Its time to roll this chestnut out again and why not!!! Its a great song and now it has a video too!!!

However, its just a nice collection of pics I hope you like it.

Kerris wanted it on You Tube so that she could email all her friends and maybe a millionaire record producer will spot it and offer me a King's ransom for the right....I can dream eh!!!

There is actually a live take of this on my PC somewhere from a village hall in a small village near Derby but the guitar went out of tune near then end so you don't want to see that!!! More so, I don't want you to see it!!!

My guitar, RIP.

I have 2 guitars. An acoustic that the classic "Beautiful Day" was written on and also an electric which was named Aquamarine after it turned out to be my true colour. My electric also has a loud amp with many distortion effects.

I have pretty much given up playing them both. They both now rot in a cupboard, out of sight and out of mind and if I ever get them out then its more for curiosity than pleasure.

You see, my hands and finger have a numbness and this numbness is enough to take away the very small skill that I once had on the guitar.

I also think that I would not be much cop on the drums either these days. Singing also makes my left side feel ever so slightly weak.

It doesn't bother me, I can still rock out on my air guitar and I can still attempt songs that I could never sing in the first place.

Maybe one day things will be better but for now, I just soldier on.

Clinical trial.

Those are 2 words that most people would shirk at but....what the hell!!!

Alemtuzumab is a drug mentioned on the news widely last week. It has shown that patients in the early stages of MS can have significantly less attacks than those on the current widespread drugs and it has also gone on to allow the body to repair some of the damage caused by MS.

It does this by wiping out lymphocytes (whatever they are) and while this lowers the bodies defence to disease, it reboots the immune system.

So, with nothing to lose, I submitted myself for the continued trial. It will be interesting to see if I am accepted as I don't have MS as a diagnosis as yet but then again, if I am in the early stages of the disease, I might just be the lab rat they need!!!

I will let you know....

Queen in Liverpool....

I went to see Queen & Paul Rodgers in Liverpool on the 18th October and all in all it was a great show.

I haven't commented on this new life of Queen with their new singer in any depth but I bought the new album (The Cosmos Rocks) and I stuck with it for a while and now there are only 2 or 3 tracks on it that I cant bear!!! Thankfully, the tracks they played from the new album rocked enough and went down well..

My overall opinion was that while the album is a valid collaboration, it should never have gone under the banner of Queen and....

While Fred has his excuses, the fact that John Deacon retired and cant be bothered joining in makes it not Queen.

So the album and the concert should go under the heading of Brian, Roger and Paul. And in that way, its cool with me.

As for the concert, Timmy Mallett could be up there as lead singer and I would still love it!! Anything that gets Brian and Roger up playing the hits that they were a huge part of makes me smile. So I loved it!!!

Up top is Fat Bottomed Girls and down below, for all you who seek the 8 minute guitar solo side of life, is a........8 minute guitar solo!!!

Today, I saved us £1000.00....

Its not often I save money for my family, in fact, I am known for harbouring debts and generally costing us money so this made a nice change!!!

Our mortgage is due up in December, we have enjoyed a low rate for the last few years and the size of our mortgage (details withheld) as apposed to the value of our house (details again withheld to protect the innocent) make it very easy for Kerris and I to be able to shop about.

I have always been a fan of the fixed rate, it only goes up or down when the fixed rate term is up so it allows us to budget. Part of our current mortgage is on a variable rate and I would say we have seen it rise more often than fall.

I heard on the radio a few months ago that people generally should review their rates every 3 years so being on a 3 year fixed rate suits me.

Our current lender, Coventry Building Society where given first shot at offering us a new deal, this was a few weeks ago and I was offered some rate, plus a £999.00 arrangement fee. I held off until we had seen our friendly financial advisor today.

The upshot was that her advice was to run with a rate I had been offered by the Coventry and we also had another letter in the meantime wavering arrangement fees. We were in fact onto a winner!!

So my holding off saved us £999.00 and of that I am proud!!!

Memory loss.

I have a good memory in general (well apart from if you ask me about any part of my life prior to age of 18) and one thing I despise in others is that some people will drink themselves to oblivion and not care about how they got home or into bed or who the had a fight with all in the name of memory loss through drinking. I hate it.

This is one of the reasons that explains why I don't get drunk often. I am a control freak, I need to know details.

