Today is a very sad day indeed as my Dad finally lost his battle against cancer at 15:35 this afternoon. Fortunately, we were at his bedside to say our last goodbyes.
The last 5 weeks or so have flown by and if the truth be known he was always fighting a losing battle against bowel, liver and lung cancer - so it is perhaps with as much sadness as relief that he is now suffering no more.
Rest in peace Dad, you might be gone, but you’ll never be forgotten.
As you get older and supposedly wiser you consider all the things in life that one day will inevitably happen to you - however unpleasant they might seem. Well one of those days has seemingly arrived for me.
Today, my Dad was diagnosed as having liver cancer. That in itself was an almighty shock for me, but just to compound matters further - he also has a tumour on his bowel and spots on his lungs.
The doctor said that we should know the full extent of the cancer by the end of the week, when the specialists have had time to analyse all of the scans. The wait will seem like an eternity.
The news has really come as a bolt out of the blue for everyone and it really hasn’t even began to sink in to be honest. I’m just numb with the news.
I don’t usually blog about things as serious as this, but I just felt the need to let out some of my feelings and share them.
Weird as the heading sounds, believe me when I say it’s not some new kind of service offered by opticians - merely that fact that the house of DDWT went to the opticians en masse today.
In DDWT Junior’s case it was his first time. We didn’t really know at what age (DDWT Junior is 4) you were supposed to start taking your children to have their eyes tested to be honest. What swung it for us was the little fella’s rather annoying habit of occasionally playing with his dinosaurs about 3mm from his nose!
I’m glad to say that thankfully his eyes were fine and his nose-to-nose approach to dinosaurs is merely a ‘habit’ or in his case more likely to be due to the sheer excitement and enjoyment he gets from playing with his vast dinosaur collection.
It won’t surprise you to hear that the current ‘backburner’ web project I’m working on is an online portal dedicated to all things dinosaur! So in future, if you’re looking for a dinosaur gift you’ll now where to look 
Ok, let’s get back on track. Our eyetests were fine as well - it was a good day - with only a very very slight deterioration in our eyes (both of which were our right ones somewhat bizarrely).
So that’s us done for another two years anyway.
Our very special daughter and sister to DDWT Junior came into the world today at 18:17 and weighed in at a healthy 8lb 8oz.
I’ll now try and tell you all about the day - from what I can recollect.
03:10 - Mrs DDWT wakes up because baby is starting to rumble her tummy - consequently I start to mildly panic and insist we call the hospital.
03:50 - I go and get my Mam (in order to babysit DDWT Junior) and the first words I hear on the radio on the way are “Relax, take it easy” (from one of Mika’s songs). How apt! My Mam duly arrives and is as nervous/excited as we all are.
07:00 - Baby was now beginning to get a good contraction rhythym going and it was time to head off to Singleton hospital. Details of my nervous system and my urgent requirement for the toilet shall remain undisclosed - except to say that I made it in time…just.
07:30 - Ok, we’re on the labour ward. Mrs DDWT starts to crank up the TENS machine a notch or two.
09:00 - Baby decides to take her time and slow down the old pelvic thrusts. This meant Mrs DDWT was taken down to the maternity ward to wait and “see what happens”.
11:05 - Things start to gather pace again and we were on the move (literally) - this time to the delivery unit. Here we were greeted by Fran Hathaway and Eleri Beckett the midwives on duty at the time. Everyone thought it would all be done and dusted by clocking off time at 14:00. Little did we know at that stage eh!
14:30 - Baby was still inside Mrs DDWT’s tummy and had seen off two midwives when number 3 arrived, Linda Richards. Linda was going to be with us until 21:00 - if it took that long. Mrs DDWT was getting well into the gas and air.
17:15 - It was decision time as Mrs DDWT was now beginning to tire and was in a lot of pain - with no sign of baby either. A quick examination showed that baby had moved the wrong way and it was decided that the best course of action was an epidural - which neither us were very happy about. At this stage in proceedings Mrs DDWT gave me a slap for my efforts and tried to ‘trap’ the midwives arm whilst trying to break the waters! I can laugh about it now.
17:50 - The thought of the epidural was too much and the sight of the anaesthetist all tooled up and raring to go was enough for Mrs DDWT and baby to get their skates on and quickly. Thankfully Linda could see that the situation had dramatically changed and the threat of the injection went away as we were now well and truly into the final stages of labour.
18:17 - will now go down in history as the time that Baby DDWT came into this wonderful world.
So there you have it, my account of our little daughters journey into the world.
Now this is a first for me - my very own wonderfully exclusive and very special discount code, courtesy of PowerplayDirect.com (thanks Paul).
As you all know I’ve been dabbling about in the world of affiliate marketing for a good few months now, so today was indeed a breakthrough in terms taking the ‘Money Off Shop‘ another step forward - albeit a little one.
Anyway, the code will give you a 2% discount off any purchase from PowerplayDirect.com
Poor old DDWT Junior is under the weather again unfortunately. He just can’t seem to get out of the little rut he appears to be in at the moment. He’s got a temperature, is very tired and consequently is right off his food.
Perhaps it’s little wonder though really, as there is forever someone in his class off school with one illness or another. I do hope he gets back to his normal self before DDWT Junior no. 2 comes along though as it’s going to be mighty tough going with everything otherwise.
Here we are just a few days into June and I’ve now got my hands on my Swans season ticket book! The excitement is already starting to build and I’m eagerly anticipating the fixtures being released on June 16th.
Seeing as the stomach bug has literally knocked the stuffing out of me, I was off work today.
I decided to spend some time catching up (in between frequent vists the loo) with some of the books which have been gathering dust on my bedside cabinet.
