Yantan

How is she Griff? Nothing to report from here so I'm mainly lurking.

Yes thanks blackmagic Ruby did get on OK. Yesterday's session was an hour quicker than the last and although the fatigue hit more or less right away she didn't feel as bad as last time on the trip home. She's had a busy morning working from home so far today. It could be a different story come tomorrow though. She's not taking anything for granted. I'll keep my eye out for the Highland vet. I think I've caught it a time or two before now. An earlier series perhaps?

Thanks folks. We are leaving at 10.30 for Ruby's 11.30 appointment. I will have my packed lunch with me. The chemo unit provides Ruby with her lunch. Apparently a near-by street was closed yesterday for a period of time and a bomb disposal unit was in attendance! OK whilst I was writing that a friend updated me on the incident. A hand grenade was found in the room of a recently deceased resident at a care home. I'll bet that gave the cleaner a shock! It turned out to be just the casing and was totally safe. Phew!

Yes Ruby enjoyed her troll out in the car & a look at the scenery. We have the trip to the hospital tomorrow but I doubt Ruby will enjoy it, certainly not on the way back. We had a terrific thunderstorm late afternoon yesterday. It cleared the air thank goodness as it had been pretty humid up till then.

I think you're on to it there Griff about depression. I've been thinking the same from what you've told me. What a difficult situation for you all ☹ Ruby has had to go to the GP's to get a blood test in advance of her next chemo session on Wednesday. She's gone in the car although its only a 5 minute walk, just can't take the chance of someone she passes not sticking to social distancing. Watching the webcams situated in our town there are many who just don't bother 😡 Also she wanted to take a drive to keep the battery charged and see something other than these 4 walls. I've told her to take extra care - don't want her getting in an accident!

I'm sorry your mum won't take advice Griff but both you and your dad have tried. It's also important to drink plenty in order to avoid kidney stones. Ruby's renal surgeon told us that. We have a friend who ended up in hospital last week due to kidney stones. She said the pain was far worse than childbirth. Very warm here and somewhat humid. I went out in the garden for some fresh air and noticed a profusion of weeds taking hold so I sorted them out but in the heat it knocked me out. I hope everyone is doing ok.

Oh dear Owl, that is a frankly pathetic view from that birdwatcher. I'm seeing way too many silly, idiotic, moronic, dangerous, outdated views on FB which only reminds me why I came off it previously. I've recently ditched my instagram and Twitter a/c's due to the extreme nature and nastiness of some peoples views.

Not much going on here. Or, if there is, we are not in on it as we are stuck in the house. The dog psychologist sorting Henry & May out has confirmed what we thought might happen. Henry and May should be permanently separated. May, as the younger, livelier one will be re-homed. The rescue are going to try and get Henry into a temporary foster home to get him out of kennels, even though they are great and he gets exercise and fun activities every day. However, as we are months away from being able to have him home we've said we won't stand in his way if the rescue decide re-homing is the best thing for him. They both deserve to be happy & settled after all they've been through. What's left of Ruby's hair has started falling out. Her next chemo sesh is next Wednesday.

I can't stand mushy peas either. They are just vile 🤮

The hair clippers I ordered arrived today so Ruby's given me a haircut with them and not done a bad job. She used the longest hair setting which just took the thickness off. Running my hand through my hair it feels just as it does after I've been to the hairdressers. As it's another 15 weeks until I can get a professional hair cut I'm relieved! She's taken her own down too the wood as she was advised to in order to save the upset of waking up to find clumps of hair on her pillow. What's left will still fall out but this way she feels more in control of the process. We had some overnight rain and a little this morning but we need more! Everything is so dry.

Sincere condolences Eve to you and Richard on your sad loss 😥💔

How we haven't had a major fire over the weekend is a miracle. The Lake District has been inundated with tourists and unfortunately many of them have not behaved in a decent and respectful manner towards our beautiful countryside. There's been discarded portable BBQ's left all over the place, trees and branches chopped down, fence posts and gates removed to make fires & evidence of a number of Chinese lanterns having been lit. On top of that roads and pavements have been blocked by cars, narrow lanes blocked off completely due to parked cars allowing zero access in or out of villages and properties for local residents and, more importantly, emergency services. And the most disgusting - human waste left all over the place! So yes please, colder wetter weather for us too. The gardens need it, our reservoirs and wildlife need it and we need it to keep the irresponsible, selfish twerps away.

Owl I can remember you getting Wispa. I can't believe it's been 12 years already! Happy Gotcha Day Wispa 💋❤

I won't get burned Suzeanna - I have plenty of sun lotion thanks to you 👍 Thank you folks for the birthday wishes. A friend didn't know what to get me so she bought me some Cumberland sausage from the local butcher! Best present ever!!! 😂😂❤❤ I thought it was illegal to disturb nesting birds. Cutting that hedge therefore was illegal. Good for you Owl reporting those idiots. There are far too many selfish, irresponsible people who think rules don't apply to them. Right my lovely next door but one neighbour has brought me a paper so I'm off to read it.

