Outpatient
I was in a bad mood when I arrived at the hospital for my three monthly check up. I'd had a row this morning and had to leave it unresolved. The friendly nurse invited me in to the cubicle and asked me to undress.
"Are you all alone today?" she said - as if to rub it in.
"I certainly am". I said.
The registrar looked my body up and down. He fixed on a large mole on my stomach. It had a slight dark patch in it.
"This will be a little cold" he said, as he rubbed gel on the end of his magnifier.
After a while he said he was sure it was OK but he'd like the consultant to have a look just to be sure. He would also send a photographer to record it.
As I waited for the consultant the friendly nurse got me to fill in a form giving permission for the the photo be be used in various places. (My hopes for a Hello Magazine deal were in vain).
"Do they sometimes change and stay OK?" I pleaded.
"They do - she said - but if Dr D has any suspicions he tends to just remove them.
"Oh!", I said, the blood draining form my body. I started to go through all the ramifications of being cut open again - probably here and now. Cancelling arrangements, sick leave, pain, discomfort...
Dr D came in and shook my hand. He asked how I was.
"Grumpy" I said - I'm worried you're going to cut me again.
He smiled and got out his magnifier.
"I think its OK", he said. "We'll take some pictures and have a look again in three months."

Back Up
Yesterday my computer broke. When you turn it on it just shows the makers logo. It doesn't boot up at all. I started feeling very panicky that I may have lost all my photos. After fiddling a bit I phoned the help-line (I am covered). After making me fiddle a bit, a nice sounding man decided that my motherboard needed replacing. They will have to order one which will take about a week. If this is the case my data will be OK.

I have been thinking about backing up my data recently - but there is a lot and I don't have an easy way of doing it. In my panic, I started thinking about the irony of my computer dying with all my photos in the week that I have been thinking of backing them up. Then I rememebered that I don't believe in fate and that its just a coincidence. Coincidentally on the same afternoon I recieved an email from a friend saying her pc was in trouble and asking for advice on backing up.

This morning I am using the pc of a friend. I stayed in his house last night. At home I have set up my sons rather crappy pc in the space where mine lived. It is OK for internet.

Change of Direction
"I'm thinking of giving up Neighbours", he said over a pint of Easton Ale.
"Oh!" I said, sipping my Guinness.
"Yeah!", he said, "Its been rubbish over the last week."

Friends
It appears that I may have offended someone by a comment I made on my piece about facebook (June 9th). The sentence "So - if any of my real friends would like to join me in this experiment of cyber friendship - send me an email and I'll send you an invite" - made one of my friends on facebook thing that I didn't consider "facebook friends" to be real friends. What I meant was to invite any other frineds who I actually know in my life to become facebook friends also. I expect that some people who read my blog don't know me at all and can't email me as they don't have my email address. I wasn't talking to you - you know who you are ( but not who I am).
All the poeple I have as facebook friends are real friends. I don't have any of the other sort because I wouldn't let them be my friends (either real or imagined).

I hope this is clear.

Important Safety Tip

Don't light a chimenea under a gazebo - or it might end up like this.

Parallel Process
Two things in my life are getting thinner. Neither of them is my waistline. One of them is the grass on my lawn. Over the last few weeks I'm beginning to get some success with re-seeding it. The second is the hair on my head. I cannot re-seed that. It is just receding.

Facebook
I joined Facebook this week. (http://www.facebook.com/). I was partly persuaded to to so by a colleague at work and partly by a radio article a heard a few weeks ago about 2 women who were addicted to it (one in favour, one against.) I aslo read about it the paper and heard my son mention it. Basically I was curious so I am giving it a go. Its a bit of a cross between a blog, instant messaging services like msn, myspace and friends re-united.

What I find strange is that people tend to use their real names and photos. They identify themselves by naming their workplaces and former schools, colleges etc. This goes against the grain a bit so I have started cautiously. I have my name and photo and city of residence but that is all. Initially the only people who can see this are the people you invite or accept as friends - but when you have someone as a friend you can see all thier friends too. (Presumably this is the same for you. Also you can join groups either based on interest or just where you live. If you post on any of these pages - anyone in this group can access your profile.

This makes me want to keep it pretty superficial.

The sorts of things pople put on their pages are interests, history and comments about what they are doing today - these are called status updates e.g. 10.47 baruch was writing his blog. You can also give friends a "poke" - letting them know you have looked at their page.

I'm not sure what the point is at present but I'm doing it for four reasons:-
1. I hate being left out of things and this is happening in a big way
2. I like fiddling around with my computer and checking to see if anything has changed a few times a day.
3. Facebook seems to be dominated by the young - and I'm sure that those of us who are longer in the tooth can add something to the flavour of this media.
4. Its another type of communication - like text, email, blog which allows me to communicate when I feel like it.

So - if any of my real friends would like to join me in this experiment of cyber friendship - send me an email and I'll send you an invite.

The Writing...

I went to a song writing workshop at the Folk House on saturday. In the toilet someone had changed a no smoking sign to "Thankyou for Woking". In pen underneath was written (and Farnham) which believe is also in Surrey.

Another (or possibly the same) witty person had similarly defaced a piece of graffiti declaring Jesus to be Lord - by adding the word "Voldemort"

I'm not aware which county Lord Voldemort is from.

Snaps

When I can't think of anything clever or witty to write about I sometimes keep you posted with a few pictorial snapshops of my thoroughly fascinating life. I'm quite cautious to keep these anonymous so I've been trawling through last months photos for pictures without people. Earlier in May in went to Clevedon. Here is a shot of the pier.

Clevedon is the same place where you can get a rather good vegetarian breakfast. (See earlier posting).

Last weekend I stayed in the small holding owned by a friend in rural west wales. This is his compost toilet. It was very comfortable. If you are new to compost toilets, wikipedia gives a more than adequate introduction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet

After the weekend I stayed with a friend in Pembrokeshire. I got a take away Curry from a boat.

On the beach we encountered a dead cyberman.

We also came across an injured Dalek (It is little known that Daleks use cellotape to repair their injuries.

Finally on wednesday I ended up in the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff Bay. This is a man who has been swallowed by a dalek OR a dalek who has swallowed a man. I'm not quite sure.