Simon/Muddydwarf,

My earlier post wasn't designed to make anyone feel bad or upset. It was more of a totally unintended and unexpected explosion of my own personal feelings which I have never aired before.

We "angry" people cannot all be painted with the same brush as all & every occurence are very much different in their individual circumstances.

I've been angry with Andy since he did it. He was my best friend & I had NO idea he would do such a thing. I have known him for around three decades & I was with him on the Friday evening prior to the incident – He was in a very positive frame of mind, looking forward to the future.

I have no intention or desire to air his faimily laundy as it were. But, he was in no way shape or form a depresive person. He was however, by nature, self-engrossed, and in my opinion, to the detrement of his family – a point on which I pulled him up on more occasions than I can count.

In hindsight, I have obviously been over the situation many many times in my head – asking myself if I had missed any signs – There were none.

I can't know for sure, but the 'angry' part of my emotions seem to act as a coping mechanism and have allowed me to remain strong for the people who got left behind. – I have had to rely on this & it has worked extremely well. – This particular 'angry' emotion is NOT a result of pondering if I had missed anything. As stated before, there were no signs.
It has however given me the ability to look after his family & to give them something solid to lean on.

I'm sure in the fullness of time, when I feel circumstances allow me to 'let go', then it will all come flooding out – But at the moment, it serves me well & keeps me focussed.

In the earlier post, I mentioned that Karen ( my wife), was now on "medicinal help", due to a delayed reaction. Her initial prescription only made matters worse….far worse ( the side effects were awful !) – She has been back and had her medication changed & she is a whole lot better for it.

Please….please find some form of professional help. – It is most certainly NOT a sign of weakness, but is in my opinion, a realisation that sometimes, we all need a little help.

Chris

( This should have really been in an email or phone call, but perhaps others may read & benefit)

Yes.

My very good friend Andy who lived 8 doors away – Hung himself in the garage April 26th – No "real" reason to do such a thing.

You may remember him as "Whatsit" who used to post on here.

I got a phone call from his wife at 08:25 – So unintelligable was the call, I had to ring 1471 to confirm who the call was from – ran round at break-neck speed to find Carole on the patio in a real bad state ….. I looked in the garage to see Andy hanging. – Very much dead.

Called my wife to collect the kids immediatly & to just collect the kids as soon as possible & to ask no questions when she arrived – Just to get the kids away from the house.
Karen came round Very quickly & took the kids away as they had no idea anything was wrong.
I called the emergancy services as soon as I'd place the call to my wife.

I had the unenviable task of cutting his body down & attempting resuccitation on an obviously dead body.

Don't take this the wrong way. But, I totally & utterly hate him for what he has put everyone through. – You have NO idea what his wife & two young daughters has had to go through.

We've tried our damdest to help out…Things like trying to be a 'surragate father' to the two young daughters he left behind & a good friend to Carole, his wife. Luckily both kids seem to really like me. But, however much you try to do, it somehow never really feels enough.

My own wife has now ended up on anti-depresants due to a delayed reaction from the situation.

The bottom line is that he had no 'real' reason to do something so utterly selfish & stupid. – The problems he had were nothing in real terms. But, the sheer mess he left behind is unreal.

It happened at the end of April, but the reprocussions are still very much in existance.

I miss him dearly, but I totally hate him for what he's done.

( Hit a very raw nerve on this one)
Chris

Good post !

Mine (…besides being plenty of the above), would have been Deep Purple around the late 60's early 70's – Around the "Made in Japan" era.

Chris
(Broken ankle & rather bored)

Just pre-ordered the new album from Play.com

Due for release on 12/10/2009 – £8.95 inc postage.

😀

Chris

Had my LP12 for many years. Admittedly don't play it as often as I should, but I do enjoy having the odd vinyl only evening… when I can get the house to myself 🙂
Not only the sound of the LP12, but the whole 'ritual' of getting the album from the sleeve and so on.

Never been able to part with it.

