I have a terrible fear of heights and rollercoasters, which is not a good one to have when one wishes to go to a Theme Park with a girlfriend who loves going on whiteknuckle rides. My fear at the age of 29 is now rather embarrasing and quite frankly probably was one of the main reasons as to why I have yet to see the world in an airplane.

In a few weeks I fly for the first time to Europe on business and I felt that I needed to overcome my chickening out of rides before Id feel remotely comfortable in a plane. We went to M&D’s at Strathclyde Country Park today.

After a few scenes of sheer amatuer dramatics and diva like paranoia - I went on The Big Wheel and my caring girlfriend constantly reassured me about 30 feet up that I wasnt going to fall out.. I ended up overcoming my fear of heights by doing this the hard way.. Initially I felt ill and also that some poor passer by below would end up with chocolate sauce on their ice cream cone..

Thankfully that never happened and I actually enjoyed the experience.

More dramatics ensued plus a reciting of The Lord Is My Shepherd, we experienced the rollercoaster and also my screaming..

Im a daredevil now but I have to do the diva stuff before I go on rides in the future.

So how can I stop being a diva?

I usually get the taxi to the day job every morning because I hate waiting for buses in the morning. Yes the bus is cheaper but waiting is annoying.

Usually taxi drivers have breakfast radio blaring away in the background. Unfortunatly I always end up concentrating on listening to it, usually Scottish Radio Stations.

Id rather listen to silence and the taxi driver farting or my stomach rumbling than the crap the Scots ear has to pick up when these programmes are on. The music they play is bearable. Its the banter thats not.

The radio show has a zany presenter and a female ‘ sidekick’ who laughs at everything or tries to counterpoint the presenter’s zaniness and fake early morn energy by adding her own ‘ funnies ‘

Turn the dial and the same set up is on the other station..

Can we have test card music instead? Or in my 29th year am I becoming grumpy in the morning?

Lack of blogging.

Im not dead, Ive been doing other things but I have so much to tell but so little time.. This wont always be the case but right now life is grand..

I will be back shortly!

Went to work on Friday. An hour later I was made redundant!!

Well, I wont go into the details as this is not a work blog and work blogs can get one into all sorts of trouble.

I see it as a challenge and a blessing in disguise. My phone hasnt stopped ringing with offers of interviews and chats. Some are potentially interesting. In the short term I actually miss being out of work, and I never thought I would say that because I have a had a period of unemployment which was dominated by watching enjoyable programmes such as Quincy, Ironside & Diagnosis Murder. The rot set in when Murder She Wrote was their replacement and I knew that it was time to enter the world of work.

Watching TV whilst redundant is not as fun as my classic period of unemployment TV. If the BBC bring back repeats of Quincy then I may be unemployed for quite some time….

On second thoughts, thats no longer an option. Too much good things in life going on which requires a wage. Goverment signwriting no longer matches my expectations..

This evening, I looked back on some posts from late 2005 until the start of 2006. What I experienced is well documented. On the eve of the first aniversary of losing a parent - no.. losing a stupid parent I can look back at the dark times I faced, the challenges and brick walls that had to be overcome.

At the time there were one or two, or three challenges that I thought were going to impossible to successfully accomplish. Thankfully I did and I feel a better person for it.

My anger towards my mother and her reluctance to seek medical help for her breast troubles has now dissapeared over the last few months. Allthough I will forever class her as a stupid cow ( yes strong words ) there is no point at being directing anger towards the person she was, and now the remains of that person six feet under.

If this blog, or my experience can help frightened or stubborn women go and see their GP for a checkup then documenting my experiences would be all more the worthwhile. There are probably about 1000 versions of my mother out there, sitting right now with their family, not uttering a word to their offspring or Doctor.

Things are good and have been good for quite some time. 2007 has started well for me and for my family. Tommorow will be difficult yes, but out of every bad experience, there is always a greater good to come out of it and in my case it has been proven.