Laparoscopy

Checked into the Woking Nuffield yesterday at 10.30am for my laparoscopy, it was pretty much as I imagined it, being a lot like a health spa, not very much like the kinds of hospital my poor Mum has been in recently.
I got a room to myself with nice comfy adjustable bed, remote control TV and ensuite shower and toilet! How the other half lives! The nurses were all friendly and polite. I had a bit of a wait for my op which was at 3pm. The anaesthetist could only find a small vein, so it was quite painful for a few seconds till I passed out. Then woke up with oxygen mask on me and it was all over!
The nurses told me that there had been an 'incident' during the op, that my blood pressure had dropped for some unknown reason before thankfully climbing again. Funny, I had a premonition that things would go amiss. Pain had also broken through, and I had to be given morphine. Whee-hee!
The consultant showed me colour piccies of my insides - fascinating, it's a shame I couldn't keep them! There was indeed white strands of 'old endometriosis' which she lasered away for me, otherwise everything normal. I have 3 stitches which will be taken out next week.
I am still in pain now, and having to walk doubled-up like an old lady. Hope I'm OK for work on Monday.

Seth Lakeman Trio, Farnham Maltings

See also Bill Badger's blogspot!
Seth Lakeman was performing with his brother Sean on guitar, and Ben Nicholls on double-bass. Val said she went for Seth, whilst I expressed a preference for young-Jack-Dee lookalike Sean! Bill jokingly said he fancied big Ben (more of a Hop Back logo lookalike) - he was feeling left out of the conversation!
They performed songs from Seth's recent album, Kitty Jay (I won a signed copy in the raffle!) and also a few from Western Approaches including The Keeper, Captain's Court and the Plymouth drinking song Ye Mariners All. He declined to tell us the story about Steve Knightley's hair though. Unfair!
Seth Lakeman has a wonderful, distinctive husky voice and is a fine fiddle player (he also played ukelele) and has written some great songs. I thought all the uke-led songs were very fast paced and tended to sound the same - but maybe on repeated listening the differences would be more noticeable.
There is a poor little 2-spot ladybird in here with me, I daren't put her outside as it's still threatening to snow. But she is crawling all over the keyboard as I type, which is annoying!

Interesting Train Journey

It had snowed overnight, and when I woke up this morning everything was covered in about 6mm of snow. Aah!
I left home in plenty of time this morning, for a change, carefully navigating the level crossing at Farnborough North, which hadn't been salted and was quite slippy.
I met Finance Lady, who is very friendly and has chatted to Sean and I before. Sean wasn't there though. She was in a very good mood as she was on her way to a big Financiers' Dinner in London. She was still chatting to me in Guildford, when Loud Eric and his friends got on, and they sat all around her in the bay of 6 seats. Unfortunately Loud Eric is prejudiced against me, as he is also friendly with Clive (he held up the Croydon train for Clive yesterday). So poor Finance Lady was trying to introduce me to all these people, and Loud Eric was trying to hide behind his Daily Mail and ignore me!!
I thought maybe I should warn Finance Lady that there's malicious gossip going around about me, but a friend advised me not to mention it, but to let her make up her own mind. I just hope she doesn't snub me like Solitaire did, that would really hurt. That ***** cowardly Clive, is all I can say! Why can't he insult me to my face, if he's still got a problem with me?
Anyhoo work went well today which cheered me up again. I also received my LiveStrong bracelet in the post, thanks to Shirl for posting it and her friend Alison for selling another one to her!
I also received my Bike Events magazine. I'm really tempted to do the Stroke Association ride across the Thames Bridges. Although it's only 32 miles, less than the London to Windsor which I did last year, it's a cause that's dear to my heart as my Mum had a severe stroke aged 59, and both my grandmothers died of stroke. But there are others that appeal - will have to discuss it with Bill...

