Top of the bell curve: Visiting the Bumble Bee

In which I venture outside, extract my DNA, watch a Pope be announced and catch up on some tv

Some of what you are about to read may seem very mundane. Believe me, to me less than a week after my op it doesn't feel that way. I include it so that anyone about to go through a microdiscectomy can see what it's like. I wouldn't normally blog about walking to pubs ;)

So today I vowed to be a bit more active. So the first thing I did was sleep in until 10.30. The wound looked ok this morning. The bruising has come out a bit more, causing a colourful image.

mmm pink, yellow and purple

At lunchtime I suited up for the great outdoors. The walk from my house to the Bumble Bee pub in South Central Flitwick is 0.8 miles and it's all up hill. It is a walk that would normally take 8 minutes, and I managed it in 12. So I was rather chuffed with myself.

an unshaved scruff looking smug outside the Bumble Bee

The Bumble Bee is a rather bland characterless new-build pub in Flitwick. The only other time I have been in the Bumble Bee it was full of the local yoof, many of whom looked under 18. It is a pub that at weekends is notable for loud music and being the only pub in Flitwick with bouncers on the door. So what is it like at lunchtime on a weekday? Well it wasn't empty. Just inside the door there was a group of upper middle aged men putting the world to rights. There was a couple of early 20 something lads, a couple of young mums, and a cluster of people watching horse racing on a tv screen. There was a feel of it being a refuge for the unemployed and the unemployable. Nonetheless, all in all it wasn't an unpleasant ambience.

Not the greatest but not the worst pub in the world

I ordered my lunch and then went onto the quiz machine to set about making my trip to the Bumble Bee cost-neutral. Lo and behold, 15 mins later I had won enough for my lunch with some change left over.

Nom and indeed nom

Lunch was delicious. As much a morale booster as being out of the house. I looked out of the window and saw it had started to snow. No time to waste then. I didn't really want to have to deal with slippery pavements..So I headed home. I got back and felt surprisingly fresh. My left leg was affected badly by over a year of sciatica and on the walk to the pub I was aware that I wasn't striding as far with it as with my right. On the way back my leg felt warmed up and I felt I was walking naturally. So it was with relief, and pride that I got home unscathed from my trip out. I will repeat the trip another day.

Habemus Papem
The afternoon was overtaken with the election of the new Pope. It was one of those moments when I was grateful to be off work. I was able to digest the news as it happened and fully partake of the facebook/twitter fun. Whatever you think of the Catholic church, and I am certainly not a fan, the Pope has an incredible amount of power over people and governments. So the election of a new Pope is of global significance. What will Francis 1 be like? Well he's a humble man, and the church could do with learning humility. However, he is also a homophobe and as a Jesuit he's something of a zealot. Time will tell whether he is a reforming Pope or not. More likely we will just find out whether the Conclave elected a conservative Pope or a very conservative Pope.

Extracting my DNA
A teacher friend of mine was planning a lesson about DNA today. She asked me to test an experiment - how to extract your own DNA. Here's how it is done:

1 - Mix 3 tsp of water and 1 tsp of washing up liquid in a clear glass.
2 - Create a solution of water and salt in a separate glass. Swill it around your mouth then spit it into the glass of water/washing up liquid.
3 - Take some alcohol (I used a miniature of cheap and nasty whisky) and pour it down the side of the glass so that it sits on top of the water/washing liquid mix.
4 - Leave for 5 mins

When you come back to it you should see white whisps in the alcohol layer. That is your DNA mixed with the DNA of whatever bacteria were in your mouth. You can remove it by putting a drinking straw in and slowly winding the DNA fibres around it. I had no straw, but you can (just about) see the DNA suspended in my mix.

Boxset update
I didn't watch any of my boxsets, though late in the evening I did clear the first two episodes of Parks and Recreation from my digibox. I don't know what I feel about it. Amy Poehler was great (a classic in the mold of David Brent), and it is always wonderful to see Rashida Jones in anything. It was funny, but in the wake of The Office it just felt like 'another of those shows'. Well done, but not ground breaking. Two more episodes were recorded tonight so I will see how the series progresses. I've been told that it took off in season 2 so I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt (for as long as Rashida Jones stays in it).

So at the end of day 5: