Hi Sch   My wife and I started looking for properties and she mentioned how beautiful olive groves were. I tended to agree, but neither of this ate them. Anyhoo, it sparked some research and prompted me to by a few different varieties to compare. I keep them in pots and they are looking quite healthy.   I'm not letting cancer kill my dreams. The perfect product for us. Good investment,  asphetic rewards and we don't eat the profits. On the other hand, a cherry orchard... poor investment as we'd eat all the profit and make cherry wine out of the stuff we couldn't eat. We'd be more pickled than the olives. And nothing makes you fart more than a 5kg box of cherries. 🍒   Out of the modest fruit I harvested from 3 olive trees, it all fits in a contain with about 250ml of brine. A modest first attempt. I used just salt in the brine so the olives would ferment as well. The 3 trees had fruit maturing at different times,  but I just kept adding them to the same brine. Some have been in for 6 months and the most recent about 7 weeks.   They were all black when I put them in. Mostly green now now from the brine. I need to freshen up brine again but can't touch it while I'm on chemo.   My daughter is going off to uni next year, so it will be her gift when she leaves. She is our little freak. The only one in the family that eats olives. It's better she goes off to uni and not eat the profitable potential of my future olive grove.   Now I have 5 trees flowering and they are growing well. I'll pickle some more next year.    Ciao       ... View more

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Hi Ginger   Loaded to the eye balls with Oxaliplatin. Shaking like a leaf on a windy day. Should make for some interesting typos and auto-corrects. Watch this space!   Not so winter-ish for the trip home today. So not suffering cold shock. I am feeling the tingling in my fingers and soles of my feet without them being cold.   Apart from that, symptoms seem to be similar to previous cy cel. A funny thing... trying to put my bag in the back of the car, holding a bottle of water in the other hand, which was shaking like a bastards. The lid was on, but not properly, so water was splashing all over me and the bag. Then my hands were wet and started to sting.   Home now. Settling in for a quiet night and see how this impacts me further. 🙄   It bums me you are still sick. It's making me Batshit crazy. You must have caught the dreaded man flu. I speak from experience. It's hard to shake. A good remedy I found is a marathon... of big bang theory on Netflix.    The funny side of this, you think my plight is worse than yours. Naaaaahhhh! I'm just a sook about it. You just need to get better. That's an order young lady! And who said you weren't crazy? Did your mother have you tested?    I'm jealous about the weeping cherry, but I got myself a new olive tree a few weeks ago. I have 5 out of 7 olive trees flowering at the moment. I only harvested off 3 trees last season. Fortunately, they all got a really good start in the green house (except the new one). Funny thing, I don't eat olives either. I pickled the last ones for my daughter.   Look after yourself. Rest, exercise and eat well. I have to dig up my pre/post beard pics. I'll try to find some that don't look like death warmed up.   In the meantime,  I learnt to play this Jack White song on Monday. The rose with the broken neck.    Happy middle of October 😁😁😁😁😁         ... View more

Hi Ginger   Some pictures are worth a thousand words.   Just like Kilimanjaro and algebra, eating a Sunday after an infusion of Oxaliplatin is achievable with patience, time and a little effort.   Week 1 - it feels like cardboard on your tongue as it goes instantly numb. It tends to sting the whole mouth, but you must endure this and let it melt before swallowing. Any pain in the mouth is good compared to cold on your throat. None the less, swallow small amounts at a time. The chocolate and caramel tend to linger and you can taste them when your tongue warms up.   Week 2 - much better. Too much time on the tongue still makes it numb and kills all taste, but it just takes longer to kick in. Same drill melt in your mouth before swallowing. Still quite sensitive at this point.   Week 3 (today) - mouth and tongue is mostly back to normal, but I made the mistake of swallow too much unmelted Ice cream. This was a mistake.   Cycle 4 starts tomorrow 😥   Happy choc/caramel Sunday's. ... View more

