4th of July

First day without Jack. We are really missing him. We have just spoken to him on the phone and he is back home in Melbourne safe and sound. The fussy devil didn't eat a thing on the plane. I wouldn't be here now if I had been so fussy as a child; I'd probably be 6ft under in my parents backyard.

Anyway, back to the issues of the day. The day being the celebration of the victory of a war where we beat ourselves. I feel I must offer "Happy 4th of July" greetings to any readers this side of the pond. You were fortunate to escape the rule of a monarch (he was German by the way) who was as mad as a bag of badgers (some would say things haven't changed - I couldn't possibly comment). Looking forward to the fireworks from the roof this evening. All I can say is it had better be good as we'll be missing Seinfeld and Larry David's writing is particularly good at this moment in the series.

I had yet another CT scan on Wednesday and it shows things are the same which the doctors are happy with. I'd be happier if things were improving on the scan - but as my cough has almost gone and I can get on the exercise bike again I can't be too bad (he says as he clutches his chest while falling to the floor).

The bone marrow biopsy has been put back to Tuesday as the holiday means results will be delayed anyway. I've put in a request for the lovely Grace to do the procedure. She has the featherlight touch while poking the lower back with large needles.

We managed to do a few things with Jack before he left. We took him to the Baseball on Monday night. Seattle were playing the Toronto Blue Jays and - unlike the basketball - he was very unimpressed. While I enjoyed it, the low score (3-0 to Toronto) did make things a tad unexciting. The highlight for me was when everyone around me stood up to sing "Take me out to the ball game". This was one of the most surreal things I ever witnessed. I felt like I was suddenly in bizarro world! I took Jack to the Seattle Art Museum on Wednesday. He really enjoyed the more modern works on display. His favourite being 'Mouse on Bed'. Basically a giant black mouse on a white mannequin in a white bed. Nice to see a work of art - cough - appealing to its target audience (the under 10s). It was actually a very good mixture of contemporary and classic works (Warhol, Van Dyck) plus some impressive Native American, African and Aboriginal galleries. Jack was quite insightful into the work of Jackson Pollack "It's a load of squiggles Dad". Brilliant.

RIP Charles Wheeler. A truly great journalist and humanitarian.

Current Reading: 'The Constant Gardener' by John Le Carre (still trying to finish it)
Current Listening: 'Viva La Vida' by Coldplay (stop laughing - Brian Eno has got a really good album out of them).
Currently Eating: KitKat