Why do people hate Mondays and chase Fridays?

I've always tried to avoid conversations about 'looking forward to the end of the week'. It's a Monday morning conversation that probably 99.9% of the UK workforce gets involved in because they are scared of doing any work in the first place.
If everyone could party hard all week and still get money coming into their bank account each month I'm pretty sure the streets of London would be littered with glow-sticks and random unconscious people left idly by the night before (yes, the night has feelings too and will leave you in some random place that smells of sweat and urine).

Why does everyone pray for Friday - 5pm?

I catch myself praying for world peace every now and then and even world peace on Friday sometimes, but never actually for Friday evening. It seems a tad redundant to me as it's going to happen anyway. It kinda happens every week, but I don't think the majority have notice yet.

Is it the jobs people are doing they hate or the people, or some deep repressed memory of an awesome Friday that they're trying desperately to relive? Whatever it is, I don't think the sands of time are listening because each week they take the same amount of time to reach their spot in the proverbial hour glass, so I refer back to my notion of: "What's the point in praying for something you're going to get anyway?"

Granted certain people will read this, know they have been wishing for a certainty set in stone and continue to go through the aimless ritual as early as Friday around 9 or 10am.
Well, hopefully everything I just wrote falls on deaf eyes (yes eyes - not a typo). Life just wouldn't be the same without people to chuckle at.

SUPERNATURAL IS BACK!

It didn't need a post entire of its own, but I'm so happy that one of my favourite shows has made a comeback and if anything it's a bit darker than it was before; if that's possible.

Back when it all began, the constant advertising on Sky TV conveying it as a 'scary/sexy' show made it seem like the target audience were 15 - 21yr old girls with nothing better to do than talk on the phone to other 15 - 21yr old girls about hair, nails and two buff guys that drove a black car in a new TV show.
For the most part that's what Supernatural was about and it developed a loyal female following, but I took the time to ignore all the fuzz and watch the pilot episode, which was ok.
I gave it a chance like I do with most shows and watched a few more episodes and it began to get addictive. Not so much for the on-screen action, but the on-screen banter.

Supernatural, now in season 6 doesn't take itself too seriously and has the balls to poke fun occasionally at other shows out there too, namely one of my all-time favourite shows at that. I found even the ridiculing of Grey's Anatomy funny and for that to be acceptable makes me a lifetime fan of the Winchester boys.

To be fair the show came to an end in season 5 and it ended very well. Loose ends were tied and characters laid to rest.
Season 6 has undone everything and turned it all on its head, making for new and exciting storylines, so I'm buckling up and bunkering down for another hell of a ride!

Awesome day

Somehow I managed to fall asleep before 9pm last night. I blame the missus, she burns like a furnace and is so comfortable to snuggle with that I usually find myself drifting off to Dreamy Creek.

I think I woke up twice between 2/3am and finally at 7am. It was a good nights sleep for once, bar the interruptions.

Whilst driving I heard on the radio that movies are £1 if you buy The Sunday Times. It was all true, but 3D movies aren't included, something we found out at the cost of at least £4 worth of petrol and a short stay in a pay & display car park.

By the end of the day we'd eaten several times, watched a couple of movies and even saw a real live pornstar in the flesh.

I cooked breakfast-in-bed this morning so dinner was laid on for me.
By 9pm we were full, tired, and crawling into bed.

Erm ... the end.

The joys of mobile blogging

I didn't want to write a blog about how excited I was when I finally got my phone registered so I could write blogs from my mobile but, what they hey!
OH THE JOYS OF 'MOBILE BLOGGING'!
For nearly a month now I've been waiting until I got home, drafting on my Berry during journeys then transferring it all to my laptop prior to publishing online. Now, I just write when I'm inspired and send the piece directly. Sure beats what I was doing before and cuts down on the time I spend at the laptop.
Can I get a: WHOOP WHOOP!
Thank you.
Okay, possibly I'm a little too excited. I'll stop raving about it now as surely I've conveyed my emotions enough.
If you're a blogger reading this and you're not in on the 'mobile hype', then get involved!

