Mr and Mrs J Broadley….and family!

Whilst we were on holiday in America, I got a telephone call from Jed telling me that Rose had given birth to their first child - a beautiful daughter. I later learned that they had named her Anna Catherine Broadley.

She was a whopper and has gone from strength to strength ever since. Congratulations and well done to both Jed and Rose. But, it’s only just begun! There are many years of joy yet to come I’m sure!

Here’s a pic of Rose and Anna enjoying what looks like quite a few congratulatory bunches of flowers!

Etape Training Diary

My friend from work, Rob, is planning to do the Etape on his bike (well obviously) next year. He’s started a blog tracking his preparations so I thought I’d give it a plug for anyone interested in similar things.

Rob’s Etape Training Diary

This is the only pic I could find of him on his bike. He’s the luminous one on the right.

North Carolina

Between 8th October and 16th October 2007, James and I travelled to North Carolina, USA to attend the wedding of Kourtney and Eric, now Mr and Mrs Katanich.

We set off on Sunday 7th October and stayed the night at Dudley’s flat in Ealing. It’s conveniently close to the Heathrow Connect trainline which got us to Heathrow nice and early on Monday morning, having set the alarm for 5:30am! We met up with Rosie and Norm at the airport and flew to Chicago and then on to Atlanta, Georgia. There, we rented a car and drove for about three and a half hours to Hendersonville, North Carolina (passing through South Carolina on the way). We didn’t arrive at The Apple Inn until really quite late - 11pm local time, making it about 4am UK time…almost 24 hours after setting off!

The cottage was small and quite quirky. It felt as if both the bathrooms had been added as an after-thought. Perhaps they were! I’m not sure how old the cottage was. It took us a while to find the switch for the water heater - it turned out that all the circuit breakers for the electricity were in the master-bedroom’s en-suite bathroom!! This added to the impression that it hadn’t always been a bathroom!

On the Tuesday we met up with the lovely Kourtney who took us for the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted at The Wrinkled Chicken Egg and then on to look around Hendersonville.

Kourtney took us up to see the Katanich family home which had a really beautiful view.

In the evening we went for some lovely food at the Irish style pub in the centre of Hendersonville.

On the Wednesday we went to The Grove Park Inn Spa. This was a super surprise that James and Norm had plotted with Kourtney for Rosie and me. It was such a lovely site and we had the greatest time. Rosie and I had full-body massages. Heavenly!

On the Thursday, James, Duds and I went for an explore around the countryside. We went to a museum about forestry which I think was the Cradle Of Forestry (lost the leaflet) and then drove along the amazing Blue Ridge Parkway - such an amazing route. Check out the Sat Nav pic below! We ended up at a place called Chimney Rock but we were quite knackered by the time we got there and we had to head back to get ready for the party in the evening.

In the evening we had a lovely time at the engagement party BBQ and then the Hen/Stag Party on the Party Bus! Below is a pic of the BBQ and poor Kourtney being led astray by her two sisters, being plied with tequila slammers! I stayed well away. Poor Kourtney. hehe.

The next day was wedding rehearsal day! Also the wedding rehearsal dinner afterward. Pinebrook Manor was beautiful! Rosie and I stayed over there with Kourtney and her sisters the night before the wedding!

The Saturday was the wedding day and it was totally splendid. The weather was glorious and the party very fun. Sometimes weddings can be a drag, but not this one. It was just right. They had a cake in the shape of a car! Everything was really special.

On the Sunday we got together for breakfast at Dixie’s Diner with all the family and headed home on the Monday. A wonderful time was had by all!

More pics of the holiday here.

By the seaside

Yesterday we had a wonderful day-trip to Minehead with Reagan and Dave. Dave drove us all up there in his car along a lovely scenic route. We had a lovely lunch, walked along the front, played arcades and crazy golf, ate ice-cream and later had afternoon tea. It was really nice to get out somewhere different for a change AND for it to be nice weather. Glad we did it. Here’s a pic of me by the seaside yey!

London

This weekend James and I travelled to London primarily to attend the Angioma Alliance UK first annual forum conference. Hopefully they won’t mind me quoting their leaflet because I know quite a few people reach my website when searching for information on cavernous angiomas / cavernomas / cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) / cavernous haemangiomas (all names for the same condition).

Angioma Alliance UK is an organisation established by and for those affected with cavernous angiomas and their families. Their website www.angiomaalliance.org.uk provides information about cavernous angiomas, our current members and information on acquiring membership. Along with our parent organisation, Angioma Alliance based in Virginia, USA, we also provide updates on research.

If you would like more information about cavernomas I urge you to contact angioma alliance as they specialise in providing clear information about the illness and offer support to anyone affected by the illness.

