David Currie

I gave Paul’s original article a plug back in August however the second article in his series on JMS connection pooling with WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ is another mine of deep technical information so is worth another mention. The piece on surge protection in particular was new to me.

Well, the dressings came off today so I am now able to admire the surgeons’ handiwork: two horizontal incisions less than a centimetre long on my waistline and a third two centimetre cut disappearing vertically in to my bellybutton. The former are very neat and pale into insignificance against injuries I’ve inflicted on myself whilst orienteering! The latter is slightly swollen and very painful to the touch. The nurse confirmed my suspicion that the sore patch at the top of my chest is probably just where someone was leaning! Most annoying at the moment is the sore throat from the ET tube. This a) causes me to cough making my stomach hurt and b) means I keep losing my voice. Still, it all sounds like it definitely needed doing: over her shoulder I could ready delightful phrases like “purulent exudate” and “gangrenous appendix and peritonitis” from my notes. Don’t Google those if you are squeamish!

Perhaps just as well Christine and Emma didn’t venture out very far this morning: Two robbers shot dead in failed bank raid. Explains all the sirens and helicopter noise around here though. The most common quote I’ve seen seems to be along the lines of: “you wouldn’t think this would happen in a place like Chandler’s Ford”. Isn’t that the point?!

Well, I needn’t have worried about the bad back stopping me running as by Sunday morning I something entirely different to think about: a sore stomach and vomiting. By late afternoon this was sufficient severe that we gave NHS Direct a call. This eventually resulted in my seeing an out-of-hours doctor at Winchester Hospital. His diagnosis was a stomach bug and he sent me away to drink lots of fluids.
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After taking in to account the suggestions received and spending far too long staring at a huge selection in the hardware store, I ended up going with the mouse poison. As the guy at the checkout kindly reminded me, I’d selected the option to give the intended recipient the most pain and suffering! I needn’t have worried about hunting down decaying bodies though. The poor wee beastie had cleaned out the tray and was lying in-situ, on its back, with its feet in the air. After a suitable burial (not easy finding an empty spot in our garden) the poison tray was refilled and, I’m glad to say, remains undisturbed.

351No – no baby yet. These tiny feet are entirely unwelcome and were heard scampering around the loft last night. I poked my head up there and shone a torch around and could only make out what appears to be a wasp nest. Fortunately that looks to be unused. No sign of any rodent activity. Now the moral dilemma – should I get an old fashioned spring-loaded mouse trap or something to keep the wee beasty alive? To be honest, I’m not worried about killing the mouse, it’s clearing up afterwards that bothers me! Browsing around, it’s interesting to read that house mice are unlikely to survive when released in to the wild anyway. I was amused by this article on an award by PETA to the inventor of a “humane mouse trap” (where “humane” means they get gassed rather than having their necks broken.)

Chris has previously blogged on the phenomenon that is Freecyle but I hadn’t appreciated just how big it was. I signed up this weekend looking to pass on our old breadmaker and the Southampton list has over 5500 members. It therefore probably isn’t surprising that in less than twelve hours I’ve had eight responses and it had been collected within three. Anyway, the point of this post was to advertise the fact that, as of today, there is now a separate list for Eastleigh. As this is probably the list I’ll use in future (and cross-posting is forbidden) then it’s in my interest to ensure it has lots of people on it!

As Christine has already blogged, our free entertainment during washing up ceased yesterday when the blackbirds in our garden left their nest. I was pleased to read on the RSPB site that the young do make this strange dash from the nest along the ground although heading under the fence in the direction of the neighbourhood cat may not have been the wisest choice! Apparently blackbirds rear 2-3 broods a season so with any luck the nest may get used again.