NJS

It's been a scary day for me. I've had a sore calf/back of the knee/back of the thigh for a week which I'd put down to a slight hamstring strain. Then I noticed the calf was quite big compared to my other leg and the soreness was ranging around to the front. Id also had some breathlessness so decided to go to the GPs this morning and she confirmed what the bastard internet had suggested - a possible clot - so she sent me off to the local hospital. Without anyone being obvious I got the impression it was serious as I was successivley jumped ahead of other people in the wait for a blood test, an ECG and a chest x-ray. Then they told me they didn't have a slot for an ultrasound of my leg until 4pm and it was okay if I wanted to go home which was a huge relief. I went back for the scan and it was confirmed I have a clot in my upper thigh (this causes blood to pool in the calf) but on the other hand they confirmed (probably a bit late) that my heart, lungs and blood were all perfectly fine. Upshot is I need to take Warfarin for 6 months (first few days via self-injection) and have frequent blood tests but otherwise it isn't world ending. I rang my sister before I went and was telling her I hoped it was similar to the last time I had a bit of a health scare in 93 when possible gallstones turned out to be nothing but the "fright" was a wake up call which resulted in me losing a shit load of weight and getting quite fit. Since then I've been up and down a couple of times and I'm currently at the wrong end of the scale (but not as bad as I was originally) so maybe another scare is what I need. I'd also mention I was treated brilliantly all day by all of the staff - brings it home what's at risk.

Who would have thought Wolfy reserves his looniest tunes for football.

TBF VAG do share a lot of parts/designs.

I think when people mention depreciation as a reason not to buy a new car, they forget the balance of a proper warranty and a degree of confidence that it wont need many repairs.

I think the way BMW and other's are using hybrids is a good bridge for the time-being - I got some sales blurb for the I3 and it's impressive (though hideous).

I enjoyed Washington a lot but its nowhere near NJ.

Sopranos tour? The Giants stadium is okay but if you get that far you may as well go to NYC.

Might have been the time of year but a huge factor in my enjoyment of Barbados in March was the complete lack of cuntish nationalities. Almost spoiled by a Russian on the last day who spoke to the lad putting out the beach umbrellas like he was still on a sugar plantation but in all honestly a polite Russian would have been more of a shock. Might need a casual holiday racism branch for this thread now.

I used to do the bits of the cycle network from Sunderland to Consett through Washington and then down to Blaydon on my MTB and stick to the A183/693/694 on my road bike as altenatives. The paths aren't exactly seriously off-road so I used slicks but they're still too much for a road bike.

Before I moved south I did a loop through Sunderland/Stanley/Consett/Gateshead back to Shields a few times which worked out at 64 miles which is a 100k. The road past Beamish up to Stanley is wonderful.

I didn't realise until today how close the tour was coming to Chelmsford on Monday - it's the other side of town to me but the route follows bits of rides I do on a semi-regular basis. Not 155k of course - I'm no Gemmill.

Ant making a play for my poster with the tartiest car title.

How can you talk about "sorting things out" when HF's point was that his family's issues were dealt with and now aren't? What you mean is that its worth destroying his family's lives because morons like you think there are too many fiddlers. We have the stats to prove there aren't and the stats to prove that people are suffering and dying but that doesn;t matter because like IDS you "believe" that people are fiddlers. Lower than vermin.

Well worth it to stop the bloke everyone knows with the dodgy back who claims hundreds a week. I've always been aware of Bevin's description of them as lower than vermin but only recently read about the context. It was when churchill mobilised the whole lot of them to prevent the creation of the nhs. Puts their rhetoric about it being safe in their hands in its place.

Even if they'd been anything else but Tory Lite, 13 years wouldn't have been enough to undo Thatcher's reshaping of society into one where the very people who are necessary for modern capitalism to "work" are also the most despised and demonised.

I enjoyed the album but thought they tried a little bit too hard to recapture their very early sound. The reviews of the tour suggest Ozzy is struggling a bit but overall they are still enjoyable.

I think any figures for the club would have to be taken in the context of any benefit for SD - whether such analysis exists or if it is the shitfest HF describes is another matter.

I can't in all good conscience go and see them without Bill Ward. I did see the proper line-up a few years ago and don't rally want go taint that memory.

Coulter is beyond bat-shit mental like. Would be interesting to ask her how "socialist" sports are which distribute the best players to the worst teams and have wage caps negotiated by trade unions are.

I know - I just meant that the document thing seemed pretty clearcut which meant her whole "day to day operations were beneath me" defence seemed a stretch. Seems like they went from believing her on the hacking to ignoring the attempted cover-up as minor which I think is iffy.

I know it's always an outside view like the Redknapp case but how the hell they could think she didn't know what was going on - especially considering her attempted document removal which seems to have been ignored - is beyond me.

I see Sir Les has left Spurs - I instantly thought we should get him in but then thought he'd be tainted by association with the pack of shits.

I'm generally anti-zoos - I remember taking my niece to one when she was 5 and it really upset her that the animals were in cages. Having said that if you watch some of the animal reality shows its obvious they are staffed by dedicated people who do their best for the animals. Sea worlds and other circus type things which use the animals as pure entertainment on the other hand are indefensible in my view.

Hereford have been chiucked out of the conference for failing to meet financial rules - if there's no appeal and/or it does actually happen I'll be stupidly pleased - petty bastard that I am.

It's rooted in bigotry of course but I'd say that kind of christianity, like that of the Reverend Jim Phelps, is actually more true and honest to the faith than the wishy washy modern variants - Muslims are heathens in that context.