Hi

Thgis is Sharon's blog. A few days ago all of the newspapers reported that heart atacks wouild increase if England went to penalties. Well I can confirm that all hearts were racing today at our unfortunate defiet. We desereved to win. not because of the unfair red card, or because of the hand ball which wasn't a penalty, but because the hopes of a naton were in ruins. And this meant more heart attacks! Some may say it is only a game, but they are fron nations who didn't qualfy (or maybe fron the USA).

Although it is unfortunate that a sporting event can lead to such catastrofic events it proves to show how much the world cup can mean. I don't have much to say, i have drowned my sorrows in a few glasses of wine and I'm now trying to forget that the tournament exists.

Anyway in recent news, Paul has confirmed his appointment for his tattoo, and pictures will be displayed after he has had it done.

Quite a short one but i have had two bottles of wine and i'm finding it hard to type. All the best, Sharon.

At the start of December I came down with what I thought was a nasty case of the Flu.

I went into work on the Monday morning feeling a little bit down in the dumps and had to be sent home by lunchtime. It got steadily worse and I ended up shaking uncontrollably for most of the time. By the Tuesday night - after lots of appeals from my Wife - I decided to let her take me to A&E (ER to non-British).

I arrived at A&E and did the usual thing, "I've got congenital heart disease", waiting for the look on the receptionist's face that said 'Oh god, get him in quick' but it didn't appear. At this point I must say that I am not usually one of those people that use my heart problems to get things that I want but when I'm ill it is a different matter; there is no way I am waiting to be seen after the guy who fell out of a tree and the girl who put her shoe on the wrong foot and now can't get it off. I have flu and that makes me more important than any other case that comes through those doors.

After about 15 minutes waiting Sharon went and had a word with a nurse and we were straight in. At this point I decided that I would be all macho and claim that it was only a cold and that my Wife had dragged me there but I don't think the nurses believed me. They put me on a bed and rushed me off for an X-ray.

I lay there for about an hour, I told myself that I must be coming out of the worst as I had had the flu for 2 days and I made plans for the following day off work. I would really enjoy myself as the previous weeks had been extremely stressful; I had started a new job after leaving University and was house hunting in most of my spare time.

A doctor approached the bed with my chest X-ray in her hand and explained to me that I had pneumonia and that my lungs were filled with fluid. Suddenly, I felt more ill.

They stuck an antibiotic IV in my arm and left me for a few hours. Later that day they transferred me to a private ward in the hospital which I was very impressed about until I got there. The private ward was the most basic ward I have ever seen with a gap where a TV should have been and no facilities at all, but it was still better than being in a normal ward.

I remember that I didn't eat very much, I couldn't. On the second evening Sharon took me out into the corridor so that I could get breath of freedom and she could get a bite to eat. She bought a McDonalds and I was soon wolfing it down followed by an apple crumble. Strange how a McDonalds got my appetite back, can you see a theme with these blogs.

I recovered in about three days which the nurses thought was incredible and was released, I then had three weeks of bed rest followed by a holiday in Africa and the Christmas holidays so all in all a good recuperation period.

It was a horrible experience but I have learnt a lot more about the NHS and my heart condition because of it and got a well-deserved rest.

I have found the greatest website today.

It was on the BBC news website earlier today and its name is DIGG. The general principle behind it is that stories are placed up there and the readers decide what is good and what is bad. The good ones go to the top and the rubbish ones dissappear. This works well for news and the result is something similar to Google news, popular stories appearing towards the top.

Anyway, the unique thing about DIGG is that videos are also voted for and the result is great. There are some great videos up there and they change regularly as people get bored of the previous ones.

Visit it here: http://digg.com/view/videos/popular/thisyear. You may have to sign up but it is one of those really simple ones where you put in a username and password and they email you a confirmation.

If you know of any other great sites that I can fill my lunchbreaks with then drop me a line.

Cheers.

I'm into my seventh week of trading now.

If things carry on at this speed then I will have an amazing item to auction at the end. I envisioned that getting started would be the hardest thing but my first trade came within a week of starting. There will be slow patches down the line but I am hopeful that the quest will keep on rolling for the next 16 months.

What will I do with the final item, where will I auction it? The first place that comes to my mind is EBay. They have sold the following humourous items purely on the basis that they have generated publicity:

Old Rope
Voodoo Toy
A Cheese Sandwich

If I can generate enough publicity then the final item will be a piece of history rather than just an item and it may go for more than it's worth. Alternatively, with enough publicity a large auction house would be happy to sell it. Also with it being for charity many places would waive the fee for selling it.

Let me know what you think.

World cup update today,

I know that I said I wouldn't mention the world cup much and I think I have done well so far.

Three of the six teams I said I would support are still in it. It is goodbye to Japan, United states and Australia (Australia are unlucky not to still be in it). England, France and Portugal are still there, but I think that France will be on the next plane home. Also Portugal are playing England so only one team can go through there.

England are my number one team though and although they haven't looked like the team they have been built up to be so far, I am confident that they will go all the way and win it this time.

If they beat Portugal then it will be only the third time that they have reached the Semi-final stage, we have won one (1966) and lost one (1990).

Come on England!

I have decided that I am getting a tattoo.

It is going to be a dragon on the top of my left arm. It is a bit scary thinking that I am going to do this but I'm not going to back out of this one. I will get it for a birthday present next month and then there is no way I can back out.

The question arises in my mind; do I have to tell the tattoo artist about my heart condition? I would take an educated guess and say no, but then most people are surprised when they hear that it is an issue at the dentist.

I thought I had better check before I get it done, if I don't get an answer here then I will put it to the message boards at GUCH.

Has anyone reading had a tattoo? The thing that I am most worried about is whether or not it will hurt. I can take a pin prick from a needle but I'm not sure whether I could take thousands of pin pricks for a sustained time.

Let me know your stories about tattoos and any advice you have.

Hello, it's been a while.

I thought that I would leave that last post at the top for a couple of days because I have had an influx of new readers. Also I think that now I can officially begin looking for my third trade.

I am hoping to drum up quite a bit of publicity over the next week or so. It was difficult at first having just a piece of rope but now I have something that is extremely interesting and I hope it will really capture people's imagination.

In other news there are just 500 days to go. Actually I think that is quite a lot of days. Still a milestone nonetheless.

Do you have anything you would like to trade for an Sydney 2000 Olympic Official's Shirt? I am looking, in the first instance, for anything unusual or interesting.

It may be of little value to you but could be worth a lot to somebody else.

Have a look around, you never know what you might find.