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

?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

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.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Funhouse part2

Hello again. This is part2, the downstairs of the house.

Downstairs was a self-contained 2 bed flat, often called the dungeon for good reason. The 2 residents that lived here were my favourite, but they had there problems.

N was a 6ft 5 caribbean male and was built like a brick shit house. He was the house gardener, which he loved. He had challenging behaviour, but had been placed in the house due to him repeat offending. let's just say he had a thing for the ladies, and had been caught many times doing bad stuff.
His police record was a book, and very disturbing. He had to have 24 hour male support, every day of the year. So I spent most of my time with him. Under no circumstance was he to be left alone with any female. To let you know how sneaky he was, he broke into a nurses changing room at the hospital, hid in a store cupboard unscrewed the light bulb and watched them !


M had severe Autism and schizophrenia. To look at him, he wouldn't say boo to a goose. He lived upstairs when he first moved in, until one night he snapped. He destroyed most of upstairs and hurt 2 staff.
After that he was moved downstairs. He kicked off many, many times. The place became a bomb site. Broken cupboards, holes in Walls and safety glass. Before he had a 'moment', he would run round saying 'broken' or 'dangerous'. When we heard them words it was time to batten down the hatches. I've been beaten several times by him, and because of N the males had todo sleep overs downstairs, so we got the night time moments too.
I never hated or blamed him because it wasn't him, it was the 'other' person. He could spin on one leg for ages without stopping.


I worked there for nearly 3 years, and with hard work I made it upto team leader. But taking the team job was a mistake. The other TL's were women, and always made out it was a hard job. Agreed the handing out of medication was very difficult, but the running of a shift was piss easy ! And when the manager found out I was doing the TL job, then helping with residents, she wanted to know why the others weren't doing it. So I became a target, they often tried to pick faults and make up stupid stuff. There nickname was the witches of eastwick, very apt I thought !

I did the team leading for 6 months, then lumps started to appear and I was getting fed up of the hassle. So me and shell swapped, and she went back to work, while I looked after the Whirlwind.

So why the Funhouse ?
Well has P¡Nks lyrics say :

This used to be a funhouse,
But now it's full of evil clowns.
It's time to start the countdown,
I'm gonna burn it down down down.

The evil clowns being the staff !

Hope this explains a little bit about what I did.

Thanks for reading.

Offski.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Funhouse part1

Has I mentioned in a previous blog, I had worked at a residential house for Adults with challenging behaviour and Autism.

Having never done anything like this for a job before, it was one hell of a shock.

When I started there, the house was just getting started. Out of 13 rooms, only 7 had residents in them, these were the ones I worked with the most. The house was split in 2, upstairs is where 5 of them lived.
I will use the first letter instead of names.

M was a 50 year old woman, who didn't talk much. But when she got upset, which was a lot with these residents, she used to slap herself in the face. When I say slap, I mean SLAP. You could hear her anywhere in the house. She slapped herself so hard, that over the years both her eyes were ruined. The men were only allowed to support her in the afternoons, due to personal care. But I always got a 'thank you man' in a deep voice, at the end of the day.


K was a 23 year old man. He couldn't talk, felt no pain and ate and drank anything, and I mean anything (Picka), including himself, hands mainly. He could shit through the eye of a needle, and because of this, he had to wear male pads (nappies). He was the one I learnt basic sign language for, so I could at least say hello to. Because of the way he was, unfortunately most of the other residents hit out at him.


S was 19, 6ft 3 but with the mind of a 8 year old.
He was one of the frequent 'kick off' residents, and when he went, it took 4 of us to hold him down. But I got on well with S and earned his trust, so he hardly went for me unless I got in the way of him 'getting' someone else !
'I'm gonna get you' and 'bastard cow' were often shouted. And when he said 'get you', he ment it .

