A little break.................

We went to visit Sally in London for a few days last week and had a great time. I am still having problems with my feet but I have now developed a style of walking that minimizes the pain. We stayed at a hotel very close to Covent Garden and visited all the closer places of interest including the new and improved British Museum. Some of the small local shops in the area are also very interesting, I bought a DVD I have been after for years for just £5.00 and we had an amazing meal at a Korean owned multi-cultural takeaway. Visiting Hamleys after all these years was an interesting experience, especially with Hazel. She managed to spend over £100.00 on presents for the grandchildren, nephews and nieces. A trip on the Docklands Light Railway took us to see the Cutty Sark and we also managed a trip to Hammersmith to see one of Sally's favorite shops.

English as she is written?

I love these.

I bought something on Ebay and it is being sent from Hong Kong. The supplier is concerned that I should be aware of possible delays due to Christmas being so close. So he sends me a reassuring email, as follows.

Thank you for you patience and kindness, the logistic company has informed us that your order is being on the road, and we shipped it to your ebay address, but it maybe a little delay because of the boom season. Anyway, pls freely touch us if you still fail to get your order in one or two weeks, we will follow up it further for you.

It reminds me so much of the bricklayers letter to his boss that Gerard Hoffnung made so famous.

A touching story.

Corey has been very clingy of late. Mainly with his mum but, to a certain extent, with whoever he is currently in the charge of. Worst of all, he has stopped staying in his bed all night and constantly tries to get in with his mum and dad. This has been running them ragged so, with a very early start this morning for Ian, last night Corey stayed with us. He had a couple of  'moments' but, in general, was a very well behaved two year old. I even got a couple of cuddles from him when, usually, he just ignores me. Needless to say, his mum was pleased by the result but secretly annoyed that he didn't play us up at all.

Oh dear.....................

I upset a few people with my dislike of Bitlocker yesterday. It seems that two hours is peanuts compared to some similar software, I was quoted nine hours for less capability. So maybe it isn't such a time consuming exercise after all. It still seemed like a long time to me when I was doing it though.

We seem to have a small surge in the problems after deployment this week. Two laptops with no sound from the monitor turned out to be either a missing audio lead or a plug not fully pushed in. We have also got a Kingston lock that fell into it's component parts when the bag was opened. Cool! I have been forging ahead with the wiring in the bedroom this week and have now reached the point where power has to be switched off in order to finish the job. I'll do that on Saturday and hope that that's an end to it.

I've now spent a week with the new laptop and, whilst it's not as good as a desktop for most of my work, I have, reluctantly decided that it works well enough for me. i still don't like laptops but this one at least has a dual core i5 processor and seems pretty fast so it works for me at work.

I'm going through the usual pre Christmas frenzy of deciding whether to buy what for whom again. Some people are so easy to make happy and others so difficult. My daughter is an open book to me, I can spend very little and know I have bought the very item that will please her the most. My son is the opposite, I could spend a small fortune on him and, unless I buy him something he asked for, I will always be wrong. The rest of the family are all somewhere in between those two diverse points.

Bitlocker, whither Bitlocker?

I was, today, obliged to install and run this piece of software. I'm sure it's fine for most users but on our constrained system and being a Guinea pig tester was not a barrel of laughs. It took over two hours to complete and, during that time, I was not able to do much work on my laptop. However, at the end of that time, I have an encrypted hard drive and a remotely stored key to access it should it ever become necessary. Unless you really need the high level of security required I suggest that you don't use Bitlocker as it just eats up time and is quite complicated to set up. 

I was aware that grapefruit was not on my list of foods that are good for me but it came as a bit of a shock to discover, this morning, that all citrus fruit is bad for people on heart drugs. This is going to change my life by quite a lot I'm afraid. From now on I will now have to exist without my favorite fruits. Doh!

Just one of those days?

Yesterday was diabolical. I can't put my finger on it but it was just one of those days you would rather not have had. Even my colleague, Ian, complained about my grumpy attitude. The only good time I had was at a meeting when I would normally be miserable, I hate meetings, this one was great fun though. I sat there listening to my new top boss running down all the areas that I run down only louder and in a more vituperative manner.

I kept nodding off all evening and, when I got into bed, fell asleep immediately. I suspect the weather is at the root of my discontent although, disconcertingly, the weather is worse today and yet I feel better today. 

I really don't like getting out of bed any more!

I am so comfortable when I wake that I have a real problem getting out of bed now.

Things could only get better.....

and, fortunately, they did.

My back improved over the weekend as did my hip. Russ had family visiting so we didn't do more than say hello on Saturday but I was able to let him know that the network connection is now working properly again. Hazel and I went shopping on Saturday and managed to buy two super king size fitted sheets which are perfect and sooooooo comfortable. We are sleeping well!! Hazel has just begun her first week as a lady of, a certain amount of, leisure. She drove me to work, drove out to the industrial estate to buy a part for the boiler and made the appointment for the car to be serviced. And all before midday. I could get to like this.

My achy, breaky back.

