A week and a bit ago, I managed to pull a senior moment and fell over in my kitchen after coming back from the toilet and getting upstairs back to bed. I must have still been pretty out of it when it happened (was it the onset of flu?). But luckily, I managed to catch myself and avoided smacking my head against the hard tiled surface – but I did scrape my ankle and knee pretty badly (though the majority of it has healed now). My foot swelled up the following day which meant I couldn’t walk properly – especially if it involved shoes. And to make matters worse, I came down with the flu good and proper on the Friday too. Never has so much snot emanated from a person before. So, I’ve spent the past week mostly in bed blowing my nose every 30 seconds. Thankfully all is good (well, good enough – still bit of a chesty cough) now and hopefully that’ll be the end of that.
Some observations. When I have been awake, the only TV vaguely watchable were repeats of Blankety Blank (the new Bradley Walsh version). It stopped me from going insane, though I do not recommend the show itself. All I will say is they don’t make contestants like they used to. The celebrities were fine, though.
While I was away, a parcel arrived for me at work. I got a pleasant surprise when I went back to the office this morning in the form of an enveloped marked “From the desk of Dr. Rodney McKay”. For those that are not familiar with the TV series Stargate Atlantis, this was a sci-fi show that aired between 2004-2009 and set in the Stargate universe. Actor David Hewlett played the scientific genius, Rodney McKay, who would inevitably come up with something clever to get the team out of sticky situations.
Since then, David has written and directed several films, starred in a whole variety of things (including Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water). He also takes an active interest in all things scientific and geekery and runs something called Techbandits which encourages youngsters to get involved with science and technology. I whole heartedly approve of this as this is something I wish I had when I was a teenager. We need a new generation of geeks if we’re going to be able to tackle problems of today and that of tomorrow. As such, I bought two special Stargate related coins – one for myself, and the other for an American friend whom I met through David’s old Google+ circle social media thingy/YouTube. And here it is! I’m not a number – oh yes I am – I’m 3,661.
You can find more information about Techbandits at https://www.techbandits.org.
It’s a great keepsake and I know I’m supporting a good cause.
