We are on the brink of a new era, if only...

Ok so after nearly 8 weeks off work due to chronic back and leg pain I have a return to work plan.....errrr worked out with HR and a return date of next Tuesday the 14th of April. :)

So today I decided that with all things being equal I should at least try a dry run of the journey to work using public transport. After all my consultant suggested that it would be better for me than my car and that I should do it so i'd be crazy not to follow his advice. As I also need to build up my tolerance for walking and such I thought a nice potter around Greenwich would be a nice idea.

Got on a bus at 10:45 / 11:00am and started heading towards Lewisham. Got to the DLR at Lewisham and felt a bit....well it's hard to describe really. My back was aching slightly and I felt very queasy. Not enough to make me want to turn back but enough to make me wonder if after 5 weeks of being bed ridden my body had really lost a lot of it's previous energy capabilities.

So got to Greenwich DLR and decided on a nice boat trip up and back on the Thames. Two hours thirty minutes in total and ability to sit down but also walk around if back acheyness started, sounds perfect doesn't it. Well it would have been except for one very minor detail I forgot. TOURISTS!!!!!

While they are vital to London (and the UKs economy) they are an embuggerance to the extreme. Especially when they are in numbers that could take over a small provincial town (which they were). Jostling, pushing and whacking you in the face with their backpacks were all done to me and by the time I got back to Greenwich I did feel quite prepared for a rush hour commute.

Which was lucky as after a small amount of food I found myself in one. However due to easter coming, no one is about so it wasn't what I was expecting (it was a lot easier) and by half past 6 I was home and tired.

By 8:45 I was chatting on IRC and watching Morecambe and Wise on DVD when I finally lost my last energy level and woke up about twenty minutes ago.

All in all a good day and I feel prepared to get back to work :)

<td align="center" style="background: #000000; color: #FFFFFF;">Cy75's Random Movie Quote:

'I'm sure in 1985, plutonium is available at every corner drugstore, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.'

- Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

A friend of mine is a regular visitor to a hospital and has to go there for treatment and on some occasions even stay in there for prolonged periods. His condition even warrants his being registered disabled.

He went to said hospital for a regular clinic appointment he went to get his parking sorted out as he has done before and was told "Oh sorry we no longer give free parking for disabled patients only for patients who are on income support".

We worked out that on average if he gets admitted to hospital he would have to pay about £56 for a 4 week stay (which can happen).

We also worked out that he will probably end up spending about £250 - £300 a year on parking to get treatment.

Good to see that the NHS has got it priorities right in regard to longterm patients.

This has to be a joke site or wind up:

http://www.allerca.com/index.html

Isn't it, if not it's very good news for cat lovers who are allergic.

I sit here under air conditioning with a fan blowing the cool air conditioned air out at me and yet I still feel hot.

On the plus side it's summer and I have a huaggggge urge to go to the Lickey Hills when in Birmingham this weekend and just read a book by the monument.

So Finland won the Eurovision song contest, i'm quite pleased about that in a "freak out anyone who's vaguely stiff necked" way.

My ankle is still hurting me a lot, I think I did too much on it yesterday and today it just struck back with as much force as it could. Using the spoon count I think I am in debt to my spoons of about 10.

Soooooo having been awake since 7am (also up at 2am and 5am though in pain) decided that food would be good, one problem no food in the house. Not a bit of it, so I hobble (and I mean hobble) to the car and we go to a near by pub. By this time i've got two of my three doses of painkillers in me and my foot has been elevated all morning.

So I think to myself i'll be fine

WRONG

I can limp a bit into the pub after a friend has driven me there and all is mediocre (I won't use the word well as it wasn't), leave the pub though and suddenly the car seems a long way away and it's a bugger to limp / hobble to. Still lunch was nice and I would advise anyone who goes to Chislehurst to visit the Tigers Head pub as for food it can't be beat.

Looks like there's no way i'll make the wedding on Saturday (especially as I won't be able to even drive up there) and will have to pass my best wishes on to he happy couple via the medium of mum and dad.

On the plus side enough rest and I should be in tip top shape in a couple of weeks time. Really I should just stop whinging as I have life a whole lot bloody better than a lot of people out there.

So after a few days of pain I went to see the doctor about my foot / ankle problem and was told in no uncertain terms that they wouldn't look at it and to go to the hospital. So this morning I go to Beckenham Hospital for them to look at it.

Hobble in there at 9:30 leave at 11:30 and it turns out i've damaged my Median Ligament in my foot / ankle. Recovery time two months in total, although apparently it will get better as time goes on. For the moment I need to rest it, take 400mg Ibuprofen and put ice packs on it.

Bahh Humbug and I was planning to be a late entry on Strictly Dance Fever this week as well.

So the foot aches but it is a lot better than yesterday :).

I can walk on it (well there's a slight limp) but it's still better than yesterday.

Here's hoping that by tomorrow it's all better so I can go to work (gosh how weird does that sound).

So I get half a day off from work to get the new front door lock and fit it.

I leave work at half twelve and nip to local locksmiths just in time to get the lock and three extra keys cut. Then I spend about 45 minutes to an hour fitting the sodding thing, not that it's not easy to fit one you understand (especially one where your just replacing the barrel inside the lock).
However some of the screws were a tad on the tight side and after ploughing the screwdriver into my hand for the third time I decided the slow and cautious method may be the way forward.

So fit the new lock which should stop the thieving chavs who stole my housemates bag breaking in and stealing all the wordly possesions in the house.