Show of Hands and Oysterband, Reading Guildhall

Again I was feeling very ill, having spent most of the day in bed. Luckily I'd previously opted for seated rather than standing tickets, as with Oysterband I feel an enormous compulsion to dance (but Show of Hands are almost impossible to dance to). These are my two favourite folk bands, as you will have guessed from the links section, so my expectations for the evening were very high.
Bill and I took the train up to Reading, and were sat near some other Oysterfans which it turned out Other Val knew; does she know everyone? ;-)
We met up with Other Val and Julie, and later Matt, in the Hobgoblin, as other Oysterfans from the web group had arranged to meet up there for a pre-concert drinkee. As it is a very good real ale pub we weren't surprised to meet Quentin (a regular at the Prince) and Ken Wildman in there, but were suprised and delighted when Alan Prosser, James O'Grady, Lee Partis and the sound man from Oysterband walked in!! James was looking even tastier than the Potton 'Village Bike' I was drinking (don't say it!). Had a brief chat to Alan about the acoustics and bouncy stage in the venue. Hobnobbing with the stars, eh!
Show of Hands kicked off the evening, playing some of their classics like Santiago, I Promise You, The Setting/Mary from Dungloe, Galway Farmer and Cousin Jack. Phil stunned everyone with his frenetic fast-fiddling, Steve's voice was on good form. Everyone was very appreciative even though it's a much slower style of music to Oysterband. I missed Steve and Phil's jokes and stories though, they didn't really have time for much of that.
Then came the Oysterband whose trip to the pub had obviously put them in the party mood! Although the sound wasn't as perfect as Show of Hands, they belted out the fan's favourites with their usual joi-de-vivre and energy, and the front row were pogoing like mad. Other Val acquired the set list at the end, you'll have to see Eric the Cat's blogspot if you want to read it, but I remember My Mouth, 20th of April, Wayfaring, English Rose. The Hal-an-tow loudly-requesting crowd were there, but JJ told them it was too early! I seem to remember the A Capella gospel hymn and Rise Above being the first encore, and SOH's Country Life (with both bands)and Road to Nowhere being the second encore. I must admit I was doing a bit of chair dancing by then, probably frightening Matt!
A very uplifting night, just what I needed to perk me up.

Johnny Dickinson - Dorking Folk Club

Other Val kindly agreed to drive us to Chanticleer again for Johnny Dickinson, a blues guitarist from Morpeth in Northumbria. The poor lad had driven 700 miles to get to the concert in Dorking, and had 700 miles to travel back to the Borders for his next gig! It was just as well there was a largeish crowd of us there.
Johnny is a very skilful guitarist and did lots of clever slidey stuff, and a few folk songs like Black Jack Davey, all sung in an American accent. Blues guitar isn't really my thaang. I was feeling very tired and ill anyway, so the slow, low-tuned guitar numbers were sending me slowly to sleep on the club's lovely soft sofa. I think if you were a real guitar enthusiast you'd appreciate Johnny Dickinson a lot more.
The ale in the Friends Provident Club is very good, I've just reccommended it to my friends in the local CAMRA branch. The Fullers London Pride was some of the best I've ever tasted, and the Welton's was, well, Welton's.
I think if Neil continues to book these top acts, Bill and I should join. If only Dorking weren't so far away :-/

Bum Deal

...yes, the post you've been waiting for, Val's visit to the proctologist!!
Thanks to Joan and Pete giving me a lift to the station on the way to Pete's driving test, I managed to get home in plenty of time and had a shower before cycling to the hospital. I was seen almost immediately. Mr Singh wasn't quite what I expected, being a tall, elegantly dressed man of about my age, and not wearing a bow tie, just an ordinary, pink one! He asked me questions about my rear end in a very professional manner, but his nurse was a disapproving-looking older lady, which I found quite off putting!
Again I won't go into the gory details but he had a bit of a rummage and had a look up there with a periscope thingy, but could see nothing wrong. But, as he explained, that was just the first four inches of bowel. So I will need a colonoscopy to check for endometriosis, which I'm fairly convinced I've got. What fun. And I won't cycle over for a proctology appointment again, I'll tell ya!

Muller Love - Valentines Day Curry!

