Where has Paul been I hear you ask. Read on to give you a flavour on my life. A little later I will hand over to our roving correspondents - but first.
On Tuesday Val rang me in work at 10.30 saying that she had an appointment with the Chest Consultant re the follow up to the “Shadow on lungs” visit last time. You may recall that the consultant said he was fairly sure there was nothing sinister but he wanted to check out with his “X-ray expert”. Val’s appointment was at midday. You can imagine what I thought. “There must be bad news as they have given her one and a half hours notice”. NHS normally takes a couple of weeks notice to hand out bad news!
Val drove into my place of work to pick me up at the agreed time of 11.00. I got into the car and casually mentioned that it was unusual for the Hospital to ring for an appointment and a short notice one at that! It appears that the appointment letter only reached our letterbox at 10.30 that morning because it had been held up in the postal dispute!!!! I was a little relieved! Anyway we went in and it was confirmed there was nothing sinister. There is something they are unsure about so Val has to go back in six months for another X-ray. This isn’t any good for my blood pressure!!!!
On Wednesday I got an e-mail from Kodak informing me that there was an updated version of my Kodak software available to download. So off I went and downloaded it. Big mistake. Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night were spent recovering the situation. I was getting to bed between midnight and one. My bedtime is normally between 10 and 10.30!!! I was flaming knackered come Friday. Not sure how I stayed awake in work I can tell you.
On Saturday Val and I went looking for a new phone system for home. You may, or not, be aware that she is (very slowly) doing the hall, well she wanted to move the phone. I reckon it would have cost me £80 to move the phone socket (no wires wanted showing you see so not a DIY job) and anything around the £100 mark for an electrician to put a new electric socket into the wall. All in all about £180 ish to move the phone to the other side of the door. Not a good idea from my viewpoint. Came up with a solution. A wireless phone system using one of the sockets upstairs. Val agreed so into Curry’s and Comet we went.
Eventually found the set that filled all our criteria except colour. Even Val was wearing down at this stage so, surprisingly, she gave in. £40 odd gave us a three handset wireless system. Whilst in Curry’s we decide to have a look at TV’s and DVD’s as ours has been playing up. DVD starting when it feels like it and TV slowly shadowing over.
You know I said I was knackered by Friday. Well my resistance must have been low. We came home with not only the phone set we went in for (remember I said I did it this way to save cash???) but also one 37 inch LCD TV and one DVD recorder. This was just the start of the fun.
You know when you get electrical kit the salesman says it’s easy to set up. Open the (rather thick) manual and it says just plug and play. Bollocks. All day Saturday until the now usual one in the morning and up to three this afternoon connecting and trying to work out how the bloody system works. Then after all that I had to connect Al’s Wii. You will be pleased to know that now we can see terrestrial TV one way. Cable TV via the TV and via the DVD. WE can get, what I assume is, Freeview via the TV and DVD. We can play and record DVD’s as well as recording onto the DVD hard drive. We can play with Al’s Wii. And all this is on top of the Virgin V+ system that we are used to. My only problem is remembering what set of buttons I press for whatever I want to do. I say only problem. I have to explain all this to Val yet.
After all that I had to set the bloody phones!!! They work OK but each one needs to have the phonebook put in. That is for another day as I am tech’d out.
On Tuesday Val rang me in work at 10.30 saying that she had an appointment with the Chest Consultant re the follow up to the “Shadow on lungs” visit last time. You may recall that the consultant said he was fairly sure there was nothing sinister but he wanted to check out with his “X-ray expert”. Val’s appointment was at midday. You can imagine what I thought. “There must be bad news as they have given her one and a half hours notice”. NHS normally takes a couple of weeks notice to hand out bad news!
Val drove into my place of work to pick me up at the agreed time of 11.00. I got into the car and casually mentioned that it was unusual for the Hospital to ring for an appointment and a short notice one at that! It appears that the appointment letter only reached our letterbox at 10.30 that morning because it had been held up in the postal dispute!!!! I was a little relieved! Anyway we went in and it was confirmed there was nothing sinister. There is something they are unsure about so Val has to go back in six months for another X-ray. This isn’t any good for my blood pressure!!!!
On Wednesday I got an e-mail from Kodak informing me that there was an updated version of my Kodak software available to download. So off I went and downloaded it. Big mistake. Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night were spent recovering the situation. I was getting to bed between midnight and one. My bedtime is normally between 10 and 10.30!!! I was flaming knackered come Friday. Not sure how I stayed awake in work I can tell you.
On Saturday Val and I went looking for a new phone system for home. You may, or not, be aware that she is (very slowly) doing the hall, well she wanted to move the phone. I reckon it would have cost me £80 to move the phone socket (no wires wanted showing you see so not a DIY job) and anything around the £100 mark for an electrician to put a new electric socket into the wall. All in all about £180 ish to move the phone to the other side of the door. Not a good idea from my viewpoint. Came up with a solution. A wireless phone system using one of the sockets upstairs. Val agreed so into Curry’s and Comet we went.
Eventually found the set that filled all our criteria except colour. Even Val was wearing down at this stage so, surprisingly, she gave in. £40 odd gave us a three handset wireless system. Whilst in Curry’s we decide to have a look at TV’s and DVD’s as ours has been playing up. DVD starting when it feels like it and TV slowly shadowing over.
You know I said I was knackered by Friday. Well my resistance must have been low. We came home with not only the phone set we went in for (remember I said I did it this way to save cash???) but also one 37 inch LCD TV and one DVD recorder. This was just the start of the fun.
