Lost Entries

Wayyy back in 2004 I started blogging, but it never lasted past 7 posts, however, on reading them back the short period between September and November 2004 seem to be the building blocks of where my life is now, in many ways. Anyway, the blog posts are below, with comments by the present me written in notes below each post.

I didn’t blog again til 14 February with my shortlived “State of the Union” posts which were mainly on the format of – Today I’m listening to this, this and this. It wasn’t until May 2005 that the state of the union posts got some more content, and then finally renamed Blogtoberfest and moved over here.

Entry 007 – Tuesday 2nd November 2004

Fuddludumph! Lovely! Just waiting for that.
Quick one this time round. To start off, I must pay homage to the legend that was John Peel. He brought so many of my favourite bands to the attention of both the masses and myself, subsequently rocketing a lot of them into the limelight. If Peel didn’t know about a band, they probably weren’t worth knowing. He’ll be missed.

What have I been doing since the last entry you ask? Well, not a lot really. Came 2nd in the Rush Radio Quiz a couple of weeks back, and failed to beat that place the week after.
I’ve been out drinking a lot in the last month too. It is ‘ocktober’ after all! I’ve indulged in many a beer, including (but not exclusively): Erdinger Festweiss, Robinson’s Old Tom, several quality Saxon Cyders, Weisenland Kristallkar, Paulaner Ocktoberfest, and some others I cant remember the names of now.

I’ve joined/helped with a society at uni too: the photography society SHUphoto. So hopefully with my new, all-singing, all-dancing camera I might be able to take some photos that aren’t either pictures of Alton Towers or Sunsets over my house. The people I’ve met so far in it seem pretty cool as well. In particular Natalie, Tom, Matt and Ed.

Current…
Music: Candidate – Nuada
Mood: OK

—–
I’m still very good friends with Natalie, Tom (Barnes), Matt (Post) and Ed. I never did the Rush Radio quiz again
—–
Entry 006 – Wednesday 6th October 2004

“Go on, take as much as you can, I DARE you”
Hello again. It’s been quite a while since my last ‘Nonsense due to jono’s interweb not working etc. Well, that’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it. So, “what have I been doing?” you quaff? Not a great deal really! The induction week was spent mainly flitting between university and various watering holes in Sheffield City Centre. My first day was spent with Jim etc. as well as my mate David. Then we got split into tutorial groups. At first I thought David was in my group, but it turns out there was another guy with a very similar name to him – ‘David Marsh’. Who was this imposter? And why did he take the wrong induction bag?! Well, all was found out later when I stumbled upon Dave (Marsh) later on during a PC induction class (where I met someone else, but I’ll get to her later). Iit turns out I already knew Dave! He was in the Computing class across from my A-Level Computing class at college, and was previously known to me as “that guy in the scar face t-shirt” (but is now known to me as “Dave”). Very cool guy. Also met his mate Gav, who it seems I also knew in the same way as Dave. We were due to attend a ‘jungle’ session after that, but for some reason our lecturer never appeared. We all got talking, so it was probably the best thing that could have happened. Me, Dave and Gav were off to the Devonshire Cat to *sample* some Erdingers. I was in a pretty good mood and decided to invite the welsh girl in our class whom I now know as Victoria (or Toria). She’s a top lass who I feel I’ve known for yeaaars, but we haven’t It’s weird meeting people from other places in the country, ‘cos you (and they) start to take on accent traits both ways. It’s also funny to watch the confused faces on people when you say things like “breadcake” and other Yorkshire words you take for granted. While at the Dev Cat, I invited Toria to come see the Pink Grease gig at the union, which rocked by the way, and I managed to get a ton of stuff from the support band, The Boxer Rebellion (setlist, plectrums, drum stick), as well as a very limited edition Pink Grease vinyl and pick.
We also went to the quiz on Monday night at the union with Toria and Co. We managed to score 29 (top score was 33 IIRC) so we didn’t do too badly all things considering. I fell over in true jono styleé that night, falling onto my back injuring my arm, knee and ankle.
There’s been a couple of freebie fairs too this week, so my computer room is full of free pens, sweets and beer mats now (and other junk). The woman at the SHU Ents. Society stupidly said “Go on, take as much as you can.. I DARE YOU” so I did as requested, and took a good few handfuls of utter crap (badges, little torches and bottle openers). That showed her.