Yesterday, being the first day of my working life without Hazel in the vicinity, was both strange and painful. I walked to work and wished I hadn't as my right hip joint began to hurt by Charles church and was really bad by the time I got to my office. The day was uneventful apart from being told I was released from the database project as the big boss had wanted me back on support. When I left work, it was hammering down so I called a taxi and waited in the cold and wet for fifteen minutes for it, shivering when I eventually got into the car. The bed and mattress had both arrived as expected and, after a family meal with Ian and Lulu, Samuel and Corey and Kian, I began to assemble the stuff. With help from Ian and the two older boys, I finished this by about eight and, in considerable pain by now, went and watched two episodes of M*A*S*H. Then I went to bed. The bed is great, the mattress is terrific and the quilt is smashing. The fitted sheet is slippery and seems to move of it's own accord. It must be replaced!

Number one daughter is safely in Paris for her mucky weekend with crafty Pierre and his mum so we wish her well in her.....................endeavors.

Hazel has already frittered a lot of her pension lump sum and redundancy lump sum away on two ISA's and a special savings account. It just goes to show, "You can't trust an accountant".

Another one bites the dust...................

Weekend, that is. A very busy one made even more difficult by a severe attack of the trots and the birthday of a grandson. Samuel having reached the grand old age of seven, we had a bit of a do on Monday for him with a trip to our local "Jump" to tire out the younger ones and kill a couple of hours before we had our cake and returned the birthday boy to his mum. The day was not improved by the weather, drizzly and chilly, but we managed to stay cheerful. We all got our respective gifts correct, it would seem from the exited squeals and jumping up and down that went on. The Robosapian  went down a treat and was played with by all three boys on a fairly continuous basis while they were in it's presence. The animals simply ignored it and walked around it sedately, even Alfie couldn't be fussed.

Only a week late.....................

According to the original plan, I had two days to produce the master spreadsheet for this project. That was seven working days ago and I think I am lucky to have made it as far as I have by today. The data I am working with is mostly incorrect and the database itself is very flaky. In addition, I found I needed to produce the spreadsheet from several sources - all on different platforms. I have managed, today to integrate the two disparate sections of the master Access database, the Red Dot list from another Excel spreadsheet and various items from Word documents into a coherent whole in such a way that we can now update by hand once a day if necessary and gradually improve the accuracy of the thing. My greatest joy is that I have taken a five thousand plus item database and reduced it to just two sheets of A4 in order to make the system simpler and more accurate. Whilst feeling fairly pleased with myself, I just know someone is bound to say, "That's OK, but can we do this"? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Moving right along,

just very slowly.

The new job, or project to be more precise, is finally beginning to take on some shape and form. The requirements and methods have been refined and I am now producing useful information.

Well, sort of. The original problem with the database still stands, it's too big, too flaky and only runs on Win XP. I have moved my old PC over to the new office and I now have four screens to work with. I occasionally get lost! I have printed off many pages of data pro-tem and I even have two bound sets now. Still, the amount of data needed is becoming smaller at last and by refining my methods I have begun to understand the big picture at long last.

Whilst all this has been going on, life at home has been slow and sleepy. Hazel and I are rising early, in the dark, and going to bed early, in the dark, and not doing much else other than eat. We are waiting for her to leave work and then we can order the new bed and mattress and she will be at home to accept them. Until then, we continue to complain about not sharing a bed despite both being very comfortable in the beds we are sleeping in.

Everything hurts!!!

Especially my brain.
It was a very busy weekend yet again with me driving all over the place and grandsons visiting willy-nilly. The boiler problem is nearly solved with a new flue paid for and soon to be installed. duvet has arrived and we now only need to order the bed and mattress to be fully sleep worthy again. To be honest, we had almost given up hope of sleeping comfortably in our own bed again but it might not be very long now.

For a week that started so well,

what a total dogs breakfast it's turned out to be!

I am beginning to get on top of the various data streams that I need to access in order to run this new task I have been given. However, due to the flaky nature of the master database, it's proving an uphill struggle still.

At home, the problems continue with our boiler nearly being condemned this morning. It turns out it's not the boiler at fault but the top half of the flue that's causing the system to fail. John, our builder is frantically trying to obtain another one. This might be difficult as the whole system is obsolete. If we cannot obtain a new flue, we will have to go for a new boiler.................................

The new bedding has arrived for the, as yet, not ordered bed and mattress. We have had a great offer from Lulu and Ian to come and house sit for us when the bed and mattress are due so we can order them earlier than we originally thought.

And again!

More of the same today, I have had to remote into my old XP box in order to work on the database, find umpteen links to the various data sources we may have to use and have a meeting of the four of us supposed to be involved in this job. Of the four, I'm the only one with tech skills and experience of the methodology involved. sigh.

On the plus side, they are all quick learners and keen to do well so no problems there. The biggest problem will be the flaky database and the parts that are there but not changeable by my log in. The rest of the equation pales into insignificance in comparison.

On the personal side, I have ordered my new specs, the new duvet and two sets of bedding for the new bed.

Even better, the cost of the lot was less than £100.00.

Great!

Just when I thought I was clear of the 'dam thing, the PD5 database comes back to haunt me.

