The Hunger Games

Brief Update – 

The NHS comes in for an awful lot of stick it would seem. However I’ve either been incredibly lucky to date, or we really do have a Health Service that is the envy of the world. When I saw Scary last week she said she didn’t think that I’d get seen for the forthcoming little Op. prior to Carol and I disappearing off on holiday again. Well, on Tuesday morning the phone rang at home and it was a rather friendly person from the Endoscopy Dept. at RBH asking me if I could come in for the Op. the following Tuesday. Now that’s what I call service, in fact they could have done the procedure earlier, but for various reasons I couldn’t. Carol picked up the “Magic Potions” that I’ll need to take on Monday prior to my visit. Helpfully, the instruction packet for the laxatives advise being close to a toilet when you take them! Who’d have guessed? I’m also not allowed to eat anything from 2pm on Monday through to when I have the operation, I’m only allowed clear liquids, not sure if that includes whisky or not, but certainly bins scrumpy I guess. I get the feeling that Bank Holiday Monday in the Clark household is going to be a barrel of laughs.

Thursday was Carol’s birthday. I made the schoolboy error of forgetting to phone Nino’s for a booking until Wednesday, by which time he was full. So off we trooped into Reading to join the great unwashed, luckily they weren’t all trying to eat out at the same restaurants as us! London Street Brassarie managed to fit the five of us without too much drama. Decent food, but let down a bit by slow service. We haven’t seen much of Errant Son this weekend as he’s been off to “Fest” with his latest squeeze, even though it’s probably only about two miles away as the crow flies they’ve been coming back each night to a decent bed and a warm shower.

On Saturday I managed to get to my first away match with Rams since last December. They played their final preseason friendly against Luctonians RFC from Leominster. My parents used to live about five miles from Leominster, but I’d forgotten how far away it was, spending over five hours in the car probably wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve had. The match was a typical disjointed preseason affair. I’d think that Rams were probably missing 10 players at least from the team that will start the league campaign next weekend at home to Taunton. There was a pleasant surprise at the end of the game as I went to confirm the scores with the ref. One of the assistant refs came up and said “Hello Paul, how are you?” Now I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets confused when they see people out of context to the normal circumstances you would meet them in. The AR was a chap I’d done a lot of business with in the past in my job, I hadn’t seen him for perhaps three years and I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever met him whilst he was wearing business attire. I knew Peter ref’d at a decent level, but I didn’t realise he’d been promoted up to Level 4 Rugby, so there’s a good chance he’ll be at one of the Rams games, either home or away this coming season. The photos from the game weren’t the best I’ve ever taken, but I’ll use the excuse that the light was all over the place in the first half, and in the second it started raining so the gear was shoved away for the day.

Next weekend is the opening proper of the season, Rams entertain Taunton at OBR and on Sunday the Mini’s and Junior’s get their seasons underway. This will be the first time for 12 seasons that I’ve missed the first weekend. Part of me is a bit pissed off, but a far bigger part is thinking of 30 degrees heat in the Canaries! I’ll also miss Max making his senior debut for the 3s away to Shire Hall, but there will be plenty of other chances. I believe he’s going to the Badger Bash after the match, so probably just as well we’re away as it’ll give him a week to a) Sober up and b) Redecorate if necessary.

Sunday was a day of getting things sorted for the holiday next weekend. As I’ll likely be out of action for much of Monday and Tuesday, possibly Wednesday too, I had to get into town early to sort out our Euro’s, a rate of Euro 1.15 at John Lewis was as good as it got, still bloody “Ouchy” compared to this time last year when I got close to Euro 1.45! It was vaguely amusing to see the “Great Unwashed” being washed as it was chucking it down sideways, and as always it seems I bumped into a regular at Artigiano’s!

I realise I haven’t posted a recipe for a while, and as I won’t be able to eat anything exciting on Monday it would seem like a good chance.

Thai Green Curry :

Prep Time : 15 minutes, depending on traffic.

Cooking time : 20 minutes.

This is a simple but tasty dish. Jump into your car, drive to Waitrose, avoid “The Great Unwashed” & Yummy Mummies, buy the prepared Waitrose Thai Green Curry. Pay, jump back in car, drive home. Heat oven to “Hot”, follow pack instructions, dish up, eat. An almost fool proof recipe. Enjoy, have this one on me! 

The time saved in buying a take-away meant I had enough spare time to build a play list ahead of the Colonoscopy on Tuesday, apologies for the toilet humour!

