Well the magical holiday is over and after some jetlag which seemed to last almost a week I am back in the swing of things. Last week I went for genetic testing. I won’t see any results until mid September. Actually it will be on the day of my last chemo. I am not overly excited with this testing as the thought of passing a yucky gene to one or both of my daughters is very upsetting.
I had my first chemo of round 5 on Friday and already some the skin irritations are starting on my arms. I am not as upset this time as they did improve enormously during the break and they didn’t really effect me in Paris. I am mindful that my oncologist said I would be able to make the trip and I would have hair. So I am grateful. Now I need a new target as my hair is falling out at a great rate. I am more upset about the side effect of neuropathy as the damaged nerve endings in my feet which gives numbness/pins and needle may never recover or take a long time to do so after the treatment finishes. They have reduced the drug that causes it so hopefully it won’t get any worse – it can effect fingers as well.
We are delighted that Liz has had such a good result re the girls and the possibilities/ for living in New York for a longer period. It is still sad for us as we probably won’t get to see the Buchanan/Joyce clan for quite a while. I am thinking of my special birthday bucket list next year and am thinking of a Singapore Paris New York jaunt end of Aug into Sept for Erich and me.
Kate was into thinking about painting this week and she managed to do in 10 minutes flat what I haven’t managed in 41 years. She not only worked out the name of the Dominican painter of the market and woman paintings (Plutarco Andujar), she talked via email with the owner of the gallery where Geoff and I bought them.
I think when things like this happen it is worth telling the story around it. It was probably around April, May 1974. I was pregnant with Liz and we were leaving the Dominican Republic. We had previously started the habit of buying a piece of art from where we had visited or lived. We never had much money so they were fairly modest pieces, originals but usually bought at a market or the like. We had been told of a gallery in the capital, Santo Domingo, which had an exhibition/sale of one of the countries best artists. When we arrived the exhibition was outstanding and the gallery was filled with Americans who were apparently in the D.R. working for Gulf and Western (later we discovered it wasn’t the oil division it was film making – they were there making Godfather 2 but that’s another story).
I fell in love instantly with the market one but we couldn’t afford it so Geoff tried to move me to the woman which I hesitated about. One was better than none I was thinking. Then something amazing happened, a big yank behind me said “Ma’am make up your mind as we are buying all that are here!”. Something happened to Geoff, he said we are taking them both!! He wrote out a bouncing cheque to pay for the two. I am not sure how we covered it – probably he had saving stashed away, but there weren’t funds in the account to cover it as he wrote that cheque. The painting went back to Canada, PNG and then Melbourne. It was finally framed in Hampton Street in the 1980s. The woman came framed.
Two smiling Sydney-siders this week:
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