My husband asked me if I was going to do any more blogs over the summer. “No” I replied, I may have a lot of verbal diarrhoea and lots to say but I am keeping this an eye cancer blog, so unless something to do with my eye pops up my blog will remain quiet. “I probably won’t write anything until my next appointment in August.” I told him. And then of course something happens, something that wants me to race to the keyboard and fire out a blog and this one is a plea for help.

While sitting in the garden with Mr J. the other day enjoying our ten minutes of British summertime, I was talking to him about the things I needed to do before the holiday. Usual holiday lists, getting the kids hair cut, picking up the dogs vaccination card, checking we have enough sun cream etc. and I need to get my roots done, I’d suddenly noticed about 4 cms of grey re-growth. “You look fine” he muttered. Fine? The pause that followed obviously indicated to him that that wasn’t the correct response. Granted if he’d said “damm right you do your hair looks awful” that also wouldn’t have gone down well. A happy medium of “O.K  try and fit it in and if you need a hand with the kids let me know” would have been perfect. Sensing his mistake he did what I guess most blokes do, try and make it better with a compliment, “Have you had highlights done? They look nice.” and he smiled. Job done. “Yes I have” I smiled back. ” About 3 months ago.” And this is what made me shudder and race to the keyboard as I thought, how bad does it need to get before he notices?  I think if I was made of carbon fibre and had two wheels he’d notice every tiny detail but other than that I don’t stand a chance. And with the prospect of ever decreasing eye sight this is a little scary as I may start to rely on him more and more to notice such things. When we go out for an evening he’ll often look at me and say “you look lovely Rufus.” I think he thinks I’ve been wafting around upstairs doing nothing, he doesn’t realise the hours of scrubbing, waxing, plucking, drying, teasing that go into looking so ‘natural.’

When my sight had got bad a couple of months agoI had noticed something that is difficult to do with one eye. Eye make-up. Closing my good eye to apply eye liner or eye shadow but only been able to see a blur is quite difficult. Eye liner got abandoned, eye shadow became a very subtle shade that wasn’t very noticeable and  Mr J. laughed as he said “imagine if you have to rely on me to do your make-up” No lets not as that will never happen. But the hair incident started me thinking of all the hairs that need plucking and removing that luckily enough I can see at present. And this is where my plea for help comes in. However often I look in the mirror, one day suddenly there is a long dark hair sprouting from my chin. Where it came for I don’t know as I was sure it wasn’t there when I looked last night. But it suddenly is there and is plucked very quickly. Mr J has proved that he will never notice these hairs. So as my eyesight deteriorates and before my husband realises that he is actually married to a silver haired baby mammoth, could all my friends start carrying around a small tube of immac and tweezers?  And if we are out for dinner and you notice I’m competing with the hipster on the next table, please do me the honour of letting me know and pointing me in the right direction. I can cope with being deaf in one ear and I’m coming to terms with going blind in one eye but hairy as well? No thank you. Your help in this matter will be much appreciated and we can then enjoy many a glass of bubbles and hopefully a very long friendship. Cheers.

P.S if I notice you sprouting any in the meantime, while I can still see, I’ll return the favour. Love Ruth xx