MONDAY ALL DAY

2 new facts for today:-

- the BBC is now pronouncing the new millenium years as "twentyohfour" rather than the familiar "twothousandandfour". This underscores further alignment to our Yankee buddies and undoubted B Liar influence on the BEEB to get us more matey
matey sounding with B Ush thus enhancing his (B. Liar) rise to the President of a Disunited Europe.

- if you want to be burnt in Somerset, a local crem has just blown up, so please book elsewhere or do it yourself. I don't think we can attribute the destruction of a lowly crem to Osama although the projection of charred body parts towards the heavens would no doubt appeal to his lack of sense of dignity. Personally, I find this story slightly amusing. Yes, I'm sick.

I have been really "peelywally" again for the last few days and I'm sick of it all, really really sick of it. Something has got to be done.
I spent most of Sat and Sun in bed feeling as if I'd taken cannibis or the like. It must be the BP medication. I can't see what else is causing me to feel like shit for so long. Also, I can't taste or smell things like I used to. Having given up the Cuban cigars weeks ago, I don't believe that these can be the cause of loss of sensation
now. I have always suspected the Losartan. The double doze must be making me worse as I've not changed anything else. Last night, I did not take it and neither have I taken it today and I am beginning to feel a bit better or else I would not be sat here typing this shit on my blog.

The BP monitor that I ordered and Maggie paid for, has arrived. This is her birthday present to me. St John's Day was the day in question. I intend to take readings weekly and plot a graph. Then I will be able to make some informed choices as to the true state of my ticker. Doubtless, my GP won't agree with that sentiment. Interestingly, the MOL (Maggie's Mum) has high BP and her GP can't get it under control either, but then if you drink a pint of Sainsbury's sherry per day, what do you expect to happen!! Also, she is in her 80's.

Am waiting for the G8 charade as is the whole of Africa - waiting that is, as it is this they do best, just waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to tell them something, waiting for the rains, waiting for a chicken to walk by, waiting for a bus, waiting for the next funeral, waiting for payday or hand-out, just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Why on earth do we want to change all that??? This is their culture, their life, what they do best,- it's all them. I know we give more in subsidies to the Highland cow than we give in African aid. But we need the cow to eat for god's sake!!! The African can cook chicken shit and survive- we can't.

Many Geldofs to you all..............................

MEALWORM DAY

Feed the Birds - says Bill. So I have, with 1 box of meal worms via eBay!!!

My new BP drug (Losartan) sent me to sleep yesterday. In fact, I came all overcome (Maggie calls peelly wolly) just before I got into the pool. By the time I'd done, I was really knackered and had real problems lifting my legs off the ground and driving home. So I went to bed with the fan on full blast and awoke 3 hours later feeling just as shitty. I didn't expire during the night and have decided to split the dosage, at morning and at night. Another executive decision.

Weather is unbearable hot and humid at present. So much watering of the tommies, pots and borders was done at 9pm. Wimbledon Wombles are out playing at present which always makes interesting viewing. Maggie like the new Spaniard in the new style of long shorts or short longs, revealing T and with a cutely tight arse. He's the new sensation this year not only for his game but other just as visual attributes. I like Ms Williams better. Simply amazed at her speed, accuracy and power for a girl who's got it big all over. Henhouse will doubtless fuck himself as usual. Talk about Virgin Wade in pants. The new Swede (also glamorous in the body) mashed we Brits last attempt in a slaughtering session with the Redeski March on Wed evening.

Who would be a victim of CTC (child tax credit) at present. Good 'ole CAB doing it's stuff as usual sorting out HMG cock-ups and Councils' ineptitude. I like the CAB. They sit in the forefront of everything nasty and unjust. Desparado's can go along to any CAB, sit in a cramped waiting room, use the toilets, change nappies and the like, help themselves to cold water and actually talk to a humanoid. You can actually shout, swear, be abusive and even be violent to this non-paid, wonderfully understanding, polictically correct, non- discrimatory, non-judgemental, life experienced and fully certified bod. I defy anyone to better this anywhere. You don't even get near it with your church and god. I should know, 'cause I'm one of them. Once a week dealing with people's shit is all I can take. With regard to CTC, inspite of Blairs new ability to express sorrow, IR publicly says the if the system was easy to run, many people would loose out on this crucial modern method of "benefit". Apparently, it's designed to have the dark side so that there's always light when you need it most. The system is not designed to be managed by tax staff but by..........................Wait for it it............................................ computers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck people, be nice to your PC............................. AND to your CAB Adviser as they your last hope for human contact.

Must sort out a blood pressure monitor.

