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If we had but world enough and time...

Happy Dave Has Left

13:13 / 10.05.06

I'm getting my tonsils lopped out. Two weeks bed/flat-bound, then two weeks recovery. What should I do (aside from reading books, watching DVDs and playing xBox) so I don't go nuts with boredom?

Rest assured I'll be reading a lot o' Lith, but any other suggestions are welcome.

13:16 / 10.05.06

Crosswords? Build a model aeroplane? Take up knitting!

I think making something is probably a good idea as it'll keep your attention. Learn to whittle? Write a short story?

13:25 / 10.05.06

Construct a simple flail with a pair of anti-embolism socks (if your operation didn't require you to wear anti-embolism socks a normal pair will do) and some marbles. Set up a system of different points gained upon hitting get well soon cards. Smallest=10, Largest=1. Place them at different point in the room.

Or else just read through Barbelith's thread archive.

Or..or...or...catch up on written correspondance! Letters are the best!

13:27 / 10.05.06

I don't know what sort of shape you will be in as you convalesce, but I know I would go a little stir crazy and probably wouldn't sleep very well unless I did some form of exercise.

Forgive my ignorance Dave, but I'm rather surprised to hear that a tonsillectomy means a 4 week recovery. They're not removing a leg while they're at it are they?

Happy Dave Has Left

13:42 / 10.05.06

William, it's a two week minimum to minimise risk of infection , as I'm losing one of my body's main defences. Plus I've been getting pretty nasty bouts of tonsilitis every 3 or 4 weeks for the last three months, so all in all I'm a bit screwed. Work said, take some time off and come back properly well. I said, yes I will.

Great ideas so far!

14:18 / 10.05.06

Do you have Sky? The first test of the cricket season starts tomorrow ...

Other than that, I suggest jigsaw puzzles. Or learning a language. There are lots of good websites for you to learn a basic understanding of a language in a few weeks.

Spyder Todd 2008

14:25 / 10.05.06

Design a mind control device and enslave the nations of man from your bedroom?

14:29 / 10.05.06

Ah, I see, Dave. I hadn't realised that tonsils were such a big deal, and thought they were vestigial like appendices. You take care of yourself, you poor lamb. And if you don't have Sky you can, like I will be doing this year, listen to the cricket on the radio.

14:43 / 10.05.06

Learn Go. It's the best game ever, and you can buy books which have set probelms which you can then solve.

Happy Dave Has Left

14:55 / 10.05.06

No offense cricket fans, but it ain't really my bag - the learning a language thing is a definite possibility, I have a language coarse in Spanish on CD that my brother did - he now speaks it fluently, and says it was a really good starter. Hmm, picking holiday destinations for next year already - arriba!

15:00 / 10.05.06

maybe this is the perfect time to get into the cricket. You don't know you love it until you try it.

15:06 / 10.05.06

Some people just know, Jub.

15:17 / 10.05.06

You're sitting there on the internet, asking us what you can do for 2 weeks?

It's the internet. Free streaming radio of all the major stations, streaming newscasts, flash animation, bulletin boards, online games, every porn-fetish imaginable, blogs, puzzles, games of Mafia, Wiki pages, Project Gutenberg, music, art, activism, the list goes on.

How can you get bored...?

All Acting Regiment

15:22 / 10.05.06

Last time I was stuck in hospital I found myself in a bed next to that of an old guy who smelled strongly of carbolic and/or biscuits and who I was at first terrified of. However, he showed me something very valuable: that in a difficult situation, recreating famous civil war battles with plastic miniatures (bits of lichen for bushes, bless) can be highly relaxing- especially if pressed into it seemingly on pain of death. I put the little guys on the horses and passed them to him, sort of like a production line. I think he valued me as a worker. I hope he finished his diorama.

Happy Dave Has Left

17:11 / 10.05.06

Awesome, I love model soldiers!

