An Apology

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to make a public apology to all of you.

You see, back in 2020, during the dark days of the covid pandemic, I threw my hat into the podcasting world, mainly because I had so much time on my hands. I recorded twelve episodes and mainly spoke about the pandemic, about how it had affected me and so on and so forth.

During one of these episodes, I can’t remember which one, and I can’t be bothered to go and check, I stated that the government of the United Kingdom, under the leadership of Boris Johnson, was doing a good job.

I couldn’t have been more fucking wrong.

More Doctors, More Pain, More Hospital Stuff

So with the latest cycle of medical appointments finished, here's a round-up of recent happenings for you and the family members who aren't on my friends list and who don't speak and skulk around in the background:

The two mental health assessements drew the conclusion that I'm in need of treatmentant given everything I've been through in the past year. I've been put forward for cognitive behavoural therapy, although the waiting list for treatment is six months or so.

The blood tests showed that I have low folate levels. This basically means I'm anaemic, and I'm now on a course of folic acid for the next few months. They also tested to see how my other organs were doing, as well as for diabities. Thankfully that came out all clear.

If You're Happy & You Know It It's Your Meds!

So I'm coming into one of those periods when I don't have a medical appointment. In the past week or so I've had a blood test, an ECG and two mental health assessments.

If you included the paracetamol and ibuprofen I take for the pain (I'm off the codene now for obvious reasons) I'm now on twelve different forms of medication, thirteen if you include the freeze gel I get to help with the pain. That stuff may be cheap but it works wonders.

Sorry Dad, We've Let You Down

Today is Father’s Day, the day when we pay tribute to the men who raised us, biological or otherwise, and because Father’s Day is so close to the anniversary of my own Father’s passing I’ve been thinking about the old man quite a lot over the past few days. Which is why I’m posting this here now.

Dad, I’m sorry.

Mum and Dad had ten kids, spread out over twenty years, with me being the youngest. At this moment in time there are seven of us still around. I had a sister who died when she was still an infant, a brother who I never really knew who died in his forties and another brother who died in his fifties.

By the time Dad passed away he’d been a widower for nearly eight years, and his dying wish was that his family should stay together, should stay connected with each other, and should be there to support each other through good times and bad.
Well, we certainly fucked that one up, didn’t we?

When Jake "The Snake" Thought It Was All Over

Here's a little story for you from my time in the wrestling business.

Back in the day WWE legend Jake "The Snake" Roberts was trying to score....I mean revive his career over here in the UK, and a certain family-run company was handling some of his bookings. One day in their plush offices (or rather in a tatty-looking shop on Unthank Road in Norwich) we were trying to come up with ideas on how to get some publicity for the great man.

Yours truly came up with this idea, and low and behold it wasn't long before David Gower and Jonathan Ross were groping around him in a way that wrestling's Speaking Out movement would have been horrified by twenty years later.

As is the way of things if you were to ask the powers-that-be about this they'd take all the credit themselves. But hey, that's been the way of things since I left them back in 2005.

Enjoy this little video.

 

Boy Is My Diary Filling Up!

I'm in one of those periods again where I have medical appointments.

Thursday off to see the GP to discuss the letter I had from the surgeon following my consultation at the big hospital in April, six weeks after that appointment.

Then I'm back down there next Monday to see the mental health nurse after I was diagnosed with depression.

Then (hopefully) nothing until July when I'm back at the big hospital to see the cardiologist.

I hate those fucking places. I'm the kind of person who needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I just wish that it wasn't for tons of medical appointments.

Where's My Cake?

So I have a question. Where’s my cake?

Let me elaborate.

When someone leaves their place of work there is often a little gathering, normally to thank them for all of their hard work. A card, signed by many co-workers, is handed to them, and cake is often eaten before the person leaves the building for pastures new.

This never happened to me.

Happy Friendiversary, Helen

This turns up on my Facebook memories every year. Happy Friendiversary to the boss who sent me late night drunken messages demanding I go back to work, even though I had a throat and chest infection.

Credit Where Credit's Due: Imagine What I Could Have Done For WAW If I Was Healthy

WAW head honcho "Rowdy" Ricky Knight greets me on his way to ringside to face Robbie Brookside at The Talk in Norwich in April 2002 .

 

I’d like to take you back a few years, to the dark, distant days of the early 21^st century. Yours truly was just about finding his way around the world wide web, combining two of my favourite things, writing and professional wrestling.

In 2000 The Two Sheds Review was in it’s infancy, but the wrestling world was going through some massive changes. When I began writing about wrestling World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling were on their death beds, and it wasn’t long before Vince McMahon and his mighty World Wrestling Federation swallowed up as much of the national wrestling scene in the States as he possibly could.

Around the same time my interest in wrestling began to wane a little. I wasn’t one for trading tapes, and streaming and downloading shows was but a distant dream, so, seeking an alternative to WWE, I began to take an interest in the local wrestling scene, most notably the Norwich-based World Association of Wrestling, formed in 1994 by the husband and wife team of “Rowdy” Ricky Knight and “Sweet” Saraya Knight, along with Ricky’s Superflys tag-team partner “Gentleman” Jimmy Ocean.

The Results from the Hospital

Health update: the trip to the big hospital went well. The x-rays and CT scan showed that the lung is healing up nicely.

The pain comes from the diaphragm repair, which is causing the pain in the chest, ribs and back. The hospital is writing to my GP to explore pain management and physio options, because it's likely to be the end of the year before I heal from the operation fully.