A new week

Lots of thoughts while I was off work last week with a bad back, thinking about my future and stuff - daytime TV is soooooo bad that anything is better :-)

I always have trouble getting off to sleep when my head gets in a thinking mood - it only needs a small nudge and off it goes. First one was always a bad one - reading people's rider reports on ADVRider always gets my feet all itchy, my brain going off planning long rides.

The second was watching the movie Ten Inch Hero - no, not those ten inches! The plot of the movie itself wasn't the nudge, but the vehicle owned by one of the characters:



No - not the girls, although they were also a redeeming feature ;-), but the VW bus.

My parent's had a '72 for a while back in the early 90s, and I drove it occasionally when I was between cars, and it was fun:



I did have a couple of these when in my late teens, but not sure I want one again:



But a camper could be cool, all set up mechanically for a life of cruising around at 55mph :-D

A couple of times I even had to turn my bedside light back so that I could read something to switch my brain off going round in circles!

My back is probably 80% back to normal now, still get the occasional twinge, so will have to be careful of it from now on I spose.

Another good session with the counsellor today, getting closer into my issues - it'd be nice to have someone else to talk through them with up here though. Can't have everything I suppose, but that's partly my fault for only having a very few friends and not knowing who I can talk to.

Just over a week until I get on the Ben My Chree for my Easter trip on the bike to see my parents - all being well I'll get a ride in on Easter Sunday and maybe Easter Monday too. Depends on the weather I suppose, and how relaxed/stressed/tired I am - I don't tend to ride when my heart and mind aren't in it as I don't think I'll concentrate enough, and concentration is all when riding a motorbike. Especially when just bimbling around with nowhere in particular to go.

Ooh, yeah, and for the third time in the last 10 years, I've gone for a change of look on the facial front, heading back to the ginger minger goatee look:



Whadda we think?

TTFN

Ouch

A quiet week last week, not getting up to much, until the weekend.

First thing Saturday morning I took a friend's scuba regulators over to his house (I'd picked them up from being serviced a couple weeks ago), then I rode over to Harry's to say hi. Got talked into helping him start to clear out his garage, so off we trotted to B&Q to buy some shelving. It's funny how much stuff is left over when you put items back into a space in a tidy fashion.....

Sunday and I was back over helping out again - Harry's mate James had bought his old Honda NSR250, and in return had sold him his hydraulic bike lift, so load the NSR into the MPV, drive it over to James', take the NSR out, move the bikes around in the room, take out the lift, put the bikes back in, put the lift in the MPV and back to Harry's, where we took the lift out of the van and put it on the drive. All good so far.

More tidying of the garage to make enough room for the lift, and then we picked up the lift - bugger! Bugger, bugger, bugger, ouch, ouch! I strained my back picking up my end badly! There endeth my assistance - took some Nurofen and then rode home.

Spent the next day and a half in and out of bed, dosing up on paracetamol and ibuprofen, struggling to move, and eventually went to A&E on Monday night. Saw the doc and got some Co-Codamol and Diclofenac to try and calm it all down. Still struggled so only went back to work today, and my back still sends shooting pains every now and again - enough to make me stop whatever I'm doing and freeze until they've passed!

Hopefully it all recovers soon :-(

Recovery

Went out for a couple drinks last Saturday night, meeting some mates who'd been watching the footie in Jaks pub - felt good to be out, but that'll be my last time until pay day - spent too much money last weekend on clothes and the like.

Good session with the counsellor on Wednesday, I'm feeling less depressed now than before I started seeing her, and I have actually started to try to come out of my comfort zone - went up to Ard Jekyll MSPCA rescue home to ask about volunteer dog walking, but the opening times were different to their website, and no-one was around to ask - but at least I tried! I'd hummed and haaed about going up, as I had the night before on going out, but on both occasions I followed through with the plan I'd made.

Work went better this week, which no doubt helped my outlook on life, and I'm off on Monday for a diabetes test at the docs and for the gas boiler in the apartment to be serviced.

Rode the bike up to Harry's this morning for the World Superbike races on the telly from Qatar, so no lie-in for Ben - Qatar is 3 hours ahead, so the first race started at 9am UK time! Took the new chain and sprockets up ready for a nice weekend to change them too. Watched the races, chatted, had a go at the PS3 MotoGP '08 game, and sucked mightily! It did give me some idea of the way Doningtion circuit goes for our race school trip in May.

Staying in tonight as I'm skint, so munchies and TV, I think

Marching on

Mad as a March hare? Not particularly, in either sense of the word 'mad'. My counsellor doesn't think I am in the sanity sense, but is still trying to get me to find some self-confidence and raise my self-esteem, keeps telling me to do something out of my comfort zone, but my comfort zone, by it's name, is very, very comfortable.

Mad in the other, angrier, sense has reared it's ugly little head on occasions at work this last week or so - think the start of the movie Four Weddings & A Funeral, and you can imagine the Anglo-Saxon sounds being heard from my desk :-) Some stuff is getting very frustrating here. :-(

Went on my friend Amy's work leaving do last Friday - a bit strange only knowing two people out of the 20 or so there, and felt a bit lonely for an hour or so with nowhere to sit and no-one to talk to, but then some others left and I could sit down and join in the conversations, although had to focus hard to understand her colleague from Glasgow lol We then went off to another bar where we met her brother Ewan and his mate Andy who were watching the France v Wales rugby game, so I sat with them and had a good time, both there and the nightclub we went on to.

Still got home by midnight, as I didn't want to turn back into a pumpkin :-D

I'm feeling a bit better this week, but tired as I'm getting too involved in a book at home, and not been putting it down before 1am! Must stop that as I need my beauty sleep, obviously!

My flatmate John is on his first night out with drinks for four months this Saturday, so I'll go on that one too - that's me, out of the flat of an evening, for three weekends in a row! I have no idea what is happening to me :-D

Got Monday 16th off for a diabetes test at the doctor's as my brother was diagnosed Type II at the end of last year, and have also booked off two extra days at Easter to go down to see the family in Yeovil - only got to book the Steam Pirates ferry crossing now.