Day +318: BP, Laws & Chores (oh - still in remission too!)

Feeling good this morning, ahead of household tasks and so have some time to make a long overdue blog update. I'm already thinking that today is Sunday though so the rest of the week will therefore be a shock, more later...

To kick-off with, a couple of things in the news that I've seen various tweets about and can hold my tongue no longer.

First BP. Indisputably one of the worse environmental disasters instigated by man. Undoubtedly BP have a responsibility and much apologising to do especially after the somewhat blasé remarks when the CEO first went public. A question though, is BP entirely culpable though?

BP were renting the Deepwater Horizon rig so does some responsibility lay with Transocean (the renters) or Hyundai Heavy Industries (who built it). E.g. do these things have a "service life" whereby they are not safe for rental after so many drilling hours, are there regular "check-ups" of the equipment before re-renting?

Who allowed drilling to happen there in the first place? Someone must have authorised it and given the highly risky nature of such an undertaking, what precautionary and insurance measures were stipulated ahead of authorisation?

I heard on the radio (I think) that this is getting so much publicity because it is happening so close to the US. Don't get me wrong, it's a disaster and I feel for the people affected as well as being saddened to the huge environmental impact but if this happened off a 3rd world country coast or mid-ocean, would it be so reported?

Maybe my questions are naive but I think there is more to this than just pointing the finger at one source and surely now more than ever, alternatives to oil dependency must be relentlessly pursued.

David Laws. Hmmm. To start off with I was rather annoyed with the twittersphere for all the anti-Telegraph sentiment for breaking this story as it struck me as somewhat hypocritical (I don't think there would have been as much furore were the individual a Tory or Labour MP).

However, having just seen the BBC News article suggesting that the Telegraph are now pursuing Laws' replacement, I do wonder what the heck that paper is up to. Yes, they are Conservative supporting but wake-up you guys - we are at a new dawn of politics, a real coalition. Please let's give it a chance, we all know (or should know) that we are in for a rough ride - let's get some genuine talent therefore at the helm to steer the best path possible and stop sniping at the government so that they can get on with what needs doing.

So back to David Laws. He was wrong. But he admitted it and did an honourable thing. IMHO though his resignation should have been refused by Cameron and Clegg. Based on his stupendous education and background, I think Laws is the sort of person we need at this time of economic crisis. As such, as painful as it probably is for him (he is a very private person AIUI and this is what lead to the whole fiasco) he (and Cameron/Clegg) should do what's best for the country and get him re-involved, maybe not as a central "mouth-piece" figure, but certainly central to getting this country back on the right economic footing.

As a regular Tory voter (no, I'm not sorry) in the spirit of coalition I find myself siding with those on Twitter who are supporting David Laws.

Okay - enough of that but one more serious thing: I'm still in remission! I got the results from my 9 month biopsy back when I went to Oxford the other day. Blood counts are generally good and the BCR-ABL level was 0%, excellent news! My anniversary biopsy is scheduled in for 12th July, so fingers crossed for that too.

Physically I'm seem to be doing well, I'm putting on the weight again (need to convert more to muscle though!), full head of hair and starting to look normal again. Problems seem to be dry skin and bloody painful feet. Makes it an issue walking big distances but I've been given the all-clear for swimming so am looking forward to not just watching my sons at the local pool but literally diving in and enjoying the fun!

Finally chores...
Tomorrow will see me become a fully fledged house-husband. Sarah re-starts full-time 9-5 June 1st (congratulations again my love!) which means that I will take over the duties of cleaning, laundry, cooking, cleaning (there's a lot of it hence the double mention!) and school-runs/looking after Jake & Luke in the evenings. Oh yeah and looking for a job at the same time!

If anyone has any tips to stop me from going nuts, it would be greatly appreciated!! Having got a stack of ironing out of the way this morning, I can safely say that it is essential to fold clothes after taking them off the line/out of the tumble dryer as it massively reduces the effort. Also, the best ironing music by far has to be "You Can't Stop The Beat" from Hairspray, a surprisingly entertaining movie with a stellar performance by John Travolta. Boy can that man dance!

Enjoy.

Transplant & ANT Day updates

Firstly re. the Anthony Nolan Trust day event - many, many thanks for everyone that showed up. Although not everyone was eligible to be signed up, when Sarah left at about 19:00 (she left early to be at home with me because of the news about the cord) about 16 people had been actually signed up.

Apparently some more people arrived after that so although I don't think the magic number of 30 (the sort of "break even" number for ANT for such events), 16+ people were added which hopefully means 16 or so lives potentially saved somewhere in the world - you are heroes all of you!

News about the cord progress - I received a call from the hospital, if I'm understanding correctly it sounds like a couple of cords were found with the initial search that yielded the one that got damaged the other day.

It seems then that the hospital are in the process of securing a cord from the United States to supplement the viable bag from France - this is obviously very positive news and will keep folks posted as to what this means re. new dates for going into hospital.

Anthony Nolan Trust day

Sarah, my amazing wife, has found the time in-between managing everything else to arrange an Anthony Nolan Trust day at Jake & Luke's school next Wednesday (24th June).

The session is from 16:30 to 19:30 at St. Edmund Campion school and has been set up to promote awareness of the Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT) and get more people signed up, especially people with ethnic & mixed-ethnic backgrounds as this is where the ANT do not have many people on their register.

If you are in the neighbourhood, please feel free to come along!

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12 minutes of fame...

Didn't quite make the Andy Warhol 15 minutes mark but certainly the past few days have seen quite a bit of media attention.

Firstly, I'd like to thank and acknowledge Catherine Osborn who has been absolutely brilliant in getting the bone marrow donor search story out there - the BBC, local paper and even the Mauritian Broadcasting Company amongst others have been contacted or have been in contact. Any and everything helps with trying to find that elusive match but even if I am not lucky hopefully the publicity has spurred more people to join their register which will prove life saving for someone else.

Catherine has been the main consistent driver throughout all of this but many many other people have been getting the word out too through their friend, family & work networks too and I am extraordinarily grateful for this too - thank-you as well!

So, last Thursday I had the Maidenhead Advertiser come round in the morning for some pictures for the paper (will be in the actual paper this Thursday I believe) and also to do an interview for the web. I look fab (not!) but the interview went well, allowed me to get some things off of my chest and was actually a bit emotional for me at the end with some quite incisive questions. Anyway, judge for yourself:

• Maidenhead Advertiser interview

Yesterday, blimey feels longer than that, I did a live interview for BBC Radio Berkshire. For a while I was on the BBC Berkshire website front-page but no more however the web piece that was done can still be found as well as a "listen again" of the interview:

• BBC Berkshire web article
• Andrew Peach interview
  Starts at the 4 mins 50 seconds mark and goes through to 9 mins 53 secs for me and 12 mins 34 secs for the whole piece which includes the representative from The Anthony Nolan Trust