How to find true love and happiness in the present day

Flying was brilliant and I've already booked some actual lessons. London was interesting though it's a different world, it'd be nicer populated with northern people. Everyone's in a rush with nowhere to really go. Off to Dundee and Edinburgh to stay at some nice hotels and do touristy shit with a friend next month. I'm also reliving my childhood through the panini world cup sticker album and it's pretty great.

I've currently got a slipped disc due to my triumphant return to football and now have shooting pains and tingles down both arms intermittently. It's causing a massive loss of sleep and I've had about 5 hours in the past 40 or so. I was off work on Thursday due to not sleeping at all Wednesday night and on my return to work interview "your absence rate is 26%, we try to keep it at around 3". Whoops!

Apart from the continuing pains and lack of sleep everything is pretty swell still.

Now for some glorious photos because, why not?

meeting a friendly northern racist fella in the hotel bar at 2am in the morning

This was brilliant, the set for the definitely maybe album cover

SUPER MIKE

my first stadium, what a terrible stick

Even graffiti in London is poncy

Inside wemberlee when we were wrecking shit

Me and my old man drinking in an aldi carpark outside wembley #yolo

I swear I don't usually take photos of everything. I've no idea how this happened, I was very drunk for a lot of the weekend.

The burden of being wonderful.

After having chest pains for 3 days continuously, sometimes being unbearably painful, coupled with feeling dizzy a lot of the time I was pretty sure that I was having heart/lung problems. Last Wednesday I decided to go to the doctors and tell them about them. I had my blood pressure took, blood oxygen levels, heart beat monitored etc and she said my ticker was fine. Then I had my breathing checked and she said my lungs were fine too as far as she was concerned. She told me that tablets I'd been taking recently had probably exacerbated other problems in my stomach. I was referred to go to the hospital and set a date for what is now tomorrow.. I was also prescribed with antacids which she said would help with the heartburn/chest pains. I don't know the extent of what's up and I was reassured it most likely wouldn't be anything serious, and just inflamed stomach lining or something along the lines.

Anyway, the news has MASSIVELY improved my mood and all round outlook on life. It's amazing how much better you feel when you've had a weight lifted off you. I spent weeks/months really fearing for my heart and health, often leading to panic attacks and it didn't help my anxiety. I've not really been bothered by anything recently and feel invincible as of late. Seemingly unrelated to other stuff it's really helped me with understanding about myself too and let me get on with my life working out what I want to do, not doing stuff to try and influence the judgement of others.

I've got a lot of stuff off my mind. I've really found myself not caring about the thoughts of others, not doing stuff to impress others, or through bitterness and anger. I've got a lot of exciting things coming to look forward to too. It's nice to finally enjoy life.

I'm going to London this weekend to watch the football, and by sheer luck there's an early years Oasis exhibition on in Hackney that I'm going to go to on the Saturday. If I've got time I'd quite like to see all touristy stuff too as I haven't done that since I was young. I've also got a job interview with an IT marketing firm. I'm not too interested in the job because they expect far too much for what they pay, but it'll be good to practice interview technique.

I've also booked my first flying lesson. Well, it's more of a 'taster' lesson. After a ground briefing and explanation you get into the plane with a pilot. Once a pilot gets you airborne you can take the controls for 30 minutes and get to fly a small prop plane. Despite a fear of flying, I've always been interested in the technical side of aviation. I think it's something to do now while I'm feeling positive. It might help me with commercial flying too, in the sense I will be happier to fly, meaning that I can travel a lot easier and happier.

I've recently discovered Steel Panther. They're a glam-rock parody with great lyrics. It's a shame I'm a month too late because they did a UK tour in March. Oh well, maybe next time.