Another year older and am I any wiser....nope. Tired, in some discomfort, clueless, yes, but not any wiser. Three years to my half-century as Mrs.C gleefully pointed out. Toothless as another friend reminded me. I also looked at CD's in Tesco today and there were several bands whom I had never heard of...in the top 40. A sure sign of the generation gap. Never mind, I bought a copy of The Oyster Band, 'Pearls from the Oysters' and I am currently listening to it. Excellent stuff.





"You're how old?"












No booze but I was very glad of my caffeine fix with a lukewarm cappucino for lunch. I have also received a copy of Johnny Walker's biography plus book tokens. I'm easily pleased; books, music and beer. Sadly, no pub tonight and rattling with pills I'll be heading for an early night with a cup of cocoa.
However, with thoughts of decay and mortality in mind, I finally ordered an exercise bike which has been circled in the Argos catalogue for several weeks now. Before trusting myself to the madness of the roads and the vagaries of the British weather I thought I would be better off preparing myself first by getting fit. Both Mrs.C and No.1 son will be joining me in this brave attempt to attain a semblance of fitness.















I used to have a regime of exercising to the strains of Jean Michel Jarre on an exercise bike and a rower. Oxygene was about the right length and couldn't distract me from exercising. The only bugger is that if it comes on at a disco I am on the floor in a trice rowing like a demented viking. I'll have to find suitable music for this new regime...some of Bob Dylan's slower pieces to start me off.
A cup of tea is now needed...
TTFN.

I'm back and minus the offending tooth except for that 'disaster' I had a gut feeling about. The blurred* picture shows why:














A small part of the root has broken off and remains in situ.
That bland statement means a bit is still stuck there and despite her best efforts the dentist couldn't remove it. Cue two lots of antibiotics for the next week and "It should fall out naturally in time" was her reassuring comment as I left.
It's my birthday tomorrow and I will have no alcohol for the next few days. I am also enjoined to avoid hot drinks for the next day so as to allow healing (clotting) to take place. No alcohol and no caffeine...I am glad I don't smoke because that is also a no-no. We had better beat Tonga tonight as I sip my fruitjuice through a straw.
TTFN.

*Blurred so as not to shock the sensitive souls among you.

Fangs for the memory...

I have put it off for the last four weeks but I can do so no longer.
I have a dental appointment this evening and I have asked that the offending fang be removed. Intermittent toothache during all that time and the only reason I put it off was my lack of a NHS dentist and the costs. It's an upper left molar although I may be wrong. It could be a bicuspid flatheaded rarity for all I know, just so long as it is removed...it's somewhat wobbly so I am hopeful it will come out easily.
Fingers crossed! I am paying £75-00 for the opportunity for another person to torture me...
All being well and barring any unforseen disasters, I'll be in the pub to watch the rugby.
TTFN.

Afternoon my pretties.
Busy today running around sorting out the things I have neglected for the past weeks "cough" months. I have finally arranged for the council to remove a lot of rubbish from our back garden. Not only am I starting to look like Onslow from 'Keeping Up Appearances', but my back garden resembles his garden as well after moving the old fridges, freezer, etc...out there temporarily.














It's cost a pretty penny but it'll be worth it to have the unsightly eyesores removed and to have the space back.
I also popped into Kwikfit to arrange for a couple of new tyres. My current tyres are wearing syrups to escape the eagle eyes of the law. Scooting around the shops to buy groceries and I even avoided the blandishments of HMV, Virgin and the rest. Mrs.C had an electric collar fitted to me and if I approach the shops she administers the shock treatment...However, the dog ate the remote control and every time she barks I'm shocked. She especially barks at her squeaky toys and Mrs.C has bought several new ones recently....
It's also quiz night and having missed the last two because of work commitments I am girding up my loins and exercising the little grey cells in preparation. As I always say when quizzing...
"It's not the winning that matters, it's the taking beer".

Wish me luck.
TTFN.

A16....or A4?

"I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT ON THE A16".

