It never stops, this merry-go-round

7pm Sunday
Back from the North East where we've been since yesterday morning for a quick birthday party visit which seemed to be unlikely as I lay in the hospital A&E department just 48 hours previously - god bless Mr Codeine is all I have to say.

No sign at all of any kidney pain now, no sign of the "feeling the need to piss constantly" either and no sign of anything passing down the pipework that could be construed as being stone shaped either, so its on with the good Doctor Sanjays advice and drink, drink, drink, although he made it abundantly clear that by "drink" he meant water and nothing stronger or sugary-er.

Bugger.

It was (one of) my brother-in-law's birthday yesterday and my sister-in-law's birthday is next week, so they had a joint party at her house with a small but select group of friends and in the true tradition of all geordie party's it didn't finish until 5am sunday morning, much drink was consumed, laughter was the only thing heard in the house, and some cross-dressing went on as one male party-er explored his feminine side after complaining all night that certain scenes from "Brokeback Mountain" had made him feel sick earlier in the week. Several pints of Vodka and Irn Bru convinced him that the pink spangly cowboy hat would be a good start, followed by a long string of pearls, some white ladies arm-length gloves, and then a quick nip upstairs to my sister-in-laws bedroom found him be-robed in one of her little black party dresses and silver shoes, he looked lovely.

There are photos somewhere and I'm sure he's regretting drinking quite so much vodka this morning, all he could say to me at 3am this morning was "I'm not gay you know, I kept my socks on" and indeed he did, black socks in silver slingbacks, it was a good look.

It was a lot of fun made better by the fact that Mr Codeine and Dr Sanjay had insisted that I stick to the water and hence stayed sober, I was drinking from 0.5 litre bottles and by my reckoning I got through eight of them last night which meant that by the time we had travelled from the party to our hosts "holiday home" near Rothbury (a 20 minute drive) I was ready to give the toilet a good testing, and for the rest of the night too, still, no stone passed, no stone, no grit, we'll keep trying though.