Oops, once again I've been outrageously inefficient. Well, make that lazy. In all honesty there's been very little to report in the medical world of dave weston, which is a damned fine thing. The itch comes and goes, the sleep is generally fine, most days are just not a problem at all. I'm learning to manage it. The biggest factor affecting everything is sleep - a few decent nights sleep in a row with not too much on in the day and it makes all the difference - much more so than anything I eat or drink.
Dancing is going really well. Leah and I get on like a house on fire (we're both intensely immature, and share lots of interests), and our competition results are beginning to look up. We're just looking at updating some of our choreography as our first efforts were a little dull/one-dimensional. That'll hopefully move things on a bit more.
My flat is great (leaky boiler issues aside). Tim has moved out of my spare room now, and I'm still lodgerless but vaguely looking to find someone who I'll get on with. On the work front I gave up teaching at Camden but I'm now doing 2 days a week back at Watford Boys, though this time its all IT/data work, rather than teaching. I'm still up in Oxford every week helping out there, and I'm working on making some websites for friends and family.
It does seem bizarre that its around 2 years since Mum died. It really doesn't feel like that long, in some ways, though in others it feels like a lifetime - can't really explain it. Surely the most significant thing in the time since has been the arrival of my wonderful nephew Patrick. I do try and see him at least once a fortnight and he's now crawling and I'm sure on the verge of talking. He's 13 months old now, which is hard to believe! I've started telling him how much he's grown. Sad.
I've been keeping up with information on the dreaded P.S.C. via an email support group I signed up to. There's some interesting new theories out there, and some new drugs coming through that look good. Still, the holy grail will be for someone to be able to do something clever with stem cells to grow healthy liver cells. I think that's probably at least 20 years off yet, but I'm happy to hold out while they figure it out!
I'm quite happy to have nothing to report. Long may it continue. I'm seeing O'Grady at the end of next month, and I'm sure it will be business as usual.
Hope you're all well!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
New beginnings
Life is bloody good at the moment. Sure, there are still silly little irritations like my car playing up, and the itch is still hanging around like a bad smell, but on all other fronts things are looking up.
First and foremost I finally have a new dance partner, Leah. She's a 19 year old welsh girl currently studying Maths at Royal Holloway. She lives in Egham and has loads of time free most afternoons/evenings/weekends to dance, which is perfect. She's also got absolutely great technique. After just one week of dancing together we already have 4 of our 5 routines choreographed - we now just need to work out a Jive. We're planning on competing in just over 2 weeks time at the student national championships in the ex-student category, which should be a gentle introduction to competitions. I've got a great feeling about it all, and my dance obsession has cranked up another whole notch!
Secondly my love life has finally perked up a bit. Been on about 4 dates now and things are looking good, but no more on that for fear of jinxing it!
Lastly, and most intruigingly, I've just started going to see an Accupunturist. I didn't really know quite what to expect but had a vague idea he might be able to help with the itching. Actually its like a whole counselling/emotional workout as well as relieving vast amounts of pent-up frustration and tension that I seem to have been storing up inside me. I'm feeling so much better about life, and the visualisations and ideas that he is giving me, along with classic needle-based therapy, is absolutely fascinating. The most surprising aspect of it all is realising just how tense a person I have been for such a long time. You know the feeling you get of release after you have really let go and cried for a while? I've got that right now and its wonderful. Long may it last, and with a bit of luck it'll lead to improvement in some more physical symptoms.
Only 6 more weeks of teaching to go now until I give up for good. I'm really quite excited now. I don't know how committed I'm going to be feeling toward teaching in these last few weeks but I would like to go out with a bang rather than a whimper!
Haven't seen Dad & Carole for ages, and haven't seen my gorgeous nephew for far too long too. Life is suddenly so busy with an extra 12 or so hours of dancing a week (duh, surprise). Hope to remedy both of those very soon.
Here's to what is promising to be a very exciting 2007.
