Day 37

Woke up early this morning, my wife hadn't slept very well, as she is heading to have her bloods done, before her final full cycle of chemotherapy on Thursday.

Having the bloods done is stressful enough as it is, as there is always that uncertainty that something could come back amiss with the bloods, which has happened once, but even more stress is added now by the prospect of going outdoors in the big bad world.

I always manage to park close to the Oncology unit at the hospital, but it still means getting to the door. On this occasion my wife couldn't get in to the hospital, as it had completely slipped our minds and we had turned up bang on 11am, when the NHS were holding a minute's silence for their fallen colleagues, so weren't allowing anyone to enter the building during this time!

I had managed to source my wife some face masks to allow her to feel more comfortable going out. As has been the case with a lot of things that are necessary to some people, during these worrying times, the cost of face masks have gone through the roof and shyster sellers on the likes of eBay and Amazon are quite frankly being allowed to take the piss by the selling companies.

I did manage to get some, which claimed to be "surgical", but in reality were dust masks - they may not offer a massive amount of protection, but for the short amount of time my wife was going to be exposed they seemed better than nothing.

It was once she had got into hospital that someone pointed out to her that she was actually wearing her face mask inside out! Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

When we got home I had a pleasant surprise, as my supply of beer kegs had been delivered. Seeming rather inappropriate in the circumstances I had ordered 3 kegs of Corona lager and some unpronounceable Belgian beer (unless you are Belgian, I guess) - the Corona has gone on, just waiting for it to warm up again for the excuse to have a beer in the garden!

Following on from the beer theme, the company that provide the beers have started doing an online quiz every Tuesday evening. I took part for the first time last night, and sent an invite for my daughter and her partner to join in, virtually, too.

It was good fun doing something, I am a big fan of quizzes so this was a good way to spend a couple of hours. I had problems with their online answer sheet, as it turned out I had followed a link to last week's quiz, but other than that it was a good bit of fun - also educational, as I learnt that Rihanna's real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty - I am sure this information will come in handy at some point in the not too distant future.

Every day is a school day, as they say...!