Kew the Gardens

Time, typing skills, and the risk of overtaxing the attention/interest span of my gentle readers prevents me from giving a second by second detailed account of my 18 days in the UK. However, for the many (okay, two) readers who requested photos with commentary, here is the first of my travelogue installments. Suggest you pour a fresh pot of tea (or something stronger) to steel yourselves. I will try my best to make this less painful than most holiday photo slide shows I've been forced to endure. Now, on with the show...

The first eight days of the holiday were spent in London and environs. I was on my own, so able to do what I wanted when I wanted. Pure luxury that.

First order of business was to find my way out of Heathrow and onto the tube bound for Kew Gardens. A very pleasant journey made all the more enjoyable by a group of Portugese travellers in town for a Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University meeting (see www.bkwsu.org for info about the group). One of the group produced a handful of papers that were something along the line of fortune cookie writings, but in Portugese. Her fellow travellers and I were each offered one of our choice from the fanned out deck, and she offered to translate my choice. It read something like this: "I never set impossible goals for myself and I'm always willing to find solutions." Hmmm. Interesting that this journey should begin with a spiritual encounter, and one that insists that my goals are obtainable, no?

I had secured a room in a house near Kew Gardens for the solo portion of my trip. It wasn't a B&B as such, but rather a bedroom in a woman's house. The space was small, but more than ample for my modest needs. Came with a fridge, mircrowave, toaster, and kettle. I shared the bathroom with her son (not at the same time, of course). 

The bed was very comfy. The location was quiet (aside from the occasional Heathrow fly past) yet only a five minute walk to the tube station and 10 minutes stroll to the gardens. At ~$260 Cdn for eight nights, it was far cheaper than a hotel and much more comfortable than a hostel. And having both a Boots and a Marks & Spencer's (great source of prepared meals) a short block away was a bonus. Would definitely go that route again.

As soon as I dropped off my bags, I headed for the Royal Botanical Gardens (aka Kew). Had only three hours to wander the grounds before it closed, so got my bearings by taking the hop-on-hop-off shuttle which stopped at most of the sights I wanted to take in. Must say it was a wonderful time of year to visit the gardens, although it would have been amazing to see the Rhododendrun Dell and Azalea Garden in their full splendor. Even so, the air was heavy with the scent of sage and lavender, and so many of the blooms were at their colourful best.

I was especially taken by the various conservatory buildings, as much for the structures themselves as for the plant life growing inside. Would be hard pressed to pick a favourite garden, but think it might well be a toss up between the Waterlily House and the Palm House.

 Also enjoyed Sir William Chamber's "folly" buildings The pagoda is one of my favourites.

 As an added treat, artist Tom Hare had erected a number of sculptures near Kew Palace. The work is reminiscent of Patrick Dougherty's. In this case, each piece was constructed of a metal frame covered with willow to resemble an enormous seed pod. I especially liked the lotus and poppy seeds, but others also intrigued. To learn more about Tom Hare and his amazing work, check out his blog at http://tomharewillowman.blogspot.com/   (fibre friends note the floral "sweaters" under Hare's willow horse in the bit re the Chelsea Flower Show.)

Drinking in so much natural beauty put me in need of refreshment, so when I finished touring the gardens I trotted over to The Original Maids of Honour on Kew Road. Unlike my self-appointed bride's maids (you know who you are), these "maids" were filled with taste. Essentially a puff pastry tart, they were the perfect accompaniment to a nice cuppa Earl Grey. While a tad pricey, as is everything in Greater London, the novelty of the story of their origin was worth the price as was the chance to sit in the charming little tea room.

Am a trifle tired after reading about all this activity. Will add more later.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Or hoppy hop.

After enjoying 18 days abroad, it's nice to be back home luxuriating in the comfort of my own little house and bed.

Managed to get through the majority of my travels without any drama, although I did arrive home in a wheelchair. Seems I either "over did" time on my feet, was a victim of bus-tour-itis (almost everyone on the bus tour ended up with badly swollen ankles), or something else attempted to spoil my party time. Will be able to eliminate some possibilities over the next few days as I am scheduled to begin pre-testing for the new drug trial tomorrow - pre-testing includes an echocardiogram, CT scan, and a bone scan as well as copious blood tests. Oh joy.

