Facebook and the voided pass

Poor Matt

Monday didn't go too well for my mate Matt. He was on holiday while all the redundancy thing was happening so officially didn't know anything about it. Fortunately some of us rang him at the weekend (although we didn't know if he was included as well) and told him all about it.

Otherwise the first he knew about it would have been on Monday morning when his door pass didn't work.

Which is exactly what happened.

Matt was always early into the office, usually getting in at 8:20ish. so he was half expecting it to happen and that he would have to wait around until someone else got into work. So I had a very odd phone conversation with him at about 8:40ish after he had tried to get it, with me sitting at home and him sitting in the park near the office waiting for 9 am so he could go in and get fired.

For him that's how 5 years of service ended to the company.

I did go in to work later on but Matt didn't stick around and went home. I was there to signed away my right to fight the redundancy and take the money. Also I was there to collect all my personal stuff.

So I cleaned my desk and my locker under the watchful eye of Charlotte from HR. Met with Susie to sign the agreement letter. I wasn't able to sign the no contest contract as I was told I needed to get legal advice first. Fortunately the company would put some money towards that and an independent lawyer was in the offices seeing some of the others so I got a bit of time with him. He took me through the contract and explained the process and sorted out some of the vague details with Susie. He said he would get the company to complete all the details and then he would mail me the contract to sign. Seemed like a nice chap for a lawyer!

Generally the day was a slow process as I stopped to talk to everyone coming backwards and forward. I was in the main lobby for quite a long time neither getting closer to the office or towards the door as a steady stream of people still employed and those collecting their stuff turned up.

It ended in the pub again as we discussed the events of the day over a few pints of beer.

When I got back I set up an ex-company group on facebook so we could all stay in touch.

Redundant

Well I guess I don't have to worry about the office politics anymore

Friday morning started normally with the Traffic project scrum meeting at 9:30 where we talked through what we are doing on the project and what the next lot of work is we will be starting. You meant to stand in a scrum meeting the idea being that if you are standing you will be quicker. However I've been sitting at these meetings because of the knee. The aim of a scrum meeting to for each person to cover three things and three things only 'What I did yesterday, what I'm doing today, and what problems am I facing that are stopping me getting things done'. So we successfully sorted out what the team was doing and went back to our desks.

Waiting for me when I got back was an invite to a strategy meeting. The list of people on it was a bit unusual rather than just being the normal people the go to planning meetings it included a range of people from junior developers to Fabio our technical architect and some developers from the our teams. Raza was one of the developers from another team and he came across to ask what the meeting was about. I didn't know but joked that looking at the selection of people if they fired us all then the company would be in a bit of trouble and alot of the systems knowledge would be lost. Funny how accurate you can be when you are making a joke. So we all trooped off upstairs to Breakout (the meeting rooms are all name after computer games).

The Strategy meeting was as awkward as you would imagine a meeting to tell people that they are being fired, can be. all the guys from IT arrived at the same time to find, Richard (CTO), Susie (Head of HR), Liam (Recruitment), Ruth (Recruitment) and Barry (Tech Support) already in the room. Richard started to read from a script and it was at that point that my heart rate went through the roof and my hands started to shake (they shook for most of that weekend). He read from a script that basically said that they were reorganising the company and as such they didn't need as much staff as they had. They would meet with each of us individually and go into details of our redundancy packages.

Up to this stage I was thinking that it was pretty much like the last time I got made redundant the developers in the room where the ones getting the chop the rest where there to make it official. I was sitting next to Ketan and we could see across to Robo. But Robo's shocked reaction didn't sink in with me until Richard said the time of his meeting with Robo. they also read out the meeting times for Fabio, Ruth and Barry so it was at that point we realised it was them as well. Richard also said that the rest of the company was being told right now and that the was another group being given the bad news in a different meeting (these were people from the business side). He then said we could stay in this room if we wanted and then our computers had been locked. He finish off by saying something about being sorry but by that time I wasn't really listening anymore and was just thinking things through.

So normally at times of crisis this British make a cup of tea. So I suggested that but then realised that Raza was sitting next to me. He's just started his month of fasting so for him the whole shock to the system couldn't be softened with even a glass of water.

We sat in the room for a bit and talked. I explained what happened to me the last time and Gareth made lot of jokes! I guess we all react to shock in different ways most of us by joking about it. We decided to go down to the coffee bar outside the canteen, also so the smokers and the ones who have given up smoking could go out a have a cigarette.

I walked back into the office to get my wallet and ran straight into the IT meeting explaining what's happening. I listen at the back for a bit and then went out a round the other way to get to my desk.

First order of business was to find a quiet corner to ring my Mum and tell her what has happened. Then it was down to the coffee bar with the others. We passed the news around and found out about the others who got the chop and some of the people not given the chop came down and commiserated with us.

Talked to Christian and some of the others about setting up as a contractor. Christian quit a couple of weeks ago and was still working out his notice. Basically a set up a company, get an accountant and then find a job through some recruitment company like GCS. GCS is a company that during my time in the industry a lot of the good contractor guys that I have worked with
have come from. So once I get home that's what I'll be looking into.

So everyone that was in the scrum meeting was out of the door and looking back that forms an odd moment in my mind. The most ironic thing of the whole experience was the mail Rob had sent out a few days ago spoofing the I'm resigning letters. Because we had had so many people resigning recently giving their contract details and saying goodbye, Rob wrote a joke version saying he was not leaving and that he could be contacted on his work address. Little did he know!

I had to go back up for my 1-2-1 meeting with Richard and Susie, this time it was in JetPac. Richard read through another script, this time saying much the same thing but adding if I didn't want to fight the decision then they would give me a pay off to 'soften' the blow. But I had to make my mind up fast as the money would start decreasing. I had until the end of business on the Monday to agree to get the full amount which roughly speak was about a month and half of pay. If I didn't agree until the end of the Friday after it would drop down to the statutory minimum payment, which for me is 310 pounds for each full year that I've worked with the company.

That done I went back down to the office with my little pack of documents and collected my stuff. By this stage most people had got to the pub but I hung around for a bit talking to people and keeping Raza and Lutfur company as they don't drink as so weren't going down the pub. Checking my computer I found that they hadn't locked me out and so I was able to collect some of my personal files; CV, pictures and some music files.

We left the office and Raza did come down the pub to say goodbye. That's where I stayed for the rest of the day drinking, mostly at first with Ketan and Fabio. Later everyone else turned up including lots of old members of staff, it was planned as a big night already because my mate John was leaving anyway and Gareth had invited lots of people. It got very messing towards the end and I heard reports afterwards that a couple of people needed help getting home.

Fitting I suppose, that it all ended in a pub which always has been the heart of the social spirit of the company.

sans crutches

First day going to work without crutches

Seems to be going OK apart from trying to get across Victoria station. People sort of assume you're going to get out of the way for them but while I can do a reasonable straight line I can't yet dodge, but then again most people just bounced off me and for one bloke in particular, I can push back too.

I've noticed that the reason I walk very slowly at the minute is due to only using one leg to push me forward. I've been favoring the left leg for so long now, when I try and force the left leg to push as well the increase in speed is quite noticeable. So as I get back to normal walking I should speed up in no time.

Jokes about crutches stopping me shaving (I've had a beard for about a month now) must have reached the fifty mark by now. The beard is doing fine!

Tickets, Lockers and a Telling off

Visited the Physio again on Tuesday and this time I've been bad and got told off for practically everything, still using two crutches and not doing enough of the exercises. I think he may have told me off no matter how much work I had done. So its more exercises including balancing on one foot and stepping down stairs. I'm to give up the crutches but I think I'll still carry on with one for a bit as it easier to get a seat on the tube with one.

The Raffle for the 22 available lockers (staff is about a hundred so this isn't the most well planned feature of the new office) in the office happened today and I managed to get one. I'm planning lots of lunchtimes at the gym in order to build my leg up so in a couple of weeks it will be handy to have some extra storage.

Further fallout from the festival happened today, after yesterday's revelation that the Kaiser Chiefs played a secret gig at the festival which we missed and reading all the people on the forums laying into how rubbish the Red Hot Chili Peppers were, Russ found out that they are selling tickets to next years festival at this years prices so he got some, we're going and I owe Russ some money.

Leeds Festival with crutches

Well thanks to lots of help from Nick, Russ and Vicky. I successfully managed to go to this years Carling Leeds Festival. I took my crutches and the guys carried a camp chair for me so the whole thing wasn't too uncomfortable. A great weekend away even although the parking was managed by the numpty squad. So I'm a bit tired now...
The Band were a mix of the good to the down right rubbish with Lost Prophets, Fall Out Boy and Kings of Leon in the first group and the Red Hot Chili Pepper leading the second group.

