Tue, Oct 30th

Dawn spent her second day home painting the living room walls while I was at work. I on the other hand worked like a dog to make sure I had the manager's figures ready for the manager's meeting tomorrow. I had two days to do three days work. But at least once the day was over I was able to look forward to three days off.

Mon, Oct 29th

Dawn started her week off work by helping me rip up the old carpet in the living room and hall way before I went off to work. She was then imprisoned upstairs with Tiny while we had the new carpet laid. However, that wasn't the worst of it. The carpet fitters accused us of making a mistake with the measurements as they were short on the carpet for the hall. They could of course resolve the problem at an extra cost. At least they sorted it out. However, that just meant we had another dispute to resolve. The fitters also told Dawn that we would have to cut down a cupboard door as it wouldn't fit back on after they had laid the carpet. Again not true as I was able to hang it without any problems at all.

Sun, Oct 28th

Back to the grindstone again. We spent all day working on the living room or getting the chores done. First we had to wash down the living room walls, having got all the paper off this week. Then we had to fill all the holes and cracks (and there were plenty), and sand the walls. Next the baseboards came up (what a mess). And, finally we were able to put up the new curtains in the front window. We'd had brown paper up the last few days having taken down the old curtains on Friday.

Dawn had to do the laundry, ironing and hoovering, too.

Sat, Oct 27th

Today Dad finally got out of the hospital. During his 36 days there he had pneumonia, thrombosis in his leg, and was diagnosed as having malignant cancer. He only went there because he was feeling really rough and was having palpitations. Dawn and I drove up to take him home.

As for George, I called the flat again all morning and got no answer. We were really worried that something may have happened to him. Especially when Dad said he didn't pop up to see him Friday (he had been up every day previously).

When we arrived back at the flat we were a little concerned as to what we would find. Thankfully, George was there. Only just. He had passed out the day before and had been kept overnight in the West Middlesex Hospital. Needless to say, we have made sure that he and Dad have our correct cell numbers so someone can contact us in an emergency like this again.

In between we popped into Paul Simons in Harlow to sort out curtains for the front room and even found time to take some of the old ones down, too.

Fri, Oct 26th

I've spent the last four evenings of this week stripping the wallpaper from the walls in our living room. That may sound either excessive work or pretty slow work. I'd have to say it was the latter. The previous owners had embossed paper that they had painted, so I needed to removed several layers before I could get to the walls.

In between this and work I called the hospital and George. The doctors have been pleased with Dad's progress and are letting him come home on Saturday. As for George, he's been doing well on his own. With the exception of today, that is, as I never got hold of him despite calling the flat all night. We thought that he may have been spending his last night of freedom with a neighbour.

As for work, my new boss Steve started on Monday. It will be interesting to see how I get on with him compared to his predecessor. Dawn had another trip out of the office, too. On Tuesday she went to University of Westminster for an Estates Management Statistics workshop.

Sun, Oct 21st

On the seventh day God rested, and we tried to do the same. However, Dawn still needed to do the ironing. Although I did help with the vacuuming.

We also popped out to Harlow to visit CarpetRight and ordered some new carpet for the living room and hall, and checked out some curtains in Paul Simons. It feels like all we do is spend money at the moment. But at least the living room will look nice once we have finished. Not to mention it will be ours and look the way we want it to.

This afternoon I watched Lewis Hamilton miss out on becoming the first driver to win the Formula 1 World Title in his rookie season. He did well to achieve what he has. Maybe he'll go one better next season.

Sat, Oct 20th

What a hectic weekend. We started the day with a ride into town where we dropped into Frame Shop (to get our Empire State Building and Dunedin pictures framed), Hertford Pet Store (grass for Tiny), Woolworths (umbrella for Dawn; she left the last one on the train), Co-op pharmacy (for Dawn's prescription), Albany Radio (filters for the Hoover), a jewellers for a watch battery, and then Cafe Nero for a coffee and hot chocolate while we waited for 11am to come around so we could get our haircut at Fringe Benefit.

Then it was back home for lunch before I headed up to the Whittington Hospital to visit Dad on my own. Dawn by now was dead on her feet and was also concerned about passing her bug onto Dad. As for him, he was still positive despite starting his fifth week in a hospital bed and receiving the news that his growth is also malignant. They are now doing tests to see whether the cancer is the same as the prostate or something new. He's definitely been through the wars this year.

