90% fit

Well I have to say that was not fun, I even coughed up pure water at one point, which according to google is a sign of pulmonary edema.....not good, Lucky I don't get all hypochondriac on my own ass about things like that. Google is never a good place to diagnose yourself...but clearly it was a mother fucker of a chest infection.

But there wasn't a lot I could do in-between coughing fits so I waited...I had planned to go the docs on Wednesday morning  but couldn't get out of bed early enough to book a same day appointment, so waited a bit more.

And Thursday night finally I started to stop coughing after one especially severe fit and resulting lung water episode....but I think that was just my lungs clearing out.

So I am on the mend, incredibly croaking and squeaking  voice and still coughing a bit from congestion rather than infection but nearly there.

I also had the most wonderful lie in this morning to celebrate my 1st full 10 hour sleep in over 6 weeks...Boy I needed that.

Normal service should be resumed after the weekend, I'm going to stay in out of the cold as best I can (dog walks are unavoidable) and should be back to 100% soon.





Ahthankyew

Brian's health update....for both of the visitors who are interested

Even though I seriously wasn't up to it, I managed to do a walking dead like shuffle into work to support my co-lecturer as he was giving his 1st lecture in our PR4 course... I coughed and wheezed though the whole thing but at least I didn't go down as taking a sick day.

I am just a little bit better, sill having the odd little coughing fit, but it is clearly reducing....I can only hope a few more nights sleep will see the back of it... I have a friend who's been sick for 11 weeks so far with a similar cough, I can't imagine how horrible that is.. I hope she gets better soon.



Ahthankyew

only a teeny bit

still coughing up a lung so fever might be gone but my god I am sore....ribs are at breaking point.

If I can get to sleep I might be ok...but so far no go.


Might have to take another sick day tomorrow, can't believe that, I've had almost none in 5 years and already this year I've had 4 maybe 5if I can't get to sleep.....bahhh!


Ahthankyew

0.01% improvement

Better whisper it...but I am a teeny bit better...still coughing and my ribs are aching from it all, but slightly less and it seems the fever and sweats have passed....now the problem is just the cough...how long will it last.




Ahthankyew

Week 5 in the big brother hospital

ohhh goawd....just kill me now

constant coughing, sweats, headaches....this is just horrible.. I would go to the docs but its just COLD......the cold from hell but just a cold, on top of a cold on top of a possible chest infection that they wont' give me AB's for because its just a cold..

Another day in for me I think, hmmm though I do have to take the dog for his obligatory walks, maybe that's what keeping me sick, the constant exposure to cold air on the dog walks.... Harvey is killing me???


He did a funny thing last night though, as I got all wrapped up, in double coat, scarf, hat and gloves to take him for his evening walk..he trotted to the door, then stopped dead in his tracks.....

looked up and me and pretty much said, 

"Yo..Bitch....It be raining, I ain't goin' out in no rain"..

And stood his ground...totally refused to go...

At least I got away with that one, but had to force him to go out before bed time, otherwise there'd be a present or 2 for me in the morning that I wouldn't want.



Ahthankyew

Really???? I mean...REALLY?

So despite not quite being over the last cold, and coughing pretty much all the time...I am the recipient of yet another virus from the cold hell.
runny nose, headache, often caused by dry cough/heaving, sweats and fevers....this is just fucking unreal. How long to have I have to feel like shit physically, when I'm still coming to terms with feeling shit mentally.

And yes I have been swallowing OJ like its water, bought a bulk pack of it from Macro last month and have had 2 glasses at least every day.. proof as if it were really needed that nothing stops a cold kicking you when you're down.

I've not enjoyed much of this holiday break at all, marking and working and now the last weekend I will be in bed most of the time sniffling.. There's more tissues round my bed than a 14yo boys room...grrrr



Ahthankyew

No X factor for me....dammit

It's taken me several days to get a video made, I had all sorts of issues getting the sound in to the laptop and it just was a pain.

I rehearsed some songs over and over again, and in my headphones I sounded fucking Ace...really, best ever. Confident, strong, in tune, good phrasing, I nailed them.

finally I get the audio sorted, I sing and play a test track


And its not fucking Ace..its fucking awful....but why was the sound in my headphones so good??

sigh....the guitar playing was good though, I just need to find a singer.

