Kingdom's Blog

May 22nd, 2008

I was recently told that I was due for some time off work … however I am sure the boss didn’t realise just a few days later he would be visiting me in hospital !

To keep a long story as short as possible, I hadn’t been feeling great … and after a trip to the Docs and some pills, I thought I was on the mend.  I had all the symptoms of some sort of gastro reflux.  However after a few more days, I still wasn’t feeling great and I was sent to the Queen Margaret in Dunfermline for tests.  I was told to take an overnight bag (just in case) … some 9 days later I was finally aloud to go home.  What happened in the 9 days? Scans, tests, an operation and jabs a plenty (plus a whole lot of stuff that I don’t need to go into).  I was quickly diagnosed with pancreatitis, caused by gallstones.  The solution was for me to have surgery to remove my gallbladder.

As I realised that I wasn’t getting home any time soon, I can’t say I was looking forward to a stay in Dunfermline, but the truth I was well looked after.  The nurses, doctors, and all the staff that I met were fantastic.  I said it more than once while I was hospital, but I truly believe that it takes a special kind of person to do the jobs that these guys do so well, day in - day out!

I am on the mend now, and I have actually been back on the radio this week… just easing myself to returning to work properly.  With MC changing nappies for the next wee while, I will be on the radio during the day from next week
Hopefully you’ll be able to listen to the show because I am going to need some advice too … I discovered something the other day, that I don’t quite know how to deal with !  All will become clear next week !

Thanks for reading, and an even bigger thank you to the guys at QMH, especially the surgical team that operated on me and everybody working in wards 11 and 17 !!!

Barry

May 19th, 2008

Well last week was a mad week at the radio station. Marie-Clair’s baby boy Leo arriving a month early, and I’m happy to say mother and baby are both doing very well! It was fun covering for MC on her show and it felt just like old times.

Barry has also been off for a little while too… so us presenters have been thin on the ground! You don’t fancy doing a show at the station do you? If you do get in touch with Darren his details are on his page.

Looking forward to dinner at Tiger Tiger in Glasgow tomorrow night it’s one of those restaurants I’ve always wanted to try but hadn’t quite got around to! And of Thursday I’m being a luvvie with a night at the theatre, and this time it’s the Traverse in Edinburgh to see Nova Scotia, thanks to CCW for inviting me.

See you on Saturday breakfast this week ( It does knock the hell out of my curry night on Fridays! ) Really pleased we had Saffron Indian Restaurant in Dunfermline as our Restaurant of the Week last week. It’s my local indian, really small place, only about nine tables but the food is fantastic and the staff are great too. And…all throught the summer they have 25% off their menu…give it a try if your in Dunfermline!

May 18th, 2008

Well, sort of going to the moon!

Really!!!! I am!!! Here’s the proof!

May 17th, 2008

I knew a bit of latin would catch your eye!

As the title says, ‘time flies’ (well, it says ‘time flees‘ if you’re being pedantic!) and I can only apologise for not keeping you up to date with what’s been happening with me over the past couple of weeks. I think I should also make a preemptive apology here for what will turn out, I suspect, to be an overly geeky Blog update!

I’ve been experimenting with a couple of new social networking applications. I’m currently using Flock as my web browser. I found an advert for it on some random site, and was wooed by the fact that it integrated social networking sites into it’s layout and it has a great media bar and integration with Flickr amongst other photo sites. But, and it is a big but for me, there is currently no integration with the social networking site I use most frequently - Bebo. Speaking of Bebo, have you checked out the official Kingdom Bebo page yet? If not, have a look here and sign up to be one of our friends, and “share the love”! Anyway, back to Flock…I did suggest Bebo as a possible new addition to the friendly development team and they were kind enough to reply with a (possibly standard?) ‘Thanks for your suggestion, we’ll consider it…’. That said, if you want a nice looking browser built, I think, on the Firefox browser, that’s a bit different and which will keep you going till IE8 is unleashed, it’s worth a try!

I have also recently just received my invitation to a new location based social networking site called Bright Kite . I find the site, emmm, interesting, but at the moment I’m not sure it’s particularly useful! I believe it’s still in beta and perhaps if there were more local contacts for me I’d get more out of it, but I shall persevere and tell you if, and maybe when, I decide to ditch it!

What can I say…. I’m fickle!

May 4th, 2008

For the last few days I’ve been waking up thinking that I’ve got a cold. You know the script. Runny nose, sneezy and eyes streaming. Well apparently not. It’s that time of year again when the plants start growing and the pollen starts to increase and before you know it the old hay fever starts up.  What makes it worse are all the fields of oil seed rape that seem to be everywhere just now.

So it’s time to start taking the medication, and make sure I don’t start rubbing my eyes as that always feels good for a few seconds and then just makes them feel so much worse. Roll on winter…..

May 4th, 2008

…then you need to get out more!

I know, it’s one of the oldest lines in the book but what did you expect!

Last week I had been looking forward to what was, for me at least, one of the most exciting movie releases of the year so far….. Iron Man < www.ironmanmovie.marvel.com >

Robert Downey Jnr is (surprisingly!) well cast as Tony Stark, the super-rich womanising playboy who has to publicly make amends for his morally questionable business decisions and reinvent himself to clear his conscience …..did I hear anyone say ‘type cast’?!

All of that aside, it’s a great action movie with some genuine laugh out loud humour - keep an eye out for the ‘testing phase’ of The Iron Man’s suit!

Oh, and for comic book fans, keep your eyes peeled for the now regular cameo appearance of the legendary Stan Lee!

May 3rd, 2008

During Saturdays show, I tend to flick through some of the Saturday papers and magazines.  There is always something being advertised that catches my eye in the magazines; one size fits all trousers, the new £5 coin that will cost just £9.99 to have shipped to you (!) … but this weekend I noticed something that sounds delicious – but I thought looks a little odd.

The Strawberry Sable … I’m sure it tastes great, the only problem is I couldn’t get past the fact that it looks a little like a big fat tongue sitting on top of a nice desert.

Maybe it’s just me, but, I’d rather my scoop or strawberry ice cream was ball shaped !