Appraisal Twice

once with the physio

once at work

physio was fine said everything that I expected him to say about stopping using the crutches and brace and trying to walk normally again. roll the foot from heal to toe he gave me three new exercises sitting on the floor with a towel under my heel try and get my leg as straight as possible (a bit achy)lying on my back bring my knee up to my chest and try to make my heel touch my backside (v. painful) called the roman chair I think leaning back to a wall go down into a sitting position and then hold it for a bit.

it's appraisal time at work again, well actual they had it while i was off but I'm having mine now. so Rob and me go off to talk about what I've been doing, what I want to do and what's going on with the company. Generally I'm doing well if not particularly senior work mostly straight forward development. I've mostly been working on our most critical project (I generates most of the money) and that's been going well (good for this years personal bonus).
However I'm not so happy about the way things have been going and this was a good opportunity for a good venting. I'm a senior developer and as such should really be doing some project and team leading. Now I've been promised an opportunity to do this sort of thing three times now only to have it taken away again before I started. So I'm getting a bit frustrated with them and took the opportunity to remind them. Rob (who's also been having quite a rough time of it with his big international project getting cancelled) said that He would make sure that working in the new traffic project I would get the opportunity lead some development. Sounded a bit woolly to me and I said it sounds like b****cks as they have promised before and not delivered.
So the meeting had its lively moments, at one point he tried to say that me being off having surgery was part of the problem until I pointed out the several members of the department have had more time off on holidays since I got back and managed to hold down senior positions.

So I've given him some stuff to think about and write up.

Maybe it will help...

Back to Work

Wednesday was back to work its a bit of a hassle going into London. It takes a bit of time to walk anywhere but with crutches and a brace I do get a seat on the tube.Work isn't too bad although I have to get kind people to carry my cups of Tea etc back from the kitchen.The increase in exercise should be good for me in the long run but by the time I got home my knee had had enough and was quite swollen.

It was no surprise to me that the department organisation at work had changed again while I was away. I'm now in the marketing IT team which looks after different project which have been requested by the sales and marketing teams. At the minute I'm just one of the developers in the team and someone else is doing the team leader work. Rob said that the team leader position will be rotated over time so all the seniors in the team get to do it (there are three of us) but I'm not really buying it. Very frustrating.

Still I've got my Appraisal on Monday so I'll be making my views clear then.

Destapled

Had my two week checkup with Mr Parmar on Tuesday and he gave me the OK to go back to work He also, much to my relief, he removed the staples with a device which looked like a miniature version of the staple removers you get in offices.

He had some video of the operation to show, as well, but only once we managed to get one of the computers to work enough to show it. He had about 20 minutes of tape from the camera that goes into the knee. So I saw the scraping, the cutting and the drilling. I now know the whole process in quite alot of detail and I know that the screws are made from polymers which will blend into the bone over time and that the threading process is similar to how a knitting machine works.

Power cut

Friday morning was a bit different I awoke to a power cut, it lasted about 2 hours.

I'm still on my crutches and my parents are currently away for the weekend, so not being able to go anywhere I had no TV, no Internet, no radio and no way to make a cup of tea!

Basically no more civilisation!

So I got a book (a Rebus novel) and went and sat at the bottom of the garden next to the river and waited, in the morning sun, for civilisation to return.

Bruises

One week on I'm still on the crutches but much more mobile. Its not so painful now which is fortunate as my supply of pills is getting short. The knee looks fairly normal, except of course for the holes in it with the bits of metal sticking out. the rest of the leg is developing some lovely bruises mostly across the shin and around the back of the knee.

10 Staples

Took the main dressing off today and found I had 10 staples in my leg. Looks very Frankenstein! Three small wounds around the knee cap and one inch long one lower down and on the inside of the leg.



Oh and I finished Harry Potter, a very satisfying ending.

Hospital Trip 2

Well it was early start but with a little help from Dad and TomTom I was there for seven a.m.

It was still a long wait until the operation as I went in about 11:30. The dress code was similar this time with an anti DVT socking on my good leg. They didn't make me wear the scary string net pants like last time but keep my boxers on.
It was much more of a major operation than last time and the anaesthetist warning me he would be using much strong drugs (on me) than last time. however despite it being more major I was still out after about an hour.

The drugs definitely were much stronger with me being blotto for most of the rest of the day. the other effect of the drugs (morphine I think) was me being sick all day long and not being able to keep anything down. I didn't help that when ever anyone asked me a question I either nodded or shook my head which set me off again.

The rest of the day was me sleeping or the nurses taking my temp and blood pressure which was up and down due to the drugs.

In the evening my Parents visited but since I was still drugged up they didn't get much out of me and I was nodding off again.

Day two sort of started when they gave me an anti-biotic shot at around 2 am and some pain killers.

The day started for real around 6 am (I remember it starting really early last time as well). it consisted of lots of tea and waiting (reading Harry Potter).

The physio came by and we talked about exercises and gave me some new crutches (elbow style much better to use than the Canadian ones). I said I would reused my brace I already had, once she had ok'd it, otherwise a new one would have cost me a hundred quid (not covered by the AXA).

Finally around 6ish Mr Parmar turned up and asked me if I wanted to go home. I said 'you bet I do' and he said 'Ok, off you go. I'll see you in two weeks'

My Parents came and took me home.

Operation round two

Well I'm packed and ready for a very early start tomorrow. I have to be there at 7 am and with any luck the operation should be early tomorrow. I've been saving the new Harry Potter to read so I probably won't care if there is a bit of a wait.

Time for a good nights sleep...

Mens Fashion

Met up with Colin last night for a beer and a chat.

He's grown himself a set of side burns!

Very 1970's

A little reunion

We had a little IA skiing reunion on Saturday

Jason organised a drink at a Cuban bar near where I used to work in Holborn. It was quite a good little get together with nine of us. Everyone else has pretty much recovered from all the skiing with just a couple of people having some physio for sore knees. It's good to hear no one else had to cut their trip short.

Walking back from the station I had the following three thoughts.

1) Watton has a bit of a wet dog smell to it when its late and after its been raining. (Well the station at least.)

2) Can't remember quite what the second point was, but I'm sure it was quite profound.

3) I really want to go back and finish the instructor course

New team

Well last week they sort of sorted out what'll be doing at work and what team I'll be looking after.

I'm being given the Business As Usual team, which looks after the many small changes and pieces of work that have to be done in order to keep the site running.

They messed up sorting this all out as the Management had give me and others the impression I was starting on the new Credit Scoring project but they changed their minds again as they decided not to give it to someone who might be a bit rusty at running a team (I last officially ran a team back at the end of 1999).

Also they managed to cock things up even more by telling nearly everyone in the department about the changes (the whole department is being shook up) so I first find out whats going on from the company grapevine.

It's not the change in teams that annoys me, I'm not bothered what the team does I just want to be running one. It's that I keep finding out stuff from other people that I should be hearing from my managers first.

New moves

Went to the new Physio last night, called Ian, and he gave me some new exercises to work on to build up the muscles before the op.

1) Kneel down and then sit back so that your backside is touching your heals.
2) Standing on one foot, the bad leg, and practice balancing. When that's simple, do it with your eyes closed.
3) Standing on one foot again bend the knee so that you go down. Keeping your back straight and other leg off the ground. This one is done near something to steady yourself in case you start to fall over.

The first one is a bit painful as I get most of the way there, short about an inch, but the pain is in both legs.

The second is fine no trouble at all.

However the third one... boy does it hurt. I can only go down a little way before it hurts and the whole leg starts to go wobbly. so I must be doing me some good. Compared to the other leg I've got about 12 inches to go not that I expect to be anyway near that for a long long time.

I'll be doing them at work, waiting for the train and probably down the Pub!

Anniversary

Today it's six months since the accident. A long time, I'm mobile now and can walk around fairly normally, not fast, but I can turn and twist a bit without pain. I'm not completely stable until I have the final surgery next month.

I was remembering back to just after it happened when I couldn't put any weight on my leg without it giving way. It was hard just to cross the room make a cup of tea and get back to the bed.

Now-a-days it gets a bit tricky getting through security doors at work (You need three arms with the stick, the pass and the door handle) and moving around on moving trains.

It will be nice to pick up a bit of speed when I, say, need to cross a road quick.

Trains

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh

Haven't actually managed to get to the physio yet, mainly last night due to our wonderful local rail service. I'll be trying to go again tonight. Need to build up the muscles and tendons a bit so the recovery from the sugery is a bit quicker.

Excess Charge

I've got the final bit of surgery sorted for 1st Aug. It's an early start I've got to be there at 7am this time with a morning operation. But at least this time I won't have to fast as long as I will have been asleep.

The official name(s) of the operation are

W7420 Autograft anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

W8230 Arthroscopic meniscal repair

W9012 Therapeutic local anaesthetic/aspiration - large joint - single

the insurance company is happy to pay for the hospital, the anaesthetist and the physio but the because the consultant is capped by they will only pay the first £1136 of his bill. Fortunately the estimate is £1200 so I will only have to pay £64. I was thinking it was going to be a lot more so this is very good.

Found my box

Well of course it was the nearest one possible. Just across the aisle in the section next to us. I got a little bored at lunchtime and decided to dig through some of their boxes. In the first box under some bits and piece I spotted a familar cup shape lump and digging down found my stuff.

During the big pack up it looks like the guys found some bits and pieces from other people, at the end and just put them in the box. So when they came to look for the box it they didn't recognise it. Of course the box still isn't labeled correctly

So the whole team is happy except for Jamie who's on holiday and will get a surprise when he gets back.

Company Cloak and Dagger

Ah I was begining to think since I've come back that I've been working for a different company

It was a case of loads of people I don't recognise and loads of stuff happening that I've no idea whats going on. It all looked quite business like.

