Kerris and I are excited....

This is my favourite picture from our holiday in Spain last year. It shows a little boy, namely Jay, doing what comes naturally to all little boys without a care of who is watching or where he is spraying!!! Like Kerris always says, "No one minds a little boy having a wee in a bush (or in a field, or the side of the road, or onto a car wheel etc etc etc).....

Anyway, why are we excited? Well Kerris and I can go and have a look at exactly how this bush has developed next week as we are heading off on holiday, on our own (minus kids), to Cabopino on the Costa Del Sol.

We have stayed in this particular apartment twice now for the last 2 years and the though of having it to ourselves is unbearable!!! We know where it is, where all the best places to eat are, where all the local amenities are and just everything that needs to be known so that we can arrive, drop our bags and enjoy some serious relaxing!!!

The only problem is that we will probably spend most of the time talking about how much we miss them and there will be a phone call home every night!!!

What exactly do I have???

I spoke with a friend of mine earlier this week and he was talking about a conversation that he had with another person where I was brought up.

Based on several assumptions made of my condition, I have decided to re-classify how I judge myself.

Although I deal every day with the thought that I may develop MS ultimately, its important to bear in mind that until the doctor decides that my symptoms are typical of the clinical diagnosis of MS then I don't have it.

At this point in time, I have had a few symptoms that are typical of MS and a few that are not seen in MS. What I do have is Myelitis and Myelitis is best described as inflammation of the spinal cord. People with Myelitis can ultimately develop MS but then there are also as many people who don't progress onto MS and have Myelitis as a diagnosis for life.

The changes I have made in my life, weight loss, vitamin supplements, greater exposure to sunlight etc are all preventative measures that can be taken to help stop or slow down that development of Myelitis into MS.

My personal thought process is to assume that I am heading towards MS sometime in the future but to take action today that will hopefully either avoid that day or at least ensure it is a long way off.

So I am going to stop talking about MS on here as I don't have it. I will still keep all of my progress blogged but with Myelitis in mind as right now, Myelitis is what I have.

I thought I was about to die......2

For my second "I thought I was about to die....." I want to take you all back to last Friday.

Myself and my good friend, Nick Bartlett, had been attending a security roadshow in Dublin and we had both booked onto the same flight home back to Liverpool.

So after waiting to get on the plane almost last, cheers Nick, lets do all the things YOU want to do!!! We took off on a rather gloomy overcast morning in Dublin.

Now, at this point, I have to tell you, I don't like flying. I used to enjoy flying until 1998 when I went to Australia. Nothing bad happened on that trip but the sheer time spent in the air was unnatural. Since then, I haven't enjoyed flying and grown fearful of every small bump that happens during the flight.

On this particular route, Dublin to Liverpool, I have never enjoyed the trip. The previous time, we were flying over North Wales and it seemed that the pilot slammed the air brakes on and adjusted his course. I can only assume that he had forgotten that he was on his way to Liverpool and when it dawned on him that he was actually coasting his way to Manchester, immediate action needed to be taken. Not nice for the passenger.

Anyway, I digress. So the flight is not too bad, there are a few bumps along the way and the sign of a bumpy ride is that the "Fasten You Seat Belt" sign never went off.

We descend into Liverpool and we clear the cloud base and its a bit windy out there as the plane is gently rocking from side to side so I decide that I better not look out of the window anymore and concentrate on the horizon in the cabin.

Just as we are about to touch down, a side wind catches the plane and tips it a little. It lands on what feels like one wheel, veers, adjusts, bounces onto the other wheel before regaining control. However, all this time, stopping distance is being eaten into and the pilot has to break hard. While the plane was veering, a Irish lady behind me screams "Jesus Christ, what the F**K was that" and I had to start laughing, I thought that if I was going to die then this Irish outburst was the last I would hear. At least they would find my remains with a smile!!!

Anyway, we land and the lady next to me is in tears and there is no word from to cock pit which would only have been manners really to say "Sorry it was a rough one!!!".

So to Ryanair....Yes Cheap Flights may be your motto but cheap service should also be added.

I thought I was about to die......1

This is the first of 2 entries entitled "I thought I was about to die....".

The first time I thought I was about to die happened on a trip down to London to help a chap set up some door operators.