So I am astounded that when I woke this morning, I had memory loss from the previous night. More so from the fact that this happened on 4 beers and half a bottle of red wine. I am the kinda guy who (if he was that stupid) would probably have the marbles in place to still drive a car competently on that amount of alcohol.

Kerris and I had a lovely evening while Jay and Luca slept for the first time at Nanny June's new flat and they had a lovely time too. We did a great double, we started off at the Chill Inn bar on Lord Street before retiring next door to the Grill Inn (owned by the same people) for some beautiful Cumbrian steaks.

We walked home, it was a perfect evening for it weather-wise and I started stumbling a little and the last thing I remember was walking up our path. After that, very vague, details lost and then woke up this morning.

My Carbamazepine tablets say "don't take with alcohol" so there is the answer I reckon. Well I will only make that mistake once.....

A tale of 2 systems.....

In the same way that my brother can bore the back teeth off a cat, I can also ramble aimlessly on about things that only a select few would understand and today I will share one of them for you.

A good friend of mine works for a successful access control manufacturer who will remain nameless. I have spoken at great length with him about why the company I work for use certain products for certain applications.

We have 3 levels, we have our weapon of choice, then we have a system that we prefer when a network (PC based) system is required and then finally, we have a system that we prefer when the network is over IP (or the Internet on multiple sites in other words). My friends product falls into the IP category and we were having a friendly argument as to why we don't use it for standard PC based systems.

My point was that the particular product that we use is popular and rightly so because it is easy to use and also intuitive while being at the right price. My friends system is a little overpriced and not the easiest interface.

My point was that our company can go 6 months without using our proffered system and the minute we install it and fire it up, we recognise it, its like an old friend and its very easy to configure. My friends system is always slightly awkward to use after a break and there is always a setting that we forget to configure that holds up the process.

For example, today, we set up a system in Leeds. I told my colleague that every time we do this, there is always a setting I forget to configure on site. We get back to the central site (several miles away) and fire up the software and configure the IP details for the control unit and.......nothing, no sign of life.

Thankfully, there is a control unit on this site so I log into it and check my settings against those that I have used elsewhere and bingo, I spot the setting that I forget to configure every time and we are away!!! I phone someone at the remote site, get them to stand in front of thr access panel, tell them the change and we have life.

Now you can say to me, you are just thick Mike and you really should know your product better and I would agree but without that friend on the remote site, we would have had to get back in the car and drive to the centre of Leeds to make the change. Not good in my book. The product requires 4 settings to be in place to work over IP and these should be in big bold bullet points in the front of the user manual.

Now take our proffered product, it doesn't do IP at this moment but in November it will. In the same situation, as long as the IP details are correct, it will see the control unit and report back a serial number in the software. We then click on the serial number and confirm its our baby and we are away. No settings to worry about and no need for any on site programming. Its all done in the software.

That is why its our preferred product, it just works better.

Just to balance the argument out a little though.....my friends product is so robust and in 5 years of site installations over IP, we have never had a single problem with the equipment once it was live. There aren't many people who can make that claim in this industry!!!!

Kiss of death if ever I heard it.........

Chilli

Behold the Naga Jolokia chilli pepper. Possibly the hottest chilli pepper in the world and currently sat in my kitchen waiting to be cooked!!!

Tonight, a slither of one of these beauties will be added to Mike's world famous Chilli Chicken Avocado Salad.

I only hope that Kerris and I live to tell the tale!!!

If successful, then you are cordially invited to feast on Mike's speciality dish "Chicken Fajita Del Feugo" or "Pasta Lanciafiamme" if it takes your fancy!!!

This may be the last entry, wish me luck!!!!

Caffeine

Just a note to tell all that I have given up Caffeine with immediate effect.

This is possibly more information than most would like to know but it is a fact that in recent years, I can only take a leak when I really need to.

That may sound obvious but let me give you an example. I got up today at 07.20 and felt a light need to pee, I went to the loo and nothing happened. I continued to revisit the loo several times over the coming hours and finally at 11.50, I took a leak.

So all that time I had the need the pee but could not until it would stay in no more.

Part of my testing yesterday was about how my bladder works and how its linked to my condition. The nurse pointed out that Caffeine had a major effect on how waterworks act and asked em to think about my Caffeine intake.

I realised that in a day I have at least 2 cups of tea, perhaps a Latte and usually a half litre of Coke Zero.

