Be Excellent To Each Other

Not enough RC buggies!

With 'here' presumably being the year 2005, judging from the quality of that picture.

Just back from follow up appointment at hospital. Xrayed, ECGed and other proddings all fucking good. They're really pleased with the speed and extent of my recovery. As am I.

Rave. On.

You have a strange idea of horrible.

Mowing the lawn would get annoying, but agree, it's pretty lovely.

It's a long thin garden that goes uphill abnd is overlooked by next door - you couldn't play football on it or anything, so it's not a massive amount of use to the kids. There's also no space to build a garage. The location is a bit iffy as well.

Ooh that's lovely! I'm looking at houses just now and I think I want modern over cute and quaint with character.

I'm not posting a link to the house we're buying now, you awful Laurence Llweyllen Bowen types.

You'll be back to work in no time. Congratulations!

Oh, I totally get that there may be better or more suitable houses, but it's far from abysmal.

No idea with the camera! Very odd!

It's the same one I've taken all my pics with lately...

I will admit I couldn't see a thing when I took it the sun is brutal today..

That's my back yard though. The flat is about 80ft back off the beach. Winter is fun, the windows rattle like mad and the wind howls.

Amazing place to live though, and my doctors are all a two minute walk so ideal..

Zardy - good stuff man. Chuffed you're mending well

My new motor came today might run the beater later

Are you taking the Demonic Sword with you, Kissy?

Hell yes! I'm not leaving that behind. It'll only follow me anyway.

Do you have a cool scar...? Did they crack your chest like what they do on the telly? Or did they go up your leg, which whilst impressive, is way fewer cool. I hit my hand with a hammer yesterday and it's sore as fuck, it kept me awake a bit last night, but there's no bruise! Just a slightly swollen lump. So I totally know how annoying unimpressive post-trauma lack of scars can be, man.

Glad you're on the mend I can't even imagine how daunting an experience it all must've been for you and your family. And Mrs. Zardoz didn't even have to kill you to get her mortgage paid, bonus!

The 'through the leg' or wrist is for stents (had two of those in through my wrist on the artery that caused my heart attack). Yeah I have a scar down my sternum where they went in, and one down my left calf where they took a vein from. One of the tests today was pressing my sternum as I moved my head left and right to see if it had settled back after they cracked it open.

I was freaking out before I went in, then oddly on autopilot the day I went in. Very glad it's been done now, getting well looked after, thanks.

Glad you are on the mend, little dude.

Yesterday I took part in a world record attempt for busking. Some friends busked for 24 hours and 30 minutes to break the world record.... And they did it!

I played with them for a few hours until about 1 in the morning.

that is cool

Yeah kudos for that.

how much did they make?

Not sure yet as the buckets were emptied during the day. They were raising money for the YMCA but I think they did alright. At one point, the night shift staff from Poundland had a whip round and donated a shit load!

Spent an hour down the bottom of the garden last night, cleaning up and was joined by my son (2)

He loved it, digging holes and helping me put unwanted plant pots into bins.

My wife wasn't pleased as he was covered in soil and needed a bath she hadn't planed on before bed

I was telling him how much he had helped his dad and he was so happy and proud, has to be in my top 10 best ever kid moments to date

Kids should get muddy, they clean quite well...

We're having our French doors in today - whoop! Builder is already here knocking the wall out.

This is a euphemism, right?

Fortunately not!!

"Builder smashes barrier to create new rear entrance for Jazzy"

Excellent news, Zardoz.

That reads like it's excellent news that I'm getting a new rear entrance for Zardoz!

Not excellent news for you.

Today I will be banking a cheque for almost £600 for a PPI claim from a Black Horse car loan that goes back about 10 years.

I wrote one single letter about 5 years ago and they replied saying "nah" but then they wrote again recently and said "Yeah we shouldn't have done said that thing - have cash"

So if you did ever get any out then it's still worth pursuing and definitely in a less half arsed manner than I did.

I have to admit I'm still a bit baffled by all this. I don't blame anyone at all for taking the refunds but I had loans years ago and always refused the PPI on the basis that I didn't need it, even when they were quite persistent. Same as extended warranties or any other crap people try and sell me that I don't need.

I never bothered with PPI either, so I've got no surprise windfalls coming my way. I just wish everyone else would hurry up and get theirs done so the PPI phone calls will stop.

It's brightened my Monday.

I can drive again tomorrow!

Excellent news. That came around quickly.

Great news, Z!

Your recovery seems to be taking place at an amazing pace. X

<adds notes to "Reasons to suspect Zardoz is not human" archive>

Presumably number one is "His Avatar"?

Who said you could drive in the first place

If you look at it, he steals your Nintendo stars.

Looking at my forecast accuracy numbers on one account, I am up 5% for the year on last year (when someone else had the account) and 10% in the past six months on last year's total number. You can see this step change on a graph, so I have included this on my appraisal form and the real world benefits this brings. The other account is pretty static, though, but I am yet to move my methods over to that one as you need a control. I shall wait and see what this brings.....

Flying to Beirut this evening for a friend's wedding, really excited to go, never been there before (and it's the first break from work for an absolute age).

Yay!

Some of the providers built them into the loans so it wasn't completely visible to the customer. Or they worded it so it made it sound like it was mandatory. Some real shady nonsense.

I've used what I consider to be the best mouse ever made (The MS Trackball Explorer) for the last 10 years

MS Stopped making them some years ago and you can see from the link below people want £500 or more for them these days.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-D68-0 ... B00004YV5X

To watch my son (2) develop is a joy, he loves to watch stuff on YouTube and had started to try and start clips by using the trackball when shouting for me to come into my own PC room 20 times didn't work!!

Today my wife told him no Youtube and he chucked my Trackball on the floor, breaking the right click button in the process

I was gutted, until I found another one in one of my draws that I think I used at work then stopped doing so for some reason

So hopefully another 10 years of trackball goodness now, although I suspect I will be back in the same situation by the end of the month!

Had my hospital review today. All is really well. Breech baby is no longer breech (or never was - it's hard to be sure but the consultant thinks the midwife has mistaken baby's bony bottom for his head (or, as he said, baby has two heads), so he took us for a scan to be sure and right enough he is head down. Ah, much relief! All other tests and measurements are good.

That's not the Yay, though. The Yay is that our consultant's name was Dr Pepper.

Also, he was tall, tanned, young and rugged, and charming. Just like my husband, who is some of those things. Like, at least one. Maybe up to three.

Brilliant news. When's the due date Mimi?

10th September, which both seems really soon and aaaaaages away!

I guess soon, because I guess you are never really ready, but also ages away because more than anything I really, really want to meet him.

Not that I want him to come early. Or at least not until September 1st Because, yes, I am already thinking abut school year admissions

Also, Dr Pepper!

We were a bit confused as to which waiting area he had directed us to after the consultation. I said to Russell that we had 'so misunderstood'. He didn't laugh. I don't even think he got the joke. It was the most disappointing moment of my year.