Into a new month

I've been trying to cut down my gabapentin since seeing the consultant at the Astley Ainslie, but perhaps because of the excercise of walking to work from the station (lots of slopes and steps) I'm starting to get phantom pains when I'm sitting at my desk. Of course sitting at a desk is a different position from what I've been used to for a while, but I never got it when I was sitting at my computer. I'm certainly getting a lot more exercise walking than I have been getting lately, and maybe that's stirred something up.

This is so annoying, but then again, the problems I've had with memory might have had a lot to do with the lack of mental stimulation, and it's possible that the amount I'm having to think about the complexities of investment banking here at Standard Life will help to cure me of that, and I'll be able to increase my gabapentin dose again.

Rossi's 100 wins

I watched my recording of the Dutch TT from last weekend the other day, and Rossi had a big celebration set up for winning his 100th bike grand prix race. He had a huge banner made up of a photo of each of his victory laps, numbered (in yellow, of course) from 1 to 99. He's such a laugh, and so good at what he does. He has a lot of friends around him, which is good. Compare him with Michael Jackson, who admitted he lived a lonely life: everyone around his was paid by him to do a job, or was trying to get something out of him. Rossi still spends as much time as he can with his family, and friends from his home village: he is so much healthier mentally for it.

Why do I not dislike Rossi for winning all the time as I disliked Schumacher? Dunno. I like his sportsmanship, and acute sense of fun: although he obviously would rather win, if he's lost after a good tight battle, it seems to give him as much enjoyment. I think he'd rather fight to the end, like he did at Catalunya this year, than win by four or five seconds. To him, it's the race that counts almost as much as the win. If Schumi was involved in a close fought battle, he would often be critical of his opponent for attempting to get by him. Maybe it's because F1 GPs are won in the pitlane, so the drivers don't expect to be banging wheels, and are not accustomed to driving side by side into corners and swapping leads several times in a lap: they are just not given the opportunities to enjoy a hard-fought battle for position in that way.

Another guy dominant in his sport is Sebastian Loeb. It is only in recent seasons that he has shown any spark of humanity, of fun: yet I didn't dislike him particularly. It was nice to see the underdog (i.e. everyone else) win against him, but it wasn't personal. Now he's relaxing a bit, with nothing else to prove, he's more jokey, showing his dry sense of humour, and he's actually becoming quite likeable; although, he'll go a long way to catch up with someone like Petter Solberg or Marcus Gronholm.

Yesterday - 30th June

Yesterday would have been Dad's birthday. Even though he was a really annoying person, and very hard to get through to (or get anything from) I still miss him. He enjoyed an audience, and liked to amuse, as I do. Is it my imagination, but When I look in the mirror, I see him more and more. Odd. I didn't think I looked anything like him, but there are some similarities creeping in. Maybe I am imagining it. D says I have some similar habits, such as having a load of stuff (books, remote controls, etc.) easily to hand on the table beside my usual spot on the sofa.

22nd Anniversary weekend away

We couldn't get away until Saturday, because Denise's running group had organised a night out on Friday: the idea was to have a nice drive, stay overnight at a nice hotel, and then have a nice drive back. Denise had done the booking and had found The Cairnbaan hotel in Argyll and Bute. This hotel is situated about half way along, and right next to the Crinan canal, which runs across the long peninsula that runs down along the western side of Arran.

The hotel used to have the reputation of being the roughest bar in the county, but now it's a really nice hotel, with a real ale bar, and a nice restaurant serving food made entirely from local ingredients. Seafood is a speciality, being, as it is, very close to Loch Fyne, where some of the very finest seafood comes from. I had some Loch Fyne mussels as a starter, and they were absolutely fabulous. Denise had a fillet of haddock cooked in a Thai style curry sauce. For my main course, I had some succulent scallops - so, we pretty much zeroed in on the seafood then.

The bar of the hotel had a conservatory and an outside area where we could sit watching the boats going through the lock, drinking some very nice real ale. At the time we were there they had one beer called Avalanche, which was a light fruity tasting pale ale; and Piper's Gold, which I have had before.

Unlike back home this weekend, we had some really hot weather. It clouded over from time to time, and did drizzle slightly at one time, but only for a few minutes, and the sun soon came out again.

