Seeya later, 2009!

Now, I don't know about you, but 2009 has been rather a remarkable year for me, all things told. When it kicked off, I really didn't know where I stood with life. Out of nowhere, I went from being a freelance editor and occasional musician to a patient on a cancer ward.

The word 'surreal' doesn't begin to describe my feelings about that development, friends. Each day becomes drastically simplified, revolving around mealtimes, treatments and visits from friends and family. I would lie in bed, looking out over the rooftops of west London, and begin to envy all those people out there who were walking around the streets below me, having coffee in cafés, shopping – doing all the gloriously ordinary stuff that we do when we're well. When the radiotherapy started, I was able to be a day patient, and a new rhythm of life took over – the trip by train and tube over to Charing Cross Hospital, covered up in woolly hat and big sunglasses, as the treatment played merry hell with my face. Then a few weeks of no treatment at all, before the Big 'O'. No, not Roy Orbison, but my operation on May 5th, which left me with a swollen head (really, not metaphorically), aggressively split vision and more staples than Rymans. It took me a while to get over that, let me tell you.

But the human body is a remarkable thing, isn't it? Gradually, my health has started to inch back, restoring my energy, hair (patchily), sense of humour and an appetite for the future. Somewhere along the line, though, events have stopped me from paying due attention to this blog, which I began one sleepless early morning back in March.

I hope to be a better blogger next year. In fact, I hope for a lot of things for next year, including marriage, seeing more of my friends, having barrel-loads more laughs, getting excited about new music – and playing more music myself – swimming… oh, you know, all the colourful stuff that makes life worth living.

That's it, really. I just thought you ought to know. Let me close now by wishing you all very happy New Year, and thanking you again for your support this year. It's meant such a lot to me and Ms Banfi.

Onwards and upwards.
Rob x