It was a very informative day for James and me. We discovered lots of information that we didn’t have previously. A lot of the information on the web is contradictory and it was really good to hear from actual specialists who research the condition and treat it every day. There were talks on prognosis, standard surgery, genetics, gamma knife surgery and how a family should approach the issues related to a diagnosis.

It was all arranged by the Angioma Alliance UK Co-ordinator Ian Stuart and he has already announced the next annual Angioma Alliance UK forum in 2008. Here is a little pic of Ian doing his stuff.

In the evening after the forum we met up with Greg, Phoebe and Dudley for some dinner at Pizza Express. Afterward we went to Ed’s for some milkshakes. I had a peanut butter malt milkshake. It was nice but possibly a little bit too peanut buttery. The one James had was lovely - banana coffee.

We also saw some wonderful weather on the way to London. Here are a few pics of the weather and meeting people:

Birthday and House Warming at the Harvey/Gardner Household

This weekend we travelled up to Bristol for a joint celebration of Becky’s birthday and the new house that her and Dave have purchased. Much fun was had by all. Check out the photographs here. Here is a photo of Becky showing off her vegetable patch!

Wheeze-a-thon

On Friday we had the pleasure of being one of the few chosen stop-offs for Norm Driskell on his sponsered Wheeze-a-thon. He’s doing really well and was quite tired and also quite hungry!

Keep going Norm!! Best of luck. :)

John O’Groats to Land’s End - ridiculous cycle ride of death amazingness

Norm is hoping to raise tons of cash with a stupendous cycle ride.

Sponser him NOW. It’s the law. 

Tunisia

Well, this week Dan is actually in Tunisia, on the holiday that I won on a scratch-card and donated to him.

I hope you are enjoying yourself Dan! I want to hear all about it when you get back :)

End of financial year

Yep, the end of another financial year is here again. This is the busiest time for most of us. Not only are we trying to get all the bills in before we close the accounts, but we are trying to set up the programme for a new year.

As at close today, we are still about £4.5million under!! Not just one big wodge either, but loads of various stuff across the whole programme. We are trying to feel confident it’ll all come through tomorrow morning but it’ll be one of the tighest years ever.

The main problem is getting invoices off the contractors. Anyone would think they didn’t want paying for the work they have done! That’d be ok if they told us they were going to do it for free from the outset - then we could have spent the money on something else, like developing laser guided busses or hover cars. Ok, so the hover cars aren’t real but the laser guided busses are a definite possibility and have been mentioned. I have no real idea how it works but I assume drivers won’t be out of a job. I think it’d be a long time before people were confident to go on busses with no drivers! Could be good for the drivers to be equiped with lasers considering all the reports of bastard violent passengers. They could shoot lasers at them - “You expect me to pay for this crappy bus?” “No Mr Chav, I expect you to DIE!” *laser*

Anyway, tomorrow isn’t just the end of the financial year, it’s also the end of the week. Yey! I think tomorrow I will head off to the pub after work with my trio of hunks - James, Dave and Reags. Tis unlikely that it’ll be a quadrangle of hunks - Damo has not graced us with his presence in several weeks now, preferring instead to stay at home. He must have found some really good porn or something.

Congratulations

Congratulations must be extended to the engagements for the following people:

• Caz
• Kev
• Chris
• Cath

Of the list, Caz has selected Chris and Cath has selected Kev. I think this is the best match all round for everyone involved. Other combinations may not work so well.

YEY well done you guys!

I have a strange feeling that happy news is all about at the moment. Eeeee!

Pancake Day

Today is, of course, Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day.

We actually had pancake day on Saturday with a few people. Tuesdays are not good days for having events with drinks so we thought Saturday was a better day to hold it. Much fun was had by all.

One pancake did indeed hit the floor and another was dropped into the gas and burst into flames. Altogether, very successful.

Birthday Fun

Sunday 5th November was my 26th birthday. Because Sunday is not a great day for most people (due to work on a Monday morning) we had party shinanigans on Saturday night.

Rose arrived at about lunch time on Saturday and we had a great time chilling out, drinking lovely coffee in town and generally catching up on gossip. Later we transferred over to the house of Reagan, Dave B and Damian, meeting Jon and Hayley there, and enjoyed setting off celebratory fireworks. We ate cake and sparkled some sparklers. Half way through this Andi, Dan, Rosie, Becky and Dave arrived to enjoy the second half of the fireworks and cake. You can see some photos here and i think some other people took some photos too but i haven’t seen them yet.

After this we all travelled back into town and attended tyepyedong noodle bar on Sidwell Street for some delicious food, meeting Christel there. Everyone sang happy birthday to me. :D

After this we went into Amber Rooms for lovely cocktails and funky music. Then later we retired back to the flat and collapsed.

The next day we had some fried egg and bacon toasted sandwiches and croissants with orange and apple juice.