Caffeine intake is high, so as of now, no more diet coke, no more tea, coffee and Latte unless its decaf.

I will report back on my waterworks in due course......

And now something to lighten the mood a little....

Second opinion and God bless the NHS.

Today felt a little bit like a new beginning as I visited the Walton Centre in Liverpool to seek a second opinion on my condition and to be honest, I had no hopes of anything fruitful coming out of today.

First lets recap on why I want a second opinion. Basically, I felt let down by my consultant Neurologist Dr Nicholson as this year, I have had terrible trouble communicating with him and he has not kept my GP informed of my progress and test results. Also, previously, I had private medical care through BUPA and although originally it was part of my employment package, as I changed jobs and my condition progressed, I stumped up the membership from my own pocket. I did this as I thought that I would get the best care and doctors to help me but recently I found out that any Neurological disorder that is diagnosed (and remember that I dont have a diagnosis right now) is not covered by the scheme. So as a second reason, I wanted to start again on the NHS.

I am by no means a snob but to drop out of BUPA to the NHS seemed a little daunting to me and I am happy to report that I am nothing short of amazed by the service I received today.

Anyway, firstly I was given a consultation with a Professor Young.....look her up, she is big in the world of Neurology so I was quite flattered to be in her presence and I was surprised at just how much time she spent talking to me. We went over my progression from day 1 and identified key areas of the development of my symptom. She discussed thins that I was happy with and she also discussed things that are far too personal and not for the blog but every time she hit the nail on head with her analysis of my condition. She was a no nonsense character, not much fun, very serious but I felt a sense of interest in helping me and that came across in very large waves time and time again.

We are talking about MS here as its the most likely outcome of my symptoms but she is far more cautious about the diagnosis than anyone I have spoken to previously.

Her classification of the disease falls into 2 parts. First you must have multiple symptoms (multiplicity) and you also have to have multiplicity in a certain time period. The more time that passes between recurring symptoms the better. I have spoken about this on the blog in the early days.

She identifies that the demyelination of my spinal cord is one symptom and she also identifies that problems with my sight are another symptom (these 2 could provide the multiplicity she refers to).

Now referring to my sight is a new one. Previously, I have spoken in depth with my optician and I have had evoked visual potential tests at the Walton Centre to identify problems but until now it has drawn a blank and the nice thing about Prof Young is that she believes me when I state that there is something wrong with my vision. Everyone else has discounted it.

The clinic today was a "one stop shop" so after seeing Prof Young, I took a bladder test and another eye test.

The bladder test is all about identifying problems around my waterworks and lower regions. I have had a lot of problems in this area including numbness. I had a test that shows that my bladder does not empty completely when I go for a tiddle and this is common in an MS case. Severe problems that people may experience is incontinence and thankfully I am far from this as we speak and I am still in good control of my toilet!!!

The second test, the eye test, confirmed what I have been saying for a long time. I do have problems with my eyes. I have a problem identifying contrasting colours in dark conditions. This marks a deterioration in my eyesight although again, thankfully, it may not be connected. My left eye constantly compensates for a lazy right eye that should have been corrected in my youth so because my left eye is doing the job of 2 eyes, it exaggerates small changes in my vision. However, it should not be discounted that this is not related.

So today felt like a fresh start. I have a follow up in 2 months with Prof Young again and at this point, they will have analysed all that happened today along with various scans and test results that she did not have access to today.

As another bit of help, she has prescribed another drug to me to help with my numb hands. The drug is Carbamazepine and I will start taking it next week. She assures me that we can control this and eventually, it may disappear of its own accord. All fingers that aren't numb are crossed!!!

So I sit here hopeful of progress.

To end on a depressing note though, I am quite shaken by the experience of being surrounded by a clinic full of MS and other Neuro related patients. Through no fault of my own I found myself surrounded by a trio of people who were discussing their various conditions. It was quite obvious that these people were quite deeply affected by their conditions and I got a general feeling that hope was missing from their lives. To sit there laughing about the fact that they only had death to look forward to without a care for those they would leave behind has had a uncomfortable affect on me. It shook me up that someday I might be in their shoes and its a vision of the future that I cant handle right now and I am not ready too either. I was actually the fittest person in that clinic today and I have a lot to be thankful for. I can move around without aid and although my emotional foundations have been shaken to the core in the last couple of years, I remain positive. and for that, I am thankful.