Flops' Friday mini blog
- Thread starter floppybootstomp
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Got my fingers crossed for you on the 4th Jan 
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Well here we are at 1.45am Boxing Day and another ordeal is over, Christmas has gone away for a whole twelve months – hooray!
All those toys that were bought by parents on a budget, probably about 80% will break in the first two hours of play and the gift’s child recipient will gain another lesson in life – that just because it came from Mum & Dad wrapped up real nice don’t mean to say it’s gonna be any good.
Mum & Dad (assuming, of course, this a family with straight parents who are still together) are probably not well off so bought cheap toys. Cheap toys break. Hey! Buy one quality toy rather than six pieces of crap, ok?
There’s nothing sadder than seeing discarded broken toys at the council dump site, so many broken dreams and promises, children should really be shielded from that for a while.
I spent Christmas Day largely by myself but Faye came home at 7pm having finished her work shift and we spoke a while. I favour Christmas by myself – luxury. I can do just whatever the hell I like and eat and drink whatever I fancy.
My dinner today. Tescos were selling these gammon joints, a large red label proclaimed ‘Half Price! £4.99’ and it was stuck on this huge monster joint of smoked meat. ‘I’ll have some of that’ thought I ‘Bargain’
Arriving home I looked at Tescos till receipt and found gammon joint had in fact cost £10.38. It was half price alright but looking at small print on label the price of £4.99 referred to ‘per kilo’. You bastids, sure fooled me.
So I cooked it, slow cook, 4 hours, sage and onion fresh stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gravy, stuffed myself rotten, fabulous, all washed down with a glass of Italian white.
But I now have this humungous joint of cooked gammon that I reckon I could get about 15 meals out of. I’m not eating the same thing every day for two weeks so I guess I’ll chuck about half of it away. Will I ever learn?
Went for a half hour stroll today round Greenwich but mostly stayed at home, had a Badedas bath and then showered, played video games including Skyrim, Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (great) and Hard Reset (£3.24 on Steam, mindless fps, love it).
Opened me pressies and Sophie had bought me Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘By The Way’ on double disk vinyl remastered 180 gram and it sounds terrific – love it!
Played some more vinyl late at night, a few months ago local record shop was selling vinyl copy of ‘South Pacific’ soundtrack for a quid so I bought it. Why? Cos my Ma and Pa took me to see it when I was about 7 up London’s West End and it probably made an impression. Of course when I got older I derided it as crap but it’s difficult to shake off childhood memories.
I still think it’s kinda rubbish, not my thing at all but I did enjoy playing it, sheer nostalgia. ‘Bali Hai’ still moves me a little. And of course Captain Sensible covered ‘Happy Talk’ so it must be quite ok.
One thing I did notice listening to South Pacific was that the word ‘Gay’ was used a lot in the song lyrics and this being the late fifties the word did not imply same sex nookie but rather oneself being jolly happy.
Must confess I mourn the loss of the word ‘Gay’ as I think it was a good word.
Let me point out that I think everybody born into this world should be allowed to **** whoever they want to **** and no Government or bigot should take steps to stop them, we’re all subject to how we’re programmed at birth and the word here is tolerance, acceptance and wishing every couple happiness, whatever their gender preference.
However, the same sex community bloody well hijacked one of my favourite words. Ho hum. And what makes it sadder is that ignorant little pillocks now use the word ‘Gay’ as an insult as in ‘Oh, that’s so gay’. Bit sad, that. Oh well, that’s life I guess.
South Pacific has finished and I’m now playing some cheapo vinyl reggae album on the ‘Music For Pleasure’ label. Total tosh but I love it.
The GAME store are doing this offer, trade in an Xbox 360 120Gb Elite and get a 250Gb Xbox 360S plus one top game for £100. So I did. As newer Xbox has built in wifi I also traded in my wifi adaptor and ended up paying £75 for new matte black Xbox 250Gb and NFS: The Run Game. This means my 12 month warranty starts all over again as well. Good deal, me reckons.
I recently done a disco at a wedding, my niece Clare ‘married’ her partner Rachel, proper kind of ceremony and all, and all of their families attended except Rachel’s dad, who couldn’t handle it, he’s disowned his own daughter cos she’s a carpet muncher. Sad sad man.
