You will never believe this

Thank you so much for your good wishes and words of encouragemen

t. Your response was both unexpected and welcome and I do hope this letter finds you and your loved ones in fine health.

Me well as I started out to say you will never believe the good fortune and luck that has come our way.

My mate says "you make your own luck".

You be the judge of my story.

Starting on our return to Australia after the Great Train Journey [9 Sept - 17 December 2009 Singapore to London by rail].

The last letter I wrote I related

my experiences with cancer and illnesses I suffered as a result of the cancer. I beleive that the

recurring incidents are

related to the past and we tend to live in a pattern so it was necessary to

take steps

to change the pattern of behaviour. I believed there would be challenges for Pam and I throwing out old ideas and furniture and moving into new neighbourhoods and area

s not known. Our decison was to seachange . We had done some research in 2008 at the same time as my treatment

was being carried out.

House hunting can be so much fun or hard work depends how it is approached and one needs some tenancity and lots of patience.

Open houses Auctions lots

of tea stops and coffee breaks

to soothe tired mind and the other half.

To allow us to have some fun and learn from our experience this is what we did.

• set some rules or tick boxes ( bedrooms, patio, etc)
• set the area to search again some tick boxes (shops, schools, boat ramp, community, doctor, etc)
• establish an email alert on realestate.com.au or homehound.com.au put in your parameters and your area and make it a weekly email alert
• pick up the local news paper on the day that homes are featured and search and cut out the ones that interest you
• establish a spread sheet enter all the houses you find with details, address, price, bedrooms, car, area of land, and the agent, contact details and open house times (open house times clash)
• put dedicated time aside to go and search
• Allow time for your searches to become effective
• enter your findings on your spread sheet noting the prices of the residences and your notes about what was wrong (put in a hook for your memory{big pool, or dark hallway, no car accomadation}) you will forget
• Pretty soon after the first 10 visits you will have a really good idea what you want and more importantly you both want if there are two or more of you
• You will know your area the stock on the market and the prices
• Last but not least. DO NOT PANIC It is not unusual to visit 30 or so and take 2 - 6 months to find what you are looking for and you change as your experience increases
• by carrying out these simple steps and keeping a record of what you have seen your property will come up

You may find that your criteria has changed and you have found something that you did not even consider we did. But it ticked all our boxes.We bought at Auction site unseen a pent house with a gob smacking view of the CBD of Surfers Paradise Gold Coast Australia

The reason we did not get

inside to see it as it was being Auctioned the day we found it in the paper. I inspected it from the outside Pam relied on my judgement. After we bought it, we inspected the inside it was better than we

expected. Good thing for me don't you reckon? Pam would have been hopping mad if it was wrong. Can you

imagine ):?

A word about Auction and advertising property. Some vendors do not want to spend cash on media and internet. If you are lucky enough to find a

property that you like and it is for Auction. Go along you may get a surprise. We did.

Anyway as my mate says. "Malcolm you made your own luck so enjoy it".

You have got to believe this one take a look

at the photo.

It is all good

my cancer is remission

the drugs are not creating too many side effects

got man boobs and hot flushes

Doc reckons I can take a drug free break from June

My Pam is enjoying her penthouse

Me I swim in the ocean to deionise my body

and I am feeling just great to be alive.

I hope you are well and enjoying the life.

feel free to call me and I will upload Photos to Flickr for you.

Malcolm Williams

Gold Coast resident Australia.

Next Blog

Preparation for the ultimate road trip "Route 66" and the

"Indy 500".

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Route_66_Photos.htm

sign courtesy of

game room signs
Item ROUTE-66-S
Size - 11 1/4in X 12inPrice - $17.95www.gogameroom.com

A letter to a friend

I write this letter to you hoping that it will assist you sharing my experiences with cancer and the allied illnesses I have suffered and subsequent depression caused by happenings and things beyond my control. I have never written a letter to you. I rejoice in the fact that I may be able to assist others to overcome depression and feeling like a failure then my letter to you is from the heart. I am nervous about publishing my feelings.

My story starts at 10.15 am on the 13^th January 2006 I am laying in the recovery ward at St Andrews Hospital Spring Hill after a colonoscopy, the doctor arrives and tells me that I have a tumour in my rectal passage he asks me to find faith and assures me that he can give me a complete cure.

