under a blood red eye

Was at the hospital at 0730, operated on at 1030, woke up at midday, was free to go at 1745. Just got home...



'More later'! For now: what a day! It seems my eyes are now facing in the same direction, though the full results won't be clear til the left eye heals up. Thanks to all the amazing people at Ipswich Hospital (and also for the well wishes of my friends ... ta!)

33 days...

...is the length of time which has elapsed since I first met with my new co-supervisor and rashly promised 4 chapters by the time of my eye op (which I have to check in for in, erm, 7 hours time)

I have just handed the second pair of chapters, which means I've now drafted 54,000 words of PhD, and I estimate I have a further 15-20,000 which can be easily turned into working prose. Not long to go now... perhaps it could even be measured in months.

Meanwhile, now that's out of the way, I can begin fretting about this imminent surgery. This is the first time I'll have been under general anaesthetic since I was three. Yeuch.

Shotley - Oyster Reach - Shotley

Bike: Condor
Distance: 15.40 miles
Time: 49 minutes 59 seconds
Average speed: 18.4 mph
Maximum speed: 28.0 mph
Odometer (at end): 2405.5 miles

With 2 miles to go it started snowing - well, I'll claim it was, though it was more like the painful sting of sleet rather than the gentle kiss of snowflakes.

My feet and face are numb, I must go and warm up...

Halfway: 16.5mph average. One of the slowest times I've done this route, overall, but wasn't pushing very hard on the way out - it would've been a bit of a waste, what with the 30mph+ arctic winds.

Shotley - Erwarton - Harkstead - Holbrook - Freston Xroads - Chelmondiston - Shotley

Bike: Condor
Distance: 13.51 miles
Time: 46 minutes 21 seconds
Average speed: 17.4 mph
Maximum speed: 30.5 mph
Odometer (at end): 2390.1 miles

Gusts of over 30mph meant I was only averaging 14.5mph by the time I got to Holbrook, moreover the sky had changed from 'bright and sunny' to 'ominous'. So I'm glad I got the cycling out of the way sooner rather than later today... if the snow arrives, I guess that's it for November. The ride back from the Freston crossroads was fast and effortless, with the wind at my back ... almost made it worth the earlier effort.

Shotley - Oyster Reach - Shotley

Bike: Condor
Distance: 15.38 miles
Time: 46 minutes 31 seconds
Average speed: 19.7 mph
Maximum speed: 31.0 mph
Odometer (at end): 2376.6 miles

That was fun: got to halfway, having taken it fairly easy into the slight headwind, at 18.5ish mph, so I must've done the return leg at nearly 21mph average.

On the way back got held up periodically by the school buses, but this gave me some good interval training.

A minute or so quicker than Monday, but conditions were much nicer and I was much more up for cycling today.

swab story

Next Wednesday I am having squint surgery on my wonky left eye ... I have a rather obvious outward squint, which annoys me primarily because it detracts from the image of urbane, intelligent charm I otherwise like to project.

I last had an operation on this eye in April 1984 to correct an *inward* squint: this is the root of the problem today - simply put, they should have left it alone and it would have drifted into the 'proper' position over time. The worry is they'll get into the muscles on my left eye and discover too much scar tissue, which means they'll then operate on my good right eye. Accursed vanity.

Anyway, today I had to go up to the hospital for my 'pre-op' (oh yes). I had thought that Ipswich Hospital had already successfully demeaned me in every possible way, what with colonoscopies, endoscopies, various enemas and other high-powered laxatives, not to mention the requirement to shave my abdomen.

Then, today: what started off as an innocuous looking check-up with the nurse turned into a groin-swabbing ordeal - apparently they need to collect samples from my nether regions (as well as from up my nose) to ascertain whether I have MRSA or not. Who knows what else they'll discover: apparently cycling shorts create a fertile breeding ground for all kinds of bacterial nightmares.

Moreover, I apparently have slightly high blood pressure (which is unsurprising when you're being violated by swabs). The nurse says it is almost certainly due to stress, whereas I blame my prodigious coffee intake. This has worried me, and I may limit myself to 2 cups a day from now on... or maybe 3. Wake-up coffee, 11 o'clock coffee, mid-afternoon coffee... that's not excessive. In any case, someone with my level of general fitness shouldn't have high blood pressure. Damned PhD.

Shotley - Oyster Reach - Shotley

Bike: Condor
Distance: 15.12 miles
Time: 47 minutes 49 seconds
Average speed: 19.0 mph
Maximum speed: 27.0 mph
Odometer (at end): 2359.8 miles

It was grey, cold and spitting horrible freezing rain, but am glad I went out... I need to sometimes motivate myself, when I don't have the time for longer rides, to just go out and accumulate 'faux-commuting' miles like this. Pushed hard on some stretches, which revealed an alarming lack of fitness, but this isn't a problem right now: next year, my season is going to be less top-heavy, leaving me fresher for the July/August races. Hard training won't begin til later in January, therefore.

I lost about 0.2 miles on the above readout, owing to water getting between the connectors on my bike computer, but this is all much of a muchness.