Pain management

Cataloguing instances of agitation filled an entire page before lunch time.
Dean placed a cold hand on his forehead unable to figure a diagnosis for the sudden bout of dizziness. Soldiering through may have been an option yesterday, but now, everything felt worse; now.
The first niggling pain kicked in last week just after two games of tennis. The source felt like it was unsure of where it should be, so his chest heaved and his stomach felt sore all at once.
The doctors couldn't figure its origin either, information he preferred not to hear. How could they be in the dark? The sensations building inside were real but the why/how remained a mystery.
Breathing was beginning to hurt too. Painkillers did as much as go down his throat like Smarties; large quantities attending a private placebo party.
The minute hand on the clock echoed in the small space. Dean watched it, focused on it. The pain wasn't too bad if he cast his attention elsewhere.

Kisses

There's no way of knowing that the kiss will be the last one we ever have so it's routine, pedestrian; like we do it all the time and it's as easy as breathing so, very little emphasis is put on our lips touching for the briefest of moments.
I have on a pair of jeans and my favourite t-shirt, an old Lakers throwback that's past its sell-by-date. She's wearing one of my shirts and nothing else. Her eyes are still tired because we just woke up and her hair is a bit mussed up though she pulls off looking cute in the face of a hard night’s sleep.
I'm focused on getting breakfast on and bringing it back upstairs but she stops me as I'm about to get off the bed, holds my hand, pulls me closer. For the briefest moment I feel her lips, their soft caress a contrast to the rough day I'm about to have but I don't know that.
I make a beautiful breakfast, finish, and leave her drinking juice whilst watching morning TV.
I didn't know it at the time but I never really said goodbye.

My passion and my poison Xx.

Be selfless

Funny how a little thing can make you happy.

What I did wasn't to my benefit and it felt good to help someone else. In my line of work helping people is a byproduct of my role and lately the feeling has been absent, so when I got the opportunity to really make a positive difference in someone's life I grabbed the chance with both hands.
As I can't give any details, what I can say is I hope everything turns out alright and my statement goes to strengthen the case being put forward. It would make my day if I get a phone call in the next few days with awesome news, so I'll pray it comes in abundance.

What's the point in being happy when you're being happy on your own?

Old colleagues

It was good to see the old gang again. I hadn't been in that neck of the woods for a while so having lunch in Chinatown was BIG. I'm tempted next time to try the lobster and maybe some of the other delightful treats on offer.
Dressed smart all day didn't feel as uncomfortable as I'd thought and doing it again tomorrow doesn't bother me either. It's good to 'scrub up' just for the sake of it.
I officially love women with highlights when it's done right. I got to spend the afternoon/evening with a lovely lady sporting the nicest hair in London, so when I eventually said goodbye and hopped on my train, an empty sensation engulfed my spirit for a while.
It's amazing what someone’s presence, or lack of it, can do.
A good day overall, and a quiet evening once home to end it on a soft note.

Rastamouse - check it out!

http://www.rastamouse.com/

Freewriting

"So, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke is what you're saying?"
"No, he threw something on the floor, it made a popping sound and he was engulfed in smoke. When the smoke cleared he was gone."
"I thought that's what's I said?" James rubbed his temple out of frustration. Two days out of the academy and his first case was shaping up to involve magicians or ninjas, or both.
"Look if you don't believe me there are other people on the platform you can ask."
With no other choice, James took several more witness statements, all saying roughly the same thing: A man dressed in black from head to toe was seen running silently along a platform at the Canary Warf DLR station. His face was shrouded apart from a gap revealing only his eyes which looked as if they had a faint glow to them.
None of the statements were given with any real certainty. Everyone seemed to be talking as if they'd imagined the whole incident but was sure it happened.

Feelin' this one right now

Writing out of a funk

I'm often accused of not sharing my feelings; I keep my thoughts to myself and rarely open up to people, even those close to me.
Accept this as me being a canvas and what you're about to read is as good as what's going on in my head right now.
I've realised that the current pain I'm in, caused by carrying this annoying double hernia is being escalated by my mental state. The pain feels tons worse than it did in the last couple of weeks but true to form I've kept that quiet.
I believe now that the current circumstances I'm in regarding my personal life are making the pain more and more intense. The same thing happened a few years ago and resulted in some severe back pains and insane sciatica.
What the remedy was evaded me for quite sometime until one day I powered up my laptop and started writing about it and anything else on my mind at the time.
It was as though the pain in my joints, bones and muscles was flowing down through my fingers, onto the page but more importantly out of my body. It was an excellent pain relief but I didn't fully believe in it, so every time I stopped writing for longer than a few days the pain would come back.

