Breast Cancer Now Forum

Yes Rosie, it is difficult to find a date to suit everyone, I agree. I hope you all enjoy the meetup and perhaps you will be able to post a few photos? I will post one of me at the rock festival ;). I hope you and your families are all well.   ... View more

I'm very sorry, everyone, but I now have a problem with 9th July. I have mentioned before that our village has its own 1 day rock festival, which of course has not happened for the last two years. They had not said until last week if or when they would be running it this year but now they have and it is on 9th July. That on its own would not be a problem as I had already said I would come to our meet up, but OH had already invited his brother and SIL to stay for the weekend and attend the festival and invited his DSs and the eldest's fiancée to come for the festival and stay for dinner in the evening. So I think I will have to miss the meet up again this year, I really am sorry to mess you about. ... View more

Hi Rosie, I have just seen the most recent posts. 9th July is OK with me so far, I will enter the meet up in the calendar. Has there been a decision on location? ... View more

Hello everyone, good to hear your news, how exciting about your new grandchild cassie, and good that your ED is living so close.  Hope your OH's work picks up soon, Lovewine, and so pleased that your YS has a lovely girlfriend now. What a nice photo! Joan, the thing I hate about problems with technology is how much time it takes to work out what is wrong and how to fix it. Well done for sorting your printer though. I have been doing some Christmas gift knitting, a luxury I never had time for while I was working, and am well advanced with the Christmas baking for once. Last weekend we went to stay with DS and his fiancée, we went on a lovely walk along the Uske and then had dinner in a restaurant just round the corner from them. We are hoping to have them to stay after Christmas and I have everything crossed as we have tickets to the ballet at Sadlers Wells on 23rd December, with both of them and G's parents. It also looks that my youngest stepson will stay with us over Christmas, if so it will be the busiest Christmas for some years, but we shall see. I am enjoying retirement so far, I like having time to myself and being able to decide how I spend my time. At this time of year I always want to slow down and savour the season, not easy when you have a demanding job or business. ... View more

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I retired at the end of September so am just getting used to that. Before that OH and I went on holiday to Shetland with his Dad, sister and BIL, which we had planned since 2019 and had to defer of course. It was a fantastic trip and an amazing holiday which we really enjoyed. I'm now adjusting to a different rhythm of life although I still seem to be quite busy, but have more time for gardening and reading amongst other things. I’m looking forward to a peaceful few months in the run up to Christmas. How are you all?   ... View more

I’m glad you and Rosie were able to meet up, and Cassie at least you did not waste your ticket. My OH's brother lives in Worcester, so we could probably combine a visit to them with meeting up, but TBH next year is a long way off, I shall be retired and perhaps things will be more normal, so happy to decide nearer the time.   ... View more

I am so sorry to hear the news about ES and DIL, that is very sad for you all. I hope they are coping OK. ... View more

Hello everyone and thank you rosie for making the restaurant booking. I am afraid I will not be joining you this year, mainly because I have already arranged to meet DS in Bristol on 15th and I don’t feel I can commit to another day out on 17th. Partly because the driving will be very tiring and partly we are still in full garden mode because of the late start this year, even though we are making progress. I have to admit to also being concerned about the infection rates, although I am hoping they will be coming down by then. congratulations Lovewine, I am very happy for you that are going to be a grandmother! How exciting! And you for the second time as well, cassie, what lovely news. i hope you have a lovely lunch and enjoy catching up ... View more

Hi all, I am fine, thanks for your good wishes. I have been very busy at work and then of course the gardening season has started which takes a lot of my time. The colder than usual weather in April meant that I have tender plants grown from seed queued up in the greenhouse and cold frame and being fleeced every night, as it has been too cold to put them out. I am hopeful that the weather is now going to warm up a bit and that it will be possible to continue with normal gardening. I have given my notice at work by reason of retirement, I will be retiring on 30th September this year and will be reducing my hours from July. In the meantime I am using up holiday by taking a week off at each bank holiday, so am effectively already working less, and the workload has been increasing. I have now agreed with my manager which things I will continue to work on, which should help, as the last two months have been frantic. It is good that the gyms have started to open again, and I am able to swim again, and yesterday I did an outdoor yoga class, which was rather enjoyable. We are hoping to have DS and his fiancée to stay in June and have recently been able to walk with OH's youngest as the rules have relaxed. We have really got back into walking and have walked over 230 miles since January. I am glad your move went well, rosie, and that the new house is better for you both. I hope your business starts to pick up, Lovewine, as people go back to the office for at least some of their time.   ... View more

Hi everyone, I can’t remember when I last posted but have been catching up with posts from time to time. I’m sorry to hear about the family concerns some of you have had, the trouble is that anxiety is higher than usual because of the uncertainty and the restrictions and then to have family worries on top of that is very difficult. I am glad you managed to see your family and have some trips in the motorhome rosie.  we went on a week's holiday in Scotland in September and although we could not visit family in their houses because of new restrictions we were lucky enough to have great weather and went walking with family and on our own. We stayed in a premier inn and had a big breakfast every day then either ate in the restaurant or bought sandwiches from Tesco’s in the evening. We had a lovely break, I am glad we decided to go, as it would be impossible now.  i am still working from home and going into the office once a week, it is the best of both worlds really. The office is very quiet, so I don’t feel the risk is very high at all.  we are walking every weekend still and I am still able to go to the gym so have something of a routine. I’m still knitting and have knitted a few warm sweaters as it is colder at home than working in the office. we are just living quietly from day to day, I think we are very lucky as our situation is not too bad compared with many. sending hugs to you all ... View more

