EGBOK

This morning I am sitting in a little French bakery/brasserie/confectionery on Marylebone High Street, and have just ordered a random breakfast item, and am drinking coffee which should taste great but seems to be of no consequence to me. The reason for all of this is that Lourika was diagnosed with breast cancer six months and two days ago, and after eight sessions of chemotherapy, five weeks of recovery, one week in Egypt and an abundance of prayers she has just gone into the theatre for her surgery. I don't want to wait in her room (which by the way is as good as you'll find anywhere!), so I ventured one block away from the London Clinic and ended up here in a typical British High Street waiting for the four hours to go by.

It was a rainy morning in London, and when we left our house at 6 o'clock the wind was howling. Not dissimilar to my emotions, I might say. The surgeon was held up in traffic so the operation started about 90 minutes later than originally scheduled. And as Lourika entered the theatre the sun came out, and that's when I knew that Everything's Going to Be OK - whatever happens.

Now is perhaps a good time to publish a very general "thank you" to everyone that has supported our family over the last half a year - everyone that visited us and ran the household while Lourika was being treated and I had to keep on working, everyone that wrote, phoned, prayed, Skyped, Facebooked and sent gifts, everyone at work that showed more compassion that I could ever hope for, and everyone that held on to the hope that Lourika will be not a victim but a survivor of breast cancer. And a big big thank you to my brave wife who has made the journey for Hugo, Ivan and I as easy as we could ever have hoped for, and inspiring us along the way. Wow, what a woman!

That's it from me for now - I have to finish my breakfast before I start looking like some kind of writer who's sitting in his favourite corner at his regular coffee joint trying to overcome writer's block...

Au revoir!