When I arrived at my desk this morning, I found an email from my boss asking me to meet up with him as soon as possible. I managed to get to his office by 08.45 and he grabbed me immediately to let me know his latest plans for me. Now, I'd be the first to admit that I'm somewhat flattered by the trust being placed in me with all this but the fact remains that I have even more work to do with the database from hell. Just as an aside, within the past hour he came back and asked me to do another job related to the PD5 database. Between the two, they may well keep me occupied until Christmas.

Add to all this that I have had to move my desk across to Babbage and I am now using a new laptop running Win7 instead of my trusty old desktop with XP and it boils down to one helluva day.

Spooky!!!

My last post was about how much work I had on the go....................... Today, almost nothing.

My weekend was busy, fitting new lights in kitchen, buying new bedroom carpet, having eye test for new specs, returning Samuel home, buying new shoes and fixing the main internet feed after it was broke!

Saturday evening was chaotic with both Russ and I having problems with software and getting through three different video chat programs before we could get one to work. I'm sure it wasn't us, the problems were so dissimilar. I was chatting to Ian yesterday and we got on to the subject of Jimmy Savile, we both felt that, despite the anger at what it seems he did, we also felt very saddened about the fact that a large part of our happy memories have now been tainted for ever. Indeed, as Ian said, the only person completely untouched by this is Savile himself.

Another week, another dollar.

You may have guessed from the almost total lack of output this week that I am having a busy spell at present. At work, we were inundated with logs and at home family commitments and building work had to take priority. The end result was a complete lack of creative writing and little or no blogging. I suspect that this will be the format of my life up until Christmas now.

I hope I get some time to myself this weekend as I need to re-install the cable TV system in the bedroom and then check out the whole coax run to be certain what is causing my poor internet connection.

A case in point! Between these two paragraphs, I have remoted into another PC and set up his printer. This is happening all the time now and probably will until after Christmas.

Sent from my smart phone, please excuse the brevity.

No, not a serious message. I just ran a test yesterday to see how easy it is to log in to someone else's WiFi and blog. The logging in was easy, the blogging would have been tedious so I just left a place marker and pulled out again. That's why, today, I am writing a piece for yesterday.

I am having some problems with my Internet connection at home, with what appears to be a dodgy connection somewhere. I have isolated it to the Virgin side of the house system but that's as far as I have reached so far. As I am not currently in a position to check the cable TV connection, I am having a bit of a struggle finding the weak spot at present but I will get there eventually.

FAQ

Q. Did you enjoy your holiday?

A. Not a lot, the best bit was spending time with Hazel. The worst bit was the rest!

Q. Surely there must have been some other good stuff?

A. Fair enough, we spent some time with our good friends and we re-visited places we had been happy and we ate some good meals and some prices were very low compared to the UK.

Q. But?

A. But Malta was in the middle of a minor heat wave, the air conditioning in our apartment didn't work and the temperature overnight rarely dropped below 85 Fahrenheit the whole time we were there.

Q. But isn't Malta currently having a major make-over to upgrade the islands?

A. True, the roads are all up and the new bus system is all up and running. Also, it seems all non Maltese are being gently pushed into just two areas on the main island. We were in what amounted to a slum for Brits. Most of the shops have hired British staff or are run by Brits so all you hear are northern or estuary English most of the time. The rest of the islands have Maltese owning and staffing them and they all now seem to be moving away from using English if they can, not that I blame them!

ooops!

This isn't a rehearsal, this is it!

Picture the scene, most of the family in our kitchen, Alfie is lying - asleep - on the floor as far out of the way as he can get. Samuel is sitting on Hazels chair and half watching the TV. Wendy is sitting on the swivel chair and chatting idly with Hazel who is standing at the worktop end. I am on one of the ordinary kitchen chairs as is Lulu. It's very quiet as Corey is eating a small fromage-frais in his high chair.

Suddenly, there is a cry, Corey has decided to stick his pudding in his eye! Tears and minor screaming. I am closest so I attempt to clean him up. Lulu comes across to help me. We clean his face up but he is still rubbing his eye with a very puddeny hand. "Can someone get me a damp cloth please?" says Lulu. As I move in the direction of the sink, Hazel, who has moved up closer to see if she can help turns around to go back to the sink and stands on poor Alfie who is still minding his own business and hasn't moved. He squeals and panics. Hazel goes down with the biggest thump imaginable onto the wooden floor. Alfie runs under the table and hides in case we decide it's his fault. Hazel groans and tries to sit up. I reach her and ask if she is OK "No", she says, "I've hurt my wrist". Wendy and I both came to the same conclusion, broken!

This broke up the party somewhat and I took Hazel to A&E. "Sorry, it's a four hour wait here, try the Cumberland Centre". We go to the Cumberland Centre and she is seen immediately as by now her wrist has a very ominous lump on it. X-ray, plaster and letter to take into A&E on Monday morning as early as possible after 09.30. Hazel had a fairly comfortable night and we got to A&E about 09.45. Here, she was also seen immediately and moved into a treatment bay. She had her wrist positioned and re-plastered over the next hour or so and then had to go into recovery for over an hour. By the time we got home it was past 14.00 and we were starving. Today and tomorrow we are at work and then, on Thursday, we start all over again with the fracture clinic who will check progress and decide whether we can still go on holiday or whether Hazel needs a plate in her wrist.

