An Overdue Catch Up

So, Yes how are we all? Its been a lonnng Time since i blogged here, so thought it was time for a catch up! At lot has happened, so here goes.

First, its been nearly 2 years since i had my last lump of Chemo and I'm still here. So that's a good start. I now have to go to Leeds every 6 months for blood tests and a chat but things are looking good at the moment. I wont lie it was a hard year when they were pumping me full of that evil stuff but I've come through the other side and its made me stronger.

Next, about a year and a half ago we moved from Huddersfield to a small town just outside Doncaster called Thorne. We all love it here and all agree its the best move we have every made. The kids a settled in school, Shell is working and I'm volunteering at a local community radio station which i love.

We are also expecting another baby. After being told that i would never be able to have kids again after having chemo it was a bit of a shock, but a pleasant one. Its a boy and he is due on 15th of September. Other family news is that I'm now back in touch with my mum and dad. After a long 10 years and over something stupid on my side we are getting to know each other again, which is fantastic. I missed them both and they are both spoiling the kids rotten. We go to see them when we can mainly in the school holidays. And last but not least on the family front, me and shell got married in April. It was a nice quiet wedding with a few people. Just what we wanted.

Anything else????

Oh yeah! Ive started playing in a brass band again. It must be a good 15 years since i last blew an instrument, so it was a big choice going back to it. But one morning i woke up with a tune in my head and that was that. Also to complicate things I've swapped from playing Bb Bass to Eb bass, its a little smaller and i enjoy playing it. Its a small concert band not to far away from here. They are all a cracking bunch of people and have got my band mojo back. Will i miss the contesting side of it? I don't know yet. If i do, there are a few other bands around here that contest to join, but don't think i will.

Last of all. Darts. Darts is taking over my life. Its taken over the whole family in fact! We watch, we play and we live Darts. I write another blog about darts, just wish someone would pick it up and pay me to do it, that would be a dream. It takes up a lot of my time, along with the social media that goes with it. We also go to a lot of exhibitions all over the country, which we all enjoy.

So i think that's about it. I cant think of anything else to tell you or write about.

Thanks for reading!

Wicked in London town

This weekend was much needed for both of us for 2 reasons :

1. After the year we've had with my Cancer.
2. We have never had a weekend away in the 6 years we have been together.

So on the Friday morning we packed the kids off to school and the whirlwind off to relatives, and rushed to the train station to catch our train. It was pretty UN-eventful on the way down, and got in to Kings cross for 2pm. this was Shelley's first time in London, and think it was a bit of a shock to her system. We hit the tube, and the crowds hit us. But we battled through and got to Green Park near our hotel.

Ah, our hotel. Well it was the Mayfair ( yeah i know bullshit!), but honestly it was. We checked in and went to look at the room, all i can say is, is WOW! The bed was huge, the bathroom was a wet room, and we got Strawberries dipped in Chocolate.

We unpacked and went for a walk. Well i say walk, it was more of a barging contest. We barged along Piccadilly to where the neon lights are, got something to eat, then barged back to get ready for the show.

The show was the reason for coming down to London, and it didn't let us down. It was fantastic! The whole cast were brilliant, but Rachel Tucker who plays Elphaba stole the show for me. Her voice was amazing, and filled the whole theatre. So if anyone is thinking what show should i go and see, i highly recommend Wicked. We made our way back to the hotel and said we would go to the bar for a couple before bed. I ordered a Jack Daniels and coke and a Bacardi and coke..... £19.55!! i nearly fainted.

Saturday we got up and were out of the hotel for 10am. We made our way to Oxford Circus where we had arranged to meet a friend. We has a wonder round some of the shops, and got some bits and bobs. We spent a lovely hour with our friend, having and good chat and coffee. Then we made our way to Stamford Bridge and the Chelsea Mega-store to get some more bits, and because i hadn't been for a few years. We got back to the hotel dumped the stuff, then headed back out again to meet another very good friend.

He took us to a proper pub, with proper pub prices. We had a couple of pints and the conversation flowed. We talked about everything, and to be honest I've not laughed like that for years! Its has though we had been best friends forever. We left the pub and walked to Trafalgar square to see the Christmas tree, it was stunning.

We walked back, window shopping in some of the oldest and most expensive shops in the city. Till we come to a well known restaurant, where after a bit of arm twisting we were taken to eat. The food was fantastic, and so was the wine. The 3 of us really enjoyed ourselves, and after a couple of hours called it a night and went back to our hotels.

The Sunday started with a hangover for me, but i struggled on and caught the train back from Euston to home. We sat down, got comfy. Then this woman sat in front of us. You know the one who has the volume up full on her phone and beeps when she types anything. Well, about half way home she decided to go and get a coffee. Nothing wrong in that i here you say? It was the walking past us and her seat 6 times before me pointing it out, was an absolute screamer!

So that's that! We enjoyed our weekend in London, and the show was out of this world.
I wonder how long it will be till the next one.

I would just like to say a very big thank you to one person (who shall remain nameless), for making the weekend possible. You are a true friend to both of us xx

Anyway thanks for reading,

Offski.

The Holibobs

Hello, yes i know its been ages.
I'm sorry!

Anyway, we have just come back from a week away in the Lake district. and to be honest it was one of the best I've had. Not only was it the first time Shelley had been there, but also the kids. Ive been a few times and fell in love with the place instantly, i think its the fresh air and the amazing scenery that got me.