First and foremost I finally have a new dance partner, Leah. She's a 19 year old welsh girl currently studying Maths at Royal Holloway. She lives in Egham and has loads of time free most afternoons/evenings/weekends to dance, which is perfect. She's also got absolutely great technique. After just one week of dancing together we already have 4 of our 5 routines choreographed - we now just need to work out a Jive. We're planning on competing in just over 2 weeks time at the student national championships in the ex-student category, which should be a gentle introduction to competitions. I've got a great feeling about it all, and my dance obsession has cranked up another whole notch!
Secondly my love life has finally perked up a bit. Been on about 4 dates now and things are looking good, but no more on that for fear of jinxing it!
Lastly, and most intruigingly, I've just started going to see an Accupunturist. I didn't really know quite what to expect but had a vague idea he might be able to help with the itching. Actually its like a whole counselling/emotional workout as well as relieving vast amounts of pent-up frustration and tension that I seem to have been storing up inside me. I'm feeling so much better about life, and the visualisations and ideas that he is giving me, along with classic needle-based therapy, is absolutely fascinating. The most surprising aspect of it all is realising just how tense a person I have been for such a long time. You know the feeling you get of release after you have really let go and cried for a while? I've got that right now and its wonderful. Long may it last, and with a bit of luck it'll lead to improvement in some more physical symptoms.
Only 6 more weeks of teaching to go now until I give up for good. I'm really quite excited now. I don't know how committed I'm going to be feeling toward teaching in these last few weeks but I would like to go out with a bang rather than a whimper!
Haven't seen Dad & Carole for ages, and haven't seen my gorgeous nephew for far too long too. Life is suddenly so busy with an extra 12 or so hours of dancing a week (duh, surprise). Hope to remedy both of those very soon.
Here's to what is promising to be a very exciting 2007.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Partner-hunting
January was a fairly mixed month overall. I've been pleasantly busy with work and various social things - various celebrations of two engagements in my circle of ex-oxford dancer friends. Healthwise its been fairly good. Itching is annoying but still seemingly as liable to improve as get worse. Actually I've noticed a very strong correlation between itching and lack-of-sleep/stress. Even just a normal part-time week at work with one or two extra late nights and/or early mornings can make it noticably worse, so I'm taking even more extra care of myself.
Irritations this month include my stupid bloody car. I had the engine revamped at cost of nearly £400 to myself and now it sounds like the catalytic converter and other bits are buggered too - more money! The garage who are doing it are annoying me and taking ages to sort anything out. That's car garages for you though I think, so just lumping that one.
On the dance-partner side things were fairly quiet. I had a great tryout with an American girl who was moving over here to study, and I was all set to take it further, but one day after the tryout she heard her father had suffered a heart-attack and had to fly home to Boston. So unless I want to move to Boston, thats another option out. I've literally just sat down and emailed about 20 more girls so fingers crossed *something* will come of that.
Only about 8 weeks of school left now until Easter when I'm giving it up. Still a little hazy as to what I'll be doing at that point, but that will hopefully get clearer when I've finally found a dance partner. That's the number one priority at the moment (besides spending money fixing my car), so watch this space.
Irritations this month include my stupid bloody car. I had the engine revamped at cost of nearly £400 to myself and now it sounds like the catalytic converter and other bits are buggered too - more money! The garage who are doing it are annoying me and taking ages to sort anything out. That's car garages for you though I think, so just lumping that one.
On the dance-partner side things were fairly quiet. I had a great tryout with an American girl who was moving over here to study, and I was all set to take it further, but one day after the tryout she heard her father had suffered a heart-attack and had to fly home to Boston. So unless I want to move to Boston, thats another option out. I've literally just sat down and emailed about 20 more girls so fingers crossed *something* will come of that.
Only about 8 weeks of school left now until Easter when I'm giving it up. Still a little hazy as to what I'll be doing at that point, but that will hopefully get clearer when I've finally found a dance partner. That's the number one priority at the moment (besides spending money fixing my car), so watch this space.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Happy New Year everyone. I've had a great time with family and friends over the holidays. First up was a few days with Dad and Carole in Watford. My brother and sister-in-law came with my gorgeous little nephew/godson, and my step-brother came too. We had a great time, ate too much, played silly games and enjoyed each other's company. I made a decision to keep alcohol intake to nearly zero but have to admit it really made no difference at all to my enjoyment.
