6 to go...

Thursday again. The only drama today was when Gregorio joined in the comedy act with the clowns in the art room. It was pretty entertaining. Blood counts still good, chemo administered, just 6 sessions to go.

Halloween was rather wet but full of treats. On Sunday, having enjoyed an extra hour in bed, we went on a lovely walk through the forest.

Tuesday we spent three hours lining up at a mass H1N1 vaccination clinic at a local high school. Having gone round the block, up and down every corridor in the building we finally came to the vaccination room. The organization was pretty impressive, it makes you think that this whole exercise is part of a big emergency preparation plan. Gregorio was skeptical whether there was actually anything in the syringe. He's changed his mind since, given his sore arm. When it was finally our turn, our brave little patient sits down, pulls up her sleeve and says "this arm OK?" She was incredibly disappointed when they said they couldn't administer to a chemotherapy patient. I am not sure who's screams were louder, Matilde's or mine? Apparently their guidelines would not allow her to receive the shot without a letter from her oncologist, my screams of "this is ridiculous, she is a priority patient" were to no avail. Matilde, Gregorio and I were poked and now we are trying to track down the shot for Isabella, without having to go through the whole queuing fiasco again. We will have to do it all over again anyway for Matilde who has to have a second shot (sshh, but please don't tell her that!)

Today Matilde is 'celebrating' Bonfire Night at school. She might be half British but she had no idea what it was. She came home yesterday full of excitement telling us the story about Guy Fawkes. We called Grandpa Ross too and told him how Mr Fawkes was caught red handed. I don't think she knew what that meant but it was terrible cute. The most exciting thing for Matilde was the fact that she could take some party clothes into school for the event. And you have to love the mix of cultures we live in. Matilde took her halloween outfit (it was changed at the last minute, despite me having adjusted the original witch's costume to fit) a flamenco dancer.

Lots of love,

Emma & Gregorio. xxx