It's been a few days since my last blog, my intention was to blog everyday and let you all know how I feel (me moaning generally) about the days events, however, due to unforeseen circumstances that has not happened.

So, what are the circumstances, too lazy? No. Too busy? No. It's my health.
I think in a previous post I mentioned that I am Diabetic, I was diagnosed on 2000 as type B, watch the diet, pop a pill sorted? No, over the past 16 years it has developed into a problem where I am now on insulin and 10 pills a day, I am fighting back by exercising more and examining my diet, however I will say that since 2000 I have had a very well balanced and healthy diet so I am not too worried there, the way I see it is that it will peak and stop, at that point I will find a solution to the problem, one of my strong points is that I am a very good problem solver both practically and scientifically.

Anyway back to the last few days/weeks, all is not well with the body of Den, in fact it's pretty much shit at the moment.

It all started January 2012, I was in the garden chopping down a tree and digging up the roots when I suddenly got very short of breath, was dizzy and felt very unwell, I decided to take a rest, so I sat on the sofa for about 30 minutes and rested then went back and finished the job.  Didn't take too much notice at the time, but a week or so later I was at a friends house when I got a really bad pain in my left arm, I just carried on doing what we were doing, but the pain got worse and worse to the point where I had to leave my mate and go to the doctors.

I arrive at the surgery and go to the reception, they take me straight through to a small room where a nurse is waiting by an ECG machine, I am connected to it and watch as the roll of squiggles run onto the desk, the nurse ask if I am OK, I say NO, I have this pain in my arm? she excuses herself and leaves, upon her return she brings 2 Doctors with her, they look at the results from the ECG,They all leave the room, one of the doctors returns and informs me I am having a rather large heart attack as we speak, What? Bollocks. I am quite fit for my age, but no he is very serious, 5 minutes later a paramedic arrives followed by an ambulance and I am rushed off to Papworth Hospital, I wait over 4 hours to see a heart specialist who runs a load of tests, he returns telling me that I have had 2 heart attacks in the last week? 'Never' I  say Yeah, 'afraid so' says the heart guy, go home rest, take this very large pill. an aspirin. SO I go home and get back to work.

The next morning I am visited by a nurse from the surgery who hands me a prescription, takes my blood pressure and pulse etc and phones the surgery and makes an  appointment for me.  I go for my appointment a couple of days later, I had been given a heart checking device from Papworth that I had to monitor my heart with and dial a number and the machine would record the details and pass them on, the Doctor tells me that I had 2 heart attacks and both were quite bad. ?????? Really I say, apart from a loss of breath and a little pain in the chest it was the arm that worried me, all signs of a classic heart attack I am told, but not to worry, they suggest I join a gym, do more exercise and take an aspirin every day, I do all of the afore mentioned but my arm still really hurts but its not constant, every minute or so it would be so painful that it would make me jump, I should mention that the pain was always there but in the background if that makes sense, but this shock or whatever it is (Yes I still have it 4 years later) feels like someone has a cigarette and is burning me at different parts of my arm starting at the arm pit down to my finger tips which are really sensitive, touching something would be agony at times, I am now worried about my non career as a great guitarist, so I stick it out as I imagine in my head that at some point it will all go away.

A few weeks later I am on all the diabetic meds plus Co-Codamol, ibuprofen, plus Gabapentin, Pregabalin (the latter for a possible neurological problem) and a shit load of other pills, I am now officially the biggest draw on the national health budget.  I get up one morning and as I brush my teeth I notice that one side of my face is not as responsive as the other, I curl my lip but only one side responds, I am now back at the surgery, It would appear that you have had a minor stroke the Doctor tells me, I want you to go the the hospital and you will see a stroke nurse who will check you out? A stroke Nurse? I make my way to the hospital and a nurse is waiting for my arrival, she checks me over and says I need to stay over night so she can monitor me, OK, I stay over night, she checks me again, I jump because of the pain, the nurse jumps because it made her jump and she asks what the hell was that all about, I explain about arm, heart attack etc, etc.  She nods her head discharges me and I go home, as a bit of light relief at this point I will talk about the Mexican wave events now following me around, every time I jump in a room full of people when I jump they all jump creating  the wave, it scares the shit of of some people.

Anyway in the next exciting episode I will talk about the brain scan and the the unbelievable reaction to people when I explain my predicament.

So, at the beginning of the month I ordered a new movement for a watch that I wanted to give my son on his birthday, as of yet it has not arrived,

I have emailed the company with no response, no refund either, so my moan is why have a customer service department if you don't give any?
WTF is wrong with these people, I have had several run ins as they say with a few companies who just don't or won't give good customer service.  I had to tell one company that I would start legal action if they did not refund my money or send the goods, this was after 11 calls and over 20 emails, at this point they said they had never heard of me or taken my money, F**king liars.  So I wrote directly to the Managing Director who said he would pass my details onto customer services, WHAT, I decided to go to the small claims court, got the paperwork sorted and filed, within a week I had a full refund including legal costs and the item I had ordered.  So why couldn't they just send the bloody item in the first place?  So I would suggest that if you have similar problems a letter from a court works, so I am today going to write to the watch supply company with letting them know that I will take legal action if I don't get the goods or the money.

