Flops' Friday mini blog

[bootneck02]

I agree with the girls Flops, you need time to get over what you have been through. Time will pass and you will realize you aint ready for the knackers yard and wish you hadent got rid of your sound kit. There is an old saying and it is very true "Time heals everything". I am not preaching as I went through a bad patch when I was pensioned off from the fire service. I was caught in the blast of a 100lb propane cylinder and thrown about 12 feet across a concrete floor I landed on my back unfortunately I was wearing CABA set at the time which dident help in the landing I was taken to hospital and told there was a likely hood of me not being able to walk. Any to cut the story short I was signed off sick for a year and early retired from the job I loved and would have done it for no pay. I was in a very dark place at the time with no job and no prospects who would employ someone with a knackered back. Well after a lot of physio about 2 years and having got feeling in my legs I got a job with the local authority as an office caretaker. Oh did I mention that the house I was buying at the time I had to sell as I couldn't pay the mortage and lost on the deal because of the rescission at the end of the eighty's. Never mind my Life is fantastic my wife an I have been married now for 11 years my daughter has just given birth to a little girl and is getting married 1st September. If you had said 20 years ago that everything would turn out OK I would have not believed you and would have thought you were nuts.Yes time does heal, so you hang onto that kit because you will need it.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Here on my home turf I am suffering the second bout of that thing people call The Olympic games. Now, I agree the games, both for able bodied folk and the Paralympics are a good thing but I do wish they’d bugger off, they are disrupting my turf. There’s a veritable army of folk wearing garish pink over-clothing, dubious hatwear and in some instances big foam rubber pointy fingers, like those favoured by long brown bread DJ, Comedian and gay person Kenny Everett.

Everywhere I walk they keep smiling at me and ask me if I’m ok. I feel like answering I was ok until you lot arrived. I expect most of them are bored so some try and be a little outlandish and talk very loud, sing and try to be funny and entertaining – shut up you fool! You look like a right plonker.

There are more bored people lining the platforms of Greenwich railway station and during the first episode of The Olympics I was taking a short cut through the station and heard a voice behind me say ‘Please walk on the other side of the yellow line sir’. I stopped in my tracks, turned around and spotted the deliverer of this warning, a young attractive blonde girl in her early twenties.

‘You what’ I said. And she repeated her warning. I replied ‘I’ve been walking this platform for 50 years at least and I haven’t managed to kill myself yet so please don’t tell me what to do’. She gave a nervous giggle and said ‘Yes sir, thank you sir’

Since then I have had great fun by deliberately walking close to the railway tracks and seeing how far I can wind these jobsworths up – positively entertaining I’ve only had one get real stroppy with me so far, he was at Charlton, he must have been super bored. So when he started going into one I just looked him in the eye and said ‘**** off’. And he did.

Ha-ha, I just lurve being the grumpy old git, getting my own back in a weird way with all them old gits who gave me crap when I was young.

Last weekend I visited the local Clocktower Market and came away with this lot for a total of £21.00. That one at top third from left is Creedence Gold, not their best compilation but it does have the long versions of I Heard It Through The Grapevine and Suzi Q on it.

On the health front, my tongue is a whole lot better, speech slightly better though I still sound like a lisping pansy, and one tooth snapped off on my right side. All teeth and gums were weakened by radiotherapy and I ain’t got many teeth left now. This effectively means I can only half-heartedly chew food on my left side – which is where a big chunk of my tongue is missing. So not much fun. I’m going to make dental appointment at Guys and ask if I can maybe have some partial dentures cos I’m sick of porridge and mashed potato.

My tongue is no longer painful but I keep getting sensations and of course I keep thinking another cancer tumour might have started growing. But can feel no lumps and no pain so I dunno – head games. Seeing speech therapist Thursday week and she said she will make appointment with ENT (Ear Nose & Throat) for a checkup on my surgery. I should have had that appointment 2 or 3 weeks ago but they didn’t contact me. Admin at Guys seems to have gone to pot.

Gone to pot – ha ha! If I hadn’t started smoking that bloody Cannarbiss Raisins, then I probably wouldn’t have managed to get cancer (the pot led to smoking, btw, before all you pro-druggies give me a verbal lashing ).

I have finished my job putting in a new sound system, I just have to go there tomorrow and fit programmed memory card to main amp with re-recorded class change pips mp2 files, the ones I had installed were too loud so I had to reduce volume. Audacity is a good piece of software folks

And then will concentrate on the half dozen or so little audio projects I have going.

