Life is...

Pretty good for me at the moment, I'm in the final stages of rehearsing for my first acting opportunity in about two and a half years (Guys and Dolls at the Burgess Hall in St Ives 29th-31st May...contact me if you want tickets or go to the website  http://www.simads.co.uk/ticket_sales.html (plug over)) I've just finished the first year of my masters apart from one final deadline and everything seems to be going my way at the moment. It got me thinking though, do you find, as I do, that if it's going well for one person then it's not going as well for someone else, it's almost as if two people can't have it going all their own way at the same time? Or Maybe I'm just using a couple of examples as the majority and totally generalising? 

I do like to generalise things, it makes them so much easier to analyse even if the analysis is wrong but as I said to a very good friend the other day, if you say something with enough confidence and conviction then people will generally listen to you. It's the way a con artist works, you want to believe them because they sound so convincing even if every part of your common sense is screaming at you to stop. For some reason you more often than not get drawn into what they're saying. 

Slight change of subject now as I've just received what is one of the bains of my life through working from home. The phone ringing...made worse by the fact every time you answer or put down the phone in this house it breaks the Internet connection, it might be the case for everyone but I'm not techhy enough to know these sort of things. Now when I finally do get around to answering the phone it is always something pointless, like a telemarketer to which they ask for someone here, I say they're not around and they say they'll back another time. I would say this happens on average about three times a day five days a week. Now I know what you might be thinking; why don't you just leave the phone ringing? Well I would do that but then I think what if it isn't a cold call, what if it's something important or I really have just won one million pounds and they are genuinely ringing the house phone that I don't give out as my number to let me know about it...you just never know. And besides we have once again signed up to the little gem that is TPS (Telephone Preference Service) The cold callers crap themselves when you say that, I don't think I've heard the phone being put down quicker. 

Anyway back to my original subject of what life is. Well in a way my little detour has actually fit in quite nicely, so many people try to define life and try to say they know what is it like for everyone, (I'm not one of these people although it does fit in nicely with my preference to generalise) but I'm not one of them. Well I don't think I am anyway, I might be, who knows...well I should know but I don't...I'm lost. Ahh yes what is life, well to me at moment life is pretty good but overall I would say life is one big old opportunity to rant to whoever will listen...and this is no exception. I have had my little rant about cold callers and put it out there for anyone who wants to find out about it. If you have an opinion on the matter in hand then feel free to let know, also feel free to let me know if you disagree with my opinion of what life is. I'm not saying my opinion is right, I'm just saying how I feel about it right now with reference to my life. I don't think I'm making much sense here but if I am then it's a bonus. Ciao for now.

(BTW don't forget Guys and Dolls Burgess Hall St Ives 29th-31st May)

Oh what a beautiful morning...

Well not this morning as it is grey and horrible and bleugh outside but by gum was it a nice morning on Sunday. I start work at 7 on a Sunday morning which to most people is the worst thing in the world but when you wake up at half 6 look outside and see a bright blue sky with no clouds I don't think there's much that can beat that. I even went all the way to walking instead of driving to work, now I'm not gonna lie, it is only a three minute walk but still more often than not I will jump in my car and drive the one minute journey around the corner. So for me to leave the car sat on the drive I think shows how good it was.

I love walking around in the morning, it is one of the only times in the day when it's socially acceptable to greet random people walking passed you. Normally it's head down don't look at them they won't look at you but when I saw a woman walking her dog towards me I couldn't help but keep my head up and then just as we're about to pass each other I hear those magic words coming my way. 'Good morning' she said, 'good morning' I joyfully replied before we passed each other and will probably never see each other again...unless of course she makes a habit of walking her dog at about quarter to 7 when I'm walking to work and we pass each other again. This could be quite likely as I've heard you get into a routine if you have a dog, I don't, I have two cats, but anyway, yes, the chances are we won't see each other again and yet it didn't stop either of us from being polite and dare I say it...being quintessentially British? I don't really mind if you don't agree with that last bit, I just wanted to use the word quintessentially because it is such an awesome word, you should always try to build it into your daily vocabulary...people start to think you are very smart...either that or a bit poncy but I always go with smart. It makes me feel better anyway.

Now since this sparkling and glorious morning we have delved back into the dark ages of winter once again, it is colder, grey-er and downright more bleugh but I still cling onto the hope that each morning when I wake up it might be like that Sunday morning...I can but hope anyway.

Anyhow, anywho, the next time you wake up and it's a really sunny morning then just remember that I'll probably be loving it...unless of course I'm asleep in which case I won't have the foggiest that it's nice until I wake up as well...the basic principles of sleeping before waking really...don't really know where I was going with this...ahh that's right, yes, you can beat a good old sunny morning, it is the perfect cure to a bad mood.

