Dolphin and chips

Had a holiday at last, just a week in Wales (all we could afford) with Sarah and Lucy and some friends; good stuff though - lots of great walking, some spectacular coastal paths along steep cliffs around Cardigan Bay and thereabouts, checking out the local wildlife, which includes dolphins and seals too!  Also visited Cors Caron nature reserve, an amazing landscape of raised peat bog that unfortunately is so rare now... and it was breathtakingly beautiful: deep pools flanked by reed beds, cotton grass and wild flowers.  We had to go back a few times because it was so very unique, walking through it was almost like stepping back through time; our landscape was once liberally peppered with such sites, remote and teeming with wildlife.  Sadly Britain's wetlands have all but disappeared, and recently we have government ministers openly discussing developing the greenbelt, the last peaceful refuge for town dwellers.  But once something like that is gone it's gone forever, and I can't help wondering why the countryside isn't given more protection, because without that bolt hole to escape to from the pressures of work and everyday life what do we have left?  A conflagration of towns, a massive road network and shopping malls that pretty much look the same wherever you happen to be.  Anyway, I managed to recharge my batteries and put a few bad memories behind me for a while, breathe in some good Welsh air and ate some fantastic fish and chips too while watching harbour porpoises dip and dive in Newquay harbour... I really like fish and chips.

Doctor Rock!

Healing slowly, but still have blood tests ahead.  In the meantime I've been working on getting fit again and have been out running; just between four and five miles at the moment, but a lot of it uphill because you can't really avoid that living in Malvern!  I used to go running regularly with the Malvern Hash Harriers - a running club that meets at a country pub somewhere different every week; we all then run a circular route, mostly across country and often through some tough terrain, but always ending at the same pub for a pint and a bite to eat; good fun, but it clashes with my band rehearsal night, so unfortunately I had to make a choice.  It's been good to be to hanging out with the band again though, and it's one thing that I was looking forward to getting back to when I was recovering in hospital.  In fact the day before I went into hospital we had a band rehearsal and recording session, and rather than spend the night at home, fretting and thinking the worst I decided to go - a good decision; positive adrenalin, although telling the guys I wouldn't be around for a while was hard... they knew something was up though, because I hadn't been in the pub with them for a while.  We're called The Dirty Harry Band and I'm the lead vocalist, we play mainly rock standards I guess - a mixture of stuff that includes Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Foo Fighters, etc. and we're always adding to the list.  We played a private party recently, which was my first chance to perform after my op: a gig in a beautiful massive garden on a fantastic sunny day; loads of people dancing and whooping for more - we was good!  And this last weekend we did a couple of gigs for the 'Malvern Rocks' festival in aid of Acorns - the local children's hospice; a cause given what I've been through recently that's important to me.   It's great to be up on stage again, jumping around, screaming my head off and generally acting like a demented kid half my age; I couldn't quite imagine it a few months ago - just what the doctor ordered really!