Breast Cancer Now Forum

Good Afternoon ladies! I do hope you are all Ok? 🤔 Lovewine, hopefully your dad is now home and making a good recovery? It has been such a difficult journey for you and the family. We returned from France 2 days ago and now have to keep ourselves to ourselves for 14 days!  We don’t regret going it was lovely to spend quality time with ES and family and the weather was superb! I celebrated a Milestone birthday whist we were there!🤦🏻‍ ♀️ Our next next journey should be to Northumberland, Edinburgh and finally calling at Newcastle to see DD and family. But of course they have just been put into a local set of restrictions and the media aren’t painting a very rosy picture for the rest of us!🥴  My niece is getting married, hopefully on Saturday! They have had to cancel the church celebration and reception until May next year! 🙄 They can only have a civil ceremony and even that could get cancelled if we are put into a national lockdown! We feel like prisoners in our own home again. DH had a pile of Amazon boxes arrive yesterday that made me gasp when I opened the door! 🙀 He said it was all stuff he needed as he couldn’t go to the shops to buy it. Such as toilet and drain cleaner, water purification tablets, plastic shelving and groundsheet pegs for the motorhome oh and some pannier baskets for his bike as he had to cycle to  the local Intermarche as it was too far to walk and he struggled back balancing the shopping! Mostly due to the fact he always purchased extra items! 🙄   Hope you have all been enjoying the recent spell of good weather before Autumn arrives!    ... View more

Lovewine relived to hear that so far so good your dad is doing well! Do hope he continues to improve! Keep us posted! We are off to Folkestone today in preparation for the tunnel tomorrow morning! Feeling excited about seeing family but apprehensive about the travel and the situation! We are staying 2 nights en route near Reims on a site as it is a 6 hour drive with the Motorhome to Nancy! 🙄 ... View more

Joan so sorry to hear that OH has had such a nasty bout of vertigo and it has rather curtailed your plans! Lovewine so sorry to hear about your dad and will be thinking of you on Friday! Such a worry for you all! 😔 Keep us posted. Cassie good to hear from you and you are able to visit relatives! The grandchildren certainly do seem to have grown in Lockdown! 😳 We are currently in Dorset until Sunday and we are still planning to use the tunnel Monday morning! We couldn’t get a bike for GS here as the brakes are the opposite way round on French bikes! 😬 However we will go bike shopping with him in France! Probably better he chooses his own bike for size etc!  We had a palaver with the French site which we booked through the caravan and camping overseas. I found an email in my junk folder on Monday to say all overseas bookings were being cancelled and we would get a refund! ES tried to book directly with the site only to find that they hadn’t opened up this season! 😳 Surely the club should have known before booking it??? Anyway ES has found us another site a bit further away but with a direct train to Nancy by the Moselle River! The owner is happy to have Brits and our family is able to visit us at the site! We will have to quarantine, as it stands, on return to the UK. But the way things are going they won’t get over for Christmas so it’s now or never! We saw them very briefly in Margate for a few hours! There are a lot of retired Motorhome’s in France and Spain at the moment as they are able to quarantine when they get back! ... View more

Good Morning ladies! Lovewine I am so pleased that your dad managed to have his procedure with an epidural and that he is recovering well. What a relief for you and the family! My you have been busy in your garden. I love the fact that you managed to get to the tip 4 times by using different email addresses! Very ingenious! 🤣 🤣 🤣 I too feel that summer has slipped out of our fingers! The nights are certainly drawing in! 😕 I too saw Christmas decorations appearing in a new shop on High Street! 🙄 DH is much better thank you, I think he really did overdo it he still thinks he is a young man! 😬 The weather looks better for the weekend so ES and DIL should have a pleasant weekend in London. Somerset was a lovely break we managed to get out and about by foot and bus between showers!  The meet up for ES’s belated 40th went well thank goodness! Fortunately the quarantine on visitors from France was imposed after their arrival so it didn’t affect them! 😅  We now face a dilemma as we are due to travel to France on Sept 7th to stay on a campsite 5 Kms from ES and family. We would have to quarantine on return as it stands and would have to postpone our visit to Plymouth which is ok. The real risk is that France make visitors entering  France Quarantine for 14 days and then we are stuffed! 😬 🙀 🥴 If I cancel the campsite by Tuesday I can get a refund. The euro star I will have to change the date and risk paying an inflated price difference!  I am sure that you must wonder why on earth we are considering it? It’s not a holiday it’s a visit to see family that we may not be able to see again until goodness knows when the way things are going! We plan to take YGS a new bike for his 5th birthday! He has a secondhand one that has been repaired and is too small for him. It would be his birthday and Christmas Present! The region they live in France is not near the areas of increased infections. Our motorhome insurance is covered but I will need to get a new medical insurance as ours has expired. They have put the price up by 1/3 to cover Covid! I may just get a one off journey rather than an annual one. I am speaking to ES in a couple of hours so we will have to see how the land lies.🥴 Joan and Cassie hope your GCN are looking forward to returning to school? Wildpurl you must have enjoyed a most productive time is your garden! We went to an outdoor socially distanced theatre production of Wind in the Willows outside the Henry Sandon Hall on our complex. Thankfully  the rain held off! It was lovely to enjoy theatre again! There were only about 20 people there.    ... View more

