Good times, bad times

Now that life is more or less back to normal**, it feels strange to revisit the time, now well over a month ago, when things weren't exactly a bed of roses.

For the sake of the continuity of my blog, however, let's once more hop into the time machine and alight at the end of April.

Only two days after Jos's third - and as it would turn out, final - course of chemotherapy, things were still tickety-boo, with Jos's energy levels still being boosted by the magical properties of the cortisone-like medication he was given right before and after his session.

After a morning of chores on Saturday the 25th of April, I walked into the village for an afternoon of drinks and a catch-up with my friend Inez. 

While I was waiting for her to lock up her e-bike (she'd cycled over from the next village) I was complimented by a passer-by on the skirt I was wearing. It's a vintage Trachten one, a € 5 sales bargain from Think Twice last August. After trying on a couple of tops, I think it found its perfect companion in this charity shopped blouse with its groovilicious caramel, cream, burgundy and lilac pattern.

My accessories were a blend of second-hand and high street finds.

With Sunday's highs of 18°C and oodles of sunny spells, it would have been downright silly to spend the day inside. Instead, we drove to Fort 5 in Edegem, our neighbouring village, for a walk. 

Due to roadworks, we'd had to drive around a bit to find a parking spot, but eventually we managed to grab a space just a short walk from the entrance.

We ended our walk, which took us along and inside some of the atmospheric old fort buildings dating from the 1860s, by soaking up some Spring sunshine on a sun-dappled bench.

My outfit of the day contained no less than two Shrewsbury charity shop finds. I picked up the magenta short-sleeved jumper in June 2024 and the pink floral trainers 5 years earlier.

The skirt came from a long-gone vintage shop in Antwerp. 

Let's have a look at my accessories!

Clockwise from top left: lilac watch and ring from the high street, funky wood and plastic necklace from Accessorize UK, who used to have a branch in Antwerp many years ago, charity shopped pleated leather belt and a dragonfly brooch found on a flea market in Middelburg.  

In the week that followed the chemotherapy side effects started kicking in one by one and, although he was still feeling relatively well on Wednesday, we didn't take any chances and made use of a wheelchair to go for his weekly blood test and consultation at the hospital.

After an interminably long wait, we were finally seen by the doctor, who told us that not only were his blood levels satisfactory, the CT scan he'd had the week before showed that things were stable.

I was wearing my vintage poppy dress that day. I can't for the life of me remember whether it was a charity shop find or a Think Twice one, but it definitely joined my wardrobe pre-blog. Looking back at my previous wears of this gorgeous dress, I always seem to combine it with green accessories, so why break the habit of the last 10 years or so?

My pale pink suede boots were bought in the closing down sale of Antwerp's branch of New Look back in 2019.

I'd taken both Wednesday and Thursday off, as on Thursday we needed to return to the hospital for another check-up, this time for the inguinal hernia surgery he'd had back in January. 

We were running late that morning and were only just in time for our appointment. Expecting the usual delay, we were pleasantly surprised that we were called into the consultant's s office mere minutes after we'd sat down in the waiting room. As everything was looking fine, we were in and out in less than 10 minutes.

A quick look at my outfit, which was all charity shopped over the years, except for the brooch, which was a flea market find. 

The disadvantage of my newly acquired photography assistent is that he or she completely refrained from telling me that my necklace was wonky!  Definitely a he then, I guess :-)

Friday the 1st of May was Labour Day, and thus a public holiday in Belgium.

With Jos being in the full throes of post-chemotherapy misery, the day was spent mostly inside, even if the mercury had climbed to the mid-twenties.

Again, most of my outfit consisted of charity shop finds. This time, the odd one out was my belt with its faux tortoiseshell hexagonal buckle:  a cheeky high street buy back in May 2021.

And then another Saturday rolled along, the afternoon of this moody 23°C day being spent having another meet-up with my friend Inez. We're trying to make this a weekly thing, as it allows us so much more time for drinks and a natter than our former lunchbreak cappuccino catch-ups. 

The dress I was wearing is one of my vintage Diolen Delights and again green was my colour of choice for accessorizing it. I wore a comfortable pair of red shoes by the Portuguese Kiarflex label, charity shopped in the Spring of 2022. This is one of only a handful of pairs of non-sandal shoes I'm able to wear barefoot without causing rubbing and blisters.

The day ended with the thunderstorm which had been brewing all afternoon and which lasted well into the evening.

On Sunday - we were the 3rd of May by now - I woke up with a painful ulcer in my nose, which gave me a headache and meant I could hardly bear the weight of my glasses. I hadn't slept well and needed a steady mix of painkillers to get me through the day.

I still managed to get dressed though, opting for a vintage skirt and Breton top combo, accessorized with an orange belt and necklace to match the orange bits in the skirt.

In spite of having had another sleepless night and being in lots of pain, I dragged myself out of bed on Monday morning and foolishly went off to work. Thankfully, I was able to make a doctor's appointment for that evening, when I was prescribed stronger painkillers, hydrocortisone cream, antibiotics, lots of rest and the advice to take the rest of the week off work.

With wearing my glasses still being an issue there was nothing for it than taking regular naps in between reading bits of Julia Glass's The Whole World Over. I'd read and loved her debut novel, Three Junes, a couple of years ago while on holiday in our cottage in Poperinge, and this one didn't disappoint either.

It took until the Friday of that week until I started feeling myself again and was able to leave the confines of the sofa. With Jos still feeling unwell and not up to anything productive, I caught up on a couple of long overdue chores.

The weather gods weren't particularly on their best behaviour that day so that I was forced to wear a jumper. A thin knit one, but still! My faux patchwork skirt is vintage C&A and again I picked green accessories and wore my Kiarflex shoes.

Not having left the house in days, I was starting to get cabin fever, so I walked into the village to run an errand. As always, I ended up for a quick browse at bargain store Zeeman where I fell hard for these granny square slippers, which obviously had to come home with me.

One final outfit before I call it a day.

Saturday's weather was infinitely better than Friday's, with highs into the low twenties.

No need for a jumper that day. Instead, I chose a red and white floral short-sleeved blouse (from the Belgian Wow To Go label via the charity shops) which I wore with a skirt with the funkiest of patterns, which someone on Instagram once likened to a collection of colourful plates. 

This time, I picked black for my accessories to tie in with the black background of my skirt. Again, the charity shops supplied the majority of my outfit. 

*** I will try to catch up with your blogs soon but please do bear with me as I might have jinxed it when I said that life was more or less back to normal. Earlier this week, Jos fell and hurt his knee, which made us end up in A&E once more. Thankfully nothing is broken or seriously amiss but it will take time to heal, meaning that our little holiday - which starts tomorrow - will be one with a hurdle!

See you soon!