The festive season has passed and 2012 is upon us. Almost too much has happened since the last blog, but one thing that has been almost non-existent is cycling! I knew it would take a dive over the winter months but due to Christmas, illness and those few crazy windy wet days I’ve got further behind in my challenge. I am now 231 miles back from where I should be by now. It’s going to be a busy summer on the bike at this rate.
After the filming ended I have been off work as planned. I’ve been looking forward to this time off for ages. I did my Christmas shopping at my own pace where as normally I only have time to do it all in one hit a week before the day with a million other people. I was able to go to friends birthdays and spend time with both sides of the family, again, all the things I would normally have to cram into my one day off. I must really love my job to be saying that it was nice to spend time with family and friends over Christmas which must be a given for the majority of the population!
Christmas day was lovely for the most part. We were having lunch at the Walter family this year. My two nieces are at a great age for Christmas, not sure if their mum agrees with me as they ask if there are any more presents to open five minutes after we finish opening. A huge lunch and a couple of hours of discomfort later we head home. As we walk through the door my phone rings and it’s my mum telling me “don’t worry but your brother is in hospital”. Why do we all do that? I remember Isi phoning her parents a couple of years back and using the phrase “Don’t worry but we’ve been in a car accident”. I guess we don’t know what to say in these situations and you don’t want to start right off the bat with the bad, even though there would appear to be no good, so we all revert to the stock phrase “don’t worry but…. < Insert problem of any severity here >.
Long story short, my brother is fine. The doctors don’t really know what happened to him. The bad news for Matt was that as they didn’t know, they kept him in. So, we five Kings spent the last couple of hours of Christmas day in a cubicle of the Emergency Assessment Unit. It was so hot in that room, not like we’d followed a star there, but had one right there on the chair next to us. I can’t imagine how Matt felt, as he had a fever at this point, having that star right there next to him can’t have helped. “Yeah, but how hot is a star?” I hear you cry. The first hit on Google says: Anywhere between 2600-7200 degrees C. We’ve all learnt a little something now.
I try to take a positive in most situations, at least we were all together. A couple of days later when he felt completely back to normal he was still sat there waiting for more tests that may or may not reveal the answer. Matt ended up coming out on the 30th. At least he didn’t have to spend New Year in there. We finally opened our remaining presents that night along with a curry that Matt had asked for after 5 days of hospital food. It was an unconventional but lovely evening.
I was going to tell you about my bike getting stolen but I’ve already talked too long so the main thing to know is, it sucked. To summarise the rest of the festive period quickly: We had nice family walk in Knoll Park to see the Deer, New Year at ours was fun other than Isi’s sister being struck down with a mystery illness (see a theme developing?). Now, I have been struck down with a bout of man flu, which brings us right up to the present minute.
Happy New Year from me and the Deer