I felt helpless with my little cancer. Laying there my mind took me back to things, places to see, opportunities lost forever. I needed help I have a close caring family and a caring group of friends and friends appeared I did not know I had.

About December 2005 I was working with a team of 4 in our Real estate business a younger man had joined us and we were happy in the knowledge that the year ahead would be full of challenges and this was to prove correct. New years day 2006 we visited a friend I felt bad as I was having trouble passing solids and I saw blood in the bowl. That night was the first day of the rest of my life. Blood was flowing into the bowl from my anus. After consulting with our GP I was referred to specialist for a colonoscopy and there is where my story opened.

My family siblings are 4 girls and me a boy and the youngest. Pam and I have two beautiful girls 37 & 32 years old. The conversation has never been about bums and tits so to have a tumour up my passage was abhorrent to me. But there you go I got one. Rectal cancer is invasive it lives deep in your system it is very dangerous it can spread rapidly from the tumour to adjacent tissues with devastating effect. My treatment was shrink the tumour with radiation treatment. Then remove it with open surgery. Follow that up with 5 months of Chemotherapy. They say ignorance is bliss and so it is, I had no idea of the seriousness of my illness or the complications that I was to suffer.

Our oldest daughter decided to marry on the 18^th March 2006. The date was decided in December 2005. The treatment started in February the operation date was set for the 9^th March 2006. I personally did not want them to change the date for the wedding. It was surreal for us as a family with me sick in bed with more bags hanging off me “than a Brisbane bag man” and the family all-planning together for the wedding at Sunrise Beach. The feeling lingers that I let them all down with my silly cancer. I thought I should have been able to avoid it.

The operation was successful. I attended the wedding with the help of a close friend and the nurses of St Andrews I got a leave pass and It was enlightening when we left hospital all the nurses came out to cheer. Me I had a colostomy bag my bowels had just started to work. My stomach was bloated with wind I had been on a nil by mouth for the last 10 days. But Pam and I were to be together giving our daughter away there was lots of gaiety, champagne food and love by the bucket full. I went back to hospital after the ceremony.

In hospital I suffered pulmonary embolisms, a spell in ICU and a secondary staff infection, the last one I bought upon myself (a Hernia after working out in the gym too early and with the wrong exercises).

The bad news continued with Cyclone Larry wrecking our Mission Beach holiday units then the last of our sales staff quit. The bad news did not stop. We took a quick holiday to Laos in February 2007 I made a fundamental error with my trading business, leaving positions open. I did not take my broker codes with me. There was a violent correction in the markets. We got wiped out.

The after effects of the Chemotherapy were I could not concentrate, my energy levels were very low, my tolerance for others was woeful and I believed I had a legitimate cause and no one understood how I felt. I was tired irritable and had no patience. Anything that looked like a task was hard the simplest things took toll. I had tiredness and nothing I did excited me at all. I could not make decisions. I had depression and did not know it.

In hindsight.

• I did not give my body and soul time to heal after the trauma
• I did not take the time to readjust to my new life.
• The caring given to me by others I took for granted
• The pleasure of being alive I had forgotten to thank for it
• I had forgotten my loved ones hurt to see me in pain
• My loved ones wanted me to be happy and well. They wanted me back.
• I did not allow time to grieve for the things that were to be no more.

I thought I was invincible I was being irresponsible. I continued to work as if nothing had happened. That made me sick. Now I had depression and had to work out of it.

How does one do it without drugs?

My luck in the mid 80s I was diagnosed with depression Reason; I was running a catering business and there was no time for me or the family having insufficient time to rest. The GP referred me to a Psychiatrist who was sympathetic and understood my no drug policy.

His prescription read like this

• tryptophan tablets for sleeping,
• meditation twice daily for the soul
• lots of good exercise for the sugar
• stop stress related activities
• avoid people who do not give worth
• find a job congruent with my personae and do it well

The outcome of that. Learned to touch type, bush walk, took a ski holiday, spent time with my girls and became a Mr Mum finished off renovating a house. Took up glass etching, as the life I was leading was not congruent with my soul. I changed careers from caterer to real estate agent

That was then 1985 so now.

2008

I have a second cancer and to me that is a real boner. I was feeling good. This one hurts I realise the danger I am in.

Reason for depression right? Wrong!

The prescription given to me in the 80s worked.

We have sold our big house on the hill, sold all our land investments, closed our brokerage business, stopped derivative trading.