As Bill hates to celebrate Valentine's Day on the actual day, and as we'd had our romantic meal the night before, I decided to join Robert Muller, his wife and some of my colleagues from work for a curry on the 14th!
Robert had obtained the work minibus for 18.30 from work, 18.45 from Redhill and the meal was booked at the Ruchita in Earlswood for 19.30, all very efficient! Four of us went into Redhill first - the 3 Spanish people, Maria, Andres and Paula, went shopping while I went to a cashpoint, then we went to the Garland, the Harvey's pub. I suggested they drink the Armada ;-) but for some reason they chose Carling instead. I had a half of the Extra Double Stout at 9% - black, treacly and deadly. The Spanish girls tasted it and made faces, it's definitely an acquired taste!
Then we took the minibus from Redhill to the restaurant with me in the front giving directions. I went wrong a couple of times but we made it in the end.
Soon after we parked, a rough looking bloke came and parked right up against the back plate of the minibus. Robert said 'nice bit of parking' to him and he got annoyed, some of us thought he was going to throw a punch at Robert, but Willmer, the tall Venezuelan, was on hand to protect him! Robert diplomatically moved the minibus to the station carpark.
We went into the Old Chestnut for a drink before the meal. They only had Courage Best, so I had half a Guinness. It had been refurbished but was still essentially a locals pub. I left to go to the restaurant but couldn't find my handbag - went back to look on the bus, not there - back to the pub again and found it, phew! It was on the back of a chair, someone else must have come along later and put a coat over it.
Was relieved to get into the restaurant and order some food. We had poppadoms and chutneys to start, but Andres overdid it with the lime pickle, finding his too hot. Willmer loved the lime pickle though, and I agreed, it was great! The main courses took a while to arrive, and they'd got my order slightly wrong, but I was happy enough with Chicken Tikka Massalla. Andres, a curry beginner, had Lamb Massalla which he liked, and Willmer had Chicken Jalfrezi which he found good but hot. I enjoyed being the curry (and English language and culture) expert for the night! Everybody had plenty of food and nobody could face dessert. We split the bill in a civilised way, at £15 each which I thought was very reasonable. The waiters brought a long stem rose for each lady on the table which was a nice touch.
Robert dropped some of us off at the station again, and I had no trouble getting the last train back to my loving husband (he picked me up at Farnborough North at about 23.45).
Many thanks to Maria and Robert for the unusual Valentines meal! Everyone enjoyed themselves, a fun night out!

Rellies and Romance

At the weekend Bill and I went to visit my sister, Shirl on Saturday. It was just as well we were staying away as the $?£*! roofers had left big flaps of roofing felt sticking out of the roof on Friday night, and noise of flapping kept me awake even downstairs >:(
Shirl took me shopping in Southampton whilst Bill attended his CAMRA meeting. I didn't buy much due to being broke. Shirl had lost my LiveStrong bracelet in the flat somewhere - we both hunted high and low for it but to no avail. O well. Bill and I had gret fun with her boyfriend's Karaoke Playstation game - you have to sing along to various tracks and it gives you marks for singing the correct tune, holding the notes etc. Shirl, Bill and I were very closely matched, but Shirl the best. Shirl cooked us Spag Bol, then we headed off to the Waterfront to see the filn 'Sideways'. Bill and I thought it was very funny, especially as we'd just been to a wine tasting, and it was about a vineyard-touring stag week! Shirl enjoyed it less though, maybe she's a bit too young for all that middle-aged angst.
Next day we headed off to Dorset to see my father-in-law and his girlfriend. Both seemed in good health, happy to chat about what the grandkids, nephews and nieces were all up to. We met up with my parents for Sunday Lunch in the Hunter's Moon, Middlemarsh - happily Mum was well enough to come out. The carvery looked very good, less impressed with the chicken and bacon salad. Treacle Pud was excellent though.
Then back to my parents for a chat - but Mum was very quiet, and after a while started weeping. I'm glad seeing her daughter cheers her up so much! Perhaps she just gets upset because she knows I'm going away again at some point. Poor Mum.
Lastly on Sunday we went out for an early Valentine's meal at Wings Cottage in North Camp. It was £13.50 for 3 courses so good value, the food was excellent as always, good service, house wine (Aussie Shiraz/Cabernet) good too. There was a big family party there, also other couples but it wasn't too noisy. Thankyou Bill you're wonderful xxxxxxx!!

Fairport Convention, Basingstoke Anvil 11/2/04

As you can see it's a while since I've updated the blog! Got back home on Friday to see Bill waiting for me with the car door open. He'd heated a pasty for me and I had to eat it in the car. That was my supper!
Fairport's support were Simon Mayor and Hilary James. Despite looking like Richard and Judy, they proved to be very accomplished and witty folk musicians. But Fairport were excellent! It was the first time we'd seen them away from Cropredy.
Their current lineup is Simon Nicol (acoustic and electric guitars), Dave Pegg (bass and mandolin), Gerry Conway (percussion), Ric Sanders (fiddle) and Chris Leslie (fiddle, bouzouki and mandolin). Only Simon was in the original band! Richard Thompson will be back on his own at Cropredy 2005. Dave Swarbrick is still very poorly, but has new lungs now and they are said to be getting used to him! Saw Ashley Hutchings, their original bassist, recently of course.
They played lots of my favourites including Matty Groves, Walk Awhile , Si Tu Dois Partir and Steve Tilston's Girl on a Nut Brown Mare, as well as lots of songs from their new album Over The Next Hill (yes, they've heard all the don't-forget-the-'next' jokes!)
Can't wait till Cropredy now!