Good Morning ladies! Lovewine I am so sorry that your dad is facing such a worrying procedure! I hope he manages to have a small celebration for his milestone birthday today. Do keep in touch and let us know how things go we will all be rooting for him!  So glad that YS has been given the all clear to return to work and that he was able to make another visit home! Cassie the sad thing that struck me about your lovely photos was the lack of people! 😳 Glad that you were able to get away for a holiday and get back safely! Mad crazy times! Our ES and family arrived in Margate on Monday for a week so fortunately they just missed the quarantine measures!🥴 We are travelling to see them today and staying overnight in a Travelodge! Our DD and family and YS and family are also coming but ES doesn’t know that! He was 40 in June. We were going to go out for a meal together but can’t do this as the group is too big so I am taking the party from Sainsbury’s click and collect. They are staying in a 3 bed semi Airbnb with a garden, so we can spread out a little. We have already met up with YS and fami,y and now DD in her bubble. Our ES is from Nancy and as they both work in education have not been in contact with many people over the last few weeks! We haven’t met up as a total family since Wales Last summer! It’s incredibly hard to do so we are seizing the opportunity as goodness only knows where we will all be by Christmas! We are all staying in the Travelodge! We spent nearly 3 weeks up at DD’s helping put furniture together and light fittings and curtain poles up! Then we tackled the back garden! 😳 It was a huge project with all hands on deck. DH worked very hard and overdid it. He hasn’t been well since returning with a pain in his lower groin! He went to the doctor yesterday and was given a blood test. They are treating it at the moment as a bowel infection with anti biotic! He has to return in a week for a further blood test! 😳   We are off in the motorhome to Somerset for a few days next week. We are supposed to be going to France early September, so will have to see what transpires! I have cancelled our postponed our flights to Cyprus early October as Cyprus are being very strict. DH will probably go by himself in November. I probably won’t go at all! 😔 Joan it sounds as if you managed your family gathering well! It is always hard leaving family! We must be thankful at this time to see them briefly!  Glad that YD got a refund for her ferry, we are booked onto the euro tunnel and a campsite. I will see how the land lies over the next few days! Wildpurl hope all is well with you. Must go ladies picking up shopping at 9.30. I have ordered paper plates, cups etc.       ... View more

Hello all hope you are well. Lovewine I had an email alert to say you had posted on the forum but mine seems to be the last post? 🤔 ... View more

  Good Evening ladies I hope this finds you all well! Especially your dad Lovewine! We have been away in our motorhome and it was lovely to see our YS and family!  Before returning home yesterday we spent a couple of nights in Port Isaac and visited some of the locations of Doc Martin! Social distancing was a little tricky in the narrow streets! 🙄 Today DD’s house finally completed after 7 months! Her ex husband tried to stop the sale this week as he wanted to take control of the proceeds as he didn’t trust DD having it paid into her bank account before giving him his share! 😡 He finally agreed yesterday to pay £35 for the solicitor to forward his share directly to his bank account! 😅   We will be going to Newcastle in the next few days to do some DIY at her new property which miraculously went through this afternoon also! 😄 😅 😅 Lovewine I feel sorry for your ES and DIL being involved in an extended lockdown. Herefordshire, our next county have had a rise in cases on a fruit farm where they employ migrant workers from Romania! 😳 Joan hope you are managing to at least meet with your YD and family now! Cassie how is your ED, is her ex still causing her a problem? Wildpurl have you managed to see your son and his partner yet? Tomorrow is the day we should have been meeting up in Oxford, so tomorrow night I will raise a glass to you all in thanks for another year ladies!  ... View more

