Ouch!
Played football last night and managed to catch a really painful blow to my back. It was unfortunate and completely accidental, that didn't make the pain any less though. For a split second, some bad memories came flooding back. About 4 years ago, whilst playing on The Downs, I was (unusually for me) involved in a mid air collision, and landed on my neck, knocking 3 vertebrae out of alignment in the process. The next few weeks were pretty dreadful, the next morning I remember sitting on the bed, not quite believing that suddenly, I was unable to reach my feet, in order to put my socks on. I then went through a phase of trying all sorts of remedies, whilst lying of the sofa downstairs. Hot packs, cold packs, pain killers, alcohol, the mind numbing qualities of daytime and very late night TV all made a gradual impression. Then it was off to see various doctors, a chiropractor and eventually an acupuncturist before things finally got back to normal. Three weeks later I was back at work. I guess that in all these years of playing sport, I've been pretty lucky, I've never broken any bones, unlike my good friend Jon Collins, who has taken bone breaking to a level, where we now consider it to be his work as a performance artist.

One of the summer highlights in Bristol is the Ashton Court festival. A 2 day music festival featuring (mainly local) bands, DJ's, Jazz and classical performers, plus an array food and normal festival fare. It's a great thing, virtually free to get it (I think it was £3 per day last year), it's a chance to see bands, catch up with some friends and eat some great jerk chicken in a relaxed environment. The line up's are being confirmed now and I'm delighted to hear the one of the headline acts will be MCKAY who I mentioned here a little while ago. It's also rumoured that the former lead singer with probably the biggest rock band of the 1970's will be performing. Not really my cup of tea, but quite a coup for the people behind the festival. No doubt many people will think that they are on a stairway to heaven!