Week 302: George

A week of 30th birthdays, family visits, sickness, vegan-themed quizzes, long drives, lots of cleaning, and excellent BBQs.

Posted on by Rowan Manning.
Tagged with FamilyHealthFoodHouseWalkingBooks

  • Two pictures side by side with me and my three siblings in each. We're adopting the same pose and smiling at the camera, each photo is nearly 20 years apart

    This week my youngest brother, George, turned 30. I took the day off to go home and see him, I think the last time we were all together at home was more than 7 years ago which is ridiculous but understandable now that we all do separate Christmas etc and often meet somewhere in the middle of all our places.

    It was such a lovely day. We reminisced, we cooked together, and we gently bullied mum as a team for the first time in forever.

    Mum was ecstatic that we all agreed to replicate a family photo from nearly 20 years ago. Look at all of us little babies. George and I nailed the pose.

  • Content warning: sickness George has been pretty sick with the chemo this time around. He started the initial rounds feeling pretty invinsible but the new treatment and steroids mean he has a pretty bad time of it. Cancer talk didn't dominate the day but obviously it's there, he's looking pretty good generally and has been building muscle back up; his appetite has returned. What a weird thing eh?

  • On Thursday we went to a vegan pizza themed pub quiz at Purezza with a few friends. The quiz was quite pizza-focused but we managed joint third place. It was a nice time and the pizza was pretty good; excellent sauce portions. One too many wines maybe.

  • On Friday night we drove up to Matlock with the lads, we booked the week off and it’ll be nice to relax a bit more. We’re assuming it’ll be easier to get some house tasks done when we’re not also trying to work.

  • Saturday was spent doing a lot of jobs. We steam-cleaned the kitchen floor for four hours and got the house ready for more frequent habitation. Charlotte’s family arrived the next day and we put together a pretty excellent BBQ. We’ll be heading out on some countryside walks and just having a chill time for the next few days. Once they leave the work will continue!

  • I finished the first Mistborn book really quickly and have picked up the second. Very good, can’t put them down. Something that is good is that I’m no longer chasing the reading streak so there’s no pressure to read every single day if I don’t find time. This will hopefully keep me sustained on this reading peak for longer instead of feeling despondent when I miss a day and giving up entirely.