Well the old Company reappeared this morning. Gordon said that Richard was planning on switching me to a different project next Monday, today being Thursday. This is the first I've heard about it, Gordon wasn't allow to tell me, although its clear he has been dropping hints for most of the week now.
On the other hand noone told my current manager or team leader who had rather assummed I'd be working for them and had planned accordingly.

I figure I'll carry on working for my current project and ignore this until I get more conformation.

The new project would be my first official team lead at the Company, which being at the planning stage means I'm wouldn't actually be in charge of any developers straight away.

Stress

Ok so there it was all going a bit too smoothly

The new consultant is what's call capped by AXAPPP with basically means the insurance thinks he charges too much and will only pay what they think is right.

Also the hospital seems to have got mixed up and booked me another appointment with Kitson when they were meant to book one with Mr Parmar.

Looks like the appointment is ok for next thursday. I guess the hospital where just having problems with there computer.

A waiting for the train

This morning while I was standing on the platform at Watton station waiting for my train into London, something quite unusual happened.

It was a lovely sunny morning, one where the heat from the sun, nicely balances the cooling of the wind. The bird were singing all around and now and then there was the sound of a car going down station road. The sky was the sort of blue and cloudy like you see at the start of the Simpsons and in the middle of it was a red and white plane doing acrobatics!

It did some loops and barrel rows, a couple stall climbs and some quarter turns before flying off to the north.

A pretty cool thing to watch for five minutes before the train arrived

Goodbye Mr Kitson

I had my meet with the consulant to check my progress and talk about the next lot of surgery. It didn't quite work as planned and I we didn't fix a date for the next surgery.

He filled me in on what happened in the surgery and said I would need my ACL replaced. I got some nice(?) pictures of the inside of my knee. However he doesn't do the type of acl replacement that I need, because I'm sporty (I told him about the ski instructor course) I should have the ACL replaced with a section of my hamstring.

So I'm being refered on to Mr Parmar who is the man for this sort of thing.

Back to work - It's got that new smell

It was a bit like the first day at a new school. Now my company has moved into its new offices, I return to work at the new location. I had no idea where anything or anyone was in the office, when I walked in. I didn't even know where my desk would be.

Fortunately it turns out its in quite a good location. the office is shaped like a giant L and I'm situated at the bend so I'm in a good position to know what's going on. Of course its not so good for surfing the web and not working, as my screens can be seen quite easily.

my coworkers have mostly been in the office a week now and the large part of the problems have been sorted out. A few servers are still not on line and a couple of the rooms are not quite ready yet but I'm sure it won't be long.

However, and I should have seen this coming, there is one thing that has gone wrong and they haven't been able yet to sort out what's happened. The storage box which I packed all my stuff (and most of the rest of the energy team did too) has gone missing!

It's big, orange and has got my mug in it. So if you see it, tell me as I fancy a cup of tea!

Scars

Took off all the bits of bandages and steri strips yesterday (Thursday) and well they're a bit small.

With the way the knee feels, like I've badly twisted it, I was expecting something a little more impressive.



Oh well, should be fine to go back to work next week, after two weeks off. I must remember to take my doctors note with me.

The Operation, so how did it go?

Monday, my dad told me it would have been my Grandma Dunhill's 100th birthday

It was a lunchtime check in, they asked me what newspaper i wanted in the morning. A little odd I thought as I wasn't planning on staying that long.

A porter collected me and took me to my room (307), slightly cruelly for someone who has been told to fast, we had to walk past the dinning room.
It was a nice single room right at the quiet end of the hospital. A nurse checked me in asked me loads of questions and left me to change into a gown and a set string net knickers, nasty.

Someone popped in and asked me what food i would like later. I figured chicken soup as I was in hospital and some ham sandwiches.

At about 2pm the consultant (Mr Kitson) and the anesthetist (can't remember the name) visited. Kitson marked me on the leg with the same marker pens which we used to use to mark the frozen chickens when i was working at Salisburys. so I was happy that they would operation on the right one!



I was then left to sit waiting watching daytime TV and reading some seriously boring stuff from work about doing testing. I was starting to go a little nuts when I was finally called at about 4:30 and started my long walk to the theatre. It was slow going and the doctors were wondering where I was so much so the anesthetist came looking for us!

I was told to lie down on a trolley and they put a needle in the hand without (I think) any pain (I was expecting this to be the most painful part of the whole experience) we talked about skiing and scuba dives for a bit while they injected some stuff in my hand until I passed out.

I woke up at 6:10 from having such a lovely dream

An hour and 40 minutes, this is a very long time for the op which I had been told would be about 30 minutes. Kitson came in and explained what happened to but of course catching me a bit away with the fairies so I didn't take much in. He said he didn't do anything to the cartilage, there was no damage and in the end he just cut away the ACL stump. So ACL was causing the pain and clicking.

So, although it took me while to realise, it this was great news. No cartilage damage which means less long term problems and I should get a good knee back once a new ACL is put in.

They wheeled we back to the room.

OK, the next parts are a bit confused (I was on drugs!!)

They brought me some food.

Said that i should stay in over night as it was getting a bit late and I should see the physio who had already gone home.

I rang home a couple of times to tell them how it went.

Got a bit sick eating chicken soup. So I asked for a shot of anti nausea stuff which went in my backside and was the thing that hurt the most of the whole visit.

Keep failing asleep eating my ham sandwiches.

Watching TV with the nurse coming in to take my blood pressure and rate on a regular basis.

Kept drinking the water and refusing the painkillers.

Remembered at some point that I had brought my pyaminas so didn't need to still be wearing the frankly quite scary gown and pants combo.

Phoned home to fix up being picked up the next morning (someone must have told me about checking out by 10am at that point).

Took some pics with my mobile



Watched the Terminator and then when to sleep.

I woke up at 3:20 and 5:40 and then just before 7. That would have been my body clock thinking it was time for work. The nurse turned up shortly after to take my readings and give me some pills (painkiller). This was quickly followed by another nurse with an more pills (anti inflamatory), a lady with my breakfast (a vague memory of filling in a form about
what I wanted when I got my ham sandwiches) and a porter with my free newspaper.

So by 7:30 i was sitting up in bed with breakfast and a newspaper watching breakfast TV.
I did the sudoku and word puzzle to make sure my brain was more or less back working.

9:30ish the physio turned up and took me thru a similar set of exercises to ones I was given in Canada. The three exercises where;

with the leg flat try and push the back of the knee to touch the floor
with a towel rolled under the knee tense the thigh muscle, curl the foot up and then slowly lift the lower leg off the ground
with the leg flat and straight gently lift the heel 10cm off the ground

The result of these should be to get my leg straighter and build up the muscles a bit.
The physio also checked out how I was walking and told me off for using the walking stick in the wrong hand (it should be the opposite hand to the problem leg) and was kind enough to get a new rubber foot for the walking stick (called a ferrel) as I've worn the current one down
quite a bit.

So it was just left to the duty nurse to get me some drugs and leaflets to take home and to check me out. My dad had kindly taken some time off work to come a drive me back. he had a bit of fun trying to find my room and we hung out in the room until a porter with a wheelchair arrived to take me to the car.

The sun was shining unlike the cloudy day when I went in and all in all I think it was a very peasant way to get operated on.

Back to the House, Ivy was visiting and I think she was a bit impressed with my bandage.

bye bye office

A last chance to look at the fantastic view from the office and reflective how slightly dogeared the whole place looks. I've pack all my stuff in a crate with the number of my new desk on it.

No wait I don't have a new desk number because looking at the new seating plan the entire Energy development team is missing!

D'oh!

Sounds like an early echo of the bedlam to come next week.

Destroy the Office

Jamie, who sits next to me in the office has started the process of moving out of the office early by destroying (accidentally) the binds on our window. he managed to rip it off the ceiling so that I won't go back up. I figure when they finally move out we won't care much about the stuff left behind but he's a little early.

So its hot in here as the sun is right on us for most of the afternoon. fortunate then that I'm off next week.

Admin

The Knee's too bad at the moment trying not to do anything to dramatic in case I bugger it up.

The preparation for the op is begining at the moment the whole thing seems to be mostly filling in forms I imagine the op will be quicker than the admin!

a huge pack arrived in the post including a lot of detail about how things happen and what can go wrong. I guess that you have to be fully informed before you go in , but its a bit EEK!

New Office

its a bit purple

apparently its a neutral colour in our company. Something about not clashing with the company colours!

It all very nice if a little unfinished at the moment. It's based above Victoria station and we share the building with the Met and the Daily Telegraph.
I was there for a meeting about new changes to our Customisation system and we had it in one of the new brand new rooms in the new building. the room was call Pong and like every other room at the new office it is named after retro computer games. I spotted the following rooms, Pong, Defender, JetPac, Elite, Glaxians, Centipede, Tetris and Asteroids.

A bit Geeky I know, but it is a very nice office. It should be nice to move in after I've had my op (everyone else will be moving in while I'm away on the 9th)

Nice Sofas and carpet

Well private is a bit different!

The Friday appointment with the consultant went smoothly and quickly. The place was very nice and we didn't have the hour wait like the NHS version. I even think the weather was nicer.

So he gave me the full physical again, basically bending my knee at funny angles until either it went click or started hurting. He said that its definitely a big tear to the cartilage and maybe some damage to the ligament. That means the cartilage is worst than we thought and the ACL is probably better.

The result of all this is two operations; one to cut out the cartilage and then much later one to fix the ligament.