Corey stopped screaming almost immediately in order to see what had happened to Nanny Hazel.

Alfie was not told off, he didn't do anything wrong.

Hazel and I have still not watched the first episode of the latest series of Downton Abbey.

Another week older............................

It's been a fascinating week in many ways. Several very interesting things have been brought to my attention about colleagues, both past and present. I have recovered from last weekend's exertions very slowly. Hazel and I went to our first, and very probably only, new citizen ceremony and we had a spectacular meal cooked for us by said new citizen. On Tuesday, we went, with Zemi, to see her take the oath and become a UK citizen. All very organised and, I thought, very friendly ceremony in the Lord Mayors parlour beside the civic centre. The Deputy Lord Mayor was presiding this week and, as he and his wife are Sikhs, they attended in their own robes plus their respective chains of office. And very good they looked too. They are also very chatty and pleasant to talk to. Anyway, Zemi received her certificate and had her photo taken with the Deputy Lord Mayor and we had tea and bickies and went back to work. Yesterday evening, Zemi cooked us a meal loosely based on both Indian and Chinese cuisine but bearing a very strong relationship to African food ideals. I can honestly say it was wonderful! It was deceptively simple in appearance but  incredibly tasty without being too spicy. She even managed to provide two different rice dishes, one not in the slightest bit  hot, for me, and a somewhat hotter version for Hazel and her. I still don't know exactly how she managed to cook the chicken to such a perfect quality but I intend to find out. After the meal, we just sat there for four hours and chatted. The time just melted away. I finally took her back to her flat at about 12.30. Slept like a log and even managed to get to work on time this morning.

Oh, the agony!

I spent a week on the support desk which was good in many ways, the people, being busy all the time etc. Unfortunately, it was also not so good in others, the chair, the unbelievable boredom of repeating the same task over and over again. Still, I had better get used to it as, before very long I should be there one week in seven. My major pain though was caused by spending the weekend dismantling our built in units in the bedroom. I have managed to remove three quarters of them now with just a few bits to remove over the next few evenings. Sadly, with the removal of our big bed, I was forced to sleep on a single bed and the mattress has nearly killed me. I did it for the best reasons but, now I have cut off the mains electric to the lights and TV, I have moved into Sallys bed and it's just so comfortable when compared to the single job I was using. Tonight, I am off to Mount Gould Hospital for my MRI scan and that should give me a much better idea of how bad my hips are and how deep my arthritis is 

Just in time...................

I felt much better on Saturday, just in time to begin stripping out the bed and mattress from our master bedroom. The first thing I had to do was to move the contents of the drawers under the bed to a place of safety. This took a lot longer than we had anticipated as we had filled them up quite a bit in the last twenty years or so. Then, on to the big stuff. I did the heavy moving at our end then Hazel took the stuff to the dump on her own as then, the men at the dump would take over and move it out of the car and into the various skips. This all worked a treat, and, by the end of Sunday, we had everything but the carpet removed. On Monday, we helped our friend Martin to remove his desk from the uni in time for his move to Northampton and then we took up the carpet and whilst Hazel took that to the dump, I cleaned up the floor of the bedroom and moved all the things on the floor so that we can work in there. This looks great on the screen but, there is a down side. My back, arms, knees and hips were burning by the time I finished. After my shower, I had to liberally plaster myself with Ibuprofen gel in order to get a comfortable nights sleep. I awoke feeling much better this morning but my lower back was still painful. Another gel coat sorted me out and I now feel a lot better. Until next time..............................

Tramadol

is not a very nice drug.

I was prescribed the stuff once before and it messed with my body for a few days so I stopped it.

This time around, I stuck it for two weeks and it has wrecked me. On Sunday evening, I stopped taking it and Monday wasn't too bad but I was still suffering from the fairly strong effects of the thing. On Tuesday, I began to get clear of it and, for a time, felt better. Later though I actually felt worse. Wednesday was not great either but a lot of the wrongs seem to have now been righted as I am able to eat again. I still feel very week today but, by returning to work, I am hoping my body will pick up the traces again.

My problems with Tramadol were, constipation, water retention, sinus issues and all of the knock on effects from these main problems. As I also take plenty of other heavy duty medicine for my heart condition, I must assume that the combination of the two is what caused my problems. Never again!

As numb as .................

I have been sitting down all morning staring at a screen and moving logs around. I seem to have done a lot of work but for very little return. I still have this afternoon and all of tomorrow to go as well. What am I doing? I am taking the raw data in from users and pushing it out in a more coherent and usable form. Well, that's what it says on the tin anyway. In reality, I spend a lot of my time trying to make sense of the emails sent in by a bunch of technical tyros and then pass it to the clever ones to do the work. It's called the support desk and it's brain numbingly dull. Nonetheless, we all have to do the training to be ready for when we all take on the might of the ignorant ones and take a job from beginning to end. The only people looking forward to that time are the current support desk permanent staff who can't wait to get out in the field. And who can blame them!

