Light and Child

The light switch in the bedroom blew up last night - Maria turned it on, there was a flash and the thing no longer works. The lights didn't fuse, so I guess the dimmer switch - which hasn't worked to dim the lights in years - decided to give up the ghost. Probably one of the bulbs blew and overloaded it.
The other exciting thing was the phone call from my ex wife, she was upset and saying she'd had enough of daughter no 2 and was going to send her to live with us. We got an email from said daughter at about the same time. Ex-wife said daughter was failing all her classes and she was fed up with her. Daughter said she was scared of going home as she'd be shouted at so she was hiding at a friend's house.
I stayed up late waiting for her to call back but she didn't so I guess things have calmed down. We may hear more later today.

Arm update - bandage off

The bandage on my arm was due to come off today. However when I woke up it was loose so I just had to unwind it.

This is a view of what was underneath.

The other plaster stays on for another week.

Havant Symphony Orchestra

This was the annual event at Hayling Island Community Centre and was conducted by Jason Lai former bursary conductor of the Havant Symphony Orchestra and now well known due to his appearances on TV - notably on Maestro! as a tutor and Young Musician of the Year where he was a judge.

Maria was playing 2nd Trumpet as usual and can't be seen in the picture as she is behind Jason! They kindly reserved me an aisle seat to help with my arm. I wore a sling partly to warn people off and partly to hold the arm. We just missed the last parking space at the centre so had to walk from Tesco Metro's car park which has a maximum wait of two hours. Luckily they didn't seem to notice we stayed there nearly three hours.

They played pieces by Beethoven Overture Consecration of the House, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor Op 64 and Dvorak Symphony No 8. The violin soloist in the Mendelssohn was Jeanine Thorpe. It was very well done - only a few minor errors by the orchestra that I noticed - not that I'm an expert. The soloist and conductor were both very good indeed. The Hayling concert is a bit more "fun" than the ones they normally do at Fareham. They can take themselves very seriously at Fareham, they try and be very professional. This is a good thing but it can be a bit pompous and stuffy at times. Hayling Island Community Centre doesn't lend itself to that as a venue.

Arm

recovering today after surgery yesterday to relieve pressure on my ulna nerve in my elbow.

Sorry for the graphic picture...

Hedgehog

Had a little visitor to the front garden this afternoon. (S)he was enjoying lunch - looking for worms I guess.

I saw him/her/it/one just like it in the car headlights a few days ago, just wandering over the road outside the house.

It must have a "nest" nearby.

Operation

I’m in hospital tomorrow having my bionic hand fitted (a bit like Luke Skywalker at the end of The Empire Strikes Back)

Picture is probably copyright Lucasfilm Ltd but is freely available on the web.

I’ll post graphic images of the operation, if I can hold a camera that is.

Talking of The Empire Strikes Back, try this link … http://www.firsttvdrama.com/funstuff/vader1.php3

I didn't get the job in Kew by the way. It appears that I am "too heavyweight" for the role. Another interview arranged for Wednesday week though....

Piercings

My daughter called me at 4:35 and left a voicemail saying she'd call back later. She called again at 11 am (6 am in Florida). She was wondering if I'd allow her to get her nose pierced! Her mother had already said no - so she called me for my opinion. I said no too! She's apparently getting her cartilage pierced this weekend - that's the top of her ear. I'm still not keen about that.
Her mother stayed out the night at her boyfriend's house.

Signs and Wonders

I saw this while walking to the post office today. It amused me - beware of tanks!

Wonder of wonders, the BT Broadband was activated this morning. I've spent some quality time changing the wireless settings around the house of course but all seems to be running ok - except for the old Windows XP PC in Caroline's room.

Lyme Regis

Went down to Lyme on Saturday after fun and games with the car. It stalled on Friday night when Maria was on her way to orchestra. It had also done this on Tuesday, Wednesday and a few times easier in the month. Now the 'service' light stayed on so she drove it for 30 miles in "emergency mode" which meant it loses power and performs like a very sick animal. So I took it to the dealer on Saturday morning who fixed it. I was stunned. You normally have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment but he told me to bring it straight down. Had to pay £122 of course for the parts and fitting. It was a faulty sensor that was shutting off the engine.
Nice meal at Mum's - roast lamb. We walked down to town and bought some fudge before dinner. Then we tried some 'sex on the beach' before we went back - a type of fudge!

Broadband Update

I had another chat with BT's customer service people this afternoon :)

Fairly quick this time, I only had to wait a couple of minutes for an agent and was only put on hold for about 2 - 3 minutes during the call.