IB was asian, and to be honest a good breeze would of blown him over. He could talk .... A lot !
You could have a conversation with him, but most of the time he repeated 80's Tv programmes.
'how are you'?
'James Bond' ! Or Magnum, A-team, Knight Rider etc.
Why ? Probably due to the fact that when he was young, he was locked in his bedroom with a Tv. Autism is frowned upon in certain cultures.
He was also an expert at stacking anything and often all over the house. But he always made me laugh, no matter what.

J was a 5ft male of 25, he suffered from Multiple sclerosis, Autism and sometimes a serious bad attitude. From the minute you walked into his room, it was a battle. From getting him in the bath to getting him dressed, I've had many slaps and punches. He had a problem with most of us in the house. He always made out he was helpless and innocent, but that was far from it. When he was after you, he could move like the wind and fight like a cage fighter. He often got the people he was after too, then all hell broke loose. I've seen him fight his dad in the hospital car park. That was a day to remember, they both ended up in there.

So that's the top half of the house, they each had there problems, but every now and then, they were a pleasure to be with. I had a good support relationship with each of them, especially with J.

Part2 is the 2 that lived downstairs, and that's a totally different story.

Thanks for reading,

Offski.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Bucket List

Yes I have a Bucket list, I put it together about a month ago.
Most I hope will be done in the next couple of years, others might take a little longer !

So here it is and the reasons why :

1. Visit Australia : it's always been my dream destination, and I so need to go.

2. Go to the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa : it's my favourite race circuit in the world, always wanted to go.

3. Visit Egypt Again : I've been once, but want to do the whole rooting around tombs and temples.

4. Top Gear : get tickets for Top Gear, my favourite Tv show.

5. Machu Picchu : to see the Inca sight, a must in my eyes.

6. Mikey Walsh : I want to meet Mikey Walsh, the author of Gypsy boy.

7. Le-Mans 24hours : to go and watch the 24hour race.

8. Caterham : drive a Caterham car.

9. New Orleans : visit New Orleans, just for the carnival and music.

10. Billy Connolly : to see the Big Yin live, my favourite comedian.

11. Billy Joel : see him live, my favourite music.

12. Glastonbury Festival : go Glasto, camping the whole works.

13. Charity Bike Ride : cycle from Lands end to John O'groats for a cancer charity.

14. Vw Campervan : I want to own a Vw campervan, I always have, simple.

15. Comic-con : the comic convention in San Diego USA.

That's it ...,. For now !

This is not me giving up, I just thought I would do one. And if you think about it, there's probably lots of things you would love to do. Give it a try !



Thanks for reading

Offski.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The inner Geek

Everyone has an inner person, call it what you like but mine is a Geek.

So where do I start ?!?

Well I suppose 1st I was a band Geek. I played in a brass band from the age of 11 till I was 22/23, and I loved it !

I am also a bit of a Tv geek. Some of my favourites being

Star Trek (next generation)

Dr who, Red Dwarf, Blackadder and Monty Python.

I've just finished buying DVDs of Tv shows from my childhood. Ivor the Engine and Chorlton and the Wheelies being the first 2. I guess they just don't make them like they used to.

I'm a huge Motorsport geek too. Everything and anything.
In Crewe where I was born we had a banger racing track and I went every Saturday night to watch, £3 for a few hours out and get covered in mud and dust, fantastic.

This lead to me getting a job at Oulton Park as a marshal, all the Motorsport I could handle. I've marshalled at other circuits too.

The Matrix is one of my favourite films ever, and when I found out that Todd McFarlane (a famous action figure maker) was making 3 series of Matrix figures, I had to have them.
It took me 3 years of eBay and web searching, but I finally got the whole collection. Towards the end I came across American McGee's Alice, 3 sets of horror figures based on Alice in wonderland. I needed these too, but were a bit more thin on the ground. Eventually I found all of them and cherished them.

But has with all collections, things happened so I sold them on. At a very healthy profit I might add !

Finally I'm a geek for all things Egypt and archeology. I watch all the programmes, read all the books. I'm a proper geek on this stuff ! I went to Egypt with an ex-girlfriend and did all the trips. I was right at the front of the group getting stuck in, while she stood at the back, bored.

So that's my inner geek. Are you bored yet ?