My next Disco is New Year’s Eve, I am seriously getting too old for this, lol, but I do kinda enjoy it (sometimes).
Well, that’s me for now. Thank you, Crazylegs, for the Christmas card, you bastid, I never sent you one and now I feel bad but your card made me feel good so I hope that makes you feel good
I don’t know where the future lies but I am still here and I guess that’s a bonus. Happy New year folks
All those toys that were bought by parents on a budget, probably about 80% will break in the first two hours of play and the gift’s child recipient will gain another lesson in life – that just because it came from Mum & Dad wrapped up real nice don’t mean to say it’s gonna be any good.
Mum & Dad (assuming, of course, this a family with straight parents who are still together) are probably not well off so bought cheap toys. Cheap toys break. Hey! Buy one quality toy rather than six pieces of crap, ok?
There’s nothing sadder than seeing discarded broken toys at the council dump site, so many broken dreams and promises, children should really be shielded from that for a while.
I spent Christmas Day largely by myself but Faye came home at 7pm having finished her work shift and we spoke a while. I favour Christmas by myself – luxury. I can do just whatever the hell I like and eat and drink whatever I fancy.
My dinner today. Tescos were selling these gammon joints, a large red label proclaimed ‘Half Price! £4.99’ and it was stuck on this huge monster joint of smoked meat. ‘I’ll have some of that’ thought I ‘Bargain’
Arriving home I looked at Tescos till receipt and found gammon joint had in fact cost £10.38. It was half price alright but looking at small print on label the price of £4.99 referred to ‘per kilo’. You bastids, sure fooled me.
So I cooked it, slow cook, 4 hours, sage and onion fresh stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gravy, stuffed myself rotten, fabulous, all washed down with a glass of Italian white.
But I now have this humungous joint of cooked gammon that I reckon I could get about 15 meals out of. I’m not eating the same thing every day for two weeks so I guess I’ll chuck about half of it away. Will I ever learn?
Went for a half hour stroll today round Greenwich but mostly stayed at home, had a Badedas bath and then showered, played video games including Skyrim, Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (great) and Hard Reset (£3.24 on Steam, mindless fps, love it).
Opened me pressies and Sophie had bought me Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘By The Way’ on double disk vinyl remastered 180 gram and it sounds terrific – love it!
Played some more vinyl late at night, a few months ago local record shop was selling vinyl copy of ‘South Pacific’ soundtrack for a quid so I bought it. Why? Cos my Ma and Pa took me to see it when I was about 7 up London’s West End and it probably made an impression. Of course when I got older I derided it as crap but it’s difficult to shake off childhood memories.
I still think it’s kinda rubbish, not my thing at all but I did enjoy playing it, sheer nostalgia. ‘Bali Hai’ still moves me a little. And of course Captain Sensible covered ‘Happy Talk’ so it must be quite ok.
One thing I did notice listening to South Pacific was that the word ‘Gay’ was used a lot in the song lyrics and this being the late fifties the word did not imply same sex nookie but rather oneself being jolly happy.
Must confess I mourn the loss of the word ‘Gay’ as I think it was a good word.
Let me point out that I think everybody born into this world should be allowed to **** whoever they want to **** and no Government or bigot should take steps to stop them, we’re all subject to how we’re programmed at birth and the word here is tolerance, acceptance and wishing every couple happiness, whatever their gender preference.
However, the same sex community bloody well hijacked one of my favourite words. Ho hum. And what makes it sadder is that ignorant little pillocks now use the word ‘Gay’ as an insult as in ‘Oh, that’s so gay’. Bit sad, that. Oh well, that’s life I guess.
South Pacific has finished and I’m now playing some cheapo vinyl reggae album on the ‘Music For Pleasure’ label. Total tosh but I love it.
The GAME store are doing this offer, trade in an Xbox 360 120Gb Elite and get a 250Gb Xbox 360S plus one top game for £100. So I did. As newer Xbox has built in wifi I also traded in my wifi adaptor and ended up paying £75 for new matte black Xbox 250Gb and NFS: The Run Game. This means my 12 month warranty starts all over again as well. Good deal, me reckons.
I recently done a disco at a wedding, my niece Clare ‘married’ her partner Rachel, proper kind of ceremony and all, and all of their families attended except Rachel’s dad, who couldn’t handle it, he’s disowned his own daughter cos she’s a carpet muncher. Sad sad man.
