He's home!

Son-of-Furtheron returned from his Arctic adventure yesterday.  Mrs F and I headed up to Heathrow to pick him up, arriving in reasonable time, good job too as his flight actually landed 20 mins early.  Still we had time for a coffee waiting for his flight to land, taxi and bags to be delivered.

We stood at the end of the "funnel" at T3 arrivals, there is a bit with barriers that people come through which is a bit funnel shaped.  Standing there as the automatic doors flip open you can see some of those coming through.  Mrs F suddenly shouted "There he is" and ran forward so that she almost lept on him as he came through the door.  All good stuff.  He looks really well, the beard is impressive although he had trimmed it up a bit but he did have a look of the intrepid explorer... well a bit ;-)

Lovely to have him home safe and sound.  He immediately was saying how warm it is;  it really isn't for late May is it?  However if for the best part of 6 months you've never known a day about freezing I suppose it is.  As we drove along the motorway home he also was saying "I can't get used to how green it is".  Also funny was that as soon as he logged onto Facebook at home the first thing on his Newsfeed was a picture of a 40 German rifle that someone is selling as "Ideal Polar Bear Protection".  He laughed and said "Doubt I'll need that in Kent!"

So the house is full of us all again if only for a while, he is back off to Wales to visit his girlfriend as soon as she has finished her MSc project write up and presentation, then house hunting in the Midlands with her, and both of them have managed to get an all expenses paid trip to Budapest for a PhD introductory summer school in August.

Daughter-of-Furtheron has a busy week of AS level exams.  She has been busy revising last week and the weekend so there is nothing to do but the doing of it as they say.  She is predicting woeful results as ever - I doubt that'll be the case, she is a glass half empty kind of a person.

Mrs F's Mother is on the slow recovery path, she had a massive op where they wired the knee, plated the arm and pinned the shoulder!  She has been out of bed a few times and they have had her up on her feet and given her a load of bed and chair exercises.  There is beginning to be talk about rehabilitation and Mrs F has pushed and looks to have successfully got her into another hospital that a friend of ours who has had more operations than is fair for anyone to have to endure and he recommends that one fully.  Goodness knows how long before she can go home and with her house having bathroom, toilet and bedroom upstairs I'm not sure how that will work... Still one day at a time on this stuff I suppose.

9 years - but who's counting?

Well I obviously am!

Yes somehow unbelievably it is 9 years since I took my last alcoholic drink.  If you want a brief summary of my drinking career read My Drinking Story.  Friday 14th May 2004 - I remember it well!  I was already in the pub, well it was a Friday and it was after noon after all, when Mrs F text me about something we'd been waiting on. "Tonight we can celebrate" said the text.  Of course my stupid brain looked at that and did the usual flip and a voice, one of my voices, said "But frankly your life is still shite pal. What a loser!".   That was it I went on one of my many regular drinking binges.  (There is a whole book worth of stuff around why I did that, about my lack of self-worth, my need for external gratification and acknowledgements but coupled with an internal knowledge that they were not enough anyway.  If you can't love yourself as you are you'll never be happy even if you win the biggest lottery win in the world!)

I got home about 7pm I think, by then Mrs F was not happy as I'd supposed to been home much earlier than that to take our daughter to a swimming lesson, so she had had to take her and the plans for the "celebration" were in tatters already, or gently burning in the oven at least.  Oh yes and the TV had broken.  My son informed me of my wife's anger and the issue with the TV.  That was it the opportunity to redeem myself, I donned the full suit of armour and got on my white charger, well I phoned the TV repair company.   When she came back in I informed her in my drunken state that I'd saved the day.   She didn't bow down and thank me profusely for saving her from this great disaster, in fact she wasn't much impressed at all!  So I snapped at her and she snapped back at me and we had a most awful almighty row.  Btw it has to be said that Mrs F and I don't row, it just is not how our relationship has ever functioned.    Before the sun set that night I was lying curled up just crying and hating myself and how I was and how I acted and the fact that I just couldn't stop bloody drinking!  I felt so utterly defeated.  Mrs F quietly told me life couldn't go on like this.  I knew that too and I vowed to finally do something about it - and not rely on myself which had singularly shown itself to not be a good strategy.

In a few days I was in rehab, in weeks back home to a tentative rebuilding of a marriage and family and then in AA trying to cope with that voice which now was saying things like "You can cope, just cut down, you're not like those others you can cope with it"...   utter madness!  I see that hopelessness in newcomers eyes regularly at AA meetings, for many they fail to stop drinking, to be honest what makes someone like me stop and others don't I really don't know it is the finest of lines between being an arrested alcoholic and a still active one.

