Category Archives: General

End of year wrap!

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I can’t believe another year has flown by… it always seems to surprise me. Most of this year was consumed with my parent’s house-move. They’ve moved to Norfolk after 30+ years of living in Shillington, Herts. That was also my childhood home so it was a little strange knowing that I wouldn’t be going back there for Christmas. Nevertheless, the new home is rather lovely and not disappointing at all. There’s more room, and garages that can be used for cars rather than storage, so that is something I can aspire to have in the future too!

Christmas time this year was a much happier time for me. I think I am finally returning to “normal” following two years of life-changing events and mental as well as physical recovery of both.

I would highly recommend anyone who has been impacted by any terrible events in their life to seek out some unbiased counselling. I used The Wellbeing Therapy Centre who have locations around the country.  I spent a year focusing heavily on my physcical wellbeing and recovery but then rushed back into work and every-day life. With hindsight I would have (should have) taken a period of time to “reset” before going into things gung-ho!

The next thing I can suggest from experience is to find a new job if you’re unhappy. A lot of people say that a job is only a job, but when you’re spending 40 hrs a week on that job, it’s a little bit more than that. If you’re not happy, brush up your CV, and get on the job boards. Don’t let your mental health suffer as a result.

I’ve been in a new job now for over 10 months and it was hands down the best decision I’ve made in the last few years. I’m still working from home, and I wouldn’t change that for the world now. I have time to do my exercises before starting work daily and have more time to appreciate how lucky I am to be here and still writing this post.

I got my work to add to their employee rewards site, the option to donate to the Bone Cancer Research Trust, and I try and chuck some money that way as often as I can.

One of the other big achievements for me on a personal level this year was getting reacquainted with an old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in around 5 years and got back in touch at the start of the year. Good friends are hard to find so it’s worth keeping the ones you have close.

Wishing everyone the best for 2023!

New Beginnings

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Last week I finished working at the job I’ve been working at for 5 years. That’s a long time and a lot has happened in that time.

The postives: got another cat, got some new cars, made progress on my Mazda, visited some new places (Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg, various places in Wales, Cornwall), got married!

Negatives: Got Cancer (and covid); spent the last year working through a company that had gone through multiple acquisitions culminating in me going off on stress leave for around a month.

Enough is enough!

I’ve been engrossed in watching or learning about Cerro Gordo Ghost Town (see Ghost Town Living) and it’s been a really interesting experience watching someone who had no real life experience of living alone in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say he had the quick realisation that he was the only person who could determine anything that happened there, and he’s got some great philiosophical insights. One thing I’ve really taken away from that all is what he said and that is that if you don’t like something, do something about that. And that’s what I did!

Work got too much and after the big C, I have a different outlook on life. Making the most of every day and life in general is important, and I’m not going to spend it being unhappy, so I spent the time I had taken during the absence of leave finding a new job. Big priorities were ensuring it was another remote working role – I’ve been working remotely since around the beginning of the pandemic and I’ve enjoyed it. You do get lonely at times, but at the same time the pros outweigh the cons. Not having to get stressed in rush hour traffic and shout at other drivers is a bonus. That is one good thing that has come out of the pandemic really, and something that I could have done for a long time (working in IT) but it took that to wake a lot of people up.

2021… again!

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I thought I’d name my traditional end of year wrap-up blog post something slightly different. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster year for me. After everything that happened last year (see Cancer, Chemo and Corona) life has taken a new meaning. It’s taught me that we take everything for granted. Waking up every day and feeling well is a blessing, when so many people have it worse off. I’ve been trying to sieze the moment and do as much as I can. The word “bored” doesn’t exist because I’m always trying to do something. I’ve ticked off a number of odd job things that I’ve had on various lists for years. Sometimes you just have to get up and hustle.

The experiences of what happened to me last yeast were quite frankly the scariest thing I’ve ever had to deal with, and I don’t think anyone will quite understand unless they have had to go through something similar. I have so much to thank the NHS for, and which is why anyone who disagrees with getting a vaccine annoys me immensley. The costs of my hospital treatments last year anywhere where “free” health care isn’t provided quite possibly runs into the tens of thousands. I just did a quick Google search for “knee replacement cost” (just one of the many components of my surgery) and the first result came back as £10k, and that’s only scratching the surface. My surgery was 7hrs long with a number of top surgeons at the RNOH in Stanmore. I was in hospital for 2 weeks before being sent home. Then the next phase was nearly 8 months of Chemotherapy with 3 week in patient stays at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Plus monthly physio calls and checkups. You get where I’m going here. I’m so very grateful for living in this country and having this wonderful health service.

I probably should have seen a counciler sooner, to help me deal with the aftermath of spending a whole year out and the mental onslaught of dealing with being told I had Cancer, and then fighting that for a whole year whilst isolating and not being able to have visitors to the hospital. I’ve been keeping busy by throwing myself back into work (not that I’ve been thanked for it once) but no one has kept an eye on me and with the workload building up and up I’ve had to take it into my own hands and take some time off to deal with the stress and reset a little.

Mental health is as important as phsyical health. Last year you could physically see that I hadn’t been well. This year I’m looking fine but mental health has taken a rollocking having to deal with everything and realistically probably masking the issue a little by keeping myself so busy.

Take care of yourselves and one another. Keep an eye out on your friends. No one is invincible.

My Wife Anna and my close friends and family have kept me going through all of this.

At this stage I’m a little fed up of things repeating themselves like Groundhog Day. Let’s hope 2022 is an improvement and we see this Coronavirus off in a timely fashion. 🙂