Life at the Edge

Bright sunshine, warm air, blue skies and just hint of a cooler wind with the smell of the sea salt in the air. I stood with my back leaning against the warm wall. I closed my eyes and just basked in it and revelled in the moment, listening to the sound of the sea birds in the distance. Holiday memory - no - just this mornings visit to the supermarket in some very unseasonal October weather. An hour later we now have thunderstorms.

One Day in History This might appeal to some of the UK Bloggers. This event takes place tomorrow - One Day in History.

'One Day in History' is a one off opportunity for you to join in a mass blog for the national record. We want as many people as possible to record a 'blog' diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life. Make history with us on 17 October by taking part in the biggest blog in history.

This is part of the History Matters - Pass it on Project . The idea is for as many people as possible to write/blog about how important history is to them personally and how it impacts on their daily lives. These accounts will then be stored in the British Library as a record of daily life. I will post my entry here as well.

Dropping Knowledge

Dropping knowledge have got part of their act together at last and have loaded all the questions and individual answers on-line. You can go here to view them. My question is question 20 (left hand box) - select first - then click the right hand box to see all the responses from the individual delegates.

Today is the first ByB Sunday - concieved by Blue Panther in a post here. The aim is to blog

"about the good things in life; things that bring a smile on one's face, even in the most desperate situations. There are moments and people like these around us everywhere, all we have to do is look carefully.

this world is a beautiful place and we neeed to appreciate it, and every once in a while we should take our time out to thank the Maker for giving us a chance to live this life. So every Sunday, Blog Your Blessings and spread the good word and a smile or many smiles."

My biggest blessing is to simply be here. By all accounts I shouldn't be. The fact that I am is down to one very skilled surgeon who decided to investigage my problems at the end of his 12 hour shift (extending it well into the night) - rather than waiting until the following morning which would have undoubtedly been too late. Those precious hours made all the difference between life and death. Those hours meant he could remove and repair a section of perforated bowel and more importantly start pumping massive doses of antibiotics into my system to prevent wholesale blood poisoning, septicemia and organ breakdown. Wise Geek explains:-

"The suspected problem was Diverticulitis which is inflammation of small pouches in the colon, called diverticula, which can become infected. When untreated, blockage of the colon can cause perforated bowel and/or intestines. In virtually all cases, perforated bowel requires surgery to wash out the abdomen. The perforated bowel is then repaired. Occasionally, perforation affects the bowel and other parts of the intestine and may require colostomy, in which part of the large intestine is brought into the wall of the abdomen and waste material is excreted into a bag outside the body. This is generally temporary. After surgery, the patient must take strong doses of antibiotics to rid the body of any leftover infection and to prevent recurring peritonitis, in which the cavities surrounding the abdomen and intestines become infected."

I was in hospital for over a month - I had a colostomy for ten months - before the same surgeon reversed it all succesfully apart from the little problem of MRSA which considerably slowed down the healing process. My blessing is being here, living in a country that has good, free medical services, being in apart of the country where those services are deliverd well and with compassion. I had excellent support from all the nursing staff and especially from the colosotmy support team to whom I owe an enormous debt of thanks.

Photograph by Tony Boon

Horse chestnuts - or conkers were one of the saving graces of the autumn term - they made going back to school after the long summer holidays a little less unbearable. As summer turned to autumn and the nuts and fruits ripened and the days drew in the horse chestnuts yeilded up their bounty - conkers!

Did you ever - play conkers? Did you ever scramble up a tree to reach the perfect one - that elusive shiny brown conker - the one that would see off all others to win you the champion conker prize? Or did you watch and wait until your prize ripen ready to fall - or encourage it by throwing sticks at it or shaking the branch if you could?

Once you had obtained your elusive prize - did you use string or shoelaces to thread and mount your prize?

Did you ever soak it in vinegar and bake it? (cheating according to world championship rules)

Did you ever make the magic *sixer* we all aspired to?

One thing I am sure of - you rose to the challenge, climbed a few trees, got a few bumps and knocks on the way - all part of the mysitque and rituals of childhood. The best ones were always *off the tree* , they had that extra magic, that extra sense of accomplishment from the challenge met.

So a big thumbs down to Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council whose environmental services team are using a cherry picker crane to strip trees bare of conkers before children can get their hands on them - all funded by the tax payer of course.

 Why are we denying our children what we had as part of our childhood? Why do we try and prevent our children enjoying the level of risk-taking that was natural – and accepted when we were young ? And at what cost?

First test post. The idea is to start running this as a mirror /developmental site to my main blog. This is a steep learning curve.

Dont you just love this theme though.