Most of my listening thesedays is done sat on the settee in the kitchen. Book in one hand, glass of red wine in the other & sounds provided by a 40+ year old Hacker Sovereign RP25A.
( Most georgeous 'retro' looking radio around).

Chris

Saw them in Manchester.

Brilliant !!! Absolutley Stunning !
…Unlike there last couple of albums…..Long live Mutter!

Would love to see them again & both kids would like to tag along this time.
Chris

Donald,
Already ordered it & looking forward to reading an alternative perspective to the more usual 'Statins rule the world' view.

(Thanks for the recommendation)
Chris

TJ,
I would try my damndest to avoid Statins.

Currently on Statins & it must be said, not getting along very well with them.

When I was 40, better half made me go for a full medical. All results came back as exemplory "for my age" …Don't you just love that expression. (eg. resting heart rate low 40's and so on). But the Cholesterol came back at around 8.5. ( my normal base level)

For the last 4.5 years, I've been bounced around the system & am currently under the specialists at the MRI in Manchester.

Along the line, I've seen four dieticians who all agreed that my vegetarian eating was fine. (I'm 44 & have been a veggie since the age of 3).
I did 3 solid months of no treats whatsoever & eating as near a perfect diet as humanly possible. The end result was a reduction of 0.2 !!!

I went three months… No curries, No chocolate or anything I actually like…. & only got a 0.2 reduction !!!! ( NOT worth it)

Turns out that the high cholesterol thing runs in the family & no amount of porridge will put this to what doctors call an acceptable level.

Not got the figures to hand, but my ratio of good to bad is pretty good.

Since there's a familial aspect to the Cholesterol. The specialists put me on a low dose of statins. ( Atorvastatin), which basically turned me into a complete Zombie for 6 months. – There is no other way to describe it.
Now I'm on another type of Statin (Crestor / Rosuvastatin). Whilst I don't think they're as bad, I still feel somewhat 'slugged'.

It's a bit like someone who constantly runs on caffiene & suddenly gets it taken away.

You may be fine with them. But, if at all possible, I would strongly try to avoid Statins. There just seem to be far too many side effects & I'm personally yet to be convinced that they are indeed the modern miricle they are touted to be.
There seems little actual medical evidence for the Zombie thing I experience, but a quick look around the net & actually talking to people brings up quite a large amount of anichdotal evidence.

Good luck !
Chris

I bought some about four years ago after a flurry of rave reviews – Oh dear ! Me & The Cinder’s didn’t get on at all as I seemed to spend more time on the floor having been dumped off the bike.

Sold them on quickly to try and preserve my life expectancy.

These day’s I’m back on tried and very trusted ground of Spesh Enduro’s / Resolution’s dependent on which bike I’m out on.

Love both the Enduro’s & Resolution’s & can’t seem to fault either.
But, as we all know, tyres are very much a personal thing.
Chris

Had the same reaction as Fubar in Boots.
When I asked about syringes, people all around me suddenly ‘dissappeared’ & the shop assistant looked at me as though I was a major league drug user !

Chris

Usually have a part worn set lurking in the bottom of my pack.
Came in handy a couple of weeks back after cack-handed refitting of a wheel after a puncture managed to slice the pad off the backing plate…..On Juicy’s . Yes, it can be done on the trail !
Used the existing pads still in situ & a multi-tool to open the gap & then fit the spares.

May have been a bit more careful if I hadn’t have been so cold !

Chris

Oh, whilst we’re on the subject. I’ve found that thick boot type socks are a good idea as your feet don’t seem to sweat as much as wearing normal / formal socks ( odd as it may sound)
Size your boots accordingly to accomodate.

Chris

Even though I work in IT, I spend a lot of time on my feet & have to wear safety footware.
Obviously, everyone’s feet are different, But I wholeheartedly agree with a couple of the comments above….
1. Doc Martens rule.
2. The Dewalts although initially comfortable can be “cripplingly hard work to wear for any lenght of time”.

In the last few years, I’ve tried lots & invariably end up coming back to D.M’s as I find them far more comfortable for wearing & walking around for long periods.

