St Ives, Gardens, Clinics, Island Life etc

Flying visit to the blog and just an update as to where I am. Don, Susie- all ok?

Sadly one of my fellow myeloma patients and good friend died - very sad and he'll be missed.

We did go to St Ives though we stayed nearby in Hayle with a wonderful over towards St Ives. When we saw how bad parking was in St Ives itself we were really pleased to be where we were( also explains why many of the holiday cottages emphasise parking available or possibility of getting a week's parking permit). Dis the usual tour of the galleries and also went past Alfred Wallis' house( see last post re Wallis). In fact our lassie ( who has fallen in love with St Ives and is today arriving there for her third visit) is staying Wallis' studio. We did a fair bit of driving and for any fellow Scots who might be thinking of going to Cornwall we can't recommend enough flying from Edinburgh to Newquay. From the time we left Edinburgh and arrived at our holiday place the whole journey took only about 4 hours( including a rental car from the airport). I have to confess the thought of a long train journey or a car drive was a bit daunting. But the plane was great.

As well as galleries we also went to gardens etc. One place which really appalled me was the plastic place at Lands End- absolutely awful and a good example of how to ruin a historic place with cheap plastic shops etc.

One thing we also noted was the great difference ion temperature between Cornwall and Scotland- like being abroad it was so warm.

Unfortunately I wasn't well on holiday- heavy cold and chest thingy though I had my survival antibiotic pack. I'm afraid the surgery on my arm has proven not to be as good as the last surgery I had and its left me with quite a painful right arm. My paraprotien is also jumping up a bit- at a rate of 6 a month it seems- and though we had the option of going on to try some final treatment on Thursday we ( Elspeth and I with our consultant) decided to delay that on the grounds that I actually feel quite well just now and didn't want to lose that by going back on thalidomide which I know knocks me about a bit. So we've left that for another month and will revisit a decision then. I'm knocking walls down to build a new bathroom and can't let the myeloma interfere with that!! I've also got to go up on the roof to insulate my solar panel a bit more so treatment would also mean that have to be left. Bugger that- I've got things to do. We have though had the suggestion put to us by the medics that we should be speaking more to my Marie Curie nurse- all part of the wider picture that my condition is progressing and that the myeloma is fighting all we can throw at it including the medical kicthen sink.

We are though planning to use my comparative well health( as opposed to ill health) to go away again and will be going to Tayvallich on the west coast. Looking forward to that.

How to end this post?- Ach well- I am still here. AND.... couple of weeks ago I bought a new copy of one of my favourite cds- Island Life by Grace Jones. And what has been happening this week?- Grace Jones has been having something of a revival and been on and in one or two things as her usual eccentric self. If you get fed up- buy a copy of Island Life and listen to La Vie en Rose ( and Slave to the Rhythm of course).