HEAVY DAYS

It's been a few hot and busy days for me.
Hot as the weather has been hot but not as humid as Sunday.

Busy due researching my writing and general internetting around. I'm not sure what I'm going to write on or about or indeed if at all.

Last night, after a Sunday feast and wine and liquers at the In Laws, it absolutely rained cats and dogs. Today, just 10 miles north of here, some villages have had flash floods on a scale never experienced before. Nobody killed but alot of property damage and destruction of countryside.
When will we wake up to climate change and global warming and do something to slow it down and reverse it. When it's too late and I'm dead is the answer.

I had to visit my GP to discuss BP again and change the medication. He was in fine form and did what I wanted and guess what?? BP is still high. So I now have to take a double doze of the Alpha Blocker and monitor the readings. He thought it a good idea for me to get my own BP monitor so that I can take the readings at home thereby wasting less of his time. It will also fill in more of my time.

The appointment of a black African Archbishop in York is causing a few raised eyebrows. Most folk of York don't know what a black person is, except they are not white. Does this appointment mean that we are to expect a sudden surge of black migrants to the area?? Because if not, I can't see how this "integration and unity" of all christian colours, that both the Archbishops talk about, will ever work. The Church of England certainly works in mysterious ways. I love it all.

Love you all, too..................................................

JUST A REST

There's been general outrage at my recent absence. I do have my reasons and they are associated with much ponderance and reflection on my predicament. I am fed up with talking about constipation, diarrhea, incontinence, old age, pensions, no money, ill health, doctors, high blood pressure, boredom, inability to get a part-time job at minimum wage; the fucking list just goes on and on and on. I get morose at writing about it and even more morose at reading the shit. Who cares that I've a labeled disease, nobody, except those assoles who've got the same. It's not an exclusive club. Over 50%% of this miserable population have one affliction or another.

So what I am to do?????????????????????

I guess it is worth living a few more years so that I can experience my grown-up kids make further in-roads into their lives. Be there for them when they need a listening luggole, bear witness to a marriage or 2, celebrate passing outs, job success, new births and shed a tear when it all goes peetong. God knows how they afford their own houses without the parting of cash from one source or another and the provision of a free Christmas break is always welcome!!!!!!!!!!!

Even to the trained eye, it can be gleaned that I am able to string words together to form a sentence. Grammar maybe dodgy, infinitives are often split, subject and objects confused, past participles present, spelling always correct courtesy of spellcheck (Yankee style) and with liberal use of 4 letter words which means that my writing is cert.18. Well this is a start, some might say, to bigger and better things. What I wish to do is write and write and write. Should it be fiction, should it be erotica, should it be children's, should be travel, humour, chiclit, agalit, oldfartslit, dearbilllit.......................................
What should I write??????????????/

I could write a book on "How to Fail in Small Business". This would make a change to normal style of self-help books that tell how to succeed, how to be a good business person, how to market, how to sell, how recruit staff, how to win & keep customers. Bookshelves are full of the hyped - up books. What about some hyped - down books? Would I be setting a new trend by stating "How not to Do Anything". Like "How not to Bring Up a Family", "How not to get into Debt", "How not to get an ASBO"," How not stay in a Relationship" and so on and so forth and so fifth.

I will do research, take advice, listen to soundings, trawl the internet, talk to my god for inspiration, navel gaze, apply cream, nibble nails, drink tea, do the
SU DOKU (note the spelling variant, courtesy today's TIMES), talk to the birds, plants and myself. Draw up a list, make a plan and then chuck it all away!!!!!

sometime later, readers when I've got it!!!!!!!!!!!

THURSDAY is a GAS

It took me over 3 hours to do today's feindish SUDOKU!!! Good job that I've got fuck all else to do. It was particularly difficult.

Two appointments booked for today. One for the British Gas engineer to service the boiler expected between the hours of 12 and 6 and the other for some company to change the gas meter expected between the hours of 8 and 6. Another reason to be at home all day. Why on earth can't these people give you a fixed time. Once before when we had trade appointment, the bloke came when I was trying to have a crap. He rang the doorbell twice in quick sucession. I certainly wasn't going to stop doing my stuff so he fucked off and left a note through the door saying nobody was at home and to phone the office to make another appointment. I enjoyed making that phone call as you can imagine!!!!

My new executive management chair arrived today, as well, amidst all the gas goings on. It came via TNT in a fucking enormous box big enough to hold 10 illegal immigrants. The driver very kindly un-did the box in the drive and lugged the chair upstairs for me as he could see that I was a spastic bastard. He wanted a piss anyway. What a nice chap!! So I'm in place at the right height feeling like the boss again. I am really impressed with eBay. I only paid for it using my newly set up PAYPAL account on Wednesday afternoon. Who needs shops??