Imagine, if you will,

a weekend so tiring that everyone involved has to go to bed early and is still tired on the Monday. Well, that's about half of our weekend. Lulu came out of hospital on Sunday late afternoon. Her mum collected her and brought her to us. So Wendy and Lulu are tired. Ian was late finishing and had to get a taxi to our house and was so tired that he all but collapsed as he got through the front door. Hazel stayed up and saw him in so she was tired. I went to bed at ten completely knackered from my weekend of fun and frolics with the boys so I was tired. Corey and Samuel had wakened early and neither had a nap during the day so they were both tired. On Monday, Ian and Lulu walked around looking for the runaway Molly and, lo and behold, she crawled out from under a car and went straight to Ian for a cuddle. She seems none the worse for her lost ten days apart from a tick and being very hungry. 

Call me a liar but,

I was nearly right in my predictions. They are pretty certain they know what the problem is with Lulu now. Several options were offered but it looks as though she was dehydrated due to her saline drip being removed too soon. So she has been re-hydrated and should be coming back to us for the weekend just to be certain. Needless to say, Corey and Hazel have been having a good time.

Three deep holes in the ground............

Well, Well, Well!

It looks like we will be entertaining Corey again this weekend. Lulu is still not well and has been re-admitted to hospital for observation over the weekend, or whatever.... They don't tell you very much do they? So unless things change in a big way between now and Saturday, Ian and Corey will be moving back in with us until Lulu is out of hospital again.

As weekends go,

the traditional curates egg would apply.

It's always good to see the boys and have them to stay but.................it's so much easier in smaller chunks.

Samuel is usually as good as gold and behaves like a gentleman but, he sometimes gets carried away with the fact that he is the older brother. Cory is very well behaved for a toddler but, he sometimes gets carried away when his brother treats him like a baby. All weekend!!! It's far from bad behaviour, just mild sibling rivalry. It's also very tiring for aging grandparents.

I told you so..............

is an expression I hate using as the implication is that something has already gone wrong! When I, mildly, objected to being prescribed Tramadol for my painful hip I was told to take it anyway. So I did. And it made me feel bad. So bad, in fact, that I had to take two days off work to sort myself out. My body has now reached some sort of compromise with the awful drug and is just about tolerating it whilst nearly killing the pain. It took me four days to get this far though. I don't want to go into details but Tuesday was not a nice day for my stomach. Wednesday was spent adjusting times of taking tablets and recovering from Tuesday. Thursday I was back to work but somewhat fragile and today I'm beginning to feel better again. We have the boys for most of this weekend as Lulu in in hospital for her second operation and Ian will be running between his job and Derriford for most of the next five days or so.

It's always so embarrassing!

You feel bad and book an appointment with the doctor, and then immediately feel much better. So much so that my doctor looked at me and said, "You' re walking well". And I was until I got back to work and simply walked from the car to my office. Then I began limping and had some pain. The trouble is, I am always worse first thing in the morning, getting out of bed is hell. So he gave me some exercises to do first thing in the morning....................... I promised to try. I also have some tablets that I was given once before, they made me feel very ill last time so I am now worried about them this time. I did get an MRI scan out of it so I'm not complaining.

Hard work

never hurt anyone, so they say. The problem there is that everything is subjective and completely circumstance dependent isn't it? As previously revealed, the week had a bad start. Then the weather went mad and it has been very hot here in Plymouth. I have problems with hot at the best of times, this week, I also had a hip joint playing me up - especially getting out of bed - and, probably as a direct result of the heat, my brain began to slow and nearly came to a halt this afternoon. Add to all of this a somewhat increased work load and the imminent loss of a lot of my work colleagues to voluntary redundancy and it hasn't been the best week ever. I did manage some work on the attic and even managed a take-away meal 

I had

a very strange weekend.

Our long time lodger and best friend, Cocky, died on Saturday morning. He was 35, or so, years old and he loved me and I loved him. He wasn't my pet, and that seemed to make our friendship even better. He belonged, if a very intelligent cockatoo could be said to be owned by anybody, to Hazels friend Denise. She and her husband live in Malta at present so we happily took on the care of Cocky. He had been with us, on and off, for a couple of years and was 'at home' with us. Anyway, he developed a bad tumour and on Saturday he had had enough.

On Sunday, I was feeling somewhat depressed about this but we had promised to spend most of the day with Lulu and the boys And, after a while, that cheered me up. Bye Cocky.

WOOO!, and very possibly, HOOO!

I did the same thing with my neck last evening and, once again, slept like the dead. This time I was prepared for it and made sure I was in a good position for my hip. The end result was waking up almost numb and comfortable, still a problem with my hip when I first got out of bed but, in general, even better than yesterday.

I am intrigued by how many hits my private YouTube video has had. Only about ten people were told about it and yet there have been 35 hits so far. Is this because my friends are telling their friends or is it that my friends just can't believe it the first time and have to watch it again?

No, I am not publishing the link here. And at 11pm it's gone to 52 hits oh dear

Let joy be unconfined!

