RichardHerring.com - Warming Up

8634/21553Thank you for all the kind comments about Wolfie. She had her operation today and it went well and it looks like her liver isn't as badly affected as feared. So hopefully she has a good few months ahead of her, albeit with no spleen. Here's a picture of the two cancer raddled stone clearers feeling sorry for each other! After five weeks of me mainly being in bed and Catie having to do everything, I am going to try and pay her back by looking after the kids as much as possible, until I…

8633/21552It's been a bit of a rollercoaster year for the family, with my dad being ill and then me getting cancer again. It's not quite been an annus horribilis but it's not be the loveliest annus I've ever encountered. And I've encountered a few.Today we had to rush home early because our lovely dog and Stone Clearing podcast co-host Wolfie is now in hospital. Catie's mum and dad have been looking after her whilst I've been recovering and while we were away, but noticed that she was lethargic…

8632/21551Our tour of the West Country continues with a visit to the best tourist hotspot in the world, Cheddar. Though we were here to see local eccentric characters Keith and Barbara Herring. Incredibly it's my dad's 90th birthday on 5th August, but we were going to start the celebrations now for the members of the family who will be away on that date.Dad's been a bit poorly this year and was away from home for a few months being cared for, but my amazing family have managed to find a way to…

8631/21550We managed a very efficient day of Bath tourism, starting with a visit to the Roman Baths. I came here with a foreign student group that I was leading in the summer of 1989 and made about �£30 because the students had given me the money for adult tickets, but it turned out there were student tickets and it would have been too much trouble to work out now much to give everyone back. The same happened at HMS Victory too. I was quids in. It cost �£90 for the family so I am at…

8630/21549Maybe because my bad immune system meant I avoided the damp Hell of the swimming changing rooms, but I really enjoyed this trip to Center Parcs and feel sad it's over so soon. Occasionally badmington based tantrums aside, the kids are now old enough for more fun possibilities to open up. We still have to deal with sibling rivalries and frustrations, but the balance is shifting to a place where there's more fun than annoyance. 85% of the badmington match was really good fun, though the…

8629/21548I went to pick up my replacement bike helmet this morning. There was no one in the office bit so I just went and picked one up and left again. That's how easy it is to get a bike helmet at Center Parcs. Not as easy as taking one off a bike obviously, but more hygienic.

8628/21547I am delighted that the Human League are going to be playing Hitchin. I am disappointed that Phil Oakey hasn't grown a beard that's really long on one side and really short on the other. Seems like a missed opportunity. Feeling a bit better today, if still pink and itchy, which was lucky as Catie was going to spend the afternoon in the spa so I was starting the long payback for the last month by being sole parent.

8627/21546I was feeling rougher than I'd hoped I would this morning and was glad of the extra snooze time when the others went swimming. But we had activities booked in the afternoon and I am keen to participate, so we got on our bikes and went down to the Sports Plaza where Ernie was shooting some crossbows (hopefully foam arrows for everyone's sake) and Phoebe and me had booked a tennis court.I managed to play some light tennis in the hot summer sun without feeling too wonky.

8626/21545Off on holiday but not feeling quite as well as I'd hoped by now. My post-chemo eczema is a bit itchy and still pretty tired, but  I had worried that I might have to cancel this trip altogether and I would have hated to let the kids down, so I have to take that victory.We are back at Center Parcs, but for once didn't try to get here by 10am so we could have a full day of fun. We just made our way casually over, arriving at about 3pm.

8625/21544Fifty-nine not out. Though not making any presumptions about making it any further. My body has to work out how to give me a cancer that isn't essentially harmless soon.Some cool presents from Catie and the kids. Phoebe gave me a frog made out of pompoms, Ernie gave me a pen with a big bit of rubber cheese on it, where a mouse came out if you squeezed it (how did he know?) and Catie got me a bobblehead of me. Or Keanu Reeves. Or David Ginola. Whichever one it was, it's a lot of fun.

8624/21543The power of Warming Up once again demonstrated. Within minutes of me publishing the blog a reader called Jonathan Ricketts emailed me to say the government were thinking of doing exactly what I suggested yesterday. You're welcome guys. It was my last day of being 58 today and by midnight (or technically 8am tomorrow) I had spent 59 years on this planet, as an autonomous human. As an early birthday present Jude Bellingham scored the winning goal for England a matter of minutes into my…

8623/21542I went for my annual health check at the GPs this morning and all seemed fine. I've lost a fair chunk of weight since last year (not all due to cancer treatment) and my blood pressure was good and when asked if I got depressed I said no, which apparently counts. The nurse doing the assessment said that I needed to have a blood test, which as it has to happen on a Tuesday I can't do til September. I said "Do I really have to do that? I must have had at least eight blood tests in the…

8622/21541I am very excited about Count Binface attempt to defeat Nigel Farage (just one letter away from being a count himself) in Clacton. It's great to see people taking this ridiculous comedy figure seriously (and I can't be bothered to do another joke here, but feel free to amuse yourself by pretending that was about Nigel Farage). Is it possible that he could actually win?

8621/21540My energy is definitely returning, possibly at higher levels than before the chemo. In an attempt to not let six weeks pass without doing any work and because it feels like I am back in lockdown, I attempted two remote RHLSTP Book Clubs today.Sometimes it can be tough doing these remotely, especially if there is a tiny delay on the feed, which can really throw off the conversation, but today I had a huge amount of fun. My morning guest was Professor Turi King who has written a…

8620/21539Another of the 26 Richard Herrings taken down by forces unknown. This time it's Richard G Herring. How many of us are there left now? It seems like this happens every six months now. Richard K Herring is feeling full of life again, though still isolating as much as possible. Though it's easy to forget that I am at a point where the most basic virus might cause me big problems.