My next Disco is New Year’s Eve, I am seriously getting too old for this, lol, but I do kinda enjoy it (sometimes).
Well, that’s me for now. Thank you, Crazylegs, for the Christmas card, you bastid, I never sent you one and now I feel bad but your card made me feel good so I hope that makes you feel good
I don’t know where the future lies but I am still here and I guess that’s a bonus. Happy New year folks
Taffycat
Crunchy Cat
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I hope your gammon joint was tasty... but the way some supermarkets label their "bargain deals" and "offers" offers is very naughty. As if folk have time to examine the small-print minutely! One just sees a big flashy label showing a super-dooper, knock-down price, and wey-hey, it's popped into the trolley with gay, reckless abandon (gay, in the fifties sense of the word.) Let's face it, those labels are intended to deceive.
We might dismiss some of those old Hollywood musicals as being a bit naff these days, but many of them contained some very good tunes, didn't they. There was a feel-good factor about them too.
Congrats to your neice and her partner on their marriage. Hope they will enjoy a long and happy life together. I entirely agree with your sentiments re gender preference. It's very sad when intolerant folk refuse to accept that we're not all wired in quite the same way. Good luck to them both.
Good luck also for your next disco gig on New Year's Eve.
We might dismiss some of those old Hollywood musicals as being a bit naff these days, but many of them contained some very good tunes, didn't they. There was a feel-good factor about them too.
Congrats to your neice and her partner on their marriage. Hope they will enjoy a long and happy life together. I entirely agree with your sentiments re gender preference. It's very sad when intolerant folk refuse to accept that we're not all wired in quite the same way. Good luck to them both.
Good luck also for your next disco gig on New Year's Eve.
nivrip
Yorkshire Cruncher
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All the best, Flops.
Glad you enjoyed your day of relaxation. We had the immediate family round and that was a great day for us. My missus worked her socks off yesterday so today she gets a long lie in, lots of tea and books and papers and the rest of us do all the tidying up and cooking. She deserves it.
Might get out over the hills tomorrow if the weather's OK.
Glad you enjoyed your day of relaxation. We had the immediate family round and that was a great day for us. My missus worked her socks off yesterday so today she gets a long lie in, lots of tea and books and papers and the rest of us do all the tidying up and cooking. She deserves it.
Might get out over the hills tomorrow if the weather's OK.
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Just popped in to say I still use the word gay in the old meaning, I am with you fops a great word for happy and jolly(having a gay old time) and NOT the modern meaning. Yes the way that stores love to miss price and confuse shoppers now is a practice where the shop keepers should be horse whipped.
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Thanks for the comments folks
My Corsair 2.1 speakers have just packed up on me, bought 'em in September from E-Buyer. I have DC volts from PSU, went to open up woofer with electronics inside to check for internal fuses only to be greeted with several stickers placed over screws saying their removal would void warranty. Oh well, looks like rma then.
Have had one rma with E-Buyer in the past, they were ok, but this is a heavy item to return, gonna cost me some postage for sure, so hope E-Buyer compensate postage. We shall see. So, on headphones for now.
Today I put my DAC (Digital to Analogue converter) together and it's working fine. The DAC goes in between my media computer and hifi and takes the digital signal from medium priced Asus motherboard and converts it to analogue.
Used the optical output, toslink cable to optical to coax converter (a tenner on Ebay) then single phono/rca cable from there to DAC. Twin phono output from DAC to audio system.
Here's the one I bought, cost almost £45 inc delivery and took a week to arrive, ordered 16th, arrived 23rd. >>> Link <<< This is basically the board with onboard smoothing from AC to DC and a suitable transformer.
With a case from Maplins, sockets and cable & Optical/Coax converter it came to around £70 which to my mind is very good value. This board and/or it's components is the same that is used in many 'high end' proprietry DAC's sold in a fancy box for a lot more money.
I will probably fly the onboard power indicator LED to the front of the case and fit a power switch and then I'll post a few pix.
I have been playing lots of FLAC files from my media machine and listened to part one of 'Echoes' from Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii film which is on my hard disk as an avi file and the DAC definitely makes an improvement. Initial observation was tighter bass and more detail.
