Day One

Well, I've come back to York.

And importantly, went to the hospital this morning for a hearing aid fitting. Firstly, aren't hospitals big places?? Secondly, upon the fitting and leaving the soundproof room - it's was WEIRD!! These new hearing aids are six years more advanced than my old ones. And as important, they're also brand new. I don't know quite what I was expecting from them, but everything is radically different already. Don't forget, I lost my hearing when I was 17-18, and that was a good 15 years ago. Suddenly - yet again - I have to adapt to noises I haven't heard in all that time. Apparently, it's going to take a month or two to adapt to the new aids, but the good news is that they will be a lot better.

I am hearing so much more. There are now sounds within sounds, if that's the best way to describe something so subjective. I'm not hearing much that I didn't hear before, but all these sounds are suddenly more complex, and more rich/lilting. When I left the hospital and was out in the street, I was pretty disoriented as I was hearing more traffic noises than I have in years. It was confusing and hard to judge what was what and where it was coming from. But I'm going to get better and better. Plus, these things have a Mode 2 for noisy environments. Note to self: must try the pub tonight. ;-)

Commonalities

Definately a football-less Blog today as I'm being drained by the stress of the whole thing. I wonder what it'll be like if you were actually *playing*? Anyway, it's a lovely sunny day. I'm beginning to figure out the nuances of my new mobile phone, and it's pay day soon!!

Today, I'm reading journals about chronic pain. *Cheery stuff!* Or more accurately, about cold pressor tasks. Those ones where you have to keep your hand in a bucket of cold water (0.5c) for as long as you can, while pain tolerance (in seconds) and pain intensity (on some sort of scale) are measured. It's not quite my area, but I'm looking for a journal or a paper that supports the arguement in mine: simply that while a task can distract you from the feeling of pain (read: tinnitus), it works both ways - that pain (read: tinnitus) can distract you from the task at hand. And pain is linked very strongly and has many commonalities with tinnitus. It sounds obvious - but without a reference, I can't say it in my paper. :-(

England 1 - Ecuador 0

Oh my giddy aunt...

What is it about England matches? You look forward to them (as I did) and then once they're about to start, you dread them (like I did). I think The Times summed it up best:

"Without Beckham's strike, England would have gone out, and the World Cup would have been written off as a disaster. With it, England go lurching on, like the clown car at the circus, with elliptical wheels, lopsided frame, and a tendancy to shed bits of itself with loud explosions as it keeps on going."

Stolen toffee apples

I know it's the next England match tonight (verses Sweden - 8pm), but I thought I'd leave the football talk until the great victory/horrible defeat aftermath tomorrow. Sally was in Hull this weekend rather than me heading over to Huddersfield, so we went to Beverley for the heck of it. We also saw "The Omen". Quite good actually. It stays loyal to the original, and as you'd expect from the director of one of the Final Destination films, there are some *unlikely* deaths. But fair's fair - the little boy was rubbish. I mean, there I was, fervently trying imerse myself in the story and believe that this kid was the Anti-Christ, and he was being played by a young boy looking like someone had taken away his toffee apple. Couldn't take him very seriously, and Sally kept giggling whenever he glared at anyone. Still, very slick production and worth a laugh/fright.

Oh bugger. My printer (office) is out of ink again.

England 2 - Trinidad and Tobago 0

Oh, that game was awful.

I think England can lay claim to be the worst team to have won every game in the tournament so far. We may have qualified, but unless we get better, we're going home early!!

I'm also badly hungover. :-)