Then get asked to go to a garden center with a friend of mine who can't walk properly at the moment. Do this and end up loading my golf with the following:

2 x Huge Ceramic Plant Pots (very heavy)
1 x Medium Cermamic Plant Pot (bloody heavy)
2 x Small Cermaic Plant Pots (not that heavy at all)
3 x Bags of Compost
1 x Bottle of Creasote (squirrel repelant apparently)
1 x Big 2 litre bottle of weed killer
1 x Small roll of chicken wire

I now ache but am off to eat pizza :-)

I'll make this quick as I don't have much time before I want to go to sleep:

The following happened this weekend:

I slept on two different floors on two different nights

I heard that Jon on the day that he died told his mother: "It's OK mum i'm not afraid any more"

I cried (especially after hearing the above)

I went to the following locations: Bradford, Leeds, Walsall, Birmingham, Congleton and London.

My fingers were closed in a car door and my middle knuckle now really hurts.

There is an indian restaurant overlooking a lovely stretch of water near by Congleton

Left Birmingham got to Coventry chatted to Hunter for a very long time and picked up a Random, dropped Random back home and got back from Birmingham at about midnight(ish).

Then found this: http://www.clerks2.com/trailer/large.html

Which begs the question is ten years for a sequel just a tad too long????

Answer: Of course not it's Kevin f*****g Smith (oh and the swearing is contextual before any complaints flood in).

Things I learned this weekend:

a) Sisters have no sense of time when a lift is offered
b) Quitting smoking after 40 odd years is possibly one of the most stressfull things ever (for the rest of your family)
c) The boy band O-Zone need to be tried in a court for crimes against humanity
d) Hunter is the most dangerous man in the world and if all accidents that happen to him were directed onto the planet earth it would explode in to a million pieces
e) There can be such a thing as too many condoms
f) Argos has a superstore / warehouse that sells discounted, discounted goods in Walsall (boy it's cheap)
g) Birmingham City council have no concept of performing road maintenance with "minimal disruption"

Shiny the second in all its glory :)

So I get home at about 5 o'clock and i'm bored, I mean really bored the whole evening pans out in front of me like an unfunny Carry On movie (think Carry On England).

Then I get the chance to go out for some food with Random so I go into London (30 minute travel no biggy). However she hasn't currently got a working mobile and I had to message her to meet me at Oxford Circus tube station, except on the way to the destination I couldn't remember if it was Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus. So I plump for Oxford Circus, then problem number 2 raises it's head.
Oxford Circus has approximately 400 entrances and exits to it (slight exageration there I know), I am now in the position of having to find one person on Oxford Street during rush hour when it's full of people and lots of places to meet over quite a big geographical location (Regent Street and Oxford Street cross roads).

So after a few minutes i'm pondering if perhaps RFID chips implanted in the skin could avoid all these sorts of problems* and at the same time thinking that maybe this evening wasn't going to happen. I'm lost in my thoughts when a voice next to me goes "hello" and it turns out that Random using some sort of cunning device (her eyes) has tracked me down on one of the busiest areas of London.

Anyway Indian food was consumed in quite a nice restaurant just off Piccadilly Circus which I can't remember the name of which is slightly annoying when people say "oooh that sounds nice whats it called". Nice restaurant though and unlike many indian restaurants it has small portions of main courses but with side dishes thrown in, so instead of getting a metal bowl with meat in a sauce with maybe some onions and peppers you got some meat, 2 side dishes, rice and a nan in a set menu. The closest I could describe it is as some sort of Tapas bar that served indian food, plus they did Mango Lassi which I haven't had since I left Birmingham :-)

Also got to see the porn area of Soho, now I know this is what Soho is famous for however somehow in the last 6 years of living in London i'd managed never to see it. Imagine my surprise when we ended up having to walk down what was effectively and alleyway of porn to get to the restaurant, however that was nothing to my surprise at seeing a Summerfield supermarket in the middle of all the porn and strip clubs. I think it's nice they put one there for the various sex workers to be able to get their shopping from.

Got home and found that one housemate was asleep and sort of semi arranged to meet the other housemates new(ish) boyfriend this weekend.

A nice evening, oh and I want a mobile personal communications device that combines Blackberry effectiveness for e-mail with lots of memory and the ability to use lots and lots of programs yet using very low bandwidth (about 5MB a month). Could someone please hurry up and make one.

*Decided that no the compulsory tracking of the UK populace was not a good idea, to be fair I was leaning towards that argument anyway.

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

Stolen from Jenster, Sorceresz and Chiller (everyone was doing it I just wanted to be popular)

You Are 44% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

The story of my life really, must try harder.......

This is a good thing though, surely i'm only Diet Coke evil and can get better and purer. Ok well not purer but at least a better person (well maybe a bit of a better person).

*Wonders if perhaps doing a Reggie Perrin maybe the way forward to become completely good

As you see the ducks didn't even know what had hit them, as they slid along the ice.

So this is what my home town looked like after snow on Saturday

Cy75 may explode without warning

M EXPLOSIVE

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Stay away i'm dangerous (and I don't just mean bad jokes)

Q) Why don't oysters ever give to charity?

A) Because they're shellfish

Excuse me while I go and hide from inevitable pelting by rotten fruit i'm going to get for this.

My dad likes boxing, OK thats an understatement he loves boxing.

In fact it's probably one of the few pleasures he has left in the world now he's given up smoking and drinking. Last night was a big championship boxing match, unfortunatley it was on at 2am so my dad toodles off to bed and decides he'll watch it this morning as it's being repeated on ITV at 11:25am.

He sits infront of the TV just before the match starts full of anticipation and immediately gets told the result by the newsreader.

Queue rant from my dad over ITV news and the match being spoiled for him. I'm not that keen on boxing but even I was surprised, there wasn't even a warning from the news person.