Bop-It

It all started on friday. I was at work that day, but, as it way Rob's birthday party, went straight from work, with John, to that. Now I was ill already, but it was only a cold, and annoying as it was, which was a lot seeing as it had been with me for almost 3 weeks, thats all it was. The evening was going ok, there was Pizza, drink, friends, fireworks and fun. This continued, however, at some point during the evening I began to cough. Not a small cough like the coughs you get everyday, but a dry, painful cough. This continued. I still enjoyed the evening, but I still had the cough. I was at work the next day, and it was possibly the worst day of my life, physically and in some ways mentally. I was coughing every few seconds the entire day. Staff told me to go home, hell even customers told me I should go home, but my manager didn't, so I just coped...just. I couldn't go in to work the following day, my voice was almost gone, and my diaphragm was killing me, as was my throat. Still I had a cough. I had bought some medicine on saturday, and eventually, the cough abated, mostly. I had an apointment with the doctor anyway, and I am now on more pills to help. I also have a gel for my wrist, which has an inflamed tendon apparently, which is rather painful, and stops me gripping, or doing much at all with my left hand. It makes work more difficult certainly. I had been on pills for it before, but now something new. Of course, I have to pay for them. So thats the last few days. Not the best of times for me in many ways, although I did enjoy the party, it was good fun, and I had my first miniatures painting session today and finished painting my first model, which I think came out rather well. Hopefully my health will improve soon, as I am beginning to tire of illness.

Dan
xxxx

A High Note

A few musical suggestions:
First of all, if you haven't heard of a lady named Nicole Atkins, then do yourself a favour and look her up. She has put an album out that defies musical trends, looking back to how music used to be made and how people used to sing songs many years ago. It's a very well produced album full of great lyrics and fantastic flourishes and vocals, that is probably my album of the year. I usually listen to rock music in all it's forms, but I am open to anything that is good basically, and I love her album.
Also, the new datsuns album is the same, yet different. The datsuns are a new zealand garage band, who kind of faded with the garage movement of a few years back. But they have come up with an album that despite the fact probably no-one will hear it, is a great progression of their sound and songwriting. It has much better production than before, and they haven't been afraid to push the boundaries of their sound, still sounding like they always have but with a maturity that they never had before. I think it's a shame so few people will hear it, because it is a really good album.
I suggest you look up signal room too. They are an Australian band that counts among it's members 2 former farscape actors, Anthony Simcoe and Wayne Pygram, on vocals and drums respectively. It's not groundbreaking stuff, but it's pretty good for a band with actors in it, certainly considering how badly some other actors have fared.