Yes, as I had been going to Cubs on Wednesday nights for a while now, it was inevitable that I would be asked to go on Summer Camp. I call it Summer Camp, even though it is in the Whitsun Week, because that is when the Cubs do their main week-long camp each year. Don’t ask me why, they’ve been doing it this way for years.
Anyway, the reason I say this to you, is to let you know that I will not be posting anything up for a week.
So, no change there then……
Weel, a week had gone by since my first trip to the Maylings clinic, and I have not had any improvement in my condition. Not that I was expecting a miracle cure or anything, but some change would have been encouraging. Not to worry. I guess you have to persevere with these things for a while before making a judgement.
Being the end of the month, I am seriously short of cash, so I had to hunt around to find the money to pay for this session. Each session costs £32 for about 50 minutes, plus you have to pay for any medicines he decides to give you. I managed to find enough cash to cover it, so off I went.
He did a few more of the wierd arm strength tests on me, and decided that I needed a liver detox. For this he prescribed a vitamin B2 supplement. He in fact tried a good dozen different supplements with the arm test, and could have easily said that I needed a load of them, but he only said that I needed the B2, so that was a relief.
Also this week, we actually got down to some real acupuncture. First, he placed some burning herbs near to my skin on the meridians that affected my digestive system. He held these herbs near to the skin and asked me to tell him when it became too hot. I thought I’d try to take the pain, but after twenty or thirty seconds (or at least, it seemed like that long), I remembered that I have no tolerance for having my skin burned off my bones.
If that put anyone off going for a session, don’t worry. He will take it away as soon as you tell him to. The herbs have to stay there for a certain amount of time, apparently, to wake up the qi meridians (or something - I really must do some reading about all this stuff), but he can take them away, and let the skin cool down before re applying them. And it is not an instant searing pain either, it starts off as a gentle warmth that gradually increases in intensity before becoming too hot to bear.
After the herbs came the needles. I ended up with four needles in me, one on either side of my belly, and one in each knee. It doesn’t hurt. You can feel the needles going in, but it is nowhere near as bad as having a blood test, for example.
He needed to leave them in for ten minutes, so he went off to sort out my vitamin supplements, while I lay there listening to the soothing sounds of whale song set to new age music. To quote Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan, “It was most tranquil”.
The funny thing was, after he left, and as the needles were doing their thing, I was overwhelmed by the desire to laugh. Seriously, I was not finding the situation funny or anything, but I was getting a major case of the smirks, which lasted for a good few minutes.
Wierd…
After the ten minutes were over, so was the session. I booked in again for a week today, just after I get back from camp.
The only mildly disturbing thing about the session was when I read the label on the vitamin B2 supplement. I have been instructed to take one pill twice a day, for about ten days or so. The thing is, one pill contain 3265% of the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of vitamin B2. Yes, 3265%, and I’m taking two of these a day!
I shall be keeping a close watch on my symptoms for a while…
While I was round a friends house at the weekend, I mentioned in conversation that I had to date, hit two pigeons and one cat with my car. I also said in passing that I hope I never experience hitting one while on my bike.
I should hasten to add that none of these collisions were on purpose or due to my driving dangerously.
Anyway, the weather was nice this morning, so I decided to take the bike to work. I am riding along at about 40-45mph, when I notice a pigeon sitting on the grass verge to my left a few metres ahead. I don’t know why I noticed this pigeon in particular, just sitting there, but I noticed it anyway. As I got closer I noticed it open its wings and take off. I then noticed it flapping its way right across my path. Quite quickly it occured to me that this pigeon was probably going to hit me, but there was nothing I could do.
POW!
The pigeon made full contact with me on the chest, just below my right shoulder. It was like getting punched really hard, and I saw the pigeon crumple on me and then get pulled off with the wind. It was obviously dead (sorry pigeon), and I quickly pulled over, expecting to have to pick off feathers from the underside of my helmet and wipe blood off my jacket. No, the only evidence that it had hit me was a light coating of grey dust on my jacket and the chin piece of my helmet.
Sad as I am to have killed a bird, I am relieved that I came out of the ordeal still on my bike.
I will still take a minute’s silence though….starting now…
…done.