Like most people, I have to 'feel' to believe and I was feeling a hell of a lot around that time in my life, kinda like the way I'm feeling now. Writing makes me happy, whether it's a page or paragraph, words to a novel I've already started, or anything that pops into my head.

If you have something that makes you happy and it's not hurting you or any body else, find a bit of time away from distractions and just get on with it.

127 Hours

On hearing that I'd be taken out to the cinema on Sunday "My treat!" she'd said, I was then advised to choose a decent film, "Or else!". What I opted for was Danny Boyle's newest flick; 127 Hours.

Ususally I do a little research on a movie before going to see it. Ya know, what it's about, who's in it, who directed it - the usual stuff. I didn't actually get a chance to get all that done so, I was expecting to see a film about a guy who gets stuck in the middle of nowhere for about five days, and personally, I wasn't sure how good this film would actually be. Would the entire narrative stay with this unfortunate individual or would the audience get whisked away at some point to break the monotony?

Danny Boyle is becoming increasing annoying at making good celluloid. From his earlier effort; 28 Days Later (200.) I wasn't sure he would be the kind of director to look out for and I actually still haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire which is supposed to be quite good, so watching 127 Hours was a decision made purely on my need to see if the lead character escapes his dilemma, and how.
It’s easy to like what is happening on-screen during the initial 30 minutes. From the first few scenes it was easy to get hooked with all the visuals. Boyle has a way of using simple shots and what would seem like throw-away sequences and uses them to great effect.
Viewers get to really understand the nature of the lead character Aaron Ralston played by James Franco as they follow him into Canyonlands National Park in Utah. This journey is one he made without telling anyone where he was going. In not leaving any hint to where he would be, when he does get into the bind he's in there's absolutely no one that can save him but himself.

The film is based on Ralston’s autobiography which goes into graphic detail regarding the 127 hours he spent trapped, and Boyle manages to capture a great deal of that reality on film

Boyle plays with the idea of a supporting cast but doesn't really make any of them feature greatly. We're given only the aspects of other characters through flashbacks Franco has of past events and ultimately his realisation for how he ended up in the position he's in.

This was an enjoyable movie if a little uncomfortable at times, but it was well worth taking a look at.

23rd January 2011

OH NOOOOO!

I didn't write a blogpost yesterday. Admittedly I was out all day and haven't figured out how to send posts from my BlackBerry so instead of writing something I enjoyed a nice day out with the missus and caught a movie towards the end of the day.
The plan is to review the movie between now and tomorrow so, stay tuuuunnnnnnned!

Peace and bubble wrap!

I'm a fortunate guy

You know when someone's giving you a pep talk and they say stuff like; "anything is possible" or "you just have to believe you can do it" it always sounds so clichéd, but do we ever actually go away and really put our hearts into making the impossible possible or the unbelievable, easy?

My girlfriend was chatting to me last night and I was a little down and depressed due to something that's ongoing with someone very close to me. She spared me the kinds of things that have been said over and over, and firmly told me down the phone in as many words that I'm the kind of person who can deal with whatever life puts my way. She doesn't believe things will get better, she believes that I will make them get better.

Like an empty container I began to fill up with a warm sensation as though invincibility was made in liquid form and it was being poured into my belly.
I ended that phone call with a smile.


Thanks honey! Xx

Good or bad, it was still a, week ...

It's after 1am and I'm still up. The week had its ups and downs and I'm glad that I didn't let certain things at work slip away from me. Keeping calendar items/to do lists on my phone has helped immensely.
The subtotal of my efforts produced several reports, two case studies and two new referrals. The proposal I wrote before Christmas has been passed around to various managers within the Southwark area and my project has been given the green-light. Things being the way they are right now the project will kick off next Tuesday (we really don't have the room to waste time).