I will sort out the 700+ photos before giving a detailed account of my travels, but suffice it to say that I managed to do most of what I hoped to do and a whole lot more. Only a couple of disappointments: although I had two nights in Glasgow, the bus tour schedule allowed no time whatsoever to see the city. I was not able to secure tickets to see Kevin Spacey play Richard III at the Old Vic Theatre in London. Was not able to obtain an absinthe spoon while in Paris (or elsewhere). No time to see four Horta buildings in Brussels - although I would only have been able to view the exteriors in any case as they are all private residences.

That said, there were a number of rather remarkable and unexpected treats falling into my ample lap. For example, I found myself sitting in the choir (although not singing, God be praised) at Westminster Abbey during the last Matins the resident choir sang before breaking for summer holidays. If I stretched out my right arm, I could touch the shoulder of one of the boys who had a brief solo. Pity the poor souls who had to content themselves with sitting in flimsy chairs in the wide aisle beside the choir! On another musical note (cue the Elgar) I secured a box seat directly above the string section at Royal Albert Hall on the first night of the Proms. Okay, so there was no bobbing about to the strains of "Land of Hope and Glory", but the 19-yr-old piano soloist dazzled just the same. And while it wasn't on the tour schedule, the bus stopped long enough at Salisbury Cathedral for the group to wander happily through the cathedral and adjoining grounds.

I will give more details of the trip with accompanying photos in my next post.

Sunny Day in London Town

Here I am in London. Arrived yesterday on a nice flight via Calgary. Although there was a crowd at the customs area at Heathrow, we moved along nicely. Took the tube to Kew where I'm staying in a room in someone's private home. Nothing fancy, but clean and very cheap (about $260 for 8 nights stay).

When we were landing, I noticed that the houses were all variations of the colour brown with brown roofs of various materials. Riding along on the tube, I caught backyard glimpses of peoples lives and fleeting glances at a number of quaint little towns. I saw several of those same towns again today as I had to take a roundabout detour on the bus because several tube lines are closed due to pre-Olympic upgrades.

Major frustration: no phone service for some reason!!

Spent yesterday at Kew Gardens. Lovely. Actually, that hardly begins to describe the place. I only had three hours there before it closed, so found myself walking rather quickly to the few places I was able to see. Did manage to get a great overall look, however, as I opted to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour through the whole gardens. Bonus: heard them setting up for the Bryan Ferry concert that was to be held in the gardens last night. Later in the evening, when I was out for a walk around Kew village, I could hear him singing! Sure beat paying the £35 admission!

Should be able to save a fair bit re food while I'm in London. There is a shopping centre with a Marks & Spencer store and a Boot drug store 1/2 block from where I'm staying. M&S has lots of prepared meals and packaged salads, so I can easily heat things up in the microwave in my room. Also have access to a wee fridge, so that helps, too. Did pop in to The Original Maids of Honour for tea and one of their namesake pastries. Must say I'm more enamoured with Maids of Honour pastry than anything my "self-appointed brides maids" have come up with (Penny, Roz and Marcia, take note).

Hoping to meet up with my old boss from Canadian Library Association days. Barbara lives in Greenwich. We are to meet at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Since I don't have phone service, I'll have to hope to get her on a public phone or just hang out at the entry for a while in the hopes that we meet up. At least I don't have to contact anyone else via phone while I'm away (at least not that I know of). Will try to keep my Momzy contacts up to date via email.

More later.

Spontaneity

Although I am the daughter of "Go With the Flow Fred", I haven't always embraced spontaneity. Yes, I've had a great number of unplanned moments, especially relating to my writing or my art, but most of my life has been played out via at least a loosely laid plan. That all changed yesterday. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last Tuesday (June 28), I met with my oncologist as per the schedule laid out in the drug study. I knew something was amiss when the study nurse told me she and the oncologist wanted to look over the images from my last CT scan (done several days prior - I had to wait to see the oncologist to get the results) before meeting with me. I had a niggling feeling in the back of my head that something had changed, but I couldn't say what. I was about to find out.

