Weekly update

It seems now things have settled down that I am doing fewer but longer posts, so here's an update on the last week or so.

Well I think the chemo is starting to have a slight cumulative effect, as last week the tiredness, and broken sleep, continued a couple of days past where I expected it to end. Luckily I have no other real side effects still, apart from the hair loss, so it is reasonably easy to manage. Even so its a . good job I only have two more sessions.

Aggie, the dog, was looking very disheveled, and so we took her to a new dog groomers, Scruffy to Fluffy, run by a friend of a friend. She was are redundant last year and wanted a new start, so she took her grooming qualifications and has set up h new business. Must say she has done a great job, and a fair bit cheaper, and easier to get to than our old groomer. She loved Aggie, and Aggie showed how much she liked her by licking her to death, but she does that to everyone!

I also found the time to get to the police station to try and reclaim two items which were stolen from my allotment shed back in early December. I heard from the council that they had my items at Reigae station, so off we went. God help us, it was torture, and is till don't have them. On Wednesday I was told that they had lost the lost property officer, which gave me a giggle, but hat they would be in touch. Come Friday and no call, we went back. This time I was told to ask my mate, a sergeant and who had reported it for me, to sort it out. When I explained it was not a good use of a sergeants time, the guy behind the desk went to make a few more calls. Mow it turns out they do ave two items which match my items, but before thy can be released by the property office, note not an officer, maybe that's why they could not find him, they would need an email from the investigating officer. I was Dudley given his contact details for Saturday, his next shift, and told to call him. Now Friday night we went to a quiz night, more later, and my sergeant mate came with us. I told him the saga, to his rolling eyes, and when I told him the name of the officer I had to call he just laughed. Apparently, he reports to my mate, but more importantly, he is a PCSO, a community officer, and he had no authority to release property anyway! So my Mae had to get involved in he end and apparently I will get a call tomorrow (Tuesday) to confirm when I can get my stuff back. However they need to find it first as it has gone missing at the police station, it is not in an of the storage areas. Maybe it's been stolen?

Friday night saw us at a quiz night, raising funds for a friends daughters trip to Indis. We had a great time, and for once were in with a chance of winning. We had quite a big lead about midway, but started to falter, losing a point here, a point there. The most frustrating element being the points we lost, we should not have, as generally we had the answer written down but changed it. We had a one point lead going into the last round, and true to form, we then lost by 1 point, losing 2 points in the last round, again we had the correct answers but chose another. It was good to get out, and have a relaxed, fun evening.

I also have spent quite a bot of tie working on my planned find raiser, finalising routes, camping sites and more importantly looking for the right scooter. I even got to test ride some, bot was it good to gt on to wheels at last, after nearly 4 months. I don't thinking could ride my own bike, it would be too heavy but these little scooters are fine. One thing which is apparent is that when I find a good one, I need to go fr it, as there are quite a few rough ones out there, which is not surprising beating in mind I am looking at something the best part of 30 years old.

I am having an allotment weekend this weekend with lots of friends volunteering to help me get this in shape ready for this year. I have managed to get down there to check what needs doing, but only have a week every cycle where I can do anything, and then it's quite limited. We are providing food and drinks to all the helpers, so have spent time planning and organising, almost feels like being at work again.

Finally yesterday I got to go out shooting with James. This was what was called roost shooting,whereby we would normally walk round the wood where we have permission, and shoot the pigeons on their arrival to roost. To help me James drove me to a good spot, so I did not have to walk, dropped me and my gear, removed te car and then came back. I was able to use my grandads shooting stick, this is a walking stick with a fold out seat. It must be 35 years old but ws great and was a very big help. I only fired a few shots but got one pigeon. Tat shot was the best shot I have ever done, so was very happy. It is now in the freezer ready for later in the year. We were only out an hour, but as with the scooter ride, this was the first thing I have done purely for me, for 4 months. On the subject of shooting, and as I share my interests with you, the next bit is about how and why I shoot.

This one may be a bit controversial to some of you, as covers my newest hobby of shooting. As you can see from previous posts re my allotment, and the fact I keep chickens at home, I am interested in food and self sufficiency. Being able to shoot my own meat, whilst helping the farmer, is something that has been on the back of my mind for years, but it was only in the middle of last year that I actually decided to do something about it. Thanks to a friend at the allotments, who shoots, I was able to try it out. Now I know that to some of you this is against your views, but I would rather eat some meat hat has lived a life in the open, in the way nature intended, than some factory farmed meat where te animal has had no quality of life. To give you an idea, I am lucky to bring home a couple of items per session, although I hope to get better with more practice! The types of things I target are those which I am legally allowed to shoot, and which help the farmers, so mainly for me it's wood pigeon, and rabbits, both of which are very tasty. If you saw the amount of food a pigeon can eat in one go, and they eat 4 times a day, then you would know why these are rightly classed as pests. We also target Corvids (crows, rooks etc) and foxes. Now you might ask why crows, well they eat and destroy songbird nests and young, so we are actually hoping these bird populations in a time when they are struggling in the UK. I must make it clear that I do not agree with trophy shooting, ie large animals to hang on the wall. I just cannot see the point of it, or indeed how it can be classed as sport. In fact I find it abhorrent

Anyway, enough from me for now, keep well everyone