Loss

Blogs can do some pretty weird things to you over time and one of the weirdest is becoming close to people you don’t really know. You read about their life’s ups and downs and become emotionally tied to their trials and tribulations feeling both pain and joy along with them. If you have had the pleasure, or otherwise, of meeting the subject of a blog this empathy is often intensified.

Today I have read, with great sadness, of the passing of Doreen Smith, a person who I believe I have actually met on a couple of fleeting occasions back in the eighties but whom I have grown to know through the words of her son. It is difficult to express the emotions I am feeling right now but I know they will be magnified a thousand fold for Sid and his family. I just want to take this opportunity pass on my deepest condolences and to tell Doreen that I miss her.

Gill’s Gone

Gill headed off to Manchester today to visit with Kath and Gary who have recently moved up from Enfield. Gill has know Kath since their days together at North Staffs Poly and they have kept in touch ever since. Well when I say they’ve kept in touch it has usually been at either mine or Gary’s prompting but, hey, that’s women for you. Gill is taking advantage of a week or so’s holiday to make the visit for a couple of days. It will be nice for them to get together for a good old chin-wag because it must be about 3 years since they’ve met in person.

The holiday has been taken in order for Gill to have some time to come to terms with turning the dread four-o on the 17th. I get the distinct impression she is not fully looking forward to the big event but there are some advantages to becoming an old git. We spent Saturday morning in Newcastle perusing jewellery in Richard Sintons as an attempt to purchase a present from me and by Jove I think we may have cracked it. Not that Gill knows what she is getting, although I’m sure she has a good idea, but an order has been placed and hopefully we will have it before the 17th.

I’ve also taken a few days holiday as part of my phased return to work so hopefully we will be able to get out and about a bit. The weekend is pretty much spoken for with the Cumberland Arms in Byker having its annual Organic Beer Festival and a meal planned on Sunday evening with Gills family so it could be a hectic few days.

Party Politics

I think I am falling out of love. Stop panicking Gill, not with you. No, I think I’m falling out of love with playing D&D. Yesterday was our first session in quite a while and I left feeling deflated and I enjoyed very little of the play. I think the reason for this is that the sessions are becoming unwieldy and very little of the time we spend together actually involves any game play. Rather we spend what seem to be hours plotting, planning and generally chatting and perhaps only an hour or so playing the damn game.

One of the big problems at the moment is that we are playing a mixed alignment party with a couple of Lawful Good characters at one end of the spectrum and Shaun and I playing Chaotic Neutral characters at the other. Now being a ‘role playing’ game Shaun and I have taken it upon us to cash in on some of the less savoury sidelines that our good colleagues would shun. This has led to some friction with other players as we have extra funds coming in that they are not party to. I don’t know how this situation can be resolved. Do Shaun and I stop role playing and toe the party line? In which case we may as well have rolled good characters in the first place, or do we soldier on and wait for the inevitable straining of friendships/relationships to become serious?

I think another problem is that we are nearly all playing World of Warcraft now and the spirit of cooperation within the guild there is very high and maybe people are expecting that to follow on in D&D. But we are talking about 2 very different game systems with very different rules; D&D is a much more complex beast. D&D is pure role playing while WoW is very much an arcade game with some aspects of role-play bolted on. Strong personalities can be much more dominant in the D&D setting because of its immediate, face to face nature unlike WoW where the barrier created by the computer interface deadens their impact.

I know it can be annoying when other characters appear to be ripping off the rest of the party but that’s the way it goes sometimes, I know, I’ve been on the receiving end many times in the past. Perhaps, in hindsight, we should have insisted that the party alignments were a maximum of one step away from each other so this sort of conflict wouldn’t occur. But, hey, we didn’t and we have to play with what we’ve got, the CN members of the party have also gone along with stuff they haven’t agreed with, so...

All in all I can’t be bothered. It’s only a bloody game and I’m not going to let it ruin my current feeling of well being. Should we ever play again I’ll give it one more go but if I leave feeling the same way as yesterday that’s it, I’m through with it.

Whathisname?

Earlier in the week I had a phone call from Paddy saying that he had arranged a drink after work on Thursday as a welcoming back event in my honour. What he had failed to mention was that rather than staying in town he had decided it would be great fun to head up the Tyne Valley to the Boat House in Wylam. This made logistics a bit interesting and I decided that I would limit myself to a couple of drinks with everyone in town before they head off on the train. I didn’t think I would make it into work on the Friday if the night went on too long, which wouldn’t have been an auspicious start to my return to work.

I made my excuses at the rehab session and left before the relaxation talk that was planned and raced home to drop off my sweat drenched kit (you really wanted to know that didn’t you?) before making my way up to the Bodega. The selection of beers during the summer months in most pubs tends to veer towards a light, hopy “Golden this” or “Summer that” with no dark ales to be seen. So, rather than take a chance on something unknown and potentially hop laden, I fell back on the old, safe standby of Mordues “Workie Ticket”. Next stop, for no reason that I could think of other than ‘It’s next to the railway station’, was the Centurion bar who have never, it seems, heared of cask beer so I switched to JD and coke.

