Hobbit and the City

Yesterday I had an interview down in London, I was looking forward to the day out if nothing else as I'd not been to London in over a year and I have to confess I do like it (There you go Pat, an admission). Anyway after the interview was done and dusted I had some time to kill, I was supposed to meet a friend but she let me down (you know who you are *giggle*) so I decided to have a wander. As the interview was on Oxford Street I wandered into Soho and onto Wardour Street and explored some of the small alleyways and streets off of there. A fair way down Wardour St on the corner of Meard Street I noticed a shop called 'The Hobbit' which made me smile and of course, I had to take a photo!

Then I slowly headed back to the Oxford circus tube station I passed the Paladium and had to laugh at the sign above the door 'Ol Blue Eyes is Back!', since having my eye operation alot of people have been calling me blue eyes.


I then headed up to the place I love in London the most - Camden. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining and I lounged by the canal after doing some shopping (new pair of shoes!). There's such an atmosphere and vibe about Camden, I don't know it all that well really but I'd love to explore it more, the shopping is amazing. The pictures below show Camden market and canal.

I’m Currently listening too … (3)

Death Cab for Cutie – Sound of Settling
Rasputina – Antique High Heel Red Doll Shoes
The Chalets – Feel the Machine
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Gold Lion
Hole – Violet
Jah Wobble – Visions Of You
David Bowie – China Girl
Marilyn Manson – Great Big White World
Ladytron – Ladybird
Kraftwerk – Numbers

Banned

I don’t read the newspapers much. Mainly because I don’t subscribe to their political leanings and the other crap they often spout, however that said they do have news in them, some items more relevant than others but you can guarantee theres always a story to delight or anger.

This recent headline really hacked me off;

Nightclub ban for blind girl

The story is basically about a blind 27 year old actress from Leeds who was banned from a nightclub for having a white stick. Bouncers asked her to hand the stick over as it was an ‘alleged’ health hazard and when she refused she was told ‘sorry you can’t come in’. She’s now suing ‘Space’ nightclub in Leeds under discrimination laws, rightly so too – I hope she bankrupts them.

Babe of the Week No.1

Is it me or is Emmerdale farm the best soap on tv at the moment?

Great actors, witty and emotional storylines and all in a lovely English setting, much more easier on the eye than London’s east end.

Did I mention the babes too? Oh year there’s plenty of them

So this brings me to my babe of the week, oh how chauvinistic, Em’s will scowl at me and female friends will no doubt comment, hopefully I can rely on the blokes for constructive comments!

So, my babe of the week is Emmerdale’s Hayley Tammadon who plays Delilah Dingle (drool drool drool)

Ace is back and he told you so!

It’s been a great week, not because anything of great significance or magnitude has happened but because of the little things, it’s made me realise, it’s the little things that sometimes amount to more. the little things that count.

Firstly my Xbox 360 has been running fine, the back story to this is worthy of a blog of its own but hey, everyone isn’t a geek and wouldn’t be interested, geekette’s out there feel free to ask though!

(amazing, I spelt Xbox with a small x and guess what? the spell checker highlighted it in red until I changed it to a big X, how much are Microsoft actually watching us!?)

I decided to spring clean after the bank holiday hangover and dad even gave me some of his posh furniture, so my flat feels like new, at least it does till I make it a mess again.

My long running battle with the local council has concluded and it turns out they actually owe me money. Hurray for the little guys and boo to bureaucracy!

I downloaded some great tunes I’ve been after and everywhere I’ve walked with my mp3 player I’ve been almost skipping and smiling.

My eye has been feeling better and has a lovely blue tint to it now, it’s made me feel better in myself and the pain was worth it, so to patronise you all, no pain, no new eye…… erm I mean gain!

My off licence has yet again new owners, a foxy Indian woman spoke the most posh English and even sounded fab in her own tongue, plus she sold me two bottles of Pinot Grigio wine for £5

I’ve missed all the rain showers when out and about!

Today when I decided I wanted red or purple highlights in my hair I called at a salon that’s well known and the convo went like this;

‘I want red or purple highlights… but not the cheesy 80’s style ones, the patchy quilt type, sorta random, do you get me?’

