Closed

It is with some sadness that Gregory announces he will no longer be posting on this Blog; if you would like to keep in-touch, he has a MyFace profile (linked-right).

Pirates?

Greg is still alive... he's just been really, really busy.

There's been Teh Love Thang, involving taking Pearl to Marwell for her 20th birthday and then getting her to meet Bert/Ernie over Easter; Teh Work Thang, involving a high level of self-restraint in stopping himself from literally murdering Staypuft on Shamus' team, and Teh Medical Thang, which has seen Greg really crank-up the number of volunteer hours towards his ultimate goal of 500+ within one year.

He'll come-back to all this in some more detail in due course.

Meanwhile, it would appear that the rest of the world has literally reversed in time without Greg's knowledge. To the point that he's now not prepared to even go to the Isle of Wight without a cutlass in hand...

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Rembrandt

Outside of Teh Office during the VAT training, Greg has been doing his usual thing of throwing time into his family, friendships and SJA activities; something that he will briefly run through and bring up-to-date now... with the aid of exciting pictures and stuff!


Bowling: Redux

Previously mentioned was a staff-esque night-out down the local bowling alley for Shamus' birthday; I have since find on my intermittently-working mobily a video of such for the amusement of all...-




Palm Tree, anyone...?

In the same breath as the bowling video, I found this effort from a few(?) Saturday mornings ago; during which time I was spending with Sister and Brother/Law whilst Princess was in for her annual service. You may not find it funny, but I did (and my sister most certainly did); and that's all that counts(!)...-




Mini-Nam and Bertie Bus

On a couple of occasions now, Pearl and I have visited an extremely delightful friend of hers, Nams: a young, single mother with the cutest baby-boy alive (Mini-Nam, for the sake of this Blog). Both times, Pearl and Nam have quickly settled-down into their girly gossip over dinner whilst I 'chat' with Mini-Nam about his favourite toy [1], occasionally throwing-in a small contribution to the ladies conversation or finding myself suddenly engrossed in something on the television [2]; it's a system which has proved to be surprisingly successful. And, I hasten to add, there's something about Pearl holding a baby which just seems... right.



(Mini-Nam with Nams, Pearl and myself)


Doughy Pizza of DEATH

Continuing a recent and periodical trend in Nights Of Manliness (TM), Greg and Shamus had another moovie night last Wednesday at the abode of the latter, comprising of the latest Bond outing and a pizza. Which, albeit both partially to blame, was an appalling, fucking mess. Oh well; at least we felt fine the following day.


Palliative Care

This past Friday's weekly SJA meeting was one of the best I've ever attended; or, more to the point, I had gotten the best feedback from.

Once the usual business of reviewing the duty roster and so on was sorted, the unit were moved upstairs to the palliative care training room where the Superintendent (unit's leader) had asked me to think of a number of scenarios to help train the other members.

The World Health Organisation refers to the skill of palliative care as-

an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness

Under the scope of volunteer work for the SJA, we have to be aware of the requirements of those stricken with a serious, complex illness; the goal of a member performing this time of care is to thus prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for the patient concerned.

With this in mind, I chose to act as the patient in three scenarios: a blind person, an elderly man with senile dementia and a stroke sufferer. The Superintendent was extremly impressed, both with my variation of choice and with the way I conducted each 'performance'; saying that it really made everyone else think really hard about how a carer should approach the given situation.

Greg felt proud.


White Goods

Lastly, and kinda- leading-on from the previous section there (it will become obvious), Greg and Queenie helped the latter's mother (and Queenie's younger sister) move house.

For Greg, the day itself did not start well at all. To start with, the fire alarm in his block of flats sounded-off at just after 5pm; it turned-out that apparently one of a young, drunken couple having a fight at the time had thrown "a kitchen instrument" which had, in-turn, hit the alarm switch (yes, likely story). Then, when he later woke-up probably, Greg discovered that his mobile phone had yet AGAIN failed to charge correctly; resulting in a mad dash around his flat looking for the spare, Samsung handset to use for the day. Then, when he finally got to Queenies Mum's, it was found that the hire company - from whom he was acquiring the moving van for the day - did not have the booked vehicle of site; resulting in him having to drive around an absolute beast of a truck instead.

Yet, disregarding the bipolar state of the weather [3], the most shocking twist of the day came when Queenie's Mum, who was moving-out old suitcases and boxes at the time, fell from the loft and through the ceiling into her old bedroom, landing awkwardly on her arse/back with quite a loud crash; resulting in a minor panic from all those present and a swift call placed to the local Ambucab firm. Thankfully, however, a check at the local A+E showed that no serious damage - aside from cuts and bruising - had been encurred.

_____
[1] which basically consists of pulling faces at each other, giggling and blowing raspberries. The "favourite toy" is a Bertie Bus, by the way; hence the sub-title.
[2] after a long period of indifference, Greg is slowly getting 'back into' Desperate Housewives.
[3] was it going to be sunny? Was it gunna rain? Who knew??!