Usually, I have it all planned in advance, and to be fair, my plan has worked well in the past. I leave early in the morning, I drive to Milton Keynes, I park up, get a standard day return to London for£22.00 and complete my journey successfully. However, fate had another plan today.

Parked at Milton Keynes, bought my ticket and promptly heard an ambulance siren and noticed the entrance to the platforms close. Somebody had thrown themselves in front of a high speed train. Not the best timing for me, but compared to the loss of a human life, I wont complain.

So, rather than hold my hands up and phone to customer to say "Sorry due to death I wont be making it", I decided not to let it beat me and got back into my car and drove to the London end of the M1 and parked up again to get the tube directly.

Note to commuters, Brent Cross tube station, is nowhere near Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Its a good 10 minute walk as I found out.

I arrive at Brent Cross and proceed to purchase a ticket when the man tells me, "Sorry sir, line is closed due to engineering work.". So just as I am about to lynch someone after such extreme bad luck, the office phone rings and the man tells me that the line has re-opened and my journey can continue after a 20 minute delay.

Hooray, I am off again!!! So I get onto the train and as it passes through the stations it fills gradually until we leave Kings Cross St Pancras travelling toward Angel. Then it happened......

A scruffy looking man stands up and declares - "I WANT EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN TO LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW".

Fantastic, he is looking straight at me, I am standing up and I have just frozen in horror to the spot.

He calms down a little, "I don't mean to scare or intimidate anyone here but I have to tell you that things have been hard for me and right now, I am down on my luck, I have reached rock bottom".

My thought is, "You are about to shoot yourself on the train, you blame me and everyone else here and before you go, you are taking as many of us as you can with you".

I was scared stiff, frozen to the spot. If he shot me, I would not feel it, the fear is immense. I think about all the inconveniences that led me to this moment and that fate was about to cruelly hit me. In any disaster, you always hear about the guy who was there who really did not need to be, the day tripper, the first time tube rider and in my case, the idiot who would not let public transport beat him.

However, as it turns out, the man doesn't try to kill us, he is just begging for money in perhaps the most intimidating way possible. Feeding on people fears like the parasite he is!!

Well, it took me the best part of 18 hours to get over this. I was still awake in my hotel at 1.30AM going over it. I was rooted to the spot while the man collected money from people but I will remember his face forever. If I see him again, I now know his game and if he thinks he is at the bottom of the ladder now, he will be much nearer the bottom of a 6ft deep hole by the time I finish with his worthless torso!!!

Ooh, aren't I big. So brave after the event.

I am a Popmaster....honest!!!

I had another 15 minutes of fame earlier this week. I was driving on a long stretch of the M1 motorway between Milton Keynes and Sheffield and in my boredom, I decided to use the redial feature of my phone to full effect to get onto Popmaster on Radio 2.

And I succeeded too!!! Click the logo below to hear just how badly I did!!! Everyone agrees, hard questions!!!

Me On Radio 2 Popmaster

Neil Warnock

Its not often that I am incensed enough to complain about someone by name but this man is one bitter and sick tosser who showed how much of a bad loser he is as his Sheffield United team sank into obscurity yesterday.

On trying to find an excuse for relegation he turned on the almighty Liverpool and their famous "living in the shadows" neighbours along the East Lancs Rd and accused us both of fielding weak sides against Fulham and West Ham respectively which made the job hard for him.

Furthermore, he then went onto say that he is looking forward to the Champions League and F A Cup finals and he hopes that Milan and Chelsea do well.

Wind your neck in Warnock. You had 38 games to avoid the drop and pointing fingers because of the last 2 is bang out of order. Go down with some grace and respect and stay away until you can field a side and attitude that is man enough to compete in the top flight. You horrible, bitter little man!!!

Rant over!!!!

Weight loss update 6.....

Yes!!! For a second week running there is some weight loss!!!

I challenged the scales this morning and 2 out of the 3 times I weighed myself, they told me I was a whole pound lighter!!!

So that makes me 17st 3Lbs now and I am very happy with how things are going!!!

I always weigh myself 3 times on a weigh day and I take the score that comes up either 2 out of 3 times or more.

This morning I thought I was onto a winner as the first reading was 17st 2Lbs but the following 2 were 17st 3 Lbs.....D'oh!!

But, as I say, I am more than happy with any loss and today, for the first time in a long time, I bought a new T-shirt and it was XL as apposed to XXL which you can find in the rest of my wardrobe.