Another long spell without a post, this time I have a good excuse though.

Tuesday evening was spent in Accident and Emergency (ER for my American readers) after I hurt my tooth and my hands swelled up.

As many of you know, if someone with congenital heart disease damages their teeth to the extent that they bleed there is a chance that bacteria can get into the blood stream. This can happen to anyone but when you have scarred tissue on your heart the bacteria can collect there and there are no white blood cells that can help you out. So, damaging teeth is bad.

I don't run to A&E every time that I damage my teeth, that would be silly; however, my hands swelling up was a sign to me that maybe I should be a little worried this time. I was also sick and I felt very ill.

We went to A&E and we waited, and we waited and we waited some more. In the end it turns out that they weren't worried at all because the swollen hands and the illness was a reaction to the co-codamol that I had been taking.

All fine, until I went to the dentist yesterday morning and found that I had to have the tooth extracted. I hate dentists at the best of times, I enjoy sitting in the waiting room waiting for a check-up because I know that as I have not taken antibiotics they can't do anything to me.

But when I know that I am going to have a procedure and I have taken antibiotics an hour before I get very scared. It is almost like the waiting is prolonged by the fact that I have to take antibiotics an hour before and then wait for my fate. You have to sit there for an hour with one thing on your mind, the dentist!

If I didn't have to take antibiotics then I would wake up an hour later, I would rush around getting ready and then rush to the dentist; getting there just in time for my appointment without a thought about what is going to happen. So, spare a thought for me next thursday when I have my tooth removed.

With the illness, rushing through my last week of work and getting ready for my first week of a PhD I have had no time to leave a blog. Not that this has dented the amount of people coming to visit; mainly due to Xabi's wonder goal on Wednesday night.

Liverpool FC played Newcastle FC on Wednesday night and we thrashed them 2-0 but the second goal was the goal of the season. Xabi Alonso hit the ball from his own half into the back of the Newcastle net - 60 yards away. He did this last year and someone had a bet that he would; they made thousands out of it.

Being that this site mentions Xabi's name quite a lot and also that most of the Xabi Alonso fan sites out there link to here plus a large number of Liverpool FC fan sites, I have been getting my fair share of traffic from Google. In fact if you look at my counter below you will see that most of my visits from Googlers have been through Xabi Alonso.


A big welcome to you all and I hope you stay here and get involved with the cause.

Today is a very special day for my Wife and I as it is our second wedding anniversary. To celebrate this I thought I would write a little about Sharon and what makes her so special to me.

We met because we had a mutual group of friends, rather they were Sharon's friends that I just muscled in on because I could get an extra year in university halls out of them. There were many events that we saw each other at but I never could pluck up the courage to have a real conversation with her.

In the Summer of 2003 the university halls held a BBQ for all the residents and it was a perfect opportunity to get drunk and enjoy the final days of my third year at university. I had decided that I would give up on finding a girlfriend and just enjoy being single for a while; irony certainly has a sense of humour.

At the end of the day everybody cleaned up after the BBQ and went to a club. I found myself sitting on the lawn with Sharon; she wasn't a complete stranger, I had spoken to her a few times before but I knew nothing about her so we started talking. It started raining and we headed over to a statue of Archimedes having his eureka moment in his bath, we sat on this statue for hours just talking about stuff.

Sharon was very easy to talk to, I enjoyed every minute of her company and she was beautiful. I really had to see her again and was thrilled to find out that she was staying in Manchester for the Summer.

We spent every minute that we could together that Summer and I have some great memories of it. Less than a month after meeting Sharon we both realised on the same day that we were in love with each other. It was an incredible feeling and still is to this day.

The following February 29th I proposed to Sharon and we were married on September 18th 2004, not much more than a year since we first met. We had only just graduated from University and it felt like an incredible adventure that we were about to go on.

Two years on and we are stronger than ever and the adventure just keeps getting better and better. She makes me smile and she makes me laugh and I just feel great when she is around.

Sharon, I love you.

Thank you for the best two years of married life that anyone could ever wish for.