Just before bed yesterday, I asked Hazel to rub my neck with Ibuprofen gel. Once in bed, I slept for a while with no pillow and, "BANG", my neck suddenly released all the tension and I could move it again. I fell into a deep sleep almost immediately and when I woke this morning I was very stiff, my hip was sore but my neck was still OK. I shall probably spend the next few days gradually losing the whole trauma thing whilst muscles tighten up again and bruises heal but, by the weekend, I would hope to be in a better situation than I have been for a couple of years. Then I will be able to gauge just how much my hip problem will be.

Well, now I know.

It gives me very little pleasure to be able to say this but.........................My doctor was wrong and I was right!!!!!!

I thought I had a hip problem and he said no, it was my pelvis. Well we have now seen the x-rays and it's bad arthritis in both hips. Hah! It's bad enough that, should I ask, he will get me in for surgery as soon as he can. In a perverse way, this is good news as I have a known problem with straightforward treatment. My only concern will be that my heart condition will require me to have the operation at Derriford Hospital rather than the unit where Hazel went for her knee replacement. Anyway, he suggested I think about it for a couple of months and I heartily agreed. Hazel immediatly booked our holiday in Malta...................................

The malady lingers on

It's come back to haunt me. The main problem may be gone but I now feel very bruised. I could hardly get out of bed this morning and, even now I'm moving again, the whole area still feels painful. I spent a good part of Sunday with my youngest grandson and that was a lot of fun but I appear to be paying for it today. 

It's gonna be embarrassing,

but the relief is worth it

I went to sleep yesterday in pain and woke up today bruised and very tired in the afflicted area but not, repeat, not in pain. At some point during the night, my hip / pelvis / back decided to re-adjust again and I'm walking without a limp and with no lean to the right. I'm sore but happy.
Now I have to tell the doctor on Tuesday.

My doctor

has the x-rays now and I have an appointment for next Tuesday morning so I should find out more then.

I have just written a post to the Arduino blog describing a very sophisticated device for saving wasted electricity and, of course, money into the bargain. I won't go into details here but, if I can build one, it should be a major saving for me and a terrific project for anyone else who cares to build one. It might even be commercially viable, although I doubt it, unless some clever Dick can build it onto one small, cheap circuit board.

There's good news...............

and, as always...............................

The good news is that the 'fix' I accidentally  applied to my back seems to be holding.

The bad news is that the problem with my pelvis remains. I suppose it proves that they aren't related other than each making the other more painful but it would have been nice to have lost all my problems in one go. The pelvis problem is always worse first thing in the morning, getting out of be is usually very painful. Yesterday, I was woken by Samuel who shook me gently and then was astounded by my cries of pain. It took me nearly ten minutes to recover and get standing up. All in all, it was an interesting weekend with both grandsons in attendance for most of it. Samuel was fine, well behaved and as helpful as a nearly seven year old can be. Corey, however, is just approaching 'the terrible twos' and beginning to be quite demanding at times. I suspect most of it is down to his lack of speech. He understands a lot and is learning his words very quickly but, obviously, not fast enough for him! He isn't going to be satisfied until he is a member of the chattering classes.

Interesting times (Revisited)

Yesterday, whilst sitting quietly in a fairly small room....................I needed to reach an area that isn't a regular spot, if you see what I mean. Well, I manoeuvred my legs into the required position and reached around when there was an almighty CRACK and something slipped back into place in my back. It was a bit painful and very tiring for the rest of the day but I was able to sleep OK and woke feeling OK this morning. Whatever it was I did, it has relieved the pressure somewhere as I am walking better and Hazel tells me I am looking straighter as well. Do it yourself chiropractic, it worked for me!

Oh dear.

I've just heard the news that Eric Sykes, writer, actor and wonderful person has died. He will be missed.

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Another weekend gone away.

Saturday was very busy and a lot got achieved as well. I even had a long chat with Russ that, I think, perked us both up. Then came Sunday and, for no good reason, suddenly I was depressed. It's such a long time since I was genuinely depressed that it came as a bit of a shock to the system. Hazel noticed it and so, amazingly, did I.  Anyway, I spent nearly all day copying Andre Rieu concerts onto DVD for keeping and got a lot of pleasure from that. I also managed to clear quite a lot of space in the attic and got quite a bit of satisfaction from that. In between times, I massaged Cockys foot, which he loves, and tried to get him to use it on his perch, which he hates and just will not persevere with. I had him out of the cage and on my lap for a while but he just wanted to get up to my face and tuck himself under my beard or gently nibble my ear. He is a very strange bird.

Nearly there!

Yesterday, I finished the actual bench and only have to screw the supports to the worktop at the rear to finish it off. Tonight, I will be re-installing the work station and trying to catch up with some work there and also trying to find some way of storing the Scalextric track that I had to dump on the bench in order to move my kit at work today. Unfortunately, there was a slight accident and, whilst all the kit is OK, the box was wrecked and is no longer usable.I am now in temporary accommodation in room 107 Smeaton for about a week until we all move into the team office which is being redecorated at present. Then, I have just over a month there before possibly moving back to Fitzroy. I say possibly as by then we should know more about the new structure and I may be better advised to stay here until I move to my new permanent office. Sigh!