Bill Oddies Springwatch series on BBC2 is giving me a bit of fun on their website. I joined the message board and posted a couple of entries and people have actually responded to me. It's nice to know that someone takes me seriously!! Of course, they don't that I'm a cunt with attitude. I'm amazed at the number of folk who are totally absorbed into this programme and it is almost as if they care more about the birds in their gardens than they do about their
kids. It is the last week next week, so watch it.


tata..............................................

WEDNESDAY IN THE PINK!!

Yesterday I felt like an arseole all day, I looked like one and I sounded like one. Will not even try to reveal anymore than that except that I felt like doing battle with the medical profession. One of these days, I will get on top of all my problems.

Today is sunny and I feel sunny, for a change. How a night can make a difference. Was the fact that T Blair was tucked up in Washington or Bill Oddie was waxing lyrical about a chaffinches nest that is really a greenfinches - that reminds me - I must email him and explain about birds to him!!

I did go for my Wed pool session. It was packed with at least 40 people all with a disability of one thing or more. I take my hat off to the unpaid band of lifeguards and helpers. They must feel like leaving some people to drown as it's not easy coping with us cripples. I can't cope with me so how can anyone else. They are indeed a special bunch. BUT - I'm not rude or arsey to others when I'm in public especially where someone gives up their time to help you and also especially when many more have greater cause for complaint than me!! SO THERE, you lot if you were thinking that I'm a heap of piss, wind and shit!!!

Have managed to secure office chair courtesy of eBay. It is brand new and would retail for £367 on the high street. I got a "bargain" for £49.99 delivered. My, how we are carried away on eBay and taken in by all the hype and bull. Even me who knows better and has a fucking t-shirt to prove it, still gets sucked into the buzz. Anyway, I cleared it all with Maggie B4 I did the deal as she said she would buy it for me for my forthcoming birthday!! What a lovely wife she is. Needless to say, she thinks what I do with eBay is total bollocks and she would have gone to Office World to purchase a similar chair. Just think of all the fun she would miss out on. It's taken me over 2 weeks to make this purchase trying to scupper some plonker called "brian321" (with 1 star) who bids too early and sets his max. of a fiver above the starting price and then stops bidding. All he has done is benefited the seller. Anyway, he's fucked off now and I managed to get this chair at the price I was prepared to pay and not be forced into a higher figure by amatuers!! Let's see if it arrives in one piece!!

Later..............................

MONDAY

I actually don't feel too bad today and want to do something a bit physical. I know, I will plant out the hanging baskets and sort out the remaining tubs on the patio. The plug plants that I purchased via mail order are doing well and are ready for transplanting. Got trailing fushias and petunias which should be good together as long as they are watered and fed regularly. That's the drawback with tubs, pots and baskets - always need something doing. CL's tommy plants are also ready for planting out. I intend to pot these into growbags on the patio. Yes, you may ask, how can you cane them up in a growbag sitting on concrete?? Easy - put the bags under a window sill and hook the tops of the canes in place. There is no doubt that all the rain we have been having has delighted the plants and birds. Some parts of southern England have a hose pipe ban in place already. Must be global warming or cooling as it is here.

I had a rare useful phone call. The rheumatology dept. at Leeds GI wanting to know if I knew where my old x-rays and notes would be. I've an appointment with the Anky Spon specialist this Friday. Left it a bit late, I told the lady considering my last appt was in Feb!!
I have had this request before and hospitals/doctors /consultants are
incapable of communicating with each other, it would seem. It would be sensible for patients or chronics like me who have reams of notes to be able to collect all their documenation before they leave a county to move to another like I have. Been here for 3 years now and my old records are nowhere to be found, so the people up here tell me!!! So, once again, I gave the lady addresses and phone numbers of hospitals, doctors and consultants. Anyway, it's dealing with the present problems that should be on the agenda now - what's happened has happened.

I got paid again today - a whole £15!! It is for participating in a postal survey. I think you already know this earth-shattering news. I've now earnt £30 since I started doing it. Don't tell the tax-man.

There was no post today which is good - but what we are getting is a lot more of these silent telephone calls. Most are international and witheld numbers. We can see on our phone who is calling. I've learnt a new trick - answer silence with silence and just leave the phone connected for as long as you like. They'll soon get fed up with this as long as we all do it and hopefully go out of business as a result.

CL is back home safely after a few days in Austin, Texas. She's waxing lyrical about the whole experience - the conference, her presentation, the people, the place, the weather, the food & drink and indeed the air-travel. Now she's planning her next trip!!! You can't keep a high flyer down!!