I booked a cottage through Keswick Cottages, a lovely 3 bed right in the middle of Keswick village. Me and Shell had the attic room, and the view's from the front and back windows, well have a look.....

Front

We were very lucky with the weather, has it was the end of October. We had one bad day, so we had a games day. Keswick has a brilliant local market every Thursday and Saturday, so eating fresh produce everyday was what we all needed. We visited the Pencil museum which the kids loved, and they got some free bits for completing the quiz. Then in the afternoon we went to the Puzzling Place, which is an optical illusions place. It was interesting, but not really worth what we paid to get in. On the Monday we went to a place called Reghed, basically a craft shop complex built into the side of a hill. The indoor play Area went down well.

Tuesday was a very good day. We went to Grizedale Forest, not far from lake Coniston. The place was awesome and a walkers dream, with walks of all levels. Littered around the walks were sculptures of all shapes and sizes and some were hidden, so the boys enjoyed searching for them.

One of the kids!

The weather was fantastic, and we spent most of the day there. Then when we got back to the cottage, the view that greeted us from our bedroom window, well...

We made the most of our last day on Friday, and drove over to Maryport. They have an aquarium of the Lakes, really good and plenty to do and look at. Then finished the day off visiting a Twitter friend, couldn't of asked for a more perfect way to finish.

So there you go, you don't have to be a walker to get the best out of the Lake District, and the cottage was lovely and well worth the £400 we paid for it. I would recommend it to anyone, ive come back all relaxed after the crap year weve had. And just so you know were already planning to go back.

Next stop London and Wicked the musical!!

Thanks for reading

Offski

5/9/2011

Hello.
Yes i know, why so long! Well ive had a bit on, and not had much to blog about.

So after 6 long months, last Wednesday i had my last chemo. Hopefully that's it now, but with my luck i will probably be back again.

For those who have read from the beginning, you know how hard its been for all of us. What with my sickness and extremely bad mood swings, I've been a nightmare.
Its time to put all that behind us now. I have to go back in a month for check up, then sometime in November i have to go for another CT scan and bone marrow.

I don't mind the CT scan, apart from the friggin needles. Its the bone marrow Im not keen on. They did one when i went in for my bi-op, but i was asleep. I hope there planning on putting me to sleep again, or we could have problems!

So now the battle begins to get my fitness back. I've lost the bit of weight i needed to, just need to build my stamina back up and make some muscles. I've never been a bodybuilder sort of person, and i never want to be. Would just like to get in a good condition. Plus Shelley said she wants 'doing against a wall', whatever that means ;-).

I have also been neglecting Twitter and Google+, i will be putting that right as soon as possible. Be warned!

So that's it. Can't think of anything else to say. This must be 1of the worst blog ever. Im sorry.

Thanks for reading

Offski.

10/08/2011

England seems to be going to the dogs at the moment, and yes i said England because I've not heard anything about the rest of the country.

Im not going to call them riots, cos lets face it there not. Its young thugs out to get a free shop!

Anyway, last night i was just about to go to bed at 11pm. I did a search for my home town on twitter timeline, to see hundreds of tweets saying there were riots!
I later found out it was untrue, Asda had had its windows smashed and a few firefighters had been attacked.

But some sick people on twitter thought it was funny to stir the pot. Making up tweets, and even making up retweets from celebs. This was one :

RT @piersmorgan its all kicking off in huddersfield, riots galore!

But if you clicked on piers name and looked at his timeline, he hadn't tweeted for 3 hours? And why would he say about us anyway. So it appears some morons still have a lot of time on there hands, its sick and twitter at its worst.

Also i realised my cousin Dean might be out in the frontline because he's a firefighter for greater Manchester, just waiting for a reply to see if he's ok.

With all this craziness going on, things are happening that in normal circumstances wouldn't.
Communities standing up for themselves, and even rival football supporters  (Birmingham and aston villa) joining together to protect buildings and fight back. If anything is going to kick off at the weekend, then they better watch out, cos football fans won't take it they will fight back.
I know for a fact that if the police wanted me to stand with them, i would. My body maybe a bit knackered at the moment but i can still protect my family.

I hope you all stay safe over the unrest, and keep in touch.

Thanks for reading

Offski

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Google+

Google+ has been creating a bit of a storm on Twitter for a couple of weeks now. Last week I registered, only to be told I will receive an email when a space was free !?!

On Monday, I was sent an invite. So I followed the prompt and signed in with my Gmail/hotmail account. It was that easy !
Google+ is a cross between Twitter and Facebook with a little bit of MySpace Thrown in.

After spending a day on there, I've found out you can @ people like Twitter, and you get more than 140 characters, which for me was always a bugbear on Twitter.

Also like Facebook you can add Pictures, Video and there's a Chat service. And with the advantage of being able to add your own links to things like your Blog, and other social network sites, in my eyes it's set up for anyone that likes to share Media.

So it's ideal for Bloggers, musicians or artists. It allows you to show all your talents, safely.

When you start to invite people, you can put them in 'circles'. I think This is the key to Google+ working. Depending on what 'circle' you put someone in, allows them to see certain things. It's like a security level.
IE : someone in your family circle can see everything you put up and profile information. Where as the person in your following circle can only see the basic info you want them to.
I hope that's sounds how I was ment to write it !

Anyway, it's definitely worth a look !
If you want an invite, give me a shout.

Thanks fir reading

Offski.


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