‘Yeah sure but red would suit you better’

‘Well red highlights spell danger!’ (do you get the song and the joke?)

‘Hmmm your hair needs to be longer, maybe by a couple of weeks’

‘A couple of weeks will make a difference?!!’ (Its longer that it has been in a while)

‘Yes, come back then’

So I left, feeling hard done by, the candy ass male hair dresser obviously could not be arsed to do my hair on a Friday afternoon, so I walked around town and fumed. Then I realised there’s other hair dressing salons, hey this is the free west and consumers have choice! So I got myself a salon full of babes that pampered me and did my hair and guess what, if looks fab. I walked through town and heads turned!

Tonight I watched ‘Have I got news for you’ and ‘My name is Earl’ and realised comedy hasn’t gone altogether, I didn’t stop laughing.

And guess what folks? It’s been along while and despite not being the most perfect week I’ve strode through it with a swagger.

Ace is back and he told you so!

(erm they called me ace at school, as in Jay, jase, jase the Ace, its also an Ace Frehley catchphrase from the band Kiss)

I'm currently listening to ... (2)

Within Temptation – Wish you were here
Monsters Are Waiting – Monsters
Switchblade Symphony – Lucky Star
Android Lust - Stained
Stabbing Westward – Save Yourself
Babylon A.D. – The Kid Goes Wild
London After Midnight – The Bondage Song
PJ Harvey – C’mon Billy
Garbage – Cherry Lips
Adam Ant- Desperate But Not Serious

Black Outlook

I recently read this report on the NTL website, news section, entitled;

Goths' black outlook on life

The number of attempted suicides and incidents of self-harm is higher among young Goths, according to a study. Goths - youngsters known for their love of black clothes, make-up and gloomy music - often cultivate a reputation of morbidity but the report says it may be more than an act. Researchers at the University of Glasgow surveyed 1,258 young people during their final year of primary school (aged 11) and again at ages 13, 15, and 19. They were asked about self harm and how they identified with 15 types of youth subculture, including being a Goth. They found that those who identified themselves as being a Goth had a far higher lifetime prevalence of self harm and attempted suicide, reported the British Medical Journal.

Even after taking into consideration social class, parental separation, smoking, alcohol use, or previous depression, being a Goth remained the "single strongest predictor" of whether a child would either self harm or try to commit suicide.

Hhmmm so they only studied 1,258 kids, hardly a cross section of the British populace is it? Of all the Goths I know, all are happy and jovial, it’s ironic that image is associated with self harming and leanings to more macabre pursuits. Of course Goths do self harm, I’m not disputing that but so can anyone self harm, there are some elements of the Goth culture that try things like blood letting, skin carving or their own crude tattoo’s – it’s a facet of the culture. As the report goes on to say ‘The study found youngsters tended to report being a self-harmer before they became a Goth slightly more than the other way’ which sort of backs my statement of the small element that do dabble with the above, probably to fit in with the dynamics of a group they may belong to, not because it’s a pre-requisite or mandatory. Most kids try smoking at some stage but this doesn’t mean they are going on to become full time smokers, it means they are trying to fit in with a crowd in order to gain status. Then it goes on to contradict itself by saying that mental health problems are on the increase in young people and the Goth subculture may be attractive to them.

Dr Michael van Beinum, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and advisor to the study, said: "Mental health problems are common in young people and there is evidence that they are on the increase. For some young people with mental health problems, a Goth subculture may be attractive, as it may allow them to find a community within which it may be easier for their distress to be understood".

Basically, I love my psychology etc but stuff like this is well… bollocks isn’t it? Stuff like that report make me want to slash my wrists.......... shit, I'm a self harmer too !!!

So true

I don't need Wikipedia to tell me that my home town is indeed a grim place but the following excerpt from it's entry about it made be giggle, probably because it's so true.

With some prescience, the great eighteenth century writer Daniel Defoe passed through Mansfield in 1725, noting only that:

"...I came to Mansfield, a market town but without remarkables." (A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724 - 1726)

Yep, he's right, there's nothing remarkable about it at all

and it also goes on to say,

Mansfield, which D.H. Lawrence described as "that once romantic now utterley disheartening colliery town" in Lady Chatterley's Lover until recently did not, apart from a small section in W H Smith, have a bookshop.

and the best till last....