I had put my disco system on Ebay for £1500 but no takers, there are too many people selling complete systems so I’m going to split the items and offer them separately.

Anybody wanna buy a coffin?

 

[Taffycat]

First of all, I'm really glad to hear your tongue is no longer painful, that's very good news. Have you thought that the sensations you're experiencing, might be part of the healing process? Sometimes, when a person suffers nerve-damage of some kind, they will feel various odd sensations as feeling starts to return. Just a thought.

Aww, sorry about your tooth I hope the dentists at Guys will be able to fix you up so that you can chomp on something a little more solid.

Ah yes, the dreaded Olympic disruptions.... fortunately, the goings-on in Cardiff don't bother us too much here. We'll be having some disruption, when the Tour of Britain Cycle Race comes through town though. That's going to mean road closures on the day (I believe it's a Friday this year) to say nothing of the hold-ups and expense caused by the Borough Council's decision to 'improve' and generally smarten-up some of the routes into town. But to be fair, there are one or two rather nice enhancements, which will be long lasting.

Your 'grumpy-old-git' persona made me chuckle. Being given unnecessary orders by jobsworthies irritates me too. Though totally different to your experience at the station, it reminded me of a certain supermarket chain that opened a new store in Cardiff. It's one of those pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap places. We called in one day, just to have a nosey... but oh, the staff! So rude. Youngsters on the checkout tills insisted on barking out orders to customers - most of whom seemed to be too timid to argue as they were unsmilingly told to: "Turn your trolley around! It's GOT to face the other way - at an angle! It's company policy!" Cue impatient sigh and pained looks from them, as elderly peeps at neighbouring tills, struggled to understand which way they were supposed to be facing, whilst executing a kind of three-point turn, to maneuver their trolleys into the 'required' position. Most probably wondered why they needed to go out in reverse. Quite a pointless exercise. Feeling increasingly miffed by the time it was my turn, I found myself saying: "Leave the trolley alone and just get on with it, shall we?" Shock-horror......... a customer prepared to lead their own revolt...(yes, a revolting customer!) I'm not normally rude to shop or service staff btw.

Well done on your record finds I see you have a Nancy Sinatra in there... way back I had one of her LPs (can't recall the name of it right now) but it also feature Lee Hazlewood. I was very fond of the album, (particularly the track "Summer Wine") but also rather disappointed, because it always skipped and had the most awful warp! It would almost make you seasick to watch it revolve lol.

Congrats on finishing your sound system job and good luck with your next audio projects.

Time I wasn't here.... we have to collect one cat with a very sore bottom from the vet's.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for reply TC, that album has Summer Wine on it with Lee Hazelwood on extra vocals.

I've suddenly developed a taste for albums that I wouldn't be seen dead with in my teens or younger years, have also recently bought an early Cher album and one by The Marmalade.

The sleeves are so tacky, displaying a naivety that was very much of the time but now seems terribly quaint and dated. I love it

I don't care, I'm having me's a nice nostalgic wallow

The album top right I picked up for a quid, I had that on my wanted list and used to own it back in '78, it's by a fella named Robert Johnson (no, not that one) and is sort of 'power pop'.

 

[bootneck02]

Strange how as one gets older your musical tastes change, I now am into the Rat Pack and easy listening, Electronica eg Vangellis , Jean-Michel Jarre, etc, Bluegrass & Country, World & Folk, Oh and film Score you know the big orchestral ones and some classical orchestral music. But as a young man would have sneered at that lot as not being cool and listened to predominantly Pop and rock., Elvis, Queen, Buddy Holly etc etc. I suppose that was because my Mother was a piano teacher and a professional classical pianist and Father was a amateur violinist and it was not cool as parents were always playing at home (and was embarrassing when I had friends home). I still listen to some of my favorite Rock & Pop but now enjoy a greater range of music that I did as a young lad.

 

[Taffycat]

I've since remembered which Nancy album I owned - it was "Movin' With Nancy." The tune and lyrics of "Summer Wine" remained in my mind throughout the day, after mentioning it. Another favourite track from that album is "Some Velvet Morning" which also featured Lee Hazlewood. It's still available, so think I might get the Mp3.

I can completely identify with the both of you regarding musical taste. Mine has also expanded over the years. Getting older kind of gives one "permission" to stray from the slightly narrow path some of us tend to follow as younger peeps.

