It's been a long time, Snoopy

It's appalling long since I have posted, and I do judge myself for this. BAD medical student.

In my defence, it has been a crazy 2 months or so (now that really is terrible - a shockingly long time).

So what has happened to stop me from posting - other than generalised laziness?

Unfortunately, my dear father died on All Saints Day, from a horrible fight with oesophageal cancer. This was diagnosed in March of this year, and despite putting up a brave & optimistic battle, the cancer grew & spread. We were told it was terminal in summer - the very end of June, and were advised not even to try chemotherapy.

We were, however, fortunate enough to know that the end was coming, and spend some wonderful time together as a family - in the summer, when we went to France, went sailing, and generally enjoyed being four of us plus a dog, and particularly during the last week or so that we had with Dad, when we passed the time talking, laughing, crying, and reminiscing. It was, in a strange sort of way, a very happy, very blessed time. He died with my mum, brother and myself next to him, as he had wanted.

The funeral was an amazing service, a real celebration of his life. Apparently, around 300 people came, and were able to hear a very fitting eulogy delivered by dad's very close friend, a vicar who did the entire service. As a mark of respect, the three of us travelled in our Landrover (Dad's pride & joy) to the funeral, and Dad himself had his "blue badge" in the hearse with him (it had been a VERY happy moment when the blue badge arrived....Dad loved free parking!)

The wake was real proof of how well-loved Dad was; organised & catered for by the church congregation, it was amazing to see how many people stayed & wrote lovely things in the Book of Remembrance... however, I was asked (more times than I care to remember) "how are you" - quite a difficult thing to answer!!!

The rest of my time really has been spent in catching up on the work I missed during that week at home. Unfortunately, while the hospital have been extremely supportive throughout this pretty awful time, (as have so many friends, neighbours, colleagues, and occasionally strangers), the department have not been anywhere near as good...

And of course, Christmas (the dreaded "C-word") is coming nearer and nearer... and with it all the stresses that come at this time of year, namely Christmas shopping, Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas cheer, you know... that stuff! I am feeling underprepared - so have spent particularly the last week racing off in free minutes to try and sort out my Christmas presents, etc. Thank goodness for the joys of internet shopping - how did we manage without ebay?!

So, overall, a difficult few weeks, and a fairly good excuse for not posting, I think! But I hope to be getting back into the swing of things now - I think I am, anyway! - and so with any luck, normal service will resume shortly. For which we may all be grateful.

In any case, TWO WEEKS til the holidays! So I will trudge resignedly on until then, when I can sleep, eat, and chill to my hearts content...