It varies, depending on my health. I have enough health issues to be signed off work indefinitely, but I have good days and bad days, as well as good weeks (or months) and bad ones, since I pick up a lot of infections.

When things are going reasonably well, I try to go out once or twice a week - sometimes this is a medical appointment or chore day combined with getting something nice to eat, other times it’s just me moseying up to the bakery because I feel like a piece of cake or a sandwich in the sunshine would be a good idea. Sometimes I have to go out more often - last summer I had radiation therapy Mondays and Fridays, for example, and at the moment I don’t have a working washing machine so I make a fair amount of trips to the laundromat - but going out more than twice weekly really exhausts me and ensures I have to spend most of the rest of my time in bed, even when things are going relatively well.

I read a lot, and I’m trying to ensure I read a variety of things, both new and old, so I do a lot of reading challenges, both Goodreads ones (where you read from a list of specific books) and POPSUGAR ones (where they give you fifty prompts a year; this year I’m doing two or three years’ worth, but last year I did six years’ worth). I watch a lot of anime. Sometimes other TV, and sometimes movies, but mostly anime, both new (to me) and old favourites. I used to embroider and cross-stitch a lot - often commissions for pay - but chemo has nerfed my hands and eyes in the last few years, and I find stitching much harder than I used to, and don’t do as much of it.

I go through phases where I play games, mostly Switch/DS/3DS. I haven’t played in a year or so, so I might dig those out again. I play a few mobile games, too. I always have at least one language on the go, and spend a fair amount of time on Duolingo - it’s not the best language-learning app, but it’s free, and it lets you switch between languages easily. I have a high dementia risk - it’s almost certain that I’ll get it, and probably early - so I always have some kind of learning program on the go, and I jump between about six languages, because switching between languages (or ideally, other subjects too) probably helps with neuroplasticity. Sometimes I do other subjects - I like Khan Academy for math, which is also free, though it’s US syllabus-based so less useful in the U.K. - but chemo has also wrecked my ability to focus and learn, so I haven’t done that for about a year. (Unfortunately when learning is hardest is probably when I need to be doing it the most.)

I don’t cook much these days - too tired - but I bake bread once every couple weeks. I clean quite a lot, though somehow the house is always filthy. I’ve been trying to clear out my mom’s hoarder house for 3.5 years, and haven’t gotten anywhere near as far as I thought I would have, because I have very limited energy and no money or driving license, but a fair amount of my daily energy goes towards cleaning and sorting, and things are getting better, even if it’s at a snail’s pace.

When it’s sunny, I lie outside and listen to music or read. I grew up in 80s Spain and California, and I like to sunbathe. I spend a lot of time scrolling social media, and sometimes interacting. I used to write a lot, though much less these days, when I can’t make my brain work very well. Sometimes I make and share music playlists, usually when my ADHD is beasting me and I can’t concentrate on anything longer than a music video.

I spend a fuckload of time in hospitals. During worse periods, it’s about 1/3 of my waking hours (may or may not include sleeping hours). At home, most of my time is spent in bed, though a lower proportion in summer than winter, in part because I tend to be healthier in summer, in part because I can’t really afford to have the heat on so in bed with a hot water bottle is the only place warm enough.

I worked from a very young age (not sure exactly how young) until I was 39, but almost all of my jobs were either self-employed and I set my own hours, or in my longest job (10+ years) I worked 3-4x 12-hour night shifts a week plus occasional extras, so I’ve always had a lot of flexibility in my life. I think I’ve only worked a 9-5 for about three years total, and even when I was teaching I was doing courses that were three weeks on, three weeks off, so I probably only had a year where I was working every weekday. In better years, I used to travel, hike, go to the theatre, go swimming, go ice skating, go to day spas, date, see friends, take evening classes, go to yoga, go to the gym. I don’t do any of that anymore, except occasionally have coffee with one friend, but I have hope that life might resume again at some point. I make the best of how things are, and I’m lucky to not have to try and hold down a job while I’m this sick, but it’s not quite as idyllic as it sounds, and I never forget that I have all this time on my hands because I’m too unwell to move further than from bed to the bathroom probably five days out of seven.