My rant this week is: HMV. Bought a copy of Dogma on DVD and its broken, took it back today… this ones broken too…
My Praise of the week goes to: Microsoft Hardware Support, for effortlessly replacing my broken mouse.

Current…
Music: Boards of Canada – Nlogax
Mood: Better

—–
Me and Toria drifted apart during 2nd year, as she spent a lot of time with her housemates and less time with coursemates. Dave Marsh however went on to get a job at Unilever with me on placement. David now lives in Doncaster.
—–

Entry 005 – Tuesday 21st September 2004

“And it was a lass, and she was ugly, and she liked R&B…and was a skater”
Hello again. First off we’ve got a bit of a post-based update. Star Wars arrived on Monday, much to my delight, and today saw the arrival of my Mansun 7″ which also made me happy. Still yet to receive the postcard or the beer goods though!

So yeah…the last couple of days…I bullied jono into going to town with me so I could purchase some more shoes cheap and for me to browse the 7″ records in HMV/Virgin. As it happens, jono was going to town anyway, he just didn’t know about it yet. I arrived (late, as per) to an angry jono who promptly tried beating me round the head with “Blonde on Blonde” I think, or it could have just been his hands, who knows.
Anyway, I purchased some 7″ (Muse – Butterflies and Hurricanes, Biffy Clyro – not sure, but it was only 99p), then we sorta ambled into Chris, and jono chatted to him for a few seconds…while I mocked jono as to what his new flatmate could be like, until we went to Jack’s Records where I bought a second (playable, not mint) copy of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield and a copy of Dark Side of the Moon on 12″ for a gobsmacking £4 for the pair!
We then set off for the perilous two second walk to jono’s flat, where we were greeted by jono’s flatmate “Tom”. My first impressions were that he was a cockney who liked trance…my second impressions were he is either a thief or has good taste…(or a thief with good taste) as we found a hoegaarden glass in the kitchen hahaha.

We arranged to go out that night with Mike and Dave, but unfortunately I wasn’t up for it for varying reasons and fell asleep on the settee instead, waking up to find a strange feeling on my head and my hand covered in blood… maybe I did go out with them after all?

Current…
Music: Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon

—–
I still to this day don’t know what I cut my head on, but I never left the setee. Only saw that Tom once or twice after that, never seen him at uni since. I occasionally see Chris in town and say hi.
—–

Entry 004 – Saturday 18th September 2004

“You’re nothing but a drifter who found a bag of mail”
First off, bit of a rant…the Royal Mail suck, truly truly suck. My copy of Star Wars on DVD had been shipped from the good good people at HMV on WEDNESDAY and it never arrived today. Not only that, something that got shipped thursday hasn’t arrived either, and also not to forget the apparently rude postcard from Jenny and Nicky… all yet to arrive.

Friday night I popped down to Meadowhall with my dad. Finally got a new copy of The Sleepy Jackson – Lovers for a riprocking £4.99. I also saw Mike working hard as usual, trying to sell me things I didnt want like PS2 games.

Today has been quite boring. Got up at 7am for the 3rd day in a row (stupid Royal Mail) and watched The Italian Job (new one) on DVD. I reckon its a good film, even if most people hate it. Other than that I’ve listened to:

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd – The Division Bell (twice)
Mansun – B sides collection
Soulwax – Any Minute Now

All in their CD based versions; not an mp3 in sight today (much to jono’s pleasure no doubt)! Thankfully I dont have to get up tomorrow until the afternoon, where hopefully the HSBC in town will be open and I can pay off my overdraft (well, the majority of it anyway) leaving me with £30 to spend between now and the 28th…

Next week all my post will come, as will a very large box of beers and glasses with my name on it – all that stuff rocks…

Current…
Music: Soulwax – Any Minute Now
Mood: so-so

—–
The postcard did arrive, it was only rude in the cheeky european picture which featured on the front. I still have it somewhere.
—–

Entry 003 – Thursday 16th September 2004

So then…everyone’s left..
It’s certainly a sad day, that’s for sure. I’ll miss everyone that’s gone, especially Nicky. I say i’ll go visit everyone, but I imagine they’ll be too busy with new friends and the like. Nevermind

After the farewell to Nicky and Jen, me and jono went to the Devonshire Cat (via his new flat, which might I add ROCKS) for some extra strong beers (well, extra strong beers for me; jono had a Guinness and an Abbeydale Wheat beer). I had an Erdinger Pikantus and Schneider Aventinus (both 8%).