Do I feel any better? Not really. I do feel more guilty though…
For the past five months, I have had problems with my digestive system. I really don’t want to go into details, as 1. everyone who knows me well enough knows what the problem is, and 2. You reeeeeally don’t want to know. Like any sensible person, I went to see my GP, just in case it was anything serious. He told me not to worry, as the lack of other symptoms pointed to a minor complaint, whatever it was. He reffered me to a consultant, and I go to see him in June.
Problem is, I went through the whole process about eight years ago, as I developed similar (but more pronounced) symptoms. I went to see the GP, consultant, had numerous unpleasant tests and examinations done, was diagnosed with IBS one week, Ulcerative Colitis the next, Crohns Disease the next, and all the time there was no treatment to sort me out - “just keep taking the pills” they said. The pills just masked the symptoms, and did nothing to sort out the cause. In the end, after a lot of reading and searching, I discovered that I was in fact lactose intolerant. I discovered this by cutting out the offending food (anything dairy) for a few weeks, by which time the symptoms stopped. Completely. When I re-introduced dairy into my diet, the symptoms returned. Bingo! Of course, this meant no more pizza, no more ice cream, no more flavoured crisps (they nearly all contain lactose), no more milk chocolate.
It’s amazing what you can get used to. I thought I would never be able to cope without all of the above foods, but you get used to it, honestly. I even prefer my tea black these days. But I digress (surprise, surprise).
When these symptoms came on at the start of the year, my first reaction was “I wonder what food is causing this?”. The next most common kind of food intolerance after dairy is gluten, or wheat intolerance. “No problem” thought I, cutting this out for a couple of weeks should be no problem. HA! It is an absolute nightmare. Bread is one of those things that you take so utterly for granted, that it is easy to get lost trying to eliminate it from your diet. No bread, no pasta, no cakes or biscuits. That screws up pretty much my whole diet. Sandwiches are one of those things you really don’t appreciate until you can’t have them. The only way you can eat any of these things is to buy the ‘gluten-free’ alternatives. Two problems with these: 1, they are bloody expensive and 2. they taste like cr*p (when compared to the real thing anyway).
Fortunately (kind of), after two and a half weeks of completely gluten free eating, my symptoms showed no signs of abating, so it was with great delight that I made myself a piece of marmite on toast - damn, it tasted good!
But I was no nearer finding the cause of my problem. I did try eliminating other foods, but to no avail. It was during this time, as I wa ssurfing the net for information, that I read on a forum about someone that acheived really good results from acupuncture.
Now, I’m not that gullible that I accept all of these alternative therapies (I think 99.9% of psychics are phonies for example), but I admit to having an open mind when it comes to many of these treatments, and acupuncture is something that has intrigued me for a long time, but I have never tried it. Let’s face it, it has been around for thousands of years, and if it was totally bogus, someone would have exposed it as such by now.
So, I looked in the Yellow Pages, and found a guy that practises in Maylings Farm Road, a mile or two away from my house. He is a member 0f the British Institution of Chartered Acupuncturists (or something along those lines, I forget), which meant that he was properly qualified (well, as qualified as you can get in this field without being Chinese and having the craft handed down to you from the past few hundred generations anyway). I booked an appointment to go see him, and last weekend I did.
There was no actual inserting of any needles during this session. Apparently, the first session is more of a diagnosis session than anything else. I filled in a little questionnaire describing my symptoms and any previous treatment, then we spoke for a few minutes. Then I had to strip down to my smalls and hop on the table, and he ran some tests.
First he took my ‘Chinese’ pulse, which I can only assume is different from a normal pulse as you and I are familiar with it. Then he did this wierd test which involved me holding up my left arm and resisting his downward pressure on it. He did this numerous times, using a different phial of stuff each time. He placed a phial of bacteria on my stomach, then a virus, then a chemical poison, and a few other things besides. The theory behind this is that if I am reacting negatively to any of these substances, my body will respond, and one of the ways that this can be read is that my arm will become weaker and easier to push down.
Now, I am not saying that I believe it or I don’t at this stage. It was impossible to tell if the guy was applying equal pressure to my arm each time, and because his results pretty much agreed with what I had already told him, there is no way to know if his diagnosing skills are worth anything. He did point my current symptoms to a bacterial cause though, and I had made no mention of this to him (I don’t know what is causing this, but I had suspected bacteria). He gave me some ionic molybdenum to take with meals for the next two weeks as well, as he says that this will help get rid of the bacteria. This also is a “is this genuine or not” kind of question that I ask myself. The stuff comes in a bottle (it is a solution), and I add it to a small amount of water. The thing is, I can’t taste it at all, so for all I know it could be tap water. I started taking it on Friday, and so far it has not made any difference to my symptoms, but I do have to take it for two weeks, so I will wait and see.
