Writing Holiday with Sam, 30th April – 10 May 2014

When Sam got back from his ride around the country, we were determined to take a few days off together and have a break, with no work, no unicycles, and no cancer to get in our way, just a nice little family holiday. That was back in February, and things have been so busy since then that it has taken us until April to get around to it!

But boy was it worth the wait. Sam took me and our other sister, Hilde, the healthy one, on a cruise. We went to Vanuatu and New Caledonia. His idea was that if he can’t take me to France, he could at least take me to a French speaking country. I can’t go to France because I can’t get insurance and if I get sick over there it would bankrupt the whole family, so he thought that a cruise, with a doctor on board to a place just a few hours flight from home would be a much safer bet. It was a good gamble, because I didn’t sick at all, and we didn’t end up needing health care. Yay!

None of us had ever been on a cruise before and now that I have been, I get why people love them so much. It was so much fun. But the best thing about it of course was getting time to spend with Sam and Hilde.

But it wasn’t all beer and skittles. Sam and I have a book deal, and are planning on releasing our memoir (about us, our family and our Love Your Sister journey) in November this year. This means we have a book to write, and we have to do it fast. So we did some writing most days, and shared ideas and talked about and planned the book. Since Sam is in Melbourne and I am in Canberra we don’t often get to sit down together and have a chat, and chatting about the book was great, he inspired me to keep on writing, to keep on getting the words on the page. We have written tens of thousands of words between us already, and we haven’t even gotten to the Love Your Sister bit yet. The story goes right back to when we were kids, and how close we were as youngsters, and how we battled through my first cancer together, and all the highs and lows since then.

So although we were sailing the pacific in a magnificent cruise ship, we were also working. No rest for the wicked I guess.

And I got my little French experience. We went to Noumea and Mare in New Caledonia where I got to practice my French and eat a crepe. The mixture of cultures is fantastic. You can order a crepe on the beach, and have it with a fresh coconut with a straw. Fabulous.

  

Sam enjoying the tranquillity of the Waterfall and lagoons at Port Villa.

 

We met heaps of people on board. Lots of people came up to us and said lovely things about Love Your Sister, I felt a little bit famous, it was weird, but wonderful. We made some friends, wrote some of our book and had lots of precious family time.

Thanks Sam for taking us on a holiday, and for believing that I could go on a holiday and not get sick. I have been living in fear for so long and you gave me confidence to try new things and live in the moment. I love you brother.