Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I was too tired to write anything on Sunday and I had no internet access last night.

Sunday saw the last of my four days of daily cytarabine injections; the nurses are getting pretty good at streamlining the procedure, so I was out by about one in the afternoon. We decided to go for a drive up to the James Hamilton Heritage Centre, a park in East Kilbride which has a boating loch with a nice short (a mile or so) walk around it. In less cancer-riddled days, I learned to sail, kayak and windsurf there; I don't think the protocol lets me back in the water until about 2010. Maybe global warming will let me dispense with the wetsuit, by then. After a circuit of the park, we went to the Centre's cafe for some tea; me, mum and dad shared a pot, and Madeleine and her friend had hot chocolate and Rice Krispie cakes. I shot half a roll of Provia 100, then accidentally rewound it all the way past the leader when I was changing to some Tri-X 400+2 for shooting indoors; it would actually be worth buying a leader retriever, just so that I could use those last sixteen frames of expensive colour film. Maybe I'll do that.

Once we got home, I took a little nap. A mile is quite a big step up from our usual five-minute walks in the park, and it did wear me out a little. My thigh muscles are actually still a little tired from the exertion, even today. I got through the rest of the day quite quietly, but got really tired at about nine o'clock and just couldn't muster the energy to do anything for the rest of the night – blog-writing included – so I just went to my bed.

We didn't go into the hospital on Monday until quite late, so I had a bit of a long lie. I had no chemotherapy scheduled for the day, so I just had my blood taken and then we waited around for the ward round to reach us. The doctors gave me the once-over and mum got the chance to have a little chat with Dr Morrison, December's consultant. I wasn't due any treatment on Tuesday, so the doctors offered me the opportunity to just spend the entire day at home; the caveat being that my blood count revealed that I was quite anaemic, so it really would be at home – I'd be too tired to really do anything else. The alternative would be to come in for a couple of units of blood, which would take about eight hours to administer; I could spend Tuesday in either my own or in the hospital's bed, and I thought the former sounded better. The doctors prescribed me two units of red cells for Wednesday, and sent us on our way.

I'd invited some friends, Michelle and Joe, around for lunch at one o'clock. They arrived just as we did, so we went inside and chatted and listened to music and stuff while mum made a nice wild mushroom risotto for us. We also played some Mario Kart on the old Nintendo 64, which was brilliant fun, before mum called us in for lunch; the risotto was delicious, but apparently mum thought it was somewhat overcooked. Michelle and Joe left after lunch, Michelle having work at four; mum gave them a lift down to the train station, and I went to take a nap. I spent the remainder of the day in bed, nursing my anaemia, and then my internet connection connection cut out; apparently it was something wrong on Virgin's end, because it was working again in the morning. I took advantage of the break in connectivity to get some sleep.

As for today, it's been just as uneventful as predicted. I took some photographs of the cat in the garden while the light was nice, this morning, then went down to my gran's for a lunch of fish and boiled potatoes. Internet chess and listening to music occupied me for most of the rest of the day; I went downstairs for dinner, but apart from that spent most of the day in my room. Tomorrow will be pretty busy, what with the blood and intrathecal and all, and so I think I'll turn in now for an early night.