Kate To The Rescue

Yesterday I had an appointment for an Echo-scan at the Freeman hospital. This had been arranged back in November and to be quite honest I’m not sure why they still wanted me to have it considering the MRI scans I have had previously. Never mind, it was an excuse to get out of the house so I was looking forward to it in a perverse sort of way. I popped into Town first to have a bit of a wander and bumped into Jean, my mother-in-law, who had been stood up by one of her WI cronies. She had been waiting for a good hour with still no sign of her friend. I asked her if she had called her friend on her mobile but got an embarrassed admission that she had left it at home so was unable to find out if the problem had been major or minor. I left her as she headed off to Fenwicks to get something to eat and I assume everything has worked out because she hasn’t been on the phone to pass on any bad news to Gill.

At the Freeman I spotted Kate, a secretary who used to work at NGH with me, and she waved me over. I gave her the run down of my current problems and she informed me that she was now working in the cardio unit and would I like her to check out the situation regarding my referral to a surgeon? Not half! So she took my contact details and promised to phone once she had done some snooping. The Echo itself went without problem, I think, but the operator was being tight lipped and she wouldn’t talk me through the scans as they came up, shame.

True to her word Kate phoned me today as soon as she found out what was happening. Apparently I have been referred to a Mr Hassan but have yet to be allocated a clinic appointment to see him so Kate was going to lay it on thick with the secretary to move things on for me. I dread to think what someone who has no contacts within the NHS has to go through to set the wheels in motion. What I do know though is that I will be a lot more tolerant with patients’ queries regarding appointments when I do eventually make it back to work.

Catouflage

Not the best of starts this morning. I had another poor night and when I surfaced I was somewhat woolly headed and disorientated. I was brought back to life whilst wandering barefoot to the bathroom and wondering what the damp, slightly warm feeling was under my right foot. On inspection it turns out I had just wandered through a remarkable resemblance to the map of India, complete with Sri Lanka to its side, composed wholly of cat vomit.

So, after I had hopped my way to the bath to stick my foot under the tap, I set about clearing up the mess and searched for the fur ball that no doubt accompanied it, to no avail. Despite discovering a further patch of the offending goo on the bedroom carpet which had to be dealt no fur ball materialised. It will no doubt materialise miraculously inside one of my shoes next week but until then I’m left with the unlikely proposition that Coral had just been sick and forwent the opportunity to deposit a vile lump of sodden, matted hair at the same time.

It took me a while to find Coral to admonish her for my poor start to the day as she had hijacked my new jumper and with chameleon like ability had managed to merge rather well with it on one of the chairs downstairs.

Catouflage?

Labour Of Love

As you can see I wasn’t happy with the make-over that I gave the site a couple of days ago and I have spent the intervening few days trying get it to look something like it does now.

I have to say I never imagined it would be so damned difficult to do. I assumed that if I looked on the internet for blogger templates there would be millions of the buggers and I would easily find something suitable. Oh boy was I wrong. Don’t get me wrong there were loads out there but very few simple yet classy designs that were shouting “come and use me Chris”. So what you see today is the result of butchering a couple of designs, using what amounted to the computer equivalent of a chainsaw, and stitching them back together in a slightly haphazard manner. This was not pretty surgery.

My job was not made any easier by the fact I don’t have a clue about html or whatever it is these things are designed with so my days have been spent changing numbers in the code one at a time and trying to see what effect that had. Eventually I ended up with this design and I’m quite pleased with the results, I just don’t think I could repeat it if I tried. Special thanks must go to FreeFoto.com for the picture and I would recommend the site to anyone looking for some quality photographic content.

Sofa Rummaging

There have been one or two advantages to my occasional attempts at tidying the back room, namely the uncovering of long lost gift vouchers. The recent haul has been £15 worth of HMV vouchers and a further £17 for WH Smiths, not bad really. This did of course lead to another pocket, hole, burning situation which could only be remedied by a trip into Town.

Gill was heading in early to meet up with her friend Jacqui so I tagged along for the bus journey and we went our own separate ways once there. I’m something of a creature of habit and so hit the same shops I always do, in the same order. This is a route that has been honed over the years to allow the greatest potential return for my spending and I can’t see it changing any time soon. Once again it proved fruitful and, by the time I had met with Bill, my brother Graeme and a friend-free Gill a couple of hours later, I had a very good idea of how much was going to be spent and where.