8619/21538I was feeling a bit more normal today. I've got a sore eye, though I don't know how that happened Otherwise my energy is returning a bit and I actually stayed up til midnight obsessively playing Civilisation II, like it was a weekend in Clapham in 1997 and I was stuck in my flat with no friends.Best days of my life.At one point I felt like going for a run, but decided that might be foolish given the heat and the fact I am still recovering from treatment. It's nice to be bouncing back…

8618/21537Feeling a bit grotty today, once again, mainly tired. I didn't really manage to snooze in the daytime so was not too confident about the chances of me watching the England match in the middle of the night.Though I was knackered I couldn't get to sleep so I half-watched Brazil vs Norway and then thought maybe I should just stay up. But I realised that that would make tomorrow unbearable. Why put myself through the tension? Why not use sleep as a beautiful time machine that would take…

8617/21536When I had chemo in 2021 it came with some fun side effects. It made me slightly hallucinate (or see the world as it really is, who knows?). I was reading a mind-bending book about quantum physics at the time and I fancied that I could start to see the blocks that made up reality. Also I saw a hare standing in a field at dusk who was standing stock still, but then turned into a crow (or something like that - I must have blogged about it, but can't find it).

8616/21535It's not particularly unpleasant, just boring now. Energy low, but not experiencing last week's ennui with most food and entertainment. Though it still amazes me that I have pretty much all the world's entertainment at my finger tips but struggle a bit to find anything to watch. And I am just a bit too tired to read more than a few pages at a time.

8615/21534The treatment (or maybe the post treatment drugs) has finally caught up with me and after a disturbed night's sleep I spent most of the day snoozing. So aside from half-watching a couple of Voyager episodes and getting back into playing Civilisation II, I didn't really do much. The worst bit about all this is all the stuff I am missing, especially family stuff and how much that means Catie ends up doing. Phoebe had a day trip to France with her school today and needed to be dropped…

8614/21533I went down to the kitchen without a shirt on and the kids pointed out how sunburned I was. I had sat outside reading for half an hour last week and my arms had gone a bit pink, but I thought (at least on that occasion) I'd been wearing a shirt. I went back to the bedroom and looked at myself in the mirror and saw that I had a rash covering a lot of my back and upper arms.Was this just a harmless side effect of the treatment or might it be a sign of sepsis? Luckily I had the handy…

8613/21532Disappointingly the injections don't seem to be affecting my appetite this time. So I might not lose another 5kg, but I guess that's a small price to pay for it all essentially going OK. So far. Fingers crossed.The queue to get into the hospital car park stretched back so far today that we decided I'd just get out and walk in and Catie would park the car in Sainsburys.

8612/21531I hate the car park at the Lister hospital more than I hate anything on this earth. As you may have noticed, I resent that whoever runs this facility is making money off of ill people (and I presume hospital staff) and also that they profit from any (inevitable) delays in the hospital. On the day that I ended up having to stay overnight they hit the bonanza, partly cos Catie had to go home and come back again. I don't know what percentage goes back to the NHS but I am going to hazard…

8611/21530Tomorrow I resume my chemo treatment, so today I made the most of having some energy and an appetite and did housework, gardening, mended a loose bit on the shed and even attempted to paint the kitchen ceiling which was slightly damaged by a leak from the bathroom above. I think I have just felt so useless for the last fortnight that I wanted to do something to contribute and after so much enforced lethargy it just felt amazing to be doing anything.

8610/21529In an attempt to stay up long enough to watch the England match, I watched tonight's episode of the 1% club. As a fan of quiz shows (who would like to come up with one of my own) I admire the format and Lee Mack is the perfect host. Obviously I wouldn't mind a go, though I suspect a celebrity version might prove a bit expensive and you wouldn't even really see 80% of the contestants. I am not sure I'd succeed though, because (maybe due to my aphantasia) I can't do those puzzles where…

8609/21528I am not a fan of Threads. It's a place for ninnies, which seems to be full of banality and clickbait and people asking ridiculous questions like "Would you agree to be locked in your house for a month for $750,000?" Is there anyone in the world who wouldn't take that offer?I think they are designed for engagement farming, but it's hard not to engage and try and do glib jokes. And as I have time on my hand and not much to do I have been engaging and doing glib jokes.

8608/21527I am sort of glad that this week has turned into a rest week. Had I had the full course when I was meant to I think the heat of the last few days would have been hard to cope with, with full of exhaustion and nausea. It's still not ideal and I am a sweaty mess, having to cope the unpleasant smell of antibiotics emanating from all my pores (probably still better than when I was getting them on a drip and could taste them in the back of my throat). I think they're nearly all out of me…

8607/21526Maybe I am trying to work my way through the work of Mia Sara, or maybe it's a coincidence, but the film I fancied watching today was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I had heard middle-aged people say that on a rewatch they sympathised more with the headmaster than the eponymous hero and wanted to see if that switch had been made for me.I first saw this film in the summer of 86 when I was doing Camp America in California.

8606/21525A couple of days of being a pushy prick and I finally managed to get in touch with someone who could sort out appointments for the rest of my treatment. And the good news is that I don't have to start again. The two I have had still count, so I only have to be pricked three more times. If all goes to plan I'll be done by next Wednesday. Giving myself eleven days to recover enough to go on holiday (though I think I will still have to keep out of crowds if I don't want to be…

8605/21524Appetite slightly returning, annoyingly and I had a proper lunch of some soup. Luckily I should lose my appetite again whenever I end up getting the full treatment, though I am (again) really struggling to get in touch with anyone to work out when that will be.As a self-employed person this is doubly frustrating as no one is giving me sick pay and I can't really put in much in the way of work as I don't know when I will be free and well enough to do it.Has my two shots of chemo given…