Study time.

I have been given the date for the delivery of my Overlander 4, the 25th of this month which as you will know is Tuesday and I am really looking forward to it. The hope is that it will have been fully charged before delivery so that I can use it in the evening to take part in the Navigation Exercise for the blokes for one of their tests but I will have to wait and see. Obviously I will put some pictures on when it arrives and update on the dates for the 3 peaks challenge when it gets set in stone as well as details of the charities that I will be collecting for and how to donate if you feel you can.

The date is fast approaching for my trip away with Battle Back who are going to teach me to ski. I had not tried skiing when I was able bodied so it should be interesting, the main comfort I suppose will be that I will at least be starting on my ass whereas others are likely to end up on theirs! I am intrigued more than excited I think as to how I will get on with the whole thing. Getting any kind of photographs will I think be quite difficult but I am hoping that I will be able to get someone to help with that by taking some pictures for me as I would love to have some photographic keepsakes, I will have to see how it pans out. I am going to be interested to see how my body will cope with the cold also. I will of course have the cold weather clothing designed for skiing, but knowing that my body does not regulate its temperature and how cold certainly my left leg and foot gets now, without any snow, I am interested to see how my body will react and cope. I think I may message a guy who I met in the first spinal unit about it as I know he has been skiing more than once. He will I hope be able to advise me on the more personal admin side of things too, mental note made to message him (I bet I forget though!).

I’ve been studying my flying training book as well. It arrived a few days ago from the disabled flying scholarship with joining instructions and maps. Part of the joining instruction was to read the first six chapters, we will all have tests as part of the interview process where those who have done the best will be accepted to the scholarship whilst the remainder will have to reapply for the following year in the hope of being short listed again and actually succeeding in the interviews. I can but try and see what occurs, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I haven’t actually managed to get back in to the model making yet. It must have been before Christmas when I last did any, I need to get back in to it as I am looking forward to doing each of the models that I have almost equally. Now that I am getting better at the building and painting process I am attempting the larger scales. I have the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight consisting of the Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster which my Dad bought for me when he drove me and my Wife to Buckingham Palace last year but I have not rushed to do it because I have other models to do, on top of that though I have yet to purchase my airbrush set to make a really good job of it as they will certainly be on display. So what is in the `hanger` waiting to be built? I have the three quarter built Apache helicopter which was kindly bought for me by Dobbsy and his family Christmas 2012 (don’t think I am bad, I wanted to make others that I had bought to practice as it is a big model). I have a 1:48 scale Mosquito, a 1:32 Hawk of the Red Arrows, My 1:48 Sea Vixen which went horribly wrong and then got knocked on the floor and broke so rather than get angry about it I put it away, My 1:72 BBMF set and a 1:72 Hawker Hunter (reluctant to do this one though as it is a 1980`s model and is still sealed). So you can see, I need to get back in to it really.

I had another appointment at the hospital, this time Musgrove in Taunton on Thursday. My Doctor/consultant there is such a lovely man, he makes me smile when I have my check ups with him. We both had a real good chuckle about one of the recommendations for me. We had discussions about how things were, progress and developments and he ran through the results on a test or scan that I had done a little while ago. It was all in medical speak but he put it in to George speak of two syllables or less, (at least as best as he could as there were some proper big words, who the hell comes up with them eh?), and the bottom line is that I need to expose as much of my body to the sun as possible. Now then, as you can guess this is what we chuckled about. Trust me, I have more than enough surface area to soak up the sun, that is not a problem. Avoiding being carted off by the RSPCA at the beach or people trying to put me back in to the water is more of a challenge and concern if I am honest. The other minor thing is that I hate how my legs have gone from large muscle to now resembling something that KFC would reject (other fast food joints are available), and as such I try to keep them covered and that my six pack that I used to have, (Yep, that is a very obvious lie! But I was by no means fat or tubby), now resembles more the keg and my ever increasing man boobs, (I swear if they get much bigger I will be able to entertain myself!), I tend to stay covered up. This can only mean one thing, I need to get a sun bed, no sorry, I need to go back to not really worrying what people think and get as naked as possible. Sure it may cause people to be mentally scarred for a while but it is on Doctors orders that I get sun! (For those who read my Blog, I will reward your time by letting you know where I will be on the beach and when so you don’t have to suffer, fair?)

This afternoon I went for a drive, I was going to pop and visit someone for a coffee and headed toward town. I called my friend in Axminster but she was not there and so I headed toward Ilminster, where I lived my whole life and moved from as my house was unsuitable for adaptations. Whilst driving I went through who I could go and have a brew with, it was then that I realised that actually there were very few people, I could pretty much count them on one hand which was actually quite sad. I had always been working, on exercise or courses, away with the Army or working on my house. It became apparent that this has left little time for staying in touch with people or making new acquaintances. Now I know that some people will see that statement as feeling sorry for myself but that is not the case, it was a genuine moment of clarity which led me to think. Have I not had time in the past to make acquaintances or have I actually made the concious decision that I actually don’t need to have lots of people around. Of course I had the people I knew from the Army but as I have discovered in my time since I have been attending again, the majority are not `friends` but instead are work colleagues which was a disappointment at first and was quite gutting but has actually done me a great service.

So that has been me really. Tomorrow my Daughter has two friends and her boyfriend, (MY DAUGHTER HAS A BOYFRIEND, AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGH!), are going an adventure park with my Wife as a Birthday treat. It is her 13th Birthday on Monday, 13, a teenager, BUGGER. One of her friends from her previous school, her best friend still, is staying over tonight as an extra treat as they don’t get to spend much time together any more but by the laughing that is emanating from her room while they are watching some film, I would say that they are definitely catching up. Tomorrow will be the first time that my Daughters friends will have met her Boyfriend, I would love to be going with her but as I can’t go on any of the rides and it is her day out, I will be at home with my Son and `Pickle` and a family member to assist me. Anyway, hope all is well with you. Catch you next time, until then.

Goodnight all.

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