I am in BIG Trouble!

This morning, I finally managed to see a doctor. He told me the bad news that my cholesterol level is at a whopping 9.6!! It should be below 5. The doctor told me that if I do nothing then I have a 22% chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years.

My blood pressure is also too high. It was 134/85. The lower number should much lower. I now have 3 months to try and reduce my cholesterol and blood pressure, otherwise I will have to take medication to reduce the levels.

First I am going to have to change the type of food I eat. The doctor gave me a list of good food and bad food to eat. Next I have to loose weight. The doctor suggested I join a gym, but knowing my own character, I would not go to the gym on a regular basis.

The doctor then suggested I should do a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day. So now I will be walking our dog, Bonnie, every day!

Over the past few weeks I have had a backache in my lower back. Hopefully my daily exercise will help cure this problem too!
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Currently Reading

Synopsis:

With the American rebellion growing in intensity all around them, Jamie and Claire know they must navigate a difficult course to survive. For not only is being on the winning side no guarantee of safety; Jamie would also rather die than face his illegitimate son, William, a young lieutenant in the British Army, across the barrel of a gun - even as the chances of war conspire to bring them together.


Making their way back to Lallybroch with Jamie's nephew, Young Ian, to fulfil a family promise, might seem one way of thwarting fate. But in the chaos of war every avenue of escape is bristling with danger, and even the time-travelling Claire cannot foresee the tragedy that could tear her and Jamie apart forever.


Meanwhile, in the apparent safety of the 20th Century, their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger read Jamie and Claire's letters, breathlessly watching the unfolding of Brianna's parents' story - even as the past is sneaking up behind their own family to threaten them in the present.



This is the Seventh book in the series. I bought this book in January, and I have been steadily working my way through the series reminding myself of the story so far. The list of the books in chronological order are as follows -

• Outlander (American title) / Cross Stitch (British title)
• Dragonfly In Amber
• Voyager
• Drums Of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath Of Snow And Ashes

I have found that it is always better to read the first book in these sort of series and read them in chronological order, otherwise it spoils the adventure. Nowadays, some authors tend to write their story over a series of books, rather than in one self contained novel. The trouble is, if you like the story in one book, you want to read more adventures about the characters in that book!

The reason I am making this point is that the critics gave a poor review of "An Echo In The Bone" on the grounds that it was not a self contained novel, rather a continuation of the story told in the previous 6 books! That is exactly what this book was meant to be!

I always think of critics as frustrated artists, who do not have the inspiration or ability to produce something original themselves. Instead they can only write derogatory remarks in the hope that the more vicious the report, the more publicity they will receive, and thus give them the impression of increasing their own self importance.

Currently Listening to

One of my favourite Billy Joel tracks. What I found interesting about this video, is the authors attention to the timing of changing the pictures and writing!

Home Accounts

This afternoon, my wife asked me to find out how much money we spent on groceries for the last two years. This is quite an easy task as I have a Home accounts programme that I have been using for years.

I first started using an accounts programme back in the 1980's when I had a Commodore Amiga. When I eventually bought a PC, I started to use the Quicken accounts program.

Over the years I upgraded the program until 2003 when Quicken no longer supported the British market and just concentrated on their own American market. I then gave Microsoft Money a try, but having got used to the Quicken layout, I struggled to adapt to the Microsoft version. One aspect in particular was the facility to have the account show exactly how much money I would have in my account on any particular day in the future. Extremely useful if you get paid every 4 weeks and have standing orders spread throughout the month.

I could check this with ease using Quicken. All I had to do was check the scheduled transaction page and the information I wanted was immediately visible. The Microsoft version had a more complicated process to obtain this information. Consequently I have continued to use the Quicken program.

What I did discover today though is that it is not a good idea to delete old accounts that have been closed. I discovered hundreds of transactions from my live accounts that had originally gone to another account, such as credit card payments or mortgage payments, suddenly had no account to send the money to, so the transactions were no longer categorised as they had originally been.

I just spent the last 4 hours re categorising these transactions so that I can now produce accurate reports of where I've actually spent my money!

In case your wondering, our grocery bill increased by nearly £1000 between 2008 and 2009!
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Cherry Tree

This afternoon, we purchased a Cherry Tree. Not the ornamental flowering kind, but the type that will produce juicy red cherries to eat! Now all I have to do is hope that it survives my ministrations and bears fruit one day! Admittedly, I was ably assisted in the planting by my wife and daughter.

I freely admit that I do not have any green fingers! 9 times out of 10 whatever I try to grow just wilts and dies. Though on the odd occasion something flourishes, despite what I do to it!

Gardening is not something I enjoy doing. I consider it a necessary chore that must be done. Maybe one day I will be in a position to pay someone else to do my gardening for me! Or better yet, leave it for my wife and daughter to do instead!

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Easter is not going to be fun this year!

When I came home from work today, I discovered I had a letter from my doctors! Now last week I had gone for a blood test to check that I was still healthy. The doctors letter stated

"Please could you contact the surgery at your earliest convenience to discuss a message which has been left on the computer system for you".

Receiving a letter like this basically scared the living daylights out of me! Visions of me having some major health scare looming, crossed my mind. When I got through to the receptionist and asked what it was all about, she told me the doctor wants to see me about my cholesterol. There is no hurry, I can make the appointment in the next 2-3 weeks!

When I told my wife, she immediately told me that I will have to cut back on fatty foods. For some reason she has decided that it includes fizzy drinks and chocolate. So the nice Easter egg I was looking forward to eat on Sunday will now sit forlornly in the cupboard, while its mates get greedily consumed by the girls!

Upgrades to my local Station

For the past eight years the Station where I work has been a partial building site, where we are supposed to get a new entrance with lift access from street level to platform level.

Originally, we were supposed to have lift access to both platforms before the Olympics come to London in 2012. Now we will only have access to one side of the Station, and only one platform.

The delays are a direct result of the Governments wonderful idea of instigating PPP (Public, Private Partnership) to London Underground. They decided to foist this scheme only on the maintenance and repair sections, leaving the operational side alone.

Ten years later, the private contractors have paid their shareholders massive dividends, and the directors have syphoned off money into their bonus accounts. Suddenly they realise that they don't have enough finance available to deliver the maintenance they were contracted to do. So they have the audacity to ask the Government and London Underground for more money to do the work!

When their request was refused, they craftily decided to go Bankrupt! They left millions of pounds of debt and forced London Underground to pay off their debts with money that was to be used in refurbishing the Stations in time for the Olympics.

That was one of the maintenance companies. The other has just failed a court action to get more money from the Government/Underground. No guesses as to what they are likely to do next! This time when the maintenance company goes bankrupt, London Underground will not be able to pay off the debts and being the maintenance back under its own umbrella. They have no money left!

Unless the Government dig deep into their coffers and pour more money into this fiasco (with all parties claiming massive cutbacks, this seems unlikely), you can expect a rapid decline in the reliability and safety of the underground through lack of maintenance.

I have been at my present Station for over 8 years. For the last 7 years a new exit has very slowly been built. Even now we still have no idea if and when it will ever be completed! During those 7 years the gas been built a massive office block above the station, and they have completely rebuilt the Hospital next door!

I managed to have a little look around the building site and took a couple of pictures. I apologise for the poor quality of them as they were taken on my mobile phone which doesn't have a high powered camera feature.
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