He has use of a tripod base walking stick, this enables him to walk slowly. I recall him saying that he would walk again during my first visit to him on the stroke ward; Promise fulfilled. He needs someone to walk beside him on his left hand side in case he loses his balance. He manages small distances, from room to room, and in terms of ( Read more... )

My current pc has come back from warranty repairs; The motherboard was at fault two times in a row. Each repair cycle took 7-10 days for the pc to be shipped off, fixed and then returned. I've been spending some time with the old pc and its games. I played a bit of Galactic Civilisations and I thought that I would see how Medieval Total War 2 ran ( Read more... )

What I am listening to ( Read more... )

He went into hospital late August and returned home mid October through the process of early stroke discharge. Blue and yellow coloured ambulances are for while green and silver are for transport. He is in the dining room which has been converted into a bedroom, all the equipment he might need was supplied in good time for his arrival. A bed that ( Read more... )

My Father had a stroke in late August and was rushed to Solihull Hospital. He was declared medically fit and able to discharged back home in early October. The stroke affected the left hand side of his body, paralysing his face and limbs. It took about 2-3 weeks for him to regain full control of the left of his face, he used to keep a constant ( Read more... )

The past week has seen commentators reflecting on the death of Northern Rock in Sept 2007 and Lehman Brothers in Sept 2008. The govt on behalf of the nation asked taxpayers to bail out everyone with money in the bank. The sums involved were astronomical but they would be paid back over time. In addition to this, interest rates were slashed to zero ( Read more... )

Guardian News & Media, Publisher of the Guardian paper, published their annual results this week. They lost £75million this year. This prompted the Economist to answer the perennial question, Can the Guardian Survive?. It has been an extraordinary year with phone hacking story as a standout but a few years of losses on this scale and the paper will ( Read more... )

Ken Hite and Robin D Laws are games designers. At a Dragonmeet seminar they mentioned they were planning a podcast, Ken and Robin talk about Stuff. It's arrived and is highly entertaining. Covering Games design, culture and anything that comes into their heads this promises to be a great show.

Starting at the centre of world affairs, America. ( Read more )

There is a report on the Register about Natwest's banking problems. Read the comments, the site allows anonymous posting under the name of 'Anonymous Coward' and it seems that a few RBS/Natwest IT staff who have been outsourced are commenting. Apparently the Management at RBS/Natwest couldn't see this coming ( Read more... )