Cold and old!

Not going to mention the age/birthday thing. I am in denial. Had quite a good birthday though, all things considered. Was in London yesterday with some friends and we managed to have dinner without getting rained on too much, then today had a lie-in, did some shopping, and more clearing out in the house as I got some nice new bedlinen and wanted to start using it. Bloody freezing though, so I have to admit that the heating has gone on... only because there is something wrong with the timer so technically speaking it's supposed to be off, but keeps coming on when it shouldn't so I had to turn all the radiators off pending getting it serviced which should happen soon. Anyway, relented and turned one of the radiators back on, but still cold and am sitting here in pyjamas and a hoodie.

Not much more to report than that really, got a shortened week at work as only doing 2 days due to having minor op on thursday - don't worry, nothing serious and hopefully will get away with having local anaesthetic so will be completely functional afterwards! Have got a friend kindly coming to stay though just in case I need any looking after, so I am planning to milk it for all it's worth. Steve did suggest having a "spot the op" competition whereby I could make people guess what they thought I was having done, but I thought that it would be completely inappropriate, so I'm not even going to go there! It's not lipo or anything scandalous in case you were wondering, it's a standard NHS jobby. I don't seem to have been given the usual Doctor privilege of being seen privately for free, but on the other hand I do get to have the consultant (who I once worked for) doing it rather than being fobbed off onto the SHO or F2 or whatever they are called these days.

Marshmallow girl

Question: If I get one of these jackets for my forthcoming holiday, will I look ridiculous? Due to the fact that we are trekking and camping at altitudes of 5000m, it's apparently going to be a bit nippy and so down jackets are de rigeur. But all the ones I can find look like puffa jackets and so I am worried in case it makes me look like a fat chav. Although this is a proper North Face one, not some cheap rip-off from down the market. Opinions please!

Had a fairly mundane week all in all, made slightly more interesting yesterday when at work we did our regular "hanging out with celebrities" thing when one of Razorlight turned up to share our morning coffee break. For those not in the know, the drummer's dad is one of the other GPs I work with so we do get them popping in from time to time which is usually good fun. Although I was severely chastised later on that day when I mentioned it to a mate who is a big fan of theirs, for not asking if he could sort him out with some backstage passes for Glastonbury. Darling, one does not do that sort of thing! Obviously if I thought there was any chance of that, I'd have been well in there already myself, so please everyone don't bother asking as the answer is no!

My poor car is still in the garage being mended, in fact I haven't heard anything about how long it's going to be. Still got the hire one though but am having to try very hard not to park it under the trees in the staff car park, as I'll be totally embarrassed if I have to give it back covered in bird shit. Talking of cars, there is a new Skoda Fabia that I simply MUST have. Go here and click on the "baking of" documentary, then on "view TV ad". A car (almost like mine) made entirely of cake! I love cake! And so I love my Skoda even more now. I really should get out more, shouldn't I? So it's off to London tomorrow for the weekend before I lose it completely.

Nul points (almost)!

Well, due to both my original plans for the weekend falling through, I felt obliged, after shredding all my old unnecessary paperwork (mobile phone bills form 1997 anyone?!) to spend the night in, watching Eurovision. I thought we had a fairly decent song this year (decent in terms of Eurovision suitability rather than musical genius), but as usual the political voting meant that we did rubbish. It's the fault of all these new countries that have been created over the last 20 years, they all vote for each other and everyone hates us just because we are British and otherwise great. 'Twas a brave effort by Scooch though, and they deserved to do better. In fact when sorting through my CDs the other day I realised that to my shame, I actually own one of their singles, bought specifically a few years ago so I could do a Gay Disco compilation. You can watch the video of that single here, which might possibly be the gayest song ever. And does anybody remember the UK's 2006 entry? In fact I seem to remember last year I was at a Eurovision party in London, dressed in school uniform...

Admittedly I have been rather bad at updating my blog of late, but I've been busy with various things not least having my car break down as the drive belt pulley shaft (whatever that is) has broken off (inconveniently 7 months after the warranty ended) so it's in the garage being mended and I have a hire car at the moment. Took a lot of sorting out to make sure I still had a car to use as the dealer and breakdown service and car rental place seemed incapable of communicating with each other. As I'd managed to get the car into the car park at work before it fully died, I arranged to have the RAC come there to assess, and I'd said on the phone that it would be best to come around 4pm as I was seeing patients until then, and that the bloke should go into reception and ask for me and I'd come out to sort it. Anyway, at 5pm I'd heard nothing so phoned them again and they said the bloke had been and driven away again as the car was "unattended". When he finally came back, transpired he'd been sitting outside in his van for an hour before giving up! Duh! I would have thought that anyone with an ounce of common sense, told that the car was in the staff car park of a GP surgery, might have gone inside the surgery to ask if anyone was expecting them? Well, apparently not. Twat.