So we fixed up a date for the first op. I will be going to the BUPA Hospital in Harpenden on the 4Th June.

It will be a day case, so no stay over night, but I will get a general anaesthetic while they do the op, which will be keyhole. This should reduce the pain and make the knee move more freely, rather than it locking up and not straightening completely, as it currently does.

I will be out of action for a couple of weeks, afterwards, while the bruising heals. This means that I'm probably going to miss uSwitch's move to the new offices. Hopefully the problems and the chaos will have died down by the time I get back (yeah right).

Ring-a-Round and the NHS side step

I've gone private

Took a bit of phoning around to different secretaries in different hospitals, but I've got an appointment to see Mr Kitson, the consultant, this Friday at 4pm.

It at the same hospital, just a different wing. It had to be the same hospital because though a little slight of hand the records from the scan are available only if you stay at the hospital. It seems that the NHS don't allow you to transfer your records to a private hospital and make you go through the whole process again. Fortunately we may be able to get around this as I'm not moving hospital, just moving within the hospital.

It's call the Elizabeth House wing and according to the official NHS map its just around the back.

So hopefully things will start moving very fast and I will be sort real soon

Meniscus Tear, er that will be bad news then.

Bad news


This whole being injured thing is a very frustrating business I've been putting up with a wobbly knee for about five months now and I just want to be able to walk a bit faster.
The visit was quite frustrating as well with a long wait of over an hour and then about a three minute talk before it was all over again. Many thanks to my Mum for driving me there and waiting with me.


The doctor said that the MRI was inconclusive about the ACL, but showed that there is a meniscus tear Apparently this is the pad between the bones that acts like a shock absorber
He said that I should have a bit of keyhole surgery to cut out the bad bit of the cartilage and so they can put in a camera to have a look at the rest of the knee and work out what state the ACL is in

so I will have to have two lots of surgery and so two lots of recovery.

Checking on the web once I got home, about a meniscus tear, a site said they normally cut out the torn bit as there is no blood flow to that area so no chance of it healing.

So the doctor says we should get me in for an operation. I told him I've sort out some private cover when he started talking about getting me in for the surgery. he gave me the business card of the lead consultant for the clinic a Mr Kitson and said I should ring the number on the card and book an appointment to see him. At which point that ended the NHS' involvement in the process and with it the meeting, he wished me good luck.

back home and I call the number on the card and unsurprisingly I get the answerphone.
so its stop start again as I said very frustrating...

Uncle duties

Great news !

I got a phone call, while at work, from my sister, Claire.
She rang to say I will be wanted for my Uncle duties around about the 25Th Nov as she expecting again

Congratulations to Claire and Ed.
Brilliant News...

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I got a text this morning from my Mum saying that a letter had arrived from the hospital. Hurrah! so rather than wait until the evening, I rang home and Mum read it out.

I'm off to hospital next monday morning, hopefully to finally find out the damage and some idea of what it will take to get my leg fixed.

Still waiting

Come on, Come on, Come on

Nope still nothing in the post from the NHS, apart from a request for blood. I've got my private medical all sorted, I've even got a card to say I'm a member. All that I need to do now is tell the doctor... So I'm waiting and waiting for the next appointment so I can find out the results of the scan and get some fixin'.

The knee isn't too bad at the moment and I can walk around reasonable well at the minute without my stick. and apart from the odd bit of swelling and locking up it will behave itself so long as I don't try to run or turn quickly.

Oh but I can go biking. Which is great because the weather is good and Watton at Stone is a great place to cycle around with lots of bridleways and country roads.

Insurance final payment

another £959.15 which is a bit closer to what I figured was right

So I got some more money for the Insurance company but in the accompanying letter they said that the calculation for me was correct and that Jason's was wrong. That would make it so that most of the money would have been in the 150 pounds limit and so I would have got next to nothing, making the policy completely unsuitable for the trip. They couldn't really ask Jason for some of the money back so in stead the paid me using the same calculations. so we differ in our payments only due to the cost of the medical bills.

I think the insurance company was completely wrong to promote this policy as suitable for any kind for trip where injury is a possibility. The only thing is had going for it in the end was if the trip got cancelled for any reason, then I would have got a full refund.

I guess that this latest amount is the best I'm going to get out of them without recourse to the law and all I can really do now is make sure no one else has to have this problem.

So I'm going to write Alan at Crystal with the results and suggest to him that they really should not use towergate chase parkinson in future or at least use that policy for that trip.

A bit of Stick

We have just had a pool night at work.



I'm not the greatest player on the planet as was demonstrated by my need not to play any further games after the first round.

During the night and as I've noticed more since, quite a few people have complemented me on my wide range of walking sticks. Trouble is though, I've only got two so I'm not sure what's going on.

One is my Mums (A simple wood stick with a easily gripped handle) from when she injured her leg a while ago. The other is my Dad's from Austria, from when injured his foot on some coral on the Great Barrier Reef, it black wood with lots of cool carvings on it (very voodoo/mojo).

Still I suppose its a talking point and I'm getting a little fed up with the question 'So how long will you be needing the stick for?', as I've still now word from the doctors about my scan results!

Scan Friday

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to stay completely still for twenty minutes!

Friday was my Scan, at long last. So off I went to the MRI department of the same hospital as last time.

When you get there you put all your stuff and valuables into a locker with a metal key! which I had to leave in the lock... as you can't take anything metal into the room!
The machine is a huge (10ft high) cylinder and you lie on a little tray which rises to about 5 feet off the ground, which is a bit high when your leg is tied down, and slides in and out of the machine. I looked like I was in an iron lung with just my head sticking out of one end of the machine.

For the exam you have to stay completely still, otherwise the image it produces is blurred and you have to stay that way for about 20 minutes which so hard. First you lie there and think about moving and then you think about not moving and you get tense. So you have to think about not being tense as that's moving too and you go in circles in you mind;

don't think about moving, think about something else, keep still, don't start laughing, OK think of something serious so you don't laugh, oh no now your tensing up, relax so you don't move, don't think about moving....arrggh!

Another thing I wasn't prepared for was the noise. the 20 minutes it takes is broken down into 2:45-3min chunks or very loud banging and buzzing as the machine works and so you have to wear noise protection.

The hospital was fine, if typical in its confusing amount of corridors and staircases. The staircases featured a lot of rope and netting I guess to stop anymore trying to top themselves. The Psychiatry department is probably on the top floor.

The only thing really annoying about the whole experience was that I won't know the results until I have another meeting with the consultant so I'm waiting for another letter in the post.

3 Times - there and back

A nice sunny Easter weekend. I managed to go out cycling three times. Once around the village, once up onto the ridge to the north, well small hill, and once across to the next village Datchworth via our church.

Very Healthy, and fine so long as I don't need to put my left foot down.

Although I'm a bit sore now! might have to buy a softer seat!!

New Bike

for my knee you understand.

as part of the cycle2work thing I spent my 350 quid voucher at Halfords, not the most helpful people on the planet, and got a mountain bike.

its a GT Aggressor XC.3 I think, well its a hardtail, has shimarno (er!) breaks and its blue! for 299.99 GBP

I also, because it was the Easter weekend, got 50 quids won't of extras thrown in which was every nice. So I got the bike, a BIG lock (weights about half as much as the bike!), lights, some bike clip thingies (suggested by my Dad who knows heaps about cycling) and a suitably odd looking helmet.

So I'm all kitted out for the easter weekend

End of an era

No more Reno or Craig at work

It was a case of a couple of speeches, some silly presents and the usual trip downstairs for a large amount of beer.

Other traditions were held including a caption competition (were a picture (or two in this case) of a person is doctored and a funny caption added and everyone submits them and then they are all voted on by email). I've never actually won this event (we used to do it most Fridays) but I did manage to come third this time.

This of course happened on Thursday due to it being Easter weekend.

No more Julian either, he left a few days earlier quietly with little fuss.

They're back!

From Canada all safe and well. Except, of course, the ones that are staying out there. The word from Bryn is that its been a very successful trip with a pass mark for the level two exam of around 90%.

I'm very glad for them but also a little sad and envious that I wasn't there as well.
Hopefully there's always next year...

£612.95 and the Departure Lounge

No not the final amount for the Comic Relief shave-a-thon (that was around 400 quid if John A ever gets around to collecting it). Its the cost of 4 tickets to this years Leeds music festival.

By a lot of luck I managed to get four tickets (Russ,Vicki,Nick and Myself) after we had given up all hope. All the websites where saying they had all run out. Russ had been trying the night before but they were all overloaded. So we thought it was going to be like last year with the tickets going before you have any real chance to get them. But fortunately I tried again just before lunch time and one of the sites let me thru and buy some.

So far its an interesting line up and should be good

Carling Weekend: Leeds Festival line-up August 24 and 26

Friday, August 24

The Smashing Pumpkins
NIN
Lostprophets
Fall Out Boy
Funeral For A Friend
+44
Klaxons

Saturday, August 25

Razorlight
Kings Of Leon
Interpol
Maximo Park
Ash

Sunday, 26 August

Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Arcade Fire
Bloc Party
Panic! At The Disco
Angels And Airwaves
The View
We Are Scientists

In other news the Company Departure Lounge, what we call it when someone has resigned and is on their notice period, got two shock arrivals.

Reno, who you may remember as the one who bust his arm boarding and Craig the Lord of Dark things musical and Tech support.