Later.........................................

SOGGY SUNDAY

I really can not believe it!!!!

Another wet and miserable day. The garden is loving it along with the birds. It did stop long enough for me to have my daily toddle around the estate.

No funny old ladies to day but a bevy of 7 & 8 year old girls!! I am acutely aware of the risks of being friendly to such a group but they do know me and see me as no threat with my walking stick. They are quite happy to talk away a load of crap most of which I don't understand. All made worse by their strong Yorks accent. One of them had a mobile phone. She had just been texting her boy-friend!!! Boy friend, I said in utter disbelief, far too young for boys. I've just got the Froggie ring tone put on, she says, giggling. The whole nation has been gripped by this fucking frog, the character and the irritating jingle. All I think is how mighty is the power of TV. If a 7 year old can be influenced to that extent, what hope is there for the rest of the nation. Then she proceeded to tell me that she phoned the police the other day, just for fun. She didn't speak - just a silent call like we are all getting these days. I told her she is a very silly little girl and deserves her bottom smacked. Actually, that is what I thought. What I actually did was ignore her and move onto the next silly girl who proceeded to tell me that she is still skipping every day since I saw her doing it months ago and told her that skipping is good for her health!!!

Bless her.

The other event that made me listen today, apart from Radio 3's wall to wall Beethoven, was the comment that 3 out of 4 black kids get less than 5 passes at GCSE. Some do-gooder has suggested that inner city schools who have the biggest problem, should have special classes for black kids. One lad interviewed, Alexi, has achieved much better results than this. He says that the problem is every time some one mentions the plight of black kids, it alienates them even more. It's not special treatment we need he says, but more integration. We are already a target minority because of our colour. What about the equally poor performance by white kids - nobody suggests that they should be singled out for special treatment. He's dam right and at 18, he is an aspiring prime minister, in my opinion. Segregation breeds segregation. It makes for cateogaisation, for
statistics, for groups, for tables, for targets, for do-gooders to focus their efforts on. The result is yet another national outcry and more government interference. Why can't we be just like people??

Another new week..................................

A NONE DAY

Again I woke up to rain. Not to the noisy kids this time.

The rain stopped at about noon by which time I had done the Times SUDOKU, had muesli with Soya milk, had a crap (unusual for me to do this in daylight hours!!) and returned to bed for another hour or so. Maggie is working nights so is sleeping til about 2pm. I had orders to go to TESCO to purchase a 2 for 1 offer on some red wine with a voucher that she had cut out of the newspaper. The kitchen drawer is full of vouchers and money off coupons. Most go to CL as she is in need of much financial assistance. If you had paid attention you will recall that CL is a perpetual student!!

I absolutely hate TESCO's. It represents a ruination of individual enterprise and closure of many village and high street shops. It encourages a yob culture where people will run you down with those fucking awlful trolleys, barge in front of you and insist of rummaging through the boxes of fruit and veg on the basis that the ones on the shelves have been tainted by humankind. Too true they have, not only tainted by grubby fingers that have been up noses and bum oles but also by chemicals to make them grow, chemicals to stop them from over-riping, chemicals to give them colour and yet more chemicals to wash them before they are displayed. It's no wonder that our immune systems are shot to hell and back. If you are like me on medication then your immune system is already fucked. Eating TESCO fresh foodstuffs as well ----------- you may as well kiss your arse goodbye!!!! I'm not even convinced by their so called organic labels. Who knows that they are and what they say they are?? Who could prove or otherwise. TESCO's know this and this gives them more excuse to extortion more money form us. True enough, they are a convenience store but with penalties. We should all be very aware of a health warning when we enter supermarkets. Not only are we damaging ourselves, we are damaging others around us and the environment in which we wholly depend. Talk about smoking being bad for you. About 30% of our children are classified OBESE. Blame TESCO's!!!

I am struggling on eBay to buy a decent chair for my den. I currently use an old dining room chair that we had as a wedding present over 30 years ago. It's got high nostalgic value but is most uncomfortable for long sitting. All I want is an office chair with a decent back support, big enough for my bum and high enough to accommodate my spastic legs. Also, I've set a max. sum of £50 incl. P&P. I'm convinced that the plebs are buying these so-called Italian leather chairs with German hydraulics at a grossly inflated figures. These eBay Power sellers certainly know what they are doing. They must knock them off - as who in their right minds would start at 99p for a chair that purportedly retails at over £300 unless it was knocked off?? Anyway I will not give up and hope to secure such a chair soon at 99p.

Off to embellish Beethoven, so til next time.......................

