Beautiful views in Queenstown even when cloudy

More freezing mornings and the rare snowy icy days. In between periods of sunshine and thawing.

No snow settling at Lake level unlike the rest of NZ north from here which currently have blizzards or tornado like winds (currently experienced in the Cook Straits) So far it has been a calm and peaceful winter with very little wind but with lots of ice.





Sarah returned from her whirlwind HK visit with a bad dose of flu. She felt so sick that she could not taste food nor walk quite so fast up and down hills.

We still wrapped up on a couple of days (Sarah in her seal skin hat and mittens- which shocked the supermarket checkout staff who though it was a bear in a bag) .


Honestly if we stay inside for longer than 1 day the two of us get stir crazy so have to get outside to walk. Sarah has conditioned me well after 12 years together.

But shock horror, we had to stop to sit on a bench half way down the hill. Those of you who know Sarah will know this is a very rare occasion and just how sick she has been. Fortunately, the old girl has rallied and has started to feel better after almost a week.

Start of the week, there was not much snow on the hills; by the end of the week a good dump of it for the snow fields.







Lots of berries around for the birds.

Spotted a flock of green finches amongst the hawthorn bushes  (can you spot them)















No problem seeing the Kereru (wood pigeons)

This one having a sleep looking headless. They  look massive compared with the smaller birds that live here. We have now invested in a bird feeder under one of our cherry trees to study more.












After a couple of calls with the stem cell transplant coordinator and my regular Chemo nurse, I’ve learnt a lot more about what lies ahead but in true drip feed fashion, I only know more about Stage 2a only as I move out of stage 1.

Overall there are c. 4 stages:
Stage 1 Mobilisation chemo: 16 weeks of cyclophosphamide, Declamethasone (steroids) and Valcade. I’ve just stared week 16.
After this a 10 day chemo holiday. Whooppee!

Stage 2: Stem Cell mobilization and transplant:
a: Stem Cell Transplant mobilisation: 31 July – 10 August. Dunedin and Christchurch.
b. Stem Cell Harvest (a month later) September – October. Duration 3-5 weeks: Christchurch



Stage 3: Stem Cell Consolidation: February-July 2018, More chemo with Thalidomide to help make the previous chemo treatment and stem cell transplant work better. It is also supposed to help keep the multiple myeloma in remission for longer.

Stage 4; Maintenance: August 2018. Ongoing. Regular checks. Monthly bone strengthening injection for 1 year. After that 4-6 monthly checks.

What I am about to go through next in Stage 2a is a lot to take in, but I will leave the gory details until the event itself. I am currently celebrating the last shitty week of chemo and a 10 day break.

What better way to celebrate than to cook.
I actually fancied eating red meat for the first time in almost 4 months. I made Daube of beef (slow cooked beef) from a Matt Moran recipe using rump steak instead of beef cheeks. This is what is was supposed to look like.

What I cooked was not so elegant (and I forgot to take a photo) but all the ingredients worked brilliantly. The red wine jus was the stand out, made with 1 litre of wine, 1 litre of beef stock and 500ml chicken stock, cooked for 24 hours then the liquid reduced by 2/3rds. It was strong and so delicious (even with flu and chemo wrecking my taste buds) that we froze some of it. The mash and peas we ate with the beef were utterly tasteless, but more to do with our taste afflictions than the recipe)



I also made chicken in orange juice and brandy with rice and broccoli. Very simple, low cholesterol and we both could taste it. Low cholesterol diet book recently purchased.














Sarah made some fabulous rice crispie cakes. Whittakers chocolate, plus cocoa pops.

I invented some scones with pine nuts, raisins and natural yoghurt to reduce the milk. Someone had her eye on these. Daft as a brush!

How can I not mention the Lions v All Blacks rugby match.

How can you finish a series and a match with a draw? All the players, the crowd and the TV audience just felt so flat (or was it relief on the part of the Lions?) We were hoping for a penalty shoot out or extra time at least. We are not very up to speed with rugby rules, but the last ref decision left us confused more than anything. I did not think you could tackle someone in the air, then there was the Sam Warburton talking the ref out of his decision (who says the French do not like the Brits – or maybe they like the Welsh?)

Lots of things are accidental in rugby like not rolling away in time cos you are stuck under a big pile of heavy blokes, but aren’t rules, rules? Maybe it was just too big of a decision to get wrong so he decided change his mind. Sarah says rules are open to interpretation. Was there legal precedent. Found the whole thing fascinating.
But… Peace was maintained in the Neep Pearson household; we had a truce.
Yesterday we both had a go at the Maori Haka look on one of our walks in Alexandra.




Found another cycle route to try to Ranfurly along the river; very grey day but brightened it up with some orange.

Anyone for Pooh sticks at Butchers creek…

Whilst I have been writing this at 3-4am, news is out that Liu Xiaobo: China's most prominent dissident has died of cancer in prison.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40597514


Makes me feel extremely lucky to live in a free country with a great health service and have someone who loves me. Liu Xiaobo was a very astute man; he wrote this about his wife and it feels to me, an appropriate way to end this blog today as it sums up how I feel about the power of love.

“Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates ... stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time … with meaning.”

As we go into the next stage of my chemo, I rely more and more on Sarah. She is being brilliant, but sometimes it is lonely path for her to follow without her playmate to share everything with.


Together, we look forward, not back.
In the past, we have both made choices in life: some good, some bad, some very stupid ones.

What comes next, who can tell?  but it is certain; our choices are better together.