Now at this point I had planned to say my goodbyes to everyone as they headed off on the train but persuation, or the alcohol, got the better of me and before I knew it I was on the phone to Gill wondering if she fancied driving up to the Boat House for a half before driving the pair of us back home? Luckily she was in a good mood and encouraged by the good weather agreed to my proposal. Gill and I had only been to the Boat House once together as far as I was aware but it was a regular haunt of mine during my student days. Only 15 mins away on the train it was a great place to escape to and I spent many an evening there with Steve Whatshisname debating the finer points of any crap that came to mind.

Now obviously Steve’s surname was not Whatshisname but I’m damned if I can recall it just now. I can picture him as clearly as I can remember he still has one of my Hawkwind LP’s. Ho-hum, I’m sure his name will come to me at three in the morning sometime within the next week. I remember one particularly drunken evening celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela over several pints of dark, unctuous loveliness. Anyway...

To be honest the place doesn’t appear to have changed that much. It still looks rather ragged around the edges and the locals still drink more than can be good for them but the beer is of such good quality I can understand why. They also, to their credit, had a lovely dark beer from the Hawkshead Brewery whose name unfortunately escapes me for the moment. I’m making a habit of this today aren’t I? Gill duly arrived and after an hour or so of amiable chit chat we headed back home with the stated intention of returning before the summer is out.

Slave To The Grind

It has finally happened and I am back at work. How do I feel about this? Well to be honest, for a change, very positive. I was getting to that ‘caged animal’ stage at home. Despite reports to the contrary there is only so much time you can spend on World of Warcraft, or listening to music, or reading, or wandering aimlessly around town before work begins to look like an attractive proposal.

I’m here for a half day today before heading over to my rehab class. The initial idea of today was to discuss with Paddy just how we were going to manage my return to work. Like all great ideas there was a flaw, namely Paddy didn’t show up this morning and won’t be here until after I have left. So how have I used my time today? Well I’ve wandered around the department saying my hellos to people and catching up on 3 months of gossip. I'm glad to be back.

Feels Like 1998

As I mentioned in my last post the Tour de France started yesterday minus several of its competitors including the two favourites Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso. Both have been implicated in a doping scandal that has been unearthed in Spain and the Tour is facing its darkest days since the Festina scandal of 1998.

I have been a follower of the race since the days of 15 minute highlights each Saturday on World of Sport. In those days I didn’t really understand what it was all about but loved the spectacle provided by the likes of Eddy Merckx. As television coverage of the race became more comprehensive with the introduction of Channel 4 I gained a new found respect for the athletes who braved this most gruelling of challenges. However the shadow of drug misuse/abuse has never been far away from the sport or the race casting doubt on the legitimy of all involved.

I hope, against all odds, that the race this year manages to overcome its bad start and the start of the post Lance Armstrong era produces race and a champion who will be talked about for all the right reasons. Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde suffers the handicap of being my tip this year and, with the recent suspensions, is also now race favourite.

Abnormal Service Resumed

When, in my very first post for this blog, I stated that the posts may, on occasion, be a little infrequent even I didn’t expect a hiatus of nearly 2 months. There have been a number of factors associated with my lack of posting but nothing of any great import. I just have found other things to do. In truth I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make any further posts and Tyne Tales was just going to pass into history as another of my half hearted ‘projects’. However I have enjoyed posting here and although at times I have struggled for anything meaningful to say I will miss it if it were to go, so here I am with an attempt to get things moving again.

What has prompted this change of mind? A couple of things really, I have actually had a couple of messages asking me to update the site (I didn’t think anyone cared, thank you), and I’m about to return to work and I find the blog helps me focus on my life away from the hospital and appreciate it more. Strangely I also feel that I had more time to post whist I was working as opposed to now as I sit at home all day. Go figure.

OK I suppose an update of sorts is called for so now follows the main bits and pieces that would have appeared here had I been arsed.

• Tomorrow was worse and poor Coral was put to sleep at 13:00 on Tuesday 9th May. The house has been a much quieter and emptier place without her presence. We miss her dreadfully still.

• My surgeon, or at least his registrar, is very pleased with my recovery from surgery and a further ECHO scan has confirmed that the operation to have been successful.

• I have commenced a twice weekly cardiac rehabilitation scheme which entails going to a sports centre and doing circuit training, *shudder*.

• Been to 2 beer festivals which I’m quite sure don’t feature in any rehabilitation program. The first was in Edinburgh and Billy and I spent a very enjoyable day up in Scotland, the second in Corbridge in the Tyne Valley. I even took photos of each with the thought of posting a report, but there you go.

• England get knocked out of the World Cup on penalties yet again. We played poorly and won, to a chorus of media disapproval. We played much better and lost, happy now you pen pushing gits?

• The Tour de France starts in controversy, like England losing, no surprise there then.

OK I could go on but what’s the point? Let’s just accept things have been and gone and just take things from here.