Kneely there...

So, i'm going snowboarding on friday! Awesome! Problem is my knee has recently messed up a bit. I can still walk/run/jump/skip (which i really like doing btw) and generally be active. It's when i keep it bent for a while and straighten it that causes a problem and indeed, severe pain. I was a bit worried about the prospect of not being able to hit the slopes, as you'd imagine, but am gonna go for it.
Now, i don't have a grand delusion that any of you out there would find my health remotely interesting, but i wanted to write about this as today i had a bit of a realisation, or perhaps more accurately, an awakened appreciation of something which i guess i never really think about - our (uk) health system. I have a knee complaint. I can still do stuff as mentioned and my main concern is that i might not be able to go snowboarding. The timeline of my nhs dealing goes like this:
I first went to my GP on 27th Jan. He referred me and i got an appointment with a consultant today - 2 weeks later. I was xrayed and assessed and have been booked in for an mri scan on thursday... Pretty damn quick and thorough i thought and I couldn't help feeling not only grateful, but overwhelmingly privilaged that i live in a country where this can happen. Now i don't want to make sweeping statements about anything and open myself up to people explaining where they've been let down etc, but this is my experience and i feel very lucky to have it.
Having been to third world countries i am always very aware and consider the things that i have that others don't, from my lovely new macbook pro i use to make music, down to having food on my plate. These two are so far apart - my macbook, though it is for work, is a luxury. Food on my plate, i take for granted, in fact it is inconceivable that i would ever go hungry. Likewise i expect there to be a system in place if i hurt my knee, let alone have a life threatening illness/injury. It's just crazy to think of the amount of people in this same world that don't.

Now i don't want to go into how i think the world should change, but i think it's really important to take the time to consider how lucky some of us are to have systems in place to support us when we need help compared to other people. I certainly do.
x

New Year, New Blog!

Well here we go. So far i have avoided the task of spending time each day penning my recent activities/thoughts/new jokes i've heard/general updates etc in blog form. It's always seemed a daunting task, not only to find the time to do it, but to actually write something that anyone would find interesting! Well after using these reasons as excuses to excercise a little blog laziness, i'm gonna give it a go.
And it starts here - 2nd Feb, 2009. I imagine anyone reading this will have some idea of my career so far - started 4 years ago, is still going now... stuff has happened in between... but this is now and blogs are updates of what's new, not old so i'll miss the 'how this moment came to be' and focus on what this moment is bringing.
Right now i'm sat at my desk, writing on my new macbook pro - the hub of my home recording studio and sexiest electrical device in my room. I've been working on music all evening, i'll tell all about what soon enough.
So, this week in the life of THePETEBOX? I started off working on new songs with my band - SWIMMInG// we're making a demo for the new album, although the old album hasn't been released yet... one thing i'm learning in this business - patience. I then did my first show of the year at a venue called Gilgamesh in Camden. The event was a party for the world's online gambling community as London played host to an online gaming trade show all last week. It was pretty cool - i was providing the musical entertainment alongside a dj, while a few other folks had a harder task in their role - a sword swallower, a dancer whose partner is a snake! and some generally skillfull cabaret performers dancing/stilt walking/girls looking hot type business.
My show went down a treat despite the sound being pretty bad n i met some cool characters, my favourite of which was a chap called Yishai Habari, very cool guy.
So that was it, the start of my years gigs. I had a day off to watch my bro conduct an orchestra (how cool is that!) and spend the day at the London Dungeons (again, very cool) then was off to Norwich for a show at Media with the awesome club night Sub:Bass Invaders. The place was hotting up from the heavy sounds of the other dj's dropping dubstep n DnB, then i did my thing n got down to some partying!
Sunday's are always pretty 'slow' after a show. Residue of booze still floats about the brain n the throat is always a bit gruff (due to booze rather than the beatboxing) and it's usually spent travelling back from the show destination.
So onto this week - more work on the Swimming demo, some meetings with some folks n seeing what the days will bring.
So there it is - my first blog. Kinda feels like i'm writing to noone at the moment, gotta work out how you actually get people to read this! Hopefully you will be doing n i look forward sharing my doings and musings with y'all.