People seem to be impressed or amazed at my positive attitude. Frankly, I’m probably too cowardly to do it any other way. I just can’t let myself think about anything other than positive outcomes. And it would be pretty miserable to be sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Fortunately, there is a wonderfully virtuous circle that is created when you’re positive. You attract positive reactions from other people. And I’m certainly getting more than my fair share of those.
This week has been full of positive interactions with people and quality time with friends, family and even work contacts. On Monday I had to email or phone a number of contacts for a couple of stories I was working on. I decided to tell them that I was working from home and why. The reaction from all of them was kind and sympathetic and genuinely caring. At lunchtime my good friend Jackie came up. Her husband Geoff dropped her off but did not stay, so we had some rare one-to-one time and a lovely ladies’ lunch down at Zizzi’s, Canary Wharf (I might end up with my own table down there at this rate!).
Tuesday was sister Lou’s partner Bev’s birthday. They had the day off and were going to spend the afternoon at the new casino at Westfield, Stratford (Lou’s got the gambling gene that runs through one side of the family and, thankfully, passed me by!). Prompted by the fact that I’d forgotten to get Bev’s present over to her before her birthday, they offered to pop up on their way to Stratford for a coffee. As it was going to be around lunchtime, coffee became lunch, at, you guessed it, Zizzi’s. We shared whatever is the Italian version of tapas, which was delicious. Even though I (famously) speak to Lou several times a day, we rarely get to spend that much time together, particularly without a lot of other people around. But since my diagnosis, there’s been more time together. Another positive from a negative!
On Wednesday, I had, some time ago, arranged to meet my old school friend Fran, for lunch. But I really needed some time to myself to focus on work and I just had to apologise and cancel our arrangement. At lunchtime, I managed to get to the gym for a power yoga class. The teacher, Rebecca, does a lot of travelling and yoga training in India and California, so often has others to cover her class. But she was there on Wednesday, which was great. She brings a really calming and spiritual element to her yoga practice which, at the same time, is pretty demanding. Some twelve days after my last chemo session I was feeling great and more than capable of getting the most out of my yoga practice. I was wearing a little skull cap, so it was obvious something had happened to my mass of long curls. After the class, I went to say a few words to Rebecca and we ended up having a lovely little chat about things. You almost feel she’s healing you just by looking at you and talking to you!
Thursday was the closest I’ve come since all this started to a “normal” working day. I had a conference to go to in the afternoon. I started work from home, then went to the gym for another power yoga class, the dashed from yoga to the conference, which was about the ‘At Retirement’ advice market.’ It was organised by the Tax Incentivised Savings Association, or TISA, an organisation I know very well as I attend a lot of their conferences and seminars. At the end of the afternoon the chairman, director general and another director all came over to chat to me and find out how I was doing. Anyone who’s been in business for a while knows that most work relationships are transitory and based on what people need out of them at the time. So I have found the genuine concern shown by some of these people particularly touching.
And talking of transitory work relationships, many with colleagues do not survive one or other leaving a particular job and moving on. Some do. On Thursday evening, my former colleague Tina, who I worked with at my previous company, Citywire, came over with her husband Nigel for a drink at our local, the Grapes, and a meal in La Figa, a great Italian jut up the road. Tina and Nigel now live back in Tina’s home town of Hull, but she still has a flat in London and it was great to catch up with them again.
If the rest of the week had been about positive encounters with friends, family and colleagues, Friday was the ultimate end to a positive week. I had an appointment with my oncologist, Alison Jones, ahead of Monday’s chemo. As well as having a lovely chat with one of her lovely secretaries after seeing her, the highlight of the week in terms of positivity has to be what Dr Jones had to say after examining me. The tumour had shrunk significantly! It doesn’t get more positive than that!!