I can also upgrade the board should I wish to, better capacitors and also change the opamp, an improvement may be the LME49860 opamp IC which costs around £7.50 from RS but before I start changing anything I'm going to give it the recommended 100 hours run-in.
Had one of those rare nights last night, slept 10 hours straight through, woke up 11:30 hours
Don't like that but must admit I felt great when I woke, definitely recharged batteries.
And that will do for now, hope all is well with youse, have fun
My Corsair 2.1 speakers have just packed up on me, bought 'em in September from E-Buyer. I have DC volts from PSU, went to open up woofer with electronics inside to check for internal fuses only to be greeted with several stickers placed over screws saying their removal would void warranty. Oh well, looks like rma then.
Have had one rma with E-Buyer in the past, they were ok, but this is a heavy item to return, gonna cost me some postage for sure, so hope E-Buyer compensate postage. We shall see. So, on headphones for now.
Today I put my DAC (Digital to Analogue converter) together and it's working fine. The DAC goes in between my media computer and hifi and takes the digital signal from medium priced Asus motherboard and converts it to analogue.
Used the optical output, toslink cable to optical to coax converter (a tenner on Ebay) then single phono/rca cable from there to DAC. Twin phono output from DAC to audio system.
Here's the one I bought, cost almost £45 inc delivery and took a week to arrive, ordered 16th, arrived 23rd. >>> Link <<< This is basically the board with onboard smoothing from AC to DC and a suitable transformer.
With a case from Maplins, sockets and cable & Optical/Coax converter it came to around £70 which to my mind is very good value. This board and/or it's components is the same that is used in many 'high end' proprietry DAC's sold in a fancy box for a lot more money.
I will probably fly the onboard power indicator LED to the front of the case and fit a power switch and then I'll post a few pix.
I have been playing lots of FLAC files from my media machine and listened to part one of 'Echoes' from Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii film which is on my hard disk as an avi file and the DAC definitely makes an improvement. Initial observation was tighter bass and more detail.
I can also upgrade the board should I wish to, better capacitors and also change the opamp, an improvement may be the LME49860 opamp IC which costs around £7.50 from RS but before I start changing anything I'm going to give it the recommended 100 hours run-in.
Had one of those rare nights last night, slept 10 hours straight through, woke up 11:30 hours
Don't like that but must admit I felt great when I woke, definitely recharged batteries.And that will do for now, hope all is well with youse, have fun
crazylegs
Member Extraordinaire
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Agree entirely Flopp's!floppybootstomp; [QUOTE said:
How I wish I had taken this advice..
Ha ha gotcha, that'l teach ya to look more closely....I have been caught with this one aswell..slippery little suckers aren't they!
Used to say the same to certain friends who were gay, as long as they didn't come near my a**e I couldn't care less, and they were quite happy with that, and so was I
There I also used that word of yours
That sounds like a stonking deal mate...Get in!
Mr Flopp's your acronyms are hilarious to say the least...I have not stopped laughing since last night everytime I think of it
Mr Flopp's I don't send cards to get one back, I felt good sending you one and I feel even better knowing you felt good receiving one, so yes it has made me feel extremely good...Does that make sense..
I don’t know where the future lies but I am still here and I guess that’s a bonus. Happy New year folks
A very enjoyable read as per usual, and a very happy new year to you Mr Flopp's!
Lets hope its a prosperous one too.
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I thought it was only me missing my Friday fix by Sir Flops, please , please, please can you write another musing
EvanDavis
Silly Fool
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, please, please can you write another musing
Nope, there be a good few of us that enjoy the read
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I was rather hoping after almost three months I’d got away with it but it would seem not. Why the hell anybody would be interested in the comings and goings of a distinctly average old fart is beyond me but, ok, if you insist, I will fill my goose feather quill with ink made from crushed beetle husks and blueberries.
Alright, health. Four weeks ago I became aware of a lump on my tongue which was really quite sore. Having already suffered oral cancer on my tongue & oesophagus I was naturally somewhat brown-trousered about this development. This was on a Friday and I had an appointment with the dentists at Guys Hospital the following Tuesday so I thought I’d wait and ask dentist people what they thought of it.
