Two Birthdays in One!

I am amazed at my improvement after just three rounds of chemotherapy.  The third round was smooth overall with just some queasiness.  I put on almost three kilograms (over 6 pounds) between my fortnightly Dr Horvath visits.  My improved health is the result of the chemotherapy.  Before it started I was dying, like in 2011.  I am so grateful for the people who have research and developed these chemotherapies over the last 50 years or so.  Though a poison, the chemotherapy has saved my life again.  In the last week or so I have had good energy levels and been pretty busy.

Thursday 10 April, I chose a new GP doctor as my doctor of many years is closing his Glebe practice.  I want to be able to walk to my GP.  Three times in the last 10 days I have visited my physiotherapist (of 54 years practice and retiring in June) three times with lower back troubles.  This now seems to be under control.

We had a busy weekend.  Friday morning 11 April Barbara drove some of our family and their friends in the Tarago to Wyong (on the Central Coast).  They went to celebrate the wedding of Kevin, another high school friend.  Barbara looked after our granddaughter on Saturday evening while they were at the reception.  They returned mid Sunday morning.  (All our children have friendships continuing from their high school days.)

Meanwhile my Saturday was filled with breakfast with Lesley at Café Lattetude in Penrith to celebrate our 40 year friendship which started on Easter Sunday 1974.  Back home, I spent 4 hours in the afternoon working on two reports I am drafting on governance issues that The BezCan Project is having with one of the Kamuli schools.  At night, I enjoyed celebrating the Jewish Passover, modified to show the foretelling of Christ, with friends from the late 1980s from when we first attended Petersham Baptist Church.

Sunday morning I was again working on the governance reports when Barbara returned.  Downstairs, preparations were in hand for the two birthdays in one: our grnaddaughter’s first birthday and our son's birthday being celebrated here at Club 55 on their actual birthday.  In our family we have a few shared or near shared dates.  Interesting how common it is to have shared dates in families even though there are 365 days in the year!

Sunday afternoon the birthday duo celebrated with about 25 family and friends.  Enjoy these photos of our two birthdays in one happy time.

New cufflinks from Barbara and I

Love those smiling brothers!

Grandma with granddaughter in Club 55 backyard

Mother, daughter  & grandma celebrating first
birthday under the birthday invitation photo in front of Club 55

Granddad and Grandma Hey with their first grandchild at Club 5

Granddad with his granddaughters

The BBQ lunch fare

Birthday cakes

Waiting for the candles to be lit

An Up Week

This week I have felt much better and undertaken more activities:

• Attending the Asia Pacific Think on Your Feet® network meeting lunch on Sunday March 30 at Pier One.  This was hosted by Ken Everett, my business mentor I mentioned in my blog entry about closing our business.  I last facilitated Think on Your Feet® in November 2005.  I caught up with friends, some of whom I had not seen in more than a decade and met new members of the network from new places including the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
• Barbara and I having dinner with our daughter, her partner and Mum.
• Enjoying Allan and Pam’s company at our place for lunch, two days prior to their heading back to Uganda.  We enjoyed our conversation and after lunch Allan and I went to Officeworks where we purchased an HP notebook that Pam and Allan have taken to Uganda for Peter the Bursar of Canaan Junior School to use.  This will replace two of the old, slow desktop computers he has squeezed on to his desk.  The BezCan Project has funded this to make Peter’s work life easier and improve his productivity.
• Aiming to go to ESFNG (Every Second Friday Night Group) for dinner tonight.  It will be wonderful for Barbara and I to spend time with good friends!

The increased activity resulted in afternoon naps on Monday and Wednesday.  This time it seems I will not be having late onset diarrhoea.  I think the probiotic tablets have reduced this risk.  So, I am not experiencing the discomfort I had for three days about a week after the first chemotherapy.  I think I am experiencing the beneficial effect of two rounds of chemo.

Today, Friday April 4, Barbara and I went to Marrickville Aquatic Centre to watch my granddaughter at her swimming lessons.  For my Ugandan friends seeing these photos you will probably find it hard to believe that this is a typical suburban feature within Australian major cities.  Parents can afford to pay for these lessons.  A café is attached to the aquatic centre, where we enjoyed lunch together after the lesson.  At the moment I am enjoying eggs benedict and this café’s eggs benedict with salmon was very tasty!

On the way back to our cars I could not resist taking a photo
of this front garden full of gnomes amongst the plants

These photos show my pleasure at being a Granddad.  Barbara and I love being grandparents.  At the risk of repeating myself, my greatest joy in being a Granddad is seeing two sets of parents thoroughly enjoying being parents.

Many cultures view marriage as a time when one family loses it son to the wife’s family or vice versa.  Why need there be a loss?  These cultural situations show the negative side of the influence of culture in our lives.  It is enriching when we see marriage as increasing our family.  We have gained two daughters and enjoy catching up with their families from time to time.  Our family is blessed and enhanced by joining with the families of our four children’s partners' families.