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The chemotherapy gets more difficult to bear. Side effects continued even to the morning of my current and penultimate course which began yesterday. Last night, because of the dexamethasone pre-med, I got only 2 hours sleep. My birthday on Saturday was not very enjoyable because I felt so unwell and quite depressed. Still, thanks for all the e-cards and well wishes from such a large number of people. They, at least, were appreciated.

At last Spring has sprung which is a cue for a song:

Spring is sprung the grass is rizz
Oi wonder where them boidies is?
They say the boids is on the wing but that's absoid
From what I hoid, the wing is always on the boid.

We have the cherry blossom out at last and fat wood pigeons eating it. Forsythia is full out, bright yellow in the front of the house with several patches of daffodils echoing the color. At the back the first of the camellias shines bright scarlet in the sunshine; the others are in heavy bud as are the magnolias. I counted 30 hyacinths in bloom; these are pot plants that we have placed outside in the flower bed. Violets and periwinkle are also flowering and the first of the grape hyacinths. A laurel has been flowering with dark brown blooms for most of the winter and so has the viburnum, though white/pink, not brown. A few cyclamen remain but most have finished flowering. Quite a rarity is the Dorset snowflake which resembles a snowdrop but is much taller with stems about 14 inches high.

Nice to see Manchester United reaching the last eight of the Champions League, though two more players were lost to injury. At least they had Nani and Valencia back. Afer fielding a side against Arsenal with 5 full backs last week they are in danger of having to play with only three defenders next game. They join Spurs and possibly Chelsea who carry a two-goal lead into tonight's match against FC Copenhagen.

We watched East of Eden last night. Well acted by Raymond Massey, but the Oscar nominations went to Elia Kazan, James Dean, and the adaptor of John Steinbeck's novel, Paul Osborn. The Oscar for best supporting actress went to Jo Van Fleet playing the estranged wife and mother. She was better known as a stage actress but she did appear in The Rose Tattoo, I'll Cry Tomorrow (both 1955), The King and Four Queens (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), and Cool Hand Luke (1967).

I have finished reading the last but one of the Robert Jordan series The Wheel of Time. The last volume will be published in November. That gives me something to aim for.

We have decided to defer selling our house. With summer coming we intend to take an extended holiday. The stress of moving is the last thing I want. We have had very few family holidays, my work has always been so all-consuming. This year will be different.

Jaguar fails to return

Snow has hit Southern England again. Diane was out at 11am clearing the drive of snow that fell between 6am and 9am. I went out with her but collapsed breathless after 10 minutes.


Alas, my son David was unable to join us for the weekend. After driving in blizzard conditions for 3 hours he had to abandon hope and return home. The picture shows my Jaguar battling through the snow. The picture was taken by his girlfriend who was driving his car in tandem.

We have had a beautiful sunny day and most of the snow has melted, but the route from Oxford to Bournemouth was impassable.

Snow!

The snow that has engulfed the whole east of the country reached as far west as us overnight. My daughter was with us yesterday afternoon borrowing a suitcase to take to ASH where she has a poster to present. All UK flights to Orlando leave from Gatwick and Gatwick was snowed in. Around 500 UK haematologists go to ASH, so she was in the same boat as a lot of people. She was due to fly today but the airport was still closed. Luckily, my son bought a chocolate Labrador from someone who has inside information at BA and she was able to inform my daughter that her flight would be cancelled and to recommend an alternative route via Dallas going and via New York returning, leaving from Heathrow, which was still open.

There was still the problem of getting to Heathrow from the south coast. She looked out of the window at midnight ans saw the that it was snowing very heavily; so she decided to start then and there. The journey normally takes an hour and a half, but driving conditions were so bad that it took three and a half hours. HGV drivers were behaving like madmen with no concern for other road users. One truck jackknifed, blocking most of the motorway.

She rang a few minutes ago to let us know that she was in the process of boarding her flight, so she looks like she is going to make it. I wonder how many would have given up.

We seldom have snow in Bournemouth and I thought we were going to get away with it. My other son has not been to work since returning from Italy on Monday. He is snowed in at Tunbridge Wells.

The view from my office window is stunning and it's still snowing. I reckon I have the best office view in the world. I am separated from the 18th green of the golf course by a stand of trees. In the summer there is a magnificent sycamore, several silver birches and a smattering of different conifers, yet you can still catch glimpses of the brilliant green of the golf course and the yellow sand of the bunkers. Grey squirrels are always present (even today in the snow). The highest trees are about forty feet and the tree-rats have fun as they leap the highest branches. Seldom absent are a pair of ring doves and lately we have had an ominous black crow. Pairs of magpies and jays swing back and forth across the road between our lawn and the tall trees, but our hawthorn is home to families of blue tits. I spot sparrows diving for cover beneath our yew hedge and there is always a robin around somewhere. Our blackbirds live in the back garden and rarely venture to the front.

Today in the snow, the trees are even more attractive. Normally, I would be out clearing the drive, but my wife forbade me and set out to do it herself. It was really hard work and I was chomping at the bit to go and help, but this last course of chemotherapy has been tough to bear and I am still getting side effects on day 13 - so much so that we are delaying the 6th course by a week.

I watched her manfully shovelling from my office window, and watched lots of young men, spared school, walking by throwing snowballs. I cast my mind back to my own teenage years. I would certainly have stopped had I seen a lady in late middle age shovelling snow and offered to do it for her. No doubt she would have given me sixpence and a warm drink for my troubles. What has happened to our youth?

On local TV last evening a man was being interviewed because he had cleared a hundred yards of sidewalk as a neighborly act. Astonishingly, this had made the news headlines! We are not used to bad weather in England but instead of getting off their backsides and clearing the snow, they are complaining that the local authority has not anticipated the snow and done something about it. How did we become such a dependent culture?