In Nottinghamshire, Mansfield is regarded with some disdain, being as it is a working class town with little in the way of culture or scenery. The town's bus station is often cited by locals as one of the very worst places in England to spend time waiting for transport. The town, like many others, continues to suffer from glaring problems with drugs, alcoholism and antisocial behaviour, possibly a legacy of its close links to the now almost defunct coal mining industry.

Odious Odeon

It comes as no surprise to me really that more and more people are viewing pirate dvd’s or downloading films over the internet – a trip to the cinema is becoming increasingly expensive and terrible value for money. Take my experience on Sunday night for example, I went to watch V for Vendetta at my local Odeon cinema with my old workmate that does the Tree of woe blog.

We headed to KFC first to grab some fast food and were passed at the doorway by some vociferous chav’s shouting expletives at each other. I noticed their table had a bargain bucket and it’s left over food contents strewn all over it and ironically the litter bin was a mere arm’s reach away – ah the youth of today.

Anyway, after some fast food we headed to the cinema and browsed the refreshment area, the prices are just extortionate yet they know people will of course pay. As I’d booked over the net we collected our tickets from the automatic dispensing machine and headed to our screen, only the luxury seats are no longer luxury anymore – they are pseudo luxury ones. That’s right, odious Odeon have taken the real comfy ones out and replaced them with lack lustre replicas and now charge even more! The seats even had pieces of paper on them telling you that they were in fact luxury ones so you didn't get mixed up with the normal ones!

The movie was excellent albeit uncomfortable on the crappy new chairs that really stretch the meaning of the word ‘luxury’. There’s nothing like seeing a film on the big screen but is strikes me that less people visit the cinema nowadays, probably because its easy to get copies or download but also because the whole experience is more expensive and less enjoyable than it once was.

Operation Tattooed Eye

Monday the 27th of March was a day I won’t forget in a hurry. It was the long awaited day of my eye operation, I’ve had ops before but for some reason I was feeling nervous and couldn’t really pinpoint why. I had to be at the hospital at 7.30am and after checking in at the ward reception I was shown to my bed by the nurse looking after me, the gods must have favoured me because she was a pretty nurse from Thailand.

Soon after the specialist arrived and wanted a quick look at my eyes prior to the operation, he seemed excited and in a way so was I, though a nervous excitement. Anything that was going to make me look better had to be a good thing, besides that, my eye was in such a state I had nothing to lose, so the optimistic side of me said. The specialist (an eternally smiling Indian guy with a long name) said things should go well but then his smile broke and he stressed if things went wrong then the eye would have to be removed and replaced with a prosthetic one, at this point I began to shudder. Returning to my bed I was soon joined by the anaesthetist who said the operation was going to be done under local anaesthetic but I could still have a general one if I insisted, I said ideally I’d prefer general but the specialist said local would be better and I was going along with that.

Time flew and it was time for the operation, I was taken to the hi-tech operating theatre and a needle was put in the back of my hand and another sunk into my eye, the hand needle was fine but the eye one was quite painful for about 30 seconds. I presumed the needle and plastic applet in the back of my hand was for if things went wrong and they had to put me under swiftly. As the anaesthetic took grip I feel a drowsy but fully aware of happenings around me, leaning over me the anaesthetist added ‘you may feel some plucking and picking sensations but no pain’ – oh great I thought.

On the operating table I was placed under a frame, over which a green canvas was draped, it reminded me of my childhood and making tents using furniture and blankets, I was trying hard to think about anything but the operation, trying desperately to drift away. The green canvas had a hole in it that was affixed around my left eye, an eye which now felt frozen and dead to the world; meanwhile an oxygen tube was inserted under the canvas covered frame so I could breathe. My head was in a kind of horse shoe shaped and very uncomfortable vice like pillow, the operation began. By now I was feeling vague and detached, trying hard to think of other things, grasping at any other subjects to occupy my mind. I thought of other people a lot, how much I cared for them and what they meant to me, it was all a bit emotional and surreal I guess. Oddly I could feel things happening but not with any pain, I heard the doc say he was scraping some calcium deposits away and it felt like my eye was a stone being scraped by a knife. I shuddered slightly as he kept asking for needles and other implements/apparatus that had strange medical terminology and duly used them on my eye. The only thing I felt was when he asked a nurse to rinse the eye and the odd droplet seeped through onto my cheek bone.