After there we grabbed a taxi to Intake to join Adam finishing his shift at the pub, where I had a pint of cider and some of jono’s John Smith’s while he was chatting to Adam.

Now I’m home and extra sad

Cya
Rob

Current…
Music: The Veils – Tide That Left And Never Came Back

—–
Certainly was a crap week that, as the majority of my college friends went away to Uni, with my University life not starting for another few weeks
—–

Entry 002 – Thursday 16th September 2004

*bleugh*….*puke*… hahahha *runs off*
Well, what can I say? Fans – you all seem to like my nonce-sense because I’m making jono’s stats look like Swiss cheese (don’t ask).

So then… in the 12 days since I wrote a lot’s been going on! Firstly my friends are leaving (doo hooo hoo, my sheep are missing) so I’ve been spending as much time with the people who are here as possible, which included 2 pub quizzes and several trips out. Nicky and Jen etc. have been away on holiday too.

Tuesday I went to an indoor BBQ, which involved me and Jim walking a long walk to Safeway to buy odd beers and muchos talking! It was very fun and the apple pie was delish (thanks Heather)!!
Tonight I’ve been toasting my good friend Paul’s farewell. It involved many a drink and many a puke (for them, not I) and far too much beer/shots/mixers for everyone’s good really.

Tomorrow I’m apparently going to the pub again, where I’ll prolly keel over and die from alcohol poisoning or something. Oh well. Better toast everyone elses farewell along with my own!

This week, I’ve been mostly spending far too much on beer memorabilia and the slow transition into me being a surrogate surfer person (new surfer shoes, new surfer bag and new surfer t-shirts, oh my what have I done?!)

Cya soon,
Rob.

Current…
Music: Pink Floyd – Cluster One
Mood: merry

—–
I have fond memories of Paul’s leaving do, it was certainly one of the more entertaining nights out, and one where everyone wasn’t at each others throats for one reason or another! I still own all the clothes/shoes/bag I mention there, and wear them often
—–

Entry 001 – Saturday 4th September 2004

‘ere? how you know I was ‘ere?
Welcome to my first ‘Nonsense, or nonce-sense as I call it. I’ve been in Cornwall for the last week, so I guess that’ll be the subject of my first go at this.

My memory of the week before last is hazy at best. I remember myself and jono went to the Devonshire Cat, but the haze isnt to do with anything like alcohol, more the weeks I’ve had off since college finishing are starting to merge into one really long week.
The period after the DevCat is yet more of a blur, as it was a long car journey. Don’t you hate it how motorways send you to sleep? Then wake you up again when you slow down due to an overturned caravan just as you get precious sleep you once didn’t want. Damn M5.
The first weekend down there went fast. I was mainly caught up in the search for bad postcards to send off to people. However, said search carried on all week due to an odd lack of poor postcards. When I finally found a bad card it turned out to be right under my nose in the village we were staying in. Ah well, at least I wasn’t accosted with those awful stereotypical ‘aren’t cornish people dumb?!’ cards which jono loves oh so much.

In the week, I visited Falmouth where there was an extremely large navy ship (hello sailors), Plymouth where I paid homage to my hero Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and finally Newquay where I stopped for a quick email check which cost me money, but no-one was online. Later that day I saw the red arrows and several other planes which were at a practice airshow in North Cornwall. However, the day was marred by the fact I destroyed my shoes somehow. I think the sand did it. Yes. I’ll blame the sand.
I found some cheap German beer in Safeway though, and a bottle opener shaped like a shark – always handy, or as jono might say, “marvellous”. I also bought a new rucksack in preparation for University – it’s a fetching quiksilver one in black. Great.

