Category: personal

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Ear update

For those following the saga of my burst eardrum (it’s edge-of-your-seat stuff!), my hearing is slowly coming back and the pain has mostly subsided. It’s actually quite remarkable that your eardrum can burst and then fix itself- it’s one of those parts of the body that ranks up there with eyes as being perceived as very delicate and irreplaceable, but it seems to be quite capable of looking after itself.

The doctors have told me that it could be up to another week or so before my hearing gets back to normal. As it is, I find it hard to pick out speech over background noise and I also have a little tinnitus. I tend to get more "foggy" as I get tired. They’ve prescribed a nasal decongestant, which is a little like snorting Pledge, but seems to help. The occasional ibuprofen knocks any pain on the head, but I’ve not had to take anything for a couple of days.

If things don’t return to normal, then I’ve to go back to the doctor and they will likely then refer me to an ENT clinic. But at the moment, progress is good. Either way, it’s not something I want to go through again or would recommend to others.

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Hard of hearing

I referred in my last post to having "man flu". In truth, Tom first caught a heavy cold about two and half weeks ago and, whilst cheerful throughout it all in that Tom way, he was laid pretty low by it. Inevitably, Hels and I both caught it – it’s one of the worst colds I’ve had for years, causing aching muscles and particularly high levels of discomfort.

On Saturday, it took a new and more unpleasant turn for me. Neither of us had been sleeping well for several nights, so we were pretty run down. During Friday night, I got acute discomfort in my jaw which I guessed (correctly as it turns out) was down the the virus shifting around in my sinuses. Very early on Saturday morning, I started to get severe pain in my left ear which got worse and worse as the morning went on, with pressure building ever higher. As I found out later, what had happened was that the virus had got into the Eustachian tube causing it to swell up and close. Consequently (turn away now if you are squeamish) there was a mucus build up in my inner ear (hence the pain). In these circumstances, something has to give and, at around lunchtime on Saturday, that something was my ear drum. My ear has been oozing unpleasantness ever since, and I’ve lost most of my hearing in my left ear.

Thankfully, my parents came to our aid and took Tom for a couple of days. Hels took me to casualty and we were seen promptly by an excellent doctor who explained it all clearly (and spoke into my good ear!), and prescribed some painkillers and antibiotics.

I can assure you that this experience is really quite distressing.

On the plus side, most perforations of the ear drum heal well and quite quickly, with normal hearing usually restored. Let’s hope that that is the case. I’ve made an appointment with my GP for next Monday (as advised by the doctor in casualty) who will check the progress of the healing and will either send me on my way if things are going well or refer me to the ENT clinic if there is a problem. If I get to ENT then, depending on the severity of the problem, I might have to have surgery ranging from a graft to repair the ear drum through to more invasive surgery if there is damage to the inner ear. These are not prospects that I particularly look forward to.

Can I be honest? I hate the fact that my hearing is gone. I’m filled with dread at the notion that Tom might grow up and I might not be able to hear him properly. I’m also scared about what this means for me in my business (I need to be able to communicate). I am not a happy bunny at the moment. And I still haven’t shifted the cold, which is adding to my woes.

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Things and stuff

  • Tom was one yesterday – it’s been both the longest and fastest year of my life (and Hels’s too, I think it is fair to say – and, by definition, Tom’s). We celebrated with cake, balloons and a trip to a farm. There shall be further celebrations at the weekend.
  • We had snow last night. Up to six inches of the stuff is forecast to fall tonight. That should make for an interesting commute for Hels in the morning. Tom was non-plussed when I introduced him to the stuff this morning. His face simply said: "cold. wet. yuk."
  • I’m in Germany at the moment for an enormous trade event. I’ve just had dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was eye-wateringly expensive. At the next table was Michael Heseltine. He was not wearing a loin cloth.
  • I really need to update this site more often. Sorry.
  • This site and my email (including work email) have been down for most of the day due to problems at 34SP. Apparently, the aircon failed causing the servers to overheat. I couldn’t help thinking that, on the coldest day of the winter so far, opening the window would soon solve the problem.
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Annual Review Of The Year

It’s that time of year again. Last year, I made five resolutions. I have made a good start on the first one, although it is a massive project and has taken much longer than anticipated, not least due to distractions of the Tom kind. The second I failed on miserably. The third hasn’t gone too badly, although it has improved of late. The fourth, well let’s not go there, shall we? – only 186 posts this year, including this one – not good enough. And the fifth one I’ve done reasonably well on – I’m certainly a lot happier on that score than I was this time last year.

So, for 2007, I’ll continue the good work where the good work has started. Beyond that, I haven’t really got that much that I feel I particularly want to resolve to do – there is plenty to keep me occupied.

2006 has been a year like none before it, entirely due to the arrival of Tom. He has, as I expected, changed life totally and for the better. In addition, we’ve had a lot of travel (I’ve been to Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Hungary this year) and there is more planned for 2007, with trips to Germany, France, Netherlands (naturally), Portugal, Poland, Ireland and Italy on the cards. 2006 has also seen us starting to make new long term plans. We’re not yet sure if they will come to fruition, but the notion of emigrating doesn’t look beyond the realms of plausibility. We’re also much closer to finally sorting out our finances, which has to be a good thing and has implications for all areas of life.

