Nee Nor Nee Nor

Yesterday was a bit of a scary day for me.... please don't ready unless you are ok with

After a night of coughing, scary sneezes and little sleep, I decided that I would stay at home and try to rest it off. It was all going to plan until I sat down on the sofa with soup and toast in hand... suddenly I started coughing, and I couldn't breathe. It felt like there was something stuck in my throat and I just couldn't shift it. I kept trying to cough, then breathe... cough then breathe... but I just couldn't get any air in my lungs.

After about 30 seconds I started to panic and jumped up and down - I really didn't know what to do at all. Another 30 seconds and I'd started to get a bit dizzy and my vision was going a bit funny, i was SO worried and didn't have a clue how to help myself... should I go next door and try to ask for help? Should I ring 999, should I ring Ang? What should I do?

Thankfully, after another 15 seconds I was able to inhale a short breath. It wasn't much, but enough to know I was heading in the right direction. I kept trying to inhale, it was hard at first, but slowly the breaths were getting longer and I was getting enough oxygen into my lungs. After a few seconds of breathing I rang Ang to let her know what had happened and to let her know that I was going to go the the hospital ASAP....

... anyway, a mate from work took me to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, and all the way along the journey I was petrified that it was going to happen again. I had started shaking (probably mild shock) and was sweating like a sweaty thing!

My lovely wife, Ang, met me at the A&E department and within a few minutes they were taking my pulse and making sure that I wasn't getting worse. I was then met the doctor who sent me to have a couple of chest x-rays to make sure that I didn't have a collapsed lung... luckily, the results came back ok and there was nothing too drastically wrong with me, so the Doctor told me to book an appointment with my GP as there was nothing they could do at A&E for me.

Huh? Nothing they could do? I'd almost died, and a few hours later they were sending me away from hospital!? Well, I accepted what the doctor said, and prayed that I would be ok until I saw the doctor today.

Thankfully I'd booked the doctors appointment on Monday for today, so popped in before 9 this morning. Having talked to the doctor, it turns out that I have a swollen windpipe and an over active mucus (sp?) gland. Anyway, the choking I experienced yesterday was because the mucus got stuck in the wind pipe... nice hey? Also, my scary sneezes are actually a diaphragm spasm - where the muscle just refuses to work for a few seconds because it is exhausted of me sneezing!! So, I've now got to take an inhaler for the next 2 months which will hopefully clear things up and reduce the swelling.

I'm so glad that I now know what is wrong with me. My scary sneezes really were scary, and as for my choking episode yesterday... where do I start?! Let just hope that the inhaler does the job!

Cough Cough

Poor ickle me... i've had a chesty cough now for over a month and its not getting much better. I have a doctors appointment on Thursday so hopefully I will know what i've got. I've been on the NHS direct self diagnosis website and it reckons i've either got Asthma (hmmm... not had that before) or a chest infection. Either way - it doesn't sound good!!

I've also have what i've called "Scary Sneeazes" which are basically sneezes but scarily I can't breath for 5-20 seconds afterwards! Not good hey?! Luckily i only have a few scary sneeazes a day, so I am coping at the moment!!

2Mbps Broadband for Al (and Ang)

Only4 months ago I was regularly moaning about the fact I could only get a dial up connection in my little village... well, now I have a whopping 2Mbps connection steaming into my house, which is nearly 40x faster than my previous connection! Yipee! Just to prove it, have a look at the screen shot from my broadband router...

Tennis in the Sky

I saw these amazing pics of a helipad that had been transformed into a tennis court on a hotel in Dubai!!

The link to the whole story is here.

Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played tennis with these fantastic views on top of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai!! The hotel is built on a man made island, and considers itself a 7-star hotel!

My Phone History

Being the techy that I am, and feeling rather nostalgic today - I decided to create a montage of my mobile phone history. So here it is...

All phones have been wonderful except the Ericsson T68 - which was awful! It was so slow to do anything - but techy wise, was well ahead of the field.

The best phone in there? Well that would be the latest, my Orange C500. Not only can it play a complete film, sync with Outlook, play MP3s, check email, and of course, make phonecalls... but when combined with a bluetooth GPS unit, it acts a satellite navigation system in my car! There really is no end to the talents of this little phone!

The C500 paired with TomTom Mobile GPS satellite navigation system.

Big Jon Gets Married

One of my best mates from university got married this weekend - Mr Jon Robinson. He married the lovely red head, Rachel Joyce whom he met when she was living in the flat underneath his! It was a really good day and we caught up with loads of friends from Uni.

The best bit was just to see how much Jon & Rachel have fallen for each other! It was a soppy day, and I'm sure they will have a very happy marriage together in the future... and God will use them in amazing ways.

I am sure I will put pictures on our main website soon, so watch this space!

Update: Just loaded the pics of Jon & Rachel's wedding on to my main website. Click here to be taken straight there.