Good Evening ladies I hope this finds you all well! Especially your dad Lovewine! We have been away in our motorhome and it was lovely to see our YS and family!  Before returning home yesterday we spent a couple of nights in Port Isaac and visited some of the locations of Doc Martin! Social distancing was a little tricky in the narrow streets! 🙄 Today DD’s house finally completed after 7 months! Her ex husband tried to stop the sale this week as he wanted to take control of the proceeds as he didn’t trust DD having it paid into her bank account before giving him his share! 😡 He finally agreed yesterday to pay £35 for the solicitor to forward his share directly to his bank account! 😅   We will be going to Newcastle in the next few days to do some DIY at her new property which miraculously went through this afternoon also! 😄 😅 😅 Lovewine I feel sorry for your ES and DIL being involved in an extended lockdown. Herefordshire, our next county have had a rise in cases on a fruit farm where they employ migrant workers from Romania! 😳 Joan hope you are managing to at least meet with your YD and family now! Cassie how is your ED, is her ex still causing her a problem? Wildpurl have you managed to see your son and his partner yet? Tomorrow is the day we should have been meeting up in Oxford, so tomorrow night I will raise a glass to you all in thanks for another year ladies!  ... View more

Ladies I have written the date for next year’s meet up to bring forward when I transfer dates into 2021 diary! Lovewine I don’t think the Leicester lockdown affects you? After seeing the pictures of a BLM protest and a rave 2 weeks ago it’s hardly surprising and this behaviour is indeed reckless! DH is not coping well and if we have to go back into lockdown he will become even more unbearable to live with! 😬 We are both very stressed about DD’s house completion which should have happened last week! She looks awful she isn’t sleeping and the builder her and her partner are buying the house from is now pushing for completion as they have a waiting list for the particular type of house! Joan I have found that the NT properties are very safe to be at and if you are members would encourage you to visit. Entry has to be booked online.  Dudley Zoo was a different kettle of fish, there seemed to be too many people with several small children! The toilets in one block had all cubicles open and the hand driers going, yet in another a one in one out policy and someone policing it- but hand dries still in operation! I suppose if they had put out paper towels in Dudley they would have been removed! 😳 Needless to say I shook my hand dry! My hairdresser phoned me today and booked me in for Saturday morning- I was her first call!☺️ Cassie I am sorry to hear that ED is being hassled by her ex and hope that she can resolve the situation. I don’t really know what her options are other than approach the police to give him a warning?  Wildpurl we have managed to use click and collect for shopping! In the early weeks if lockdown it was very hard to get a slot but there are plenty of slots now! ... View more

I had a feeling that would be the outcome! I guess Lovewine and Cassie would prefer to cancel our meet up this year also! I will put a note in my diary to reschedule to next July 17th. I will remind you in the New Year! I guess you think we are being a little wreck less with our proposed trips? 😳 We are staying on camping sites where the distance between Motorhomes is 6 metres apart and are Covid safe.  Our French trip takes us to Nancy, the town where eldest son lives, for a week. He is moving house on July 1st and will have a few jobs for his dad to do! 🤣 Joan I have to say the NT places we have visited have been well planned with booking only slots to reduce numbers and one way systems in place. Only the gardens have been open and thankfully the toilets! 😅 ... View more