In the end my return for the days wandering was: a John Hughes DVD box set including The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science; the Rush R30 DVD special edition with a multitude of extras; and 3 CD’s, Styx’s Cyclorama, Bon Jovi’s This Left Feels Right (for Gill) and a double compilation of NWOBHM by Neat Records artists. I have to say I am very pleased with the results and look forward to giving them all a spin, well all apart from Bon Jovi. Not bad for a rummage behind the sofa, so to speak.

Tales From The Yellow Room

I finally managed to get off my lazy arse on Wednesday and make a trip down to Whitley Bay and chez Smith. I think the last time Sid and I had any sort of face to face chat would have been ten plus years ago so I was a little concerned that the day would be filled with embarrassing silences. However, we both seemed to hit our stride from moment one and it turned out to be a case of knowing when to shut up rather than not knowing what to say.

Over a number of pots of Earl Grey and a rather fine bacon and mushroom sarnie we covered a multitude of topics including old acquaintances from years gone by, Sid’s initiation into the world of Robert Fripp and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, amongst others. I was also a bit of a hit with Baby Wilson who settled on my lap for most of the afternoon and kept me well toasty as we sat in the famous Yellow Room.

We parted with each of us stating we should try to ensure it isn’t a further ten years or so before we do this again and I hope we manage to make good on those words. All in all a very pleasant way to spend a few hours and it was certainly the highlight of my week, although considering the only other time I’ve crossed the doorway this week was to go to hospital perhaps that’s selling it a bit short.

A Change Is As Good As...

As you can see I've been bored today and have played around with my template a bit, well OK, a lot. All I really wanted to do was add some links but as I'm so cack handed at this thing this option proved to be the only one I could get to work. I'll give it a few days to see if I like it and can improve on it. Shouldn't be too hard but I bet it proves to be.

Menses the Merciless?

As part of the deal with the renal consultants regarding my return to work I agreed that my GP should be involved in the decision on my suitability for work. So yesterday I phoned the surgery to try and secure an appointment with the GP who has been dealing with my sick notes and prescriptions. I foolishly assumed that if I had been requested by my consultant to see a particular GP then the surgery would make sure such a consultation was possible, pah.

The GP in question is in surgery two days next week, Tuesday and Friday, but I was informed that all her pre-booked slots had been filled and I would be unable to book anything for those days yet. Rather what I would have to do was hang on the phone from 12:00 on Monday to try and book an appointment with the GP then for the following day and if that failed try the same thing on Thursday for Friday’s clinic. My protestations that this was something that my consultant had requested I do fell on deaf ears and I was told that “this is the way the system works for everyone”. Or not as the case may prove to be.

On a lighter note there has been some of the most fun to be had on both television and radio recently in the form of the news bulletins, no seriously, try this at home it will be fun for all the family. All you have to do is wait for the part in the bulletin where they discuss the impending Liberal Democrat leadership battle and see how many times the reporters miss pronounce Sir Menzies Campbells name. Yesterday during a Radio 5 Live broadcast I counted 5 different efforts in the space of 2-3 minutes, some by the same reporters. We had Ming, Menace, Mingis, Menses and Menzies, just think of the confusion with the voting public, the guy doesn’t stand a chance.

The Drugs Don’t Work

The last few weeks have been a bit of a mixed bag for me. Whilst I have enjoyed the Christmas festivities and some very entertaining visits to various friends’ houses I have, generally, been under a bit of a cloud. This cloud appeared in the run up to Christmas and has stayed with me ever since. It hasn’t been a depressive type of cloud rather the unable to sleep through the night type which has led me to feel very tired and run down during the day. It all started with the introduction of some new medication prescribed by my renal consultant. So armed with a steely determination to try and sort it I headed to Freeman yesterday to see said consultant.

Now if you’ve been reading my previous posts you will know that I have employed a bit of top brass muscle to try and speed my journey toward good health so I wasn’t too surprised that, rather than my usual consultant, I was seen by the head of the renal department. He was very good and listened to my concerns regarding my sleep pattern and agreed to try another type of medication to see if that alleviated the problem. He also hinted at a bit of antagonism toward the cardiac unit with regard to the length of time things were taking and is writing to them to try and speed up the process even further.