Reno is off to a Mortgage company who look after their DBAs (his job) better than here.

Craig on the other hand is one of the handful of original company employees and as such did quite well out of the parent company buying the company and so has decided he can't be bothered working any more and is going off to travel and write scary music.

It's no understatement to say that this place won't be the same without them.

Rose Nose Day

Poor old Simon, one of our Tech guys, Simon has had long hair for four plus years got into a drunken conversation a couple of nights ago and was convinced to have his head shaved for Comic Relief. A major whip round has developed in the office and I think the total is about 905 pounds so far. I think the aim is for about 2500 but its still a good amount of money. I'm giving a half a ton, partly cos it's a good cause and partly cos he does need it cutting! We got the bar downstairs to host the event and even got the company to put something towards it. So it looks like it will be quite a messy night tonight probably all end up on YouTube at some point.

Cash in hand, cash in bank

Well I put the cheque for the amount I did have into the bank so I can at least pay off some of the loan.
Just had a call from Alan he's talked to the insurance company and they said they would compare my claim with Jasons and get back to him. I'm not in any rush but I would like it sorted at some point.

Also its the last day to put my uFlex benefits. I'm going for Private Medical, Personal Pension, Season Ticket loan and the Cycle to work scheme.

The Season ticket loan is after tax, and quite large (plus three grand) as I'm travelling in to London from my Parent's, but interest free.

The Personal Pension is pretty much a continuation of the 8% contribution the company was paying into my scheme before all this flexible stuff started. The two main differences are its paid monthly so if you quit you don't lose back to the last six month payment and two I'm putting extra 3% which will replace the additional payments I was making from my bank account. The advantage of this is that I save the National Insurance Contributions and don't have to do extra paper work to get the tax back.

The Cycle to work scheme lets you save the tax and NI but you have to buy a bike. I my case, with my knee, this isn't as mad an idea as it seems.The knee is fairly stable now and the motion of riding a bike is fairly straight and won't stress the knee too much. And I have to do some exercise because I'm doing zero at the moment. It seems actually to be a bit of a shock to the system, if you suddenly stop being very active (like stop ski every day) you're body can't work out its energy levels very well and it can play havoc with your sleep patterns.

Lunch with a Friend

Jason looks a lot better
he's had the surgery and so has been out of it on drugs for the last couple of days. we had lunch today at Noodle Noodle near Victoria station (good food, big portions). He got his insurance claim but it was for a larger amount that I got around 4500 so I've got to have a word with the Insurance company cos that can't be right, its more that I got and I came back first!

A uFlex update as we are part of a group scheme I can join the Health plan without having to be excluded because of my knee. So I will be able to claim for my treatments. WOW

Welcome back to Customisation

Well its my baby

The Customisation part of uSwitch's system (the part of our website that decides which images and colours to put on our web pages) is has been running fairly trouble free while I've been away, now I'm back its been decided that there were some things that need fixing. So I've been given the tasks of making improvements, well I did help write it in the first place.

I think it was more of a case of them ignoring the issues and hoping I would come back and fix them. It's a bit complicated and I think it scares them.

Actually there is some talk about getting a proper content management system to help with the company's expansion into new countries, so like most things that I every seem to do in the IT business, the work I'm doing may well be binned in a couple of months.

Good News / Bad News (Again!!)

Monday I received some post from Canada and West Byfleet

The tax refund claim for about 60 dollars was successful and I got a cheque in pounds from the Canadian government. Nice!
This was the tax I paid on my skis, poles and helmet.

Also in the post I got a cheque from my Insurance company. However this wasn't as happily accepted.

The Insurance company decided to pay the medical costs in full, including the taxis that I submitted receipts for. They also paid pro-rata for the food, accommodation and flights that I didn't use.

However the Course Fees, Lift Pass, Exam Fees, Heliskiing Trip and Avalanche Course were all included in a section called Inability to Ski. This section has a maximum limit 150 pounds. So this is how much that they offered.

It's a good 2 grand short of what I was expecting.

So I connected Crystal, as it is actually the insurance which is sold with the course and suggested that it isn't right. It looks like they are treating the trip as a simple winter holiday rather than a expensive course.

Now I paid 460 pounds for this Insurance and I would expect it to course slightly more than a normal policy. So Alan at Crystal (Who was very helpful when I had the accident and was sorting out the claim) said if I send him a copy of the letter he would look into it.

so fingers crossed!

otherwise I may have to take Jason's advice and start talking to lawyers.

BTW Jason is in hospital now getting his arm fixed, so good luck to him.

uFlex and the P45

Yeap sure sign I'm back at work the level of important bits of paper increase.

For some reason the HR department send me my P45 to the flat, so first job on Friday was to return part B (the bit you give to your new employer) to the person who had put it into the post in the first place!

Also now I'm back and I don't have to do a probation period I get to join the new flexible benefits package. It still doesn't look like they do sabbaticals, not that I have to do anything about that until this November/December. It's all run from a website call youatwork.co.uk, but it's not working for me so I've no idea what it includes. what I do know is it has a good range of discounts as I'm registered on that site through the University of Leeds. Hopefully I can register twice! or something.

Back to school

It's a slightly strange feeling to be back at work. Just the same as when I went away, well it's only been two months, but some things are completely different.

Some new faces and a few missing friends.

I made quite an entry to the office with a bit of a cheer, a lot of hand shaking and people meerkatting up from behind their monitors all the way down the office.

There are changes to the teams including a new one dedicated to improving the number of customers who complete the energy switching process (I've started calling this project Panic). This is in response to the price cuts in the domestic fuel market which have caused the number of people switching suppliers, and hence our profit, to drop.

I wasn't the only person to be injured apart from Reno who I knew about, he showed me a very impressive Xray pic. There was also Barry (the Marketing director) who has done a similar thing to me but also the other ligaments around the outside and the protective cartilage between the bones. He's going private so should be back on his feet (sorry) in a couple of months.

I must have answered the questions 'What did you do', 'Where you skiing' and 'How long will you be like that, over 30 times. It's nice to get the attention and that everyone cares but...

Also the ever inventive members of the department came up with a huge range of jokes along the lines of; hop-a-long, old man with walking stick, pipes and slippers and the dangers of skiing.

KNEE (MRI) SCAN

I got the letter, I got the letter !!!

oh Friday the 13th April that's not for ages... damn!

well at the least I can now do a bit of planning and book the day off work.

First Class Stamp

Knocked together a CD for Jason who's still in a bit of pain, of all the videos he took while we were in Canada. I posted it off and at the same time post my insurance claim forms.

The process of posting a letter is quite fun at the moment, we go up to the post office anyway to get the newspaper. But its quite the little expedition as my Mum looks after my niece Ivy during the day and so we all go out together. Ivy on her tricycle being pushed by my Mum and me following behind with my walking stick.

Got some news from Canada everyone passed the teaching part of the level one exam. However three; Andy, Jess and Laurie have to retake the skiing/boarding part. So that's mostly great news, 30 odd new qualified instructors with the others due to retake the skiing part soon.

Hot Fuzz

Went to see Hot Fuzz today, the new film by the guys behind 'Shaun of the Dead'. Its really good, very funny and I recommend it everyone to go and see it. We went (my Mum and me) to the Cineworld in Stevenage and watched it in a huge theater with only three other people in the place.

lots of car chases, guns and west country accents.

Quality...

Julian

News from work, Julian my ex team leader has resigned.

For me he has always been one of the problem members of the company and my progress in the company has definitely been effected by him for the negative.

He has been sidelined over resent months, has been demoted down to developer and moved around the department several times. So although he did jump rather being fired he was pushed a bit.

They announced it last Friday but as you can imagine I'm a little out of the loop
my friend Nils told me by email on Monday morning and after some serious msn I got the full sp.

Of course, some people may have found out earlier down the pub, which is the way things normally happen at the Company.

I think even Julian would agree that He's not the most productive IT team player, he is very intelligent and so most of his code is quite hard to understand and he's not the best person at understanding how us mere mortals think. I wish him the best in what ever he plans on doing next.

Forms

An insurance claim is not a simple process. For one the form they send me doesn't really have the sections on it to detail what it is I want to claim. So I'm putting it all in a separate letter. Alan, from Crystal, has been very helpful and has produced a nice break down of the costs which I will forward on to the insurance company. Generally lots of info is required and I'm planning on just sending them as much stuff as possible.

The medical costs worked out as

Transfer to Airport $50.00
Taxi costs (have receipts for) $178.00

Physiotherapist
1st Visit $110.00
2nd Visit $85.00
3rd Visit $85.00

Hospital
1st Visit $489.00
Dr Holmen $205.00
Crutches $29.00
2nd Visit $369.00
Dr Buchco $100.00

A total of $1,700.00 which is about 740 GBP.

Proportion of the trip unused and that I'm claiming a refunds for are

Flight 50.00% Unused
Accommodation 66.67% Unused (56 out of 84 nights)
Food 67.21% Unused (41 out of 61 prepaid meals)
Course Frees 87.50% Unused (42 out of 48 prepaid lessons)
Lift Pass 85.54% Unused (71 out of 83 days unable to Ski)
Exam fees Not Used
First Aid Course Not Used
Avalanche Course Not Used
Heliskiing Trip Not Used
Photographs Not Used

so a total claim is about 5,000 GBP.