• ·         Open up and say “Ahhhh” – Poison
• ·         Shake a leg – AC/DC
• ·         Movin’ Out – Aerosmith
• ·         Dirty Back Road – B52s
• ·         Burnin’ for you – Blue Oyster Cult
• ·         Against the wind – Bob Seger
• ·         Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
• ·         Under Pressure – David Bowie & Queen
• ·         Tunnel of Love – Dire Straits
• ·         If Dirt were Dollars – Don Henley
• ·         Digging Deep – Fish
• ·         Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac
• ·         Loss of Control – Green Day
• ·         Mr Brownstone – Guns ‘n Roses
• ·         That Smell – Lynyrd Skynyrd
• ·         Warm Wet Circles – Marillion
• ·         For Crying out loud – Meatloaf
• ·         Even Flow – Pearl Jam
• ·         Stir it up – Tesla
• ·         Let it roll – UFO

Monday was a fairly quiet Bank Holiday to begin with. I made up the magic movement potion, stuck it in the fridge and waited for the 6pm witching hour for the effect to take place. The stuff tasted god awful, but the first litre was drunk and it was then a case of waiting to see what happened………………. And whilst waiting I was kept amused by my Facebook friends ideas of humour.

Tuesday dawned, for me, at around 4am with my stomach advising me it was probably a good idea to get up and remove the Andrex from the fridge. I won’t go into details, but I wish I’d been given this potion when I was suffering so badly from constipation whilst I was going through Chemo and RT.

Arriving at the hospital I was incredibly nervous, not helped I guess by the fact that I hadn’t eaten since midday on Monday, not drank since 10am that morning and was generally feeling god awful. A 20 minute run through with a nurse eased my concerns to a degree, the procedure should be no more than uncomfortable and would be managed by pain relief. 30 minutes later, for a variety of reasons, not least being the extreme pain I was in the procedure was stopped roughly ½ way through. This means I’ll have to go through all the build up again when we get back from holiday and I’ll be seen by a Senior Consultant rather than a Junior Registrar. So it was home for a much needed dinner and early night. I started the day feeling nervous, I ended the day feeling frustrated. I’d really hoped that today would be the last time I’d have to undergo any procedures at the hospital for a while. To realise I’ve got to go through it all again is a bit crushing.

Wednesday was my last working day until 13^th September, there’s something quite satisfying about setting the Out of Office and turning off your work phone. When I’m back it’ll be a real case of back to the coal face, working full time for the first time since December of last year, missing out on afternoon naps (Although I may sneak in the odd 40 winks), being full on back on the treadmill. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the fact that I may need more treatment for the stomach lump and that is because I’ve decided I won’t need treatment, it’ll be a false alarm and nothing to worry about.

Thursday was the day of the National Rugby Awards up at Twickenham. Carol and I travelled up by train and checked into the Twickenham Travelodge (ever the romantic), it was a long day and I was a bit concerned about being totally cream crackered when it finished and having to drive back home again. The afternoon VIP Reception was fun, albeit a bit drawn out. I got to meet the other nominees in the Volunteer category, truthfully any one of us would have been worthy winners of the award. The others all came from what I’d class as Junior clubs, all level 7 and below, or didn’t have Senior sections. The tour of Twickenham stadium was interesting, the home changing rooms are out of this world and need to be seen to be believed. It was then on to the pitch side drinks reception before heading into the function room to meet the other Rams and settle down for dinner and the awards. 

Rams were also up for an award for the Facility Development of the Year, but missed out to Whitley Bay Rockliff RFC, again a much smaller club than ours. By the time it got to the Volunteer award I’ll admit I was pretty nervous. I wasn’t aware that the winners were going to be interviewed on the stage by some bloke from Sky Sports. My voice was pretty shot at this point, down mainly to having been in air conditioned rooms for most of the day. I needn’t have worried, as the winner was Simon Ursell from Tetbury RFC. I’d chatted to Simon quite a lot in the afternoon, he was a genuine chap who really deserved the award. His club have one Senior Men’s team, some Juniors and a full section of Mini’s. They also survive despite having only one pitch to play on. A true grass roots club by the sound of things. It’s easy to say with hindsight that it’s an honour just to have been nominated, but truly that is the case. There are something like 100,000 club volunteers around the country, to be on a shortlist of 6 is a pretty good result. I’d love to see what the nomination actually said…………… As you would imagine, with 750 people at the dinner, all of them associated in one form or another with rugby the evening started to get a bit lively. So Carol and I took our leave and walked slowly back to our hotel having enjoyed the day immensely. (Carol even got to sit in the Presidents seat in the Royal Box, the first female president of the RFU perhaps?)

I was hoping that I’d have the book #shouldertoshoulder ready for publishing by now, but it looks like it’s going to be delayed now until probably the end of September. Good things are worth waiting for, and so are mediocre ramblings I’m led to believe.

That is for now folks, we’re off to sunny Fuerteventura tomorrow for a week of tan topping, wine guzzling, meat eating, relaxation! And we won't be worrying about the appointment on 19th September, anyway the doctors will probably be on strike! 

As always, thanks for reading.

To be continued (for a little while longer)……………….

#shouldertoshoulder