Tuesday 22nd November 2011

A Return to the Office
  Today, I got more ambitious, planning to visit Eileen and Ken Adams to set up the computer system for an upcoming swimming competition and then going in to the Architecting the Enterprise office in Loudwater for a couple of hours. Because I still should not drive, I still needed Sue's service as a chauffeur.

I started the day rather tired. I did not sleep well. There were several reasons for this.

Firstly, my brain was very active when I went to bed because I worked on processing swimming entries right up to the time I went to bed.

Secondly, at this stage of my chemo-therapy, there is a lot of stuff that my kidneys need to get rid of, so I had to go to the loo several times in the first few hours of the night.

Over the years, I have tried to send information to Eileen Adams as attachments to e-mails. We have regularly had difficulty in getting the right information stored in the right place. Eileen is absolutely superb at processing information in a calm and systematic way, but is not the most computer literate person in the world.

So on this occasion, I decided to visit and install the software and database myself. This only took a few minutes, so Sue and I were able to enjoy a couple of hours talking socially to Eileen and Ken and enjoying a leisurely lunch.

My illness has granted me the gift of time, allowing Sue and I to spend much more time with people we have normally only met for business or swimming events.

After lunch, Sue dropped me at the new Architecting the Enterprise office in Loudwater. I spent just over two hours there. mostly talking to Judith Jones, the CEO, but also meeting a lot of people face-to-face for the first time since I went into hospital. This is an important step, because some people have a problem knowing how to relate to someone suffering from cancer. (Actually that proved not to be a problem).

After the visit, I got a very encouraging message from one of the other managers.

"Great seeing you yesterday, you really looked fantastic – in fact I would say that you were shining from the inside. A testimony of Christ in you – the hope of glory."

Sue came to pick me up after two hours. I have to admit that I was very tired .. so I am not yet ready to get back to normal working.

I did very little in the evening other than flop in front of the TV.