It's been a while

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has gone on, some bad but mostly good, some sad some funny, some involving drunken midgets and that isn't a joke but that's for later.

Let's start with the good news, after several more trips to the hospital for CAT scans, ultrasounds and another MRI, I think I've spent more time in doctors offices in the past couple of months than I have done in the rest of my life put together. The big lump, aka Rameses hasn't changed at all, which is good, means things aren't getting worse. It's still there all lumpy with a lot of fluid around it and I'll get the operation date when I see the consultant on March 18th. The second lump aka Chris Evans (named after the annoying ginger one not the Marvel actor) is now considered a benign growth, most probably and ingrown hair that has carried on growing. This is good news but just bad timing as I got all worried that I had another lump and it was a complete different texture and consistency on the scans. At the minute the plan is to remove it at the same time as the other one but that will be confirmed when I see the consultant. 

More good news, the Italian lessons are going better and I even had a very brief conversation with a customer and apparently I have a good accent! I'm currently enjoying a 443 day learning streak and I'm hitting 91% accuracy levels, why weren't languages this easy when I was at school? I still think to this day making us do both German and French was a mistake, it also didn't help that I really didn't like the teachers and got mixed up with the grammar between the both.

I've also got plans to cross another two things off my list very soon (this week in fact!) as it's been to long since I did any of them and them I need to get my backside into gear if I want to do another 14 this year like last. Like I said in a previous post a lew of the simpler ones have been done now and I'm getting into the stages of planning my first big one....more details to follow soon I promise!

Now onto the bad things.

Now I don't mean to sound egotistical here but I know I'm good at my job, so it came as a bit of a shock to me when a few regulars said I haven't been myself the last few weeks. Now I can put it down to worrying about my health and the fact that I can't do certain things at the minute. I've bought a new car and only driven it once, as I've had my license suspended. I can't go the gym because when I exercise I go all light headed due to the pressure in my head. But deep down it's because I'm tired. Work has been absolutely insane since the beginning of December and it shows no sign of slowing down.  I've always thought of January and February of being quieter but the last couple of years the complete opposite has been true, at least at The Bowl.

This means that all the staff have been working harder than normal and it hasn't helped that I've had to deal with some of the worst customers that I've encountered in the 20 plus years I've been in the hospitality industry.  It got to some extreme lengths when one found my co-manager on facebook just to complain about me, something that I'd never heard of. I'll admit the joke that I made was on the immature side but to go to those lengths to moan about me, its a bit to much if you ask me. I've been called a c**t by a couple of people and I've had to bar a couple of people, one for drop kicking another kid off a pool table in the face and another for throwing a pool ball at a window and cracking it.  

It also hasn't helped that until recently I wasn't sleeping very well because during the night I would roll over and the knock on the lump would wake me up and leave me awake for a couple of hours before I drifted off again, now I've been given some stronger pain relief and thankfully so far it's working and I feel so much better for it. 

All in all I just need to take a break and thankfully now half term is over I can do just that. I've got 10 days off and I'm not going to think of the place in that time. It's not very often I feel like this as on 99% of the time I really enjoy working and the job I do as I noted I know I'm good at it but sometimes I wish I could just win a stupid amount of money on the lottery and live the life of riley in Bognor Regis like Elvis did if you believe the ridiculous rumour.

With me not being able to exercise properly I have put a little bit of weight back on, but that I can understand and I know that when I get back to fighting fit I can drop the weight again. I really miss going there and although I love going for my long walks through the Lincolnshire countryside it doesn't beat a good workout in the gym whilst listening to some Linkin Park or Skindred.

Oh and the guitar lessons still aren't going well...in fact I may have threatened an inanimate object, the guitar, with severe repercussions if things carry on the same way, maybe it's time to actually hire a teacher who can help me.

Now onto the thing I know your waiting for with baited breath, the drunken midget. Wednesday nights aren't supposed to be big drinking nights anymore. Back in the day at university, when Wednesday was sports day and we all used to pile into the SubClub yes but not a random Wednesday in February in Boston. It was an 18th birthday celebration just a couple of games of bowling and a burger, this intrepid young man decideded to have 20 shots of neat malibu and then proceed to ride people as though they were horses. All in all one of the strangest things I've seen in the bowl.

If you wish to see the horse related moments please click on the link below and watch it as I make a brief cameo at the end!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1552980462452820