Proper Photos

SWMBO and Monster took Leah to have her first "proper" photos on Saturday, Pixie Photos had an offer where you got a free 12" * 10" photo. They obviously know what they're doing as the "free photo" turned into £110 worth of more photos, worth every penny I'd say, Wwe had them taken of her in her christening gown - Bless. Service is excellent, we recieved the photos today and here they are not copied, scanned in or anything that may seem illegal.

Happy Halloween

I even got to carve my very first pumpkin, what do you think, now it's time to scare some children...

iPhone UK
The iPhone is coming to the UK on November 9th.

Do I want one yet? - nope, I'm still managing to resist temptation especially as the pricing and tariffs have been announced.

Firstly, you can only supposedly get the phone on the O2 network (I'm on Orange), you have to pay £269 for the phone itself (8Gb) model, and then you're robbed every month with the tariff.

£35 per month gets you 200 minutes and 200 texts
£45 per month gets you 600 minutes and 500 texts
£55 per months gets you 1200 minutes and 500 texts

I currently pay £25 per month and get 500 minutes and 500 texts. and SWMBO pays £35 for 500 minutes and unlimited texts.

So not only are you having to pay over the odds for the privilege of owning an iPhone, there's a premium each month for using it. The tariff does come with an unlimited data allowance although the iPhone isn't a 3G device.

&

I'd rather go for the 160Gb Video iPod (now known as the "Classic") for £229.00 and get a Smartphone on a free upgrade. The iTouch is only let down by the hard drive size (8 or 16Gb).

Wow - Ben ze Kneezeez

My 33rd Birthday came and went without too much trauma, we went to Matlock for the day (well a couple of hours), and SWMBO cooked tea, she does the meanest fry-ups known to man. I'm sure she is destined to work in a greasy spoon cafe one day.

To round off this week, I had my manipulation yesterday and to be honest, I was more nervous about this than anything else I have been through with my knee. I guess this was because this basically HAS TO WORK...

I was advised to be at the hospital for 7.00am as my manipulation was scheduled for 7.45am.

I got there dead on 7.00, and was led straight to my room, gowned up etc. The anaesthetist came to see me to ask about my choice of anaesthetic (Spinal or General) - I chose to be asleep, although I thought the noise of the cracking may be very therapeutic, it would probably make
me pass out.

The surgeon then came to see me to explain the procedure. I was in theatre by 8.00am and awake by 9.00am.

Result.
The surgeon came back to advise the manipulation was a success and they managed to break all of the scar tissue, they broke scarring in both flexion (bending) and extension (straightening), there was a hell of lot or scarring therefore a lot of cracking - I am kind of gutted I didn't get to hear it, but glad too. My heel managed to touch my arse which means a bend of 140 degrees as opposed to 90 before.

I was then put on a CPM machine and had physio, although I was told I would be able to come home , I decided it would be best alround if I stayed in, as NO-ONE, especially SWMBO would be able to move my knee as much as the physio could. I stayed on the CPM machine overnight, the strange thing was, although I couldn't feel my leg due to anaesthics and the nerve block in my leg, I could still feel the pain in my knee and it hurt like hell.

I had a fantastic breakfast this morning followed by more physio and came home at 11.00am.

I now have a lot of exercises to do over the weekend before another visit to the physio on Monday, but already feel a lot better and can bend my knee more than I have been able to do for almost 5 months, therefore the start of my recovery and no more limping,

I can't wait to get this thing over and done with. to say it's dragged on a bit is an understatement

Links
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Well that was a weekend (or should that be "What a bag of sh*te")

If Wednedsdays diabolical effort of a football match between England and Russia wasn't bad enough, we also managed to fail at even more sport over the weekend,
firstly England were seemingly robbed at the Rugby World Cup Final over a was it/wasn't it try, and today Lewis Hamilton failed to end the weekend on a high by winning the F1 World championship*.

Still my baby had a wonderful Christening and had lots of photos taken thanks to Uncle Stuart "Trez".

Cheers for taking the video and the photos Stu, I have told everyone they can purchase copies for £4.95 each...

All in all a rubbish week for English sport, but fantastic weekend for me and SWMBO

* it appears that Lewis Hamilton might actually win the championship as BMW Sauber and Williams are being investigates for irregularities ... We'll see but I'm not holding out much hope.

Come on England, Come on Lewis, Come on Vicar & Minister

What a weekend it's set to be, England v South Africa in the world cup Rugby final on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton going for world championship status in the Formula 1 on Sunday.
Me... I have a wedding to go to on Saturday which will hopefully have a TV somewehere. (Although I'm feeling a bit ill at the moment and may not be able to attend :-) )
On Sunday we are baptising Leah so I can't really cry off from that, although I might try and rush the mininster through the service, starts at 2.30 and we really should be done by 4.00 (race starts at 5.00).

I could record them but doubt I'd be able to stay away from TVs, radios and people for long enough to avoid finding out the results.

Come on...

The Return of the Knee

Today was my appointment with the consultant to check on the progress of my physiotherapy to get my knee back to its full ROM.

Although I already knew this, I am going to have to go into hospital again to have my knee Manipulated, this is called MUA (Manipulation under Anaesthetic).

The process is quite straight forward, either a spinal or general anaesthetic the surgeon then manipulates your knee by bending and moving it around, that's it, nothing more, nothing less.

A couple of days in hospital is then followed by intense physiotherapy in order to ensure the knee remains fully mobile.

Although this is something I was completely against at first, I realise I need to give in and have it done, at the moment I can only move my knee between 5 and 100 degrees, my other knee moves between -5 to 140 degress, this means I am unable to walk properly, run, kneel down etc, as you can imagine, these things affect me every day.

The longer I leave the operation, the more chance it wont be successful, by manuipulating my knee, the scar tissue simply breaks and allows for the movement to return, over time this tissue begins to get harder and has been described to get as hard as concrete.

I just can't wait for this to all be over... I have never been so desparate to get to the gym or get on my bike, now it's in my interest that I do in order to build muscles back up in my legs and therefore avoid any further problems with my knees.

Sonys' New Bravia Advert

This time feature "ickle" bunnies made from every kids dream toy and every parents nightmare.... PLAY-DOH (have you ever tried getting it out of the carpet).


Doesn't make me want a new TV, but good advert anyway.

Back in Blighty
.
Arrived back yesterday to not so hot weather, a wait for a bus to take us to the airpark followed by a 45 minute drive and we were home (2.30am).

What a fantastic holiday, it was completely different to the usual holidays previously with both the lads and SWMBO, although it wasn't that much of a holiday for SWMBO as she stayed in the shade for a lot of the time feeding Leah, more of a change of scenery.

The In-Laws were great though, taking Leah for walks when she needed to sleep, babysitting while we got ready and generally giving us some together time so thanks for that.

I did manage 1 lads night though on Sunday, and boy did I regret it the day after, out drinking till 5.30am, unable to finish my breakfast the next day and generally feeling shit for the whole of the day. Great night though.....
My knee managed to behave, I managed to walk 2-3 miles a day without too much pain, although stupidly wore a pair of flip-flops for a couple of days, this was stupid as my knee gave way due to the extra work it was having to do to keep the flip-flops on.

The flight home played hell with my knee, as it was only 4 hours I decided I'd be ok.

So back to reality and Physio told me that the usual holiday time has taken me a step back, not only do I need to do extra work, but its's highly likely I'm going for manipulation sometime soon.

I can go back to work on Monday and have a rest....