Tonight we watched the first live show in the X-Factor show. We'd got hooked on American Idol when we were in Florida. However, we prefer the style and makeup of this show a lot more. I then watched England lose the Rugby World Cup Final to South Africa 15-6 while Dawn slept on the sofa while the fire was blazing in front of her .

Fri, Oct 19th

The winter is here in Hertford. For the second day running I had to scrape ice off the windscreen of the car before taking Dawn to the station. Thank God we'll be able to put the new gas fire on in the mornings from this weekend. At least it won't be so cold in the house before we set out for the day.

In addition to that Dawn now has the flu. She didn't have the stomach problems I had last week but now feels like crap. She would have stayed home today in the warm, but she had a special project at work that she had to do. On the way home tonight she fell asleep on the train and was lucky she woke up as the other commuters got off the train at Hertford North.

At least Dawn was able to relax in front of a nice warm fire. We lit the fire for the first time and enjoyed the nice flames without having to spend ages trying to light the wood like we used to. Tiny got a little upset because she wasn't the center of attention and started to claw on the furniture and chew papers.

Wed, Oct 17th

Good news from Chiswell Fires. I spoke to the owner this morning and he confirmed that the installers had not gone the correct route when laying the new gas pipe for the fire. He did give me the choice of having them come back and relay the pipe correctly. But, as a compromise I was more than happy to leave it as it was when he offered to waive the cost of the installation. As it would have been a couple of hundred pounds using the new route, I was happy to leave it was it was.

Tues, Oct 16th

Dawn took today off work so she could be at home while we had our new gas fire fitted into the living room. Already it's getting pretty cold out here in Hertford where the temperature in the mornings is a little above freezing when we get up.

The fire was installed, including with the guys from Chiswell Fires having to drill out a channel through the concrete floor for the pipe. However, the route they took was three times the distance agreed with their surveyor, so we weren't pleased with that as they charge by the feet for this. At least the new fireplace makes the front room look a lot more cosy. We just have to wait until Friday before we can get the pleasure from its warmth.

Dad finally had the biopsy of his growth today. It took longer than planned because the doctors wanted to make sure his I&R was okay because they needed to be sure that the area would stop bleeding after they had done the biopsy.

Mon, Oct 15th

Back to work after my long weekend. I still can't believe I had food poisoning. It felt more like flu symptoms, but with acute stomach problems. At least it's subsided enough for me to be able to get back to the office and start earning a wage again.

Sun, Oct 14th

In preparation for the new fire going in, we had a couple of tasks we had to get out of the way today. One was moving the bookshelf that housed many of our mementos and souvenirs up to the spare room. We decided to use it as a bookshelf for a change and put the ornaments and some bears on the fitted wall in the old dining area. This also meant that I had to rearrange the spare room to accommodate the bookcase.

Once this was done I needed to paint the chimney breast. The old brick wall already looked a darn sight better having been plastered over. The brilliant white paint made it look even better. The only problem is that we now need to paint the rest of the room. Although we'll wait until the fire has been installed before tackling that task.

Oh yea, congratulations to England on beating the French in their own back yard last night to reach the Rugby World Cup final for the second time.

Sat, Oct 13th

Today we headed out to Stevenage for Dawn to take the practical half of her driving test. Let's just say, for legal reasons (she doesn't want to be sued), it did not end in success.

Then after a trip to the grocery store and short visit with Tiny we headed up to the Whittington Hospital in North London to pay Dad a visit. I of course kept my distance as I didn't want to pass on my bug to him. He looked in good spirits despite the bad news of the last seven days, and the fact that he was now starting his fourth week there.

I suppose it helps that George has been up to see him every day, Dawn and I pop up to see him at weekend, and even Phil (with Jean on Friday) has been up to see him twice this week.

Fri, Oct 12th

I'm still off sick, and yes I've now lost two days' pay. This sucks!!!!!!!!

Thu, Oct 11th

My stomach finally got the better of me today. Or I should say last night. After the best part of five days trying to ignore the symptoms, I finally gave in to to the pains and contacted my doctor. To my disbelief (I had also been suffering with flu type symptoms), diagnosed food poisoning. This despite the fact that I had been having these symptoms for over five days now. Anyway, hopefully a course of antibiotics will help. Needless to say, I stayed off work today. The first day I'd been off sick at my new place of work since I started. Even worse was that I lose a day's pay in the bargain.

On the plus side, while I was at home, I had the chimney swept ready for the new gas fire that is scheduled to go in next Tuesday. Check out the Mary Poppins view scene.