I finally sent off my postcards and arrived back home yesterday, to which I was greeted with a stack of post (all junk) and a shocking mobile credit readout of not many pence. That got topped up quicksmart. Which leads onto today, where at the very last minute I decided to go to town with my good friend Jim. We ended up miles out of the city centre in “The Fat Cat” near Kelham Island, where I purchased many a strong pint of ale and consumed it forthwith.

Until the next time (if viewing figures deem it to be worthy of a next time), farewell.

bye
Rob

Current…
Music: Seafood – Scortch Comfort
Mood: good, but also bad because I didnt send certain people postcards when I should have.

—–
Quite influential this first post. I believe it’s the first mentioning of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Not to mention the Quiksilver bag, which is still my main rucksack. I bought it with the intention of buying a laptop (it’s a discreet laptop bag), but it only got used fully this year when I bought my Acer. I believe this was the first time I went in the Fat Cat too, and I probably met a recently employed Dave Williams round the corner
—–

UPDATE – 2/1/08:

I’ve found the original state of the Union posts, in reverse order;

20th September – Bowling and Beer day
Today I went shopping for a new camera/university bag with little to no success. So anyone who knows where I can find a messenger/record bag type affair which will fit a Olympus OM10 (an SLR camera) and a couple of lenses along with my Sony Digicam as well as an A4 folder.. let me know

I bought the Dungeons and Dragons DVD boxset instead, and Michael Palin’s Around the World in 80 days. Expensive Day, I think i’ll have to do some freelancing soon.

Went bowling later with Tom and his mate Rob. Won them both 2 games to 1. (High Score: 134)

I did indeed find that bag eventually, my Crumpler that has been at my side for the last few years now. Never have watched beyond the first episode of D&D, it really is crap compared to childhood memories.

26 August – Spontaneity Day

Well, that was an interesting day!

Left the house at 1pm in my big black coat (yes, it was that cold) to meet Nat in town. Meadowhall bound we were so I could pick up the Pixies back catalogue from Virgin Records (its shutting down in M-Hall, so everything is 50% off).

Unfortunately they only had Surfa Rosa, but its still a good album so I picked it up for an amazing £3. On top of this Nat gave me a CD by a band called Metric. If you haven’t heard of them (and you probably won’t have) they are pretty good. Sorta like a female Soulwax (but the rocky soulwax, not 2manyDJs soulwax).

So anyway, in a spontanious move we decided that neither of us had seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so hopped on a tram to the UGC/Cineworld to check it out. Sadly it wasn’t on a decent screen for an hour, so we waited in the bar area. When I bought the tickets I realised that it was actually in screen 7 (ie. the big one), a screen i’d not been in for YONKS. As for the film, it was pretty good but no where near as good as the ‘original’ or the book for that matter.

After this, I decided that enough was enough and I dragged Nat to the Devonshrie Cat so I could indulge myself in alcohol for the first time in a month. Boy it was refreshing. I chose Columba (a witbier) and Nat chose a saxon cider ‘Purple Haze’, which was neither purple or haze..y. Then I had some Pulp beer (Richard Hawley styleé) and a half of Erdinger. Scrumdillyumptious.

Then we ate at Pizza Express (and it was lovely as always) and then both of us were on our respective routes home. Annoyingly my iPod batteries went half way back (that’ll teach me not to charge it for 2 weeks), but I didn’t care because I had a paper to read .

And that was my day.

My life really hasn’t changed that much at all, just exchange the names (and sometimes not even them) and the last 4 years just haven’t existed.

23 August – Memory Lane, S1.
Quite an interesting day today!

Met Wilf at 2pm (ish, *cough*) and went for jaunt round town, where he bought some rather odd cigarettes, they are black and gold of all things.

On the way to the pub, I fleetingly saw Natalie whom I’d not seen for a good 8 months or so. It wasn’t until I’d got to the pub, sat down and ordered myself a Lloyds Burger (which I’d not had for MONTHS) I realised who it was! A quick text later and I said hi for proper and had a quick pint (of lemonade as I’m still on the medication) with her and Matt Post who had joined us after buying a new contract phone.