Ruby doesn't work at the pencil museum though Jazz. She works at the factory which is now located in West Cumbria. Tracy, the museum supervisor, had a great day with the lads and said they were genuinely funny and lovely to host for the day.

I've been enjoying my birthday. 61 today. How did I get to this age so quickly? It seems like it was only 4 or 5 years ago I was 23 🤔😂 I got a surprise birthday cake delivered from Betty's of York. Owl you'd have liked it as it's chocolate the same as those tasty little choccy bites on our Betty's afternoon tea. I'm also very lucky as friends and family sent me Amazon gift cards to the value of £150! 😁 I can buy myself books and other things to amuse myself during this period of chemo isolation. Ruby is doing OK & taking things easy. She's feeling very tired already and the injections she started today to help her immune system had an almost immediate side effect. Aching bones! She was warned about that though. We've both had a sit out in the garden. Oh Ruby's just told me that one of the original Osprey chicks, from the first time a breeding pair settled here on the shores of Bass lake, has been killed on the M6. I don't know how that came about ☹

Oooh I remember you lost your card once before Owl but I can't recall where you found it! It's been very warm here today. I was going to sit out but couldn't be bothered in the end 🙄

Ruby's next round is June 17th. There's no shade in the hospital car park and no where to go whilst she's in other than into town & I can't get out of the car anyway. The more I see how people are just ignoring social distancing the less I want to be anywhere near them. I had to tell the car park attendant to back off from checking my parking pass (free for chemo patients) as I had the front windows open. I held it up for him to check from the prescribed distance.

Oh bloody hell Karen. You don't do things by half! We arrived home at 3pm. Ruby could see me from her seat but the windows are one way so I couldn't see in. She sent me a text but it didn't come thro until after we arrived back.

Still in the car in the hospital car park waiting for Ruby. Approaching 2.5 hrs now. I'm getting rather hot.

We are off to Ruby's first chemo session very shortly. I have a book, a portable fan and a packed lunch all ready for my wait in the car. I hope everyone has a nice day and gets to enjoy the good weather 👍

The boiler fortunately is in an outside cupboard but the controls are on the wall between the kitchen & dining room so they need access for that and to run the water in the kitchen. We were going to ask the firm my nephew works for for a quote but I think we might just go with the gas board as I know they have and will wear proper PPE and will give us priority, providing they have enough staff as most have been furloughed. I just saw someone disappearing into a 2nd home next door but one with a suitcase. The owners don't holiday let it and only use it very occasionally. We know their car, its always a Jag. There's no other cars parked on our street that don't belong to the permanent residents so if they are just here to check the property and give it an airing why hide their car? It already looks like someone else stopped over in another 2nd home on this street last night and is possibly set for another overnighter. Can we blame Dominic Cummings for this???

Eve I hope your little birdy gets out safely. Well it looks like our boiler is goosed. The gas man is coming back tomorrow hopefully with a new part but the other part he ordered is now obsolete. So just as Ruby starts chemo and we enter a16 week period of quarantine with nobody supposed to come into the house we are going to have either British Gas or our local plumbers in. Much nicer weather here today. The emergency services had to go out on Saturday to rescue 3 idiots from Crewe who thought it was a good idea to come up here with inflatable kayaks and take them out on our lake during a storm. They couldn't make it back to shore and got stranded on one of the islands - there was a rumour that they'd been camping on the island, which isn't allowed in normal times never mind breaking the Covid-19 regulations of no overnight stays. They were powering the kayaks with a prop shaft attached to a rechargable drill! The Fire Brigade put photos on FB of the rescue and of the kayaks and drill. The police were waiting on the shore for them being brought in.

Wet, windy and cold here. Absolutely awful, more like back end AND the boiler has packed in again! The engineer who got it going yesterday lives in town so he gave me his mobile number just in case. He's coming round later as he's on call today but it might not be until after he finshes at 4pm. I hope everyone is doing OK.

We were out clapping last night, well Ruby clapped and I annoyed her by banging a pan with a wooden spoon. We had the usual person blowing a horn which makes us all smile but we noticed 2 of our neighbours didn't join in this week ☹ Back to winter here today. I'm blaming Philip! Joy of joy our boiler has broken down - again! Of course its missed its annual service as British Gas suspended the servicing due to Covid-19. Anyway the engineer is here wearing gloves and a mask. Fingers crossed he can mend it and keep it going. Fortunately it's an outside cupboard so he just needs to come in the back for the controls which are near the back door.