F**k! It's cold!

Last Friday was a bit of a stressful day in our household.  First up, I had a 9am appointment with the dentist, twenty minutes with Tina the hygienist then my yearly check up with Andy, my dentist.  Fortunately all was okay, no further gum degeneration and no treatment needed.   It was touch and go whether Harriet’s flight to Jersey would leave on time but thankfully she got off without hardly any delay.  Of course the real drama of Friday was Phil’s appointment for his biopsy at the hospital in the afternoon.  I think if you’ve read Phil’s posting from Saturday you will get the idea that it wasn’t a very pleasant experience.  I really felt for him on Friday evening because he was in a lot of discomfort.  I spent some time afterwards on the internet doing some research into prostrate testing and I’m on reading up I wish he’d never had the biopsy.   I’ve since learnt that probing into the prostrate can cause any cancer to spread and also that 75% of biopsy tests prove negative for cancer.  The most disturbing thing though is that the prostrate biopsy is not very accurate.   One automatically assumes that the doctor knows best but I don’t really believe this is the case anymore.  We go for Phil’s results on the 5^th of January and if he does test positive for cancer we will do our research first before agreeing to any treatment.

Phil didn’t get very much sleep on Friday so when we got up I already knew that it was going to be an easy day on Saturday.   With all the news predicting snow I decided to go to Asda in the morning for some supplies and petrol and then afterwards I went to the gym just for a quick run on the treadmill.  When I got out of the gym at midday the first snowflakes were beginning to fall.  Phil had a call from G to ask if she could stay the night if the snow got bad after finishing her Saturday job at John Lewis.  Phil said “sure no worries but ring me after your shift finishes”.   The snow did indeed come down hard throughout the afternoon and it was fun watching the flurries from the warmth and comfort of our lounge.  We settled ourselves in front of the telly for the entire afternoon and feasted on Christmas chocolates.  Naughty but very nice at the time.   Supper was home cured ham and mustard cobs and several glasses of wine for me.  Poor Phil wasn’t allowed to drink for 48 hours after his biopsy but that didn’t stop me.

Sometime just before 8pm, G called to ask Phil to pick her up from Newport Pagnell services.  She had managed to get a lift with someone from work that lived in Northampton but after taking 3 hours to get from the City Centre to the service station she had decided to abandon the journey and stop at our house.  Phil said the roads were treacherous but he managed to collect her and get back safely without too much difficulty.

On Sunday Phil and G were supposed to go back to Melton to visit his mum and dad for lunch but with the 6inches of snow in MK Phil made the decision on Saturday night to cancel.  It made sense really; he probably would have made it in the Land Rover but the electrics are still a bit dodgy so wouldn’t have been wise to risk breaking down in the snow.  Phil’s mum said that they didn’t have any snowfall in Melton; I just hope it stays that way so we can get down for Christmas.

I walked along the canal to fetch the Sunday papers which wasn’t easy in a foot of snow and in Harriet’s wellington boots which were 3 sizes too big.  I managed it with only falling over once and it was quite a refreshing walk there and back.  Phil got out the shovel and cleared snow from the front and back doors and then took G back to Northampton which took me well over an hour. 

Sunday afternoon was much the same as Saturday, a peasant lunch of baked potatoes and lasagne followed by papers and lots of telly.  Days like these always make me feel a little guilty but we really didn’t have much choice.  There was no way I wanted to venture out in step dad’s car and I don’t think I would have fared much better in the Land Rover.   I really wanted to go to the gym to work off some of the chocolate but I settled for 40 minutes with of exercise with my dumb bells and that was as strenuous as it got.

Jersey airport was closed due to snow until 2pm and Harriet’s flight was delayed and then eventually cancelled.  Phil spoke to her late yesterday afternoon and she is hoping to get on a flight today.  Unfortunately she will miss work today but worse still if the flight today is cancelled then the next flight out of Jersey is not until Wednesday.  

I don’t have much planned for this week, some last minute Christmas shopping but that’s about it.  Both Phil & Harriet are working right up until lunchtime on Christmas Eve and weather permitting we will be making our way to Melton Mowbray.  It seems a bit weird being at home for Christmas but at least we have some sunshine to look forward too when we fly to Tenerife on the 8^th of January.  I can’t wait.  There is only so much snow a girl can take.