Thanks for reading.

Offski

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

6/7/2011

When I started this blog, it was ment to be a fun look at life, Twitter and things in general. But not long after starting it, has most of you know I got CLL and my blog changed.

I've always tried to be upbeat and funny, but it's all a lie.

Since starting chemotherapy I've turned into this person who I hate. My body is copping with the nuclear waste, just.
Apart from extreme fatigue, which means walking up and downstairs leaves me knackered, and the bout of sickness my body is ok.

It's my head that's fucked !
I am feeling all sorts of emotions, from crying at the simplest things to raging anger. Im upsetting the people that I love, and I can't control it !

This treatment is making me so depressed, it's unreal. I have a very short fuse at the moment, and snap at the smallest of things. It's getting beyond a joke now, but because its classed has a 'side effect' they can't do anything for me.

My head is all over the place. I forget things, I'm nasty and feel alone in this world. If I'm honest, it's destroying me inside. They should use chemotherapy has a torturing device of some sort, because it really does take you to pieces in a very quick and soul destroying way.

Also I've become a 'Hermit'. I never go out of the house unless it's for my blood tests or chemo. I've missed all the hot weather we've had, because of being very self conscience about the way I look (in my head), and the scar I have. I feel like people are staring at me, and that hurts.

I have 2 more chemo to have, both in August. I can't bloody wait, and I will say this now, I will seriously think about having chemo again.

I'm sorry for blogging this but I needed to get it off my chest.
Many thanks

Offski x



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Working 9-5

Hello !
So today I'm blogging about my work history.

4 jobs that I've had have stuck out in my mind.

The 1st was my 1st job. I got on a YTS scheme at a company called Saxon Sanbec who made fire engines, ambulance and specialised vehicles. My apprenticeship was on the repair section, which I loved. You wouldn't believe how many emergency vehicles meet at traffic lights !
I loved this job, I had saved up my money and bought some decent tools, and made my own rolling box.
Saxon made the fire engines for the TV show 'Londons Burning' dont you know.
I worked there for just short of 4 years, until they decided to get rid of half of us, I was gutted. But managed to get my City and Guilds of it.

My 2nd was working at Oulton Park race circuit. Motorsport is a big passion of mine, and this was my dream job. I worked has a full time marshal, sometimes 7 days a week. I marshalled for the race school, private and open testing and corporate events. And on days off I helped out in the garage looking after the race school cars.
Doing this job I got to meet a lot of drivers and even the great Murray Walker.
Through doing this I also got to do the British Grand Prix twice. I worked here for 5 years.

The 3rd job was working for a shopfitting company. We installed the metal shelving that you see in tesco, Asda etc.
This job involved working in a team, traveling all over the uk, often at very short notice and for weeks on end, fitting the shelving.
The plus point were. Good money, I got to see a LOT of the Uk and the days off while away.
The bad points were. Away from home a lot, stupid working times, often nights and the boss was a knob.
The most dangerous thing I have ever done was, me and a mate had been sent to Inverness and Inverurie to do some work on there tesco. It was just before Xmas and we had been given a rare day/night off, until we got a phone call saying, could we go to glasgow and drop some parts of that we had spare. Stupidly we said yes, not realising what the weather was like. Within half an hour of being on a pitch black road we got thick freezing fog, and I mean thick. I couldn't see anything, but pushed on with the heater on full, trying to clear the windscreen. Another half hour later, we missed a Stag stood in the middle of the road by millimetres. If we had hit it we would of been in a valley upside down somewhere. But after many, many hours we got to Glasgow and recovered.
I worked in this job for 6 years and I left just before I met shelley.

My 4th job was my last job, working has a support worker in a residential home for adults with learning difficulties and Autism. I will blog about this next time, because there is to much to put in here.

Thanks for reading

Offski


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

8/06/2011

So I'm sat here all hooked up to my chemo, getting really bord. So I'm doing some blogging, this is my second today !

