So much to do, so little time

This week has been full on - no time to blog.

Although it was supposed to be my 'good' week, it has been marred by a return of the chest infection, more antibiotics, and another super low white blood cell count - although I have ploughed through all of that, and managed a trip to Mamma Mia with the kids (dancing in the aisles fun) and the Terracotta Army (interesting but not enough of them). Now feeling a bit exhausted.

Au Pair update

The big event of the week, was, however, the arrival of Benedicte - our new au pair. I have to say (and not just because she may read this) that if we'd written a list of everything an au pair should be and sent off for her mail order, we could not have done better. She is completely lovely, very easy to have around, totally responsible and has a great sense of humour. She also has many cult US TV shows downloaded onto her laptop which she has kindly set up for me to watch in bed!

Benedicte has also endeared herself to me by eating absolutely everything I've put in front of her with gusto, and declared a passion for fish pie and custard (not together). Having never been to England before, she is both pleased and dismayed that she is not going back to France a stone lighter as predicted.

She has also started a rival blog entitled 'My life in London' or 'The British Breakfast'. (I have to come clean here and admit that this is possibly because in my rather sad and controlling way I have written a detailed menu plan and pinned it to the kitchen notice board - thus giving her the impression that I always get up early to prepare freshly squeezed orange juice and scrambled eggs or porridge with stewed apples...)

The children are 'bonding' with her nicely - fighting to sit next to her in the car etc and she is accompanying Emily to guides tonight to see if she can help out. My only worry is whether she will be able to put up with us! We are currently (bar Luc) on our best behaviour which may also account for the fatigue...

Pre Chemo preparations

Chemo is creeping up on me again this Thursday. It's so odd - waiting for something that you know is going to make you feel completely terrible - and yet desperate that it should not be delayed for any reason. Dread vs dread.

I'm also trying to get all sorts of silly things done before becoming incapacitated once more - from sending in my new mortgage application (will they accept me now?) to trying to work out how the hell to plug in my new flat screen TV/DVD player for the bedroom. This is, of course, by far the most pressing problem as I have lined up a selection of intellectually challenging horizontal viewing next week. (Yes, of course I mean Lost, the whole of series one....)

I appear to have the wrong cables as my satellite box is so old - apparently I need ones with something called HDMI (?) which are not included in the box. The instructions appear to have been written in Russian by someone with Aspergers. After a frustrating hour on the internet I was no closer to resolving this problem and narrowly escaped spending vast sums of money on a variety of cables with gold and silver plated ends. Luckily before I could do any more damage to my credit card this week, my father agreed to send me a box of his 'spare cables' (obviously a boy thing), one of which I hope will do the trick.

The other worrying bit of paperwork hanging over me is my passport which expires in about 2 weeks. I rather sensibly got some pictures taken just after my diagnosis, before I had my hair cut short. Unfortunately they make Myra Hindley look like a supermodel. If they are rejected I will face a huge dilemma - Can I have more taken wearing a wig or headscarf or will I be committing myself to a lifetime of problems at immigration? And can I really live with a bald passport photo (What will I do when my hair grows back?)

Other than these obviously challenging tasks, a mound of dull things, including the fact that Luc suddenly has no school uniform that fits him and Emily's leotard resembles a g-string are weighing heavily on my conscience. And there's still my yoga and reflexology and regular juicing to fit in.... The chemo window is closing in fast - but I still hope it happens on Thursday.