It's Saul Goodman 

The image at the opening of this blog is the first to show the stoma without a base plate or HME, only taken 12 month to post. Max took the picture for me and I edited it on Lightroom.

Ok, I know I said I wouldn’t be posting another blog and was passing the baton over to Penny, Neville and Hendricks Pinkman to continue writing. There was a slight flaw in my cunning plan, in that Penny, Neville and Hendrick Pinkman are workshy lazy slackers who’d rather just doze in the sun than sweat away at the keyboard. I’ve also missed writing. 

Let’s get the obvious “Health” issues out of the way, I’m fine. I’m nowhere near 100% but I’m 100% better than I was this time last year.

It’s the first anniversary of me getting the snip, Facebook Memories remind me each morning about just how tough it was in late June, early July 2018. There are days I wake up and feel low and in a bit of pain, then I look back at the memories and realise just how far I’ve recovered in the last 12 months. One of the simple ways that I can manage my recovery is in my monthly order to Countrywide for my medical supplies. In the early days I’d use probably four or five HME filters in a day and usually two base plates. Now an HME lasts a whole day, sometimes a day and a half, whilst base plates are going for two days without being changed. There is still the odd day of blowing a base plate or having to change the HME a couple of times in the day, but these are rare. The stoma is still looking pretty good and takes little looking after other than regular cleaning. My monthly bill to the NHS has probably halved in 12 months.

We’ve had quite a busy time of things since the last update. We dragged Nev up the M1 to see No.1 Daughter Anna in her house in Leeds. It was a good couple of days, an awfully long time since I’d been back up to my old birth county, I’m pleased to say that Electricity and WiFi seems to be widely available. Seriously, it was nice to see Anna and Tom settling in to domestic bliss and getting on with their lives. Neville enjoyed seeing them both again and took to the Yorkshire countryside really well, he struggled slightly understanding the locals though. 

Whilst the 15 a side rugby season is on the summer break, the 7s season is well underway. Max is playing for the Badger 7s again this season, and I was proud to be one of the shirt sponsors for their new kit under the S2S Photography guise.

A busy three weeks on consecutive festivals started with Milton Keynes where the Badgers probably were a bit rusty, moved on to Newquay which was sublime and finished in Abingdon, a week too far perhaps? Milton Keynes was a fun festival, played at a club I hadn’t visited before. The Badgers played well in three of their four pool matches before losing to a very well drilled side. I took my leave at that point and drove home as I was feeling a tad jaded.

Carol and I took the chance to have a long weekend down in Porthcothan to coincide with the Newquay 7s. The idea of camping in a tent didn’t really appeal so we hired a caravan at Canevas, our usual stopping point. We traveled down on the Friday morning, to arrive at Porthcothan on a truly stunning lunchtime, not a cloud in the sky, 23 degrees, total heaven. We’d arranged to meet Sidney and his assistants on the beach that evening so that he and Neville could get to know each other on neutral territory. When they’d meet previously in March it had been at Sidney’s house and he was unsurprisingly a bit territorial. This time however, after a couple of “I’m still older than you Neville m’lad” type grunts, they got on really well. Neville following Sidney all over the beach and generally learning from the master. A quick pint turned into two hours in the pub above the beach chatting away whilst the dogs played together. It was one of the nicest days we’ve had for a long time. For any new readers to the blog Sidney is Neville’s elder brother from the same father. He's the one on the right in the photo below. 

Carol dropped me off at the Newquay 7s the next morning as supposedly dogs weren’t allowed on the school grounds. One of the first things I saw were two couples walking their dogs through what in effect was public land! A mental note was made to give Carol a ring and get her to bring Neville over later in the afternoon. The Badgers had been “bumped” into the Elite group of teams which meant they had to face three invitational teams. Shredded Ducks, Wooden Spoon Marauders, and Doom Platoon are made up of players specifically invited to play for the teams and are generally of a pretty high standard. This was born out all too well on the Badgers who took stiff beatings from both the Ducks and Marauders before meeting The Doom Bar team. Doom Bar were probably the dirtiest, most undisciplined bunch of thugs that I’ve ever had the misfortune of watching play 7s. They were more interested in putting cheap shots in rather than playing rugby. It was no surprise at all when the first of their two red cards appeared in their stuffing by the Badgers, a late and uncalled for sliding tackle on a player who was already on the ground. The Badgers went on to win all their remaining fixtures on the day, meaning they ended up as the winners of the Bowl.

 

The Senior Badger players then nominated their Badger of the Festival, it was Max J I’ve watched him play 7s now for the past three summers, this was by far his strongest performance to date, it also happened to be his 20^th birthday on the Saturday.  I’m not sure how much, or we even what he drank on the Saturday night, but when we picked him up on the Sunday morning to go to the beach and then an early lunch he didn’t look overly alive J It was a good three day break, helped by the weather being glorious. I know I’ve said it before, but if you could guarantee the weather I’d go to North Cornwall every year for my main holiday. Neville loved it too!

As a footnote, the Newquay 7s were sponsored by Doombar (The St Austell’s brewery brew), but there was no bar on site, and probably the worst burger I’ve ever tasted on sale too. The players love the festival due to its location, not sure I’d bother going as a spectator if it wasn’t so close to Porthcothan though.