My residential broadband will now be activated by 6 pm on Monday 22nd September - apparently. Good thing my old service is still active or I'd be really irritated!

Broadband Saga, Hogmoor Inclosure

Well, as I sort of predicted, my Broadband didn't change over at midnight last night. My service is still working via my "old" router and my new BT home hub is sitting quietly on the desk with the "broadband" service light dark. When I'm feeling stronger I'll give them another call and see what's happening with it.


We had sort of planned to go out shopping last night as the cupboards were looking a bit bare, then we decided to stay in. So I made a prawn risotto for our evening meal. BUT this meant there was still a food shortage. When I looked into this in more detail there were some basics around so I as I was supposed to be dropping some stuff off at the Post Office I walked down to town, calling in at Tesco on the way back and got stuff for Saturday breakfast and for meals until Wednesday.

We are visiting my mother over the weekend, so we don't need meals on Saturday and Sunday other than Saturday breakfast and something on Sunday night. I suggested we get a pizza on Sunday evening if we need one after Mum has fed us. We had some chicken, fish and mince in the freezer so the plan is chicken with cous-cous on Monday, pasta bolognese on Tuesday and fish on Wednesday. Maria may go shopping on Wednesday while I'm in the hospital having the surgery on my elbow for my trapped nerve. I suspect that I won't be very hungry Wednesday night despite being "nil by mouth" from 8 am but I should be able to manage fish, chips and beans. I picked up some stuff for Maria to have for lunch - but forgot to get anything for me. So I'll probably have to go out again on Monday!

I walked back through the woods of the Hogmoor Inclosure, which is where I took this picture. Assuming the "eco-town" bid gets approved and they build 5,500 new homes in Bordon & Whitehill they will probably put a "relief road" along the route of the old Longmoor Military Railway - pretty much exactly where this picture was taken (the railway route was to the left of the picture in a cutting). In fact, they will probably build the new homes even without the "eco-town" funding so we'll either have traffic grid-lock through the town or a dual carriageway through this wood. According to the "Bordon Herald" the planners are meeting in London to discuss the transport options for the town. So they may decide to re-instate a railway link either north to the Alton service or south down to Liphook.

Photographer and Broadband

Got the train to Southampton, which was nice and easy. Bus to Liphook, Train to Havant and then change for Southampton.
Walked up to Maria's school. On the way spoke to an agent who'd found my CV on the web. I grabbed a coffee and we then drove to the Photographer. He's going out of business, we're his last customers. He said he can't keep it running any more. He may continue with the portraits and "glamour" work though.
We choose our 70 pictures for the wedding album and bought the DVD with all the pictures on it.
Got home to find the Broadband was still working on the "old" link.
I called BT this morning and they said it should transfer by midnight tonight. They made it sound like it was my fault and I should have known it wasn't going to transfer yesterday, even though that's what it says on the letter.

BT transfer / Photographer

Official transfer date for the Broadband today. The new router box has arrived (at 10 am). No sign of a transfer yet though.

Heading off to Southampton to see the photographer this afternoon. Final decisions on the wedding album.

Cholesterol Results

I got my fasting blood test results today from my GP's surgery.
Total HDL Cholesterol was 5.1 mmol/L, Total Serum Cholesterol was 6.0 mmol/L
My G.P.'s comment was that this was "much improved" and he doesn't want to see me. So I'm statin-free from another year.
HDL cholesterol is recorded in order to allow calculation of the 10-year Coronary Heart Disease risk (along with smoking status, age, sex and Blood Pressure). It is also used to work out the chance of getting Primary Cardiovascular Disease - something like stroke or angina rather than just CHD.
The helpful staff at the surgery wouldn't give me the other details so I can't calculate my LDL Cholesterol exactly. (LDL is the "bad" cholesterol).

LDL-cholesterol = (Total cholesterol) - (HDL-cholesterol) - (plasma Triglycerides / 2.2). So if my plasma Triglycerides were 0 my LDL cholesterol would be 0.9. This seems to give me a 2% chance of developing some form of Primary Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) over the next 10 years. My "target" cholesterol is 4.0 still though so I have a way to go.