Personally I've had a few ups and downs. I'm still in lots of pain. The hospital has yet to give me a date for my surgery so I'm walking around with two ticking time bombs in my insides.
Strangely, when I'm at basketball with my son, which I have been twice this week, the pain is non-existent and shooting is relaxing. I did a bit of coaching too - two of the boys at the session were shooting a little flat, so I offered a few tips to get their shooting arc a little exaggerated. It worked as both guys began draining shots, nothing but net, for the next 45mins.

I left home this morning on a high. Should I take credit for the afternoon sunshine? YEAH, I think I deserve that. I was happy for no reason and chose not to question it.
A lot of folks were throwing up status updates about it begin Friday, you know the usual stuff. I find it strange that so many people pray for the week to end, surely if you're not loving what you do then you should do something you love. It makes sense after all, well, doesn't it?

Enough! I'm off to bed. Danielle did say nothing good ever happens after 10pm and nothing good can ever come from something beginning after midnight. I kinda disagree, but I won't push my luck.

Nightie, night, night! ;-)

Your Best Friend

When you hurt yourself really badly, and I'm not talking about bad - I mean 'life & death' bad - the body goes into shock and doesn't allow you to know how much pain you're in. This is a good thing because having something sharp rip right through you, falling from a great height, or third degree burns would feel awful. The body is the best friend you'll ever have and throughout our lives we shock and abuse it, until finally, it realises that we never truly liked it in the first place.
People always complain about things they dislike about their bodies, what they would change given the chance, but it's the body that fights tooth and nail for you, fixes you when you need fixing and never gives up on you in a fight, even if the fight isn't one it can win.

Best friends are best friends for good reason, would you knowingly hurt yours?

Tendering Notice

Dear Line Manager,

I wanted to begin this letter by saying thank you. If it wasn’t for your endorsement during the period when I had my interview I may not have got this job and I wouldn’t be writing this note to you now saying thank you. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve been here, it’s a great place to work and I’m fortunate because not many people can say that and mean it.

Working here has given me the confidence to go out and consult independently. It’s awesome that your company pushes individuals to be the best they can be, ultimately becoming self-employed due to all the rigorous training, insufficient resources and lack of support that forces us to improvise and make sunshine out of rain.

I won’t miss the constant verbal abuse or mispronunciation of my name. I hope you can find it in your heart to crawl underneath a rock and never, ever, come out.

... couldn't resist posting this ...

... all that needs to be said is it's a lovely song that needs to be heard.

What I couldn't say on Facebook!

Some days, like today, my work gets murky. I can't really go into detail due to being bound by confidentiality, red tape and the general desire to stay employed, though I will say - as an echo of my recent Facebook status - there are times when certain cases make me want to scream and cut off my air supply simultaneously.
I managed to get over it quite quickly and strolled back into the office as though I hadn't had a four-second-nervous-breakdown and sat at my desk ignoring a stray thought telling me to look up the easiest way to nitrate toluene and mix it with sulphuric and nitric acid (for the geeks out there that love chemistry, YES I AM SERIOUS).
I was asked to divulge my status outburst and chose not to in keeping with data protection, confid-yada yada yada, I really wanted to let rip the story.

Running away from that subject - it was cold in the office, so cold I surrounded myself with heaters, kept my coats on (COATS ON) and wrote another beast of a case study before receiving another referral that I would inevitably deal with before going home.

When I did finally exit the premises I took the bus home in light of walking all the way to the Peckham office from my flat this morning. "Where's your flat Stef?" Far away innit, but the walk was crispy cold, I had my tunes playing through the headset to the BlackBerry and I didn't have to sit on a bus with sour looking people angry that they have to go into the place they spent however long hunting down, to impress at interview maybe fake a reference and suck up to someone who is half their age and reminds them of it constantly.

I digressed a bit ... HOME - glad to be heading in that direction finally (I'll never tell you the exact location), various reminders popping off on my calendar telling me to buy certain things before getting there.
The hallway was warm on stepping past the front door and I hadn't eaten all the cheese in the fridge so my buddies, Olives and Crackers got acquainted once again.