You know when you get electrical kit the salesman says it’s easy to set up. Open the (rather thick) manual and it says just plug and play. Bollocks. All day Saturday until the now usual one in the morning and up to three this afternoon connecting and trying to work out how the bloody system works. Then after all that I had to connect Al’s Wii. You will be pleased to know that now we can see terrestrial TV one way. Cable TV via the TV and via the DVD. WE can get, what I assume is, Freeview via the TV and DVD. We can play and record DVD’s as well as recording onto the DVD hard drive. We can play with Al’s Wii. And all this is on top of the Virgin V+ system that we are used to. My only problem is remembering what set of buttons I press for whatever I want to do. I say only problem. I have to explain all this to Val yet.
After all that I had to set the bloody phones!!! They work OK but each one needs to have the phonebook put in. That is for another day as I am tech’d out.
And all this over the weekend that from an international sporting point of view wasn't the best for England. I caught the end of the rugby world cup and the last seven laps of Lewis Hamilton in Brazil. Still would just like to point out that Argyle came away with three very deserved points against Coventry. Not sure how Albion got on against, what a coincidence, Coventry.
Ah well back to work tomorrow. I am off next week from Wednesday, which is excellent as we have to change the spare bedroom around. Anyone want a double bed???? The futon is going in there along with the old TV and DVD player. Visitors will now have a place to run and hide from the chaotic state we live in.
Still, the hall is coming along nicely!!!! See the photo's above for confirmation.
Ah well back to work tomorrow. I am off next week from Wednesday, which is excellent as we have to change the spare bedroom around. Anyone want a double bed???? The futon is going in there along with the old TV and DVD player. Visitors will now have a place to run and hide from the chaotic state we live in.
Still, the hall is coming along nicely!!!! See the photo's above for confirmation.
Well you will be pleased to know that is it for me and now over to Blue Skies for his bit.
"Suffolk Sojourn 24 of 137.Hells Bells HR! - I had to clock overtime to get through your communique. And still no mention of the next gig with the Gibson Flying V Balalaika. You mentioned Chivenor Paulie - remember that time the trials team I was with at the time (Jun 85) flew down to you there and we spent a week jumping from high altitude onto Saunton Sands? (During some precious time off Val, you and I walked down a railway line (?) for an evening scoff at a Bernie). Anyway, we did a lot of early morning stuff before the Sqn Hawks fired up. Buddy Jim and I found ourselves at 25,000' on a beautiful but cold Devon morning - 0615, and about 21 miles upwind of Chivenor. Luckily the C130 Nav. had got his calcs well plotted - for me anyway. I arrived 31 minutes later on the beach but Jim was 3 miles short. He landed on the airfield, (with O2, full bergen eqpt including weapon) smack in front of the Hawk line up - 10 minutes after the TACEVAL siren had sounded off. He was immediately surrounded and captured by an enthusiastic bunch of young Rambo's who couldn't believe that the exercises were getting realistic at last. A coincidence, but it took us 3 hours to find him then get him out of the guardroom. Good times. Barry and Derek - are you out there? Hope Val is on the mend, and love to Chesch and Alice. Blue Skies - CT "
I remember that weekend visit very well. You (again) wanted me to jump out of a perfectly serviceable and flying aircraft. Never quite understood that as fun. It must be me because my Wing Commander at the time, one very nice bloke Chris Rowntree, wanted me to sit in a Hawk while he drove it, very low, around the West Country and through the Welsh valleys. Looking up at sheep whilst doing 400mph or whatever is another fun bit I have never come to understand.
The bit about you and Jim hitting Chivenor during TACEVAL I also remember well as I was Incident Commander just heading back to my little hidey hole when I saw the chute with the aforementioned Jim heading earthward. I too was very impressed. Even more impressed when I found out that I didn't have to deal with the situation as the guys sorted it out without me!!!
The Bernie was a rather nice castle sitting by the waters edge, Val and I often talk about the good company of that night.
Now over to HR. He e-mailed me, but as he said he hasn't got the hang of the comments facility on the blog yet I thought I would post for him. Just as a matter of interest he had sent me a message in Russian. I went back asking what it meant as my Russian is fairly rusty now the Cold War is over. Is it? No that's a question for another day! Over to you HR.
"OOPs sorry I forgot .
It said in Cyrillic (Good old Saint Cyril!) : Spaceeba Balshoi .
Spaceeba means thank you and balshoi means big.
So the Bolshoi Ballet is just " the big ballet"!!!
I changed my keyboard to allow me to write in German ,Swedish or Russian.
Sadly my two-finger typing is still crap !!
Thanks for the mention on the blog : I did not add the fact that i feel privileged to be welcome amongst all the other people there and will make an effort to meet them one day.
We should have a get together. !
PS I found myself reading about Val's Bum ! Are we allowed to talk about that and I hope it is getting better!"
It said in Cyrillic (Good old Saint Cyril!) : Spaceeba Balshoi .
Spaceeba means thank you and balshoi means big.
So the Bolshoi Ballet is just " the big ballet"!!!
I changed my keyboard to allow me to write in German ,Swedish or Russian.
Sadly my two-finger typing is still crap !!
Thanks for the mention on the blog : I did not add the fact that i feel privileged to be welcome amongst all the other people there and will make an effort to meet them one day.
We should have a get together. !
PS I found myself reading about Val's Bum ! Are we allowed to talk about that and I hope it is getting better!"
Val's bum is better you will all be pleased to know. God knows what is going to happen if she ever reads this !!
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