A little of what is bad for you can often be great,

that's the way the phrase goes, isn't it? Never did I feel this more than after an appointment I had with my cardiologist.

I had often been set limits by the people in the know; "you can swim for your 400 metre swimming badge but not your 800 metre yet." But the following year I knew that I would be allowed to swim the 800 metres that I wanted to do.

One year in particular I remember I was about 12 or 13 and I was told that I would never be able to play squash or run cross-country. This was different, it wasn't that I would be able to play squash next year and that I would have to wait; it hit me hard that there was something that I could not do.

When I got home that day I rang a friend and organised a game of squash for the very next day. I was not a little bit nervous about what may happen to me, I knew about squash, I'd seen it on the TV and watched my Dad play it, you just had to hit this little ball against the wall, no different from when I practised tennis.

We met up at the leisure centre and started warming up. I found that if I hit the ball against the wall as hard as I could it would just fall onto the floor as if I had thrown a brick against the wall. After we had realised that the ball needed to be warm in order for it to bounce we began to play properly and managed at least twice in the hour that we played for to have a short ralley. Nothing like the professionals.

The realisation hit me as I was travelling home from the leisure centre, it wasn't that I was not to play squash, it was that I was not to play squash well. I never played again, because it bored me really.

In later years I would be told other things that I could not do; one that particularly sticks out is that I could never play for Liverpool Football Club and whilst I like to think of myself as the Pele of the new millenium I don't think there was much chance of that happening.

As for cross-country running, I tried that also but realised that it wasn't the running that I shouldn't be doing but the running where there was no-one to help if I got into trouble. I found that it was much easier to take the bus, and a lot more interesting.

Tomorrow my Wife will be picking up the baton and writing a blog of her own, possibly this will make up for my poor time keeping of late (sorry about that) but mainly I would like a fresh take on things that is not my own.

Speak to you soon.