All in all, quite an odd day of seeing people and consuming things I’d not had for ages.

Another bizarre day in the life of Robin.

22 August – Gigs, and I don’t mean the musical kind
Well, after my old sunglasses decided to snap down the middle a couple of months back I thought I’d treat myself to a new pair of gigs. (see attached photo). Relative bargain price of £40 from Boots (half price!).

While I was at meadowhall, I also picked up a few bits and bobs in the sale:

CD – Pixies – Dolittle – £3
DVD – Terminator 3 – £2
DVD – Solaris – £1.50
CD – Sigur Rós – Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do – £3
and some vinyl.

I also was forced to buy some black shoes for an upcoming wedding (yes, I have no idea either) and because they had £25 off them I decided to cut my losses and bought (well, technically they were free) some Cream Converse Hi-Tops.

So all in all, a pretty funky day. If not an expensively funky day! But they were bargains!! Honest!

All isn’t finished however, I should be meeting my mate Gav tonight for a quiet drink. Haven’t seen him for a while so I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve never watched Solaris, I saw it last week still in its wrapper. Oh-hum. Also, I’ve recently replaced these sunglasses after I realised just how horribly scratched I’d got them. The cream converse sadly met their end on a beach in North Wales in 2006.

16 August – Takk
Got the new Sigur Rós album today, and despite not having chance to listen to it fully, from what I have heard so far it sounds pretty damn impressive.

In other news, I got my badges in the post today They’ll be adorning my bag soon enough. Some sigur ones, a couple of Mansun ones and whatnot.

Ill update: I feel quite a bit better after the weekend, with my neck having gone down quite a bit. Just need to keep on the antibiotics to get rid of the throat pain.

I still love Takk, one of the best albums I own. This is the first mention of the sore throat incident in reverse time order. It only gets worse from here on in!

07 August – Animal Update!
Remember the Cat and Dog I mentioned from the blog entry about the Valley of the Beers?

Well, they are called Magus and Holly* (Cat and Dog respectively). Aww! I want a cat now!

I’ll attempt to get the photo of said cat onto my PC tomorrow at some point.

(*Cheers to Wilf for this info)

Self Explanatory, if you keep reading.

07 August – Sunday & Resolute not to let my tonsils get to me
Just when I was looking up, my tonsils kick me back in the nuts. However! I’m not going to let this get me down, I’ve had a good weekend with my brother, and a nice surprise earlier. Hear that tonsils! (well.. no. You don’t have ears do you.)
Just wish this throat would right itself and I can get on with feeling 110%!

My throat was really a key topic back then.

07 August – Valley of the Beers

Went to the Valley of the Beer tonight. Had quite a good time too.

Took in the Cask and Cutler (and stroked a cat and a dog, aww!) where I had a pint of “old tart” which i’d not had for a while (its a bit like Pale Rider, but with a different aftertate). From there we headed to the Fat Cat where I had a pint of DeKonnick Tripale. Unfortunately we were moved on because of a private party who played ‘James Blunt’ out of the back bar. On to the Riverside Cafe which was surprisingly good. They had a half decent band playing (who, at the start were quite crap, as their songs were overly long. But then they played their new EP which was rather good and some other stuff which I liked. Including a rendition of ’74-75′.) Some Leifmans Frambozenbier and Erdinger later we were on our way.

Stopped off for a insanely topped pizza on the way home and now I’m here

Was the first enjoyable day/evening I’d had since about June that one, due to the throat problems.

02 August – Shaun of the Bed?
Another ‘eventful’ day.

Woke up and took my medicine this morning, then sat up in bed and watched ‘Shaun of the Dead’.

Couple of CDs arrived in the post today:

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (yes, I know.. but I have it on vinyl already!)
Fischerspooner – Odyssey
and a signed copy of ‘Dogs – Turn against this land’

I think i might go back to bed.

It’s not all go seemingly. Bad puns as always though.

01 August – Blog Entry
Went to the pubquiz last night, Jayne and Paul were the guests this time (travelling quite a distance between them to get to it).