Even though I was off the clock I still got two calls on the 'work line' took them and followed up with several work-related emails to ensure tomorrow's events have a chance to run smoothly.

Bring me my goblet and grapes and let me retire to my throne!

Life is as epic as you allow it to be ...

After several hours at work in front of the PC writing up a case study, putting together two quarterly reports, dealing with a couple of screaming kids and avoiding the landline like a convict avoiding a bar of soap at his feet, I think - no - I believe I've earned a few minutes to blog and generally clear my head a little.

It's been a strange week, yeah it's Tuesday but I think in dog years so adapt and keep up with what I'm saying.
So far the various managers I work for are demanding reports that are due on Friday 21st January. A victim of my own talent for putting together excellent pieces of work, my inbox has been heavy with requests for these documents to be delivered ahead of time. I'm frowning at these emails knowing I could knock the work out while discovering the cure for stupidity so I do all the work and earn myself several self-awarded brownie points.

Thoughts have been criss-crossing my mind since 9am and the reading I did on the bus to quell them didn't work. One reoccurring thought is of jumping off the bus and going straight back home, the only thing stopping me, knowing the kids I'm due to entertain every Tuesday morning with stories and songs will be upset and I can't have that on my conscience. Give me the blueprints to the London Mint, access codes and a crowbar I'm fine, but the notion of letting down a bunch of tiny people, nah; I just can't process that.
A professional photographer was present this morning so no doubt I'll be in some magazine somewhere pulling a silly face and a bunch of kids pointing at me like I'm from Saturn. Good times [sigh] good times.

What's left to do? Well, re-reading the reports and other bits for a start, then the journey to Leyton to coach basketball.
My life isn't the snowboarding, designer wearing, fast car fuelled party that has me screaming CHAK DE FATTE all day long, yet I wouldn't trade any of it for an atomic second.

Life is as epic as you allow it to be.

Oh no!

I've finally found something I hate about the show, Grey's Anatomy. :-(

All arms and fingers

Dean lifted his leg off the bed and dangled it in the air, doing the same thing with the other leg whilst using his core muscles to pivot his body around to face the edge to the bed. It wasn't a great distance to the floor and he hit legs-first not feeling anything until he braced himself with his hands.
Over the weeks and months upper body strength had increased and the need to use tons of energy to get in and out of the house wasn't necessary.
He looked up and smiled at being able to get to the top bunk. The doctors said that there would be some residual feeling from the waist down but today wasn't a good day, it didn't matter much, he'd conquered the bed, refused for the moment to get in the chair, and pulled himself into the living room.

Getting high on negativity

We fall into habits sometimes don't we? Not all of them are good for us and usually they're referred to in a negative sense.

Making a habit out of reading isn't negative, is it?

Making a habit out of learning something new each day has to be a good thing, right?

Taking drugs and getting high - I can understand the 'getting high' part, but the taking drugs to get there is the element that bothers me. Why is it even necessary to do that?
If people spent more time making sure someone else was happy then that would provide enough of a high, wouldn't it? I'm pretty sure that soaring around on the euphoria of knowing you put a smile on someone’s face has to be a better high than a drug induced one ... Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't taken hard drugs to actually know what that type of high feels like but surely it's a positive thing in not doing it.

Not everyone's built selflessly, and I'm sure I don't fit into that category, so wouldn't it be a cooler world if people took the time to ensure everyone else’s day was a little better? Cynics would argue the world was emotionally off balance wouldn't they? Without some form of negativity things would become negative by default. The universe would implode and spill out of a donkey’s ear or something.

Or, we'd just be happier ...

Out of a pickle

Susan placed the ashes back on the coffee table, I thought about the next few hours in a few seconds. The urn wasn't the urn we had picked out. Somewhere between silver casing with Tom's initials on the side and tinted gold someone had opted for an old pickle jar. We all saw the funny side - it was exactly what Tom likes to get himself into so why not put his ashes there.
As services go not one person shed a tear or looked unhappy. Tom always made people smile. Thinking about him would always take you to a happy place, to a situation that seemed so farfetched or unnecessary, trouble that he'd manage to get himself out of in the nick of time and anyone else involved.
We took this pickle jar with the last of our friend to his favourite spot, a couple of steps behind a Chinese restaurant in Soho. He often said when he needed to think there was no place better than a mixture of Chinese food and trash to really get you out of a funk and moving in the other direction. 