In dentists chair I asked and a young female Indian apprentice tooth-doctor twisted, turned and squeezed my tongue in all directions and went ‘hmmm’ a lot and finally said ‘It could be traumatic but not sure’ and sought a second opinion from experienced Little Shop Of Horrors star person (Little Shop Of Horrors is a comic musical about a nutty dentist in case you didn’t know).
Experienced molar professor said much the same thing and said I should seek opinion from somebody who knows what they’re looking at. Prior to dental appointment I had arrived at hospital early and sought to get appointment at Oncology outpatients but as they’d signed me off in January after five years advised I should approach ENT (Ear Nose & Throat dept). So I did. They said I’d have to go through my GP. I explained this to dentist and she seemed very annoyed and said ‘Leave this to me’. Ten minutes later she came back and told me she’d spoke to ENT and they would send me an appointment in the post, so no need to see GP. There are some people in this big wide world that seriously deserve a hug on a daily basis.
So ten days later I’m sitting on a chair talking to the guy who cut out my original tumour and left me with a huge U-shaped scar on my throat almost six years ago. He said: ‘I think it’s an ulcer, did you eat anything sharp before it appeared?’ I replied yes, some cereal clusters that I think did cut my tongue. He said ‘Does it hurt?’ I said it does and he said that pleased him as cancer usually, if not always, starts off painless, grows and only when it reaches an aggressive stage starts to hurt. This is why so many cancers are often missed.
He pointed out that if cancer reoccurs it almost always starts out again where it originally formed and my lump was some way away from the original cancer. He finished by saying ‘I’m not going to worry about that and you shouldn’t either’. He prescribed some ointment to put on the lump and said it should shrink it away. But if it doesn’t he’ll make an appointment for me to come back in a couple of weeks and then they will take a sample to perform a biopsy and regardless of whether it is or isn’t cancer he would cut it out. I asked if that would affect my taste or speech and he told me it would not.
I’ve been putting this thick gluey ointment on now for 8 days and the lump is still there, the ointment eases the pain. The lump doesn’t seem to have gotten any bigger which is a positive thing cos cancer grows. I got an appointment – for April 20th. So consultant obviously doesn’t consider it serious. The appointment does say, however, that I should supply some information in case I need surgery. Fek.
Deep down, and I know this is illogical, I still think it’s cancer. The ten days between seeing dentist and consultant were full of intense anxiety as I pictured all likely scenarios which ranged from extreme to not so extreme, basically, in order of nastiness – death, jaw removal, tongue amputation, feeding only by tube in stomach, partial tongue removal. Anybody still smoking out there? Don’t wanna preach but forget lung cancer as your biggest nightmare, consider the options I’ve just listed.
So, each morning I awake I’m filled with a sense of doom, 2 coffees and becoming active dissipate the gloom but it does keep rearing it’s ugly head. Roll on April 20th.
I mentioned my mate Johnny Foster in a previous post who was diagnosed with bowel cancer early December ’11. He’s had his radio and chemo therapies and was scanned two weeks ago. This Friday he will get result. If any traces of cancer remain it will mean surgery for Johnny and most likely a colostomy bag. So I’m obviously hoping the treatment worked. Cancer, cancer, cancer, few things get me really mad but this disease does.
And finally, on the health thing, I mentioned the flashing lights to optician and he said that’s known as an optical migraine. No pain, just disorientation and bright lights for around twenty minutes every so often. Haven’t had one in over a month now. My GP didn’t know what it was but the optician did. Weird. Getting old is so much fun eh folks?
Speaking of Johnny he picked up a brand new pressure washer at a boot sale for £15 and it costs £80 new. I borrowed it and over three days cleaned my rather large patio. Worked a treat but one bit of advice – wellies are essential, I was wearing boots but every time, somehow, socks became drenched, as did my jeans.
Tonight clocks go forward, this cheers me, the weather is great and if it’s still great tomorrow I am going to cycle to the Cutty Sark pub around 17:30 tomorrow and have a few open air pints and hope I meet up with some folk I know, I probably will.
I want a new bicycle but I’ve discussed this elsewhere, was a little disappointed on lack of feedback, hoped somebody could have recommended a bicycle make. Still playing vinyl music mostly, have determined that generally speaking sound source (meaning playback device – turntable; CD; FLAC; mp3; DAB tuner etc) is probably not main criteria for quality but condition of media is, especially with vinyl. Pristine vinyl of a good recording is still best imo but a quality digital recording still knocks spots off many of my vinyl platters. Bottom line is it all depends on the recording studio and condition of vinyl, where applicable.