Apparently at least one of the lesions they had been tracking for the purposes of the study had enlarged beyond the parameters of the protocol. I don't remember the exact amount of the difference, but it was something very small, like half a millimeter or something like that. Understand this doesn't mean that the cancer has suddenly spread beyond control. As stated in an earlier post, several of the lesions have shrunk or "disappeared", but others have appeared as well. And at least one of the benchmark sites has grown more than the study criteria allows. It makes sense that I should be asked to leave the study. If I stayed, the data collected from my role would likely skew the results and thus render them invalid. Further, by allowing me to stay in the study, the team would be setting a precedent whereby others could also be allowed to continue even if they no longer met the study criteria, which would make things even worse in terms of drawing any kind of conclusion from the study findings.

There are other reasons why I'm not too upset about stopping the Capecitabine/Lapatinib combo. It will be very nice having blistered hands and feet. Same re constant canker sores, dry eyes and mucous membranes.

The good news is that I will be taking part in a new study starting in August. Actually, it's an old study, the very one I was to have been on first in December, and later when I opted to do the Capecitabine/Lapatinib study so I might be on the Lapatinib longer.

This new round of drugs is a Fritanib/Lapatinib combo. The worst known side effect re the Fritanib is high blood pressure, but that is easily monitored and treated. Yes, there were some blood clots in the lungs of some who were on Fritanib (the reason the December study was put on hold), but those patients were on very high doses of the drug for a very long period of time. The study I'll be on has a low dose of the drug. Also, the study is only for six months. However, should I respond favourably to the F/L combo, there is a good chance the drug company will continue to fund future doses for me (this is what happened to another BC Cancer Agency patient who has been in the study since last December).

I was offered the chance to take part in two other drug trials, but chose this one because the other two were newer medications with less known about the effectiveness of them. Also, since those are early staged trials, there is no chance of being allowed to continue receiving the drugs after the study as funding isn't currently available. That said, the BC Cancer Agency is applying for funding so that might be an option for the future. So there are still options should my body not take to the F/L combo.

So, I start the new trial in August. That gives me the month of July without any treatment. I'm not worried as I went four months without treatment prior to embarking on the last trial, and the cancer hardly changed/advanced in that length of time so doubt there will be much change over a mere four weeks.

Even so, I intend to make the most of my "drug freedom days".

Yesterday I booked a spot on a bus tour of the UK. In 10 short days, I'll travel along roads leading throughout England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales. I've never traveled like this before, so am hoping for a pleasant experience. If nothing else, I'll see a lot of country. And I won't have to stress about finding accommodation or booking the next leg of the journey. Heck, I might even meet some nice people.

For those who might be interested in such things, I'll be on a Trafalgar Tour. The name of the tour is Britain and Ireland Highlights. The reason I chose that particular tour versus others that were quite similar is that it is the only one that overnights in Glasgow. Most tours, including those offered by Globus and Insight, only go to Edinburgh and, if they do pass Glasgow way, only make a brief stop if they stop at all. My interest in Glasgow? The architecture/design work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh - sipping tea in the original Willow Tea Room is high on my bucket list. Wonder if I can catch also Donovan or Lulu in concert while I'm in town. Hmmmm.

The tour doesn't begin until July 15 and I'm landing in Old Blighty on July 8. What will I do prior to the tour? Well might you ask! I have no idea. Actually, I have a zillion ideas. One thought is to take the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to Paris for a day - would like to see the Musee d'Orsay and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, and maybe sip a pastis or two (or absinthe - yum!). Did most of the tourist stuff years ago so don't feel the need to repeat it. Would prefer to do something different this go 'round. On that note, am also thinking of taking the train to Brussels as well. Again, only a few hours away from London. That might require an overnight stay, but that's okay. The attraction to Brussels: I have never been to Belgium and thought it would be fun to munch Belgian waffles in their homeland. Brussels is also home to many design works by Victor Horta (think Art Deco and you'll likely remember some of his work). There are also a number of textile-related galleries and museums, to say nothing of sources for Belgian lace. And the chocolate, oh the chocolate! Then again, there is so much of London that I haven't seen: Tate Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Kew Gardens, and areas further afield such as Devon, Cornwall, the Lake District. The main attraction to spending some time in London is the chance to meet up with a former boss who lives in Greenwich. She is on her way to Italy (husband is in a choir that is going on tour) so our time together will be quite limited. But it will be great to see her again.

I won't have a laptop with me on the trip, so will rely on internet cafes for communications. Since I don't know where or when or how long I'll have access, I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to update this blog before I get back on July 25. But I will try.

Of course, I would leave town just as the warm weather decides to make a long overdue appearance.