Sadly, despite photos of me wearing hawiiaan-themed sunglasses which will no doubt make an appearance sometime soon, my heart wasnt in it.

The day went something like this:

Paul arrived in Sheffield, only to get lost and end up on the opposite end of the city. So I found out where he was, directed him to somewhere I could easily get to and hopped on a tram to ‘save’ him.
A quick subway sandwich later and we were heading off back to my house for a cuppa and a quick go on Super Monkey Ball.

6′o clock quickly came and we were heading off to Tom’s flat where Jayne and Rich had already arrived.
A jaunt to the local curryhouse (Ayeshas) and back and the quiz was nearing start.

It was a fairly well answered quiz, with a quite high score for us (25) but sadly I let the team down by changing my answer on a question I should have known first time round, and not knowing the Elizabeth Fry question which again, I should have known. Had I not failed so miserably we’d have probably got 3rd place at least.

Oh well, I think the others had fun anyway.

Today I’ve pretty much just laid in bed and read my book.

Still kicking myself over that answer.

31 July – Ill update #2
Huzzah, feeling slightly better. Most of the pain has gone now save for when trying to; Yawn, Cough, Sneeze or all of the above at once.

However, as people stupid enough to want to ‘have a look’ can testify its still looking particually nasty inside. However its much better than it was.

My optimism is still lasting as well, which has surprised me!

I can still remember the yawn/cough/sneeze pain.

25 July – Forgot to add this…
… to the Hellish Weekend blog post.

The Hallamshire has some rather funky TV/Internet/Radio/Phone TFT screen things which are attached to the beds. Rather amazing, I’m sure you’ll agree!

However, while I was there they were unfortunately broken The screens instead displayed a Red ‘n Black Screen of Death claiming that “We’re Sorry, this is out of service”. Along with various technical bits and bobs (DCHP, IP and Mac Addresses for the geeks out there). I could cope with it being off… I could even cope with the damn thing flickering every second… I couldnt however cope with the fact it was displayed IN COMIC SANS!!!
Annnnnnnnnnnd… Relax…

Least of my worries, but I do hate Comic Sans.

Ill Update
Not feeling too bad today. Much better than the days previous anyway. Still can’t talk for more than 3 or 4 minutes at a time, which may or maynot be a blessing in disguise

The regime of painkillers and antibiotics is annoying me already, and its only the first proper day of taking them. It really is a rather convoluted way of having them, as some require that I have a full stomach and others require I have an empty one. And of course they are all at 6hr distances, so it basically means early to rise, late to bed
The only good thing to come out of this is a sort of enlightened attidutde regarding my pessimism. I’m still feeling rather upbeat despite what ive been through. I guess in part its thanks to all the kind words and offers of support ive had since being admitted and leaving! Cheers All!

Heck, I might even go on Oblivion this season! But don’t place any bets folks!

I did go on Oblivion in the end, and this whole saga cured my crippling post 99′ roller-coaster fear.

24 July – Hellish Weekend
I dont usually write blogs like the one below, but with the things that have happened in the last few days, I think it warrents telling the tale! Read on… (however.. some bits are gory, i’ll clearly label them!)

Friday – 22nd

Didn’t really sleep much Friday night, was in a bit of throat pain but nothing too much. Just stopped me from sleeping well. Around 5am I woke up with breathing difficulties and decided to ring NHSdirect as I was in a lot of discomfort. They said stick it out, and I’d be fine, despite the fact I had a large 1”x1”x0.5” lump appearing on my pallet.

Went to see the GP first thing that morning, who asked how I’d feel “about going to hospital… like now” I was reluctant, to which he replied with a blunt; “If you don’t get it seen to by a specialist you may die from bloodloss as its an abscess near the artery and veins at the back of the neck”

That convinced me enough.

I got into hospital around 11am, when the consultant had arrived. He said it looked rather nasty and decided to poke at it with the biggest needle they have in the hospital. However… he didn’t figure on my gag reflex being so bad that as soon as he stuck the needle in my neck I gagged….