I have what I like to call a ‘healthy skepticism’ about the whole thing. I am not fully convinced that it is going to do any good, but the guy did say that he can get rid of both my current problem, and eventually my lactose intolerance as well (he told me that the latter would take three months), so I think it is worth persevering with. Besides, he is actually going to do some acupuncture next session, and I am keen to see if this has any effect on me. It is a decision that I have to consider carefully though, as each session costs £32 (the first consultation was £40) and the molybdenum cost me £8.65. As I totally skint at the mo, I have to hunt around to find the cash to pay for it.
I am going back on Saturday for another session, and I will no doubt post as to how it went.
I played my first competitive game of cricket for over 20 years on Wednesday.
After getting in on the practise sessions at the Rose Bowl earlier this year, I signed up for the first game of the season with the works cricket team. They call themselves OPCSCC (Office of Population Census and Surveys Cricket Club), and I’m not sure why, because we changed our name to Office for National Statistics more than seven years ago.
I picked up Ant, both of us resplendent in our new cricket whites (Ant had the full set, I was limited by budget to buying the trousers and a box this month, but I had a white polo neck t-shirt), and headed on up to Emsworth to play a company called Millcomms. The works team used to play in a league a few years back, but due to dwindling numbers and other teams bringing in ringers to play, they decided to limit themselves to friendlies throughout the season. We’ve got about ten games lined up between now and the end of August, with possibly a few more being thrown in when they can find opponents to play.
Got to the pitch at about half past five (the game was due to start at six) and bowled a few at the stumps while we were waiting. I actually hit centre stump with my first practise delivery, and thought “ooh! this is promising”, but I never got it again in the next ten balls or so I took to warm up.
When we finally started, it was about ten past six. The game was to be 20 overs per side, and Chris asked me if I would open the bowling. I’d already gotten over my nerves at the practise nets (I discovered that I could bowl a reasonable line and length pretty consistently, if without any real pace or movement), so I was not worried about it. I ran up, bowled the ball….
SMACK! Belted away for two runs. Cr*p!
Second ball…….SMACK! Two more runs. B*lls!
Third ball….SMACK! Four runs! This was turning into a nightmare. Fortunately, the last three balls off my first over were without score, and I managed to find my line a little bit. Still a rubbish over though.
One of the great things about this club is that it is so relaxed. They’re all out there to have fun, and no-one expects you to be Freddie Flintoff. They play to win (which I like) but there is no finger pointing if you make a cock-up (most of us made at least one during the evening). Personally, when I play sports, I play to win, and tell myself off if I make a stupid mistake, but I don’t get carried away with it - primarily I am there to have fun (as are the rest of the guys), but I have more fun if I take it seriously and do my best.
So after the first over, I thought I might not get another, but Chris (the captain) was happy enough, and said “don’t worry - it was your first over of the season, remember”, and he let me bowl two more overs. They try to spread the bowling out amongst whoever wants to have a go, rather than giving all the best bowlers most of the action.
On my second over I settled down a bit and kept the runs down, although I did miss an opportunity for a catch. Third over was better still, and on my last delivery I got a wicket - centre stump, clean as you like!
Ant had three overs as well, and he fared about the same as I did - his first delivery got hit out of the ground for six, into a neighbouring garden (the neighbour threw the ball back). He persevered with the spin for few more balls, and all of those got pelted as well, so he reverted to pace for his remaining overs and also got a wicket.
I managed a catch while fielding as well, and although a missed a couple of ground balls, and my throwing was a little sloppy, I managed to acquit myself OK with some ood stops.
Millcomms ended on 104 for 7 off 20 overs, which from what Bill told me, was an OK score from a fielding perspective.
We were then up to bat. Like the bowling, Chris ordered us according to who didn’t get any bowling action, and then asked around who wanted to bat in which order (a couple of guys didn’t want to and were put down the order). I was put at number 8, one behind Ant.
I got a go at batting as it happened, but only for a couple of overs. It was starting to get dark, but the pace was quite slow so it was not too worrying. I only scored 5, but it was 5 not out, so I was pretty happy about it.