A whinge again about drivers.
Rain, huge gusts of wind and little visibility is not an invitation to emulate F1, especially not on single lane back of beyond roads as the A16 often feels like. The middle-aged harridan in the s reg. rover will meet my large foot if I ever encounter her again...tailgate me... you twat!
Apart from that...
(brushes back hair and regains composure)

Hello folks. A few days off and a break from the grindstone that is mental health.
Our motto...'More palatable than prozac' or, 'modern, dependable, inclusive and forward thinking'. Nothing like a pithy catchphrase to reassure punters service users and to cover up the cracks in the service.
'Taking a 21st century approach to mental health' could be another catchphrase. Nearly eight years in to the century with 92 years to go. So if terrorism, global warming, regional wars, new epidemics, enforced community treatment and DNA fiddling are the 21st century answers in the future....lets have another look at that question. Mind you, the answers to current problems in mental health appear to involve lots of papers with little boxes to fill in. As the philosophy moves further away from the medical model of MH, the paperwork increases to prove we are doing the work. The axiom of one hour clinical face-to-face work with the person = 2 hours paperwork.
Change = progress, therefore continual change must equal a progressive, dynamic excellent service. I've come to the conclusion that all nurses wear invisible rollerskates because we are continually told we're moving forwards. Judging by the increasingly loud noise we are hearing, the juggernaut that is the NHS is reversing into a cul-de-sac. I shouldn't moan too much because caring, sharing tree hugger Dave and his Eton trifles would ensure the wheels fell off and were flogged to the highest bidder.
Anyhow, I have a beer and a DVD awaiting my perusal.
TTFN.

"I've been busy", hence my enforced absence.
Not much of an apology but there you go.

Work, studies and things needed a-doing around the ranch.
Even now, I have to complete the last of my OU studies and prepare for the exam, as well as commencing the course at Nottingham University. No rest for the wicked.But after the 10th of October the exam pressure will be off me and I might finally be able to relax a little.
I have a fine crop of red chilli's grown by my own fair hands and there are a few sweet peppers coming along. Self sufficiency...growing veg and brewing beer. I'll be weaving baskets next although the occupational therapists may still have the monopoly on that...an 'in joke' for the nurses out there.
TTFN.

Done and almost dusted.
I hotfooted it to the post office and it's away.
I celebrated with a cup of tea and walked the mutt. I also started on those chores I have studiously ignored for the past week...there's rather a lot to do, maybe it was two weeks...or three.....
I also treated myself to some new books, borrowed the CD 'Folk Awards 2007' from the library to 'play' on my PC and a packet of pistachios. I live the high life here!
My local has nearly run out of real ale (!!!) so my plan to celebrate there tonight is as scuppered as a scupper can be scuppering in a scuppering suit made of scuppers.
So I'll buy some beers in to go with the nuts.
Excuse me....
..........smoke alarm had gone off. Mrs.C. deep fried some homemade onion rings and the inevitable happened. Dog and cats going crazy as smoke filled the back room and I switched the alarm off. The onion rings are tasty by the way.
I'm off for the beers.
TTFN.

Exhausted....

Hoorah!
The essay completed today and just the second part (25%) of the assignment to complete. That'll take up tomorrow and that's almost the end of the course. Yes, there is the small matter of the exam in October and the final weeks study. But it is finished....Up here [Taps head]. I might regain use of my brain for something other than study and be able to have a social life again. I can read fiction rather than research articles...
Mind you, I have been naughty and read the latest 'Inspector Rebus' by Ian Rankin in between scribbling away. If you have never read any of his Rebus novels and you enjoy crime fiction...try the library or go buy one. Truly excellent reading.















The picture sums it up...I am exhausted and it has been a long old slog. I then have a new course 'Assessment in Psychosis' starting next week, running up until December although I apparently have until February to write up a couple of essays. That's the course I applied for five years ago! I only found out from a work colleague who was informed by a friend who is also starting the course. But compared to this current course and, given that much of my working life revolves around working with people with psychosis, I am hoping it may be 'easier'. Somehow I don't think it will be, but we'll see. Fingers crossed.
Tonight, I will mostly be collapsed in front of a cup of tea and listening to music. I haven't the energy for anything else.
TTFN.

The quiz last night at my local hostelry was unusual to say the least. The quiz itself was fine, lots of people and, although the real ale was close to running out (Quelle horreur!), there was enough. But something was amiss and it took me a while to realise what it was. The other punters were not regular pub goers. The quiz was in aid of the local diabetes care unit and the crowd were in the main users of that service. A good quiz but I felt as though the pub had been transmogrified into someone's front room and we had to behave ourselves. Most unsettling. There is a feel in a pub which most regular pub goers recognise. The unspoken mores, rules and behaviour which adds to the atmosphere as one sips a pint of best and chats to other punters. Last night it was Aunt Ethel's front parlour and I expected the cucumber sarnies to be distrbuted along with tea in the best china. Antimaccassars on the chairs and an aspidistra behind which her mangy flatulent terrier of an indeterminent breed hides as it awaits its chance to savage your ankles.
Hopefully normal service resumes this Thursday.

Back to the OU assignment...my last one and the course nearly finished!!!*

TTFN.

* Apart from the exam.