A quiet weekend

I should have been doing a lot of gardening over the weekend. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. It was even relatively warm (around 24C). The dogs lazed around in panting heaps, and I pottered, feeling no guilt at all for not occupying myself with yanking out the weeds that are appearing among my plants.

Sometimes, I think, you just have to relax. A lot of what I've read says that cancer can be exacerbated by stress. Some articles even say that stress can trigger cancer. So, I do try to avoid stressful situations these days, even though some - like the saga of the final gas bill when I changed providers - are caused by others. Indeed, that saga was finalised on Saturday when I received a revised final bill, more than five times lower than the original! Lucky I'm tenacious and refused to pay up, despite threats of a court order against me; the moral of that, I think, is that you shouldn't let big business bully you. Easier said than done, of course. I spent around 16 hours on the phone to various more and (usually) less helpful Customer Services(!) operatives over five months to produce that result. It certainly didn't do my stress levels any good, but I have learned not to get as wound up as I did before I was ill. In many ways, you know, cancer has helped me to become a more laid back and - I suspect - nicer person. However, if you can reach that goal without experiencing cancer, major surgery and radiotherapy (or even chemotherapy which I was lucky enough to avoid), I really would advise that route. So far, I've been fortunate; no post-radiotherapy side-effects to speak of and I feel (and am) well. It could have been very different, and it's definitely not the way I would have wanted to learn that nothing's worth getting so stressed about that it affects your health.