Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

For Yonks now, I have had this underlying... I don't know what you would call it, need, want or desire to get myself a guitar and try to learn to play. In hindsight, I should have bought a guitar years ago, like when I was first poorly with my leg and stuck in the house doing bugger all. I mean I might have been kind of descent by now, or not, who knows.

Over the years I have perused the various online shops and watched YouTube videos thinking "man I wish I could play a guitar". Then a few weeks ago I thought to myself instead of wishing, why not be proactive and just give it a go.

So, not knowing the first thing about anything to do with guitars, I started looking at reviews of equipment and got my eye on a dinky little guitar which I really liked the form factor of. It is an Ibanez GRGM21-BKN GIO RG MiKro Guitar in Black.

Ibanez GRGM21-BKN GIO RG MiKro Guitar in Black.

 My thinking was if I learnt to play to an okay standard the guitar would be an ideal travel size, something I could pop in my old Bug Myrtle and head off somewhere quiet and just strum away. 

I guess it all goes with my overactive imagination of either sitting by a peaceful Loch in Scotland or my dream house, again in Scotland playing by a log burner on an evening with a roaring fire and a lovely view....Ahhh! To dream.

After watching some guitar tutorials and downloading the Fender app, I kind of convinced myself "hey you could possibly do some of that".

Anyhoo this morning our electric was off, bare with me here. I got up in the dark, managed to get ready and headed off for work. After finishing early as I am on a phased return, due to my stupid prosthetic leg killing me, I came home to discover our electric was still off and Ern was wrapped up in a throw lying in the dog-end with wor Baxter on the old beat up sofa.

I was due to pick up my new spectacles at 15:30pm, so asked Ern did he fancy a look-out to grab a nice cup of coffee, just to get out the house and fill in a little time before I went to collect my gigs. So we got wrapped up and jumped in Tango, my wee Smart car, and we headed up to Stanley. Rather than drive home, I suggested we just sit in the car and drink our coffee, as there was only about 30 minutes to wait before my appointment at Young's Opticians.

Whilst we were waiting I happened to get my phone out and decided to show my dad the Fender App that I had downloaded, and together we watched the short tutorials and had a canny chat which I really enjoyed. 

You see, my dad has been really hard of hearing of late, and yesterday he went to get his ears syringed, and I think his hearing is much improved. It has been dreadful trying to talk to him of late as he gets frustrated and a bit ratty, so I have basically avoided chatting to him, something I really miss.

As I saw my dad was taking a real interest in the guitar lessons, I quizzed him about when he was young, as I could recall him telling me he used to play the violin. It was lovely to hear him talk of being a young boy and learning the violin. I then asked him would he actually like a guitar for Christmas and was astounded when he said "Yes" as normally my dad always says  "well I don't really want or need anything". It's a warm and fuzzy feeling to be able to treat him to something that I think he will get some enjoyment from.

When we got home from the opticians, the electric was still off, so Ern suggested we head back up to Stanley and visit Home Bargains to get some candles and a lighter. This time we jumped in his car and took Baxter for a ride out, as he loves just lying in the back of my dad's car all snuggled up in his blanket.

A leisurely walk around Home Bargains grabbing a few odds and ends including two candles and a lighter, and we returned home. The leccy was still off. We had to wait about an hour or so before it came back on. My dad then put his computer on, and we had a good look at various guitars, checking out their reviews.  We came across an East coast Guitar a T1 Thin line, it is a budget guitar, however in the YouTube review at Andertons, sounded really good. The guitar came as a complete starter pack and had been reduced from £324, down to £249. I stepped out of the room to go and put my own computer on and when I came back downstairs my dad said "Okay I have ordered that guitar". That kind of told me he was quite excited.

 

East coast T1 Thin line

 

Anyhoo it's a Christmas present, so I will square up with him pay day. I guess he is now getting a guitar rather than the Ninja Foodie air fryer I had originally bought for him earlier this month for Christmas, LoL.