I had a wonderful time and everyone has been extremely generous. Thank you everyone for coming to visit. It really made it the best birthday I could have wished for. <3

A very sunshiney engagement!

Congratulations to Kourtney and Eric, our Floridian friends, on their engagement. Here is a picture of Kourtney and I think in the background, Eric ;)

Mr and Mrs Broadley

Yes, last weekend our good friends Jed and Rose were married in Trinity Hall Chapel in Cambridge.

It was an incredibly successful event and the weather was glorious. See the pictures here.  We punted down the river and the reception was held at Peterhouse.

Jed and Rose are now enjoying their honeymoon in Las Vegas and New York. I wish them a wonderful future together as Mr and Mrs Broadley.

Sad news

Over the last couple of weeks I have learnt that a very dear friend from my life before Exeter is gravely ill. We spent a significant amount of our childhood together, living extremely closely, being born only 1 month apart and attending the same playschool, school and church. His family are great friends of my family and we spent every new year together as we were growing up.

It troubles me greatly to hear how seriously ill he is right now confounded even more by his imminent wedding in just a few weeks time. He has several major operations on an extremely rare chordoma spinal cancer ahead of him within the next week or two. He is only 25 – 30 years younger than the average age that this cancer normally surfaces. This makes me realise how fortunate I am to be healthy.

Get well soon, Sam.

The last few weekends

A little bit of a catch-up on all of the things that I’ve been up to recently.

Firstly, 3 weekends ago it was my dad’s birthday so James and I travelled up to the North to see him and mum. The journey there was absolutely atrocious due to traffic and we ended up having to detour via Wales, however the weekend itself was lovely. We went for a really yummy Indian meal on the Saturday night which I had saved points for all week and I still lost 2.5lbs that week (and incidentally passed my first stone lost mile-stone).

The following weekend, James and I were involved in the moving house of Becky and Dave. James picked up the van from Marsh Barton early on Saturday morning and we packed Dave G’s stuff into it after taking a few things to the tip. It was an absolutely boiling and muggy day but we pressed on regardless. The journey up to Bristol was splendid and we unpacked all the stuff at the new flat. Dan and I then retired to his flat for a cooling glass of squash whilst the others took the dreaded gauntlet machine to be deposited at the bank of mum and dad Harvey (in their garage). We then moseyed down to the yellow café for some drinks and delicious foods.

Then it was time to head down to Becky’s old place and get her remaining stuff (mostly bulky furniture as she had moved the other stuff with Dan and her parents earlier in the week). That was pretty knackering because there are loads of stairs in Becky’s old flat. Eventually however, it was all within the flat and we collapsed with some Chinese takeaway and Dr Who (Dr Who?! DON’T SPOIL!).

The following day we took a trip to Ikea. We shopped ‘til we nearly dropped and then filled up our fuel tanks with meat-balls. James and I nearly bought a sofa and really bought a new mattress and a bunch of other things we probably didn’t really need. Still we really enjoyed it and it was handy to get a new mattress whilst we had a van with us.

Then this last week, I wasn’t in work on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. On Wednesday, as you know, I went to Plymouth to see Mr Whitfield. On Thursday and Friday I just had 2 days annual leave and it was absolute bliss. On the Thursday I played on the Sims quite a bit because I have recently acquired 2 new add-ons (not real expansion packs) which I wanted to play with. In the morning some people from a charity came to pick up our old mattress and then in the afternoon I went to HQ and had my hair trimmed and my eyebrows waxed. Most enjoyable. On Friday I made some last minute arrangements for the hen party and in the evening James and I set off (with an added Dave) to Bristol. We swapped Dave for Becky and Rosie and then proceeded to Canterbury for Rose’s Hen Party.

We arrived at Eleri’s house quite late – it was after midnight. We didn’t stay up long as we knew we had lots of stuff to do on the Saturday. View the photos of the weekend here. The next day we met Rose in Canterbury and went for lunch at Pizza Express. This was particularly yummy. I do like it there. In the afternoon, all of us except Poppy and Rose retired to the house to finish setting up whilst they went to have manicures. In the evening we did presents, cheese and wine tasting and archaeology. There was one small injury but all was ok in the end.

Busy Weekend

Well last weekend was massively busy!! Thankfully it was a Bank Holiday so we had a bit more time to get everything done.

It started with James and I visiting Mr Gubbay the chiropractor. My neck is feeling much better now thanks to him and James has said that he feels much more flexible following his two sessions. I had one final treatment (for now) with him yesterday and I’m hoping that it will be ok for quite a while now. I have certainly noticed that my neck cracks, grinds and pops far more than it did directly before the siezure, but Mr Gubbay is confident that there isn’t any damage that is too serious. I am already getting used to it. From what I understand it’s basically aging my joints slightly faster than normal.