To lift depression I have concentrated on interest’s photography sharing photo books, calendars, movies and framing for pleasure. I am learning to draw and read again. We plan to journey. Take time for me to meditate. My guitar has come out of the wardrobe.

The last rule: Do not watch 6.00 news or current affairs programmes. Oh yeah and those kick out real time shows. Depression: It is not good to think negativity and death. Accept it yes but not be the victim

I’m Ok, putting this down for you helped me a lot. If you have got colorectal cancer and the cancer council gives you a video with a group of people talking about their experiences, yeah the guy talking at the end of the video is me.

I want you to

• ease yourself off the Prosac or whatever else you are taking
• take a walk every day somewhere interesting even if you have to travel
• go to the beach earth your body in the sea
• go to the RSPCA and get a dog, cat or bird, you will be giving a life hope
• get involved in community
• Stop talking to others about you and talk about them
• Learn to relax
• Keep it simple. Throw away the crutches you can walk real good.
• Get way from negative people that make you feel bad
  

You want to know how I am?

• I have aggressive prostate cancer
• My sex life is gone I am impotent
• My energy is not good
• I have a bad back
• I lost most of my business
• Our big house on the hill is gone.
• Our cat died

I decided that it was not going to stop me because.

“I live in Australia and I can do what I like”.

I have a loving healthy wife and vibrant family, friends welcome me to their homes, I can take photos, I can hear music, I can walk talk and think. My drawing is coming on and our business is virtual and growing again. Best of all we have been on a great train journey Singapore to London 2009. In March we leave on the ultimate road jurney. “Route 66”. We are about to become grandparents in May. We are moving to the Gold Coast to live in a Penthouse.

Yes it will be OK just you have complete faith in yourself and please get well we need you.

Your friend

Malcolm Williams

Image 1 Craig Lowndes and me

Image 2 Kellie, Richie wedding day

Image 3 Citt, Kellie, Me & Pam

Image 4 Richie, Pam, Kellie, Me & Pam.

Image 5 Citt and me on the Silk Road journey 2007

Image 6 My Frazer Island "tough fishing" buddies

Image 7 "I'm Alive and well and I feel great" in Paris.

Image 8 Just a bloody Ozzie trying to be a Kiwi. me.

London: The end of the "great train journey" Singapore to London by rail.

Hello this is belated as most of you know we have returned to Australia. However it is for me closure. I must complete this blog in order to complete the journey.
UK was to be the last stop to visit friends, visit our old work places, and the birth places or our kids and go back to our roots.

We left Australia in 1970. Worked a constant amount of pubs and ran foul of the Immigration police in 1973. We returned to the UK in 1974 on the strength of Pam's Gran being born in Newcastle. Our stay was till 1981 when we decided the time had come to return home to Australia for education and family.

So it was our stay in the UK was from 1970 till 198. It is impossible to live in that country and not make friends that will last forever and so it was.

This blog is not in order as we arrived in UK via the Euro star from Paris and stopped in Ashford Kent where our pub the 'Ben Truman' was> It has now been demolished. (see you can't leave anything to anyone else).
The Pub industry changed with EU membership. The central Brussels government believed that a monopoly existed. So the big brewers lost their Pubs. It was exacerbated by Aussie cowboys Alan Bond, Elliott and Spalvin. In time the big brewers Watney, Whitbread, Courage, and others were broken up and closed. The industry and the way of life for most Brits changed, the local pub became an endangered species. Some sold to become free houses, then small management companies were created and took on several licences. Most were sold off to become shops, restaurants and residential.

We left the UK and the pub business at a critical time when the managed house system was being abandoned. Smart guy hey David?
Before this all happened we got on with our lives, met a great bunch of mates and worked with the best "A team". David Sutton (Management) and Valerie Smith (marketing).

Friends change and multiply, families get bigger.

In Kent our friends hosted us. Tony and his beautiful wife Philippa and of course Charlotte, Jonty, Daniel, Lea, Jack, and Alex.
Then there is Janet and Andy (Blogs) and grandson Kelvin. Our old mate Hucky who left hospital to have a beer with us. This guy used to say "my idea of a good night is to watch my arse go up and down in the mirror on the end of the bed". Our friend Hucky is older and wiser but still believes in a good time.
Reminds me of Rosco.

Time is a killer.

You know it is interesting with friends! You can be away for years and within 5 minutes it is as if you were never apart. It is 38 years since we lived here and look at the photos! Are we all enjoying company?

