Snusher meets Garpet. Hungarian blogging guru rolls out red carpet in Gordon.

Well at last we have got to meet the man and his wonderful partner Leanne!
Today Lynne & I headed down the motorway 30 minutes south from Evatt, Belconnen to the far lower reaches of Canberra, Tuggeranong [disparagingly referred to as North Cooma] for a meet with Peter Garas [Garpet] and his partner Leanne at their home in the suburb of Gordon. Peter describes his occupation in his own blogger profile as a 'blog writer', and his output is indeed prolific. It was the continuing blog http://garpet1.blogspot.com of his own experience with gastro oesophageal cancer, right here in Canberra, that gave me information and encouragement from the first days of my diagnosis in October 2007. He has had the same surgeon & oncologist as me.
To meet him and Leanne was a real treat. The man himself was unchained from his feeding pole [nicknamed Marmaduke] and was free to greet us at the door. He & Leanne rolled out the red carpet for us and over several hours we engaged in free flowing conversation across a whole range of topics. Talk of cancer & its treatment was only a small [but important] part of proceedings. We could not resist the chance to compare scars, made by the same surgeon! The one on his stomach has healed so well that you can hardly see it!
Garpet now receives all his nutrition via a feeding tube [his oesphagus is constricted so he cannot swallow], and he patiently watched on while Lynne & I enjoyed the salmon, rye bread, capers, gherkins, dolmades, cheese & grapes that Leanne so generously provided. We in turn got to see Peter take on board a ration of fluids skillfully administered through a syringe by Leanne via his feeding tube.
Peter's voice was quiet but firm, and I could feel a real sense of engagement with this intellectual, articulate, urbane and widely travelled man. I had taken over a grab bag of books & CDs that reflected some of my interests...the usual culprits that you all know, sundials, French sundials, Captain Cook, cacti, astronomy, tarot, old maps, baroque music & family history. Lynne & Leanne also found much to discuss and several hours went by in a flash. Peter & Leanne are gregarious and popular people; while we were there a long time friend from Sydney called in for a quick visit.
The whole episode was a delight, and well, I cannot wait until the next time...perhaps next month? This is one of the up sides of cancer..the lovely people you get to meet by force of circumstance!!
Just for the record today I had my routine 6 weekly port flush at the Belconnen Health Centre.
Thats all for now folks.

Peter Snusher Davis
Canberra, Australia
snusher@gmail.com