Cultural evolution

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Three sixes

Six years ago, I weighed a little over 200 lbs (that's a normal weight for my height - I'm 6'6").

Six months ago, I weighed less than 150 lbs.

Six days ago, I weighed myself - I'm almost exactly 175 lbs.

If this keeps up, pretty soon I won't be embarrassed to have my photo taken. And, even better, I'll start recognizing myself in the mirror.

Life goes on

Well, I'm sorry to say, I haven't gotten around to any of that blogging and emailing I said I was going to be doing. It seems I underestimated the time and energy involved in starting again from scratch.

So, I've been getting on with things. And I now have a bed! It beats sleeping on the floor wrapped up in an old sheet. I'm still using the sheet but at least I'm elevated.

Next to do: furniture.

Update
Went out to buy furniture - came back with a small car!

A minor conflagration

It took me a month to find an apartment and the first night I'm here there's a fire. Not a serious one - although it could have been - I left a light on in the sitting-room and one of the lampshades caught fire (a faulty fitting): I woke to the smell of burning. Luckily, I caught it in time, so there's no damage beyond the lampshade and fitting.

Looking on the bright side, the place has good mobile broadband reception (as opposed to the "wing and a prayer" connection I was working with before) so I can now surf, blog and email to my heart's content. Not right now though because it's 3:30 in the morning, the fire's out and I'm going back to bed.

Contact

It's taken me a while to sort out internet access and an e-mail account (I've put the new contact details in the sidebar). I'm now back online and contactable.

Thanks to all those who mailed wishing me a speedy recovery - I'll reply now I'm online again. Unfortunately, my address book has been deleted, along with a lot of my mail (some of it unread) so, if I don't reply to a particular e-mail, it's because I probably never got it.

So it goes.

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Back and forth

Okay, so I'm back. The ulcers are under control and I've recovered well from the operation; I've started training (long walks and light weights) and I'm slowly gaining weight.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the rest of my life seems to have turned into some kind of cheap soap opera. You know the sort of thing - lurid revelations, absurd plot twists and petty villainy. Anyway, the upshot is my family life is over and I'm currently living in temporary accommodation. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

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Playing for change

Internal investigation

No, I'm not back to regular blogging - still too sick for that - but I am having exploratory surgery today, so things are moving in the right direction.

They're going to be doing two procedures (both fairly minor): they'll be sticking a camera down my gullet and they're going to open me up and take a good look at my insides. I hope they find whatever's wrong with me so they can fix it and I can move on. But they won't be doing any fixing today, just rummaging around. Good luck to them!

Anyway, I've got to get going - I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Update
The surgeon caught up with me in the Recovery Room: "It's ulcers not cancer." That's the good news. The bad news is I have lots of ulcers (stress ulcers) and a lot of bleeding. Still, it's way better than having cancer. Am I relieved? You betcha!

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Los ocupas

I told you about the squatters who moved in next door. Well, it turns out they're Spanish. And to call them squatters doesn't really do them justice - they're more like urban homesteaders. They've already cleared the garden, turned over the soil, dug in some compost and are now ready to start planting vegetables.

They're also musicians: most days we're treated to some very accomplished Flamenco guitar. Yesterday, along with the guitars (and the biggest ibo drum I have ever seen) they put on a display of traditional Spanish dancing - it was quite a performance.

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