Susan watched as I opened the lid and tilted the jar into the wind. Margo, Phil, Mark, James and his two cousins Claire and Gemma stepped out of the way just as the first pieces of ash mingled in the breeze and avoided everything in their effort to float to the sky.

Tom was heading in a direction that only he knew the destination. Susan touch my shoulder as though she knew what I was thinking and continued to put an arm around me and rest her chin on my shoulder. We looked down at the empty jar and smiled.

Post Grad & Jack Savoretti

Post Grad is the kind of movie that should be safely in every DVD collection. Released in 2009, it received unsavoury reviews from movie goers and critics alike. I can't quite understand why.

The story revolves around a young woman and her desire to follow her career dreams only to have them crushed, and for the rest of the movie we're taken on a quirky and entertaining walk through the lives of her family running parallel to her misfortunes.
It's all quite amusing and sentimental at times. The bad reviews probably stemmed from critics that spend too much time devouring children while they dream (see The Proposal) instead of just sitting back and watching a nicely put together love story.

That's all I really want to say about the movie - go take a look, and if you like it; HOORAY!

Jack Savoretti who loaned his song "One Day" to a scene within the movie deserves a mention. The track captures the essence of what part of the film is essentially about and is just nice to play to someone you really like or love, if you dare.

A woman's love is far more powerful than a man's ...

Some may disagree, some might even fervently disagree. The fact remains that women seem to be a little better at being in love than men do ...

Why as a guy would you write this? Hopefully I'm asked that question so I can repeat the answer I'm about to give right now.

For us (men that is) we've made up our minds what the plan of action is when our vision settles on a woman for the first time. We're not thinking; house, picket fence, manicured gardens, stylish interiors with space for a nursery – NO no no, we haven't finished putting your clothes back on since we've been undressing you with our eyes for the last two minutes (possibly longer for guys with eager imaginations).

What's so great about women which actually works in favour for men is that, like us, first impressions help form decisions but ultimately men place that first encounter, the initial sighting, as the deciding factor as to the future of any sort of interaction. Should I say this isn't true of all men? Should I bother? I'll continue then ...  

You know, if I'm offending any guys out there feel free to disagree but tell me how many times in the course of the last 24 hours did you see a woman and think: "Hey, I wonder what kind of wife she would make?" or "Is she Mrs Right? So many women have broken my heart and I just want to a hug." If you answered yes to one or more of those scenarios go buy yourself a packet of Haribos and a toothpick and stop reading right now. Seeing as no one has left their computer screen let me remind you that when a woman is in love, chances are she would go that extra mile for you. Men tend to think it’s only acceptable in most cases to put themselves out for a woman if there’s some kind of return, whereas a woman would sacrifice fresh air to make a man happy.

Why is there a discrepancy with that?

Shouldn’t men feel as though it’s their duty to love this woman as much and more because she went as far as to lie on the witness stand for him, hide all his drugs and lie to her own family – now I’m not saying this is the blueprint for a normal relationship – but it’s an example of how deeply a woman can love a man to the point where she can almost lose her identity. And, after all that what does a guy do? Cheats or kicks her to the kerb for someone else. Is that fair? Stop nodding!

I think when a woman decides that she wants you and you only that in itself is a blessing. I’m pretty sure there are some mothers out there thinking: “Who the hell is going to want to spend the rest of their life with this fool?”

If you’re a man fortunate enough to hear a woman say: “I love you!” and mean it, then please make sure she knows you love her right back. Losing a good woman is devastating, there may be many out there but lots of them actually don’t want you.

Waking up is way too hard!

I'm tired too little fella, but unlike you I don't have the luxury of going back to sleep ...

In possibly a few weeks maybe less I'll be written off work and will take my rightful place alongside couch-potatoes the world over but for now my butt has to get into work.
Lately waking up has become significantly harder, possibly due to the fact that I'm not sleeping very well through the night. I've noticed too that I don't sleep very well when I'm on my own - that's a hint for a certain dark haired reader with cute knee caps.