I went to see the specialist and have some bloods done yesterday. She says everything is going very well, my lumps are small bits of gravel (compared to the golf balls they were), and my White blood cell count is getting back to normal.
Today I'm having my 3rd of 6 chemo, and it's the same old shit, just seems to be going quicker !

So what does all this mean ? I hear you ask.
Well it could mean that this bout of leukaemia is beaten, and things are looking rosy.
But the reality is that this is just going to keep coming back, could be weeks, months or even years but it will be back. I guess has soon has I feel a lump somewhere, I start all over again.

The only way I have a chance of getting rid of this is by having the Stem cell/ Bone marrow transplant that I mentioned in an earlier blog, something which I'm not looking forward to, it's the month in hospital that will do my head in, But I suppose it's worth it.
Also the way the dates have fallen, i get to have my 5th and last chemo in the same month, August ! Looking forward to that month haha. Let's wait and see.

The planning of my bike ride from Lands end to John ogroats is coming together slowly. Just waiting for Marie Currie to put the details up so I can book my place. I'm looking forward to it, even though it's roughly a year away ! But a lot of training needs to be done from this September onwards, and I need a bike !

Anyway that's me for today, I've nearly finished my nuclear waste. Off home soon, and hoping these new anti-sickness tablets work this time round !

I am home now, feeling good at the moment.

Thank for reading

Offski.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

24/05/2011

Hello ,
Glad you all survived the Rapture/Domesday/Armageddon, I wasn't really prepared for it, so maybe next time I will be.

Lots has been happening in the news. A wrestling Legend dies, and a footballer messes up his private life. But not going to talk about that.

Having leukaemia, I've had a lot of time on my hands, and I've been doing a lot of thinking.

Firstly money has been worrying me, or lack of it. I've applied for some benefits, but I've never claimed anything before and I can't get over how much hassle it is. I've applied for one benefit, sent all my hospital diagnosis letters off, to find out that the letters arnt good enough and I need a medical certificate from my GP. Having now got this certificate and sent it off, I now have to wait to see if I get it !

Another thing is we are desperate for a holiday. So I'm booking a cottage in the Lake District for a week in October. I don't really care what the weathers like because it's not home and we can unwind.

Also I've decided to buy a season ticket for Huddersfield town football club. Yes it's going to be a lot of money, but the brats can get free season tickets through school. So that's the excuse I'm going with (spending time with the boys).

I seem to have lost my Twitter mojo too with all this Cancer crap going on. I've lost touch with a couple of my oldest tweeters and seem to of upset a couple of them. For this I'm very sorry and will try and put things right.

Last but not least. I've been thinking about my health in general. Also I'm thinking about repaying all the help I've received from Kirkwood Hospice. I'm not a runner, so let's get that straight, but I did do a lot of bike riding.
So I've been on the old interweb and found an organisation that do charity bike rides. I've done a lot of thinking about this and decided to do one with them next year (2012). I need to raise a bit of money and need a bike, but that's the plan.
So there you have it, oh hang on didn't say it was from John O'groats to Lands End !
This is something I really want to do and try and split the sponsor money between Kirkwood and Leukaemia research. So I hope that when the time is right, I can count on a few of you for help.

Anyway that's it. Thanks for reading !

Offski.

I was sat in a wine bar, enjoying my own company. I took a sip of my drink and looked over to the other end of the bar. I saw a stunning brunette looking back at me.
She was wearing a Wonder Woman costume, with lots of flesh on show. We looked each other up and down, and both gave a knowing smile. I noticed she was drinking Budweiser like me, so I called the barman over. "Same again for me, and another for the pretty lady over there."
He said, "That's a mirror, you pisshead, and the rest of the stag do left an hour ago."


A famous Football Player is providing funding to build Travelodge, Holiday Inn, Premier Inn, Hilton & NOVOTEL Hotels on a busy crossroads in Manchester.
Apparently it's going to be a Super Inn Junction.