Wed, Oct 10th

Today the accounts team, including the current Financial Controller who is leaving at the end of the month, met with his possible replacement. We all met him in the board room to give us a chance to ask him some questions and also give him a chance to meet the people he would be working with. It was certainly a novel way to manage finding a new employee, but at least he won't have any shocks to face should he join the fold.

Dawn in the meantime met with Mavis and Margaret at the Angel and had a nice pub lunch at The Steam Passage in Islington High Street. The three ex-Schiller work colleagues really enjoy catching up on what everyone has been up. However, Dawn is a little envious that the other two are now retired and can now roam freely Monday to Friday instead of trundling off to work.

Dad had yet another examination and got the results of some earlier scans. In addition to prostate cancer, he now has a growth somewhere else to worry about. However, we'll have to wait for the results of a biopsy to see whether this is malignant.

Mon, Oct 8th

Back to the grindstone again. However, today both Dawn and I left work early and for similar reasons. Dawn had a 5.40pm appointment with her doctor to follow up on her recent stomach ailment, and me because I too had a stomach problem. Hopefully the two aren't related. I also popped into Specsavers earlier in the day to complain about my verifocal glasses. It seems that the centre of the spectacles hadn't been lined correctly with my line of vision and was causing the blurred vision and headaches. All seems okay now.

Sat, Oct 6th

Today we had a ride into town to pick up a new pair of glasses. However, after getting them home and wearing them around the house, I decided I'll have to take them back. We then did some grocery shopping before heading home.

After lunch we popped by the local sorting office to mail a card to Kelly (Dawn's sister) for her birthday on the 16th. Thanks to the Post Office strike, it may not get there on time. We then headed up to the hospital to visit Dad, taking some grapes and a camera magazine for him. Dad was asleep, so we didn't wake him. Thankfully he woke up after a little while and we had a chance to chat with him.

Dad was in good spirits considering that he had now been in the hospital over two weeks. The good news is that the swelling on his leg seems to be going down. The bad news is that (in Dad's words) his prostate is no longer benign. However he is still in good spirits.

Fri, Oct 5th

Today Dawn took a day off work so one of us could be at the house while the plasterer repaired the damaged wall in the living room and old dining room. We moved what we could from the living room, but we couldn't move the sofas and bookcase with our ornaments on so we covered them with some old sheets. We remembered the mess that he left behind when he repaired the damaged ceiling. Dawn didn't want to have to deal with that all again.

As for the work. Let's just say that we were both pleased to see the chimney breast covered and a smooth surface for when the fire goes in. Not to mention the yellow stains and damaged plaster from the water leak removed.

Called the hospital as usual and found out that Dad had a second scan today. That's three in five days. Thank goodness we have the NHS.

Thu, Oct 4th

Today I asked my boss for a couple of hours off to visit Dad in hospital - so I was able to pop up to the Whittington Hospital to visit him again. Dad looked well considering he has DVT (a thrombosis of his leg). Unfortunately they won't allow him out until the swelling goes down. The good news is that the cyst on his kidney looks the same size as it was six months ago, so the doctors are pleased with that.

My visit was cut short when the hospital porter arrived with a nurse to take him downstairs for a CT scan.

I was also able to see George while I was there. He seems to be coping well on his own this time.

When I got home from the hospital I finished scraping off the wallpaper for Friday and removed the cast iron fire from the fireplace. We'll be glad to get a nice warm fire installed just in time for the winter.

Wed, Oct 3rd

As part of the new fire project, we decided to move the thermostat from the wall next to the chimney breast to the wall in the old dining room between the living room and the kitchen. Following the problems I had changing the light fittings in the bedroom (due to the poor wiring), we decided to get the same electrician back to do it for us.

All seemed to go well until he drilled through the wall and hit neutral wire leading down the socket outlet connected to his power drill. Thankfully the circuit breaker worked and he didn't hit the live wire. He repaired the damage he'd made before finishing the job.

While this was going on, I was scraping the wallpaper off one of the walls that the plasterer was going to repair at the end of the week. I had already removed the decorative bricks that had been glued to the wall (instead of normal baseboards) the previous night.

Mon, Oct 1st

Today I was late in to work as our plumber came out to remove the toilet and radiator from the small room at the back of the house. We felt it was a waste of money heating the room, plus we wanted to use the room for storage instead. On the downside, we'll have to visit the bathroom upstairs in future. The plumber also removed one of the radiators in the living room so the plasterer due at the end of the week can plaster the wall.

Dad had an ultrasound while he was in hospital. Here's been in there eleven days now.