Lindsey newsletter # 71
Nantes, Wednesday 8th of March, 23-00.
Sorry about this. I am being unable to update on time. More than 10 days since the last entry. Oh dear.
How can I organize things?..
Getting back to Nantes was hard work. Leaving lovely Biarrits, the great walks by the sea, and also the fat that I seemed to have infinite time to e with Lindsey. All that was hard. But the benefits were there to be seen. Lindsey so much better, so much more stamina, more strength.
Being back in Nantes involved facing very windy and wet days. Or the sort of weather you should expect in Nantes at this point of the year. We have seen days where it was sunny and raining at the same time!
Pictures… No pictures this time. I suppose that when you are on holidays you want to snap at everything. Get back to your usual surrounding and it’s not as fun to do so.
Treatments. We did see the oncologist who was happy with the progress made. We then went through a series of blood tests: a number of parameters have to be right to go through the next stage of medication. One of these is usually a problem and it failed again this week. So we are waiting for the platelets to go up.
Novelties. Yesterday late afternoon I decided to go out and listen to a talk (actually a great talk by a sociologist/economist/mathematician/Jesuit). Vikki had been sick. When I got back, Lindsey had prepared on her own the meal. First time since the summer. Very impressive.
Other great moments. We have been netflixing a curious drama called land girls. The story is great but the dialogues are hopeless. Everyone overacts and the situations are far too unlikely. Nevertheless we have become hooked to the developments of the story of these women, in rural England, in 1943.
Other great moments. On Tuesday morning we woke early. And Lindsey volunteered to make coffee. Ah. Coffee is not that simple: Nescafe for her (boil the water…), expresso for me (use the special ) machine. Downstairs. I hesitated. Then said ok. And Lindsey went. And took two trips to bring it up. And was happy about it. So was I.
Activities. Even if the weather is not nice, we are being able to go for long walks. Lovely.
Worries. The more I read about what is being said and written in the UK and the positions that the government is taking, the more I understand I have to do something about Lindsey and my situation. They are clearly taking us as hostages for their so called negotiation (and hundreds of thousands all over Europe). It’s not just worrying. It gets me angry. But there is just very little we can do.
Lindsey newsletter # 72
Nantes, Friday 10th of March, 22-00.
Same match (Ireland-Wales), but more than 5 years ago. 8th of October 2011. We were in Dublin. I had to give at a talk at a conference. Our friend Jose was there too…
The evening before we had found this pub which although in the centre of town was very nice. The landlord (Lindsey recalls the name as David) told us to be there at 5-30 (am) and we would together go and see the match.
The match… A quarter-final, in Wellington, on the other side of the world.
Lindsey and I did put our clock on (no Jose). We got to his pub. I had a first pint (yes!) and we moved to another place which was more secluded. Of course, there wasn’t a soul favouring Wales. We saw the match and I avoided showing how thrilled I was with the fact that Wales was winning (at the end, Wales won 22-10).
That was the second time I had to hide my emotions in such conditions ( I once had the luck of sitting in the Camp Nou and had to show no pleasure when Real Madrid scored the equalizer).
Lindsey is now sitting with me watching the match and thrilled by every moment. She has a special soft spot for Halfpenny. So far 6-5 for Ireland.
Yesterday she got the go-ahead for the round of treatment to start. Like last month, we are following the night routine. This means that in 10 minutes time we have the anti-nausea medication. 30 minutes later comes the chimio.
She has had a very active day today. Walking (with energy) more than any day this year. We had an MRI in the morning, then had lunch in a restaurant.
Fighting just as much as the 30 internationals we are now watching.
Love.
Lindsey newsletter # 73
Nantes, Tuesday 14th of March, 22-00.
A midweek entry…
Yesterday we saw the oncologist. She gave us the results of Friday’s MRI. Ah. I didn’t talk about this. Probably because I didn’t want to think about it too much.