Gamez:
Have almost finished Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, loving this game though it’s not without it’s quirks & anomalies, thank gawd for online game walkthroughs and guides, love those folk who put them together. On the strength of this I may try some of the other Lego titles.
This Harry Potter, game, incidentally, means you have to control two characters independently sometimes and for this a pair of game controllers is deffo best. So I bought a Microsoft game controller PC receiver and a pair of MS wireless controllers. They work a treat, not cheap but so very, very good. Also good for racing games cos I can’t really afford a decent steering wheel.
Overlord 2, got about three quarters of way through and it got stupidly hard, so gave up. Really rather enjoying F1 2010 (Codemasters); on XP machine have rediscovered Race Driver: GRID and it’s good. Still lots of COD4 online, one of the few games I can actually play drunk and not make a complete fool of myself.
On Xbox 360 have bought Final Fantasy XIII-2 and so far (early days) seems good. Also loving Rango; Tintin; Forza 4; Blur.
There’s more – like Dragon Age 1 fer instance on PC, but that’ll do on games.
Have had a few little bits of work, enough to pay bills and buy me some beans but not enough for me to be browsing travel brochures to St Lucia or consider purchase of Nvidia 680 video card.
Still no car but have been getting by on public transport, I am reliably informed that come April 6th, my 61st birthday, I will get a ‘Freedom Pass’ which is basically free public transport. So, during April, I am going to travel to Margate and visit the Turner Art Gallery where there is an exhibition I want to see. After that visit may visit John and Di and offspring at Whitstable and stay there the night.
Note that in years gone by I would have received my ‘bus pass’ when I turned 60. Messrs Cameron & Clegg decreed I had to wait another year for it. I truly think Guy Fawkes had the right idea, I hate hate hate Cameron & Clegg.
John and Di’s kids, btw, are named Jack & Stella. May have mentioned this before, forgive me, age means we repeat ourselves more often, lol, but John and Di like Stella Artois and Jack Daniels. Nuff said.
I recently ploughed through all my old computer parts and realised I had enough parts to build a socket A machine but needed a case. So I bought a cheap Antec desktop case, I’ll post more of that later, with some pix, but this’ll do for now.
One of my twin daughters, Sophie, the teacher, visited today, she came from Bath, Somerset, to visit friends here in SE London. That was good. Laters, folks
Alright, health. Four weeks ago I became aware of a lump on my tongue which was really quite sore. Having already suffered oral cancer on my tongue & oesophagus I was naturally somewhat brown-trousered about this development. This was on a Friday and I had an appointment with the dentists at Guys Hospital the following Tuesday so I thought I’d wait and ask dentist people what they thought of it.
In dentists chair I asked and a young female Indian apprentice tooth-doctor twisted, turned and squeezed my tongue in all directions and went ‘hmmm’ a lot and finally said ‘It could be traumatic but not sure’ and sought a second opinion from experienced Little Shop Of Horrors star person (Little Shop Of Horrors is a comic musical about a nutty dentist in case you didn’t know).
Experienced molar professor said much the same thing and said I should seek opinion from somebody who knows what they’re looking at. Prior to dental appointment I had arrived at hospital early and sought to get appointment at Oncology outpatients but as they’d signed me off in January after five years advised I should approach ENT (Ear Nose & Throat dept). So I did. They said I’d have to go through my GP. I explained this to dentist and she seemed very annoyed and said ‘Leave this to me’. Ten minutes later she came back and told me she’d spoke to ENT and they would send me an appointment in the post, so no need to see GP. There are some people in this big wide world that seriously deserve a hug on a daily basis.
So ten days later I’m sitting on a chair talking to the guy who cut out my original tumour and left me with a huge U-shaped scar on my throat almost six years ago. He said: ‘I think it’s an ulcer, did you eat anything sharp before it appeared?’ I replied yes, some cereal clusters that I think did cut my tongue. He said ‘Does it hurt?’ I said it does and he said that pleased him as cancer usually, if not always, starts off painless, grows and only when it reaches an aggressive stage starts to hurt. This is why so many cancers are often missed.