Howdy Ginger   Thankyou for the garden photos. They look amazing.   I've started digging up a bed near my house. About the plant corn seedlings. I need to do my snow peas too.   It's been a slow bounce back from hospital. Not quite working as normal yet. I thought I'd come good the day after hospital. It seems  my entire journey,  I've been underestimating how much impact these things have on me. Regardless, I think I've been handling things well. Keeping a close eye on my state, pushing myself without overdoing it, doing as my wife tells me (mostly). It's now over a week since I went to hospital and aborted the Capecitabine intake, so I shouldn't be cytotoxic at the moment. That takes a bit of pressure off and a bit of a holiday for the next 9 days.   How's the virus Ginger? I hope your rivers of snot have dried up and your head feels less congested than Northbourne Avenue at 8.45am on a weekday. I can't imagine coughing was pleasant on your butchered abdomen. As I found out, those muscles are a part of coughing... and sneezing... and laughing... and many other surprising movements (because that catch you by surprise after you make them).   I shaved my cancer beard. It was going to endure  it journey right through my treatment. I did trim it down a few weeks ago, but this time, went the whole hog. Back to smooth cheeks. Everyone says I look younger without it. I don't mind so much, but I'll be doing more job interview in the next few weeks. Probably good to look younger in the IT industry.    I'm enjoying the warm weather.  Makes it so much easier to cope with cold sensitivity. But I'll tell you a funny story. My wife and eye went out for dinner and it was aweful service and very disappointing meals. So we didn't bother with dessert. On the way to the car I suggested we duck into McDonalds and grab a sunday. Not the worst idea, although, it was very disappointing to see obvious drug deals going down inside MacDonalds and not a clean table in sight. Not the family restaurant they advertise on tele. Anyhoo... neither of us remembered my sensitivity to cold food, so the first spoonful in my mouth was like razor blades. Then we sat there and laughed at each other for forgetting. Even funnier, I'd normally blow on hot soup to cool it down I was blowing on the sunday to warm it up. So we sat there for an awfully long time while I wrestled with my Sunday. It wasn't easy but I finished it. So now it has spike an experiment,  where I'll try eating another sunday this Tuesday and another the following Tuesday to see how it improves. Perhaps from a cleaner and less junky ridden McDonalds location.   Btw... my new song hasn't progressed much, but my fingers are able to play the guitar now, so I might try to lock down a tune. Still have to work out how to include cheese in the lyric.   🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀   Ciao Ginger   ... View more

Hi thread enthusiasts   Can you believe 25 pages now? Best thread ever.   Just a little update. I'm home now.  I got out of the big house late yesterday arvo. Chemo cycle 3 is aborted. Planning to start cycle 4 on time but half of my dosage. In the meantime, it's still a battle to get fluids in and also to absorb them, but I think I'll come good by the end of the week.   Best wishes and happy thoughts for you all.    🧀 ... View more

Hi Bianca    Has your next chemo cycle started yet?   My current cycle just ended early again. I've been in hospital for a couple of days which has been frustrating.    I hope you well   Cheers   Phil   ... View more

Hi Albundy    I'm back in hospital. Cycle 2 and 3 Capecitabine are my problem. I don't get a metallic taste. Water just tastes off so I am struggling with fluid intake, but then my gut just stops absorbing it. It's been 6 days since my Oxaliplatin so those side effects are setting already, but 3rd cycle was a tough infusion.   Hang in there buddy. You've hit the hump.   Take care.     ... View more

Hi Claire    Yep! Balls!   Hopefully back home tomorrow although they do have some good tucker in this hospital. Sorry. I knew you were served garbage from the floor of the local S&C club for your hospital meals. At least one can find one brighter side of my stay. Oh! And I'm not dying at home... I guess. Two brighter sides.   Thank you for your screaming. Seriously, I just thought that was my neighbours fighting. You did well. Louder than Sch's eyes rolling.   Thanks for the hugs. I'll try not to complain to much. The staff here have assured me I've done the right thing but I feel like the boy who cried wolf. I know I'm at the start of it being in a bad way, so dealing with it early is good. Much better than how I handled last time. It is definitely the whole "handle it smarter, not braver" approach. Makes me feel frustrated and sooky. Sorry. Complaining again.   Balls!   Sleep well Ginger! ... View more