A week away from work - well as much as I can manage without physically going away - has been pleasurable and due to being week 3/1 of a chemo cycle meant I was able to enjoy most of it with normal energy levels etc.  With my drug change I was promised joint/bone aches - and today there are the first hints of their arrival.  I am amused in a perverse way as the aches feel very like those caused by serious hill walking, albeit located in my bones rather than my muscles.  The sense of being a bit seized up or doing what my walking friend and I term 'the old lady shuffle' when I move off from rest make my metaphor a bit more realistic.  So far in this cycle my energy levels are holding up - another similarity to 'real' hill climbing.

Back to work tomorrow and the beginnings of Advent preparation.  I love Advent, and I love the excitement it brings for children.  My kitchen is full of ingredients for our Advent Sunday evening service, and I am looking forward eagerly to the two services that day which I will co-lead with others (mysteriously planned in to our scheme even before any of this reality was known to us ... cue spooky music).

I'm glad to be back to whatever passes for normal just now... and looking forward to being back with my lovely, lovely people at church on Sunday for worship and our Advent lunch for students.  God is good, and as Advent reminds us, God has come, is coming and will come...