Then the worse bit came, the doc said ‘Would you like to listen to some music? We usually have music on to make the patients feel better’

‘Sure’ I said, still feeling dreamy

Then it began, the worse pain, the song being ‘The road to Amarillo’ followed by a plethora of countless other cheesy songs, it made whole experience seem longer.
I think the operation took about 50 minutes, halfway through the doc said ‘it’s going really well’ which made me feel more upbeat and reassured. The whole thing was filmed as it was the first time they’d used this particular fluid to tattoo a cornea, I’d always wanted to be on film but not this way!

So, here I am, back at home after my ordeal, things went ok and now I can at least say I have a tattooed eye, just as well they didn’t tattoo my good eye ( I really would have been up the creek without a paddle then!). My eye is still very red and quite tender and sore but it does look a lot better, how we hobbits have these trips of vanity!

I’d like to thank Dr Mahajaran and his team at Queens Medical, Nottingham for his expertise, support and giving me a chance when others seemed less interested.

I’d also like to thank my friends and family out there who were veritable towers of strength with their words of love and encouragement.

Pre-Op

Yesterday was the pre-op stuff for my upcoming operation next Monday at Queen’s Medical in Nottingham. On arriving there I promptly got lost, the place is like a huge metropolis of tower blocks split into different wings, the directions are a bit misleading but at least I spent worthwhile time looking at the lovely nurses !!!

Eventually after a bit of a chat with the nurse on the ward I’ll be staying on I was ushered to a room near the operating theatre, the surgeon/consultant wanted to see me before the operation to explain some things. Since I last saw him he wants to try a new technique that has been pioneered in Germany which involves a new solution that he is going to tattoo into the scared cornea in my eye. To inflame my worries he now says he wants to do it using local and not general anaesthetic – so I’m gonna be awake through the whole thing! I know there are risks attached to the operation but I feel they will be worth it, I also know there will be a fair amount of pain (he told me that too!) but I guess sometimes we have to endure pain to get what we want. So, all is set for next Monday unless the new solution he’s planning to use isn’t cleared for sterilization by the lab there, if it isn’t then I have to wait longer but I really want to get it resolved sooner rather than later.

Tyson

Last week my local area newspaper’s headline news was infamous boxer Mike Tyson is coming to my home town to give a £400 a head after dinner talk. I must admit my initial feelings on reading the article where ones of revulsion and ‘so what’s the big deal?’ Mr Tyson or Malik Abdul Aziz as he is now known (after Islamic conversion) has been jailed twice, once in 1995 for the rape of Desiree Washington and then jailed later in 1999 for assaulting people after a car accident.

I’m not denying Tyson may have been a great boxer in his prime but since 1990 and his defeat by James ‘Buster’ Douglas his career was on a downward spiral and instead of being a role model athlete he became notorious for being the bad boy of sport.

I asked myself is this the best sort of person we can attract to our town and why do a lot of boxers careers go into decline?

It seems to me boxing is really quite a sad sport these days, ok we could argue, such as in the case of Tyson it took him off the mean streets of New York and gave him direction. Boxers seemingly have brief periods of career glory before falling into steady decline if they don’t get out soon enough, if the constant brain cell killing beatings don’t get them, then the high living eventually does, I could go on to name loads of boxers that fell from the limelight. What about the poor boxers that never come to anything though, that get pummelled around the ring? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally anti-boxing, I just think it’s a little bit barbaric in the 21st century but I’m guilty of watching it in bars etc like anyone else.

I’m sure in this day and age we can channel aggression in youngsters more positively and save them from becoming possible future Tyson’s.

In conclusion my vehemence really isn’t aimed squarely at Tyson or boxing, a lot of us make mistakes in our lives and I’m sure he’s been manipulated a fair bit in his time, my anger is at my local newspaper for making such a big deal of his visit.

Oh and I forgot to mention, if the meal isn’t suitable he may skip the after dinner speech and bite some ears off !!!