Good Morning ladies! Wildpurl, glad to hear from you and that you are ok. Loveine sorry to hear about the condition of your dad, I can see why he would not want to have further surgery! I can remember he was very ill the year my dad died! I expect that your poor mother is worried about him! 🙄 Hopefully you have resumed your dog walks, even when the pubs open I think we will have to book in to start with?  It is DH’s birthday on 4th July, so it will be one to remember! We have booked a local restaurant for a meal!  We have visited several National Trust properties since they reopened! We also went to Slimbridge last week which was very enjoyable!  We are taking MIL 94, to Dudley Zoo tomorrow which is near where she lives! DH and his brother have been taking her out walks to her local park. She is missing her social life very much, she had a bowls and a yoga class at her community centre and would get lunch there at least once a week. We figured it would be safe to take her whilst numbers are still managed and restrictions in place!  We are off in our Motorhome to Tewkesbury for 3 nights on July 6th, then down to Plymouth for 4 nights to see YS and family! 😀 Later in July we are off to Whitley Bay to visit DD and partner and grandchildren! DD is having a nail biting finish with the completion of her house that has been going on since early December 😬 It makes me feel quite ill and I hope that she will hear good news early this week! 😬 Due to the lifting of the quarantine ES and family can now come over in August! 😀 I have booked for us to take the motorhome via the tunnel over to France early September!  So ladies what do you want to do about our July 18th meet up? If we travel by train we will need to wear a mask and we will need to book a table soon if we are going? I am happy to go how about the rest of you? Please let me know your feelings I am happy to make the booking!  Lovewine I went to the Gower coast on a Guide camp so it is several years since I have been! 😯 Hope you are all keeping well and feeling a sense of normality returning to your lives!  ... View more

Good morning ladies! Lovewine I am glad that you enjoyed your birthday and I love the Chinese lantern! 😍 What a lovely gift! Glad to hear that work is picking up for you again. Cassie sorry to hear about ED’s latest split and  hope it won’t affect GS too much! 😕 Has YD been with you over the Lockdown? Cassie time does seem to be passing us by we go from one week to the next! I love the fact that you likened yourself to Goldilocks hopefully you will find the buttons that are just right! 😏 Joan how lovely to be able to have a meet-up with YD and family! My friend asked me to choose 6 pairs of earrings to keep and those In the picture were all mine to keep Joan! 😄 How unlucky with the printer ink accident, you could have done without that! Lovewine my walks round the canal and river have kept me sane during this time! I see something different everyday! Since the National Trust has opened its grounds I have booked several slots! We are off to Hanbury Hall this afternoon and Brockhampton on Monday. Slimbridge is open from Monday and I managed to get a slot for Thursday! Ladies our lives rely on booking slots online for everything! 🙄 I am thankful that some normality is returning to our lives as DH and I have now had enough! I will be glad to see the children and grandchildren in person rather than on a screen! It was ES’s 40th birthday on Tuesday and we did a group whats app video call!  DD is still waiting to have the contracts exchanged on her property! 😬 YS is back at work he is the manager of a garage workshop and he says they are very busy! We are just waiting with baited breath that the recent protests around the country don’t provide us with a second wave of the virus! Personally I think the whole thing has got   out of hand and one wonders where it will all end! 🙀 😬 Stay well and safe ladies! ... View more

  😀 🍷 🎂 🎉 🎈 Happy Birthday! Lovewine! X Hope you have a good day! ... View more

Good Morning ladies! Another week goes by but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel and Cassie I am still very hopeful that indeed we will be able to meet up. We still have a couple of months! DH and I are going up to Newcastle the day after our meet up and staying at a campsite in Whitley Bay, campsites open on July 1st! We are hoping that the quarantine period that is being imposed from June 8th on arriving in the UK and France will be lifted soon! DIL has planned a surprise week in Margate for ES in August as it’s his 40th birthday in June! We were all going to be there to surprise him, I do hope this will be able to go ahead! 😏 Cassie lovely to have a social distance meet up with ED and GS glad they were pleased with their knit ware. I hope that you get a surprise and your paint by numbers will arrive earlier! I used to love paint by numbers when I was a child. I have done several jigsaws with 1000 pieces but only read one book! Can’t seem to concentrate on reading!  Joan technology is very clever and has kept lots of people sane in these troubled times!  I may well take a look at the Hay festival I have heard a lot about it on our local radio! Click and Collect slots at Sainsbury’s are now very easy to book thank goodness and we are managing to get the same weekly slot!  DD says it is going to be very hard to achieve social distancing with such young children. Parents will also have to be controlled by using a staggered drop off and collection! They have been open for the duration for a small number of vulnerable and key workers children. But she has only had to work 2/3 days a week, staff are on a rota!  Cyprus are opening up to tourism next month but not to the UK so we won’t be visiting any time soon! 😏 I will try to remember to take a picture of the earrings and upload it later!  Lovewine can YS get out in the sunshine somewhere safe? Or open a window and sit in front of it? Glad that work is picking up for you. How is your old dog, he wasn’t very well a few weeks ago? Hopefully your mum managed to enjoy her birthday, thank goodness for online deliveries!  Wildpurl hope all is well with you?   ... View more

