Looking back on 2011

Our plan to have a grown-up intermittent "gap year" traveling when both children left home ended abruptly when Steve was diagnosed...

Flames of Hope and Courage

T he Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) invites you to be part of the “Light a Candle” community.  As we honor our loved ones fi...

a family Christmas

It started with just two of us, dressing the tree, decorating the house and wrapping presents to get ready for Steve's third Christmas s...

The Christmas get together

Although Steve was born in Bristol, the Wride family moved around a lot as he was growing up. When his parents decided to move back to Brist...

Two and a half years on and we're still celebrating.....

It's two and a half years since Steve was diagnosed with mesothelioma and if you read yesterday's blog you will understand why we ar...

Christmas comes early!

I won't beat about the bush - just want to share the good news....No sign of any change in Steve's condition; disease still stable! ...

Countdown: 1

After getting well and truly wound up about Steve's assessment this time round, support from friends and the Meso Warriors things have h...

Countdown: 2

I am a wuss.  I've been getting more and more stressed as the week goes on, worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. Then ...

Countdown: 4.....3.......

Sunday morning saw us folding and writing  more Christmas cards , ready for posting today and sorting out some more presents online. Sunday ...

Countdown: 5

If you have dropped by the blog for the first time in a week or two, you may think I've gone into a parallel universe where Christmas is...

Countdown: 6

With six days to go to Steve's next hospital assessment, retail therapy really came into its own today as a way of distracting ourselves...

Countdown 7

This time next week, we will know the outcome of Steve's next hospital assessment, so we will either be celebrating or gearing ourselves...

Countdown 8

The continuing story of the kitchen sink drama has provided today's distraction from Steve's impending hospital assessment in eight ...

Countdown 9

To distract himself from getting stressed about his next hospital assessment in nine days time, Steve spent most of the day in the kitchen. ...

Countdown - 10

It's 10 days to go until Steve's next hospital assessment. We are in countdown mode, trying to keep ourselves busy and not get too s...

Recipes for an unsilent night and a chatty day

Recipe for an Unsilent Night Ingredients:  100 + strangers with ghetto blasters, i-pads, laptops, mobile phones, MP3 players and such like, ...

Progress and a retrospective

At last - progress on our festive preparations! Steve has designed this year's Christmas card and we have printed the first batch, ready...

And so it begins.....

The Advent Christmas tree is on the mantlepiece in the front room, with a chocolate tucked away in every little drawer (apart from No 1 whic...