I have a feeling I may have upset one or two people in my efforts to get things moving and from what this new consultant inferred my ‘case’ has even gone as far as Len Fenwick, the Chief Executive of the Trust, oops. Still, we don’t get many perks working in the NHS and it is in the best interest of the Trust to get me back to work as soon as possible. On the subject of which I have been told that if my sleeplessness improves over the next week or so I can go back to work before my operation, which is great news.

Elsewhere, the back room tidying project remains very much ongoing and is likely to be so for a while.

Misplaced Childs Hoodies – Youth Work Rocks 2005

Misplaced Childs Hoodies – Youth Work Rocks 2005

Apocolyptica – Life Burns
Coheed and Cambria – Ten Speed
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Worlds Apart
Neal Morse – The Mans Gone
System of a Down – Radio/Video
Dead Soul Tribe – Toy Rockets
Threshold – Static
Alterbridge – Open Your Eyes
Dream Theatre – I Walk Beside You
Opeth – Hope Leaves
Porcupine Tree – Shallow/Lazarus
Nightwish – Nemo
Sonata Arctica – My Seine
Within Temptation – Angels
Gov’t Mule – Same Price
Spocks Beard – As Long as We Ride
Blind Guardian – Valhalla

Billy’s first ‘best of’ follows a path quite similar to my own and we have 6 crossover acts, although Nightwish remain the only band to feature on mine and Rob’s efforts. As I suspected Billy’s collection leans heavily toward the ‘new prog’ end of the spectrum and throws up a couple of things worthy of further investigation, in particular the new AYWKUBTTOD album and Porcupine Tree.

Special mention should also go to Alterbridge which, for some inexplicable reason, failed to make it onto my disc. The album was the best collection of modern rock music I have heard in a long time and I can only assume I sub-consciously excluded them to save myself the trauma of reliving the fact I missed their Carling Academy gig due to my ‘house arrest’.

RH – Highway to Harrogate 2005

RH – Highway to Harrogate 2005

Judas Priest – Worth fighting For
Foo Fighters – DOA
Allen/Lande – Battle
Brazon Abbot – My Resurrection
Maria McKee – Seasons of the Fair
Journey – Place in Your Heart
Rammstein – Rosenrot
Thunder – I Love You More…
Bruce Dickinson – Devil on a Hog
Iommi Hughes – Grace
Stage Dolls – Get a Life
Audioslave – Doesn’t Remind Me
Robin Beck – Do You Miss Me
Nightwish – Sleeping Sun
Alice Cooper – Saga of Jesse James
Blue Tears – Let it Rain
Demon – Standing on the Edge
Bruce Springsteen – All the Way Home
Deep Purple – Girls Like That

Robs end of year ‘best of’ throws up just one crossover with my own in the shape of Nightwish and is its usual broad spectrum of styles. Well, when I say broad spectrum, I mean in a rock music sense, there’s no jazz or classics here.

My first impressions is that it’s a steady rather than spectacular effort this year, sorry Rob, but that is probably down to my own current listening tastes. Best tracks on the CD and definite purchase potential go to: Maria McKee who is in fine voice as always; Alice Cooper who has, it seems a return to form after a couple of decidedly weak releases; and Demon for flying the flag for rock music that screams “We’re British” at you.

Rob also added his nominations Favourite Album (Alice Cooper – Dirty Diamonds), Best Live Act (Scorpions) and Biggest Disappointment (Judas Priest).

Resolution Number One

Today I intend to start work on clearing the back room of at least some of its clutter. This is a job Gill and I have been putting off for far too long and, of course, the longer this has gone on the more crap gets dumped in here. To get to the PC requires negotiating an assault course that the SAS would be proud to complete and I’ve finally lost patience with the situation.

The hard part of this will be parting with most of said crap because I’m one of those compulsive hoarder types who holds on to anything and everything in the knowledge that I may need it in 25 years time. But needs must and If I’m to convince Gill that installing broadband and getting a new supa doopa PC is a great idea then sacrifices will need to be made.

I give us 2 minutes before we have a disagreement about the necessity of an item of crap.

Out With The Old

Happy New Year to one and all, here's wishing you all good health and happiness.

The New Year was seen in with an evening of music and conversation in the company of Billy and Steph. I don’t think any of us particularly enjoy New Year so this was very much a quiet, non celebratory night in. We didn’t even drink that much but had a pleasant night all the same.

Congratulations should go to Steph who actually managed to see the New Year in this year!