EVEN WETTER

I seem to be running out of time the last couple of days. Yesterday I was summons to the in laws for dinner and arrived home a bit late and tipsy indeed. Always over imbibe with them as it seems to flow freely with mother in law!! Same as my mother, seem to drink sherry at any time - it what keeps them going. I like G&T best.

The weather has been atrocious here for the last couple of days and now it is thundering. The rain is coming down like stair-rods but all the birds are just loving it. They can get the badly needed worms for their broods. Maggie is pleased with herself as she got all the plants in just in time and now they are being well watered in. It's all in the timing.

Europe is at last speaking its mind on the way it is governed or misgoverned which I think is the more appropriate. Perhaps now we will see some common sense prevail somewhere along the line. All these smug bastards stuck in their ivory towers in Luxemburg. Reality must follow now and hopefully Blair will now see that a united Europe will never happen. I do hope so for the sake of our kids if nothing else.

I had the dreaded blood pressure test again - 2 weeks after the last. Not a lot of difference, not gone up, stayed the same. It is still too high at 150/96 and I may have to have a review of my BP medication. I am going to live with out the Arcoxia for a while and continue to monitor my BP every 2 weeks. I have an appointment with the rhuematologist who prescribed the Arcoxia, next week. So all this can be discussed and hopefully some conclusion reached. I really don't like living with all this doubt as I don't feel in control. I think that it's important that if you have a chronic health condition, that you are in control of it and not the other way round. If you are not, life is totally unbearable and you may as well give up.

Pool exercises today. So I got even wetter. Nothing spectacular happened except I continue to marvel at the people who go to the pool. Always so bloody cheerful inspite of their disabilities. I should really just shut up and stop feeling so fucking sorry for myself. Why can't I do it?? I find it hard to come to terms with my lot and each day I wake up hoping for some miracle. It'll never happen.

Now our poor kids can't read. The government announced a review into methods of teaching kids to learn to read. I cringe at what they are saying. The simple reason that kids can't read is that the poor teachers can't teach the buggers. They are spending too much time on admin and trying to keep law and order. There's no books that kids can bring home to sit with mum and dad and practice. There's no mum and dad anymore. If there were, they are too busy being busy with their own lives. Who wants the kids stopping THEIR enjoyment. It's little wonder that kids go off the rails.

Ah well, what do I know..............................

WET WED

It has rained most of the day. We need every drop. South and East Australia are drought stricken. Hefty fines if anyone is caught watering their gardens and washing cars. If that happened here, what we would do on a Sunday?

We have an overload of Geldof again. He is a most scruffy bugger with an extremely loud mouth. He told Kirsty Wark on Newsnight yesterday that we as a nation could not continue watching newsnight as Africa starves to death. We simply can not ignore their plight any longer. Well, Sir Bob, I have some news for you. Africans are Africans. The more we interfere with them the worse
their plight becomes. Sure shoot the dictators if you want to. You can't tell me that 25m Zimbabweans can't muster a revolution to exterminate Magabe if they so desired. In spite of their demise, the Africans will accept their lot irrespective of what happens to them. No amount of western protestations will ever change them. The media is very quick to tell us that 1 newborn dies every 3 seconds.
They neglect to tell us how many are born. It is more than this!!!! Only 17% of Africans die before they reach 5 years. They accept this as normal. This is the African. They have survived on this planet longer than us whities. We must not use our western standards to judge them by. Every time we do, we create a bigger problem for them and indeed for ourselves. I do know what I'm talking about as I have worked in sub-saharan Africa for 24 years. If God wanted us all to be like us whities, this planet would cease to function in every respect.

Wednesday is my pool exercise day and it went ok considering that I have not been for a couple of weeks because of feeling off colour. I know that it is vital for me to exercise to keep on top of the symptoms of Anky Spon otherwise I will sieze up, become round shouldered, stoop and not able to lift my head. This is apart from the spinal and hip pains.

Maggie has been making fresh bread and malt loaves most of the day so the house has been full of baking pongs. I can't eat a lot of the stuff as it seems to upset my digestion (due to the fucking medication, I believe) but she gives some to her mum and keeps them in the freezer for the visiting kids.

As I predicted, moaning about more plants has prompted vigorous donning of marigolds and wielding the trowel in the pouring rain. Old plants and weeds are out and new plants are in. You can't keep a good woman down!!!! She is now talking about painting the internal doors and the cupboard under the stairs. I can't see anything wrong with the paint.

I've spent some time researching into family history software. I have already made a start on the wife's side of the family and put all the info onto a demo version. This will not allow me to export or print thus forcing me to purchase the full edition. It's all a scam. So I am looking for a freebie - does anyone have any ideas???

BFN..........................................