(Apologies for any paragraph long mega-sentences but I get carried away and grammar just sort of flies out of the window. I hope they don't hinder your reading experience too much.)

Let's jump back on the band wagon...

After seeing some of my friends are regularly keeping blogs I feel it is time to resurrect my old blog. As you can see (if you are bored enough to look at my old posts) that I haven't written on here in almost three years so probably about time to update things.

Now I think one of the reasons why I never kept up to date with this blog is because I could never think of anything interesting enough to write about...either that or I am just very very lazy, probably a combination of the two to be honest. But now I will change one of those things...laziness is out of the window and it is time to bore you fine people of the internet reading right now with uninteresting nonsense that spouts from my merry mind once again.

What am I going to write about I hear you ask? I have absolutely no blithering idea and am going to keep writing until something comes to mind..................................(too many dots?)..................(nah didn't think so either)....................

Oh I know what I can talk to you merry people about is what I first created this blog to do in the first place...*cue dramatic news music* (Please feel free to hum the music out loud, it might make the next bit more fun) it's time to find out what's been happening with my left knee (also read the last part with a bit of a rhythm as I am in my head, it definitely makes it more interesting, you could even try and combine it the dramatic news music going on in your head as well). Now we've had a little musical/rhythmical interlude I can delay the information no longer. Oh, if you are unsure as to what happened to my knee in the first place then you'll have to go back to the start of my posts, there is quite a detailed and graphic description. *Disclaimer* The description may only seem graphic to me because I can remember it happening so please don't come crying to me when you don't find it at all graphic in the slightest. There we go, I think I successfully saved myself a big law suit. Where was I? Ahh yes, the dramatic news music...well my left knee has unfortunately had to be removed and replaced with a small hinge that only works on a semi-regular basis.

Is that gasps of shock I hear from you? Especially those of you who have known me for a good few years and never knew this about me...well that is probably because it was a bald faced lie. I have no semi-regularly working hinge for a knee, I just have a normal boring semi-regularly working knee that is still in recovery because I was too lazy to fully rebuild the muscles around it. My own fault so now I have to deal with a knee that clicks incessantly and that can't be in the same position for too long without it ceasing up and becoming rather painful. I think I would prefer to have the small hinge if I'm being honest...it would probably creak less.

I think that's about as much boredom I can inflict on you for one evening but I will try my hardest to try and bore you on a more regular basis than once every three years but I can't promise anything.


(Oh and you can stop humming your dramatic news music if any of you are hardcore enough to still be humming it (or did it in the first place))

Catch up

Well it's been a while since my last post, so there is quite to fill you in on. I have now finished all of my work for the first year of university so i now have a very long summer ahead. Which is going to a lot of fun. I am planning to work quite a lot and play lots of golf. I am also going to Ibiza for a week in June which will be awesome!!

As regards to my knee progress, i haven't been to the hospital for a while and my knee hasn't hurt for a long time which is great. However i haven't been to the gym for a long time so i need to go back as i am starting to feel my fitness wain slightly.

In slightly more immediate news i did the absolutely ridiculously stupid thing of burning all of my fingers on my right hand so its vitally good that i have finished all of my work as it has taken me about 45 minutes just to write this with all the trips to get new water etc. However i'm sure they will be fine.

Until the next time and i'll try not to leave it as long before i update you again.

It wasn't that hard...

So during the last entry i was a bit suspicious about going into the advanced class at the hospital as they made it sound very hard. However when i got there i found that it was just like the intermediate class but they just made you do the stuff for longer and you were expected to do more. However it is still dependant on how much you want to do and i saw it as an opportunity to push myself as hard as i could. And i felt really good when i was leaving knowing that i had pushed myself and my knee had survived it. Another plus that happened in the last two weeks since i last posted on here was i have been working out at the gym trying to strengthen my knee and i have been going on the rowing machine quite a lot. I have been trying to see how quickly i can row 2000 metres just out of interest and the last time i went, i knocked 30 seconds off my previous best and felt better after it then i did when i set my last time which was a positive. So now my best time is 8:59.07 which will be exceedingly hard to beat but with my knee getting stronger and stronger there is every hope that i will beat it.

My left knee and me

Right ok this is the main reason why i set this blog up (apart from being forced to by creative writing) to keep track of the progress of my knee.

Ill set the scene...about two years ago now i was playing rugby; i was stood at the back of a ruck and a prop of about 18 stone started to fall over; before i knew what was happening he had fallen on my left knee and it bent the wrong way so to speak. This is how i found out that i had hyper-extendable limbs, although i would much rather find out through a less painful method. So there i was writhing around in agony clutching my left knee. The game stops and i am carried back off to the changing rooms so i am out of the way...there was still a game to finish.