27 degrees and rising

Apparently, for every degree over 27 celsius, the number of incidents of violence doubles. It's not quite the same, and I certainly didn't attack anyone, but I was extremely hacked off with O2 (the mobile phone company) yesterday. After three years of decent service, I asked them for a PAC yesterday - not sure of, and not particularly bothered by what it stands for ;-) - in order to take my mobile number with me now that I'm transferring to Orange. Well, looks like the Call Centre people are under instructions to keep business through the hard sell. First of all, the guy wouldn't accept that I wanted to change firm. Secondly, he wouldn't accept that I wanted an older phone (a Nokia 8622 which is the upgraded version of my old and now fading phone) on the grounds that it was an older mobile. That may be Sunshine, but it's a *new* older phone and works just like my last one, save that it has a camera. He then started going on about how I should wait for the next new model coming out in a few months, though he couldn't give me a date. No, I said, I want to change now. He also asked about the deal I would be getting (roughly the same as the one I'm on now). He said I could have 750mins of talktime per month for £30. I said I'm deaf and can't use a mobile to speak on. He says he'll give me 750 texts per month for the same - I currently pay £25 for 600. I said I don't need the extra texts, if anything , I want to waste less money. I may have misheard but he then offered me the same deal for £5 less. (a) That's insulting as he was treating me like a gullible idiot a few seconds before and because I wasn't having any of it, he was now attempting to get on my good side; and (b) he wasn't grasping the whole "I want a phone; you don't stock it; therefore I'm leaving" angle. Lots of too-ing ang fro-ing, the long and short of it being that I had to spend 35mins on this phone call, mainly on hold as he sought advice at his end on ways to make me stay *while I was sat in the sweltering heat of my office*, with him treating me like a wally for not wanting a brand new, top of the line phone with gadgets and flashing lights that I didn't want. All to get that code number so I could happily leave. Note: no address on their website or way of contacting them to leave an O2 contract so you have to put up with this crap.

Quite frankly, I'll never use O2 again. They suck.

Rant off. :-)

Australia 3 Japan 1; Hull *too warm*

Ouch. I was lucky enough to catch the last 30mins of this game on one of the big lecture theatre projectors. We were erm... testing it. Japan played well, I think, but lost out. With ten minutes to go, they were 1-0 up. Elsewhere, it's *hot* today. My office is roasting - so a good excuse to go test the projector. Caught the slightest edge of a rainstorm in Huddersfield early this morning, but once on the train, no sign of it. On a random website:

Hull: Partly Cloudy; 28°C; Feels Like 30°C

Feels like 30°C?? - that's humidity, I'm guessing? Tonight - a thunderstorm. :-)

Double take

Dear me, I almost completely mis-read a sign this morning. It was a local newspaper board outside a nearby newsagents. The sign read: Jobs blow for Jackson's staff.

Strike Over - back to normal again

Yay, the lecturer strike is over. The AUT (soon to be the UCU) has decided to ballot it's members on a 13.1% increase.

The increases agreed as a result of these negotiations are as follows:

* August 2006 greater of 3% or £515
* February 2007 1%
* August 2007 3%
* May 2008 greater of 3% or £420
* October 2008 greater of 2.5% or RPI (as at September 2008)

Always thought it would be. I mean, who'd notice lecturers being on strike in the Summer? :-)

So what are our chances?

The World Cup is getting nearer and nearer. And as such, I've discovered another advantage to being a Teaching Fellow at a University. Our HoD (Head of Dept) is a sporty man, and as should, has asked (ordered?) the technicians to link the lecture room projectors to the TV for the football to come. Nice one.

The papers today are full of Wayne Rooney, or rather, news of his rapidly healing foot. The Mail calls it a "Metatarsal Miracle". For some reason I'm actually starting to believe we can win - but I think that's more an effect of reading it/being told it by others. But it'll be a hard slog even if we do. And even though we beat Jamaica 6-0 on Saturday, we can't take too much to heart. In all fairness, Jamaica weren't all that good. We may have fired six goals past them, but they're a team so disorganised, their management could only rustle up three clean towels for their last friendly - and Sven and Co. seem to think they're now masters of Planet Football. [Alex may have read the same article as me as we're both Daily Mail readers]. Still, we have faith - faith being the voice in your head telling you to listen to the voice in your head. :-)

Surnames

There's an article in my newspaper today about surnames, or rather, about distribution of surnames. Have a look here to see where people with your surname live (in the UK). If you have a look at "Jackson", you'll see we're mainly gathered in Yorkshire (and the NW). Sounds about right - even though most of my father's family is down in Nottingham these days. Apparently, there are 102,037 Jacksons in the UK - or there were in 1998. However, I can get round that by saying that my name is "popular", not "common"! There are (or again, were) 559 men out there with Jackson as their forename. As a first name, rather posh, it seems. Pointless research? Possibly, but it's an excuse to look at maps. I like looking at maps...

PS. Hugo wins, Sally. There are only 446 of you out there. Watch yourself though. We outnumber you 229-to-1. ;-)