Symptoms symptoms

All this year, I've been having a multitude of physical ailments. It started with leg pain (still got it!!): behind me knee, in the front part of my thigh, on my ankles... Then my veins on my legs and arms suddenly became very visible, sometimes this was accompanied by more pain. My doctors think I'm a hypochondriac: they looked at my leg, said 'there's nothing wrong with it!' and told me to try to concentrate on other things. Ha! I think that was a cue to start obsessing.... and so I got even more symptoms... This included having allergic reactions to herbal tea (you really couldn't make it up!!), sinusitis after sinusitis, did I mention IBS?, .... etc etc. My arm is also weird, keeps feeling as if I have a trapped nerve. My fingers hurt too. And my back. Also my neck feels a bit tense, recently had shooting pains up past my ear. You get the picture!

Anyway, it probably doesn't need saying that I've visited the doctors quite a lot this year. The last time was last week. They're writing to my therapist about all my ailments, I suppose it hints that there's something wrong mentally somewhere. I had expected it all to have passed by now. But I really want to continue with the therapy, it just makes me feel as if perhaps it might be too much for me, but I hope I'll be able to work through it, pass through the other side without all this.

(but I still think there something wrong with my leg!)

Totally Blackpool...

I'd always imagined that he'd be older, but it's still sad sad news. Comedy actor Inman dies aged 71

I grew watching the likes of John Inman, Danny La Rue, Larry Grayson, etc (and it never did me any harm! Well, not much...) My Humphries was always my favourite on Are You Being Served? Although Miss Brahms was a close second: I thought she was just so trendy! I remember going to see the Are You Being Served? feature film. I must have been about 8 years old. Although it certainly wasn't as good as the TV series, I thought it was fantastic!

Strange rice

Whilst buying some milk and bog roll in my local corner shop tonight I noticed a shelf of rice... Nothing strange in that... BUT there was a sticker placed on all the 'American style' rice that said something along the lines of 'Not made in America. Ignore all references to America'... Huh?! At first I found it hysterically funny: the feeling that they had to put this sticker on so that they could sell the rice and the belief of the terrible effect that the word 'American' would have on the saleability of an item. But, thinking again, it's very depressing: are people really boycotting American goods? I know there's a lot of bad feeling due to Iraq, but....

Let's go to Pluto... Oh.

Sad to hear of this:
Pluto loses status as a planet

Astronomers have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

About 2,500 scientists meeting in Prague have adopted historic new guidelines that see the small, distant world demoted to a secondary category.

The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.

I used to want to be a space-explorer. I think it was something to do with being born around the time of the moon landing. I used to gaze at pictures of the solar system, and try and learn as much as I could about it. That all ended when I found out that you had to be good at physics to take my interest further. I just couldn't equate sitting half bored to death in physics class with the planets and stars.

Now I'm singing Let's go to Pluto from The Creatures' Pluto Drive. But it was too early to star in Holst's The Planets.

We'll be sinning/winning when we're...

A couple of months ago I went to St Paul's (oh, I know, how pompous... but it starts late and it's just down the road...) and the preacher (another reason is that they have a few youngish women priests, is that wrong?) mentioned the Sinner-Winner man. Basically he annoys her and he's got his theology wrong: God likes sinners (which is just as well!!) About a week later I heard that he'd been given an ASBO and had therefore moved from his usual Oxford Circus spot to Piccadilly. Today, I've just learned that there's a campaign to have him banished from his new pitch. I know he's annoying, but how boring everything would be if we didn't have a few characters around. It'd be like always being in an out-of-town shopping centre. Yuck. Anyway, there's an online petition here.

Blogging about sinning and winning has given me the earworm of the 'We'll be singing when we're winning' line from Tubthumping and now I'm sure there's also some Robbie Williams-related winning-sinning phrase. Here is it is. Oh such pun!! His new single's a bit shite though innit.

Mugged!

I just don't believe it...

On my way to work, just across the road from home, I had my bag snatched by some hoodie girl. I could hear some footsteps behind me - they sounded rather odd, shuffling, but I presumed it was just someone behind me who couldn't walk very well. Next thing, I felt the strap of my bag grabbed from behind. I turned around, only to find a girl tugging my bag. My reaction was to pull it away from her, so there we were tugging my bag. A voice in my head kept saying to me, let it go, leave go, let her have it, you don't know if she's got a knife or anything. So I did, and she ran off the way she came. I think she got into a car which then drove off. I suppose they'd been waiting for someone to walk past them when the coast was clear and then pounced.

Not surprisingly, I was a bit shaken up. I get really suspicious and nervous of people who are behind me or who are passing me on the street now. I've also bought a money belt so I can share out my belongings between my bag, pockets and belt. (on the day it happened I had everything in my bag: keys, mobile, money, credit cards, etc).

I was impressed with the police response though. I thought they'd just take the details of what had happened and that would be that. But I had to go and look at some mug-shots of people known to them. Unfortunately none of them looked like the girl who robbed me.

UnBono

Bono has long irritated me. I know he's good in some of the stuff he does: all the drop the debt, AIDS, more development aid campaigns,... I even own a U2 record (although I seem to recall it always gave me a headache). It was after then when he started to come across so smug and irritating, wearing those ridiculous sunglasses like someone's dad dressing up as a rockstar.

Now it's been announced that the band are moving their assets out of Ireland to avoid paying more tax. Isn't this really hypocritical, or am I missing something?

The rock band U2 came under criticism yesterday after reports that it has moved a portion of its multi-million-pound business empire out of Ireland for tax reasons.

The band, fronted by Bono, the anti-poverty campaigner, has reportedly transferred some of its publishing company to Holland.

Based in Dublin, U2 have long benefited from the artists' tax exemption introduced by Charles Haughey, the late prime minister. It is reported that the band's move has been made in response to a £170,000 cap on the tax-free incomes introduced in the last Irish budget.

UnBono

Bono has long irritated me. I know he's good in some of the stuff he does: all the drop the debt, AIDS, more development aid campaigns,... I even own a U2 record (although I seem to recall it always gave me a headache). It was after then when he started to come across so smug and irritating, wearing those ridiculous sunglasses like someone's dad dressing up as a rockstar.

Now it's been announced that the band are moving their assets out of Ireland to avoid paying more tax. Isn't this really hypocritical, or am I missing something?

The rock band U2 came under criticism yesterday after reports that it has moved a portion of its multi-million-pound business empire out of Ireland for tax reasons.

The band, fronted by Bono, the anti-poverty campaigner, has reportedly transferred some of its publishing company to Holland.

Based in Dublin, U2 have long benefited from the artists' tax exemption introduced by Charles Haughey, the late prime minister. It is reported that the band's move has been made in response to a £170,000 cap on the tax-free incomes introduced in the last Irish budget.