Inspirations

I've inspired a blog post which was both a surprise and a treat. If you want to have a look around, I really liked the post about open and closed questions. I like a linguist, they are that kind of clever I admire which results from me not really knowing anything about linguistics. I think I looked at studying it at one point, at Birkbeck, but I'd already bitten off more than I could chew with philosophy. They turned out to be things I was interested in but that might not get me my 2:1 and I did need that. I should read more in the fields I am interested in, but I don't think I have read anything that isn't connected to work for years now.

In other news, it has been an unpleasant week of side effects, which is why I am not writing much more about the above, I am too tired and too sick. I fear the SE's are now cumulative but remain positive that I don't have lots of them that other people do, could just do without the nausea. I have also managed to avoid going to the hospital, to date, so touch would. And (I like starting sentences with prepositions) I probably didn't help myself by going out on Friday for delicious food and with friends with whom I laughed until I cried, a lot. I didn't help myself at all, and might not do that again, but who would miss out on that. 

This week has also been a week of tears for a friend and colleague who passed away very quickly after a cancer diagnosis. The funeral is too soon after my next chemo for me to go and that makes me very sad. I won't name her because I only really expose myself here, but she was someone who was very important to me at the start of my career, and whose wise counsel stood me in good stead  a number of times over the years. I wish I could go and pay my respects and tell her family how much she meant to me, but I hope my card will do that. I think I also have to accept that there will be a lot of people there who I know and I would be overwhelmed by their interest in me. I write here so I don't have to answer all those questions and someone else's funeral should never be something that is about me, in whatever small way that is.

In other ways heart strings have been pulled with the anniversary of the Aberfan coal disaster. Every time I have ever heard about it I have cried and taht was over challenging this week of multiple broadcasts. Amongst all the horrible things that have happened in the world, this one hits me hard. Of course it is harder for those who lost their loved little ones who would now be a bit older than me, perhaps with their own children. I was heartened by the stories of those who turned out for the rescue, firemen from neighbouring towns and villages came off a shift to help, others arrived after work, and one of those people reminded me that this was the good to be found. There is always good to be found. 

Oh and thinking of good things, read this great post about a dad and his son, along with a selfless superstar teenager helping to make something happen for someone else.