I’ve also noticed that the majority of the maintenance bods at ours have also joined the D.M camp.

Chris

When I joined TalkTalk &…once I’d finally got up and running, the first thing I did was to change my default contact details to….another Gmail account !

Didn’t like the look / layout of the TalkTalk web-mail ( may have changed since, but never been tempted to re-visit)

& It works flawlessly !

Chris

Watching this post with interest as I’m in exactly the same situation as Ton.

Used to doing activity type hols & have been told in no uncertain terms that somewhere sunny….with minimal outdoor activities are in order this year.

I’m stuck !

I’ve been quite a few places on this planet & to be totally honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not really a conventional holiday type person. I’ve never been able to sit down & just do nothing….sorry "relax" – The idea of two weeks lounging round a pool & bar, drinking, reading & with occasional dips in the aforementioned pool fills me with dread ! ( the drinking & reading bits are fine, but the doing nothingness is a complete killer for me)

To my mind, the best ‘holidays’ I’ve had have included things like the Pennine Way, outdoor activity weeks in the Cardigan bay area & just for some ‘sun’ balance, a couple of trips to Florida ( but having been there a couple of times now & it’s a case of been there & done that)

Half tempted to take up an offer of visiting some friends in Hong Kong, but the flip side of this would be having to visit the sister in law who currently lives in the mid west of the USA. ( & their ain’t an awful lot to do in the mid west)

So, please keep the suggestions coming as I’m also looking for ideas.

Chris

Was in a similar position a few months ago.

Stick a piece of paper somewhere handy & over the course of a few days, jot down every online service ( etc) you need to change & once your satisfied the list is complete just sit down & do it !

Dosen’t actually take as long as you think – Just feels like a daunting task.
This is one occasion being a magpie actually helps. If you’re anything like me, you’ll still have all of last years emails to plough through for reference as there’s always something you miss.

Chris

Oh,

I found that, in the sound quality stakes, the point where MP3 takes over from WMA is somewhere between 128 & 192.

If you need a lossy Codec & your Archos will support AAC, then I would suggest you experiment with this in preference to MP3 or WMA.

But, as mentioned above, Lossless is better long term.

Chris

For music, some form of lossless is invariably the best way to go. A couple of months ago, I did a bit of faffing around with MP3, WMA & AAC codecs

The following is virtually a copy & paste from a post I entered on the anythingbutipod.com forum…..

As regards to sound quality….In this last week I’ve been putting a seemingly awful lot of time into the various pro’s & con’s of .wma, .mp3, & AAC ( as used by Apple)

I won’t bore you with all the details of what I’ve been doing, eg hacking windows registry to allow media player to import at 320 as opposed to 192 (.wma) etc but ( from a sound quality perspective) my conclusions are as follows …

At lower bit rates .wma is better than MP3
As the bit rate increases, the situations are reversed & MP3 comes out on top (….caveat being the codec of the .mp3 being one of the newer “lame” versions as opposed to the Fraunhofer version as seems to be used in Windows Media Player 11 – Vista)

& best sounding of the lot ( bitrate’s being equal), seems to be the AAC codec as used by Apple
I tested the above using my Senheisser earbuds & also my Naim Pre & Power kit.

It all started getting a bit too nerdy for me, so I stopped playing ( Sorry….performing valuable Research & Development) at this point.

Since my Zen V Plus is unable to support AAC, I’ve personally settled on MP3 – 256 VBR, set at very high quality ( …min 256 but able to go to 320 should the need arise)

For ripping cd’s I’ve settled on using CDex or EAC…..along with one of the newer lame versions

Chris

The advise in the above replies should sort out the feet area, but I recall another piece of advise on a similar thread about keeping the legs nice and warm too – Idea being that it keeps the blood reaching the feet warmer.

Not sure if it’s a placebo effect, but it seems to help me.

Chris

Mines now at the stage where everytime I walk, my vision wobbles & I start colliding with walls.

Chris