Saturday 1 - Wednesday Morning 5 May - Sam's Clothes, Doctor Who, Rugby, Preston Grasshoppers, Allotment, Tigers, Harlequins, Car, Head Gasket, RAC, Star Wars day, Donna's car, Braunstone Life magazine and finally Hip Replacement Operation

Sat 1 - AM – Finished work for a few months and took home a big bag of clothes from Dawn’s daughter Sam for Han. She was delighted and we spent much of the morning watching the Han Show. I wanted Han to call dawn to say thank you but when I went into my mobile directory for her number I discovered that this was one more entry where the phone had kept the persons details but deleted their number so we weren’t able to ring her. I’ll have to get her number after my Op from someone (if you’re reading this Dawn text me your number) and Han can give her a call next week. Most of the rest of the day just passed quietly I tried to stay awake so that I could go to bed at night and try and break the night shift sleep cycle. As a result I was extremely tied and can’t recall anything about the day. I know that for some reason we didn’t watch Doctor Who went it was screened that evening, either Nat was at a friends or his friends were here upstairs on the X-Box. No it’s because it’s a two-parter and we hadn’t watched part one yet…Han was too scared to watch last week because the episode features the horrible angle statues who only move when you’re not looking at them

Sun 2 – Last game of the season this morning and the last time I’ll see Robin who can’t play rugby with the lads anymore; thought I’d see her one last time at the presentations next week but I’m not sure that the Vipers stairs, hip surgery and crutches is possibly a good combination. The teams were playing a match against Preston Grasshoppers who were on tour (from Preston surprisingly). 

Great match both teams were very closely matched and Preston just managed a last minute try to win 15:10.  of the two tries scored by Vipers, one was scored by Jacob and the other was scored by…wait for it…NAT…yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Home from game around 1PM Deb put joint in oven and we chilaxed. Sent Nat for shower and when he was done we all sat down to watch both episodes of Doctor Who back to back. Like the Doc’s future wife but I’m sure the Angles in this story don’t behave in the way in which they did in the original story in series two. Though that just might be me and my crap memory…NOT!

Later that evening I watched, and made the family watch too, Dispatches: Election Secrets what the parties aren’t telling you about the cuts to come. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know but I think the kids may have got an idea of how tight things are going to be over the coming years. The years when they will both be in secondary education.

Mon 3 - We spent the morning at the allotment weeding and clearing ground for our peas and beans.  What with my operation enforcing me to by physically inactive re gardening for at least the next 8 weeks we are agreed that the allotment, this year, will be a very piecemeal affair, we’ll do what we can, grow what we can and cover over for next year what ground we can’t use this year.

Briefly said hello to a few people on site inc: Margaret And George (who’s no longer in charge of the site though Margaret is still secretary to the committee). Margaret told me that there was a committee meeting tomorrow night if I wanted to come along and show them the allotment website I’d built but I explained that I would probably wait until after my Op. There’s a committee meeting on the first Tuesday of every month apparently so I’ll have to put a reminder on my phone for the next one. Spent the rest of the day chilaxing again; my how my thumbs hurt after all that…on my knees weeding I had done earlier. Needed to keep an eye on my intake of alcohol because they advise you not to drink anything for 72 hours before the Op. Mind you as I’m having and epidural and not a general I’M NOT ON QUITE SUCH A STRICT TIMETABLE; but its best not to turn up pissed I would imagine!

I almost forgot to mention this!!!!!

Rugby Match and Car Breakdown…Prat

Deb had been online a few days before and downloaded free tickets for the development teams game between Leicester Tigers and Harlequins for this evening. The match started at 7PM and we needed to be there before then if we were to get reasonable seats; we were going to leave the car at Deb’s works car park, which is about half a klick away so we also needed to build in time for me to walk this. We left home around 5:45 and from the outset the car didn’t sound right and the wrong sounds rapidly got worse as our journey continued. We literally just made it to the car park before the old heap went and died on us completely. There was nothing we could do, lifted bonnet and topped up water reserve because over heating light kept coming on then left it to cool down while we watched the match. We walked, I hobbled, to the new Welford Road Caterpillar Stand and managed to get seats down toward the Nelson Mandela Park end. It was a great match which was won, narrowly, by the Tigers the final score being 29:27. Christ theses guys are good and the physical contact is awesome. Two guys continued fighting even though the ball had come out of the ruck and play had moved on down field. It’s no wonder that they won’t let Robin continue playing with the boys if this is how rough it’s going to get once they hit puberty and all that testosterone gets pumping.