*gore coming now*

and sprayed a lovely concoction of blood, pus and phlegm all over him and his student assistant. Reluctant to try that one again himself he brought down the Senior Ear Nose and Throat doctor and pumped my gob with more anaesthetic. After a lot of pain and gagging he finally managed to drain it.

*gore ended*

Feeling slightly better and able to breathe a bit better they moved me onto a bed (I was on my own the whole time too!). Took some blood, gave me some saline solution in my IV hole and then the bad bit.. I was hooked up to a drip, which wasn’t too disconcerting at the start, but about 20 seconds after they’d plugged me in I started to get awful backache. Then my stomach felt like it was being twisted, and my kidneys felt like they were exploding, this pain while staying where it had infected started moving towards my heart and for the brief time I was riving and convulsing in pain I seriously thought that this was the end. Thankfully the senior consultant who’d drained me earlier arrived on the scene, pulled me off the IV, fed me saline and did some bizarre stomach massage which eased the pain very quickly. So many thanks to him. I’d like to say that in the moments where I thought I was going to die I thought of ALL the people I loved etc. but unfortunately I was concentrating too hard on the fact I was in a lot of pain. Although a few thoughts did cross my mind however.

After this I tried to relax while being fed a cacophony of drugs both via IV and tablet (including codeine, so in the infamous line – “I haven’t had a crap in 3 days” – holds true this time!)

Saturday – 23rd

Didn’t get much sleep Friday Night/Saturday morning, so read what stuff I had on me and stared blankly at the picturesque nature that is Sheffield viewed from the Hospital. Hospital food isn’t as bad as they say you know, I don’t think I’ve ever had so many varied foodstuffs which tasted quite so good.

Morning rounds came, and the docs weren’t convinced that I was any better from my readings (pulse, respiration, blood pressure etc.) so I was told I’d be “in another two days at least”, unless.. they drained it again. I couldn’t face that, so opted for the two days.

I also found out how incredible difficult it is to do ANYTHING with a drip in your arm, even when its out you’re left with a needle stuck in a vein which you can’t really move.

Had a visit from my Uncle and Aunt, as well as my parents obviously, and my good friend Sián who showered me with magazines and balloons

Sunday – 24th

In the middle of the night, something odd happened. The whole left side of my face (where the pain started) suddenly went bright red and hot. However upon measuring my vitals they found that I was showing perfect vital signs! (Miracle recovery? Who knows!) The doctors looked in my mouth to see that the growth/abscess had gone down significantly overnight and asked if Id like to be discharged today. I bit their hand off and said YES!

So yeah… Now I’m home, with a big bag of medication I need to take for around 10 days.

Thanks for the kind words people have txt’d/emailed/PM’d/rang me with over the last few words, and even bigger thanks to the Doctors and Nurses at the Hallamshire!

Yeah, that was easily one of the worst weekends of my life, and it is still haunts me every time I or someone I know gets a sore throat.

22 July – Not good
Lo All,

I might not be around for a few days. For reasons I dont want to go into.

Cheers,

Rob.

(ps. I might be able to be reached via email, im not sure)

I posted this when I came back from the doctors to collect some weekend things. If I remember rightly, I wasn’t in the best of moods

12 July – The State of the Union #14
Im getting rather slack at writing accounts here aren’t I.

I’ve not done or bought much at all of late, erm… other than some bargains I’ve nothing much to report on the CD edge:

Picked up a copy of Turin Brakes – Ether Song for £3 from Fopp, and a copy of the last Cooper Temple Clause album for a gobsmacking £1.97 in Music Zone Liverpool (dont ask).

Although Yesterday did warrant a rather large purchase, that I cannot afford.. oh well. It was only £58 though!

I can’t remember what the £58 was for. This was the last time I called it State of the Union.

The State of the Union #13
Woops! Really should add to this more than I do… Been ill, so havent really bought much.. umm.. Turin Brakes – Ether Song (from Fopp – £3) the new Supergrass album, not listened to yet though. Clor – Clor (stunning album, out in august, all must buy!)

I was quite ill by this point but didn’t really realise it. So much so, I was repeating posts.

More soon, when I can be arsed to copy and paste more.