I have been taking plant sterol capsules for the past 3 months. These have been shown to give a 12.4% reduction in LDL cholesterol - which is pretty much what I have seen. They are also especially effective where there is familiy history of high cholesterol (familial hypercholesterolaemia). However, there are no reliable clinical trials hence the guidelines from the government are that "NICE do not recommend that these are prescribed routinely for the primary prevention of CVD. Although sterols and stanols have been shown to reduce total cholesterol, further research is required to demonstrate whether this translates into a reduction in CVD." They are also SUPPOSED to help prevent some forms of cancer, including bowel and breast cancer. At £7.00 for a month's capsules I think its worth it.

Kew Bridge

I went to sunny Kew today - for an interview.

That was the plan: however there were train problems. An "electrical fault at Witley" meant that all London-bound trains were terminated at Haslemere and replaced with buses. I'd planned the trip to leave time to relax at Kew before the interview, then had to change things when I heard on the radio about the problems. I rang the agency to warn them I may be late and then decided to stick to my plan anyway rather than try to go to another station. A quick check showed there were delays at Bentley too anyway. I'd have to get a taxi to Guildford which seemed madness.

I went to the station anyway: walking to the bus stop for the rail-link. I forgot my signing on book so I had to dart back for that, but then had a few minutes wait for the rail-link bus. It didn't seem good after I was warned by the bus driver about long queues at Haslemere for the replacement coaches to Guildford. Then when we got to the station, while I was buying my ticket I was told that the power was now back on and there was a good chance my train would run through to London.

The 10:09 arrived at 10:21, so I knew that I'd missed my connection at Clapham Junction, but the trains to Kew Bridge from there are every 15 minutes so that didn't matter. I got to the office for my 12 noon interview at 11:55! If I'd left earlier I would probably still be sitting on a bus trying to get to Guildford.

Loads of stress and hassle, probably because someone wanted to steal some cables from the track to sell the copper as scrap.

I left the office soon after 1pm and grabbed this pic at the station. Then back to Clapham Junction, and down to Liphook again. This time the connections worked like a dream. I got the bus back to Bordon to sign on at the Jobcentre and then walked home from there.

What I've been doing today

I went to get a blood sample taken for my cholesterol test. It is supposed to be below 5mmol/l according to my GP. However it appears that my family suffer from familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). So that means I don't have much chance of bringing it down.
I've been on a low fat/low cholesterol diet for 6 months and have increased my exercise levels. This has had a good effect on my weight: I've lost 13 pounds so far since January. However living on oats and carrots may not be giving me the stamina of a racehorse on its own.

Basically I've been eating a diet low in cholesterol and fat and rich in fruits (apples), vegetables (carrots), lean meat, fish and olive oil. Oats are supposed to remove LDL (bad) cholesterol from the system so I eat Oatibix or Optivita for breakfast and take plant sterols in capsules. The "big" Oatibix taste awful unless you cover them with sugar - which sort of defeats the object. However the mini ones with sultanas and apple are nice (bitesize). They don't go soggy so fast either. Optivita is quite nice too. Again I prefer the version with raisins to the "berry" one. The berries go all soggy and mushy in the bowl. I buy the plant sterols online - my sister in law recommended a company. I used to drink the yoghurt drinks with them in, but found I could buy a month's supply of capsules for £8 when this would get me a week's yoghurts.

I've managed the moderate consumption of red wine with no problem. This is supposed to reduce the damaging effects of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and increases HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).

It is very important to stop smoking if you have high cholesterol or a risk of it. Smoking significantly increases the risk of a serious heart condition in patients with very high cholesterol levels. Luckily I don't smoke anyway, so this was an easy one.

An active lifestyle and physical exercise strengthen the heart and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. I try to walk every day or do some other physical exercise.

The phlebotomist had to have three goes at drawing blood because muggins here had forgotten to drink loads of water before going to the surgery. She managed to get some out of my arm just above the wrist in the end though. The results are due on Monday or Tuesday.

I downloaded the new iTunes before I left for the surgery and left this updating the new "genius" feature while I was out. This seems to work just fine and probably better than the Nutsie side bar that I had been using to spice up my music. There is a new version of Nutsie too, so I've downloaded that too.

I walked to the surgery and back, so that's 4 miles today according to the odometer on my phone. Nice stroll through the Hogmoor Enclosure, cobwebs on the bushes looking very nice. I should have brought a camera with me.

Back home again, nice and snug with the rain hammering down now. A couple of companies are looking interested in seeing me for interview as well so that's all good news.

Wedding Pictures

Here are some pictures from our wedding on 30^th August 2008.

 

 

Set up

I've set up this blog to record life...kind of deep that, but I suppose that's what it is: an online journal for me and the family.