biting the bullet

So after a week or more of sporadic 'aches'* in my ears and with my dive trip looming (I LEAVE ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I finally decided to cowboy up and go to the doctor. I decided that I would ask for ear drops, as a preventative if nothing else and that at least would calm my paranoid internal mutterings. So I get there and the lady at the desk is friendly and the doctor when he calls me in sounds friendly and doesn't look at old and doddery as I'd built him up to be in my memory (I saw him for the one and only time before this just over a year ago) so, thinking I'd blown this whoel thing out of proportion, I sat down and explained the situation. He looked in my ear, said it looked clean, any aches were probably from internal pressure and I should take sudofed to get rid of that and drops were a last resort (the unspoken part was that he wouldn't prescribe them until it got worse). I double checked that any achey stuff would only be from congestion, he said yes, apparently my ear looks good and sent me on my way. No weighing or general questions about my health, no blood pressure, nada. I guess I'm just used to the personal touch of my doctor who has treated me for the past 10 years or more and doesn't have a gazillion patients. So I bought sudofed on the way to work, have popped a pill and it better bloody well work. (I have a moderate degree of faith.)

olé¡

A couple of weekends ago I accompanied a friend to an 'm' party. I went as a Mexican (having all the paraphernalia left over from Kerry's and my Mexican party all that time ago). I've put this picture up because, artistically, I'm fascinated by how much more flattering B&W can be (especially when you boost up the contrast) than colour... I mean seriously, dude, I look so much better in B&W.

alternative humour

I can't remember where exactly I found this image (it was somewhere on my stumbles) but I had to put it in because it makes me laugh. Cute and funny but somehow a little bit sad as well.

*I say 'aches' because I'm in a near hypochondriacal (it may not be a real word but it should be) state so any twitch of anything in my ear becomes an 'ache'.