Good news - bad news

It has been one of those times where there were lots of reason for celebration, but also a bit of yan with every yin.


Sam passed his practical, which means he just needs to see out his current placement in order to qualify as a GP (which he will do in the summer). He's worked hard for this - pretty much since he left school at 18, he's been at university or in a training post. That's 11 years, so you can appreciate how happy and relieved he must be to this close to qualifying.


Sam doesn't have a job when he qualifies, but he's hoping that he will be offered a few days at his current placement in Leyton and a couple of days maternity cover at a practice in Bishops Stortford. He can then make up a decent living with some locum work. He'll have to set himself up as a freelance, but that should be relatively straightforward as long as he is organised.


Once Lucy completes her PhD and finds a job, they should be very comfortably off. Sam wants to take a gap year before settling down to work and his plan is to spend the winter of 2013/14 in the Alps.


So great news from Sam, but bad news from Cheshire, where we heard that my Aunt Pam, the last of my dad's sisters, has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. She noticed some bleeding and quite quickly sought treatment, so she'd had an endoscopic examination, which discovered a cancerous polyp. She's been back in hospital last week for further examination, to see what the extent of the cancer is, I guess.  


My cousin Suzie called with the news and spoke to Margaret at some length. Margaret says it was just like talking to my dad, the way she tells a story, repeats the best bits and double checks the facts by getting you to repeat them. We sent Aunt Pam a card to say good luck and that we were thinking about her and she called on Saturday to say thanks and bring us up to date. She sounded quite perky (as ever) and said she'd let us know how she got on.


Another piece of good news was that I had confirmation that I had achieved my full bonus for 2011. With the extra cost of travelling to London, it's really important to me that I achieve full bonus. Travel costs me £6,500 per annum out of taxed income, which means I have to earn £13,000 to pay for my season ticket and Oyster card. It's a lot to find each year, so you can see why I was pleased. However, a conversation with my line manager took some of the shine off it when it was suggested that if I pushed for a pay rise (which I have been doing) my bonus might not be so easy to achieve in future years. Not best happy to hear that informal threat, but I decided not to seek confrontation and wait to see what the bonus offer would be. As I'm so close to retirement, it doesn't make sense for me to throw my toys out of the pram, so I bit my tongue. It's annoying because I do enjoy my job and I feel I'm making a valuable contribution with my knowledge and experience.


Ho-hum - to make me feel better, I'm definitely going to buy another motorcycle; probably a BMW R1150RS or R1200ST, which I'll use for some pleasure riding and a bit of commuting. I can ride to the station on nice days, which will save on fuel costs for the BMW and mean that Margaret doesn't have to get up so early in the morning in order to take me to the station. I've seen a couple of likely bikes, so that's a job for April or May (I won't be in a hurry, it's important to find the right one).


At the weekend, it was Hannah's 30th birthday party at their flat. It was an '80s theme and Hannah went as Margaret Thatcher, wearing a blue suit and a wig. Tom dressed as Adam Ant with a blousy shirt and face paint; Max came as a glam-rock star with eye-liner and a black INXS wig and Inna went for the Happy Days look. One of Tom's friends arrived as a Rubic Cube, someone else arrived as Michael Jackson (well, he had a white glove on and that was it). Margaret and I made no effort at all and nor did Sam and Lucy. It wasn''t a big party, just family and a few friends. Hannah's mum, dad, brother and sister were there, along with Lil's partner Ollie. They are in the process of buying a house in Reading and are waiting to exchange contracts, while Hannah's mum and dad have sold their house in Reading and are buying a smaller place in Henley.