Newly planted fruit trees in our garden!

I must first apologise for not writing more on my personal blog. I have various separate sites for more specific topics, so tend to split the writing accordingly.  I also write a lot more in a private diary, as there is a lot I don’t necessarily want to share publicly.

It’s a very cold morning today and I am finishing up with my e-filing.

I’ve been avoiding it for a little while, but the end of this year (2025) has been 5 years since my cancer diagnosis. I guess I am one of those luckier individuals and sometimes that’s hard to grasp. For the whole of 2020 and the duration of my surgery and treatment, I really wasn’t focused on much else other than getting through a long and brutal chemo reigime. I think it’s fair to say that’s what it was… This followed by a very stressful and bad return to work which resulted me leaving my previous job for a new one, and ultimely lead to the previous periods being a bit of a blur. I can only thank my beautiful wife and loving family for being there and supporting me, even though they may not have always understood what was going on in my head.

I suffered a lot of survivor guilt and PTSD from my experiences and this only really improved after getting some proper counselling. I would recommend this to anyone who’s gone through or experienced any trauma of any kind. Us men do tend to bottle things up. It’s not worth it. I felt really lonely for a long time as after so much hospital time and the Covid situation, I spent more time with nurses and doctors and HCAs and then that was all gone. I can understand how people get institutionalised as I fear that’s what I got. I wouldn’t wish what I went through on my worst enemy – that’s the honest truth – but I lost over nearly 10+ months of close socialisation. Probably more socialisation that I’d had in years. It’s difficult doing the adulting thing. I would love to be back at 18 and having nothing much to worry about and being out and drinking with my friends. Then that all falls apart.

Folowing this all, I did reach out to a good friend I’d not seen in many years and have had the pleasure of meeting up several times since. Good friends are hard to find, so reconnecting with old ones if possible is very worthwhile.

In 2025, I made some headways with getting back on track. I spent a LOT of time working on our garden. I learnt to fix a lawnmower, something I never had to do, but had to out of necessity. I did a charity walk up Snowdon with my Sister and raised a lot of money for BCRT, a great cause. I also did an interview with David Dolling’s Project 71 video series. You can check that here: https://youtu.be/TCrSFigbnMs?si=a8i90npYbxx4MTlG

We met up with friends throughout the summer, and made the most of the great and prolonged warm weather.

I did some more YouTube videos and updates for my garage Home Mechanic pages and worked on my freelance work Frantik. I also made an effort to work on writing more posts on all my blogs, and stop being complacent.

I’m also hoping to complete my Intermediate Amateur Radio course in 2026. It’s a real challenge with a lot more focus on electronics. Challenging myself and doing things I haven’t attempted yet are a real focus for me.

In early December, it brought great pleasure to me to plant some new fruit trees in our garden. In a few years these will bring us some great produce. (See picture).

I’ve written a lot now, so enough rambling. Time to keep on trucking!

Happy New Year!

That’s a wrap! 🙂