thing crossed Stanley.

[Stanley]

Thanks Moh. They must be there by now but no word at all..... I have told them they are cruel..... I suppose they will surface in their own time.

[Cathy]

Maybe she is closer than you think Stanley... ??

[Stanley]

I'm pretty sure they are installed in Derbyshire Cathy, it's just that in the chaos of getting there and settled in after a 21 hour flight they have forgotten to let us know they are safe....... (Patience Stanley......)

[Marilyn]

As I said before...I always arrive like a wrung out dish rag. I am not capable of much more than sleep...and time is so very confused. That is all very well when you have someone to visit, who may have milk in the fridge and coffee on the bench. When you have to stop and buy such basic items before you crash, it doubles the degree of difficulty! Nothing is normal.
We always seen to arrive about 6am, after a 24 hour flight. Then we have to wander about like zombies until 2 pm and we can get into booked accommodation. It is so very difficult to focus...
Then, of course, you have the problem of falling asleep by 4 pm and waking at 4 am...absolutely ravenous!!! Bowels completely go to pot, and you can't "go" for days....travel is a complete nightmare!
I remember wandering through the Heritage Centre at Barrowford waiting to get into our cottage, and we were both falling asleep at the table over a pot of Tea. Hubby had grown whiskers, and everything felt so terribly time warped. We must have looked like creatures from another world.

[Tizer]

Stanley, have you packed the Jaffa Cakes?

[Marilyn]

I remember the time we were in transit at the time of the London bombings. We got held up in Singapore whilst it was going on...about 8 hours...then arrived in London late the next day. Got into our hire car and belted to our hire accommodation, arriving 9pm. No time to stop for food, we found ourselves in a dark tiny village. In the fridge was 50ml of milk in a jug. Two tea bags on the counter. And a Cucumber sandwich ( 24 hours old) cut into triangles. It had to do...nothing open nearby.
Miserable night, and we were so tired we didn't trust ourselves to drive back to motorway services.
Woke up about 4am and could have eaten the side out of a cow!

[Tizer]

In the 1970s I went to a scientific conference at Braunschweig in Germany. I met up with a group of scientists I knew from Newcastle University and they asked me if I was hungry. I'd gone by train and they'd travelled in their Professor's car. They opened the boot and it had several large brown cardboard boxes. Delving into one they gave me a Mars bar and then explained how they weren't going to rely on availability of food at the conference, especially that awful German food, and had brought enough Mars bars to last until their return home!

[Marilyn]

Unfortunately, I am not a fan of Chocolate. I would eat it to survive, but find no pleasure in it.
( unlike my sister, who loves Chocolate).
Honestly, I get more excited over a plate of vegetables than chocolate...