No I don’t think you are being reckless at all Rosie! I have been shopping when the garden centres opened, I go to the supermarket every other week (we take turns) and I have been into work about once a week for the last month. But these are all quite limited and well understood situations, the NT will be the same, and I would not rule out visiting, and your camper parks too. What I am not keen on is situations with large concentrations of excited people who are not thinking about what they are doing. Maybe this won’t be the case, but I don’t think I will find it relaxing at the moment. I’d rather just let it all settle down first.  I’ll look forward to your reminder next year! ... View more

Hi Rosie, I don’t think I am ready to use public transport just yet, or go into a crowded city centre or a socially distancing restaurant. While there is nothing wrong with any of these things I am inclined to be very conservative in my approach to lockdown easing and I would like to wait until the initial euphoria/hysteria is over and also see what effect the new freedoms have on the infection rate before starting to go out again. So I will give this year's meet-up a miss, and hope that things will be different next year. I am glad to hear you are able to meet up with your family this summer and I hope you have a wonderful time on your travels - I will keep a lookout on FB!   ... View more

Hi everyone, hope you are all well, there are some slow signs of more normality now but I don’t think we will be free of booking slots online or queueing to shop for some time! I hope the new bubble arrangements might have helped some of you have more access to some of your family? It makes no difference to me or OH as none of them lives alone and most of them live a reasonable distance away, but the time will come I’m sure. we are both still working from home and have been taking days off during May and June so have made good progress with the garden and have also done lots of walking in our local area, we have discovered so many beautiful and unknown to us walks and have been really enjoying them. I have been in to work a few times to workshops with my team which is more efficient face to face, it makes a change but is very strange as there are so few people allowed in each area to support social distancing. we are planning to refurbish our study as a proper home office sometime soon, as we expect to be wfh for some time to come, and have ordered a new shed to clear lots of stuff (polite version) off our patio and store the bikes in a more accessible location. That should keep us busy for a bit. Ive also been knitting and have recently finished a shawl and a pair of gloves. I’m working on a winter and a summer cardigan at the moment, depending if it is hot or cool outside! I would post some photos but the forum seems unable to reduce the size of mine to match its requirements and I CBA to faff with them at the moment.  ... View more

Hi ladies, what beautiful sweaters, Cassie, such lovely work, your ED and GS must be delighted with them! It’s annoying that you get cramps if you knit for too long but it is probably good to take breaks periodically anyway. rosie I am quite happy being at home, pottering in the garden, going for walks and knitting! Work however has actually been quite stressful, with changes to both of our activities to focus on what is considered critical work, not necessarily what we would prefer but at least we still have jobs. It is very difficult to communicate effectively and work in a team while WFH but on the other hand it is easier to concentrate and get things done. I think we would both like to continue working maybe 50% of our time at home and the rest at the office when they finally reopen. Plans are in progress but dependent on government policy of course. I’m in no hurry to start commuting again. The weather has been very pleasant although as gardeners we would always like more rain! We are lucky to have a lot of beautiful countryside to walk in with relatively low numbers of people, although some people are clearly driving here from elsewhere. I'm glad to hear you are all well, time does seem to pass quite quickly despite everything!   ... View more

Morning ladies, I am still going to the supermarket once a week to shop. Things have greatly improved and only a few things are still difficult to get. I even managed to get pasta yesterday! They are well organised with 2m spaces to stand in while queuing, wipes and spray for your trolley and scanner and they sanitise the trolley handles as they are returned to the car park.   I am still working from home at the moment but don’t know how long that will continue as we have started furloughing people. We are getting on with the garden and I have my usual crafting projects but as I am still working my normal hours I don’t have much more time than normal for other things. I am doing yoga and body balance via video classes from my gym and we walk once a day. Hope you are all keeping well ... View more

Hello everyone, it’s all a bit mad at the moment, but at least the weather is improving. OH and I are working from home at the moment, the idea is 2 weeks at home, one week in the office. We don’t socialise much so not much change to our lifestyle so far, the closure of gyms has hit me hardest and I will be doing yoga and Pilates from home online if I can. we are just starting the gardening season as the weather has been so carp. This weekend we have mowed the lawn and sown seeds and seed potatoes. I am knitting as usual and spinning but do not really have much additional spare time apart from the two hours a day I would have been commuting, so we are just getting on as usual. The supermarkets have made a huge effort and we can see things returning to normal thank goodness.  Sadly I will have to cancel our weekend staying with DS after Easter and I do not think we will be able to go on our holiday to Shetland in May but in both cases I hope we will be able to go later this year. We are very lucky to have our garden and hobbies to keep us occupied, all we can do is just take everything one day at a time, it reminds me very much of cancer treatment in that respect. I'm glad to hear you are all well and getting by, I hope you all keep well.   ... View more

What lovely photos of your ES and DIL, Lovewine! I have been to the Guiness museum and really enjoyed it, I hope they had a lovely time in Dublin, I enjoyed the pubs with live music! I have been very busy at work and have taken the last few days off to decorate our hall and landing which was due to be done last year but I injured my shoulder and could not do anything. It is half done at the moment but looking good and I have tomorrow off as well. The gardening year is just getting going and we bought seed potatoes today. I am looking forward to Easter as I will take another week off then and hope to be in the garden and also get out walking. you have posted some lovely photos of your travels rosie, it is great to see you enjoying your travels with DH.   ... View more

Lovely photos cassie, and what a lot of effort your daughters put in to give you a celebration. A very happy belated birthday from me, too. Rosie, I hope you are OK and enjoying your trip I'm fine, very very busy at work and just coming home in the dark to hibernate and rest! ... View more