I've got lots of invoices and receipts to get together and send off to them making sure of course that we photocopy everything before it goes out, just in case!

Jason, who is also going through this process, is so fed up with it he may well end up suing. He's not mending too well, his arm is starting to feel numb so he's off to see a specialist this Thursday to make sure its nothing serious. Fingers crossed for him.

1st March

Had a phone call from Rich the CTO about when I would be returning to work. Actually it was a whole day of telephone tennis before we managed to talk about 7pm-ish. We agreed I would trying going back to work on the 1st March.

The 1st is a Thursday so I get a couple of days to try and see how easy the commute is before doing a full week which is very sensible.

Getting back to work

Well started think about getting back into coding today in preparation for going back to work.

Not that I've actually got a return date yet (apart from the 2 April date that we set for my return after the whole ski course). But its important to try and get back into the way of thinking that lets you code. Its a lot like doing crossword puzzles, say you don't do one for a couple of months and then sit down and try one, you'll find it much harder than if you had been doing them all the time.

So I downloaded a bunch of web casts and white papers on different things including Agile development, the new Microsoft technologies (.Net3 and .Net3.5), Ajax and Ruby.

I think that these topics should be helpful once I get back to work if only so I know what on Earth the rest of the Developers there are talking about...

nhs waiting...

So I had a appointment at the local hospital (the QE2) for 9:15am on Monday. It was all quite quick, partly I think, because of my Canadian medical notes and I didn't need to have a new set of Xrays done. The time consisted of 30 min's waiting with my Mum and then 3 min's meeting with the consultant while he looked at my leg.

He found a new, quite alarming way of making my knee bend so that it clicked
from this he could tell that there was something wrong with the ACL. he was not sure about the PCL, apparently looking at the other knee I have quite a lot of movement (loose knees?) to start with in my knees and so some of the large range of movement may be natural.

He said he was going to put in a request for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) which will take three or four weeks to happen and then we'll have another consult to discuss what surgery I need.

It will be surgery as he saw from my Canadian notes (and I told him) about being a ski instructor and he agreed that I would need it fixing completely. apparently if your not too active the advice is to learn to live with it and just have some physio but as I want to be active then its the surgery. Also he said he would put me on the more urgent list so I would be more mobile sooner.

I can actually get around quite well now and only use the brace and a walking stick when I go outside.

When I first got back to my parents I didn't trust my leg to walk up stairs without hanging on to the rail. but now I can do it pretty easily. I'm walking around now with my full weight on it just not quite the full extension. I looks a little like I'm crouching down as I don't fully straighten my leg.

I tried a full walking motion this morning, that is start by putting your heal down leg straight, move your weight onto the leg starting to bend the knee and then move forward until just your toes are touching the ground with you leg behind you and all the weight on the other foot.

The motion is pretty good and I'm happy putting weight on the leg except for the very start of the movement. (warning icky bit coming up) When the leg is completely straight and I try and put weight on it, it isn't stable and tries to bend the wrong way. This is a most unpleasant feeling as you can feel all the different bits of the knee in quite a bit of detail as they rub against each other.

Away he put me on the quick list which means 3-4 weeks for the MRI and then about three months wait for the surgery. He also gave me a sick note to sign me off work for six weeks, which is nice (if a not really any use as I'm unemployed!)

Meanwhile ...

Jason called, he's in a bit less pain and the doctors just have him going to a bit of physio on his arm. He's back at his parents but unlike me isn't finding it much fun as he doesn't get on with them too well. His injury too, has rather screwed up his plans which were 1) to be a snowboard instructor 2) to go out to Oz to stay with his Brother. Adding on top that he works in the building industry (carpenter I think) he's not even able to work. It will be about 3 months before he'll be able to use the arm fully again.

and Finally ...

I also seem to be using the word quite, quite a bit, except of course when I misspell and everything gets low volume...

I'm now a Landlord

Well after not managing to get anyone into my flat all the time I was away in Canada the agents have finally sort it out and managed to rent the flat out at 180p/w
to a Scottish guy called John.

He will be moving in on Friday evening and doesn't mind about the bed.

For those of you that don't know my flat is quite small (its in the docklands so space costs a lot of money) and so the double bed is raised up to make a space underneath for an office.

I just have to pay for a clean up of the flat and for someone to take an inventory of the contents.

I think as soon as I told them to drop the price (just before I flew back), which they had originally at 210p/w, to 190p/w people started to look at it and then it went pretty fast.

I had aimed for 190p/w but its much better to have someone in and paying than it sitting empty.

Now all I have to do is find somewhere for me to live once the knee is better.

Letting Work know

A tricking thing but I had to let everyone know now that I'm back, what's happened and that I'm back in the country.

This broke down into two groups Work and everyone else.

Well everyone else was straight forward about half already knew due to this blog and I sent out a quick email just to let everyone know. I got a lot of very nice emails back from all sorts of different people saying get well soon and we should met up for a drink when I feel up for it.

Work was also fine, a bit more of a shock as not many of them know about the blog. Basically Rich and Rob said they would be quite happy to have me back as soon as I feel up to it.

So it's fine and a weight off my mind.

I'll see what the NHS say about getting an operation and then arrange to go back to work in (hopefully) a couple of weeks when the knee will be more able to cope with travelling into London by train.

Knees, GPs and bits of paper.

Its crazy because I'm at my Parents I can't really go to my own doctor so I wanted to go to the local one that my Parents use. I only wanted a referral to the hospital and didn't want to trouble the GP for anything else (such as drugs).

However the is a rule that GP are not allow to refer temporary visitors (only give them drugs) and they force you to register just to get a referral (and as a result deregister from you own GP). So after some serious form filling in. I get to come back that evening to see the GP and get him to make an appointment at the fracture clinic at the local hospital. The visit with the GP takes about 2mins, half the time it takes to register.

Fortunately I get a phone call fairly quickly saying I have an appointment on Monday at the hospital. They should be able to tell me how long it will take and what can be done about it. This will start the whole waiting list process and hopefully the doctor will be able to answer questions such as what is the length of rehab and more importantly can I ski next year?

Back to Blighty

Well the start of the six nations England v Scotland match was certainly worth travelling through the night all the way from Canada to see.

The trip to the airport was a little strange because just as we got down out of the mountains we left the sunny blue skies and the weather conditions got really bad. most of the way it was a white out with quite a bit of snow falling. So much so the flight was delayed while they had to deice the wings.

The airport was fun mainly because the customs desk is miles from the air canada desk (I had to get my receipts stamped so I can claim the tax back on the stuff I bought). Also we had a little fun with the check in as my medical clearance to fly didn't show up on their system. fortunately I had all the documentation on me and was able to get it sorted that way. They got me a wheel chair and I whizzed through passport control and past the xray machine. They xray my stuff including the crutches but I just was given a quick hand search (ooh missus!). Then they wheeled me up to the exit gate and parked me until it was time for the flight. This was all great but by the time they loaded me onto the plane, I was first on, I was busting for a pee.

The flight was nice, especially as I was in first class. the meals where on proper plates and the wine in real glasses. This was demonstrated by one of the air hostesses when she dropped a couple of glasses and covered the floor in bits of glass. I decided not to take my shoes off for this flight. The seats where nice and big with controls to electronically lift the foot rest and lower the back. The seat also had a built in TV and I watch the film 'The Prestige' (good) and 'The Illusionist' (better) again despite the entertain system crashing a couple of times.

I was struck, while we were coming in to land, by how much I had missed the colour green while I was in Banff. The fields and trees where very colourful in the briliant clear sunshine as southern England was having a very nice day.

At Heathrow I was last off the plane and got another wheel chair ride back out through the special medical and cabin crew gates and out to meet my dad who was waiting out the front.

So it was off back to Watton to catch up with everybody and then off to Ivy's party, which was fun although by that time it was all I could do not to fall asleep.

Times up in Canada

I'm just waiting for the transfer bus to the airport due at 1:30. So Rich and I are watch a last bit of biker build off and sci fi stuff on the TV while I finish packing.

Last night we all had a jolly night out starting with us all going to Mellisa's followed by a quick lesson on ski tuning, then off to the rose and crown, and finally Hoodoo nightclub. the whole thing finished around 2:30 with sitting in the hotel reception watching the more drunk members of the group returning from town. It was nice to see everyone together for one last time.

I was lucky with the ski tuning lesson as they managed to have one of the session before I headed off home. The lesson covered waxing, edging and filling in holes on the underside of the skis. These things repair normal damage to the ski and lets them run faster and make more accurate turns. We got to try out the techniques on a couple of old skis. It should save me some money in the long run as I will be able to do some of the things you would normally need to pay a ski shop to do, to keep my skis in top condition.

Jason

another blow to the IA yesterday

one of my good friends here, Jason, badly dislocated his shoulder while out boarding.
He went off to the hospital and came back with quite an evil looking torture device designed to stop his arm dropping out of its shoulder socket. Unlike me he is in qutie a bit of pain and so we decided we would try quite a lot of alcohol to see if that helped. It did a bit !

so unfortunatly he too will be heading home early.

Final Plans

I'm getting the Air Canada flight on Friday at 17.55

If such things can ever be really well time this flight is. Firstly it lets me have a big night out on Thursday when everyone else can go out as they don't have school on Friday. Secondly I should get back in time on the Saturday to go my niece Ivy's Second Birthday party.

