Maybe Next Week

When I was in my mid 20s I was a Technology teacher at Poltair School, it’s probably not called technology any more. One thing I hadn’t learnt was how to weld, so I taught myself to weld and made me a trailer. This trailer was a bit rough and ready, but for the next 20 odd years it was pretty useful. It was strong, a decent size and could carry anything from sofas to sand. In time, like us all, it got old and a bit decrepit. When we bought our house in Brittany we invested in a brand new shiny trailer. I even remember where we bought it. It was in a builders merchants/farm shop called Espace Emeraude in a town called Cléden-Poher in central Brittany. In turn it also did copious amounts of national and international work. I made a rack for it to carry kayaks and e-bikes so, on our planned, prolonged trips to France in our retirement, we could carry all sorts of paraphernalia. When I think about it I’ve towed lots of things. The first trailer I towed was ½ a Morris 1000 van. We’ve had touring caravans and towed our MX5 on a car trailer behind our motorhome.

Why tell you this? Well, last week I sold the trailer. Further confirmation, as if I needed any, that life can be cruel. I was unexpectedly emotional as it disappeared up the road with its new owner leaving a surprisingly large void on the drive. After about 40 years I’ve now got to learn to live without a trailer.

Weird how odd things just get to you.

But I’m still here, even though everything seems to be getting a bit tougher, I’m still soldiering on.

About 18 months ago Tricia and I were invited to our dear friends wedding where we were asked to be the witnesses. We were delighted and honoured but not expecting a global pandemic. After postponing for a year the wedding finally took place on Saturday. But for me having 5 or 6 weeks of being poorly we had to plan carefully. I didn’t even know if I could drive the car let alone the motorhome. I had a test drive on Thursday, all ok. So taking it as easy as possible with as much rest as I needed I managed about 5 hours at the wedding. Far exceeding my expectations. Blimey, I was knackered and in bed by 8pm. It was a fabulous day, everything was perfect.

Something I'm aware of is that I missed the end of June and I lost the whole of July. I don’t remember being so ill for so long but what I do know is it’s probably a big chunk of the time I have left.

So what’s new? I have nothing much to report. I have some new aches and pains. Are they sinister? They might be. I have a call with my palliative nurse this week and a consultation with the oncology team. Perhaps I'll be better informed once I’ve had these conversations.

Maybe the aches and pains will simply go away.

Maybe I’m just a little bit paranoid.

Maybe I’ll drop into somewhere for coffee. But not this week! But I’ve still got some way to go.

Maybe next week.