A couple of years down the line.....

As I sit here listening to Deep Purple through my headphones I remembered My Blog ;-)
So here it is, we are now talking about nearly 4 years since my last entry back in 2009 !! A LOT has happened.....

Let's start with my head, as you remember I was struck on the head and woke up in hospital, went through amnesia and a rage stage (no steroids involved haha). Then in late 2009 (October) I met a girl and hey presto we now have a 24 month old beautiful Son !!! So here I am 44 years old this year thinking how I am going to keep myself fit and healthy for him as I understand and respect my mortality but never used to care if I lived or not.
Now I have a reason to live, but that doesn't mean that I don't think any different to the fact that, if your numbers up then that's it ! I don't have a problem with dying....just so long as it's quick and fairly painless.

Oh yes, my head....well....my memories have all but come back with the exception that I can meet people from 20 years ago or even as soon as last month and, I have no idea of who they are. This reminds me of talking with my mother one afternoon about the neighbours and she mentioned that it was such a shame about their daughter passing away....What daughter I replied ? It wasn't that I couldn't remember her dying from cancer, I didn't remember that she even exsisted !! By the end of the conversation I sorta had some recollection of who she was until I managed to remember in full. This happens a lot to me, and unless people around me can jog my memory enough with the right prompts (memories) then I am a blank :-(
As for my short term memory.....................................hopeless :-(

So I have managed to live with it and move on in my life, how gutting to be let down by someone you thought was a friend. Anyway, just a quick update and I think it's time for some sleep. Got a lot to do tomorrow as we're leaving the island....but that's a story for another time :-)

My Bike

Well this is my bike, it's a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade in the Repsol livery. I bought her new in December 2007 and it was my 2nd bike, my first being a Honda CBR600F Sport bought from new in 1999. I had about 2 years of not riding as I emigrated to another country.

I'm just about to do some servicing on the Fireblade which will mean a lot reading through the workshop manual ! Looking forward to it, nice to have a challenge !!

The 'Drunk' guy and the taxi driver Pt.2

Well it's been just over 2 years since 15th December 2008 when I had the run-in with the above. Now time has moved on and so have I....within limits.

Picking up where we left off, I had an awesome time for more or less the whole of 2009. Rediscovering things we all take so much for granted such as our basic 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' which we learnt from birth in our daily lives. So much enthusiasm for life....finding out basic stuff like..."I remember I used to have a goatie, but did I like it? Why don't I have one anymore?".

As I mentioned before, I had no "Emotional/memory" links with my past train of thought and everyday thinking.

But towards the end of 2009 I met my now partner Anna who is amazing. We now have a 3 month old Son Liam, who is outstanding by any count. Best baby in the world and we're both enjoying the journey with him sooo much.

Unfortunately my short term memory is exceptionally bad, I can look at this blog tomorrow and won't remember writing it, or if I do, the actual syntax, style and use of words will seem as if someone else has written it. So I think this is my lot in life, I was foolish...made a mistake....and will always be paying for it.

It doesn't bother me as I have accepted each stage of recovery as i have gone along...Why you may ask...simple...It's just human nature, you just get on with it. Your brain is in control of you and your body..NOT YOU! And don't ever be fooled to think that you are. In times of woe or impending danger your brain will kick into action, and try it's best to get you out of the mess you are in !

So besides the memory side affect, there is one other, more sinister and discomforting. I always used to be in control of my life and what I was doing, now I have a very short fuse which leads to a vicious temper and anger. I have always been in control of my temper all my life and with no problem, but now the adrenaline taps are wide open and I'm fuelled ready to go. I'm not proud of this by any means and I think some counselling may possibly help.

The "Drunk' guy and the taxi driver

Well here's a little something to be going on with. Just back last December 2008 I had not long moved into my new apt, unfortunately with Bronchitis!!!! So for the first 2 weeks it was, work-sleep-work-sleep. When I started to get back on my feet a friend of mine who has a bar here in Lanzarote asked me to pop up for a beer as we needed to catch up and he new I'd had a rough time of it.
So off I go. When I got to the bar, sat down and had a beer or 2 it soon became apparent that he was more interested in chatting-up his waitress than talking with me. Understandably so, but considering HE asked me to pop up for a few beers normally meant that we would have a few beers and a chat.

When it was time to leave, he said that I was a bit loud, in all honesty I'm not surprised as I was pissed off with the fact of talking to passers by more than him, great mate huh?
I remember getting into the taxi, then waking up in hospital a couple of hours later. Was duly released and went home.
During the remainder of December then through January 2009 I had bad Amnesia, so cant really say much of what happened, except I went to work...I guess. February and March my long term memory started improving with the exception of any emotional link to the memories I had.
That is still the same, just got huge chunks missing of allsorts of memories. My short term memory is a lot better, but I still HAVE to write things down otherwise I will forget!!!!
All from a night out when I was just finishing a course of antibiotics, had'nt eaten much, and my weight had dropped from just over 13st to 12st.

So now I have been for a brain scan and have to go back for an appointment with the head neurologist to see the outcome of the scan. I still experience a lot of fatigue and very long bouts of sleep...last week I slept one night for 11hrs, then was awake for only 11hrs and then had 10hrs sleep. Woke up still feeling fatigued, so even if I have a lot of sleep I'm still feeling fatigued.
So we shall see what the future has in store for me.
You see your brain releases a hormone to protect you when you have any major Frontal Lobe damage, the side affect being...Memory loss across the board not just of the incident.
So lets see how things go, at least I dont have the un-controllable attacks of RAGE when ever I was getting stressed or a bit annoyed, which was and is totally out of character for me.

I can honestly say that without all the emotional links to my memories/experiences in life, I AM a different person because of these things. Which makes sense, everything I've based my decision making on through my life I cant remember. It's simple as ...do I prefer the colour Red or Blue???? Now I would have to make a decision not based on memory, but one on-the-spot.

I'll add to the blog as time goes on, just thought I'd put this in as none of you would have any idea what the hell I was going on about:-)

Some Pics to get started :-)

Before I start adding all the inside stuff to my blog so you all get to understand what I'm about, I thought I'd 'throw-up' a few pics just to see how narrow minded and stereotypical some of you are without knowing anything about me. Enjoy!! :-)

Foreward

Hi folks!!!! Yes as you can see this IS a work in progress, please be patient as I have soooo much on my plate at the moment. Lots to organise and lots to look forward to, hopefully with a few laughs along the way. Thats it for now....somehow got to 'suss' out this Blog thing setup and we're in business. Catchulaters :-)