Oh and the start of the Six nations as well!

It's Snowing

I guess the weather has worked out I'm leaving. Since my crash we haven't had much in the way of new snow and the conditions out on the slopes have deteriorated. Not so good for the rest of the group and their skiing but quite good for me as the paths are clear of snow and ice for me to get around without too much trouble.

However today it started snowing as I was coming back from the hospital and everything is starting to get coated in snow. I had decided to walk back for the first time (rather than get a taxi) in order to work my leg out a bit and by the time I got back I was covered from head to toe in snow!

I was at the Hospital in order to pick up my treatment notes and get a letter from the ER doctor saying I'm able to fly home. The Insurance company have sorted out a flight back on Friday but I need the OK from a doctor first. Fortunately the same ER doctor was on duty and so she was able to fill in the required forms. She also checked my knee again to make sure she had made the right diagnosis has the swelling isn't hiding the condition of the knee as much.

The walk back took quite a while as I wasn't rushing. Several different kind local people took pity on me and asked me if I need help or a lift back and one told me all about her daughter who's a ski racing and has just had the same operation. apparently in Canada it can take a year to get the surgery done but when its done the knee is as good as new. I guess it was bit like the people I was talking to outside the restaurant the night before last one of who demonstrated how well the surgery works by jumping up and down on the spot!

A final bit of Physio

A quick final session and a last chance to look at the view out of the window.

This time after a warm up on the cycle machine, he had me doing light walking on a tread mill (keeping my right foot still on the side, just lightly using my left foot)
and using the foot press on the weights machine. the tread mill work was to make my leg remember the correct motion for walking starting by putting the heal down and then moving through to lifting off at the toes. The weight machine was really just more work keeping the muscles working.

While I was there I also asked for a note for the next Physio, for when I get back to the UK.

Pretty Icy Things

On Sunday I traveled up to see the ice sculptures. They were quite something to see with the beatiful view of Lake Louise in the background.



I was completely knackered from all the walking and my arms didn't work too well that evening.

Monday was my Final trip to the Physio and then off on the tour of Lake Louise and the Ice fields with tour guide Hugh.

I learnt the name Banff comes from Banffshire the home of the accountants for the railroad company when the names where being decided for the different slidings on the route to the coast. They where after something better to promote the tourist trade than 'Siding 29'.

Also that Canada is based on native language phase for little village.

I was a good tour if a little long, quite a travel up to the Bow lake at the top of the Bow Valley. Bow Valley is the name for the overall area where Banff and the ski slopes are.

We still got nice weather for sightseeing and photos, no snowing and clear blue skys.

Banff and its wild life

Well I'm not sitting on my laurels here I'm still going to have a bit of the Holiday experience and today it was a sightseeing tour around the area.

The guide/driver was Natalie and we travelled around Banff while getting a taste of its History.

We covered the giant Springs Hotel (very twin peaks), the Banff springs fall(still not quite frozen), Bow Valley, the Hoodoos, the local herd of Elk (a about a hundred of them). Lake Minawhanka (very big frozen three feet thick), the different mountain ranges, the finding of the hot springs (by some rail workers) and its unique type of snail (and all the conservation effort that are happening).

It was a half day tour with not too much walking. I've spent the rest of the day in the pool seeing how much weight I can put on my leg. The answer is a bit, which is good.

More Physio

Yesterday I went back to the Physiotherapists this time for more of a work out.
I was given some light work on the exercise bike and lifting my leg with the aid of an electric muscle stimulator.

Of course I had some more icing and ultrasound.

On the plus side he said that there was some resistance by the ACL so it may not be completely torn.

Dog Sledging

Last time I was in Banff I didn't get the opportunity to try Dog sledging as the weather was so warm that the whole thing had to be cancelled. This time around I've managed it and so completed at least one thing I really wanted to do while I was out here.

The weather was superb for sightseeing. The temperature at about 5 degrees and it was sunny, with crystal clear skies. Great weather for taking picture.

However the weather wasn't so great for the dogs. they are most happy running at around the minus 15 mark and so get quite warm in this sort of weather. They eat and rolled in the snow each time we stopped, but were so happy just to be out running they didn't seem too affected.

The dogs were not like I pictured them, they were lot more like greyhounds and alot more friendly than I thought they would be. They were very well trained and disciplined, with most of them being ex racing team dogs.

I had five dogs called Ellipse, Timer, Tron, Ella and Rebel. with Ellipse and Timer being the lead dogs.

Oh and of course the Musher (driver) who was call Chad.

We ran down and back long the shores of a frozen lake for a 10K loop. we stopped about half way and the more mobile of us went down to stand on the lake. I was able to get down to a nice viewpoint and took a load of pics. While we where there we saw a couple of racing teams practicing out on the ice, they looked like lines of very fast moving ants.

Apart from the difficultly in getting in and out of the sledge, which the drivers were a great help with, it was a brilliant couple of hours and something I would love to try again.

Physio

Another new strange experience this morning, getting some Physio. Not a unpleasant experience and as a work place it has one of the most amazing views out of the office window. The window runs the length of the treatment room and looks out above Banff to the huge range of mountains to the north.

First was the assessment which Kevin the Physiotherapist check to see the damaged and confirmed it was to the ACL (Anterior) but also said it was to the PCL which stops the lower bones moving back. Apparently the way my shin slightly drops when the muscles relax tells him that the is damage to the PCL (Posterior)

Then he used ultrasound to help with the bruising and swelling. It helps move the blood around the knee.

Next some exercises to help keep the muscle tone in the leg. one was to push the knee down and straighten the leg for the muscle on the thigh and the other, with the leg bent push the heal into the mat to work on the hamstring.

Finally he iced the knee to let it recover after the workout.

The whole thing cost me 110 dollars and lasted about an hour.

Next time it should only be 80 dollars as he doesn't have to do the assessment again.

Week Three

Not quite the week three that I had originally planned. For me it has been mostly sitting on my bed watching the Sci-Fi and Discovery channels on TV.

The plan for the week is/was

Monday was a trip back to the hospital again this time to see a Physio and then the Knee surgeon. They concluded they couldn't really tell until the swelling has gone down. The verdict was 'Acute ACL Tear' and instructions were definitely no skiing for 6 week and get the injury re-assessed after 5 weeks. Also I was given the contact details for the main physiotherapist in Banff.

Tuesday nothing much apart from getting in contact with the insurance company, the travel company and anyone else that might help.

Wednesday has been a trip Physio to get a better assessment to my condition

Thursday will a trip out in the morning dog sledging, something I've always wanted to do and a little knee problem shouldn't get in the way of.

Friday will be more Physio in the room with a view.

Next week will be a couple of bus sightseeing tours of the wildlife and the scenery. Also I guess it will also include my farewell meal and my flight home.

BTW the knee doens't really hurt just aches a bit. It hurts lot if I go over on it when I'm not being carefully. Apparently this probally means I've done alot of damage and riped out all the nerve cells. Eek!

Day time TV

Oh man it's enough to drive you nuts. the Canadains/American have the strangest ideas about some thing the are so many adverts and 35 of the 40 channels are complete (and I really do mean it complete and utter) rubbish.

and I had to visit the hospital again this time to get a set of crunches. they cost 30 dollars and the old style with the support under the arms. I understand you don't get this type in the UK anymore as you can damage the nerves under the arms if you don't use them right. I was abley assisted by Kevin and Craig (an expert at knee injuries) to get me there and then off to where everyone else was having dinner.

Hospital

Tango, Bryn and Jess also helped me in the next stage of my (mis)adventures and went with me by taxi to the hospital. I had a bit of fun with the wheelchairs and basically handed over my credit card. It's not at all like the NHS with me being taken in to the exam room quite quickly. This was either because I'm paying for all this or maybe because it was quite quiet. Most of the other people from the first aid post were already here.

Like most hospitals it was a lot of waiting with no trousers on for people got come and twist my knee around to work out what it going on.
They bent the knee this way and that to work out which ligaments were still working and which bits are hurting. then they send me for a load of x-rays to make sure that the bones are OK.

After all that they weren't certain what the total picture was.

Basically they said I've got a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). They said use RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) and made me an appointment to come back in and see a knee surgeon on Monday.

They sent me off with a knee brace and the guys helped me get up to the Elk and Oarsman for a late evening meal.

So its a quiet rest of the week and weekend watching TV for me.

Rescue

So I'm lying on a steep slope a bit dazed and trying to get into a less painful spot. First to my aid was Bryn, one of other skiers in my group who acted very professionally and took control straight away.

Next along was one of the ski patrol who checked out the situation and called for a rescue sledge in order to get me off the slope. By this time I'm sitting up with Bryn supporting my weight to let me take pressure of my foot. The other members of the group are trying to find another way down, as I'm blocking the route down.

Because we where following the tracks of the instructor, Willie, he had to walk back up from where he stopped. It was a while before Willie got back up to us and then didn't really do much apart from asking me how I felt.

Fortunately the rescue sledge turned up fairly shortly after, being pulled by a paramedic called Matt. He had difficult time getting right to us due to the weight of the sledge and the steepness of the slope. Matt, Bryn and Willie loaded me into the sledge, strapped my leg to a board and covered me in blankets.

