31 Today!

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear Stuart
Happy birthday to me!!

Telly Addicts

After lots of hmming and umming, I've decided to take the plunge and replace our old JVC 32" CRT televison with an all new 40" Flat LCD Sony Bravia television.

Actually, I only decided to get one because there was a really good deal on the model that I was looking at, and fortuantly one of the teachers at the school was interested in paying a reasonable price for our old television.

Due to the rather large size of the new television, I've spent the last two evenings moving the living room around, and re-cabling the surround sound speakers, satellite and television aerial cables (with a little help from Kieran), and now I am knackered! The major change is that the television and settee have swapped places and are now on the other side of the room, which was no easy task with the amount of stuff we have in our living room.

I've even done the unimaginable..... I've completely taken apart my beloved computer and thrown away the computer desk to free up some more space in the living room. The computer hasn't gone completely though - The idea is to have it on the floor beside the new television and for it to be connected via a VGA cable directly for use as a gaming machine, and for me to use my wireless laptop more for other things.

It gets delivered tommorow morning, and I can't wait! The only thing is I'm at work all day, so I've got to wait until 4.15pm to play with it!

Pain in the head!

As you may have read in a previous post, over the New Year while we were down visiting in Essex I was suffering from some really severe headaches. I've suffered from them for years now and they are weird in that when I do suffer from them, I get them day after day at exactly the same time for weeks at a time. Excrutiating pain above the right eye.

I've been suffering them for every day for the past week, so I decided to finally go to the doctors and see if he can advise me on any medication.

It turns out that I have been diagnosed with 'Horton's Cluster Headaches'. Now, I've done a bit of online investigating and I was quite shocked to see what they actually are.

Taken from Wikipedia:-

"Cluster headache, nicknamed "suicide headache," is a neurological disease that involves, as its most prominent feature, an immense degree of pain. "Cluster" refers to the tendency of these headaches to occur periodically, with active periods interrupted by spontaneous remissions. The cause of the disease is currently unknown.

Cluster headaches are extremely painful, unilateral headaches of a piercing quality. The degree of pain involved in cluster headaches is markedly greater than in other headache conditions, including migraine. The duration of the common attack is 15 minutes to three hours. Onset of an attack is rapid, and most often without the preliminary signs that are characteristic of a migraine.

Cluster headaches are occasionally referred to as "alarm clock headaches", because of the regularity of its timing. It has been known to strike at the same time each night or morning, often at precisely the same time during the day.

In episodic cluster headaches, these attacks occur once or more daily, often at the same times each day, for a period of several weeks, followed by a headache-free period lasting weeks, months, or years. Approximately 10–15% of cluster headache sufferers are chronic; they can experience multiple headaches every day for years.

Cluster headaches often go undiagnosed for many years, being confused with migraine or other causes of headache. Medically, cluster headaches are considered benign, but because of the extreme and often debilitating pain associated with them, a severe attack is nevertheless treated as a medical emergency by doctors who are familiar with the condition."

For years I have always thought that they were migraines due to the intense pain (and also because my Mum suffers them too), but although the pain can be far greater than a migraine, they are classed differently. At last - an answer to a condition that has been affecting me nearly all of my life.

Happy New Year! (Part 3)

I've had reports (well only from Dan actually) that he can't view my New Year message!! Oh well, I'm guessing embedding a simple SWF flash file in an HTML page is just too much for some internet browsers(!!), so here is a link which should work, whether you are using MS IE, Firefox, Opera, or whatever other broswer!!

http://www.stu-wilson.com/blogger/helium/index.html

Happy New Year!

Well, this is going to be my last post in 2007. To all the readers (well, the one or two of you) who read this blog - I hope you all have a wonderful 2008.

Besides suffering some of the worst headaches/migraines that I have had in years over the past couple of days (no they are not drink induced headaches), Michelle, Kieran and I are both in Laindon to see in the new year. Sorry to my friends who we never got a chance to see while we were visiting - We just haven't had enough time and unfortunatly I need to get back to Evesham by Wednesday afternoon to help organise a Wireless network survey at the school.

So, what are my hopes for 2008?...

...That'll be telling :)

Ho Ho Ho....

In the words of Shakin' Stevens - MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

To be honest, I'm not a very merry person at Christmas, but as I write this, I'm watching Kieran playing with all the great presents that he got, and I think back to this very day 20 years ago - Yep, Christmas 1987 - the best Christmas I ever had......

Why was it so great..... Because it was when I got my Commodore 64, the best present I have ever had in all of my 30 Christmases. It was the one present I got the most enjoyment out of (and I still do, 20 years later!!). I don't know if it is just me, but Christmas just isn't the same now that I am older, but I think to myself that Kieran has still got all this enjoyment, and excitement to come, and it's nice to know that I'll be able to share it with him and see him happy opening his presents over the coming years.

Well, the excitement of Kieran opening his presents has now finished. We are now off to spend the rest of Christmas and Boxing Day at Michelle's hotel... Ho Hum.

Catch you later!