Shrug, you're sooo right. I just knew. Plus, I'm Scottish. It's never sunny enough up there.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:24 / 10.05.06

I have to say, HD, I hate cricket too- but on the radio it's wicked. THEY NEVER TALK ABOUT CRICKET!!! It's great. They get a bunch of people on, they all talk about all maner of shit, and every now and then someone says "oh, that was good". Other than that, there's NO CRICKET WHATSOEVER!!!

I caught a great Hugh Cornwell interview in the middle of Radio 4's longwave cricket coverage a while back.

Seriously. It's like my safe haven. It's the one place in the world I can be almost guaranteed not to hear about sport.

Get yourself a couple of box sets of TV series you never watched. Even if they didn't appeal to you, a couple of episodes in you'll probably be hooked.

Happy Dave Has Left

17:33 / 10.05.06

Stoatie, that sounds fabulous! I shall dig out my transistor radio and retire to the garden (if I had a garden).

I'm also considering getting something like 24 as I feel like a social pariah for not having seen any of it. Although I think the constant cliffhangers might annoy me.

04:34 / 11.05.06

a month from tonsils?? i had mine out at twenty and was told it would be an ordeal. my SO of the time came in mid next morning (after a late pm op) and found me on the end of my bed, chatting to the bloke across the way and having had - through demanding - mince on toast for breakfast.

and watch out, they promise jelly in the ads, as a kid is all you hear - ice cream and jelly, yum. but i got no jelly. was i mad!

you sure you gone be out of action so long? good luck, read a lot or write a prize winning short story...

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

05:03 / 11.05.06

Back when I had mono and couldn't go to work for a few weeks I dedicated myself to watching Bill Murray movies.

When that gets old, you could log onto Youtube and watch Kage Kara Mamoru, a japanese animation which proves that true love can exist between a ninja and a 16-year-old with obvious cognitive retardation. Heart-warming. Absolutely heart-warming.

Or you start drinking heavily. You know, get big into whiskey or scotch or something. Don't know if you're in the states, but right now at this very second I'm all about some Knob Creek bourbon.

10:58 / 11.05.06

Dave, learn to use BitTorrent and sign up for UKNova. There's a huge amount of classic Doctor who on there at the moment.
Make a photo diary on Fickr of people passing your house each day.
I recommend Farscape as something to try and work your way through if you can find it.
Read some Neal Stephenson.
Learn an instrument.

Oh, and don't forget to stock up on porn before you have the operation.

23:49 / 12.05.06

Ah, I thought that last suggestion of cube's was what Tuna Ghost meant by his reference to Knob Creek. I see I was mistaken.

Jack off gently though. You're an invalid, remember.

You'll get some cracking DVD sets of tv series off Amazon dirt cheap. Just had a ball watching all of The Lakes I & II with John Sim and Holding On with David Morrissey. Hours, nay days, of pleasure. Had missed both on tv.

Lots of excellent recommendations too in the Books Forum, particularly in Flowers' 2006: What Are You Currently Reading thread and its ancestors, as long as posters have actually said a few words about why you should give the book they namecheck a try.

A friend of mine was immobilised in plaster a while back and I bought him a tapestry kit. I wouldn't have the patience and I doubted he would either but he got so addicted he's still stitiching away on his mobile time.

GGM and others here would recommend knitting as a therapeutic and creative enterprise. I tried it but my purling was to tense.

Great thread title btw. Shame about the rest of the poem.

23:52 / 12.05.06

Today, I found a wonderful site, where you can watch old and recent tv shows for free (even whole seasons):

peekvid

Happy Dave Has Left

11:23 / 13.05.06

So, three days in. Man, it hurts. My tongue is swelling. I didn't know that would happen.

Tuned my guitar yesterday, might learn to actually play it. Man, painkillers have zero effect.

Ack.

Happy Dave Has Left

11:12 / 15.05.06

Uh-oh

I've got into EVE Online.

There goes the next three weeks.

11:19 / 15.05.06

Nothing like the evils of online gaming to distract from pain.

11:51 / 15.05.06

Ah, ta for peekvids Mist, very cool. Spent all of yesterday recovering watching Thundercats in bed.