After seeing him, we left for Canterbury with the electronic piano. We arrived about 10:45pm and demonstrated the piano to Jed and Rose. I have since heard that the music chap for the wedding is happy with it. I should sort out some insurance for it. In the morning we had a lovely breakfast cooked by Jed using top quality produce from the farmers’ market. Later we went over to Ben and Elerie’s house for a cup of tea. It was good to have a look at her house so that we can think about what we are going to do at the hen party.

Then we set off to Dudley’s house and arrived in good time. That evening, we had a chinese takeaway and watched some of Lost. On the Sunday we left for Birmingham and arrived in good time to park see X-Men 3 at the Odeon in the city centre. It was also Mardi Gras so it was interesting to see some of the parade. X-Men 3 was awesome. Made me realise that i have to watch the first 2 again because all 3 are totally awesome movies. We ate dinner at Cafe Rouge and then headed down to the theatre to watch the recording of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue - a fantastic experience. Dudley was sitting next to someone who came to be known as ‘Incredible Laughing Guy’. I was worried for Incredible Laughing Guy’s health at one point he was laughing that much! We made it back to Birmingham safely quite late so we basically went straight to bed.

The next morning we headed off to Bristol and met up with Becky and Dave for lunch at a cafe not far from Dan’s place. We were joined by Lisa and her lovely little baby. Take a look at a pic of Becky and Lisa’s baby here. Later Dan came along and joined us and we all had loads of cups of tea and yummy food. Following that, we headed off to see Becky and Dave’s new flat. It is really lovely with really spacious rooms. It’ll be really nice once they’ve got all their stuff moved in. We then had a drink at Dan’s flat and said hi to Sarah and the travelled back to Exeter with Dave.

After all that we were pretty tired!!

This weekend we are off to the north to see my parents because it’s Dad’s birthday! I have been saving WW points for an Indian meal on Saturday night. Yum yum.

Double Locks Fun

A week ago today, James and I decided to cycle down to Double Locks for a drink. It was a lovely evening and we thought it would be enjoyable. The cycle there was fun and we picked a table out the front. After I went inside to get some drinks, Dave G and Dave B appeared on their bikes also. They were just locking their bikes up when it happened.

I had my first ‘public’ seizure. It was quite a serious one for me as well. I had passed out pretty quickly. James’s Blog gives an account of things here. It took a while for me to come round properly so that i wasn’t totally confused. I don’t remember much about the lady who helped us but i do remember feeling calm and not too worried because she was there talking to me. An ambulance lady was also very helpful and gave me oxygen which seemed to help me come back to reality quite quickly.

Many thanks must be extended to Dave G and Dave B. Dave G helped by looking after our bikes and Dave B was amazing by giving us a lift in his new car, back home.

As far as injury is concerned…all major injuries were prevented by wonderful people caring for me. I did however do my typical thing of gnashing either my tongue or lips. On this occasion my top teeth clamped down on my bottom lip. My bottom teeth slashed the inside of my bottom lip, now progressing into some lovely mouth ulcers and my top teeth made nice dents in the visible part of my bottom lip with the additional side effect of damaging the nerves. I haven’t really felt anything in my bottom lip since last Wednesday now but I’m hoping it will wear off and the nerves will repair themselves. I think it’s getting a little bit better. Not sure.

On Monday this week, coincidentally I had an MRI scan booked at the hospital in Plymouth. They called in the morning to say that they MRI scanner was broken and that an engineer was coming out to fix it. Thankfully we did eventually get my head scanned at 4:30pm (the original appointment was for 11:45am). I had a look at the scan on the screen and it looked to me as though the cavernoma was bigger than it used to be. It may have been my imagination or just the magnification or something. I don’t know but will no doubt hear from Mr Whitfield for an appointment relatively soon.

Then last night I had another quite major aura. It didn’t progress into a full seizure but probably would have done if James hadn’t have been with me. I could feel it starting up. Felt spaced out all of yesterday and don’t feel significantly better today. Also had a headache this morning. I feel like i need a holiday of some sort.

Convention

The weekend before the one just passed was of course the annual Queen Convention. Everyone else set off for Prestatyn early on the Friday morning however this was when the Exeter DLTP meeting was due so James and I stayed behind for the morning so that I could attend. I was so eager to leave that I think that was one of the slowest meetings ever known! Eventually we were off to Prestatyn and we arrived around 7:30pm. We got some chips from the nearby chip shop and headed to Pontin’s.

It was a really fun weekend and we took part in loads of activities. The tribute bands were pretty good and I got myself a Queen t-shirt.

Pics of the Convention can be found here: http://gallery.jamesoff.net/v/Events/Outtings/Conventions/Convention2006/