Today is a normal Tuesday.  I'll get up and go to work, I'll come home, I'll either go to a meeting or I'll take my daughter to swimming club as Mrs F probably needs to visit her Mum in hospital.  None of it that special, and so it should be so, I've just not drunk alcohol for another day and it is just another day like which for me is a minor miracle every day I manage to cope with life without having to resort to alcohol.  Also to anyone who is or ever has been part of AA - my eternal gratitude to you I don't believe I'd have made it this far without you.

A new beginning

First some bad news. Mrs F's mum had a fall in the local shopping centre on Thursday and has broken her arm, shoulder and knee! She doesn't do it by halves does she. It is Sunday morning and she is in surgery now on at least the shoulder the knee may need an op too. The rehab etc will be a long time and issue given she lives in house so bathroom etc all upstairs.

Anyhow some good news. I have been accepted onto a counselling course starting in Sept. This is the new direction I am planning to go in. At the end of this month I'm going to reduce to 2 days a week at the uni. So one day at the course centre then look for some voluntary work to start with where I can hopefully look to apply the new skills I'll be learning.

I went to an open day at the centre yesterday and met some current students all of which confirmed to me that I am making the right decision on course and centre.

What you do when off sick... Vintage VE2000GG video review

Well I am feeling better thankfully.  Still have an annoying cough from time to time but on the mend.  Soon back to work.  However now I'm not just lying on the sofa watching snooker or my DVD collection of Ewan McGregor's various motorcycle journey's I've been learning a couple of pieces and getting to enjoy my new Vintage Gordon Giltrap VE2000GG Deluxe.

The Deluxe edition of this model features like the cheaper model a shaped based on one of Gordon's most iconic custom guitars made by Rob Armstrong many moons ago and has a mahogany neck and a solid cedar top.  The difference lies in that this model has a solid rosewood back and laminate rosewood sides - the cheaper one is laminate back and sides in mahogany (don't scoff at laminate the original was laminate as Rob believes it adds strength without reducing tone!).  The fingerboard on this is a lovely piece of ebony, becoming rarer and rarer on guitars these days with the issues surrounding the reduction of ebony stocks.  The other major update is that the pickup is the Fishman Rare Earth Blend system - which is Gordon's go to pickup - most of his stage guitars feature this pickup.  Considering that the pickup as a retrofit item can set you back over £250 the whole package including the really nice Kinsman hard case being on the streets for only £629 is a bit of a bargain frankly.

Ok so - some people have commented in reviews that the neck is a bit "chunky" - I don't find that to be so, it is wider and a bit more D shaped than my Yamaha LL11 but those Yamaha's are noted for narrow necks.  I've not had a chance to use the pickup live yet but can't believe it'll be anything other than excellent - I'll report back after my first live use of this.

Anyway - I've been learning two pieces both in DADGAD tuning recently.  Gordon Giltrap's Isabella's Wedding - very apt to play on his signature guitar and David Mead's Unseen Sunlight which has the added fun of having a partial capo on the top five strings at the fifth fret so you have to play "over" the capo at times.  Here are two videos of this pieces played on the new guitar.

Chest infection

So yesterday morning I thought I was getting over the flu.  After a walk to the shops and back I wasn't so sure, honestly only about a mile round trip but I was so out of breath and then in the evening was unable to get off the couch at all.

I went to the doctors this morning to be told "this is proper flu" and then after he listen to my chest "Hmm - bad chest infection".   So I'm on antibiotics and signed off work until the 12th! 

I haven't been this ill in ages.  I hope it will now start to get better - also I need to learn to give it time and not rush it like I did yesterday.

The Flu

So I stupidly made some wise crack about "man flu" and getting no sympathy on Facebook on Friday night.  I was feeling "under the weather", sore throat, aching legs etc.  You know the thing.  However this developed into the real deal - temp over 100, total delirium in the night, with the most odd dreams going on in my head, my throat feeling like some instrument of torture with 100 razor blades in it had been inserted and everytime I swallowed it was so painful.

I just couldn't do anything. Honestly I've lost three days of my life.  I'm slowly getting better, not helped by a coughing fit yesterday aggravating a muscle in my back which I've pulled a few times over the years - terrific now I can barely walk as well!

Still this morning I've actually got on line and sorted a few bills and things that needed doing so on the road to recovery.  I'll try to remember not to be so flippant again - I should remember that flu isn't a joking matter really.

So apologies for not being on anyone's blogs as I've just not been able to.

You can't help yourself can you?

It is a lovely warm sunny April lunchtime in London.  You've had very little time in the last few days to have time to yourself in the busy office.  So you take a walk to look around a local guitar shop.  30 mins later the credit card has significantly less credit head room than it had before and you have to text your darling wife to say "Sorry I seem to have bought a guitar"...

My new love.   Vintage Gordon Giltrap Deluxe edition - only checked over by the distributor on 16th April and now mine!  ALL MINE!!!!!  

A review will follow once I've had her a few days.