Life in the Villa

I celebrated Independence Day with my first blood test for screening for the ARN-509 trial. I won't hear about it until after the second one in ten more days. Then it will be an interview and a series of more sophisticated tests to see if I fit the trial profile. It all seems a rather slow process... I just want to get on with it!

To add to the interest of my medical life I have been treating a number of minor skin cancers on my face and head with Effudix cream. This resulted in a few days of bleeding all over my pillowslip at night. So, to ease this laundry crisis I took myself off the daily Cartia which thins my blood slightly. One morning a week later I was wobbling all over the place so I promptly resumed that. Now I can stand up but bleed less.

Around these minor medical affairs, we have been flat out lately. Our Barbershop Chorus has performed twice.  We've had quite a few visitors popping in. And I'm in the middle of writing and manufacturing two books at once as well as publishing yet another run of Brian Malcouronne's absolutely splendid book of funeral resources. These three jobs would have been pretty ordinary a few years ago but they are the first attempts at binding work for nearly a year. The cool damp weather is simply ideal for reconditioning printed pages for binding but having them spread all over the garage floor is not quite ideal. At the same time I've commissioned a separate computer to run Windows XP (safely off-line at all times!) for my publisher and video and scanner programmes, none of which will run on Windows 8 - thank you for nothing, Mr $8billion Bill Gates. Thank you for everything to James, the Village Computer Club expert!

In the very cold snap that the ski companies are enjoying in the school holidays, we're keeping very comfortable in our cosy villa and learning all kinds of things that nobody bothered to tell us: we can buy milk from the Village restaurant cheaper than at the supermarket, and we can pick up beautiful scones and cakes for a dollar or two any time. Mind you, Bev is flat out baking all kinds of goodies day after day; not because we need the sweet stuff but, I suspect, because she enjoys the kitchen so much. Quite a few others are benefiting.

It's just about a year since we made the decision to move closer to family and to a better environment for both of us. Everything about the move has turned out to be for the best. We're enjoying good health and fitness but are in the best place possible if those should change. We're very lucky.