Blimey. Nearly a month since the last one.

That must be good news.

This week sees the second of the maintenance doses of Rituximab and so far so good with this. I have had a cold for a week, that's proving more difficult than normal to shift, but that's to be expected. So, off to the Countess I go on Thursday. It appears that I have two appointments - one at 9 am and one at about 4 pm, so I will just go along with the flow and see what happens.

It was the Christmas meal with the Lymphoma Support Group yesterday. A very good meal indeed, I have to say and it's good to chat with people for longer than is available during normal meetings. It turns out one of the members worked for years with the father of one of my friends from school - the school is 200 miles away from Manchester. It's a very small world.

Another one of our party is currently going through her R-CHOP session - she's on 6 out of 8 sessions. Her hair has fallen out etc. Unfortunately, it's only 2 1/2 years since her R-CVP session, so my thoughts are with her, and I hope that what we are doing over the coming months lets me have a bit more time than that. She is on a trial of Gaudi, "son-of-Rituximab" as part of the R-CHOP (or should that be G-CHOP?), so let's hope that does the trick. According to the fellow last month, the results are looking promising.

Had a flu jab at the GPs a couple of weeks ago. As I was putting my shirt back on, I mentioned to the practice nurse that I have NHL (which she would have read in the notes anyway of course), and she then offered me a pneumonia vaccine. Protects against 23 different strains of viral pneumonia apparently - for life, which is handy. Maybe this is why I have had the cold...

I do get more tired than I ever used to though. Or that might just be because I'm about to enter my 50th year... who knows?

Very busy at work. The big job looks like it might actually be getting somewhere this year, so next year could be extremely busy. Lots to do if we get over the Christmas hurdle.

Can't say I've been very impressed with the very cold weather. It's only got down to minus 7C here, but other places in the NW have been down to minus 12 or more. Our road has been a sheet of ice for about 10 days now. Both yesterday and today it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get to work (yesterday Blackpool, where it was snowing heavily - most unusual) and today in Salford. Just insane traffic today. In all my years of driving it never ceases to amaze me how traffic can be completely stationary for miles, yet there appear to be no reason why - it just seems to clear by magic for a couple of miles and then come to a standstill once again. Something to do with wave theory, I think.

I have found a very interesting family present for Christmas (well, I think so, anyway). I won't let on what it is, of course, but it will be good to use it on Christmas Day. It's unusual - that's all I'm saying. Should be delivered this week with any luck.

Apart from that, I've taken hardly any photographs in ages, what with the miserable weather and this cold. But the book is coming along... so that's OK.