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A Poll

by steve, on October 28th, 2012 (Informational)

I’m often very surprised to see how many people continue to read my blog. The original intention of this blog was to record our sailing travels for ourselves, our family and friends. I have since learned that many others have been following our blog and this is great.

However, the challenges of 2012 have resulted in the blog transforming into an account of the premature end of our sailing/travelling dream and the new journey we’re battling my cancer and, I fully intend, our new life beyond.

There will come a time, perhaps the time she is sold, when our connection with Dignity and life aboard her will come to a complete end. (Please don’t be sad for us – it has been a privilege to have been able to do what we’ve done – we have no regrets at all).

I intend to carry on blogging as this has become more for me than just my sailing blog. I have a couple of options for how I carry on and I’m interested in my readers’ opinions on this. I could simply carry on as I have and use this blog to continue documenting our journey beyond this sailing adventure. Or I could wrap this blog up and move onto a new blog. What do you think? Use the voting buttons below or comment if you have any other ideas.

[poll id=”2″]

Category: Informational | 10 readers have left comments, I want to comment too

St Kilda

by steve, on October 28th, 2012 (Australia)

On Saturday Helen and I drove over to St Kilda, a Melbourne district by the sea, to meet and have lunch with Helen, a friend/ex-colleague of my Helen’s from when she worked in New Jersey, USA. We met at the Rococo Italian Restaurant. The two Helens caught up on their time since we parted. We spent a lot of time talking about our 4 years aboard Dignity.

The Helens decided to share a pizza and I had one all to myself. We stayed at the restaurant for about 2 hours before parting company, promising to meet again before we leave Australia.

It was a bit cold and I was beginning to feel a little queasy so we only had a brief walk around the area. We had a brief look inside a nearby amusement park which is around a hundred years old. By the time we were back in the car and driven home it was nearly five in the evening. We had a chat with the Barbers before retiring to the cottage to rest the evening out.

Category: Australia | Here is my comment

This Is Very Special

by steve, on October 27th, 2012 (Australia)

Big thanks to blog reader Gordon Ross (who arranged this) and the members of the band who sent us their wishes. Yesterday we received in the post a signed copy of the new Deacon Blue album, The Hipsters. The new music is in classic form, very reminiscent of what I remember of them. Brilliant to listen to.

Continue reading This Is Very Special

Category: Australia | Here is my comment

Radiotherapy Begins and Dignity Undismasts

by steve, on October 27th, 2012 (Australia, Passages)

I have now had the first two out of twenty radiotherapy sessions. These first two sessions took extra long as a lot of further calibration was required. This was all expected. On the second session we took the camera and Helen took a lot of pictures.

The Peter Mac Center is very nicely laid out. In the main waiting room there’s a TV, fish tank and a couple of jigsaws to pass the time. It even has a screen showing how the timetable is keeping on each of the four radiotherapy machines and on the other ‘tools’ such as the CT scanner.

I now have a personalized tray where my gown for each of the sessions will be kept. This is in a second waiting room which we’re sent to when we’re nearly ready. On my first session I was in this room for barely a minute while the second time it was about half an hour. Fortunately Helen is allowed in there with me. I usually try to break the ice by chatting with the other folks and they all seem willing to talk.

In the machine room itself I lay face down with my head held by the plastic mask. It’s actually quite comfortable but so snug I can’t open my eyes. So I have to listen to everyone doing their jobs, very professionally, around me. Session 1 was nearly an hour long. Session 2 was about half this. I am told the time will come down further as time goes by,

In some of the pictures you’ll see green laser lights which are used to position me accurately. I’m all for this of course.

The machine emits high energy focused X-Rays to zap the tumours. If you’re interested the machine is definitely a Varian Clinac but I’m not yet sure which model number it is. Information on all the Clinac machines can be found here and how they work can be found here.

Here is the full set of pics.

Friday also saw the big event of Dignity’s new mast being stepped. John from Passages very kindly observed the process and took pictures of the work taking place. As he has a lot of experience in the boating industry it was good to hear him confirm the work appeared to have been done very well.

Category: Australia, Passages | Here is my comment

Family Get Together

by steve, on October 26th, 2012 (Australia, Bristol Rose, Passages)

We didn’t have to wait long until Penne, Ella and Bao arrived. It was really good to see the three generations of ladies again – the last time we saw them was back in February. Ella is son John’s partner. She was aboard Dignity with us in Costa Rica. Bao is her daughter and our granddaughter. Penne is Ella’s mum. We love them all.

Considering Ella and Bao had just travelled from the UK and neither had had much sleep, both were very well behaved. Bao was quite keen to show us her standing skills as can be seen in the pic to the right. Helen and I performed our grandparenting skills well. Helen gooed all over Bao while I fixed the car baby seat.

They were able to stay with us for a couple of hours before tiredness began to kick in. Penne then adroitly drove them back to their home up the sunshine coast north of Brisbane.

In the afternoon Pam and John from Passages popped by for our final, final goodbyes. Hugs and kisses all round. John is going to keep an eye on the work on Dignity this week and hopefully take some pictures of the work being carried out.

Around 4pm Trish came to give us a ride to the airport. It’s fantastic having all this support from our friends and we really appreciate this. We obviously chatted about our family reunion earlier in the day. We never had time to visit their new home but hope to do so during our next visit to Brisbane.

Watch out for another entry very soon. Had two rounds of radiotherapy so far. Plenty of pics to show.

Category: Australia, Bristol Rose, Passages | Here is my comment
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