1 February - Past tenses and future plans

Monday - January has been frantic work wise so it has been a while since I updated this blog. This is also partly because I have moved on a long way.

In January I had follow-up consultations with both my Surgeon and Oncologist. Basically they ticked all the boxes and I am now into several years of regular monitoring but I can say that ‘it’ is over. Significantly I asked my surgeon when I could say I ‘had’ rather than ‘I have’ breast cancer. His response was “now”.

It goes a long way to making you feel like a person rather than a patient.

The hair continues to grow…very grey and it sort of sticks out all over the place but it is quite thick. I will have it cut in about five weeks to start to give it some shape. I don’t wear the wig at home anymore and this weekend even went out to drinks at neighbors without it – they thought I looked like Judy Dench as ‘M’ in the Bond films. I still wear the wig to work and golf – partly because it keeps my head warm and it is still freezing here.

So now we look ahead.

On with the wedding preparations – when C and I decided last year that we would get married it seemed ages until 14 May 2010. Now it is racing towards us like a runaway train.

It is a long time since I last got married – nearly 35 years in fact. Back then in mists of time arranging a wedding was largely a do-it-yourself affair. You or your mum made the dress and the bridesmaids made theirs. A family member supplied a suitable car. And the local photographer took a few posed photos while your friends took lots of slightly wonky ones. There were no sky lanterns, table favours, dresses costing thousands of pounds, or photographers taking pictures of your wobbly bits and gummed up eyes first thing in the morning.

Now it seems that there is a multi million pound industry in supplying bridezillas with stuff that turns them into clone ‘princesses’ of one another and lines the pockets of photographers, caterers, florists and the weird suppliers of wedding junk. Quite apart from the ‘Wedding fair’ phenomenon -what is that all about? Somebody shoot me if I ever suggest going to one.

So the challenge is to avoid all of this as much as possible.

We’ve designed our own invitations and had them printed by a local commercial firm, agreed with a photographer that we only want pictures at the Register Office and up to the time we sit down to eat – so halved the price, found a dressmaker whose prices don’t start at £2000 and who understands that this is not a ‘meringue’ job. Ordered simple flowers…etc.

Then my partner starts talking about whether he and his best man should wear morning suits….mmmmmm.