When I was a teen, I was given an "Elizabethan" (that was its name, not its age,) 4-track, reel-to-reel tape recorder, which I absolutely loved! I could get all the current hits, thanks to regular Sunday afternoon sessions of taping Alan 'Fluff' Freeman's Top Twenty radio show... not arff. Radio DJs didn't tend to chatter over intros or outros, so it just needed a bit of patience to start and stop the recording, thus editing-out any chat. That old tape recorder (plus the pile of music tapes I compiled) was one of my most treasured possessions for years, lol.

At some point (when I was still at school) I also had a record player... but it was one of those box-shaped mono jobbies. Sometimes, I'd have to improvise and weight the arm with an eraser, just to coax the stylus to stay in contact with a record! Otherwise it would skip very annoyingly. Lol Not good.... needless to say, I didn't spend my pocket money on many records at that time. (After I married, my OH gave me a Marconiphone stereo, record-player/radio, which sounded awfully good... and it actually played albums sans an eraser!!)

As for enjoying a "nostalgic wallow" I'm all for that. I don't know about you, but it's very easy to feel like a 20-something again... well on the inside anyway, and as long as one isn't standing right next to a mirror! As for musical genres.... there is just so much to enjoy isn't there? Our collection is a bit of an eclectic mix, where "Muse" is rubbing shoulders with Scottish bagpipes; and jazz sax keeps company with Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers." If we like it, we listen to it is the motto here.

 

[exmoor]

Some good music their Mr Flopps.
Glad all is going ok after your Op.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Me helf:

Saw speech therapist yesterday and she was pleased with the way I'd progressed, my tongue has more movement than she would have expected at this stage and she heard that my speech had improved a great deal. In fact several people say my speech is a lot better now with only a few words coming out not as they should. So when I offered the view that I thought 'this is as good as it's gonna get I suppose' she agreed and I don't have to visit her anymore. She said it had been a pleasure to have me as a visitor and a patient and I replied that it hadn't exactly been unpleasant seeing her, she was well tasty, lol, something about short skirts, crossed legs, black tights and long black hair makes a guy sit up and pay attention

Today I saw the consultant. I explained my fears about the front of tongue sensations being the start of a tumour and he said that as the surgery was quite extreme it's probably still undergoing 'nerve shock' with nerve endings sending out odd signals all over my oral appendage. Same thing for the pins and needles I sometimes get as well, but he thought it may calm down with time.

He could feel no lumps in my tongue or any surrounding at-risk areas (lymph nodes and stuff) and his visual inspection told him there was nothing nasty going on and the surgery had healed 'remarkably well' and he was pleased with how quickly it had healed. And then he told me that the second area they had cut away under anaesthetic had showed no signs of cancer under biopsy so that as far as he was concerned at time of visit today I was cancer-free.

However, he did say that as the cancer had returned after five years it seemed I was prone to the disease so he wants to keep an eye on me and I will now have an appointment with him every two months. I still feel uncomfortable about the sensations at the front of my tongue but there again I'm a natural born worrier.

Not much fun living under this cloud but hey, there's lots more folk a damn site worse off than me so I try and keep a perspective. Also now try and make each day memorable, living for the minute, as it were.

And finally, whilst at hospital visited dental department, they are extremely busy but I should get an appointment in 2 to 3 weeks or sooner if there's a cancellation. I could go private but as a cancer patient at Guys Hospital I get free dental treatment, I'm not in pain so I'll wait, private dental treatment costs a small fortune.

My niece wants me to do the disco for her 30th Birthday on December 1st so I've said yes but she hasn't got back to me yet to confirm but I thought better to go out with a bang than a whimper. Will have to pay a mate to help and drive and hire a van or estate car but it will mean I'll enjoy meself and also get to meet all the ex's family for the evening, most of which I like a lot.

So, sale of disco equipment delayed if Rebecca confirms the booking.

As a coda to my sound system installation, forget what I said about Audacity being good software, when I reduced file amplitude with Audacity it wouldn't work with the TOA amplifiers. So I e-mailed the file to TOA and the guy there reduced it for me and e-mailed it back. He was of the opinion Audacity was rubbish and he used some software named 'Wave-o-saurus' to change the sound file. I programmed the memory card and returned to the school on Thursday morning - the day the kids started a new term. Inserted card, triggered pips in each area and...... they worked! Phew, was I ever relieved, talk about cutting it to the bone for last minute finish. And on Wednesday returned and fitted microphone signal diversionary switch so all completely finished now.