The final of the three in a row was held at Abingdon RFC, another club I’ve not visited before, despite only being 40 minutes from home. What a lovely club it was too. Lush green pitches, despite the heatwave, friendly bar staff (It had a bar!!!!) and an edible and enjoyable burger, just what the average rugby supported wants. The Badgers were a tad short of players and an early injury to the expectant father meant they were in need of some subs. Luckily Max, who’d given this one a miss, was only up the road in Oxford with Laura looking at Uni’s. A quick phone call, a taxi journey which seemed to take in most of Oxfordshire and he’d arrived to take to the field. The Badgers played some outstanding rugby, losing a close match to the eventual winner, The Royal Navy 7s and going down to another very good invitational side in the Semi Final of the plate. I got the impression that players who’d played all three weeks on the bounce were looking forward to a break before the Fat Boy 7s at Abbey RFC. The Rams ladies side, the Sirens also took part at Abingdon, I ended up shooting between the two pitches the Badgers ans Sirens were playing on, over 800 shots taken in the day. 

One of the downsides of the three consecutive weeks of taking photos was the damage it had done to me knees. I was once told by a photographer who I really respect that you can’t be a good sports photographer if your knees are clean. I tend to kneel either on one knee, or more often than not, on both knees so that I’m shooting low to high to get the best image. By the time I’d finished at Abingdon I could hardly walk and the next few nights were agony with a burning sensation inside the knee joints. I mentioned this to Sian the Physio who’s been treating my shoulder and she’s given me some exercises to try and strengthen the joints and suggest I use Ibrofen gel to ease the pain. I think though that the years on abuse my knees have suffered are finally catching up with me.

Now to the part of the blog that I reckon most people want to read. How is the one, the only, the hairy, the Neville getting on? The simple answer is he’s having a ball. Still very much his own dog, and still a puppy, but the training and obedience are coming along pretty well and he’ll usually come back when called…………. Eventually! He’s had his first train ride, a short hop from Tilehurst to Pangbourne 

which seemed go well. His first visit to the groomers, hardly any blood spilled and his first real play with Penny the cat…………. Ok, when I say play, what I really mean is Neville, tail a wagging, trying to play with Penny and Penny, hissing for England, trying to scar Nev’s face for life, but believe me, it was progress. Regular sufferers will know that the Kromis breed is pretty rare in the UK, there’s only 50 of them in the whole Country. In September it’s likely that up to 10 of them will be meeting down in Kent, including the whole litter Neville was breed from, that’ll be 20% of the entire countries population of a breed meeting up at one point. I’d hazard a guess that no other breed is able to say that. We’ve got two months to persuade Nev not to behave like a teenage delinquent in front of his extended family, we’re doomed I tell you, doomed!

Work is trundling along. I’ve taken on a bigger case load following one the team being transferred to another Dept. This means I’m back up to the levels of cases to manage that I was at prior to December 2015, it keeps me off the streets, but I do worry about the customer interaction, especially with face to face meetings. To date I haven’t had an incident of the valve blocking or a base plate blowing whilst I’ve been with a customer, it will happen at some point, and frankly I’m dreading it. The whole interaction with the public or even my friends is beginning to hang over me.

Recently I’ve left social meetings early as if there’s lots of background noise, say music or loud talking, I have real problems in making myself heard, this in turn makes me really frustrated. It’s easier to make my excuses and go home, rather than standing around looking like a prized plumb. I can’t think of a solution to this challenge as my voice won’t get any stronger than it already is. I seem to be ok if we’re out in the open air, it’s confined spaces that cause the problems. I’m due to see the Consultant next month so will perhaps as to see the SALT Team and see if they have any ideas to help the volume.

I’ve never been the biggest football fan in the world, but I’ve really enjoyed the majority of the games I’ve watched from Russia. I started to post Instagram pics of Neville watching the matches with me, with quirky little captions, such as “Neville refuses to support Nigeria until the Prince sends him his promised £s”, you get the picture. I do have to be careful what I post though, as after Germany were knocked out I posted Aug Wiedersehen Pet……….. only to get messages from friends in Germany asking if Nev had died…….. Opp’s J  England performed well above my expectations, to make the last 4 was amazing. They perhaps could have been two or three goals up by half time against Croatia, but it was not to be. Really looking forward to the 3^rd / 4^th place playoff match on Saturday, said no one, ever.

For those who’ve read my blogs in the past you may remember Gill Sims and her Peter and Jane blog on Facebook. Gill published her second book yesterday, it’s called Why Mummy Swears  I’m sure it’s just as funny as the first one, but don’t know whether smoothies will make another guest appearance. 

Today is 33 years since Bob Geldof urged us all to stay in, not go to the pub and give him the f**cking money, it’s also 33 years since Carol and I were married. Max is taking his girlfriend Laura up to Leeds to visit Anna and Tom, so Carol and I are off for a romantic meal for two at Nino’s. Nev and Penny are under strict instructions to behave whilst we’re out.

No idea when I’ll blog again, but as always, thanks for reading.

Just passed 160,000 words J

#Shoulder2Shoulder