The remedy in place for now is to turn off all the lights, get into bed and pray I get a good night’s sleep, but as we all know, God works in mysterious ways.

Spellchecker!

There's this animal inside everyone that is quite scary if let loose.

Some people are totally unaware it exists; others know it's there but for them it's a very small creature that wouldn't damage a feather. For me, the beast is very large, has powerful hind legs and very sharp teeth. It roams around looking for inconsistencies and when it locates any the policy applied is to terminate/delete/devour, however you choose to describe it.
If you haven't already guessed what I'm talking about then look at all the clues.

I've been living in fear of this beast for a very long time and even now as I type away into the early hours of the morning I can feel its breath on my back, smell its fur and hear its thoughts.

Just as I point the cursor to the spellcheck button it backs off slowly keeping bloodshot eyes on me until I do what it wants, at which point massive claws scratch the already worn floor and this familiar yet frightening animal lays down in the corner and watches as I raise my hands to continue typing.

January 31st sucks!

Remember I said it, but if you really do have a suckie-day on the 31st I take absolutely no responsibility for anything that happens to you.
The reason for that outburst was down to the fact that I promised to set up and create my blog by no later than the date above. You guessed it ... I couldn't wait!

When I came up with the un-original idea to start a blog it wasn't because there was a desire to actually have one but because a friend directed me to hers and inspired by her writing I decided to give this a go. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND YOU'RE TO BLAME FOR ALL OF THIS!
 
I wanted to kick-off my first blogpost with something amazing, inspiring, even good would be good enough. As I sat on the bus writing this, the heat of the engine under my butt was making me warm, thus tired, thus less prone to sparks of creativity that would alert the incredible talent within that keeps asking for directions to my fingers.
You'll have to put up with the thoughts inspired by the rumble of the 321 bus, the back of someone's head and the realisation that I didn't put enough money on my Oyster card.
So where did my mind go? Surprisingly it went to my hospital appointment the day before:
 
Pre-hernia surgery ...   

If that title confuses anybody it means I haven't had it yet.

I was reluctant to mention that someone would be cutting into me and patching me up but I feel like it's worth telling.
Admittedly I'm not worried or scared I just want to have it done ASAP so I can go back to playing basketball and coaching the way I prefer.
For anyone reading this who has had a hernia you know the kind of pain I'm in especially if yours was in the groin area. People talk tons of smack about Lewisham Hospital but they do have a lot of good folks there, students included.  

My check-up - what an experience!
Scheduled in for a 9.10am appointment I wasn't seen until 9.50am, not a major concern with a BlackBerry full of apps to keep me occupied. I wasn't seen by the consultant surgeon initially, instead two students lead me to a small room and enquired about my medical history, the pain I was experiencing and how active and physical I am. It kinda felt like they were running interference for the senior consultant who was obviously running late seeing patients, Lewisham is a learning hospital so I let that slide.

When the big man on campus finally came in he let the students deliver all the information I divulged not totally in the order I said it and I resisted the urge to provide verbal cue cards.

It wasn't long before I was half naked with three other people, one of the students was a girl, take note from this point on she avoided eye contact. In turns they felt the affected areas while I was in vertical and horizontal positions.

Being students it was necessary for the teacher to let them mirror what he was doing. It was at that point that a wave of pain hit me.
Lying there exposed with regular pressure on your groin isn't pleasant especially when the senior consultant tells the students that 'the patient has a second hernia'.

"HEY THAT'S ME YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

I didn't say it but it felt like I did.

Up and dressed the consultant explained that I have not one but two hernias which would explain the irregular pains in my stomach. But, he went on to highlight that during surgery he'll be making sure there aren't any other occurrences just in case.
He was a good guy with a calming bedside manner so I signed the surgical consent forms had a bit of a laugh with the students, shook hands and said goodbye.

The walk home was painful but it took my mind off the rain. I kept thinking: 'How the hell did I put so much pressure on my insides so as to cause so much damage? And at that moment I had the weirdest flashback of the last 12 months and couldn't help but let out a sheepish: "Oops!"