Today’s digest was “Get into bed with Google” by Jon Smith. A very handy little book (quite literally) from which I picked up quite a few little gems - which I’ll be certain to use, when I’m back to my best!
I mean how weird is that, both Mrs DDWT and I go to the dentist on the same day but at different times!?!?
In fairness though whilst I was having a filling done, the Mrs had to have an emergency appointment as her filling had fallen out. Just to complicate matters further - as Mrs DDWT is now 31 weeks pregnant - she can’t have a “proper” filling only a temporary one, well until the baby is born anyhow.
It’s a bloody good job we’re with Denplan as well, otherwise it could have been a very expensive day all around!
As I was working from home today, I decided to give our York Elliptical workout machine a pounding for 25 minutes. During this session - in which I sweated the most I’ve done for many moons - I managed to cover 9km and burn 246 calories in the process! Whilst I felt a wee bit leg weary after it, I was glad I’d stuck to my guns and did some form of exercise.
DDWT Junior continues to make the most of the Easter holidays. He had his first proper go of his Apollo Moonman bike, which considering he’d been jumping/climbing/sliding about in Funsters most of the morning, he did quite well.
He also went to have his feet measured and like me, he also has one foot slightly bigger than the other. Anyway, he’s now a size 10.5G.
Mrs DDWT visited the midwife today for the 16 week progress chat and had the opportunity to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the very first time. It was beating away at a steady old pace and could be heard as clear as anything.
I was gutted to have had to miss it, but suffering from man flu and having to babysit DDWT Junior meant that it was easier for us to stay at home, whilst the Mrs went about her business.
The next big date is near the end of January now when we go for the 20 week scan - which means we should be able to have a scan picture to bring home with us, or at least that’s what we’re hoping for.
On the subject of babies (well toddler in fact), we weighed DDWT Junior this morning and he’s now 3st 1lb quite a weight for someone who’s only a 10 days short of being 4 years old.
My worst fears were confirmed today when I visited my local GP - whom happens to be a sports injury specialist - with the news that I’ve damaged my medial collateral ligament and possibly the cartilage.
The actual injury occurred way back in November and I’ve obviously aggrievated it further by trying to do the odd bit of training now and then - rather than resting it completely. What’s next for me, well I’m to give it another 2 to 3 weeks complete rest and if it’s still playing up, I’ll be referred to an orthopedic surgeon for the magic eye.
It’s not really the start to 2008 I was hoping for and I can now only hope that a proper rest will aid the recovery. Having said that, I’m not overly optimistic or positive about the situation, as the GP pointed out these sorts of injuries usually mean some form of permanent damage and as a result, the weakness will now be with me for good.
To add insult to injury I’ve also now seem to gave caught THE cold that everyone else in the family, work, community, wherever has had. So I’m a right bundle of laughs at the moment as you can imagine.
Phew, what a manic day it’s been from start to finish and some start to my holiday period!
Our pre-planned early Christmas food shop at Asda didn’t materialise until noon - which in retrospect was a bad move. I think I’ve finally witnessed the spectacle that is ‘trolley rage’. I’ve never quite seen anything like it, although I perhaps shouldn’t be too surprised, as after all us Brits (well some of us) have a siege mentality when it comes to any major bank holiday. We managed to keep our calm - unlike some people - but with DDWT Junior is tow is was tested somewhat believe me! Talk about the trolley going one way and us the other.
After lunch, it was time for me to head off up to Morriston hospital to pick up my Dad - fresh from a double hernia operation. In his true unique style who tried to milk the sympathy for as much as it was worth (he’s teribble like that) but my Mam and I were having none of it. Having had several major operations between us, my Dad’s moans and groans about needles, etc were somewhat hard to sympathise with. A hard nose approach to take I know, but you really don’t know my Dad.
Early evening saw the house of DDWT head off to the Waterfront Winterland in Swansea for some fun and relief after the hectic day we’d had so far.
As you can imagine DDWT Junior was majorly excited by the bright lights and numerous rides available. A couple of points worth mentioning which almost immediately came to our attention - ALL of the rides operate a token system (starting from 3 tokens per ride minimum). Each token costs you 50p and can be bought from the numerous token booths dotted around. In essence, what this really means is that each ride in effect costs £1.50 - except the Giant Wheel which is basically £3 for adults and kids (depending on their height!). The other thing worth noting is that pretty much all of the ride operators are Polish!
Anyway, after DDWT Junior sampling Claudia the yellow bus and hot air balloon rides, we were amazed to hear that he wanted to go on the Giant Wheel! With Mrs DDWT being pregnant and scared stiff of heights, I had the pleasure of going on the ride as well. The ride in fairness was worth every penny and the views (despite it being around 17:30 and pitch dark) were quite amazing - especially with the City, Marina and surrounding areas lit up. What was even better was that you could turn each ‘cage’ around using the inner steering wheel - thus allowing you to choose you view. Anyway, both of us loved it and I must confess a visit in broad daylight is on the cards
Next it was the turn of the caterpillar rollercoaster and although DDWT Junior was under the required height, he was allowed on provided someone accompanied him. We were even more surprised as he loved this ride more than any of the others and even managed the odd ‘whoop’ and ‘woooahhh’ - complete with arms in the air!! One is for sure, he’s far more daring that either I or the Mrs were at his age.
With our token money almost spent and the temperature dropping rapidly, our port of call was Santa’s grotto. Unfortunately, despite his obvious excitement about seeing the main man whilst we were in the queue, when we actually got inside the grotto it was a major case of the tears I’m afraid and a dash for the exit door.
It was a disappointing end to the evening, but reminded the Mrs and I of when we did exactly the same when we were little ones. By now it was time to trundle off home as we were all beginning to flag. I did however stop briefly to take a few motion blur snaps - such as the one below.
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