This blog is in response to a fourth question from Richard Smith: “What makes you feel good?” The question stymied me a bit. Not because there aren’t oodles of things that make me feel good. But because I don’t have a coherent way of laying them all out. A list? In the end I’ve resorted […]
Tag: Cancer
Anna Donald: What’s maddening about living with advanced cancer
It’s time to tackle Richard Smith’s third request for information about living with advanced cancer: what’s maddening about it? Hmmm … where to start? There are so many maddening things about cancer. Some are obvious: not being able to control your destiny in the illusory way you are used to. Not being able to work. […]
Anna Donald starts unpacking
We moved. We are now living between piles of boxes and unpacked, random items: spoons; piles of sports socks; a wooden statue made from a tree in Oxford; the iron; a huge Herend teapot. The first day was totally chaotic. It took me an hour to get dressed. I put on my socks. Then realised […]
Anna Donald goes to Tasmania
Apparently, we are moving to our new apartment on Thursday. Only we haven’t completed the sale as planned, on Monday. This is our fault, sort of. The bank didn’t send documents in time before we went on holiday in Tasmania. So we signed them late. […]
Anna Donald: Funerals and hairstyles
Oh dear. I’ve just been to another funeral. The third one this year. Death swirls its big mysterious cloaks around us (what colour? black? rainbow? purple?), sweeping change to all of our lives. At this rate I’m going to outlive everyone. […]
Anna Donald prepares to move house
We have finally bought an apartment. A home in Sydney. We’ve been renting since October. Being in limbo on two fronts, health and home, was getting a bit much. So we bit the currency-exchange-bullet (our money is in sterling and the Australian dollar is at a 23-year high) and bought something. […]
Anna Donald: How to behave with chronic, serious disease?
Latest dilemma: how to behave with chronic, serious disease? I’m finding it difficult to know how to present myself. I don’t feel like an invalid, whatever that means these days. Yet I’m too tired and preoccupied to participate in the world in a normal, here-and-now way. […]