I have just heard that my x-ray is set for next Thursday morning so not too long to wait before I find out just what the hell is wrong with me. This morning, I got out of bed without much pain at all and I was congratulating myself until I tried to walk to the bathroom. Instant agony. Hey ho.

So,

I went back to the doctor today to report that my pain etc was no better. He had another dig around and pushed and prodded and just gently hurt me for a few minutes. He then reported that it couldn't be my hip that was causing the pain as it seemed to be centered on my pelvis. So, I now have to go for an x-ray of my pelvis and when he gets that back he will decide whether to order an MRI and whether I need any work done on me.

I slept like the dead last night. It may have had something to do with the work I put in removing the old desk from the attic. I was forced, eventually, to saw it up and move it out piecemeal. This was not fun and involved a lot of back pain before it was achieved. Tonight, I shall begin the assembly of the new long bench and probably get my PC workstation up and running again.

This one is for Russ..........

Forgive me Russ. It's been seven days since my last blog.

Fact is, I didn't have much to write about. I have been in some pain from my hip and I have managed to get to work each day and do such jobs as I have at the moment but other than that, nothing much had happened until Saturday. I managed to finish the final piece of circuitry on my power controller and that is now working exactly how I wanted it to. Then I began manufacturing the final parts for my new bench and got them all finished by Sunday evening. The next job is also the biggest as I have to remove the rather large desk from the attic in order to assemble the bench. Once that is gone, it should be downhill all the way to having a really good looking and highly functional work area.

Wowsers!!!

As Inspector Gadget may have said.

I spent most of the weekend making the supports for my new bench system. I have build three and only need to clean them up in order to be able to begin the final construction. Once that's done, so much kit will be found a home.The next stage then will be to make up the back plane for power and some storage. Once that is complete, I move on to the second half of the benching and do the same with that. From then onward, it's just a question of moving all the necessary kit either on or under the bench and sorting out the rest of the room. The computers and the construction components will also be permanently available to work on and with. I am also looking forward to having a dedicated computer for designing and scripting.

I am still, however, having some pain from my hip/back and whilst not very bad, it's certainly more than I have had before and not going away. I also ran out of one of my eye drops yesterday. It's one that has a very large outside with a shaped internal container which makes it almost impossible to see how much is left. I had been hoping it would last until next week as the other drops should but it died on me. I went to the surgery at lunchtime and put in a request but apparently the doctor now has to speak to me before she will write a prescription. So, for now, I just have to suffer and wait.

Well, the surgery called me back and I got my eye drops without interrogation. I picked them up after work and had to wait a while. Whilst waiting, two addicts came in to collect their daily methadone. After I had waited for nearly twenty minutes, I realised that I was just as jumpy as they had been and still it didn't sink in. Only when I got home and put my drops in did I work out what my problem was. The drops I ran out of were the ones with the beta-blocker in them. When I decreased my original dose by mouth from 10 down to 2.5, I suffered withdrawal and yesterday and today, I was having the same problem by not using the eye drops. This is not good but I appear to be stuck with the problem as I will not willingly give up my eyesight.

ooooooooooh!

I woke up in pain this morning and it went away until I got to the office. It has, however, been there on and off most of the day so far (13.40 now) and doesn't have any signs of going away as yet. It's no worse than any other day but has now gone on longer than previously.

On a lighter note, I have been testing the Pi over the past couple of days and have begun to find out about it's strengths and weaknesses. The graphics and resolution are as amazing as expected and the general speed of the OS is not as slow as I anticipated although it's still a lot slower than I am used to. The Debian squeeze OS is pretty good, it does all it should do and, for most users should be a very good introduction to computing. There is the usual Linux issue of installing new software to get over but that should ease with greater use and more users. On balance, it's worth the few niggles I may have to get a computer of this quality, size and price in one package. I have tried the special media version being built but I appear to be one of the many that it will not run for so tonight, I will be trying the Debian-XBMC version in order to check it out. I assume that it will run ok and will be useful to me in my further investigations.

Well................

I went to see the doctor and he examined me, then he told me to come back in two weeks if it didn't get better or sooner if it gets worse. If I have to go back, he will send me for an MRI scan and hip X-Ray to see what the problem is. It hasn't got any worse so far and I'm not really expecting it to so I guess I will be back in a couple of weeks and then go off for the investigations. The doctor is hoping I have bursitis but thinks it might be sciatica as well. Worst case will be hip joint and he hasn't yet ruled that out. The problem isn't helped by my problems with anti inflammatory drugs so, for now, I just have to suffer a bit.

And so it goes...........

My hip was worse again on Saturday and we had Samuel with us for most of the weekend. Fortunately, he was pretty much an angel all the time he was with us, which is more than could be said for his behavior at home. Cocky has a problem with his left foot, it is all clenched like a fist at present. He doesn't appear to be in any pain but we need to get it looked at. I have checked with Denise now and this is an old problem and he normally has his foot massaged by Peter and the problem goes away for a while again.

