Looking back

Hot Water Bag status: finally shook off temperature yesterday. Cold remains - it has lasted three weeks. It obviously likes me.

Taste Bud status: with chemo and antibiotics both hard at work, everything tastes the same. I reckon in this current state I could even eat a whole plate of Bobotie - the most disgusting dish in the southern hemisphere and available by the bucketful in Cape Town.

The end of 2004 was nightmarish. Many lost their lives to the tsunami. Susan Sontag was claimed by leukemia. I understand that she suffered on and off from cancer since the 1970s when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Someone once told me about her book "Illness as metaphor" - I have decided to read it finally.

Earlier in the year, and on a personal level, I learned that my father has been suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy. Its a disease affecting the brain. The prognosis is dire. My poor dad - he was very active even after his retirement as a consultant. The hospitals still ring him now to offer him jobs. He can hardly walk unaided and is proned to falling. He retains his faculties thankfully.

So good riddens to 2004 and I look forward to 2005 albeit with some trepidation.