Off to Dulwich tomorrow morning to investigate one area loudspeakers not working in a large school there.

And on the gaming front have been playing lots of Dragon Age II, Skyrim Dawnguard and DIRT 2. Tried Codemasters F1 2012 demo today and imo it's good. Tried Sleeping Dogs demo also and didn't like that at all.

Still procastinating about whether to buy Guild Wars 2 or not.... we'll see.

 

[Anon_F]

Great to hear all is going ok, Tony.
And that your doing discos too.

 

[Taffycat]

Well I think your 'elf progress is deserving of a hearty congrats! It sounds like your Consultant and the Speech Therapist are both pleased with your recovery. The latter's appearance might have been a motivating factor for you to be "good" and do your exercises.... but sounds like it has paid-off. Hope you feel able to relax a little now after the shed-load of stress you've gone through this year.

Glad the 'Bootstomp toofies can be treated soon.

Your comment re private dental costs rang an enormous bell with me. We used to be treated by a certain dentist who was in a local NHS practice. He was really good and, when he moved-on to a larger practice in the city, we decided it was worth the extra journey, to continue being treated by him.

A few years down the line, most dentists around here, took the decision to go into private practice - ours included. He explained in some depth, that it would mean better care for his patients and recommended a dental insurance. It would cost about £14 or £15 per month (at that time) for the two of us. What he didn't explain, was exactly how often he would increase that sum. Greedy ****** hiked it up to an eye-watering £70 pm! Sheesh! As if that wasn't bad enough, he and his staff would bang-on about some 'quack remedies' they were always trying to sell. Crunch-time really came when I (apparently) needed root-canal work. For some reason he referred me on to "a colleague" who wanted to charge several hundred pounds for the priviledge! No way!

Anyhoo...long story short. We eventually found our current dentist. He is also in private practice, has state of the art equipment and premises... the only difference is, he isn't ripping us off. We get four check-ups and sessions with the hygienists per year (more than the other guy offered.) Our monthly payment is back to only £17, which covers the both of us. Oh, and I never did require that root canal work...! In fact, since being with our current dentist (it has been several years now...) it has made us realise how very rough the former one had become.

Imho finding a good dentist can be a bit of a minefield - you're probably wise to stick with the team at Guys. Sounds like you're in good hands there.

Good thing you still have your disco gear, sounds like the 30th Birthday event could be jolly good fun. Boogie on down bro.

Not trying to influence your procrastinations...(no really, I'm not...) but, did you see that Amazon are stocking GW2 again? Still £34.99 for the standard edition.
All the best and good health to you

 

[Anon_F]

Agree with you TC about dentists!
Mine built up a big 10k person practice offering NHS treatment and then 2 years ago switched to one the of dental plans on offer, she got £10 per punter signed up & prices from £20 -£50 a month, i still see her as an NHS punter, but if i had to pay i would go elsewhere. She spends most of the time chatting to her nurse and not to the person in the chair!!!

Ok moan over!!

 

[cirianz]

So glad to hear things are going so well And that our wishes of hot nurses (therapists included) did not go unheeded by the universe
Yeah, I've got a few horror stories of my own about dentists. My general recommendation... if you find a good one... stick it on your "things I would lose-gain if I moved house" type list.
And distractions... Oh the temptation... having just got to a place where both my computertime is no longer being regulated AND I have been loaned a windows computer, I was just thinking... hmmm... I wonder if GW is still around? I haven't played that in years!!!! Then bang in my inbox... coming soon GW2. So stuck in a place of inertia (and still unable to find the password for my wireless so I can hook the windows comp up online.) I haven't even tried to go and see if the original GW is still running (shame ) Mind you, having just got a Ps3 for Morgan's last xmas pressie (It took me this long to save up for it but he never once nagged) We have spent much of the last week playing Dead space And shooting sh*t out of each other on COD MW3 Oh, & he cruised through Assassins creed 2 in a couple of days... not bad for someone who can't read I'm just wondering if I'll ever get to watch a movie or the like again... I might need to start saving up for a second TV now

 

[crazylegs]

Glad to hear things are looking up Mr Flopp's

You were lucky with those pips then by the skin of your teeth by the sound of it..

Also glad the Disco got a reprieve, for now

 

[Taffycat]

Greetings and felicitations Sir Floppington.... or, if you prefer.... Wotcher, awright?

How are you getting on? It's been a while since the last eloquent outburst from the Greenwich Scribe, so hope you're still experiencing some improvements healthwise and, maybe by now, have had your dental appointment? If so, hope it went well for you.