A mental note: my father is a farmer, yet he doesn't possess a 4x4. By contrast, many of the hordes of parents collecting their offspring from the local school do own (remarkably shiny) 4x4s, and what's more they don't seem to be able to abide by the laws of the road when operating them. Hm.

coffee breakdown

My eye operation is less than two weeks away and I have a deadline the day before, so cycling/blogging are curtailed for now... So, MSN conversations with German Pete will have to suffice as an insight into the things which are on my mind.

***

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:52):
for the past 4 days or so you may have noticed a slight grouchiness

p - says (18:54):
very slight

p - says (18:55):
i assumed that was due to your chapters looming

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:55):
no

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:55):
i had run out of proper coffee

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:55):
now i have beans again

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:55):
today has been wonderful

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:56):
i now know what heroin addicts must go through during rehab

p - says (18:57):
i'm also out of coffee

p - says (18:57):
it hurts, oh it hurts

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:57):
do you have inst*nt? the useless methadone of the caffeine addict?

p - says (18:58):
no, worse

p - says (18:58):
i have instant cappuccino

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (18:58):
is that a euphemism?

p - says (18:58):
...

***

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:27):
a thought occurs to me

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:27):
are you aware of the phrase 'full of beans'?

p - says (20:27):
uh no

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:27):
really?

p - says (20:27):
really

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:27):
hmm. it basically means to be full of energy

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:28):
my query was whether it refers to coffee beans or baked beans

p - says (20:28):
haha

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:28):
no, seriously

p - says (20:28):
perhaps it means something else

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:28):
perhaps, but hear me out

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:28):
i am energetic and drink a lot of coffee, so it could be said i am 'full of beans'

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:28):
but I loathe baked beans with a passion verging on the insane

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:29):
these are the thoughts which occupy me as I try to write history

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:30):
hmm. typing the phrase into google, i simply get a sean bean tribute site.

p - says (20:30):
the riddle is solved

Ed | the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldavia says (20:30):
in a horribly euphemistic way

armistice day

In an era where one or two troops deaths owing to failure of logistics, tactics or whatever causes public criticism and the appointment of a tribunal, I suppose it is hard to imagine exactly what it must've been like during the Great War when, in some battles, tens of thousands of people were wiped out in a single day.

Depressingly, some youths on TV last night were asked simple questions about the Great War and knew virtually nothing about it - despite the fact one of their relatives was killed on the western front.

It's depressing because we do still live with the consequences of the war today - geopolitically, socially, economically, culturally - and it is the historian's standard line that you cannot understand the present without (attempting to) understand the past. And you certainly cannot understand how we got to today without knowing something about the first great industrial war.

It's also depressing because, despite the hopes invested in the post-1918 international order, we've continued to kill each other in large numbers since, all over the planet, as we reject the idea of humanity for misplaced notions of national pride and 'security'.

art for pete's sake

Ed | ambitious and misunderstood says (22:56):
i have been reading about disturbed irish painter francis bacon today

p - says (22:56):
i like his screamy things with the bat ears

Ed | ambitious and misunderstood says (22:57):
you're such a talented art critic pete

Shotley - Southwold - Shotley

Bike: Condor
Distance: 100.01 miles
Time: 6 hours 00 minutes 21 seconds
Average speed: 16.6 mph
Maximum speed: 31.0 mph
Odometer (at end): 2344.6 miles

With occasional drizzle and gusts of 35mph blowing straight into my face for over 3 hours, I perhaps should've paid more heed to Metcheck's advice: "In essence a weekend for staying in, making sure the heating works and sitting infront of the TV with a brew!..."

To think, this was my 'treat' for finishing those chapters on time...

a drop of water moving on a complicated propeller surface

While the world has been changing rapidly this week, I've been holed up in my study on one of my periodic masochistic chapter-writing marathons (I did undertake one brief foray into London to vent displeasure at my department: mercifully, my journey was uninterrupted by drunks). Anyway, I felt like an undergraduate during 'essay week' again. The only difference is that I actually met my deadline (a couple of hours ago) and am now feeling slightly at a loss, unable to relax, possibly owing to the fact I've been surviving on coffee for much of the past 72 hours.

Sad news about Michael Crichton, I remember reading Jurassic Park, Sphere, and The Andromeda Strain when I was circa 12, and being amazed by the long words and (what I didn't know were fictional) theories. He inspired a love of science (and, especially, mad science) which was sadly crushed by high school. But, as the past week hasn't proved in any way, science's loss is history's, erm, gain.

Meanwhile, my cycling plans for the weekend may well be interrupted by gale force winds. Bah!

sinister findings

As a left-handed shrinking violet, I'm definitely known for my hesitancy and inhibitions.

bananarama

While she is not as vicious or powerful as the snapping turtle, which can apparently remove limbs if it feels like it, feeding my tortoise is still a risky business. Thankfully, on this occasion, she was placated by some banana and I escaped with my digits intact:

this takes the kürbis-cuit...

...is what various people will be saying tomorrow when they find this in their inbox:



I think this is the first year of my twenty-seven on this planet that I have ever done anything for Halloween, even if it was slightly belated and mixed up with chapter-writing hell. That's the true horror, right there.

In other news: a rather good weekend of sport, particularly my triumphant return to the Guardian's OBO, with two comments published on last night's Stanford 20/20 farce (see: Patel's wicket and the Mid-Innings Musings). I am really glad Chris Gayle & co. walked off with the money, and hope England can put this nonsense behind them and start acting like cricketers again before they head off to India.