Still Ill

Well not ill, but my arm is hurting and there's still a week before I go back to sort the bandages. I've also been extremely busy with work, finishing at 6 tonight, and found time to squeeze in a gig and watch the return of Dr Who with Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. There were elements of Malcom Tucker in the performance which made it even more enjoyable. I always loved the Thick of It Doctor Who Mash Ups they did.

Complete Smiths

Anyway this is just a short post, my arm is improving , life is good and there's still two days of the Bank Holiday weekend to go, with lots of options of good things to do.

The title gives me an excuse to namecheck The Smiths which
I know are not some peoples favourites, but I do like them.

Hurt So Good

Mekons - So Good It Hurts

Well hurt is not good , but thought that was a title of a Mekon's song, but there is an album called "So Good It Hurts" which is used as a refrain in this excellent song from the album.

Anyway I'm getting off the point, today I've been to work with my arm heavily bandaged and generally I coped OK, although it's amazing the number of things that you normally use two hands to do like putting contact lenses in , various ablutions like washing, shaving and showering, and I'm going to have to deal with this for a week, but still I think it will all be worth it, I think I have more control over my left hand than prior to the operation.

 One of the worst things is itching under the bandages which , really , you just have to put up with. So I'm prepared to put up with the inconvenience , discomfort , and pain when I catch myself. As I say the NHS have been excellent to me.

Hopefully I'll be able to play guitar properly and finally do something about putting a band together, nothing big, but something fun. I keep promising to write a song and I will get my writing head on soon. Anyway I have to sort my tea out, so I'll go and get that done and let you enjoy your evening as I continue my recuperation.

Deep Purple in The Operating Theatre

Arm in a Purple Sling

Well this post is being written one handed, Today I had an operation on my left arm to free a trapped nerve at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle. My experience just reinforced my views on how excellent the NHS is and mty annoyance that tories and daily mail and sun readers want it dismantled in favour of the American system. Nye Bevan's original vision is the way and sensible country should be run.

Anyway that's enough political ranting. The staff on the ward wer welcoming and very upbeat, helpful and supportive. The people on the ward were all extremely upbeat despite have worse things to contend with that I had.

The food was brilliant and there were excellent healthy options.

During the operation which had me led on a bed for an hour and a half while staff chatted to me , played decent rock music (Doors, Deep Purple and Manfred Mann were three that came to mind) and the surgeon found I had a muscle that shouldn't have been there which was putting inordinate pressure on the nerve, then he did the carpal tunnel in my left hand.

At the moment I'm waiting for the anesthetic to wear off, so do doubt I'm due some pain, but today has been as excellent as you could expect considering the carving my arm has got. Anyway have a great night , my day has been fine.

I was looking at a Deep Purple album and I  thought "Might Just Take Your Life" was a darkly humorous take on today.

Good Day

Well today could have been bad, but I've been feeling positive, not that that can cause good things to happen , but it keeps your spirits up if things don't go as expected.  I've had lots of things to do today and then had a potential over hospital stay lined up.

Be Happy

Well today has been good , every conversation has been brilliant , I've got through all my work, stuff turned up in plenty of time to get things complete then when I left for the hospital , I was running a little late while finishing packing , but luckily the bus I wanted was running a little later.

When I got into the hospital I explained to the doctor the situation, he agreed and said they'd do all the tests and if I was ok then I could go home for the night. The price of this was I have to be back at the hospital at 7.15 tomorrow morning , but it's worth it knowing that my blood is fine and I will get a decent night's sleep.

I hope your day has gone well too. There's nothing like a smile from you to put a smile on my face, and that's why I've included this excellent TED talk about a humanity test. Have a brilliant evening, I've had a brilliant day so far, full of sunshine even though it's raining.

Never Stop

Never Stop Having Fun

Well the last two weeks and the next two weeks for me have been and will be almost non stop. This is not a bad thing although time flies by and disappears as you try and fit everything in. Due to holidays at work we've only had half a team in, but everyone's working extra hard to make sure all runs smoothly and it's actually a pleasure to be in working with the girls and guys, who are absolutely excellent,  supportive with problems and helpful whenever you need them.

There's things we need to do before the bank holiday and I have a day and a half in hospital in the middle of it (tomorrow and Tuesday), I could have done without the overnight stay which they say is because of the ITP but they are just covering themselves and not too arsey so I'll go along with it. As I continually say the NHS is brilliant and hopefully I'll be able to play the guitar properly after the op, which would be amazing as I've never been able to play it before.

Also I am to blame for some of this time congestion as I've also fit in gigs by the Star Spangled Chestwigs, Penetration , Culture (tonight) and Bad Pollyanna (on Friday), so the latish nights are my own fault really, but wouldn't miss them for the world.

And this si one of the things about having fun and being positive, life is much better when you do things , and even better when you do things you enjoy , and even better when you do things you enjoy with friends and people you like like and love. Like I was out seeing friends on Friday and that was fantastic Paul , Fiona , Sarah , Colin  and Graham are fantastic company any day of the week, and that's just five people I'm lucky enough to have in my life.

Today I still have lots to do, but the sun is shining and the wind is blowing but that is fine, no rain at the moment. I know this week I will see many more friends, and have lots of fun , and have the odd moment where I think "I need to sleep" , but really I'd rather be doing something and enjoying myself.

The title is taken from and Echo and the Bunnymen track, so have a brilliant day everybody, my weekend is nowhere near finished and I hope yours isn't either , wherever in the world you are. Keep on smiling

When The Wind Blows

Rain Room at The Barbican

Last night I , and a lot of others , were kept away by the high winds. The good thing about it, is there wasn't any rain so it's had a drying affect on everything. Today it's back down the track to Darlington so I hope that the trains are not affected as tomorrow I have got to go to London, where I wish I had time to visit the "Rain Room" at the Barbican. although I have a feeling it's no longer open, like many web sites there's so relevant information but it looks like it's closed as all the articles are from a couple of years back like this BBC one.

Anyway have a great day, I'm off to work now.

Breakfast With Wernher Von Braun

WVB

 

I saw the name Wernher Von Braun this morning and it got me thinking.

The first was it reminded me of the wonderful track "Breakfast With Wernher Von Braun" from the Stackridge album Mr Mick , which I've had to do a slideshow for and hope it stays on Youtube. It is a great piece and I love Stackridge , though as yet I still have never seen them, though given the opportunity I will definitely go  to on of their gigs.


The other thing is that , as far as I know , Wernher Von Braun  is thought of quite rightly, as a leading light in space exploration and rocket technology although a lot of his most famous work (rightly or wrongly) was for the Nazi War machine in the form of the V1 and V2 rockets (David Bowie's V2 Schneider from Heroes was written in Berlin obviously inspired by Von Braun's work). So sometimes some good can come out of patently bad situations.

If there hadn't been a war would Von Braun have been able to do his initial work , and later go to America and help them in the space race and eventually put Man on the Moon. Who knows.

But really it is a lesson that we should all be aware of, that we should continually look for good and inspiration , even when things aren't going our way, and that way good things will occur. Bad things may still happen but if you can focus on something that makes you happy then that's a moment when you will feel good as opposed to feeling down.

I don't know really what I'm writing about in this post but hope it's given you a little food for thought. Have a brilliant Sunday everyone wherever you are in the world.