Hello out there in isolationsphere, how are you doing? I very much hope you and yours are well and safe. My thoughts and prayers go out to you daily, especially if you are a keyworker. You rock no matter where you work.

It looks like I am not going back to any sort of work for quite some time. I had a call from the hospital on Friday (they do as few face to face appointments as possible for apparent reasons), letting me know that I am going to have both chemo- and radiotherapy. That catapults me into the vulnerable group of people who need to be shielded, which means once I start Chemo, I mustn’t be in contact with anyone shutting myself off even from my family.

That’s not really possible in our house because we only have one bathroom and I am not willing to sleep in another room than the best husband. We are not sure yet what it means for him but because of his operation he doesn’t feel he can care for me and work. Sigh. So another challenge awaits us. I’ll get another call soon from the oncologist then we’ll know more about the necessary protection measures and when it all starts.

But on the good side, the doctor said that the goal is full healing. That’s what we keep in mind 🙂

So today I whisk you away to Mongolia. I have to admit I was rather overwhelmed by the huge musical tradition this country has. And it doesn’t seem to be shy to bring it into the modern world. I am not bothering you with much more information today because I just wouldn’t know where o start. Just enjoy The HU with “Wolf Totem” one of the more modern music groups. The english subtitles are shown on the video. If it doesn’t play here on the blog follow the link underneath.

The HU homepage

The HU on Wikipedia

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country for Monday 16th, 2020

I am taking a rather random route around the world, but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we are going to visit China. Find out about interesting musicians on the Last FM page for China.

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. Join in! No matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2020 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2020 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2020MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2020 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

So what have I been up to in the last couple of days? Not much to be honest. Taking the dressings off on Friday brought a whole new level of experience to me. I had so hoped any pain connected with my left arm would be because of the dressings. Bless my naivety!!!!

Of course, my body does what it’s supposed to do. Meaning healing the wounds, and without the support of the dressings, it all felt rather sore. No fever or seeping of unpleasant stuff though so my GP advised to keep it clean and dry and basically leave it alone. That’s what I did keeping to a routine of reading, watching TV and the occasional walk in the garden.

Let’s remind ourselves why we are here:

Linda over at “Life in Progress” has started the “What day is it anyway” blog event. She invites us all to share a little of our new daily routines, struggles and successes. She writes: “

Why I’m writing this post:

Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.

Let’s keep in touch!

And I can only encourage you to take her up on the offer 🙂 . Here is her post from Friday.

I read that phrase:” If you look for the helpers, then you know there is hope” before and I think that is more important than ever. You might not believe in the Christian God, but I believe that counts for all of us! Have you come across any helpers who gave you hope?

Ok peeps, it’s a new week and you might get bored being cooped up at home so here some more links to (mostly) free online courses I have researched a couple of years ago:

Class Central: Class Central is a search engine for moocs. If you are not sure about which MOOC to take at which provider or which university Class Central is the place to go as you can read reviews and review courses if you sign up.

Cosmo Learning: Cosmo Learning says about itself: “Created with the goal to provide a free online school, CosmoLearning (CL) is a non-profit educational website committed to improving the quality of homeschooling, teaching and student excellence.” You can find anything to learn from science to languages with videos offered for free. Users are encouraged to donate to those who created the courses to keep the idea of moocs and open learning for all alive.

Coursera: Coursera offers a vast array of high-quality University courses. You can explore lectures and non-graded material for free. For 49$ per month, you can access all courses and get certificates too.

Digital Garage Google: If you are looking to learn digital skills and how to use many of Google’s tools and get the most out of them, you are right at Digital Garage. You are led through a set of courses, earn badges, and after an assessment, you can get a certificate from Google. Easy to understand and useful not only if you are a Google user.

edX: edX is maybe the most famous provider of free learning opportunities. Founded in 2012 by Havard University and MIT, it is both non-profit and open-source. Universities and colleges still govern edX. If offers courses from top universities some of which are credit eligible. They also offer professional certificates to bring your career further.

Futurelearn: Futurelearn is probably the British equivalent to edX. You can work for some degrees and also get professional certificates to further your career. Learning itself is for free. However, you pay for the degrees and certificates.

I mostly learn with Future Learn (my profile). They are userfriendly and have such a vast array. It’s total fun o learn with them.

And one last thing 🙂

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Charity Boudicca Appeal

I would also like to encourage you to support the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Charity’s Boudicca Appeal. They are fundraising 800 000£ to create a dedicated breast cancer unit. The hospital today sees almost double as many breast cancer patients than they did five years ago. That is an enormous rise and puts a lot of pressure on the current facilities and staff. 

For me, that meant so far five journeys to Norwich within a month. That is between 35 and 45 minutes travel each way and the worry, not knowing what comes. On Thursday the 5th of March, we went again. We found out that my cancer needs an operation and probably radiotherapy. But I won’t know for sure until two weeks after the operation. While I am holding up well, it still puts a lot of pressure on my family and me. 

They say on their page they want to build:” An enhanced environment. Purport-built, spacious waiting, diagnostic and treatment rooms. Counselling rooms for women with a breast cancer diagnosis.
Better experience for patients with fewer days of anxiety while patients wait for results.”

That would help a lot. According to the NHS, 1 in 8 women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their life time. So it is essential to create better facilities for breast cancer care. The staff I have met so far are doing an excellent job. They are so caring, being extremely effective and supportive. They do deserve a better work environment.

So please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Happy Monday to you all despite everything. May you stay safe and healthy!