In the maternity wigwam, there were 3 squaws in labour.
The one on the left was lying on a horse skin, the one in the right was lying on a buffalo skin and the one in the middle was lying on a hippo skin.
The one on the hippo skin gave birth to twins, the other two gave birth to single babies.
This goes to prove that the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the two adjacent hides.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

17/05/2011

Hello !
Yes I'm still alive ..... Just.
It must be catch up time surely ?

So last Wednesday I had my 2nd lump of Nuclear waste put into this temple of a body that's now a friggin ruin. I got there for 10am and was told to go to room 1. I sat on a sofa and was plugged in to my drip, all was going well until this old miserable bag came and sat next to me and didn't stop moaning till 3pm when, still feeling good I finished and got the bus home.

The rest of that day and Thursday went without much problem. Friday came and I could feel the chemo creeping up on me. How do you know I here you ask ?!? Well .....
1. Feeling tired
2. Getting snappy
3. Wanting to cry at everything/anything.

The crying thing is a bit embarrassing, for instance : a girl on Deal or no Deal won £250,000, and that was that, floods of tears.
Then watching Britain's got Talent on Saturday there was a drum group on, and cos they said no to putting them through I burst in to tears again.

By Saturday it had kicked in fully and was making me feel like shit. But I had an added bonus this time of sickness and the squirts. The throwing up started at 5pm and carried on until 7am Sunday morning. Then followed straight away with the shits. Everything that was coming out of me was a bright yellow, and I mean BRIGHT yellow..... Sorry.

Sunday followed much of the same sort of pattern but not as much. I spent the day in bed trying to watch sport but what with falling asleep and trips to the bathroom I missed most of it. At this time I still hadn't eaten anything much but I did try and eat some roast chicken and gravy which I wolfed down, this was a turning point. The rest of the day I still felt sick but wasn't.

I woke up Monday morning without having much sleep and instantly threw up again. Shelley said enough was enough and I was carted off to hospital to see the specialist, had some bloods taken (Grrrrr) and sat with him.
So we said I could try these wicked anti-sickness tablets, I only have to take a quarter of one tab, they work a dream !

So there you have it, up to date and feeling ok this morning.

Thanks for reading

Offski



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

05/05/2011

It's been a while I know ! ..... I'm sorry.

It's been a weird week really, and I'm beginning to understand what a nasty piece of work Chemotherapy really is. It's making me and my body do things I don't like.

It makes my body tired, if I want to do anything, I have to plan 3 days in advance. So if I want to play on Xbox Kinect, I know the next day I'm gonna be rough, and the 3rd day all I'm going to want to do is sleep.
I baked yesterday for the first time in ages, in all about 2 hours. Today I feel like crap and I've had a nap for an hour and half.

On the other side of things, I'm short tempered then I'm quiet. I feel useless and bad for not helping around the house. I also feel unloved, but I hope that's not true.

Anyway enough of that again. I have to go for my next chemo (full fat this time) which I'm really shitting myself over because I had my first lot over 4days and also had flush to water it down, and I've felt really crap. The second is the same amount but over 4 hours and no flush, so I'm readying myself for a hard couple of weeks.

Did I say I had started baking ?
I have a bit of time on my hands now obviously, so I've bought 3 books off eBay. So far I've made Flapjacks and a Banana Tealoaf, both of which were yummy. Next time it's Parkin and a Cheesecake of some sort. I also want to make my own bread which I plan to do next week sometime.

So that's it for this week, going to leave you with a joke.


As my sister-in-law roared off in her new car my wife commented "I think I made a mistake marrying you, Look how happy my sister is in her new car"
I said "Yes, maybe if you sucked a lot of cock your boyfriend would buy you a Porsche too"
"I may well just do that" she sneered.
"It's a bit late now" I replied "I can't afford two".



Thanks for reading.

Offski


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

27/04/2011

Hello ! I've not blogged for a few days.

It's been 2 weeks since I had my first lump of chemo, and to be honest, Im not coping to well.
I have never been so tired. I get up at 8.30am and by 12 midday I'm ready for a kip. I did the hoovering a few days ago and suffered the next day, I played on Kinect Sports on the xbox yesterday and I'm absolutely knackered today.