Ahthankyew

Nice weekend....but frustrating

Been catching up on all the code stuff I have to do, finishing marking and as a special treat to myself, been setting up an Acoustic recording session. I find I need sometimes to provide myself with a reward to drive myself to do the boring or hard work I need to do.

So after 4 hours of so of practice on Saturday getting 4 songs sounding just right I got ready to record them during my Sunday session......nope, technology decided to get in my way.

My Zoom R24 is a lovely bit of kit, and it does an amazing job as an 8 channel live mixer with USB out, but no matter what I tried I could not get Debut video to take the sound..it saw it, it registered the input but all the resulting videos were mute...grrrrrr

5 hours I spent doing that... 5 HOURS! and still no joy...my enthusiasm for recording went.

I can resolve this by hooking the R24 to my RC300 which I know works fine with Debut, but I really shouldn't have to, but I want to get these songs on my youtube library since I've done nothing for months, despite practicing a lot of nice songs...

So even when doing something simple like an Acoustic session, technology twats you about.


Oh well, maybe todays session with the RC300 as the A/D system will work... I'm betting something will screw up.

Ahthankyew

Carnival madness...or in my case peace

Avoid Breda for the next 4 maybe 5 days...Carnival is here.

10's of thousands of people in costumes singing and drinking and having a generally good time, but its all a wee but too much for me.

I enjoyed it the 1st couple of years I was here but now its just a bit of a madness I try to avoid.

But I will gratefully take the weeks holiday we are given to celebrate it and rest and relax and do as much coding as possible.

Brian time.....


Ahthankyew

phew

Fortunately slept fine,  though didn't get to bed till late.....

no major ill effects so it was not a cold/flu thing probably just a shitty numb throat from surgery thing that sometimes crops up. I probably should note it in my cancer blog....wonderful things to look forward to for the rest of your life.....

marking is sill ongoing, I've got most of the PR and PRF's done, will try to finish the last of the PR's today so they can go in,the PRF's are a bit quicker to mark since they are much smaller projects but not really very well done....shame.

Anyway...gotta go get ready for a lecture and then back to marking.



Ahthankyew

Oh C'mon

Coughing again....

weird kind of cough, more like a something going down the wrong way choking cough, probably due to phlegm dripping down my throat, which normally just gets swallowed, but if it hits the right spot on my right side, I have no feeling there...so it gets breathed in.....nasty retching cough follows.

Very unpleasant and not much I can do about it except wait for it to settle and try to sleep

fuuuucccking sick of being ill...especially when I don't currently feel especially ill.




Ahthankyew

Picking up the pieces

So after more than a week of feeling utterly shit, its time to get things back in order, dishes done after stacking them for days, guitars and gear left on the floor put away, clothes off the floor and in the wash basket, or wash and generally trying to get a momentum going.

I let things slip when I was ill, mostly marking which I tried to do some of but was unable to do very fast.

Will be mainly catching up on that for the next few days, hoping I can still get them all graded within the 10 days deadline..I might miss by a weekend though.

Kinda pissed I didn't have the energy to do more on my Z80 work, but I was just so wrecked with the cough, tiredness and general lethargy. I will get back on to that when I am done marking.

Quite pleased that my new cheapo reclining chairs for the attic arrived though, and were taken in by my neighbours, which considering the size of the boxes was very kind of them

I built one up to try it out, only took 30mins or so, and well....its cheap, its supposed to be leather, but its not really, however it seems hardwearing enough, and once built, with the obligatory missing washer, and unscrewable bolt..it looks quite nice and is indeed quite comfy for sitting back and watching the movies on the big screen. So job done. I look forward to sitting back with wine on the side table and popcorn watching movies in 5.1dolby surround on my 300cm screen

As I was sitting checking it out I also took some more time to investigate my new projector which was troubling me with its highly saturated redness...but I found some settings (colour) to drop the saturation down from 50 to 20 which produced much more pleasant skin tones... I think its all set to go now.  Only thing left to try is a PS4, not that I play many games if I am honest but will be interesting to play a race game or something on a movie screen. I doubt I will buy one though.

Netflix is a bit of a hit and miss, most of the movies are pretty B grade moves, which is a shame, as it would be nice to have a real choice of movie. I still like having my actual DVD's though, and will soon be buying my 1st BluRay to see what the fuss is about. But, the odd buffering problem aside, likely due to my router being a fair distance from the player, its not really a bad system, and if I have no new movies to watch I am sure I can find something to watch.




Ahthankyew