Overall though, I had a thoroughly good time, and have signed up for the next two games if they want me.
The Scout AGM was last night, but straight away afterwards, Cornell popped up on the Harley, and we went up to the Hampshire Rose in Widley to see the second leg of the Battle of the Bands. The Freaks had won their first leg last month, but only by four points.
They played a half hour set (just like last time), but had written a new song since the last leg, so ‘Frogspawn’ got dropped and this one (I forget what it’s called) came in.
Tom was in a playful mood tonight, and joked with the audience, and acted like a complete loon all the time he was on stage - it was hilarious! They cocked up numerous times during the songs, but that just made it even funnier. He looked like he was seriously enjoying himself up there. Aaron was his usual inscrutable self on stage (he looks like he might be enjoying himself, but he’s never as bouncy when he’s playing to an audience), and I couldn’t see Kyle because a pillar was in my way.
And……they won again.
Of course, this does not mean that they have won the competition - there are heats going on for several more nights - the last one is in two weeks time, and the highest scorers overall will…..well, I’m not sure what they’ll do. I asked the guys last night, and there was talk of a ’showcase’ (whatever that means) but I didn’t really understand any of it. Besides, my hearing was a little soft by the end of the set. Maybe it is best not to think about ‘what ifs’ until they are actually a reality.
Anyway, well done to the Freaks (again), and I hope the other results go your way.
It’s been a few days since I posted on this blog - I was away all weekend, and particularly busy either side of it. Anyway, I just popped into the Admin section of the blog, and was asked to moderate 82 comments.
…..and every single one of them was spam.
In fact, every single one of them was offering me viagra, or cialis, or some other such medicine to improve my sex life.
Is there actually this big a market for this stuff? Do people actually respond to this kind of e-mail? I can’t believe it. They send these things out to every single e-mail address they can find - there’s no selectivity to the process.
And worst of all, there is no way to get them back…as far as I know.
I know there are plenty of ways to block this kind of cr*p from getting onto your systems, but I’d like to go further than that. The power and success of the internet revolves around it’s freedom - the fact that it is not ‘ruled’ by any governing body that controls what we can and can’t do. The whole spam phenomena is an unfortunate by-product of that, along with much worse things like the proliferation of some of the sicker forms of pornography and those people that try and trick you into revealing your bank details.
Surely though, if these people can do this kind of thing with impunity, then decent people can do something to get them back? Some sort of ‘internet vigilantism’ perhaps?
I think I’ll do some research into that….or rather, I’ll add it to my list of things to look into….
Apologies to everyone who has been waiting with bated breath to hear about my efforts to purchase a larger motorcycle now that I’ve gained a full motorbike license. I have made much progress, and the only reason I have not posted is because I did not want to jinx anything before it was resolved.
So…
Monday 24th:
Had a look for a few Bandits on Biketrader. Found a few and after seeking advice from Cornell, Goat and Tiffy, decided to go for the more expensive of the three - half the mileage of the other two, faired, and a newer bike, only for a few hundred quid more. So I went home and phoned up…
“Sorry mate, it’s been sold already”
I wanted to say “well, why the **** didn’t you take the ****ing advert off the site then?!?!”…but I didn’t.
I sat there and fumed for a few minutes, and then decided to take positive action - I jumped on the net and surfed a few sites. Found a free-ads site, and it had a V Reg Bandit for sale (put on that day) for £1500. “Genuine 9750 miles on the clock” it said. Hmmm, sounds like it’s worth a look, I thought. So I phoned the guy up and arranged to have a look at it the next evening. It was in Liss, which is up the A3(M) near Petersfield.
Tuesday 25th:
I had arranged with Cornell to go up and see the bike that evening (he was to give me a lift on the back of his Harley), but I needed to sort out the money first. No problem, I thought, I will just phone up the bank and extend my loan.
HA! Even though I have been paying my bills regularly for the past five years, because I sneaked over my overdraft a few times in the past few months, the bank have decided to deny me the loan extension. T*ssers!
Oh well, sod it, I though. I will go and look at the bike anyway. If it is really nice I will sort out the money from somewhere else.
