Wednesday was my Birthday and I was woken by my kids excitedly wanting to give me my Birthday cards, they had written one each except for `Pickle` who had drawn on the bottom of the card which my eldest daughter had written for her. It was nice to see them excited and it meant a lot that they had given a card each, I suppose on reflection I could have tried to be a little more excited with them but it really is just another day. I don’t drink loads of alcohol or do drugs so getting shedded out on the town with mates who are going to look to get shedded is not going to happen, and so for me I am happy to spend the day doing normal things,maybe catch a film at the cinema or a DVD at home but if it does not happen it would not be the end of the world. When you are young you look forward to it and are really excited because it means something in so much as cards, money, presents and a party or Birthday food with some friends round. 25 plus is just another day, cards are nice to know people remembered and little gifts from family are nice to receive. when you get older, past 80 I think they become special for the fact that you made another year, but that is just how I feel about the whole Birthday thing. Alison and I went for our normal `st-roll` to the Stonemasons in Ilminster for our normal lunch but today my Wife would be joining us also. The idea was that Steve would come over in his lunch break and my Wife would meet us before it was time to collect `Pickle` from nursery and we would all have a meal together. This did not go to plan though as Steve had to leave work as he had caught the flu and `Pickle` also was not well with flu like symptoms and could therefore not go to nursery. She did come to the Stonemasons with my Wife and have a bite to eat although she really just wanted to cuddle up and sleep. We had a really nice meal but it had taken us forever to get there. We did not know what the state of the cycle path would be like where I got punctures before but had arranged for my Wife to come and pick us up if it was bad, we would then go to the Stonemasons and have our meal, collect the older kids from school and then be dropped off at the point where we were picked up so we would do the return trip to the bungalow and thus giving my five or so miles. This was not required as I picked my way through but I had delays on the way.
I received a phone call from the road safety people regarding my communication with them on Monday. They are keen to try to arrange for me to possibly get involved for a short time in trying to educate people on the motorcycle safety side of things. As a picture paints a thousand words, for people to see what can happen by looking at and talking to me would be a far better way as I see it for people to understand and comprehend how not observing correctly as a car driver can cause such a life changing thing for a motorcyclist, that just because you have full leathers and a decent crash helmet you are still soft and squishy on the inside and if you hit an immovable object you will come off worse and also to show the youngsters that if you can end up with the injuries I have when wearing those items, what the hell do they think they will end up like if they continue to wear shorts and tee shirts with their helmets undone on their scooters? I have my little logo with “Giving Back” as a slogan as I want to give back to those who have helped me and if I can talk to people, and they do take on board what I say and act upon it, if I can stop just one person ending up in a chair like me and stop them from losing their life as they know it then I will have given back to the emergency services who have to pick the bodies or injured people up. I will have given back to the surgeons who have to do what they can to fix up the broken bodies because there will be one less for them to do. I will have given back to the Police officer who has to go and break the bad news to a family or loved one. I will have given back to the Nurses who work to stabalise, encourage and care for those injured and above all, I will have given back to the Mother and Father, Wife or Husband, Son or Daughter as they will not have to receive the knock on the door by that Police officer who has the unenviable task of breaking news of a serious injury or death to them. We shall wait and see what happens.
I received a call from my Dad to wish me a Happy Birthday, we spoke for around ten minutes until I had to cut the conversation short as I was trying to propel myself along to keep moving towards the Stonemasons but was not doing too well with only one hand. I then bumped in to an old friend, someone who I had worked with on the four way crossing in Chard some years ago. We had been doing ground works and had been paired up to work with each other, I had never met the bloke but we hit it off really well right from the start. He was carrying out some repairs to the cycle path and he pulled me in my chair across the muddy grass so I could get past his lorry. It was also his Birthday on Wednesday which I had forgotten about, a weird coincidence that I should see him on that very day, but a nice chance meeting all the same. We eventually got to the Stonemasons at exactly the same time as my Wife who had driven across. Jack sat in the Chucklebus and we sat in and had some food and a drink before collecting the kids from school.
My Wife and I were trying to decide if we should go to the cinema or not. My Mother in Law was happy to sit with the kids but I was not happy about how `Pickle` was. She was so clingy and cuddly which is not like her. She has had a feveral convulsion in the past which is common in my other two. My daughter was the worst for it, the Ambulance would take her and tell my Wife to sort the kids before she raced down as my Daughter would take so long to come round there simply was no rush. To that end, my Wife has been monitoring `Pickle’s` temperature, then she will strip `Pickle` down to her underwear until she cools off and covers her when her temperature improves. A nightmare task, but at least she is better from her flu virus, I hope that it does not affect `Pickle` as bad. After much discussion we decided not to go to the cinema as we should be at home with `Pickle` not being 100%. My Brother came over for a visit and when they left later that evening my Wife took `Pickle` to our daughters bed, (which is our old bed), and I went to mine where I wrote a Blog entry for Monday and Tuesday before feeling too tired to write any more and went to sleep.
Tonight I was led astray by my Brothers Chris and Darren. I had fired up the laptop and had settled down to write my Blog entry for Wednesday and today (Thursday), but I got a text message asking to play on the games console on line. I told them I had my Blog to do but they told me to play just one little game, one game would not take long. That was at ten past nine this evening. That one little game ended at half past twelve and so as a consequence I am writing at one thirty four in the morning. I have given an idea of what happened on Wednesday but Thursday’s entry will have to be done tomorrow or later today as it turns out. Just going to say a huge thank you to all those people who wished me a happy Birthday on the Facebook, I did make sure I replied to you all with a Thankyou message but I am thanking you all again on here, it was appreciated. I have smashed the gym today and have been out all day and as a result I am cream crackered. Therefore I am off to do what I imagine most of you are doing while I write this, and sleep. I am so easily led it is untrue, my Daughter gave me a Birthday card which had a badge on it, the writing on the badge said “OLD ENOUGH, to know better”…….well, clearly that is not the case.
Goodnight all