Love our friends. Pam and I will travel miles to make contact; yeah Singapore to London is far enough.

This journey was always about people not things.

We visited our old haunts and places of employ.
The Western Counties (Paddington)
The Kings Head (Bayswater)
The Three Horseshoes (Kellie-Ann birthplace) (Hampstead London SW)
The old brewery (Truman Hanbury Buxton, Brick Lane E1)
The Ben Truman (Ashford Kent, demolished) Citt's Birthplace.
The New Inn (New Romney Kent) favorite watering hole.

For us it was about closure,

The Journey. This journey will officially end when we hear the tones of Big Ben. Why would you put yourself through the pain of traveling on a train? For Pam and I, seeing a country is about the people. It is important to get in amongst the people. This cannot be done by flying from one capital city to another with 3 day stopovers.

On a train it is a simple life. The train starts and you are on it. In our case we were always in a sleeper carriage for overnight travel. Pullman class for day travel. The sleeper carriage carries 4 or 6 depending on hard sleeper or soft sleeper. (There is no cattle class as people are not cattle)! Linen is supplied so are pillows and blankets.

The locals are the same as us. Families are important. In most cases in these parts. There is little left after wars, natural disasters and political upheaval other than families to cling to and support.

For us it was always a bonus to have children in the carriage. Some may not like this but for us it was the key to making friends with our fellow travelers.Twisty balloons, sketch pads and some nail color changed whole cabins and in some cases the mood of the carriage. I only wish I had taken time to learn some magic tricks it would have been really cool.

The fact is the train goes and it is on a time schedul. You are either on it or you are not!
The train goes along a designated line without danger of trucks, police, and other things that bug travellers.
The dining car sometimes delivers a meal with local flair.
The scenery unfolds outside the air conditioned cabin window or heated depending on the country and the temperature of the country outside. It is not insular like a plane or a bus.
The journey gives you time to make friends with fellow travelers, irrespective of language, nationality sex or age. It also gives you time to sketch, read or reminisce about life.

Photographic opportunities abound and at stops along the way traditions, dress and architecture change. If one is quick some great shots can be got.

Our journey was from the Equator, Singapore, to the Arctic area of Siberia and Saint Petersburg.
We traveled through 12 countries with untold languages, dialects and currencies. Religious beliefs changed daily. Hindus, Moslems, Christians, Buddhists and other religions. We took care not to contravene local beliefs, using hair nets, leaving cameras outside, not eating pork, taking off shoes when required, wearing hats and covering skin to respect local customs.

Our "Great Train Journey". Thanks to Kellie, Rich and Citt for encouraging us. Thanks to our friends in the U

K for making our stay 'WOW' factor again. Thanks to our friends we met along the way. Thanks to the people who made our journey so memorable who will remain nameless. But most of all thanks to you for reading and travelling with us on this long rail journey, 22,413 kilometers.
There and back 40,000 kilometers in round figures.
You visited 13 countries. Walked countless miles to visit monuments, temples and churches. Ate local food from stalls and local cafes. Visited local markets where people worked and sold their goods. Stayed in Hotels, Guest houses, Gurs and even a rail station.
Travelled on trains wherever we could. Boat (Mekong), buses, mini buses, trolley buses, tuk tuks, bikes, horses and even a local plane. You are exhausted thinking about it. It is all too hard? Our friends, our advice is find a journey for you and just do it.

Our theme: Wilie Nelsons song "on the road again"

And I can't wait to get on the road again.
On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again

I can't wait to get on the road again.

Thanks Willie Nelson you made our day.

Image 1 The usual suspects Hucky,Pam, Jan,
Back Me, Sandra, Tony, Andy (Blogs)
Image 2 Pam and the London Eye
Image 3 Street Art Brick Lane E1
Image 4 Arriving London Cannon Street station
Image 5 Management part of the "A" team David and Ronnie Sutton having tea at Bournmouth.
Image 6 Our London mates. Wally Willie Pam and I
Image 7 Valerie Smith and Pam the other part of the "A" team
Image 8 The Weavers, Alex, Charlotte, Tony, Jonty, Phillipa, Jack. (Daniel & Lea missing)
Image 9 Looking for Paddington Bear
Image 10 Heading home. Stanstead shuttle
Image 11 Air Asis X KL Malaysia
Video 12 Big Ben strikes


More to come...........(: Route 66.