So up we went to Liss, to take a look at this Bandit. Up the A3 on the pillion of Cornell’s bike. I should say at this point that I was very impressed with Cornell’s riding - very calm and assured. I admit to being a tad nervous before we started off, but once he got onto the M27 I was well relaxed. The ‘love handles’ that he bought were also a boon - it sure beat wrapping my arms around his waist for the entire trip, and I wasn’t going to trust the little flimsy-looking strap that came with the pillion seat!
Found the cottage in a rather nice area just outside Liss village centre and met Terry, the guy who was selling the bike. Actually, he was not the owner - it belonged to his father in law, but he was selling it on his behalf. He made us a nice cup of tea and we got to looking over the bike. Last months ‘Ride’ magazine had a lengthy article about what to look for when buying a used bike, so I tore the checklist page out of the mag and used it to go over the bike. Everything checked out. The mileage was backed up by the MOT, the log book was valid and there was some service documentation. It all seemed pretty kosher, the only worry was the number of previous owners on the log book - 6. We discussed it and came to the conclusion that it could well have gone from owner to dealer, to owner, to dealer, etc.
As far as the bike itself - it looked lovely. The only visible problem was two small dents in the fuel tank. Not from being dropped or crashed, but from when the owner took the bike into his house and dropped it against the door frame! It started up nicely, there were no nasty noises of emissions, and all the other checks were a-ok.
Terry offered me a test ride, but I wasn’t insured. Cornell was, however, and he gleefully accepted the offer. While he was away, I had a chat to Terry about money. As far as I was concerned, the bike was a bargain at the price he was offering, plus I was not able to put a down payment on right away to secure it. So I offered him the asking price, dependent upon Cornell’s approval of the test ride, if he was willing to wait for a couple of days for me to sort the money out. Terry accepted this and the deal was done once Cornell got back - I didn’t need to ask him how it was, judging by the big smile on his face, and the “if you don’t buy it, I will!” that came out of his mouth before I even had a chance to ask him!
Wednesday 26th:
Sorted out the money - hurrah! Won’t say how on an open forum (not because it’s illegal or anything, but I’d rather just keep this bit to myself!). Phoned Terry up to confirm that I’d be up Thursday evening. Phoned Bennetts to change the policy across to the new bike. The bad news on that front is that I’m no longer insured to ride the GN125, so when it comes to selling it I may need to be a bit creative about riding it to show a potential buyer (I’m not letting a fresh CBT’er test ride it!). The extremely good news is that the premium is exactly the same as for the 125 - £171 per year! Niiiiice!
Thursday 27th:
Couldn’t handle it - had to finish work early - time was dragging along too slow and I was getting itchy…
So I went round to Cornell’s at five-ish and had a cup of coffee, and we set off up there at about quarter past six. Terry said to come round anytime after seven, so when we arrived at Liss at half past six (!), we had to doss around the village for a bit, take a few photos of the level crossing, and then head on up. I was a litle nervous all this time - primarily because of the prospect of having to get this bike home in one piece, but also because I had £1500 hard cash in my pocket!
Done the deal, signed the paperwork, shook hands and got on the bike. By this time I was absolutely bricking it, and was ropey as you like getting out of the driveway. Funny though (and just like when I was doing my course) once I got moving I started to settle down almost immediately. That is not to say that I was riding like a pro or anything - I was all over the place, and slowing down every time the road bent or the surface changed. But hey, I’ve only been riding bigger bikes for a total of five days before this, so what do you expect.
The ride home was a choice one - A272, A32, through Botley, through Hedge End, and back down the M27 for my first taste of motorway biking. The thing that got me was the effect that the little bit of fairing had - there was virtually no wind on me at all, and I was not getting pulled back, even going down the motorway. It was great.
The bike itself is a pleasure to ride. Granted, I have no basis for comparison in the 600 market, but compared to the GN125 and the GS500 it is smooth as silk and has real response. It’s great!
Back to Cornell’s for a cuppa, then back home. I had managed to get all the way back without incident, but when I pulled into my driveway and swung it round ready to reverse it in, I lent over a bit too far when putting my foot down and was not ready for the extra weight….and nearly dropped it. Grunting, I managed to keep it upright, but that gave me a wake up call to be prepared for the extra weight of the bike. Not that it is heavy at all, but I am used to handling a much lighter bike, and need to get used to the Bandit.
So….I guess this makes me a ‘real’ biker now? Cool!
(Pictures coming soon)