Then it was time for my ride down the mountain. Although I had to be injured to take this ride is was quite a bizarre and fun experience. travelling backward at speed approx 30cm off the ground. We whistled down the greenest runs to get back down to the first aid post at the bottom of the slopes. We past one of our groups on the way back and I smiled and waved to them. They all looked a bit confused.

By the time we got to the bottom I was really cold. The problem was travelling at speed you get really chilled if you are just sitting in a sledge rather than using energy and generating heat like while skiing. The rest of group managed to beat us down so I guess we weren't travelling that fast, and waiting for us by the first aid post.

Matt took me inside with Willie to check me over and give us loads of forms to fill in. Inside were a couple of other casualties for the day, including a girl with her arm strapped up and a lady in bed who had done something to her hip. Matt gave me a bag of snow to put on my knee and loosened my boot. By now its getting quite late and the last bus back to Banff would soon be due, so I said I would try to get the bus otherwise it would have cost me at least 700 dollars to get an ambulance back.

I couldn't really walk so I had to be helped to the bus with help from Tango, Bryn and Jess. it took us quite a while but fortunately they waited for us. The guys from my class also sorted out my stuff and put my skis into one of their lockers.

So I travelled back to Banff with a bag of snow on my knee in the front row of the bus wondering how bad it is and was my skiing trip now over.

Disaster

Its one of those pieces of advice that you hear all the time but some times does actually ring true. Be careful of the last run of the day.

Wednesday had been a full days skiing with us covering alot of ground around Lake Louise from the front face of the resort to some of the back runs up at the Larch chair.

We decided to up to top of the world chair one more time and ski back for the end of the day. We had been practicing applying pressure, edge and pivoting in the turn and was following the instructors tracks like we had been doing most of the day.

While doing this I landed badly in a rough steep section and felt a pop in the back of my left knee. I collasped to the ground and stuck my arms out to bring myself to a stop and tried to get into a less painful position.

Week Two

This week instructor is Willie who's French/Canadian. The week is more about getting us to think how we would explain the aspects of skiing to a class. Also the lessons have concentrated on keeping the center of mass low and how this helps improving balance.

We are starting to get some very smooth rhythmic ski out of the group and you can tell we are improving as our skiing is all starting to look similar to one another.

Also the lessons have been about managing the pressure that a skiing applies to a slope during the turn. As the pressure increases near the end of the turn the idea is to lift the skis up so that they take the pressure off and let the turn finish.

The Weather has been clear and mostly sunny so not much more snow but the runs have been well groomed so the skiing is fast.

Bumpers - As recomended by my Parents

We had a big outing to Bumpers resturant on sunday night. Its a steak house at the end of town and they do some very nice steaks. half of the group (we booked for 15 people) had the man mountain cut which is basically a whole roast beef sunday roast joint with chips. I went for a slightly more sensible spencer steak. It was very good and tasty.

Generally speaking the food here in Banff is good with large portions. During the week we get meal tickets which can be used in a number of resturants in town, so we will be experts in eating out in Banff by the time we finish.

D

The Flat pt 2

Well the couple pulled out for unforseen circumstances.
so it still on the market.

Baby its cold outside

MINUS 27 DEGREES

out on the slopes on Thursday.
It wasn't as bad as it sounds the sun was out so it felt warmer. The skiing was good groom runs but because it was so cold the nature of the snow changed and it was actual a lot slower because the grip increased.

It made me think of the polar explorers saying when it got really cold, the problems they had getting the sledges moving and the feeling that they where moving over sandpaper.

As for the cold as long as you keep covered up and not have any exposed skin its fine. We checked for frost nipped noses on regularly and took a couple of hot chocolate (not coffee as caffeine is bad at low temperatures as it makes the blood go from the extremities) breaks so we could warm up.

I actually felt warmer on Thursday at minus 27 than Wednesday at minus 7 because Wednesday was cloudy and snowing rather than clean and sunny Thursday.

D

The Flat

Got the first offer on the flat on Thursday. A couple want to offer 180pw and start on the 20th Jan.

It is advertised at 205pw by the agent which might have been a bit optomistic. I mail them back saying I won't go below 190pw which is what I orginally budgeted for and is about right for the area.

One Week

The first week is over

The week was made up of four days of lessons covering the basics of correct balance in skiing. Balance is made up of four components; laterial, vertical, fore-aft and rotational. move too far out of balance in one of the directions and you can't easily move in one of the others. So we did a series of execises to try and feel the limits of these movements and feel how different movements affect the ability to ski.

Injury list so far is one badly twisted knee and a dislocated shoulder(not as bad as it sounds).

We were split into three groups of skiers (8,8 and 7 people) and two groups of five boarders (5 and 5 people). One boarder, Laurie, because of her shoulder had some private lessons in order to build up her confidence again.

Each week we will get a different instructor and this week he was Jeff (nicknamed Skippy apparently) and he took us for the four days.

for Friday and the rest of the weekend we are expected to revise what we have done in the week and take a rest so as not to get too worn out.

We got a DVD and a text book so lots of useful info

Arrived

Well I'm in Canada. It's Sunday morning and I'm killing a bit of time before we all get on the 10:20 bus up to the slopes. The trip, apart from taking a long time, was fine with us getting into the resort about 5ish.

The group is a fairly mixed bunch, with a full age range from 17 to 50ish. They all seem nice and we've been out for a couple of meals and drinks and everyone is quite chatty and sociable. I'm sharing my room with a snowboarder called Richard. I don't know too much about him yet as he was on a later flight and so actually turned up about midnight, after I had gone to bed. I was so knackered from being up for 24 hours and having had a couple of beers at dinner, that all I could manage to was say hello and fall straight back to sleep again.

One thing that is exactly the same as living in London is the number of Australian and New Zealand accents I've heard since I've got here. Our Rep, Monique (No idea if that's how she spells it) is an Aussie and gave us a huge amount of good info about the place and the things going on.

The guys at work managed a little revenge on Friday, by making me the victim of the weekly caption competition, using a picture from one of our nights out last year. The aim is for people to add their own captions and maybe change the picture a bit using Photoshop. Matt Black sent me a email with the finished pictures. Some of them are quite funny. I'm not yet sure who won yet but I will find out.

So far I'm taking it fairly easy and yesterday was just a bit of shopping and wandering around trying to get the layout of the place sorted. We've been out to a few of the different night spots and places to drink, but as there is such a large selection I don't think will run out any time soon. I spent 900 odd dollars and got myself a pair of B2 Bandit skis. So fully kitted out I had a huge grin on my face walking back from the shops. I'll be trying them for the first time in about two hours. I can't wait.

The conditions are good if a little cold so I'm pack a rucksack full of extra clothes to take out with me today.

Last Day

Well final day here at the Company I'm at someone elses desk with a spare PC as all my stuff has been give to other people. still the new, if temporary desk has got a wicked view of big ben from between two buildings and I'm back in a nice quietish spot. things of note this week included chairing my last senior developers meeting which I've been doing for the last 8 months, despite not been a senior dev and finally getting around to giving out the last of the lego keyrings to simon in IT support cos he took most of Xmas off (and still has a mountain of holiday to use) and hasn't been here.

I've just send out my goodbye email...

From: David Dunhill
Sent: 04 January 2007 14:13
To: Social
Subject: The more it snows...

Well

Its my last day here at jolly old uS****h, in accordance with tradition and because I believe the best way to get through tomorrows nine hour flight to Canada is by being hung over, I'll be heading down to Bar HA HA for a few drinks and to carrying on at some length about how I'm off skiing for months.

I want to wish you all the best of luck and hope to see you all well in a
couple of months.

I'll be contactable on XXX if there's any interesting gossip or you need ask
a question about Customisation (for a very reasonable call out rate).

And just in case I didn't mention it before...

I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !
I'm going skiing !

D

...and now I'm just checking I haven't missed anything I need to sort out and waiting for 5:30 and the pub.

Christmas - Exciting, Exciting, Exciting.

Exciting is my neice Ivy's new word and as it was Christmas, with lots of
new toys, it was definately exciting.
It was a good, if slightly crazy Christmas at my Parents which also included
Rosa my sisters the dog running around and my poor nephew Freddie, feeling
poorly.

I stayed from the Sunday to the Saturday. Getting there a little later than
I planned because I need to get on with packing up my flat.
My Parents brought me back and helped with more packing and stayed the
Saturday night.
We sorted out the storage with Vanguard as soon as i got back 300 pound for
6 months in a huge warehouse which is only a couple of doors up from the
flat.
So it was a case of boxing stuff up, carrying it down to the car and then
driving 50 metres up the road. Russ and Vicky were down to celebrate the new
year and got roped into helping me move the stuff into storage. They were
staying at a Hotel up by Canary Wharf and it was there were we started our
new year celebrations.

Also 8000 pound loan cheque was in the post when I got back to the flat on
the 30Jan. Too late now to order much Canadian Dollars or at least much of a
good deal. I should be alright because I can get money out using my
Nationwide Debt Card without it costing me the extra admin charge for
foreign money.
The only other thing I really had to sort out was to cash in my Oyster
travel card and I did that last night.

So the flat is now empty (with only a couple of bags of stuff to take to
storage tomorrow morning), my accounts are about sorted, my bags are pack
and I've nearly finished my last day at work.
So its time to go and Ivy is right, it is very exciting.

D

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Hotmail is evolving – check out the new Windows Live Mail

http://ideas.live.com