I feel like I'm a burden to my family at the moment and really useless, it's even a friggin struggle going down stairs for a fag FFs.

My next chemo is on the 11th of may in out-patients for 4 hours then 4 days of tablets, and I'm not looking forward to it. My first lump was over 4 days and was watered down, the next lot is full fat over 4 hours ! So good knows what it's gonna do to me. I know my hair is on it's way because it's stopped growing, but I've got my hats now, so it can sod off.

So that's it for today, sorry it a miserable one today .... But you did want it warts and all !

Thanks for reading

Offski





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Venney

I grew up on a small estate with a pub The Flying Lady (named after the Rolls Royce mascot), and my local infant/junior school, Hungerford in Crewe. On this huge site, there was 2 school buildings,a nursery, a football field and a tarmac path widing the whole length of the site going through a tunnel half way. The rest was hills and fields.

In the late 70's Hungerford school decided they needed something for us todo in the school holidays, so 2 people were employed to run holiday activitys, using the nursey has a base. They were given some money for wood and tools, and the adventure playpark or the Venney has it was known was born. This play played a big part in my growing up in the late 70's, 80's and early 90's. It was brilliant, the holidays came and i would be up and out for 8am waiting for who was ever on that day, to help out and build stuff. I wasnt the only 1 either, there was at least 20 regulars, and we built eveything.

We built a fort on the highest hill, we had a 40ft slide down the other side. A huge metal rocket and a mono-rail put in by Rolls Royce due to all the kids parents worked there.
Our imaginations run wild, we built a wood shed, something we called the Haunted House and were even given an old railway carrige from British Rail.

We just didnt build stuff, we went on orginised trips on coaches and played games like 'capture the flag', 'british bulldog' and lots of sports all over the site. It was ace, when my brother was old enough i took him with me, and that was it Bignank and Littlenank were born. Every waking hour was spent there, helping out and messing around, parents didnt need to care then, they knew we would be back for tea.

We also had Bonfire night ! the week before we would make a guy and go 'penny for a guy' at the local shops, and we got good money too. All the money we made went to but the refreshments for Bonfire night party. We went around the estate collecting all the old wood and cardboard, and buy the time we finished we had enough for a big bonfire. It was organised ever year £2 a ticket and the whole estate came. The fire was lit at 6.30 pm, and the nursery opened to sell hot drinks, burgers etc. The Fireworks we set off at 7.30pm, and every year they bought 1 firework that we it exploded, it sent a dude in a parachute gliding of across the houses, and ever year there was a hoard of 20+ kids running after it to get it.

These years were probably the best years in my young life, and i will never forget it. I had my first drink there, i had my first ciggy there, it was OUR place we had built it.

But sadly, it was knocked down in 1998 and replaced with 40+houses for yuppies. I was gutted, we all were, there were a lot of tears in Crewe that day.
So that was it, the Venney was gone, but im still there in my head and that will never change.

Thanks for reading

Offski

19/04/2011

Today is my Birthday, 19/04/1972 was me, so that means I'm 39 and so very nearly 40 ! but that's another story.

I'm blogging today because this morning i passed my 10,000 tweet on Twitter. Now i think this is a big deal !?! when i joined Twitter i always wondered how people managed to tweet 10,000 tweets, but after being on for a while, i understood how. Its very addictive (don't you think ?).

Anyway at the very start of this year 01/01/2011 i saved the tweet number i was on so i could keep an eye on what number i was doing. That number was 3467, from 10,000 leaves 6500 ish in 4 months (so yeah very addictive).

The reason i gave my 10,000 tweet to only the select few is because some have been through a similar thing, and others have helped lift my mood while in hospital having my chemo. There were other tweeters who helped but i didnt have the room so you might get one next time (11,000) !

Ive spoke to some amazing peepers on Twitter, and dare i say it, i can call some of them close friends.
I hoping to meet a few of you this year, in one way or another. Some of you dont live to far away, and we could always meet half way for the others, so be warned !

Anyway, thanks for reading this incredably short and boring blog today

Offski