The MRI had been complicated. It is not a nice experience (I had one of my leg once and that was hard enough… Lindsey has to get her head into the machine for 20 minutes and has been through 5 now…).
It had nevertheless been a nice day: Lindsey had convinced herself (she claims that Mélissandre and Camille, the two day-care girls were those who convinced her) that she could now go bare head. No hat. No scarf. Here is a picture of her having lunch with me in a restaurant on Friday!
After the rugby week end we started with an altogether different sport: sumo. We had become addicted to it whilst in Japan. The spring tournament which takes place in Osaka is now on. We saw a full day of this last year (here, in French). We even ended up, in Kyoto, looking at the matches on the Mongolian television!
On the Japanese NHK channel they give you the highlights of the day’s bouts. I thoroughly recommend!
For day 2, check here. If you go to minute 11-56 you get to the moment where Kotoshigoku prepares for his fight. Kotoshogiku is no longer the star he was (they were expecting him to be the first Japanese Yokozuna for more than 10 years… Kisenosato got that title a couple of months ago). But he is still as spectacular when he throw around the salt!
So now we look at the daily replay at 5-30 pm. A nice moment.
Lindsey asleep right now. She finished her chimio treatment yesterday. I expect it will take a couple of days to recover.
Love
Lindsey, newsletter # 74
Préfailles, Saturday 25th of March, 22-50.
I suppose I should be updating more regularly and tomorrow might prove difficult… Start back.
First few days after chimio (17th-19th)
Things went well. Lindsey went through the ordeal in a nice way. Tiring, but no real suffering. We managed to have one or two walks a day. Sometimes into town (and even back). Sometimes just to see Old man Cambronne’s grave, deliver some flowers, and walk back. Possibly as a testimony towards my father, Lindsey keeps calling him Cabrón. This is where those who can’t read English are suffering with the blog, those who aren’t from France will not understand how important (symbolically) Cambronne is, and those who aren’t from Spain will be missing the twist.
Little by little more and more « novelties » emerged. One evening I was delighted to get back to work and find out Lindsey had taken over the kitchen. Another evening we dared attempt together to cook Okonomakaki the proper way (then we had to admit that our cabbage and Chinese cabbage don’t taste the same).
On the 17th we went into town, bought our tickets to go to England (here I could bore you with how magnificent SNCF was selling me special tickets to which Lindsey is entitled to because of her condition for more than what I would have paid for a normal ticket when buying it online). On the way back we did stop at a place flying orange and green colours and seemed inviting enough before walking all the way back.
Then came a number of complicated days. Lindsey tired and me with a number of work issues to deal with. Some were great news like seeing an improbable European project accepted.
On Friday (24th) Boris arrived and I was pushed in a car. We drove. I was asked to keep my eyes closed, which I didn’t really (not with Vikki driving!). At the point where I thought we were somewhere in Brittany I was allowed to open again and found out we were getting to Préfailles.
Préfailles is a great place we have been bringing many visitors to. To the North we have Saint-Michel Chef-Chef. The Chef-Chef is not a mistake. This is the capital of butter cakes. Just before we reach the Pointe Saint-Gildas, fantastic for walking. We are supposed to be able to see the red buoy marking the wreck of the Lancastria, wich sunk on 17th of June 1940 claiming some 7000 lives (the exact toll we will only know in 2040… one of Britain’s most secret secrets (if Chef Chef is valid, so is Secret Secret…).
Vikki and Lindsey had rented a cottage for the week end and Boris has made the effort of travelling from Bordeaux.
The highlight of the week-end should have been the domino match. Only the result was a disappointment. Boris and Vikki against Lindsey and I. A team which had been able to do very well in long gone times against the mighty Lali and Belo. Until the latter decided to through the dominoes on the flour…
We did do better than Kisenosato who on day 14 was unable to even try to win his bout (Yes, I am talking about the Sumo tournament which is still keeping us excited).
So we were 14-13 and then…
Love