New fast going well. Lost 7 kg and blood sugars very low. Now in 10th day. 900 mg Allopurinol daily.


It sounds a bit awful to deny Alfred John Palmer the right to be my biological father. But I'm guessing his younger brother Bill might have slipped one in there while he was off at the race tracks and anyway the DNA codec would be pretty much the same so it really doesn't matter that much plus it gives my Mum a new respect.

What if she and Bill had a secret love affair? I remember waking up in her bed when I was about 6 and they were standing close together by the door looking fondly at me. He was in his police sergeant's uniform and he had the bobby hat on so I was surprised to see a pig trying to scare me in my own home so he quickly took it off and pushed a wry smile my way. She deflected too fast by saying "Your Uncle Bill's come to see you after he heard you are sick," but the ruse was up. I saw a connection between them above and beyond a familial bond. They were up to something and she knew I knew it. They scarpered downstairs quickly after briefly discussing tea.

She once told me I was named after WW2  Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (Monty) and my middle name William because she liked it. Why did she like it? Was it my fathers name?

Just before he died of stomach cancer Bill came out to Australia to see his son Brian in Melbourne. He made the effort to see me in Canberra for a week before he returned to the UK. We got on better than I ever did with Alf with whom I was always fighting. It was good fun.

Years later after my marriage was over and I was driving a truck in Sydney and sharing a house in Woollahra with an artist name Dave I went up the shops for a haircut. When I got back I could see I'd been given a 'gays' haircut so I got in the shower and shaved my head. Walking past the hallway mirror I was stunned to see my Uncle Bill staring back at me.