Last chance for company

Busy day... the kids got off to school, Desney off to a school meeting (which I normally would have attended) and I went to the market to do a small part of the fresh food shopping. Just the buthcher and the Italian market...

My nurse showed up a bit early and we got through another injection as usual.

In the afternoon I took Alexandra to La Défense to get some new shoes for her to wear in the grueling mud of camp in England. It was a great feeling to drive again. I almost felt human. The best part of the experience was actually feeling a bit more "in control" again. Yet another day without having to go to the Clinic and a day in which anything I did was because I wanted to and knew what I was doing. This is very different than so many of my days where I don't know what's going to happen to me or who is going to do what to me... whether I want them to or not.

We got Alex a very cool pair of sneakers (Rip Curl). While we were there I also picked up a couple of relaxation CDs, from Nature et Découvertes, which I will add to my iPod Shuffle to listen to during chemotherapy. It's amazing how relaxed one becomes just walking in to this store...

When we got home Jessica was on the phone with one of her friends, as usual, and we casually heard that her father was in town. Her father lives in Italy and we never know when he's going to be in Paris. We immediately invited the two of them over for dinner taking advantage of the rare occurence to have him around as well as probably one of the last times I'm going to want company over for a while... they accepted.

Dinner was nothing special. Just something Desney whipped up for a regular Saturday night. I threw a bottle of Champagne in to the freezer as soon as they had accepted our invitation. We had the Champagne (Pol Roger) with apéritif. Unfortunately the Champagne tasted horrible to me (again). But I enjoyed the crisps, olives, pretzels and such which I hadn't had for a while. Desney came up with a shrimp and avocado salad starter which was very nice which we had with a wonderful Morgon '99 from the Trichards. Again the wine tasted awful to me. But I know from the bouquet that it was quite good. Dessert was a Charlotte au poire which Desney had quickly bought in the afternoon and we had a sweet white from the Loire Valley (Château de Breuil). The wine smelled absolutely wonderful and everyone (else) seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. It was just such a great feeling to have friends over and have a good meal. Another simple pleasure of life...