After the match had finished and everyone had had something to eat we headed off home. The next day i went to Addenbrookes hospital as they have a specialist sports injury clinic. They told me i had done either some ligament or cartilidge damage...oh bugger!

I knew that ligament damage wouldn't be good mainly from the old days when i used to play Premier manager and one of the players would get injured, if it was a cruciate ligament then they were out for the season. It would always happen to the best player...normally Shearer as i was usually Newcastle. Anyway i have side tracked...after they told me about the damage they put me on a physio therapy regime and i had to return to Addenbrookes every week for my physio sessions.


6 weeks of physio therapy and my knee is back to full fitness once again (well truthfully it wasnt but if i didnt say it was good enough they wouldnt let me ski, probably a highly stupid decision but i enjoyed skiing so much that it was worth the risk). I went skiing and my knee seemed to cope ok and i thought that my injury was all behind me.

Seeing as it had coped to well with skiing i didnt give it another thought and carried on as i had before the injury and didnt really compensate for it or carry on with the exercises...a very stupid decision. It was mid summer last year about 15 months after i first did the injury and i was driving to my nan's house. It was fine while i was driving but when i stopped and got out of the car my knee was hurting once again. This wasn't good, it was supposed to be better again...but i didnt let it stop me doing anything and i didnt try and do any exercises...another stupid decision...i am full of these concerning my knee.

Anyway i dont let this minor relapse affect what i do and i carry on as normal. It doesnt hurt that much and i go to university without it hurting that much at all. It was probably the combination of walking everywhere, dancing, spinning around drunk, being dragged round in a drunken cirle hug, playing golf and other activities that aggravate it slightly that made it start to hurt during almost anything and everything i did. It even started hurting when i was just stood up or sat down doing nothing. The worst one was when i was asleep and it started hurting, it was this that made me think i should probably get it checked out.

I went to the local surgery and booked an appointment, the doctor examines my knee and is unsure as to what the problem is so refers me to the phyiotherapist at the surgery...one problem, i have to wait about 6-8weeks before i can see the physiotherapist. So i decide to book the earliest appointment possible and decided to go to a private physiotherapist just so i can start to get it looked at properly. They examine it and say that the problem is that i have very little muscle around the knee because it was never fully rebuilt after the injury.

They give me some exercises i can do at home and i leave somewhat happier knowing i can start to get it sorted out. I keep the appointment i have with the surgery and they tell me pretty much the same as the other physiotherapist and give me almost identical exercises which was heartening because at least i know for definate what the problem with my knee is. It is also dis-heartening because trying to rebuild muscle is a long and loborious process. So off i go with the exercises with a check up in three weeks time.

Three weeks later i return to the physio and they re-assess my knee. After their assessment they say that i will benefit from going to a weekly class at the hospital that is designed for getting people back playing sports as soon as possible. So they book me onto this class and it is at 9am on a tuesday morning...great, nice early start to be running around trying to exercise.

The first morning i went, i felt so rough, not because i was hung over but it turned out that i had the mumps that first week which was a shock to say the least. However i was still able to go and take part in the class and the following week i return (mump free) and i feel a lot better. I could already start to feel the benefit from the class...that and the visits to the gym i have been doing. I make it through the second week unscathed and starting to enjoy the class somewhat. It is a challenge but easy enough for a tuesday morning.

I turn up for the third week and i am doing fine. They call me over to assess my knee which they do most weeks and after the assessment they tell me i am to be moved up to the advanced class...great, even more exercise early in the morning. One small restbite is that it is at 10am on a wednesday morning so i get an hour longer in bed before going. However just before i leave at the end they say to me "Make sure you eat some breakfast before coming down because we push you quite hard and we have had a couple of guys pass out due to low blood sugar levels". This didnt really fill me with confidence and it still doesnt because i am yet to go to my first advanced class. I dont really know what to expect, apart from being worked very hard...oh bugger.

Oh well it must mean that my knee is getting stronger which it is because it is not hurting anywhere near as much as it used to hurt and i can tell the difference when i go to the gym. This still doesnt mean i am looking forward to 10am wednesday morning but i suppose it will help more than hinder...well i hope it does anyway.

Whoops, it was harder than i thought

Ok so i said that i was giving swearing up for lent and i would put 5p into a pot every time i swore and i would give that money to charity. Well it got the better of me and its less than a week after i started it. I was being really strict with making sure i paid up until i went home and one meeting with two of my best friends from home ruined the whole plan. Then playing golf the following day, made it even worse. So i am sorry to say that i have given up on the whole idea of not swearing.

I will still make a contribution to charity but a one off payment will be far easier than trying to keep up with not swearing. At the end of the day i cannot be fucked with it.