Wine Tasting Evening at the Prince of Wales

Yet another blood test at Frimley Park Hospital in the morning. I had paperwork to prepare and had to cycle over there, plus there was a 1 hour 15 min wait. But at least this time the nurse believed me that there were no good veins in my arms, and she went for the hand straight away. Why don't they just take blood from the hand in the first place? It doesn't ache quite so much.
Then cycled back to Farnborough, and had just about time for a half of Ringwood 49er (delicious) before heading back to work. Annoyingly, I had to change at Guildford which wouldn't have been the case last year, so was a little bit late coming back. But at least I managed to purchase an almond croissant from the coffee stall to keep me going.
After work, I did some shopping in Sainsbury's and picked up the bike ready to go on the 18.13 back to North Camp, as I would have missed the 17.13 anyway. Clive arrived after me, and surprisingly left his bike next to me on the platform while he went into the waiting room to keep warm. Cheeky git! But at least he propped his bike in a different doorway and refrained from bitching loudly about me with Posh Girl, his usual crony for the journey home.
Anyhow to the Wine Tasting. We were given lists of the wines to be tasted (numbers and red/white) and had to guess the country of origin, and sometimes a key flavour or grape variety, also to rate the wine 'wow!' or 'yuk!'. We started off with white wines, which Bill and I hardly ever drink, so we were struggling, only guessing 1 out of 7 (different wines). Meanwhile the bar staff brought thai snacks, also cheese and biscuits. Next came the reds which we were better on, but we were getting rather p*ssed by then so we didn't really care!! The landlord had saved the best till last, and we both rated it 'wow!' so at least we both have expensive tastes! A cracking evening, thanks Peter the Landlord!
Bit hung over today though...:-/

Pancake Day

Today was the Tsunami Appeal raffle at work, not actually organised by us but by one of the companies that share premises with us, a children's home charity. I gave 1 1/2 bottles of wine and managed to win back one of them! I was quite pleased as most of the other presents were unwanted gifts. I also won some rose-scented drawer liners, the kind of thing my Mum used to use.
There were some funny prizes such as Jordan's autobiography (claimed by Martin, to thunderous applause), a belly dancing kit (won by Debbie, but she doesn't know it yet) and best of all a pink bottle of Chardonnay in a pink fluffy slipper!! I was hoping to win that to give to my gay friends, they'd have loved it, but Sarah from the Brewery won it instead, also to much applause.
Bill had forgotten Pancake Day, and I couldn't get hold of him on the phone to ask him to go to the shops. I just about had time to get pancake mix ingredients from Marks and Spencers in Guildford before catching my 'connecting' train, but Bill dashed out for yet another CAMRA meeting before I had time to make them! Probably just as well, for they turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I was intending to use Delia Smith's recipe but I had forgotten to get butter. Instead I had to make do with buttermilk spread which tasted fine in the pancake mix but was useless to fry with. So of course the first pancake stuck firmly to the bottom of the pan making it impossible to toss even with a skillet. Result - a soggy mess! Next I tried frying a pancake in vegetable oil which resulted in a neat but slightly chip-tasting pancake. A case for loads of sugar and freshly squeezed lemon, but somehow I didn't fancy a third one. I hope Bill has better success with them when he comes back from the pub ;-)

The Cecil Sharp Show, Central Studios, Basingstoke

Cecil Sharp was a 'collector' of folk songs, cycling around the country in Edwardian times, stopping when he saw gypsies, stonebreakers, shepherds etc. and asking them to sing for him. He is commemmorated by the famous Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance & Song Society which also contains a library of the 'collected' folk music, mostly from Sharp's travels.
Sharp was a bit of a character, sometimes rubbing people up the wrong way, but the Show (Ashley Hutchings playing Sharp, with Emily Slade singing some of his collected songs) portrayed him as a humorous, laid-back veggie type, not exploitative or know-it-all but serious about preserving song (and dance) traditions in England and the Appalacians. Although sometimes nervous about going to 'mean streets' or rough pubs to meet local singers he didn't come across as snobby, but seemed to have a lot of respect for working people. But how much of that is Ashley Hutchings rather than Cecil Sharp I don't know!
Emily Slade was on great form, probably the best I'd ever heard her. She has matured so much since her first album, she just gets better and better!
The evening was very interesting and entertaining, it was a shame only about a dozen or so had turned up for it. I hope Emily and Ashley have better audiences elsewhere.