New Year’s Eve this year will be spent with friends, eating and drinking too much whilst (hopefully) Tom sleeps. Then I’ve got to wind myself back up in to work mode after an extended Christmas break – which, when I wasn’t being ill, I’ve enjoyed and was much needed, particularly as I’ve spent nearly the whole break at home with Hels and Tom, undoubtedly a good thing.

Happy New Year to all grayblog readers. Keep coming back if you like this sort of thing.

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Not quite normal

This is going to be a not-quite-normal Christmas. Firstly, it’s our first Christmas as a threesome, although Tom doesn’t really have an inkling as to what it is all about. I’m sure that he will be more excited by the wrapping paper, ribbon and boxes than by the gifts themselves, although I suspect that the maracas, tambourine and glockenspiel will all be hits as they all make a good noise. Shopping for Tom is remarkably easy (the problem is knowing when to stop) and we’ve worked particularly hard to buy only a moderate number of presents and to aim for quality over cheap tat.

However, this Christmas will also be not-quite-normal as we all fight illness. Tom has a stomach bug which has resulted in vomiting and diarrhoea, although he has remained remarkably cheerful in spite of it all. I took him to the out-of-hours clinic last night for a little medical reassurance (“plenty fluids, a little Calpol, lay off rich food – call back if anything changes”) and he sat on my knee smiling broadly at the doctor (but then he is a bit of a flirt, so I shouldn’t be surprised). Hels has sinusitis, which is causing her to be nauseous and dizzy as well as taking all the flavour and fun out of food. She spent much of today in bed and seems a little better this evening. As for me, I’m pretty tired out by caring for them both and tonight I feel a little flaky – I’m hoping that is a symptom of fatigue and not a harbinger of Tom’s tummy bug (having been around unpleasant nappies for the last two days, nothing would surprise me).

But the presents are wrapped (I’m just tying ribbon on the last few), the cards are delivered (save for three to be dropped through neighbours’ doors in a moment) and the fire is burning (although we can’t get near it for cats). I’m just about to break open the Bristol Cream and Hels is browsing the TV guide. Tomorrow we begin the round of parental visits with my parents, followed by my in-laws on Boxing Day.

All we need now is a holiday. Merry Christmas.

UPDATE: I was struck down on the evening of Christmas Day by Norwalk virus – look it up if you want to know the symptoms, but I’ll spare you the details. Let’s just say that I’m a few pounds lighter now. Tom is better but Hels is still not well.
And, as if anticipating my holiday sentiment, my brother and his fiancée gave us a bunch of hotel vouchers so that we can take a break.

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A pain in the cars

Lately, we seem to just go from one car-inspired crisis to another. We’ve had a situation where my car was off the road and we had to rely on Hels’s car. Then mine was fixed, only for Hels’s car to be off the road so that we had to rely on mine. Now hers is fixed – and I’ve just gone out to drive mine and found a new problem which means that it has to sit on the drive until it can be fixed.

If the financial fairy is reading this, a large cash grant would be handy at the moment.

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Two years

Today is our wedding anniversary. We have celebrated by taking Tom to  a children’s farm, having tea and cake in a tearoom and collecting some sweet chestnuts (something that we did on the slopes of Mount Etna during our honeymoon). Tonight we’re going out for dinner.

Low key, but just right.

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1096 days

Three years ago today, I saw a very beautiful, tall, blonde woman for the first time. She was wearing black leather boots with killer heels, which she’d bought just for the occasion. The fact that she could barely walk in them was neither here nor there.

We’d celebrate this anniversary, if only we both didn’t have filthy colds. Bah! Still, we have our wedding anniversary next week, so hopefully we will recover by then.

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Why we are not exactly leaping around at the moment

This week has included:

  • learning that a friend and client is very unwell
  • literally dozens of phone conversations with two different sets of lawyers and two different sets of surveyors
  • realising that I’ve cocked up my plan to go to a trade show in Poland (note to self: VIII means August, not September – d’oh!)
  • dropping a client because he is really not on my wavelength and I can’t be bothered to struggle for what would be a potentially small reward
  • getting a very long document from the Borough Council
  • not getting a whole bunch of things sorted out that I planned to do this week
  • cleaning up purple projectile vomit after Tom had blackberries for tea (he’s fine now, but I’ve got to redecorate a wall)
  • having to clean the cat litter tray every day after one or other of them decided that the garden was too cold and wet to use now that the weather has turned.

And that is just what I’ve had to do – Hels has had just as much. 

But there are positive things too:

  • Sussex beat Durham in the cricket
  • it rained (very good news in this part of the world)
  • we caught up with some people in the pub
  • it’s Friday
  • we’re going on holiday soon
  • Tom “pulled” a waitress in the place we went to today for lunch (very funny – you had to be there)

So it’s not all bad. It just feels that way.

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Not a good week so far

Let’s make a list:

  • broken router
  • broken down car
  • tenant in H’s flat has served notice to leave – we’re advised to expect two months without rental income
  • car still faulty
  • two hours on hold to BT
  • uncomfortably hot
  • one of my customers is misbehaving and it could, potentially, end in litigation
  • mother-in-law melted some of Tom’s bottles (don’t ask)

And it’s only Wednesday.