This is post number 2000.  Maybe I should say something auspcious or profound or both.  Not sure what though, so I'll ramble as ever.

I am pretty amazed to have written 2000 posts in the last five and a half years, give or take.  A lot has happened in that time and it is often intriguing for me to read back and see how both the blog and I have changed along the way.  I still enjoy the rambling, reflecting and sharing of rubbish (words which appeared in my original subtitle) and people still seem to like reading my everyday adventures (the current subtitle).  I still enjoy my lattes, though nowadays more often in cafes than foodcourts.

No doubt this little blog will shift direction again soon, as the cancer journey becomes less all pervading... at the moment it is along a flat path beween the forest and the 'one more river to cross' that I have finally named the radiotherapy phase.  As this will consist of 25 zappings spread over roughly six weeks (royal weddings foul up the schedule, major Christian festivals don't!  Discuss.) I am adopting a metaphor of stepping stones - lots of little steps, with occasional short pauses.  So April/May for that bit.

Hopefully I will continue to find things to share about church life, faith and theology as well as a fair smattering of twaddle.

Many thanks for reading whatever proportion of 2000 posts it has been!  Here's to the next lot...

I don't want this blog to turn into a single issue or foot-stampy thing, but I received an email today from Cancer Research UK about one of the their current campaigns for better access to radiotherapy.  For those of us in the parts of UK that are allowed to shape local policy (i.e. those who don't live in England) there are campaigns linked to up-coming national elections.  Via the website you can email your propspective MSP, Welsh or NI Assembly candidates and ask them to commit to be active in campaigning to make British cancer tretment even better...  You can badger the PM about "A Voice for Radiotherapy" here; follow links here for national variations!

I will be interest to see which, if any, of my local candidates responds... it might even influence my voting decision come May.

So it's Ash Wednesday and we are in Lent.  This year it crept up on me unobserved and I have made no preparations either for 'taking on' or 'giving up'... no Lent book to read, no going without caffiene or sugar or cocoa (or more typically all the above).  Do I feel guilty?  No!  I have spent a large part of the last several months living with enforced abstentions and practices, and still have some for a while to come yet... the last thing I need is extra ones.

This year Lent will be different from those I have known in the past, and maybe that is abstention enough?

Instead I hope that this Lent can in some way be a time of mental, spiritual and physical preparation for my return to work at Easter.

For explanation of acronym see here

Having had visitors the last few days meant I got help with the jigsaw project, meaning that it was completed earlier than otherwise.  My piece sorting system amused one of them who has never seen anything like it but they soon became accustomed to it!!

Here's the end result...

Definitely more social an exercise than watching TV!

Thank you AE, my concentration skills are now near normal again.  And my guests are dreaming of 'mosaic, blue, lug-ends' or 'cat, hole-ends'.  Mind you they did present me with another jigsaw before they left...!

So said one of our children today when he saw me after the service, stopping abruptly in his tracks as he raced round the room after the service.  Delightedly he showed me the worksheet he'd completed in Sunday school.  It was a special moment.

Pity our poor visiting preacher though.  His theme was around surprises and he asked the children if they could guess what animal he'd seen in his garden this week.  Presumably he expected responses such as 'cat', 'hedgehog' or 'fox.'  One of our tinies who is just finding his voice called out in a loud voice 'crocodile.'  Everyone laughed - except the preacher who said words to the effect of 'how did you know that?' as he proceded to show us the carved wooden crocodile paper knife that had found its way from his study to his garden.  Guess who had the surprise...

All good fun - and made me long all the more to 'be back' properly... only a few weeks to go now