Started this morning very early. Needed to fire off the bowels. It worked. Anyway, I was at the hospital twenty minutes early, annoyingly they had my old address, for reasons I’m not going into at this point, it was somewhat annoying. Anyway, I saw the specialist, who said I’d either had a slipped disc or some sort of spinal problem. It was unlikely it would require an operation. He said I needed a standing X-ray and an MRI. Whoopee doo. So what I’ve been requesting for ages now has to go back to the insurance company to authorise. Visited mother and picker up her loo frame thing. Then went back to her place and helped finish off the shower and tidy up. Left there and came back home. Had a bit of a nap and then lunch. Walked Sasha for about two and a half hours, all that bloody time the Pokemon Go servers were out, very annoying. Having an early night I think, busy day tomorrow.

Got really stuck into work today. You see, when I have a task that I can get stuck into with no disturbances I no longer want to kill myself. First thing this morning though I was somewhat ‘surprised’ by an interview I had to conduct at very short notice, the coffee hadn’t even kicked in. Very nice chap. We got talking about about the Crystal Maze stuff I did (references to Japan), he said that his 14yo self wanted to thank me. God that made me feel old. Weather is a bit crap. Walked Sasha, picked up some Pokemon, walked to gym, picked up some more. Took my ibuprofen at the correct point today and I must admit ‘Pump’ was pretty much like normal. Off to see the specialist tomorrow, which is typical as it’s now getting a lot better. Then tidy up mothers place, she’s out on Sunday, she’ll very much be on her own and me and my sister are both away.

Also finally got to the end of Glastonbury. That’s every band listened to on six stages over three days. It took three weeks to listen to it all. Beats going there. I really don’t do the camping thing.

I must admit I haven’t had a bad day. Cracked on with an SDK update and then spent the afternoon doing something quite challenging and interesting. I won’t describe what it was, only about ten people in the world would have a clue, and nine of those wouldn’t be interested. Installed ‘Pokemon Go’ game/app thing. Walked miles, got one. I didn’t realise that the app was awful and did weird locking up. In the evening I went out with Jamie and reset the bloody thing, it started working again then. I’ve got about thirty Pokemon now. I’ll take it out when I walk Sasha again tomorrow.

Oh, mother is being discharged on Sunday. Both Sarah and I are out so she’ll have to walk from the hospital to home, it only takes me about twenty minutes to get that far, so should take her about half hour.

Also we got the invite to Jamie’s dad’s sixtieth birthday bash. It’s in Nice. In February. I’m cutting my toenails that week.

My leg is a weird thing. Actually it isn’t but the pain is. Struggled a little bit to get my sock on this morning, but once again I managed to sit fine with no real pain. Even standing up didn’t bring me to tears as per usual recently. Walked Sasha and this evening I walked to the hospital and back. Mother’s enjoying herself, she has a couple of blood clots but she’s enjoying the hospitality and has a suburb view. She reckons she’ll be in there at least another week. Had a fun invitation to lunch on Sunday, in Padstow, should be fun.

Started this morning and switched on the machine, first thought I had was ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’, so sent a few emails to contacts, my inbox was flooded in about ten minutes, so maybe soon I’ll be doing something else. I had to leave midday anyway to take the car for a service and MOT. I also had to visit somewhere else during this period but I’m not going into that at the moment. Dropped car off at 12:30, car was ready just before 5PM. Then they tried to charge me a hundred and fifty quid too much. After I produced the original booking email they produced a new invoice. They always do a good job even if their front of house is a bit crap. Was disappointed to find out they will be taken over by ‘Drive’, so will have to find somewhere else as they are a bunch of useless twats. Drove home. Then went back to work, apart from a quick trip out to get some crickets I worked quite late and only ended up losing about half an hour on a normal day. Felt better at the end of it, but I think it’s time to look at other opportunities, there’s only so much moaning from artists I can put up with.

Started work late, wasn’t looking forward to it. Didn’t turn out too bad in the end. Caught up on a load of small tasks. Walked Sasha. Didn’t go to Combat tonight as Laverne wasn’t doing it and I wasn’t really prepared to do the new release with Nick. However oddly, I did do a run round the block. My leg over the past couple of days hasn’t been too bad, I haven’t had to grab anything after standing up and I haven’t had any shooting pain. Maybe it’s finally on the mend?

Saturday mainly consisted of the brother-in-law and I almost crying with laughter fitting a shower at mothers place. We got the tray own eventually on a bed of concrete. Tiling is being an ass. Last night we had a BBQ at Lisa’s where the main topic of conversation was Tesco’s. Today I picked up some waste pipe and tile adhesive and headed over to mothers. Apparently the neighbour had been over mulling over property deeds. I phoned him. Apparently he didn’t want us wasting money at putting a gate up if we had to move it again. I said we had no intention of moving it. He then phoned again later, I explained that if he wanted to pursue this line of attack that severe costs would be involved and I would claim all of them back against him, he was quite taken aback by this. I then said his timing was perhaps somewhat inappropriate and that he should be more considerate. He said it was not his intention to annoy me, I said that’s actually what he had done so I was going to terminate the call with immediate effect, I hung up. He called several hours later to apologise and say that the most important thing was that my mother gets better. I’ve now blocked him, he’s on the back-foot and gone all defensive, that’s exactly where I want him.

One false move and I will absolutely destroy him.

I will even take pleasure in doing so.

Must admit, work today wasn’t too bad. Just cracked on with it. Got pissed off waiting for a phone call back from the surgery place so phoned them. Now have an appointment with a spinal specialist. Walked Sasha. Walked to Pump. That was quite embarrassing, I forgot to take any tablets so I spent most of it just standing there like a complete turnip. I did do all the chest and arm tracks though. Did a bit more work. I think work will explode sooner rather than later, I’m just not sure what the fallout will be and who it will hit.

So I eventually got a call from the surgical people and they got me an appointment next Wednesday to see a specialist. Half hour later the specialist’s secretary rang me direct and said the specialist was a knee specialist so knew bugger all about my condition. I rang the surgical people, they then rang the secretary, and canceled the appointment. They are going to refer me to a back specialist. I really don’t give a shit as I want an MRI. I just have a feeling that I’m never actually going to get one. Work was a complete ass today, complete ass. Walked Sasha until the point just up the road where she darted clean in front of me, directly at my leg, knocking me over in great pain. She got a severe whack and had to be dragged back home. Went out with Shaun in the evening to spend a shit load of money on mothers shower. Came back and did more work. I’m now sat on the couch unable to move.

Can’t really complain at the start of the day, all sort of went according to plan. Walked Sasha, nice day today. Soon it was time for my ‘video appointment’ with the private doctor. He was some Indian chap who couldn’t be arsed to wear a tie. I went through all my symptoms and how it all started and he diagnosed me with sciatica, which after researching it makes a lot of sense, with the initial numbness and stuff. Oddly the NHS doctor I saw a while ago never mentioned this at all. I was told it could take up to a year to heal. But my concern is there is no improvement whatsoever in the past three months and if I wait twelve and nothings improved then it could be something more serious. So he’s referring me to a specialist and I will have an MRI done etc. I’ve been paying private medical insurance for years and never made a claim, it’s going to cost me forty quid excess, I’ll live with the loss. If I get a scan and it is just nerve damage then I know how to tackle it, basically ignore it. There’s no damage to the underlying muscle and it really is all just in the mind. Physio is pointless, so I’ll discontinue that. Went out for a walk this evening. Came back and did the very gay thing of watching the football. Wales really did hold their own during the first half and I think were the better side. But now in the second half, two goals down in ten minutes. I think it’s all over.