NoJoMo Day 4 in Diary

I made soup! Butternut squash and sweet potato. Although it's delicious, butternut squash is the hardest vegetable in the world to peel and chop. It took me half an hour just to do half of one and half of a sweet potato! I still have one and a half squashes left so I'll have to do it all again at some point :o/ It's part of my attempt to eat less meat. So far I've had a five bean chilli instead of minced beef, cheese and pickle sandwich today instead of ham and now I have my soup which is enough lunches for three days :o) It's hard for the evening meal because Jay cooks and he loves meat so I'll have to work something out. Although today we did have the free range chicken breasts I bought so that's a good compromise.

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When I took Roxie out tonight, although it was only just dark, people had already started with fireworks. There were two bangs when we set off and that was it. She panicked and tried to run away, weaving all over the path really close to the ground, panting and foaming at the mouth. Every time she heard any sort of noise, even a car or a person, she would set off again, panicking and trying to run. Poor girl! So I have to walk her tomorrow morning before work now, as tomorrow is bonfire night, there'll be LOADS of fireworks so she shouldn't go out. An early start for me!

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In real news, my dad's gone into hospital to have his cancer treatment. He needs to have a radioactive plaque on the back of his eye for a day, and he has to stay in isolation with only minimal contact with people because the radiation is dangerous :o( He went to Liverpool on Sunday and has to stay until Wednesday, on his own. He didn't want Mam to go with him, Sonja said it's because he hates people to see him ill and helpless. I feel really sorry for him. He's been wandering around the city looking for something to do.

After he's had that, he has to go back in December for proton beam therapy. I've never heard of it before but apparently it's been used to treat cancer for over 40 years and is very successful. It shows how soon the cancer was found as it can only be used to treat small tumours and has a 95% success rate. So it's all looking good, although of course I'm thinking about that other 5%...

He has to have a general anaesthetic for the radioactive plaque and will be having it done at 11am tomorrow (GMT). Please spare a thought for him if you remember, I'm ever so worried about him :o(