Badminton Nite

Thought I'd go along to Badminton this evening with some of my colleagues, as I haven't been for quite some while. Friday night is a bad night, really. Usually Bill has already organised some concert or CAMRA event to go to, or we're on our way to a weekend visiting friends or relations. Plus most of the time I'm too tired after a week of work.
I knew I was unfit as I struggled towards Donyngs Sports Centre with 3 heavy bags! As I was the worst player I was paired first with Peter, who organises the Badminton courts and is the best player. Ellen and Sarah, both very good, on the other side of the net. I thought I'd be hopeless after long abscence but managed to return a few shots. However I'd forgotten a lot of Pete's tips, such as serving deep, and was a bit lazy letting him do all the running around! We won (due to Pete of course).
Next I was in a Ladies Doubles match, me with Gill, against Ellen and Sarah. Ellen and Sarah won, me playing quite badly I felt.
Ellen and I played each other next. Ellen had had an injury, and was being kind to me, hitting the shuttle where I had a fair chance of reaching it, otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't have got any points at all! Ellen still won convincingly.
Lastly it was me and Pete against Ellen and David, we won again. Strangely I only ever win when paired with Pete!
I worked out that with the new train timetables there was time for a swift half in the Red Lion afterwards. Unthinkingly I ordered a half of the Greene King IPA, then on the first sip remembered why I always drink the Guinness there!! I didn't have any chips to go with my half pint of near-vinegar but there were crisps and mayonnaise, a Badders Nite Speciality introduced by me!
All in all a fun evening - I just wish I could persuade people to go just a little bit further to a pub that looks after their cask beer. O well!

The Amazing Mr Smith, Dorking Chanticleer Club

Yesterday Other Val, Bill and I went to the The Amazing Mr Smith at the Chanticleer folk club, at Friends Provident Social Club in Dorking. Other Val seemed impressed at the luscious surroundings and comfy chairs of the Social Club. She is learning how to play the melodeon and Neil, who runs the folk club, gave her an impromptu lesson during his floor spot, a little to her embarrassment (Val not easily embarrassed).
The Amazing Mr Smith was a bit of an odd mixture. Some of his musical gags were more for kiddies (he admitted to touring as a children's entertainer), such as the 'home-made' balalaika which was just his guitar with a huge orange triangle stuck to it with velcro. Some of his gags were decidedly adults-only, such as the harp with strings made from condoms, and the Northumbrian pipes made from a catheter :-/ And some of his acoustic guitar tunes he introduced as 'serious' although I noticed the occasional 'avant-garde chord' crept in. I wouldn't go out of my way to see him again, but it was all right for one evening.
The atmosphere at Chanticleer is always nice, and the real ale was in excellent condition, even if only Brains SA and Fullers London Pride were available. Neil and Martina had just returned from a holiday in Kenya and had brought back some goodies like South African wine and bush tea for the raffle, but we didn't win, we never do there!
Worked hard today, managed to get quite a lot done. Lovely Robert Muller, a fan of Val Addiction, gave me half of his Aero, so I promised to say how wonderful he is on the board! So there you are Robert, but that's all the compliments you'll get for this year now!! ;-)

Old Friends in Reading

Now where was I? After seeing Shirl off on the train on Saturday, I was at a bit of a loose end so I thought I'd go shopping in Reading. My friends Mike and Darren live in Tilehurst, so I texted them to see if they wanted to meet up at some point. Darren phoned back to say they had company - my friends Michael and Paul that I used to know from work in Maesteg!!! I was delighted and set off to see them on the next train (as there was 1/2 hour wait at Farnborough North I snuck into the Prince for a swift half of Triple fff 'Pressed Rat & Warthog', very nice too).
Met the boys in Waterstones, then we showed Michael the John Lewis department store. Paul told me David Morgan's in Cardiff is due to close! I don't really understand why department stores have gone out of favour, except that the staff are so snobby.
By then the guys were hungry so we went to Jongleurs, which had lots of 2 for 1 offers on food and drinks. They all had white wine spritzers and I had 2 pints of San Miguel, we chuckled at the gender reversal. Then on to Revolution vodka bar, one of Darren's favourites. I bought everyone white wine spritzers again, and Darren and Mike bought vodka sticks (pallets with 6 different flavoured vodkas on them). I was sipping Hoegaarden and sipping different vodkas, of a lunchtime, getting totally smashed! Then I had to scoot round Sainsburys before going home, not surprisingly I forgot a few things.
It was great to see Michael and Paul again, and catch up with the gossip from Maesteg. Got me missing other friends again. Will have to emal some of them and ask them how they're doing...