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Nigel Scott: No more Mr Cyberman
ON Monday I was officially disconnected. No, this doesn't have anything to do with me failing to pay my utility bills.
The little plastic tube that has been my buddy since June has been surgically removed from my chest and I now feel like a proper human being again instead of feeling like some kind of quasi-cyberman (fortunately without the fancy metal bell-bottomed trousers of the Russell T Davies Doctor Who era).
They call the tube a Hickman line and I have been extremely grateful for it during my three or four months of chemotherapy.
Basically, its presence in my chest meant I could have my chemo and have blood samples taken from me without any recourse to fancy needlework.
Where once I would have had the pin cushion arms of a junkie, the miracles of modern medicine have meant that the plastic line has taken all of the strain.
Now it has gone it feels sort of strange. I had got used to it being there.
But its removal is, I suppose, another positive sign in my ongoing fight.
They move quickly at Jimmy's.
I only saw the oncologist on Friday and almost as soon as I had raised the subject of having the line removed I was booked in to the day case ward of the Bexley Wing.
On Monday afternoon I was wheeled rather dramatically down to theatre to have it removed under local anaesthetic, giving me the opportunity to wave regally at several of the nurses and other team members who I have come to know well since the summer.
Mind you, I'm not sure why I was wheeled down, lying on my back, when I could have happily jogged down under my own steam.
No doubt it has something to do with health and safety rules and the need to prevent any Frank Spencer/Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em-style trolley shenanigans.
Still it's quite nice to be wheeled around by someone else while wrapped up warmly in a blanket. It's a luxury most people only get when they're very young or very old, so I shouldn't complain.
While I'm on the subject of fighting cancer I'd just like to give a mention to my fellow front line trooper Mick Redgate, also from Normanton, who was diagnosed several years ago with bowel cancer and who I met at Jimmy's very early in my chemo regime.
Mick has not been too well lately and I just wanted to say: "Don't let your head drop, Mick.
Keep fighting like your beloved Leeds Rhinos and all those of us out there who have been hit by this frightening and frighteningly common disease.
I'm thinking of you and wishing you all the best.
If only I'd been as curious as George
I READ with extreme interest the salary figures for the Beeb's top 100 executives the other day.
The main reason was to find out whether my old classmate – George Entwistle – was among them.
I spent many a happy hour at his house – whether it be for birthday parties when we were younger or, in our later years, when we had formed a band and used his parents' front room, like ours, on alternate Wednesday or Saturday afternoons for practice.
The first time I ever went there – for his 11th birthday – I was taken aback by the fact that he called his parents by their names, rather than addressing them as mum and dad.
This wasn't long after I had left state education for private education at the then boys-only Silcoates School, Wakefield, and it seemed further confirmation that I was now living in a totally different and slightly surreal world.
Even when we were messing about with our band, George always struck me as a chap who was determined to get on in life. He had a habit, I recall, of learning a new word every day.
The school spotted his potential and he was appointed a prefect. I managed to gravitate to the position of monitor which although it carried some status wasn't quite in the same league.
Evidently that potential spotted by the school in his formative years paid off because, after a spell as deputy editor of Tomorrow's World and editor of Newsnight, he has held several major positions within the Beeb including Head and Commissioning Editor of TV Current Affairs and now the rather splendidly named Controller of Knowledge Commissioning.
So what does this position bring in terms of basic salary? Well, according to figures published in the Telegraph, it's in the region of 160,000 to 190,000.
If only I'd learned a new word every day instead of trying to master the paradiddle on my drum kit. And no, I never did master that either.
Sadness as Elsie takes her last spin
MRS S has been looking a bit glum this week because she's about to take Elsie to the knacker's yard.
Before you get yourself worked up, no, Elsie is not a horse. She's not any kind of animal, actually. She's a car.
Elsie used to belong to my mum. She – and I feel I must stick to she rather than it – is an 11-year-old Fiat Bravo which was worth practically zilch when my mum decided to swap cars a few years back.
Rather than just give her away to the car dealer, my mum opted to give her away to Mrs S and she has been happily trundling around in her ever since – as has my daughter Emily since she got her L plates.
Mrs S has always had a fondness for things that have character rather than pure good looks which, thankfully, I suppose is why she said "yes" when I asked her to marry me.
But, with cars, character only counts for so much and it was in realisation of her declining state (the car, not Mrs S) that I suggested that we should take advantage of the current vehicle scrappage scheme before Mr Brown pulls the plug on it.
At time of writing the deal has yet to be completed and Elsie has yet to be taken on her final journey.
She doesn't know she's on death row, bless her, and we've been careful not to talk about new cars within her earshot.
But, if things go to plan, yesterday Mrs S and I will have taken her for one last spin and condemned her to the indignity of a car crusher – while Mrs S will take delivery of her new Hyundai i10.
The weird thing is she seems more upset about losing Elsie than excited about getting her new car.
Hopefully she'll be happier when we think of a name for the new motor.
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