Good morning ladies lovely to hear from you all and that you all remain well. Cassie well done on your knitting projects I am sure that GS and ED will be very pleased with their knit ware. Do you have another project in mind? 🤔 Wildpurl any news about when you will be expected to return to work or if you can work from home for longer? At least watering the garden gives you another activity- better to have dry weather at this time! Joan you must be relieved that your ED has been moved from the Covid Ward. Sorry to hear that SIL has been made redundant and do hope he will manage to secure a new job in a few weeks! What year groups are your GCN in? DD teaches Yr 1 and her children are Yr 4 and 6! But they are both in 3 tier system so GD is already in middle school but GS will be transferring for Year 5. ES and DIL made the very hard decision not to send GS back to nursery yesterday in France as they feel it is too soon and an impossible task to keep 4 year olds socially distant! 😬 🙀 The lockdown has been very strict In France and they have had to sign a document each time they have left the house individually! 🙄   Lovewine when this is all over you will be very busy with everyone wanting to dress up to go out!  The weather looks as if it is going to get warmer by the end of the week which is cheery news!  It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow with a little more freedom! I think some people will abuse it sadly which is going to make it a longer time before we can meet with our families! 😢 It would have been better if we had been restricted to a radius around our home initially. France are not allowed to exceed 100kms of their home. I can just imagine everyone rushing to the beaches tomorrow! 😬 My friend upstairs left a box of earrings that she had made when she lived in Wales and told me to choose 6 pairs and then return the box outside their apartment door! 😀 It cheered me up as I felt a bit low at the weekend with all the social distance VE Day celebrations going on that we couldn’t be part of. My dad was in the RAF and mum in the WREN’s and I kept hearing Nimrod by Elgar and We’ll meet again both pieces of music used at dad’s funeral! 😢 Let’s hope everyone behaves themselves so we can ease back to some normality!  We were going to see Diana Ross in Birmingham in July and I heard this morning that it has been cancelled which we were expecting! 😔 ... View more

Good Morning ladies another 3 weeks has passed by with a little light at the end of the tunnel. As much as we all want our freedom back we don’t want to land up in another lockdown!🤦🏻‍ ♀️ Hopefully the de confinement with happen gradually and most people will be sensible and not ruin it for the rest of us! 😬 Lovewine I do hope your elderly dog is feeling better, it’s always a worry when pets get old! 😒 I am not surprised that you are not allowing OH on your swinging chair, thank goodness he could source the materials needed to repair it! 😅 Lucky the coffee didn’t burn you! 🙀 Cassie hope that ED is managing to source her groceries now, how is GS coping with being home? Joan hope all your family are well I expect the GC will be glad to get back to school when they can? Wildpurl I expect you are enjoying working from home and having more time for your garden? DH and I have survived 8 weeks in the apartment, it has not been easy and my daily walks  are my escape and I am so thankful for having the river and canal so near!  I have met my friend from upstairs twice on 2 socially distant benches outside the Worcester Porcelain museum! It has been good to catch up and let off steam! 🤣 Stay safe everyone! 🌈 ... View more

Hello ladies it is 2 weeks since I posted and everyone else is quiet. Hope everyone is ok? 🤔 We must be very grateful for the amazing weather we have had in April to help get us through this crisis!  Life goes on from one day to the next! I have completed 3 puzzles to date! 🙄 I am really hoping that life will slowly be able to return to normality soon as most other European Countries are planning for!  Sending love to you all x     ... View more

