Make Yourself At Home

My Dear Princess, Loulou and Fellows,

I made the mistake of blipping too early yesterday. Yesterday morning to be precise. Consequently today's blip shall recount the events of yesterday afternoon.

We had the pleasure of seeing Loulou and Tiger! We love it when they come around, we always have good craic. But of course, Loulou has just finished her first course of chemo so we were a bit concerned about how she would be.

And she was great! She was wearing a Gloria Swanson scarf around her head, but other than that just as upbeat, lovely and funny as ever. She thanked me for my comment on a story posted by Wellington Bird Rescue about Boots the Duck. 

I left a comment on there about how much Loulou means to me, because they told the story of Boots and how he had helped Loulou deal with her initial cancer diagnosis.

"I was feeling quite fragile on Friday," I confessed. "And it really cheered me up."

"Great. I'm glad my CANCER cheered you up," she responded.

"The duck story! The duck story! For f***s sake!" I cried. 

Honestly. These bloody cancer people. It's all about THEM.

Then we all told stories to amuse each other.

Caro's Drone Story
It is brother in law Craig's birthday day. Caro told us that he's the sort of fellow who can never start a new hobby without first buying himself all the top of the range gear that goes with it first. He recently decided to go kon-tiki fishing which typically involves a boat that takes you out to the sea so you can catch deep-sea fish. 

But Craig decided to spend $3000 on a drone so he could deep-sea fish from the beach with a beer. 

The family recently went on holiday to the Coromandel and Craig decided to take the drone with him. Where he flew it out over the sea. Over an uninhabited island. Where it got stuck in a tree. 

"And he didn't get it insured. And he sells insurance."

Caro cheekily sent him a picture of a replacement. It was a picture of the foot of a swivel chair. "I can let you have it for twenty bucks," she added.
 
"Too soon," replied Craig. 

We didn't think so. 

Loulou's Funeral Story
Loulou recently viewed a funeral online. She couldn't attend as she is immuno-suppressed with the chemo.

"I'm so bloody relieved I couldn't go," she admitted. 

It was for the mum of one of her best friends. Loulou knows the family quite well. She's friends with the daughter and knows that both the sons are pretty useless. So she was unsurprised when, watching the funeral, the elder of the two sons hadn't shown up. 

"And THEN, about twenty minutes in, he just SAUNTERS in," Loulou said. "And not just sauntering, he was waving to people in the pews, leaning over to shake their hands, giving big smiles and patting people on the back."

"And then he just sat in the front pew all by himself, spread out and rested his arms on the back of the pew!"

Loulou was appalled. But it gets worse. Her friend gave a lovely speech, explaining how she'd taken care of her mum in her declining years. And how her mum had been a nurse who once saved a car crash victim by literally holding her broken skull together until the ambulance arrived. Then she got back in her car, covered in blood and drove home. 

A lovely speech, said Loulou. The problem being that the useless brother seemed to think it was a contest, and determined to match those stories. As best he could.

But first he offered up the following sentiment. "I'm really not as sad as I thought I would be," he said. "You know. I really thought I'd be... sad. But I'm really not."

Touching.

Then he went into his stories about mum:

"So... ah.... when I was living at home... with me mum.... I used to stop at the shops and that. Like, if mum wanted biscuits or anything."

That was "taking care of mum" covered. Now on to the nursing.

"So.... yeah..... there was this one time... when Auntie Pam cut her hand really badly on a BIG KNIFE in the washing up and mum put on a bandage and everything."

He rambled like this for some time then sat down. But when the celebrant asked if anyone else had any stories, he got back up again.

"Awww yeah.... I just remembered there was this time when some kid fell off his bike in front of the house and mum totally cleaned up his grazes."

In the end he had to be escorted away from the pew, still telling vaguely crap stories about the application of plasters.

"It was AWFUL," said Loulou. "Like a bad episode of a cringey sit-com." 

Loulou Herself
So you can tell, Loulou was in good spirits and I thought she looked really good. 

Still, she told us how spaced-out she had been by that first round of chemo. And of course, now the hair-loss has started. It has been tough on her, but she is bearing up remarkably well. 

"The hair on my head started seriously dropping out this morning," she told us. "The pubes are long gone."

"Oh, and here I am sitting in front of a fan," she noted. "Sorry, there's probably my hair flying all over the place."

"Just so long as the pubes are gone," I replied.

"Oh yes. It all fell out at once," she told us. "It's all very threadbare down there now. Like the carpet in an old motel room."

Loulou remains as always, happy and upbeat when we see her. But it is clear that, on her own, she has experienced many dark times. I hope she knows she can be dark with us too. She recently bought herself a wig and even though it looks good, she said she just wanted to tear it up and "give it to the cat" because of what it represents. 

If you are reading, we love you Loulou. And your cat would look CRAP in a wig. 

S. 

p.s. The other thing that happened yesterday was that Dave came to visit. And made himself very much at home.