It has been over a month since my last post and during that time I have been diagnosed with gallstones. It may not sound like much but it has kept me off work since the first attack of cholecystisis. A brief no frills explanation for those who do not know what this is can be found by clicking on the word cholecystisis. Anyway I have to have my gall bladder removed at some point and nobody can tell me when this will be although I have been told that it will not be before Xmas.
The pain and discomfort are acute and I have not felt like writing or contacting any one apart from my GP. As a result I have become quite unsociable these days. The only good thing to come out of the whole episode is that I have lost a lot of weight. I actually started a diet and good health kick seven weeks ago and over a period of three weeks I had managed to lose six pounds. Shortly after falling ill I managed to lose over a stone more (a stone equals 14 lbs or 6.35 kilos to my non imperial friends) and today I now weigh 14 stone 13 pounds. It is the first in over four years that I have been under 15 stone. Co-incidentally it is round about four years ago that I started taking high blood pressure tablets and I stopped taking them seven weeks ago when the weight first started to come off. Coincidence or what?
So what have I been up to? Well I have read several travel books by people such as Ted Simon, Lois Price, Ewan and Charley and Sam Manicom. I have also watched a few DVDs and that is about it. I also have to mention that last night I listened to a concert by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. They were live at the Albert Hall and were covered by BBC Radio Three. These guys are fantastic and nothing I could ever write here would do them justice, instead check them out for your selves here. I have tickets to go and see them at Liverpool Philharmonic and I intend to go in evening suit and bow tie for the event. I reckon they are the British version of Hayseed Dixie, another wonderful outfit that I have had the pleasure of seeing live.
All thoughts of travel and exploratory holidays to exciting and exotic locations are off until at least the beginning of next year. It seems to have gone the way of the good old British summer and any thoughts of having a barbecue here this year. This year’s summer is shaping up to go the same way as the previous two which were the wettest on record respectively.
Well that is all for now except to say I am in the wonderful hands of Bean Counter and my GP and as usual normal service will be resumed when I am well enough. Cholecystisis eh, the sheer gall of it!