Tao in October - Tash does Rugby and knits in a foriegn country

Did I say last time that we would update you in a week, I lied, more like 3, sorry. It is all Tash's doing, it was her turn to write to you and well, the new season's collections are out, so we have all come a poor second best...

Tash calling....

As if 3 weekends of weddings wasn't enough, Saturday 15th September bought round the Aus v Wales Rugby World Cup match in Cardiff. Old news now obviously as everyone over here is back on the Rugby bandwagon due to England making it to the final to face South Africa, but we won't dwell on that will we?

So it was my rugby playing friend Vic who kindly gave me this ticket for my birthday last year. He's a plastic Welshman, as he was born and bred in East London, his Dad however, is the real McCoy.

Good ol British Rail didn't let us down, having at least 1 year's notice, they didn't bother putting any extra services on that morning so it was a crush to get on the train and standing all the way from London - Cardiff, in a sardine like fashion. The best description was from Nathan, who went an hour ahead of Marisa and I to queue for his tickets, "I'm in a moving moshpit with no music..." his txt read, and he wasn't wrong. So, fortunately for me, we won this time round, as God knows Vic is the most ungracious winner I've ever faced. I have to say how great all the locals were afterward, shaking our hand and congratulating us on a good game, Cardiff is a great place to go and see your team play, should you get the opportunity.

Following on from that I decided to take up the offer from the Wednesday Night Knitters to join in on a trip to the Strikkefestival in Fanø, Denmark. Yes, it was a Knitting Festival... I can almost see some of your quizzical looks already....!!! However, I have to say, it was the most relaxing and fun weekend away I've had in ages.... (coughcough without Mark obviously...cough)

Pauline who introduced me to this gaggle of girls is a keen blogger (in fact, they all are...) and I see no need to re-write what she has already written so you can read about it and see pictures here

Actually, I think I will elaborate; On arrival we were shocked to discover that there was no ATM at all in Esbjerg airport (which was a small tin shed) and between 3 of us, we had no Danish Crowns... Fortunately, with the power of Pauline's Amex and some spare Euros she had in her purse, we made it all the way from the airport to the Island of Fanø, pretty impressive I thought, and obviously a situation which would never have arisen had I of been travelling with Mark, Mr Lets-Order-Currency-3-Days-Before-Travel, Dean... Equally, Pauline was delighted that we did not feel the need to be 1st off the plane and, 1st at the carousel to get our bags, as she is forced to do with her other half thus, we decided it was a pleasant change all round. However, I have to admit that as we disembarked the Ferry in pelting rain and had to start walking into town to find the ATM machine we required, I was starting to wish I had taken on Mark's "Be Prepared" motto as well as packing an umbrella! Fortunately for us, the rain was completely blown away by the strong winds throughout the night and Saturday we absolutely lovely. Thank Goodness as I'm not really sure what we would have done otherwise... The rest of the weekend really was just people watching, knitting and the odd glass of wine, it was great and we're already planning the next trip to visit Loba and have a knit up in Copenhagan.

More recently, I attended The Knitting and Stitching Show at London's Alexandra Palace. It was basically an opportunity to see unusual (noice, different... you know) yarn and have a big spend up. You can read about the fun we had on Lucy's blog here

I am pleased to report that treatment (who has time for that anyway?) has been fine. I have had next to no side affects and even better, it seems to be working!!!!! Scans were taken after Cycle 2, which showed a 30% decrease across all legions. (This is a rough estimate as the pictures of my liver are very hard to read with all that's gone on in there...) Then, the next set taken after Cycle 4 showed no visible change however the blood test showed continued improvement by way of a much impoved Liver Function and a decrease in Cancer Markers. So, all in all Dr Onco was pleased with these results and I can continue my journey of wine tasting around the world. (It's a self study course I have embarked on, mainly practical.)

I personally am really pleased to already be on Cycle 5 of this treatment regime as I plan to exit this trial when the 6 cycles of chemo are over and make room for some other poor sod in the NHS queue, as I return to Harley St, which provides me with the service to which I am accustomed!

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