Looking forward to your next blog-fix, toodles for now old bean

 

[cirianz]

churrr, wot shay sed!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Bugger, thought I got away with this...

Just got back from dentist, upper and lower impressions made for a coupla dentures, appointment to have two roots removed where two teeth snapped off made for early November and also at that appointment first step in denture construction.

When I was about 25 years old my weight levelled off at 11 stone and I've been that weight, steady, all my life, apart from once or twice I went up to 12 stones when working away from home, through landladies who insisted on feeding me 24/7 until I was about to go pop plus every evening spent down the pub and pie and chips on the way home.

Following my three ops this year I lost weight and am now 10 stones 4lbs and that is staying constant. This worries me. Perhaps I should eat more but as I'm getting so old and farty now something new to me has raised it's ugly head - indigestion. If I eat the wrong thing or maybe too much I now sometimes have to take some Gaviscon to help me get the food broken down and directed towards the apropiate channels

Getting old is not very nice

So, as a result I probably don't eat as much as I should. Oh well. I also drink less alcoholic drinks than I used to these days, not by concious effort, I just drink what I fancy and instead of a gallon of rotgut cider and half a bottle of brandy I now just consume three or four cans of draught Guinness and a glass or two of wine in a typical evening.

There are those who will say even that is too much but if we were to compare my intake to a past where many more noxious alcoholic beverages and assorted illegal drugs were consumed copiously, I'd say my current indulgence is moderate.

Games: Enjoying Starcraft II; Have just finished Alan Wake's American Nightmare and also finished the freebie remake of Half Life 1 - Black Mesa (which is very very good btw). Also been playing a lot of Dirt 2, I like that game. Considering getting Borderlands 2 but I irk at having to shell out thirty quid on Steam. It's 25 on Amazon, might have me some of that.

Other wants are Prototype 2 - 22 on Amazon and F1 2012 - 23 on Amazon. All those 3 are thirty quid each on Steam.

Eldest daughter moving back in on October 17th so have been busy making more storage space in her room, bought some IKEA stuff with big square cloth storage containers and have put some shelves up. Also moved a mains socket and aerial socket up higher for wall mounted TV and moved a double mains socket out from behind the wardrobe to a new backbox/socket so it can be used.

At this moment am varnishing wood and louvre doors for small (48" h x 24" w x 8" d) storage cupboard in hall, I'll post a pic when I've finished - exciting eh?

No work on at the moment and waiting for cheques to come in for work done and batting off suppliers demands for me to settle their invoices for goods purchased to carry out aforementioned work.

All in all - I'm alive, I breathe, I can walk and stuff, it could be worse. Hope y'all are good or if not good then exquisitely bad - have fun!

 

[Urmas]

... am now 10 stones 4lbs...

Unnn-gh... that would be... let's see now... based on what I've read, 14 (fourteen? heavy sigh...) pounds to a stone, thus:

10 x 6.350 kg + 4 x 1⁄14 x 6.350 kg ≈ 65 kg

"A stone of beef, in London, is the quantity of eight pounds; in Hertfordshire, twelve pounds; in Scotland sixteen pounds."

Urmas — vive le Système international d'unités!

 

[Anon_F]

Tony, if your getting the dental treatment for free don't worry.
As for taking gaviscon it could be stress related after you eat as you have had a tough year.
May be worth chatting to doc over it who can advise you on what's best to eat etc.
For me it's "The Feckit Family" dodgy digestion which we all get at times.
And sometimes I'm swigging from gaviscon double strength, especially after a stressful day!

I have a lot of respect for you &, you have had a tough 18 months but still have your sense of humour in tact. Oh and is it to early to mention the event happing at the end of December yet!!

 

[floppybootstomp]

14 pounds to a stone means I am 144lbs nekkid. Or 65.3 kilograms.

Woss all this metric palaver then? Loadda codswallop innit?

Gimme Pounds, stones, ounces, miles, furlongs, yards, inches, pints, gallons, size 8 shoe, miles-per-hour, farenheit, acres, pie n mash, jellied eels, fish n chips and roast beef and yorkshire pud - alright!

Not to mention groats, chains and twelve pennies to a shilling

Us poor Britishers have had all we learnt as pint sizers turned on it's head by all them garlic munchers across the channel. Tis a crying shame I tell you sir.

Could be worse, did you know a dong is a unit of length in Vietnam? The mind boggles

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thankee Mr Feckit