Rock & Roll!

Tuesday last, I went to see XMen 3 with Mel. It passed the time. The XMen purist in me had great difficulty staying outside the cinema such was the extreme artistic licence taken with canon storylines and characters. However the purist was held at bay by the sight of the lovely Hugh Jackman growling and stuff, Scott Summers with stubble, the special effects and Jean-Luc Picard exploding. In other words, aesthetically pleasing, but not much else. We were supposed to be going to see Bon Jovi at Milton Keynes on Saturday, but Saturday was the only time in four weeks Chris could see Tom. Not a problem until we realised that the gates opened at 2, and Chris has Tom til early evening. Tried to get friends to buy tickets. Received letter to say I could now have physio for my knee. Knee twinges in joyful anticipation.
Wednesday was dentist day. The girls were looking forward to me returning to work with a lop-sided face. Dentist decided to go for hit and run approach and nuked the entire left hand side of my face with something fast. It also had a very short life span and forty-five minutes later, face was no longer numb. Girls were so disappointed they threatened to cut off my caffeine supply. Chris made very nice healthy stir-fry with unpronounceable Chinese cabbage. Failed to find anyone willing to buy Bon Jovi tickets. Put them on Ebay.
On Thursday failed to sell them on Ebay. Realised that the football match on Saturday probably had something to do with this. Fortunately Jennie agreed to take one ticket and accompany me to the concert.

On Friday we had another Chris (ChrisF) and wife Nicky around to Chris’ flat for dinner. Chris cooked a lamb roast and made rich choccy compot thingy and it all got scoffed along with copious quantities of alcohol. Very enjoyable evening in good company. ChrisF and Nicky understand about things like Firefly and NCIS and ChrisF dives. In fact he was the one we tried to leave behind at the marina in Pompey last weekend. Chris received a call to advise that Tom had a virus and wasn’t well enough to see him on Saturday, but of course, I’d already sold the ticket to someone who really wanted it. More alcohol consumed. Passed out around midnight.
Saturday morning dawned far too bright and early. Abandoned Chris at 9-ish and picked Jennie up at 11.15-ish. Zipped up to the M1 and skidded to a halt. Drove from the M1 slip road to the road works outside Luton in first gear. Clutch now hates me. Arrived at Milton Keynes Bowl in time to inhale some lunch and start the long process of queuing.

Found excellent spot on the bank and sat back for concert. First group was, I think, called, ‘Spit’. Not that anyone cared cuz they were, well, they only got one letter wrong in the name. Then we got the most excellent Nickleback. Word was they were only supposed to do two songs, but they gave us a good half dozen or more from Silver Side Up and the Long Road. And then we got Bon Jovi.

Jon has almost definitely had a face lift, but he still packs a pair of Levi’s as well as ever, and the group have definitely matured as showmen since I saw them at Wembley in 1992-ish. They were well worth seeing, and did a good mixed bag of songs. The whole thing finished at 10.30. Took an hour to get back to the car and another hour to get out of the car park.

The English queuing mentality came into force on the stationery inside lane leaving me free to use the outside lane of the dual carriageway, interrupted by half a dozen roundabouts, (all of which we went straight ahead, so well within my rights of way). Near the M1 we suddenly found ourselves waylaid by a couple of bods from the Highways Agency. I take back every bitchy thing I have ever said about them. They suggested we detour to the M1 North to the next junction and come back down (@5 miles away) cuz the M1 South had at least an hours delay. Cool!

Zipped down the M1, and found ourselves limited to 30/40 miles an hour to a variety of ‘Workforce in Road’ (fair enough) ‘Queues ahead’ (Huh? Only one car on the motorway here!), ‘Debris on road’ (Certainly was. With only one car on the road you’d think one of the workforce in the road could have swept it up) and others that were so silly my tired brain couldn’t process. After pit stop dropping Jennie off, got home at 3.30am.

Sunday morning, and cats have no consideration for late nights, insisting that they still get to have breakfast at 7am. Chris fed them, and brought me coffee at 9am.

Went to Dover Marina at 1pm for (crossing fingers and paws) a dive. This time all was good! Rib behaved, weather was stunning. Went out to the Pomerania at 28 metres, one of the best dives in the channel. Only four divers, so Chris and I went down first, and it was very very pretty. Visibility was good, up to 6 metres in places. Saw large lobster, edible crab, tom pots and some quite large pillar anemones. There was some brass down there too, and it was lovely being the only divers in the water. When we came up, Trev and Pete went down – slack water was just long enough for the two pairs to dive back to back.

Knee felt sorry for itself.
Monday had the Lifesaver exam thingy. I failed it on one point – not being aggressive enough with the casualty when it comes to Rescue Breaths. Only one point but it’s a biggie. *sigh*. Which means I can bring divers from 30+ metres up, boss both casualties and bystanders around, throw ropes and floatation devices with accuracy, de-kit divers, tow swimmers, snorkellers and divers, support them in the water for three minutes on top of the towing, secure them, know all the procedures and timings for rescue breathing and chest compressions, do chest compressions and know all the bits of human biology, but unfortunately cannot seem to get the hang of blowing air up their noses.

Could do it well enough for the Sports Diver, but not well enough for the Lifesaver. Gotta practice for the retake on 03 July. Knee felt very sorry for itself. Graham couldn’t find his dive mask.

Tuesday came and went with the girls ensuring I had a constant caffeine supply. Bad knee was swollen and painful.

Wednesday discover I had two dive masks, one of which wasn’t mine. It wasn’t Graham’s either. Chris took me to lunch. Discovered that dive mask was Pete’s. Pete hadn’t noticed his mask was missing because he’d picked up Graham’s. UK Divers might be ‘Ard, but bath temperature swimming pools addles the brain cells a bit. Went to physio. Knee isn’t painful and is only the slightest bit swollen. Fortunately, physio boy picked up stuff from some of the tests anyway, and gave me exercises that involve imitating a flamingo with diarrhoea.

Today is mad panic for hols and work. Tomorrow I have dentist first thing before taking off for two week canal holiday. And I’m driving. Which means that if I have sore face, Chris should probably take a sedative before I get behind the wheel.