UPDATE:  Sent an email saying I was giving them 48 hours and then I was off to the small claims court and BINGO, next morning movement and a gift voucher.

My intension was to talk about GOD, but other things have happened and are, from my point a little more interesting.

It's over a week since I blogged, I have been so busy it's beginning to effect me in that my brain wont stop working at night so spend almost all of it doing something, Marking, writing new courses, fixing watches, etc, so Friday has always been my day off, because of my illness, I need some time to relax, chill and breath.

So last this week I have been doing so much stuff I can't even remember half of it, however, for some reason you always remember the worst bits?  So in my rucksack of many items I always carry a small knife, the blade is 2 1/2 inches long, I use it for sharpening pencils, I cant hold those tiny sharpeners you get made of plastic, so the knife works for me, So I was in the office with the rest of the staff at lunch time when one of them joked about using a pencil for a test of skill where you place someones spread out hand and jump the pencil between the finger gathering speed, indeed a skill, so being with good work colleagues and I would now count them as friends (we are not going around each others house for dinner) if you know what i mean, any way I said 'Don't use the pencil you can use my pencil sharpener', he looked at me with a quizzical eye, so I rummaged in my bag and pulled out the knife, my unit laughed, but 3 others who share an office with us just looked and pulled faces , now, they are ugly enough, so pulling a miserable face don't help.

Anyway, a couple of minutes later after I made a comment about I would like to sharpen a few of the students, the now ENEMYS in the camps, got up and left.  3 minutes later my manager entered the office and ask for a private word?  She then informs me that the Drama queens and Dance idiots had been and told her that I carry a knife to threaten students with?????? What the fuck are those twats talking about? so she recommends that I leave it in the car, 'OK' I reply no problem, as she is walking away security appear asking to talk to me, 'We believe you are carrying a knife", 'Yes' I say, I am sorry but we need to take it away or you have to leave the premises' 'OK' I reply, 'I will get my coat and leave' at this point I go back into the office and tell the other guys whats happening and they can't believe it, so I say good bye and as I get to the door my manager bursts in 'Where are you going'? 'Home' I reply 'security are waiting outside to escort me off the premises", 'You cant go you have the Russians coming in at 2pm' Yes I know, but I am keeping my pencil sharpener' I reply and walk towards the door, now at this point I notice that the rest of the unit look really shocked and ask me to stay (None of them want to teach the Russians), the Enemy now enter the room, and all hell breaks loose, my unit start calling them Snitches and Bitches, I can see that my boss is now getting really stressed and worried as I scour at the S&B's as they are now known, 'Den please help me out here you need to meet the Russians', security now enter the room because of the shouting, 1 makes the mistake if grabbing my left arm, now, my left arm as you may have read in a previous post causes me constant pain do to my neurological problem, without think I just react, I grab his hand twist it and force him to the floor, the other security guy tries to step in, I give him the look, (now the look is something I do naturally apparently when really angry, I am told that my friends and family know 'The Look' and back off if we are in a heated debate shall we say, it is quite scary they tell me I look like a killer about to murder them), anyway back to the fracas, the security guy backs off and radios for help, all this time I have this poor guy on the floor with his arm twisted and my foot on his head. 

Long story short, I eventually let the guy up apologies and me , my boss and security leave for the Big Bosses office, I now have 7 security guards escorting me? I now as we walk think of Matrix movie, should I do a Neo on them, should I make a run for it, or should I just drop to the floor and have a sit in, I start to laugh without thinking, one of the guards says 'You won't be laughing in a minute mate' I stop turn around to face him and he does a Spike Milligan, He start's walking backwards, (Spike wrote and sung a song called I'm walking backwards for Christmas) 'Fuck off Adolf" I say, at this point I am really now getting seriously pissed off, I have not even had my lunch yet. 

So we eventually get to the big bosses office where I here the about the knife, putting a security guard on his arse etc, etc, the boss asks everyone to leave except me? They leave, I am along with this woman who is known to be an arsehole of the highest order, she asks me about the knife, I explain that its a pencil sharpener, and I was joking with another member of staff when one of the snitch bitches goes and tells my boss etc, etc.  She asks to see the knife, which at this point I have in my pocket, I take it out, hand it to her and say'Please do not take it out of the holder as it is extremely sharp', she smiles,'I'm not one of your students you know', she removes it from the holder runs her finger thumb the edge , drops it when blood pours from a nice clean cut on her thumb, she bends down and picks it up and drops it onto her desk, it lands point down and is now sticking up from the desk, she gives me a really nasty look, tells me to put it away, get out of her office and say noting to anyone????

I leave the office to be met buy the security guards and my boss, they all look at me quizzically and I just say 'That was exciting' and I go back to my office.

A few days have passed and I have heard no more about it so I consider the incident closed, however I will keep you informed should there be any developments in this saga.