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.