The latest Terry Pratchett book has arrived, 'The world of poo'. It is the childrens book referred to in 'Snuff' that Sam Vimes reads to his son and follows on from 'That's not my cow' featured in 'Thud!'. It looks hilarious and should give Sal and I a lot of fun.
The hip problem is no worse than it was on Saturday but I misread the booking and this morning was just bloods, tomorrow is the doctor so I will have to wait until then. In the meantime, I am enjoying the gentle humour of my colleagues as they predict my coming hip replacement. Can I just place on record, I am not at present anticipating hip replacement surgery!

Hip, Hip, Hip Aaaaaaaaaagh!

Pain! I had hoped that my painful hip/back would slow to a dull roar by now but, in fact, it was worse this morning. I just had a sneezing fit and it hurt again so, as you can probably guess, I am now looking forward to seeing my doctor on Monday morning. The most concerning part of this is that I have no idea what the problem is. It might be my hip joint is falling apart or it might be a problem with my spine or it might be anything I suppose. Spooky.
I have now officially been offered my old job with a new title and slight upgrade so I am good. Hazel didn't even get an interview for the job she has been doing for nearly fifteen years but she has got an interview for another job that she has never done.................. Spooky.

I don't know how much of the jubilee celebrations you may have seen, I saw about a third of them and was struck by just how uninterested some of the royal family seemed to be in the celebrations. The Queen seemed to be completely cheesed off with the whole thing and Anne was going through the motions of waving a paper flag on a stick whilst her mind was obviously a long way off. Charles, bless him, did his best as he always seems to and the younger royals were fairly animated as well but there was definitely a  lack of interest from them. I imagine that Philip had been quite interested whilst he was still able to be involved but I don't think the Queen was the only one to miss his enthusiasm on Monday and Tuesday. 

I thought that the concert was pretty good myself. I didn't really follow a lot of the younger acts too well but most of the show seemed to be well planned and performed. It was a shame, therefore, to see so many negative comments about the older performers from the younger element on Facebook (other social networks are available). Some of the comments made about Paul McCartney were downright rude and completely uncalled for.

May you live in interesting times.............

is an old Chinese curse. I have just lived through some vaguely interesting time. We ran out of wifi on the site and decided not to bother with any more so I didn't bother to use the laptop for a few days. Then Paul needed to access something on line and re signed for a couple more days. Even though he told me, it didn't register and I ignored the computer. About the same time, I also developed a bad pain in my right hip and wasn't able to do much for the rest of the holiday. We left the med on Saturday last and drove up to Reimes for our overnight stop. We left early Sunday morning and drove to the tunnel to find that we could leave within the next half hour if we wanted to...... so we did. By now, we were on a roll and, as we arrived in the UK so early, decided to drive straight to Bristol. We had a good journey to Bristol so Hazel and I decided to drive straight on to Plymouth. We arrived whilst it was still light on Sunday evening. We spent Monday being shell-shocked and on Tuesday, Ian, Lulu, Samuel, Corey and Alfie came to visit. Once they had all gone again, it was time to go to bed, so we did. This morning, back to work and it all seems like a dream - apart from my painful hip.

'ot innit?

It certainly was today. Too hot to do too much in fact. We spent an inordinate amount of the morning and afternoon sitting by the pool and even after I gave up and came back to the caravan because of a sore bot, Hazel and Paul hung on and had a final swim. I saw a cuckoo when I  came back and tried to entice it to within camera range but only the sparrows were interested enough to come and eat.

Not such a quiet day.................but still quiet.

Hazel and I went for a late swim this morning and crossed with Paul coming back from his morning visit to the pool. After a snack lunch, we all went out to the local town beach and wandered along the front until we came upon a very nice beach cafe that also happens to be the cheapest in the area. There we sojourned for a while until Paul decided to go for a walk and Hazel for a swim. I walked down to the waters edge with her and exercised myself by taking several photographs of her both in and out of the water. We then waited for Paul to return and all walked back to the car. We have now had a pleasant meal together and I am using this opportunity to catch up on my blog and maybe chat to Russ for a while. He wasn't able to get online yesterday due to external forces so we might make it this evening, or not as the case might be.

Bonus time, not only spoke to Russ but Sal came on line as we finished and Hazel and I had a short chat with her too. Good day.

A quiet day.

We went to the pool and vegged then we bought some food and then we came back to the 'van and vegged. Hazel prepared a smashing meal and we are all replete, I am now waiting to chat to Russ via ooVoo. Life is good.

This is where we are.

Just to be awkward,

we did both. It was a beautiful day and we got away early so we just ploughed on. The trip into the Pyrenees was long but very good fun as there is so much to see. We drove in, of course, via the French main road. Even now, in late May, it is snowy at the top and the road goes above the snow line. We stopped a couple of times to take photographs and I also took some whilst we were moving. This one, to the right, was taken whilst we were above the snow and before we dropped down to the plateau at the top. Once past the snow, we drove into Andorra and took the road through to the capital city. We stopped to get some food and fuel, which is very cheap there due to no tax levy, and then drove out on the Spanish road. After a check by Spanish customs, we dropped down to almost sea level and took the coastal road back into France. It all sounds very  easy, and it was, but it took us nearly nine hours to do the round trip.

Panorama taken from the highest point on the French road into Andorra.

Panorama taken from the coastal road between Spain and France on our return journey.