He pointed out that if cancer reoccurs it almost always starts out again where it originally formed and my lump was some way away from the original cancer. He finished by saying ‘I’m not going to worry about that and you shouldn’t either’. He prescribed some ointment to put on the lump and said it should shrink it away. But if it doesn’t he’ll make an appointment for me to come back in a couple of weeks and then they will take a sample to perform a biopsy and regardless of whether it is or isn’t cancer he would cut it out. I asked if that would affect my taste or speech and he told me it would not.
I’ve been putting this thick gluey ointment on now for 8 days and the lump is still there, the ointment eases the pain. The lump doesn’t seem to have gotten any bigger which is a positive thing cos cancer grows. I got an appointment – for April 20th. So consultant obviously doesn’t consider it serious. The appointment does say, however, that I should supply some information in case I need surgery. Fek.
Deep down, and I know this is illogical, I still think it’s cancer. The ten days between seeing dentist and consultant were full of intense anxiety as I pictured all likely scenarios which ranged from extreme to not so extreme, basically, in order of nastiness – death, jaw removal, tongue amputation, feeding only by tube in stomach, partial tongue removal. Anybody still smoking out there? Don’t wanna preach but forget lung cancer as your biggest nightmare, consider the options I’ve just listed.
So, each morning I awake I’m filled with a sense of doom, 2 coffees and becoming active dissipate the gloom but it does keep rearing it’s ugly head. Roll on April 20th.
I mentioned my mate Johnny Foster in a previous post who was diagnosed with bowel cancer early December ’11. He’s had his radio and chemo therapies and was scanned two weeks ago. This Friday he will get result. If any traces of cancer remain it will mean surgery for Johnny and most likely a colostomy bag. So I’m obviously hoping the treatment worked. Cancer, cancer, cancer, few things get me really mad but this disease does.
And finally, on the health thing, I mentioned the flashing lights to optician and he said that’s known as an optical migraine. No pain, just disorientation and bright lights for around twenty minutes every so often. Haven’t had one in over a month now. My GP didn’t know what it was but the optician did. Weird. Getting old is so much fun eh folks?
Speaking of Johnny he picked up a brand new pressure washer at a boot sale for £15 and it costs £80 new. I borrowed it and over three days cleaned my rather large patio. Worked a treat but one bit of advice – wellies are essential, I was wearing boots but every time, somehow, socks became drenched, as did my jeans.
Tonight clocks go forward, this cheers me, the weather is great and if it’s still great tomorrow I am going to cycle to the Cutty Sark pub around 17:30 tomorrow and have a few open air pints and hope I meet up with some folk I know, I probably will.
I want a new bicycle but I’ve discussed this elsewhere, was a little disappointed on lack of feedback, hoped somebody could have recommended a bicycle make. Still playing vinyl music mostly, have determined that generally speaking sound source (meaning playback device – turntable; CD; FLAC; mp3; DAB tuner etc) is probably not main criteria for quality but condition of media is, especially with vinyl. Pristine vinyl of a good recording is still best imo but a quality digital recording still knocks spots off many of my vinyl platters. Bottom line is it all depends on the recording studio and condition of vinyl, where applicable.
Gamez:
Have almost finished Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, loving this game though it’s not without it’s quirks & anomalies, thank gawd for online game walkthroughs and guides, love those folk who put them together. On the strength of this I may try some of the other Lego titles.
This Harry Potter, game, incidentally, means you have to control two characters independently sometimes and for this a pair of game controllers is deffo best. So I bought a Microsoft game controller PC receiver and a pair of MS wireless controllers. They work a treat, not cheap but so very, very good. Also good for racing games cos I can’t really afford a decent steering wheel.
Overlord 2, got about three quarters of way through and it got stupidly hard, so gave up. Really rather enjoying F1 2010 (Codemasters); on XP machine have rediscovered Race Driver: GRID and it’s good. Still lots of COD4 online, one of the few games I can actually play drunk and not make a complete fool of myself.
On Xbox 360 have bought Final Fantasy XIII-2 and so far (early days) seems good. Also loving Rango; Tintin; Forza 4; Blur.
There’s more – like Dragon Age 1 fer instance on PC, but that’ll do on games.
