Lost Ticker Tape

Ding! Ding! Round 3!    Living with Crohn's Disease became just part of the day-to-day, intermittent periods of feeling like my insides were trying to come out of my body were the worst but they seemed to come and go. That was until I was 26. I began feeling entirely exhausted in June 2009, a familiar but overwhelming exhaustion. I doubt I will ever forget the (now ironic) words of the gastroenterologist who, when I told him I was so exhausted I found going to work difficult, told me 'it's just part of having Crohn's Disease, just count yourself lucky that you are not worse off or permanently on steriods'. Two and a half months later I was vomiting daily, unable to keep anything substantial down and feeling wretched. I thought my Crohn's was playing up but I was still vomiting after 10 days and I was losing weight quickly. When I started to get pain in my left knee joint, I couldn't sleep at all and every inch of my skin itched I knew somethi

A nurse told me recently that it was just as well I have a sense of humour. This was said as she had to make a third attempt at taking blood from my hands, the second attempt hit my bone and I knew if I didn't laugh I would end up letting these things get to me, there would be no point as I have to get this done once a month, every month and this won't ever change. Having a sense of humour is useful, actually it is essential, to get through the day when you have two different auto-immune conditions. For the (luckily) uninitiated, auto-immune conditions are those where your body goes a bit haywire and starts thinking it's own bits are foreign and attacking them, like a mighty war going on inside your body. There is nothing you can do to foresee, prevent or cure this, all you can do is manage it and try to laugh about it. Ding-ding Round 1! The first illness/condition/disease (whichever makes you less squeamish) I was diagnosed with was Oral Crohn's Disease (when

So here is 2012 in all of it's shiny new, cold, dark, stormy glory. This new year I have one resolution and that is to be happy. It seems so pathetic when written down, most people make tangible resolutions like lose weight, learn a new language or quit a particular vice which are all admirable but I want for nothing more right now than to simply be happy. I have spent huge chunks of the last two and a half years being really unhappy due to my health, the health of my family and due to the employment that keeps a roof over my head but enough is enough. Things are so very different now to how they were a year ago, huge shifts in friendships, relationships and just life in general mean I have no idea what I am doing, where I am going or how I am going to get there but I am figuring it out day by day. While all of the above may seem a little gloomy I am actually happy and I aim to keep it that way. I am about to get involved in music again (hopefully with people that

The impending release of Build A Harbour Immediately by Adam Stafford , on a yellow cassette, got me to thinking about tapes. First off, Adam (ex-Y'all Is Fantasy Island) really is an incredibly talented man, I could write for ages about all of the things he has done but it's better that you see/hear/read for yourself: http://www.accidentalmedia.com/adam_stafford.php Oh, and go and see him play in Stereo this Saturday 20 th August! Anyway, back to tapes. I was fascinated by tapes as a kid, I wondered how all of the voices and instruments were held on this piece of plastic (this partly explains my study of Music and Audio Technology). I still own tapes and still have something to occasionally play them on which fills me with nostalgia. Cassette tapes are a little piece of my teenage years that I can't leave behind. There are so many people who will wax lyrical about the humble cassette and the time, effort, thought and patience that went into maki

Normal service is resumed! I have been thinking and I can not let this little outlet for whimsy and things I love fade into the backgroud. If anything, it is more important now than ever before to make time for it. Little things that made me happy today: 1. Speaking to my 71 year old grandmother who told me she went whitewater rafting on holiday last week along with my grandad and 60+ aunt and uncle. Incredible! 2. Hearing my musical moniker being read out on radio (I was tweeting, I have not yet written anything radio worthy!). 3. A beautiful email from a friend I haven't seen in a while. 4. Being sent new music. Sometimes the simplest of things make the day better than it would otherwise have been. More soon!

I am finding less time to get absorbed in things which are not political at present. I fear that normal service of whimsy and nonsense will never be resumed as life changes and priorities shift. I could write for hours about this but I have strike action to prepare for, I will be there on my picket line and at the rally in George Square in Glasgow on Thursday June 30th. If you are free on Thursday please try to make it to a local rally or picket line and show your support to PCS, NUT, ATL and UCU strikers.