Category Archives: friends

forgiveness

14 Tuesday Jul 2009

Posted by in change, friends, health & happiness, life stuff

≈ 24 Comments

forgiveness

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
~ Lewis B. Smedes

Mudhooks posted that quote on Twitter this morning and it really resonated. With my personal history of family violence and abuse as a child I am left with a lot of trust issues even after all these years, which is probably not surprising.  And so I got to thinking about how crap I am at actually forgiving people.  And then I wondered if forgiveness is always the best policy. I know that harbouring grudges does no good, but does one always have to forgive in order not to feel bitter or resentful about a past breach of trust? Does everyone actually deserve to be forgiven? Is it possible to truly forgive and forget?

What are your thoughts on forgiveness?

twitter lunch

10 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by in food & drink, friends, internet, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter

≈ 4 Comments

anna & pedro

The other day I met the lovely Anna on Twitter via a mutual acquaintance and, after tweeting back and forth a bit, I asked if she would like to meet up for a cold beer one day. And yesterday was the day. The plan was to meet for a pre-lunch beer and so I suggested Zaragoza 64 because they serve excellent Galician beer there, far superior to the pale and tasteless Cruz Campo, which is the bog standard lager sold in bars here. I’m not much of a beer drinker but I really like the taste of Galicia Estrella.

At the last minute Anna also invited her very charming Twitter friend Pedro to join us and – you guessed it – we ended up having lunch. A wonderful time was had by all. Very pleasant company, lots of laughs, including the very satisfying discovery that we are all “strong and bossy” types, which led to a few good anecdotes about those who feel the need to label decisive people “bossy”. We are also all a bit gadget crazy (who me?) and I couldn’t help but smile when Pedro took out his iPhone to send a few tweets. And also all expats – from Italy, Venezuela & Canada.

So, it was my first ever twitter lunch – hopefully the first of many.

(food pics below…)

Continue reading →

pink

04 Saturday Jul 2009

Posted by in cancer, fitness, friends, photohunt

≈ 18 Comments

race for life

Today’s Photohunter theme is “pink”.

Am bending the rules a bit as this photo was taken for me not by me (I also posted it here last month, but what the heck). My friend Sara and her mum – both cancer survivors – took part in the central London Race For Life at the end of May. Sara’s husband Steve took this photo and sent it to me. It made me cry happy tears and feel very loved indeed.

I’m Shawn.

photohunter

summer holidays

01 Wednesday Jul 2009

Posted by in cancer, change, chemo, fitness, friends, health & happiness, holidays, home, hope, life stuff, naps, tapas, yoga

≈ 18 Comments

SummerSun

I proclaim today as the beginning of my summer holidays!

Back when I mentioned my need to take some Time Out there were still several matters to attend to and get organised before I felt I could really relax and focus on taking some quality healing time. So most of June was spent “taking care of business” and getting through some pretty rough chemo. To wit, I have also decided that I’m done with the infusions and won’t be taking the sixth one. If they let me I’ll still do the sixth round of chemo mid-July, but only taking the dreaded Xeloda, which has a slightly less toxic effect on me. After the last infusion I got a very clear message from my body that it was DONE with that shit and really couldn’t take any more. And since my last PET scan was clear, I think I can take my body’s advice on that.

So for the next two months it’s going to be all about healing, yoga, long walks, healthy diet, cats, friends and – most importantly – taking time to breathe. I also have a few projects to work on, but just poco á poco when I feel up to it. And Nog & I want to get casa az de-cluttered and set up so we can both work here in comfort come September.

What will you be doing this summer?

ikea meets guernica (with cats!)

29 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by in animals & pets, change, friends, home

≈ 6 Comments

ikea guernica

This photo doesn’t even begin to show the recent upheaval and mayhem at casa az due to the departure of Susan (aka Pipocas) and the disbursal of her belongings – although I am not one of nature’s little housekeepers, the livingroom does usually look a wee bit tidier than this.  In fact things were looking quite a bit worse about an hour before I took this pic, and Nog’s teaching room is still jam-packed with large plastic bags filled with I can’t quite remember what. But things are slowly coming together, oh, and I also have some news …

Continue reading →