I'm not very good at keeping this blog up to date, alright I'm bloody useless but hopefully I'll have more to say from now on.

A short history of my life over the last year and a half:

1. My wife decided we should part company in Sep 2006 however she didn't want to kick me out and allowed me time to find myself a new house.
2. Moved to Peebles in the Scottish Borders on 18 Dec 2006 having successfully bid for a ground floor flat 200 yards from the local golf club.
3. I didn't find it easy to adjust, particularly as I already suffered from depression. At least the split was very amicable and my wife very generously gave me all the furniture I needed to settle in comfortably. There was also sufficient funds for us both to have several thousand to spend on little luxuries.
4. In my case the luxuries included a 32" LCD HD ready TV and Sky HD with all the trimmings, movies, sports, setanta etc. Of course I also had to buy a washing machine, iron, pots, kettle etc.
5. In February 2007 I joined the local gym, with a gym/swim membership in an effort to get fitter and lose weight. More of this later.
6. In April 2007 I joined Peebles Golf Club and at the end of 2007 I gave up my membership at West Linton Golf Club. It was too expensive to maintain two memberships to say nothing of the petrol costs of a 40 mile round trip to WLGC.
7. I actually played much more at WLGC during 2007 because that's where my friends played. Sadly, one of my best friends became quite ill and had to stop playing around May of 2007. It only took the NHS 3 months to diagnose cancer in his neck.
8. I became ill at the end of August, and had to be rushed to hospital suffering from very severe pains in my abdomen and back. Turns out it was gall stones, so they performed a small procedure to offer me some short term comfort but went on the list to have my gall bladder removed. In the meantime I have to go on a low fat diet and lose 1 1/2 stones.
9. In November one of my dogs became seriously ill. The vet, after taking bloods for examination, said it looked like leukaemia but she faxed the results to the Dick Vet. They got back to say they wanted to see her immediately so we took her in on the Friday. It turns out that if she'd not gone in til the Monday she would have died. It was not leukaemia but auto-immune haemolytic anaemia. Her immune system was killing off her red blood cells and platelets. The Dick Vet kept her in for 6 days while plying her with copious amounts of drugs, one to suppress her immune system, steroids and a drug to combat the likely side effect of vomiting. She survives to this day and is now on very small doses of the drugs.
10. In January 2008 I go into hospital to have my gall bladder removed by laparoscopic surgery (as in keyhole). Back on a normal diet a month or so after the surgery and have put on about 11 lbs (naughty boy)
11. My wife comes up to Peebles in March 2008 to tell me she now has a boyfriend, culled from one of the many dating sites which proliferate the internet.
12. Give up my membership at the gym in April 2008. I wasn't going often enough because it bored me and I could do better things with my money.

I've tried to keep it brief because god forbid I should bore anybody. Actually I couldn't give a monkey's.