And finally I get the chance to write a bit more.

Thursday we did some more shopping and sorting out of stuff during the day. Also Joan went to the doctor and we had everyone around for dinner in the evening - a sort of mopping up of the whole process plus farewell to Sheila. It also allowed Bhupen to help her pack her cases - obviously I'm not capable of such a complicated task!

Friday we got up early and I took Sheila to Heathrow for her flight home. I was expecting a long and stressful run complete with lots of traffic and hold-ups as is normal on both the A12 and M25, especially with it being the last day of term so no doubt some families would have removed their sprogs from school a day early and be heading off on their holidays. We left here with a good 3½-4 hours to spare before the last minute she could check in, and got there in a little over 2. I have never seen those roads so empty. There was just a little bit of stop-starting around the M40 interchange. Uncanny. It was also a doddle to find a parking space and there were no queues at the check-in desks either. Most strange. Anyway, she got checked in OK and from all subsequent accounts the flight went on time and she got home fine (for about 5 minutes before heading off to see her daughter's new home now they have finally moved in after months of waiting for it to be built - and I just realised that today is their first wedding anniversary).

My trip back to Felixstowe was almost as uneventful as the journey down. I did make one stop to fill me up with an egg & sausage sandwich (at South Mimms services, where Joan and I had our first holiday - a couple of nights in the Travelodge with easy access to London!) and had to queue between the M11 and A12, but otherwise again free flowing all the way home. I seem to recall dozing through much of the afternoon and then we had a relaxing evening watching tv - BB now down to the final 4/final week and we are actually quite keen to see Jonny win - and not just because he's from County Durham.

Yesterday we thought would be simple. We have been after something new for the lounge to store the DVDs and stuff in. So, off we trotted in the morning into Felixstowe. Nothing available to suit. So we then went up to Ipswich. Not the town centre but all the little retail parks dotted around the outskirts. Again, nothing doing. We did manage to have a very nice lunch at Fatty Arbuckle's American Diner (mmm, pancakes with Maple Syrup, almost as good as being back in Canada again) and look at lots of cars though. We are begining to think that it might be time to replace the Escort and are just looking at options for what is available and how much we want to pay. We are thinking of going smaller again though as there are only the two of us and we don't buy a lot of big stuff. And when we do there is always the delivery or borrow Dad's Volvo option. Perhaps a Ford Fiesta or Ka. We shall see.

When we got home Joan was zonked so I did a bit of ironing (with a soundtrack from Kingmaker - Sleepwalking and The Human League - Romantic?) while she slept. Then we went round to Ma & Pa's for a big Chinese meal. That was very nice and from one in town rather than our usual haunt of the Magic Wok (well, that one is on the corner of our street, it would seem rude to go elsewhere).

Today we have again been in to Felixstowe. Joan wanted to check on how things had been going at work while she was away so I had a wander about for a while until I ran out of magazines to read in Smiths and thought I ought to go find her before I started buying DVDs instead. In the end we had lunch at Wimpy and came home with another 6 foot bookcase for the dining room (to be used for shiny discs not books in the main instead of something for the lounge) and also a USB hub for the PC. Been after one of those since Christmas and now no longer have to reach round the back of the PC when wanting to swap between playing games and printing.

So that's us up to date again. Not sure what we will do tonight, but not a lot sounds good to me!

I have been thinking a bit more about the events of the 9th. I know Ernie was fairly aware of what was going on until a few hours after they withdrew treatment and just let the morphine do its stuff, but I don't recall anyone ever actually talking to him about what was going to happen. He did ask Helen a couple of times when it was all going to end, but never said anything specific about what he wanted to do and if he was ready for that really. I can't decide what I would want to do if it was me lying there wired up with no hope. Would I go for the option of letting everyone else make decisions and not know the end was near or would I want the chance to be involved in the choice? I think I would like to know I was on my way out in the next couple of hours just so I could say some proper goodbyes before drifting off on the drugs. It just seemed a bit odd to me that nobody wanted to give him that chance, but were rather keen to let him go on thinking things would be OK until he wasn't awake any more.

Well, it wasn't my choice so I will just have to live with how it happened. I hope I get my own way when the time comes though.

Back to work tomorrow so should be able to keep this more up to date again.