The drive over was very nice, taking the northern route through Callander and Crianlarich. This road can be very frustrating if you are on a schedule. It's quite winding, but potentially fast, but there is always someone driving at 40 mph, even on the faster stretches. And of course, at this time of year there are a lot of caravans and camper vans struggling up the gradients. We were in no hurry, so it wasn't so bad. The roads either side of Callander were the worst stretches: that's a really popular spot. Once we'd got towards Crianlarich and on to Inveraray, it was a lot better.

We stopped off in Inveraray for a break and a cuppa on the way over, and found that they the Vital Spark from the TV shows of Neil Munro's Para Handy Tales, moored up in the harbour. Here are a couple of piccies. It's a typical Glasgow 'puffer' that used to run cargoes up and down the west coast and to the islands before the modern roads and bridges were built, or CalMac took over running all the ferries. Going to go and watch the new episode of Top Gear now, cos D has gone off training. Again. ;-)

Day 4 back at work

A fairly long-standing achilles problem has reared it's ugly head, aggravated by the number of hills and steps I have to negotiate working in Edinburgh. Just getting out of Waverley Station is like climbing a mountain, even with the new escalator they've put in to get you about one third of the way to the surface. I've popped some ibuprofen and changed my shoes to try and get it to calm down. I have some very nice light shoes that I thought would be idea for the office, but they're killing me on the way to work because of the lack of support, so I've reverted to my heavy old GORE-TEX Clarkes walking shoes.

Think I'll sleep well tonight! Denise is back from Germany today, so we might go out for a drink, but we probably won't stay late because I'm getting so tired. What am I saying! Going out to the pub robs you of all sense of time and of any caution because of having to work tomorrow ...

Two boxes of wine arrived a couple of days ago, and I haven't even opened them. Now that's knackered!

Day 3 back at work

omigod, I'm exhausted!

My treat to myself for getting a job

Gaming seat with extra platforms for attaching flight sim peripherals around you. Tricky to get into past the side tables.

Shelagh from next door doing it herself

She didn't expect the audience for putting up her trellis

The formal job offer came through!

All done and dusted! I got the formal offer through this morning, and the contract starts on Monday for 6 months. Phew! Done it!

Sor-eee

I really haven't been very good at keeping this up to date, have I?
It's been a bit busy lately:

Firstly, last Sunday, Denise successfully completed her Triathlon, cutting even her private "god if I could do it under ... " time by 10 minutes or so. Anyway, she did it in 1 hour 37.something minutes. You can check it out on her blog at http://denisetracey.blogspot.com.

Next, the pond is finally running properly, and once Denise has buried all the pipes and cables (I struggle to balance on the banks so I can't really help), I'll post some piccies.

I went to the consultant's clinic last week, and she had a good look at the 'problem area' on my stump, and stated categorically that there is no foreign body left there to cause any more problems. There is a big lump (well ... ) of scar tissue that needs massaging to break it down. I wore 'sporty' for a one mile walk at a good pace, but I was left with a bruise around that problem area, so I think I'll give it a little while, and if it persists, get back to my prosthetist to have a think about re-casting. The volume seems to have settled down, but I think it's done so in a slightly different shape from before.

The other thing the doc said was that I could start reducing the Gabapentin tablets again, which is great news. People have definitely noticed that my memory is going a bit. I was a lot better on the lower dose.

Denise's brother Dave is here at the moment, with his wife Sharon, and their 3 month old baby, James. We've taken quite a lot of photos, and I'll post them when I get up to my own PC and can connect my camera-phone up.

The BIG news is, that I have been offered a JOB. Contract work again, testing at Standard Life, working for former colleague Lousa's partner Jim. This is good news as Jim and Louisa are a couple of the GOOD GUYS. They came and visited me in hospital when I was just about at my lowest ebb before my amputation, and it was lovely to see them: but more to the point, Jim knows what I've been through, and won't pile too much pressure on too quickly. In return, I have to work as hard as I can in the circumstances, and not let my injuries and time out be an excuse not to pull my weight. I should be getting the formal offer tomorrow. YAH-HOO!