Bouncy, Bouncy

So, genies. You know, the whole genie in a bottle and the three wishes deal. What would you wish for?

Genies came into my mind whilst on hold for 45 minutes to an insurance company this week. So along with charging me an exhorbitant amount, they also appear to have sent me slightly mad. Daydreaming for 45 minutes apparently sends my mind to weird places.

Anyway, genies.

In the unlikely event that you ever find a genie in a bottle, what is the perfect wish?

I went through all the usual options, being rich, which doesn't guarantee you are going to be happy, love which can bring you pain, expensive possessions which in the end, are just possessions, a fast car, which I would probably end up killing myself in......

In the end, I decided what I would wish for. Which is exactly the same thing I wanted when I was six years old. A bouncy castle. Because in the end, if you have something in your life that can instantly make you smile and laugh, what is better than that?

Daydream ends and I am still on hold, but now with a hankering to go on a bouncy castle.

Knee Replacements –From the Sidelines

As someone who has been on the side, watching my mum over the years having four different knee replacements, and now with my step dad currently in hospital having one, I have had a good insight into what happens, and the dos and don’t.

Obviously I’m not a consultant, I’m not in the medical field at all.  So this post is purely from experiences my mum has had, with me at her side, seeing how it works, what to expect, what preparation you should do. 

The first thing I would say is wait as long as you can before having the operation.  A knee replacement on average lasts about ten years, depending on whether you are having a partial or a full replacement.  So it stands to reason, the younger you are, the more operations you will end up having. 

The most important thing I would say is to research your consultants.  In England you can have a say in who does your operation.  Don’t automatically go for the person they give you.

My mum’s first consultant, although the operation went well, was a horrible man.  He barely came to see her, she was left in terrible pain for hours and she was released before she really should have been.  With a different knee replacement the surgeon broke a bone in her leg, which can happen with these operations I know.  However, he didn’t tell her that it had happened and it was only upon seeing a different consultant some weeks later that she found out the problem.

After that we researched the consultants and she now has a brilliant surgeon, who cares about his patients, looks after them well and she has had good experiences since. 

After 20 years of having Osteoarthritis, she can now even do a little run.  But she is awesome, my mum.

You get out of a knee replacement just what you put into it.  Once the operation is done, the physiotherapy starts the very next day.  The more you do, the more you try, the better it gets and the work pays off.


What isn’t always expected, is how long it actually takes to get back to normal, without crutches.  Each time she has the operation my mum forgets how long it took to recover from the last one, and she is still surprised every time. 


In the end, you recover at your own pace, depending on how hard you try,  but usually 3 months (ish) is the usual time.


So there we go, a (very much) edited version of knee replacements and the things you can expect.  The full version would have been at least a three normal blog post, but that would get boring.   Hopefully you are not bored already!

Not Goodbye, But Au Revoir

As another year draws to a close in the F1 season, I can’t help but ask, where did the time go?  Looking back, it doesn’t seem two minutes since the new McClaren was unveiled, and the butterflies started.

As always, this season has had it’s dramas, even despite the predictable Vettel winning so many races.  Even with that, F1 has a draw, a pull right to your stomach that makes you want to watch every race.  The “Dum, dada dum dadadadada dum” always gives me a tingle.  F1 is never predictable, anything can and does happen.

So what have the season’s headlines been?

• Next season’s BBC/Sky deal.
• The Hamilton/Massa feud
• Paul Di Resta’s first season – most definately Rookie of the Year
• Pirelli coming back to F1

You can’t deny that the combination of the new DRS system and the new tyres has been exciting, although even that combination didn't help Valencia.  Sky can have that race.

Hamilton’s bad racing form and multiple clashes with Massa has undoubtedly been a feature of this season.  Jenson on the other hand has thrived at McClaren and with a three year deal, you really feel that McClaren

is the place that he belongs and I predict great things again for him next season.

I used to love Massa, primarily for his little tantrum of “White visor, white visor” the other year which cracked me up.  But his tantrums and nasty comments about Lewis this season have irritated me.  Although with his position in Ferrari at the moment, I don’t blame him for needing to take the frustration out somewhere,  just not on Lewis!  I wouldn’t be surprised if part of his job next season is washing Alonso’s car (joke).

You can’t talk about this season without mentioning Red Bull.  This season has been dominated by Vettel and that amazing car.  You can’t deny that their car this year has been phenomenal, it’s just Vettel I have the problem with.

So now the season is coming to a close, with the championship, both driver’s and team’s already done and dusted.  Does that mean that the last rac, loses any of it’s lure? The answer for me is no. 

I love F1 just as much now as I did when I first started to watch.  Fast cars, racing incidents, driver arguments, tactics and the never ending question.   What will happen this race?

Formula One, I love you still.  Hurry the damn up for next season!!