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Pete's Progress


Seasons change
This week has had that in-between season feel: I'm peeling open chocolate Christmas coins while the roofer on the house opposite works in...
Pete Bate
Oct 114 min read
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Eight biscuits, and a slice of life
It's been many months since I've felt the urge to capture a day in words before it fades into a sea of memories. Wednesday was one of...
Pete Bate
Sep 136 min read
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Reasons to be cheerful, pt 2
As I haven't posted on here for a month or two, there's a lot to catch up on. When I trained as a newspaper journalist in the 1990s we...
Pete Bate
Sep 55 min read
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Foot notes
Take good care of your feet, Pete - Brian Wilson Only grief permits newness - Walter Brueggemann I'm starting my first post in a while...
Pete Bate
Jun 286 min read
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Stabs of ascent
One thing we've learned over the past two years is that we usually see life more clearly in hindsight. After a flurry of blog posts...
Pete Bate
May 184 min read
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We've come a long way, baby
I'm facing a wall mirror as I type this in Macy's downstairs bedroom, and catch a glimpse of myself. It's surreal and a bit surprising to...
Pete Bate
Apr 45 min read
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Love songs
The other day, Macy arrived home after a tour of Lichfield's charity shops. She was excited to show me the second-hand Mercury Rev CD...
Pete Bate
Mar 214 min read
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Meowing at the door
Yes, I know it's been less than a fortnight since my last post! But quite a lot has happened and I also promised to try and blog a bit...
Pete Bate
Mar 134 min read
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A growing concern?
It appears the cancer may have finally woken from its nine-month slumber. Lisa and myself went to Burton Hospital on Wednesday for my...
Pete Bate
Mar 25 min read
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Rejoining myself
Discombobulate is one of my favourite words. It sounds just like it feels. To be discombobulated is to have lost your sense of balance or...
Pete Bate
Jan 316 min read
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Christmas reprieve
I'm sat in the lounge while the rest of the house snoozes (except for diligent Dan who is at work, freezing somewhere on the side of a...
Pete Bate
Dec 17, 20247 min read
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Joy glimmers
And so the reprieve continues - five months since I last had chemotherapy, I'm still off treatment. Following my last post (apologies...
Pete Bate
Oct 19, 20246 min read
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Getting busy living
I've been off chemo for over three months now - by far my longest treatment break. Some days I feel like a ship unmoored and adrift in a...
Pete Bate
Sep 1, 20243 min read
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Matches and dispatches
It feels like a lot of mileage has been covered - literally and metaphorically - since my last post almost three weeks ago. Since then,...
Pete Bate
Jul 30, 20246 min read
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Inbetweener
Tomorrow (Friday) Lisa and myself will board the 7.14am train from Lichfield to London for an appointment at the Royal Marsden hospital...
Pete Bate
Jul 11, 20245 min read
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Rolling the dice - fear and freedom
It was 2,500 years ago when Greek philospher Heraclitus famously said that the only constant in life is change - and nothing has changed...
Pete Bate
Jun 16, 20245 min read
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Sun, sea and scan results (and zombies)
And relax... A strange sense of stillness has descended (internally at least - I type this as Macy and her boyfriend Charlie are...
Pete Bate
May 24, 20244 min read
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50 not out!
By the time this post goes online on Friday I'll have hit my half century. I'll be also hitting my fortnightly chemo slump so it will be...
Pete Bate
May 3, 20246 min read
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12 months (off and) on....
Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the discovery, and confirmation, of my cancer. It was my debut (and only so far) colonoscopy...
Pete Bate
Apr 5, 20246 min read
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