Good morning ladies! Cassie very sorry to hear the sad news of the nurse who lost her husband! 😢 Times are certainly challenging. It sounds like you are very busy with keeping tabs on the status of patients. 😳 Its good that knitting relaxes you! Hope your daughters and grandson remain well. Joan yes your message did arrive! Well done on your delivery slot it really is a lottery! 😬 I had to smile at the thought of the deer eating your tulips, but I am sure that was the emotion furthest away from you feelings! When we lived in the country in Somerset some sheep escaped into our garden from the nearby field and were munching on our crop of sprouts! We caught them in the act and DH chased them off! They trampled a few plants down to add to the destruction!🤦🏻‍ ♀️ Have just had a quick look online and you can get an ultrasonic animal repeller which does not contain poison it’s called a Voss sonic 2000. Lovewine sorry that you are having such a difficult time doing everyone’s shopping! Will OH go out and get some for you? I hope you have managed to use your swinging chair over the last few days? It’s a bit cooler today but it’s supposed to be warming up by the weekend! 😀 We have set up a whatsapp group to link us to the children and we spoke to all 3 of them via video yesterday which was a very precious time! ❤️ Four of the grandchildren made an short appearance also! 😄 I was very impressed that YS said that his eldest daughter, who is 18, has a boyfriend and has not seen him since the lockdown! If only other teenagers were encouraged to stay away from their friends! We see groups of 3 or 4 on skateboards or bikes on a daily basis! 😡 I do sympathise with them, but they will keep us all in lockdown longer!  My jigsaw is keeping me sane!  I managed to get a leg of lamb for Easter yesterday, but it was very large and we are now planning how to use the leftovers! Lamb sandwiches for lunch and lamb meatballs for tea! If any is still left it will be going into a stew! Stay save ladies!   ... View more

Good Morning ladies! Gosh Wildpurl it sounds like you are keeping as busy as you usually are! You too Lovewine. It’s good that you can incorporate your work with your family errands!  Lovewine regarding OH’s I am having to keep my mouth firmly shut. He has taken to ordering many items online and it’s driving me mad with the deliveries arriving! 😡 🤦🏻‍ ♀️ Things like 4 tins of scotch guard for the carpet in the motorhome, tent pegs of various types for the awning, flour so he can make bread, a variety of face masks, amongst yesterday’s purchases was a block of 12 packets of mentholyptus sweets! 😳 Some purchases have been squirrelled away so I don’t know the full extent! 🥺 Fortunately he goes out on his bike in the afternoon! 🙄 We haven’t spent weeks together in this apartment I am used to having it to myself and only have him visiting! He said to me yesterday that he felt I didn’t want him here, which I regret to say at times throughout the day and night I do feel like that! 😳 Obviously I didn’t tell him that! 🤐 He used to make me feel the same when I went back to Cyprus after a spell in the UK. It’s very difficult because you get yourself into a routine and suddenly you have to adapt to another person and their belongings and ways into the equation! Even the way the cushions are arranged on the sofa! He enjoys cooking and most nights cooks the evening meal but I do like to eat before 7.30. It’s usually after 7 before he starts it. I do gather the items to be cooked and leave them out for him. Can’t say anything or he will be stubborn and refuse to cook! 🙄 Mil is finding lockdown a challenge and BIL has been going to take her a walk in the park early morning. She is 94 this month but has the energy of a person much younger!  SIl has asked her to go and live with them in Northampton but she wants to remain independent in her bungalow. We have been very lucky with the weather, it has helped with our wellbeing during this difficult time. We have been able to open our French doors to the Juliet balcony in the afternoon! Joan hope you are enjoying your garden and keeping in contact with your family via technology. Really hope that your ED is keeping well, has she been tested yet? Cassie how are you and the family getting on? Stay well ladies I think we will all silently be glad when Easter is over this year! 😔 We were supposed to be taking the motorhome to Plymouth for a few days to see YS and family. A week later we were going on a Rally to East Anglia for 2 weeks! 😢 We are finding it particularly hard as the Motorhome is the other half of our lifestyle! Not sure what will be happening with school in Cyprus as the operator is facing challenges with parents who can’t afford fees due to the current situation! He has furloughed some staff. He has provided online schooling the last 3 weeks as he is a whizz with technology! DH is still involved for the next 2 years although he was to pull right back from April 6th, obviously this happened sooner as he couldn’t get back.  Onwards and upward ladies! My friend who had cancer 10 years ago was diagnosed with BC a few weeks ago and was due to have lumpectomy this week but it’s been cancelled until June as she was told there is more risk of her getting the virus than the cancer spreading as she has been caught at an early stage!  ... View more