Nat disappeared just before half time and finally return just before the second half started clasping a Tigers Pie in his greedy mitt; that boy and food!!!!! The match finished at around 8:40 Pm and we made our way out of the ground and walked back to the car. The car started but lacked any power, Deb managed to nurse it along and got it restarted when it cut out until finally , as we drove onto the grass in front of our drive it gave up the ghost for good and died completely; Nat Han and I pushed it onto the drive. Once inside Deb called out the RAC, we have home start, and an hour later their chap turned up. Great news…the head gasket completely gone and will need to be replaced and we’re looking at a bill of One Thousand Pounds approximately to have this work done. The Guy got the car started and Deb followed him to a garage he recommended and there they left it on the forecourt until morning. The nice RAC guy dropped Deb back at home.

So, I’ve got to get to hospital by 7:15 AM on Wednesday, it’s now Monday night and we have a broken car that’s going to take at least 3 days to fix…anyone else see a problem here?

Tues 4 – Happy Stars Wars Day – May the Fourth was it with you… well was it? Note to self remember to register religion as Jedi next year during census or else start a campaign to get everyone one to register as Flying Spaghetti Monster. Kept waiting for the Fourth to be with me but no apparent luck “strong the fourth is not in this one” as the little Fozzie Bear sound alike would say.

We’ve sorted out the car situation, Deb is going to borrow Donna’s car and so spent much of the evening at Donna’s online getting herself put on Donna’s insurance as an additional authorized driver; at least that’s one less problem to worry about. I passed the day mainly doing little or nothing checking that I had everything that I would need the next day and packing separately those items that Deb would bring in after my Op. I’m taking the bare minimum, Dressing Gown, PJ’s, Slippers, couple of books, MP3 player (in case my phone batteries die) and N82 mobile for pods and twittering (see separate entry above for - A Tweeting View of a Day in the General).

We received the May issue of the Braunstone Life (the Community Newspaper of Braunstone Town) this afternoon and there was a special two page spread entitled “Millfield Mercury” featuring items from Han’s (and formally Nat’s) primary school. There, slap bang in the very fist column, was the Millfield marathon badge that Han had designed for the marathon run they were going to do at school to support their teacher Mrs. bates who was running in the Brighton marathon to raise money for guide dogs for the blind (Mrs. B completed it successfully).

Wed 5 - Hope yesterday that everyone had a happy Star Wars day and that the Fourth was with You!

Anyway it's currently 01:41 on the 5 May and today's the day of my operation. Why am I up so late? well I've got to be at the General by 07:15 this AM and I figure, if last time was typical, that'll I'll be waiting round for a few more hours before going under the knife. Now after that's over then the last thing I want to be is wide awake so if I'm tied already hopefully I'll sleep through the worst of the post-op pain. Anyway that's my plan. In sixteen minutes time I pass the point of ingesting anything other than water, I've a cup of coffee here that I'll finish before then after that it's nothing but water up until 06:00 and after that nothing at all. I'm going to bed at 02:00 then getting up at 05:00 because despite the fact that I can't have breakfast I have got to have another shower with the "special" cleaner in order to try and avoid infections. Anyway, since the kids and Deb went to bed I've been able to check that I've got everything I need to take with me and everything Deb needs to fetch over later...thank God for Donna we've got her car as ours went tits up on Monday (see previous entry for weekend and Bank Holiday) night, we barely made it home, , head gaskets gone and we're looking at approximately a Grand in repairs and no car for three or even four days, talk about great timing!!! I'm taking my phone, creative MP3 player (charging cables) and a couple of books. Hopefully Deb will fetch over surge protection multipoint extension cable, net-book and portable hard drive (with their charging cables) and, finally, some additional books.
Anyway, it's time to sign off now; hopefully I'll be back to tell you what my time in hospital was like...fingers crossed everyone, please : )