Earlyish on Boxing day I had to drive back to Wimbledon to pick up my passport that I had forgotten to bring, then straight up to Stansted to rendez-vous with Charles and Kathy and baby Patrick to head over to Belfast to get the wee lad baptised. It was a nightmare journey - we nearly missed the plane - but Patrick was very well behaved thank God. Over in Belfast there was lots of Kathy's family around and it was all energetic and enjoyable. The baptism itself was simple and fairly short. I had to renounce Satan and his works - have to admit crossing my fingers: some of Satan's works are rather fun! Still, I'm now just-about-officially a Godparent to the boy. Poor lad, he cried through most of it - he wasn't getting religion without a battle!
After Belfast I recuperated at home in Wimbledon for a couple of days before heading off to Amsterdam on New Year's Eve. I stayed with my friend Sarah who has a flat there while she's working there for 6 months. There were lots of Oxford dancing friends there and we had a fantastic time. The Dutch are insane - they let off firecrackers in the street next to you and hold fireworks in their hands while they light them with cigarettes and proceed to point them all over the place. Scary but great atmosphere and midnight was fantastic.
A poignant part of New Years was that my poor friend Pete was putting a remarkably brave face on given his mum had dropped dead suddenly only a couple of weeks before - complications of cancer treatment. It really brought home just how much has happened since Mum died last year - I found it quite cathartic being able to talk to him about my experiences and asking him about his. I hope I was useful rather than just making it worse for him - very brave of him to come at all considering the funeral was on the 4th.
Finally, after a nightmareish 10-hour delay at Schipiol airport I got back home on the 2nd. I went over to Charles and Kathy's house to say hello and see Patrick for a bit. While I was there I managed to help them a video of patrick giggling like mad on to Patrick's blog. Its worth a visit to see the ultra-cuteness of my nephew, even though I'm biased as hell!
Happy New Year to you all. Keep your eyes peeled for more news about my plans for this year!
Earlyish on Boxing day I had to drive back to Wimbledon to pick up my passport that I had forgotten to bring, then straight up to Stansted to rendez-vous with Charles and Kathy and baby Patrick to head over to Belfast to get the wee lad baptised. It was a nightmare journey - we nearly missed the plane - but Patrick was very well behaved thank God. Over in Belfast there was lots of Kathy's family around and it was all energetic and enjoyable. The baptism itself was simple and fairly short. I had to renounce Satan and his works - have to admit crossing my fingers: some of Satan's works are rather fun! Still, I'm now just-about-officially a Godparent to the boy. Poor lad, he cried through most of it - he wasn't getting religion without a battle!
After Belfast I recuperated at home in Wimbledon for a couple of days before heading off to Amsterdam on New Year's Eve. I stayed with my friend Sarah who has a flat there while she's working there for 6 months. There were lots of Oxford dancing friends there and we had a fantastic time. The Dutch are insane - they let off firecrackers in the street next to you and hold fireworks in their hands while they light them with cigarettes and proceed to point them all over the place. Scary but great atmosphere and midnight was fantastic.
A poignant part of New Years was that my poor friend Pete was putting a remarkably brave face on given his mum had dropped dead suddenly only a couple of weeks before - complications of cancer treatment. It really brought home just how much has happened since Mum died last year - I found it quite cathartic being able to talk to him about my experiences and asking him about his. I hope I was useful rather than just making it worse for him - very brave of him to come at all considering the funeral was on the 4th.
Finally, after a nightmareish 10-hour delay at Schipiol airport I got back home on the 2nd. I went over to Charles and Kathy's house to say hello and see Patrick for a bit. While I was there I managed to help them a video of patrick giggling like mad on to Patrick's blog. Its worth a visit to see the ultra-cuteness of my nephew, even though I'm biased as hell!
Happy New Year to you all. Keep your eyes peeled for more news about my plans for this year!
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