Saturday, February 23, 2008

hidden costs of cancer

Bleugh, Friday turned out to be a pretty irritable day, due to my efforts to get myself insurance for our next holiday to France. My recent multiple stays in hospital mean that most companies wont cover me for anything medical, never mind anything to do with cancer.

Of course I don't really need cover for "cancer" - in summer 2006 I cycled round France with a tumour the size of a loaf inside me, so even if there is a microscopic new one growing, it won't be enough to cause me any problems ... per se ..

BUT my stoma is a worry. Friends of mine have recently had some scarey blockage and dehydration experiences and I dont fancy getting caught out by something like that and not having some cover.

Any rate it was pretty hellish having to answer more or less the exact same detailed medical questions for the privilege of being told to "sod off" at the end of it .. a particularly stupid bit came when one guy asked me if I'd had any blood out of my arse recently .. well NO I haven't ... cos my arse doesn't work, does it? I told you I've got a stoma .. hey ho.. I supose if there was a tumour there it could be bleeding, and it cold comeout of there ..

.. in general, though, it seems that they just dont really engage with what they are asking you about, just following the prompts on the screen, and it is not a good way to spend a whole morning.

Anyrate, I have found one who'll do it, not cheap, but it will give me peace of mind.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

1/2 term






Edited to add the pics - two mad women and a flavour of the decor in the room we had ....

Well after a WHOLE five weeks back at (sort of) work I get the feeling of a proper holiday, as a break from work. And didn't we do well? The weather this past week has been amazing, and we sat at the top of the Great Orme (which I had miraculously scaled under my own steam this time) and literally basked in the sunshine and still air. We had marvellous clear views out over the coast all round and further into the mountains beyond.. lovely

See, life is full of these moments when you just think it doesn't get any better than this.

We started to try and book again for B's birthday, the bank holiday in May, but is turns out Llnadudno has a "Victorian Extravaganza" time that very weekend, which might be a case of things not getting much worse than that, heaving with funfairs and massive crowds, so we are looking around for a Plan B ... !

It is sunny again today, tho bitterly cold, and we will be off on our bikes in the Peaks ...

... with the new camera we just bought, but that I've not really got my head around using yet.

It is a fuji finepix with lots of optical zoom (x18) so good for nature shots, I think .. I'm slowly working my way through the manual, which is surprisingly well written, but still too much to take in at a time.

Sorry I've been a bit poor at updating this lately .. but a steady string of things are OK would be boring, eh!