Have had a few little bits of work, enough to pay bills and buy me some beans but not enough for me to be browsing travel brochures to St Lucia or consider purchase of Nvidia 680 video card.
Still no car but have been getting by on public transport, I am reliably informed that come April 6th, my 61st birthday, I will get a ‘Freedom Pass’ which is basically free public transport. So, during April, I am going to travel to Margate and visit the Turner Art Gallery where there is an exhibition I want to see. After that visit may visit John and Di and offspring at Whitstable and stay there the night.
Note that in years gone by I would have received my ‘bus pass’ when I turned 60. Messrs Cameron & Clegg decreed I had to wait another year for it. I truly think Guy Fawkes had the right idea, I hate hate hate Cameron & Clegg.
John and Di’s kids, btw, are named Jack & Stella. May have mentioned this before, forgive me, age means we repeat ourselves more often, lol, but John and Di like Stella Artois and Jack Daniels. Nuff said.
I recently ploughed through all my old computer parts and realised I had enough parts to build a socket A machine but needed a case. So I bought a cheap Antec desktop case, I’ll post more of that later, with some pix, but this’ll do for now.
One of my twin daughters, Sophie, the teacher, visited today, she came from Bath, Somerset, to visit friends here in SE London. That was good. Laters, folks
nivrip
Yorkshire Cruncher
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????? Was that meant as a joke or was it a genuine mistake?
Couldn't agree more.
In the last six months have lost my brother and a very good friend, both to bowel cancer. My wife has had both breast and skin cancers, both hopefully cured now. Another friend with prostate cancer treated with radioactive implants and yet another friend with a very rare form of abdominal cancer just getting over chemotherapy.That's why all my crunching is aimed at Help Conquer Cancer.
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Bit of a booboo, that one, I really don't hope it is an autopsy cos that would mean I would be brown bread
Have edited to suit.
Sorry to hear about your friends and relatives suffering.
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'cos we a nosy lot, and you can write a good story.
I'm a bit peeved I'm gonna have to wait another bloody year for me bus pass.
Taffycat
Crunchy Cat
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Ahh that's better... the Friday mini-blog withdrawal twitches are settling nicely now, since the restoration of normal service from Greenwich.
Sorry to hear your tongue has been causing you concern, but entirely understandable after all that you've previously gone through. The "Controller of Molars" sounds like a very sensible and practical person who really set the wheels in motion for you. Full marks to her for cutting through the red-tape of GP appointments, referrals, and so-on. One doesn't need all that time-wasting fuss when one is worried.
Wishing you the very best for your next appointment... and that your ulcer thingy will have obligingly disappeared of its own accord by then.
Oh - didn't know you'd had "flashing lights"... snap! Me too, but like you, they don't normally result in an actual headache. (Stonkingly painful migraines usually like to strike (me) separately.) I was a very young teen when the first "light show" occurred. It was a bit frightening, because it was accompanied by visual loss (one sees "holes" where there shouldn't be any - such as in people's faces...! Very common of course, and only lasting for about 20 minutes or so - as you said.) I told my mum, who promptly decided that I must be imagining it! Nice one mum... and a great way to calm panicking offspring.
Enjoy the Freedom Pass when you get it. Also hope you'll soon find a new bike that you like.
Take care Sir Flopps.
Sorry to hear your tongue has been causing you concern, but entirely understandable after all that you've previously gone through. The "Controller of Molars" sounds like a very sensible and practical person who really set the wheels in motion for you. Full marks to her for cutting through the red-tape of GP appointments, referrals, and so-on. One doesn't need all that time-wasting fuss when one is worried.
Wishing you the very best for your next appointment... and that your ulcer thingy will have obligingly disappeared of its own accord by then.
Oh - didn't know you'd had "flashing lights"... snap! Me too, but like you, they don't normally result in an actual headache. (Stonkingly painful migraines usually like to strike (me) separately.) I was a very young teen when the first "light show" occurred. It was a bit frightening, because it was accompanied by visual loss (one sees "holes" where there shouldn't be any - such as in people's faces...! Very common of course, and only lasting for about 20 minutes or so - as you said.) I told my mum, who promptly decided that I must be imagining it! Nice one mum... and a great way to calm panicking offspring.
Enjoy the Freedom Pass when you get it. Also hope you'll soon find a new bike that you like.
Take care Sir Flopps.