As my dad had just ordered his gear from Andertons, I thought I may as well go and have a look at the stuff I would like. As I mentioned earlier, I fancied an Ibanez and to go with this also would need an amp. Again, I had done a bit of research and opted for an Orange Crush 20rt. I wanted a black cabinet, rather than the orange coloured one, and managed to find one at GAK (Guitars Amp & Keyboards) for a reasonable price of £125.

 

Orange Crush20rt

Orange Crush 20rt

I then went over to Andertons and ordered the Ibanez GRGM21-BKN GIO RG MiKro Guitar in Black, along with a Tourtech 3 metre braided cable and a variety pack of Dunlop picks.

Ibanez Gio Mikro

    

Tourtech Braided cable

      

Dunlop Variety of picks

 This evening, chatting to my dad, it was lovely to hear him talking about years gone by. I asked him, "So, how old were you when you were learning to play the violin?". My dad then went on to tell me the story of not only how old he recalls he was, but also how he got into the violin. My dad would have been around 10 or 11 years old when he was playing his small violin. His grandfather, so that is my Great Grandfather, was a Big man and also played the violin, however had to have a custom one made as he was such a large chap. Ern says it probably would have been more like a viola. I asked my da  "So were you forced into learning to play" to which he replied "No I quite enjoyed it, following in his grandfathers footsteps". He then went on to tell me he even got to play in an Orchestra at the old Johnson School", there is a new school there now in Durham, I think it is the one on the way to Neville's Cross.

I recalled a time from my school days and said to my dad "I was in a school orchestra, well kinda you know". "Yeah, it was when I was about Ooh 6 or something". My dad jested, "what did you play? The tambourine". "No" I replied, we played at the old church in Stanley, it's knocked down now. I think the Joke Centre used to be there. We played and sang to Little Donkey and I played the Coconut shells to which my dad chuckled saying "Aye I bet you went Clippety Clop, Clip" as if your donkey had lost a shoe.


And so both of us are looking forward to this new challenge/interest, and we will see if you can teach old dogs new tricks...

Looks so good I don't want to take her out and get her dirty!

 Sometime in August of this year I made a post about waiting long enough to first decide if I really needed another bike and then if I could warrant spending more money on one. 

Orbea Gain, now a M20 1x

I had thinned my fleet of bicycles down from 10 to 6, so figured one more couldn't hurt. I had had my eye on this particular bike for some time, an Orbea Gain  M20 1X gravel bike, which is an eBike, however the bikes always appeared impossible to get a hold of.

Bike comes with its own lights

Easy to use iwoc button to operate bike

I would have preferred a bar mounted power button, but sure I will get used to this frame mounted version.

Originally, I had set my heart on a stealthy looking grey coloured version, but like I say no matter where I looked online there were non to be had in my size, which for me is a size Large. I then saw Leisure Lakes Bikes had an Ice Green size Large M20 for sale, so smashed open my piggy bank and pretty much without a second thought put a deposit down on the bike and sorted out the finance for the remainder.

Leisure Lakes Bikes then organised to get the bike to me via a courier, and the bike arrived on the 19th August.

I have to say the box which the bike came in was absolutely "Humongous", however it was also the best packaged bicycle I have ever received. All I had to do once removed from the box and all the protective packaging was fasten the handlebars in place.

I then stood back to admire my new ride, she sure did look better than the pictures online and the design is beautiful. The bike having internal cable routing and this being the carbon frame model. Other than the weight due to the batteries you can hardly tell it is an eBike. The bike having a MAHLE ebikemotion X35+ hub motor. I wanted something simple, so opted for the 1 x 11 drive train.

eBikemotion X35+ Rear Hub

 

After checking the bike over, my dad asked should he get rid of the huge box, saying he would have to cut it in half to get it in his car to take to the tip. I figured we wouldn't be needing it, so made one final check to make sure nothing was left in the box, then gave him the go ahead.

My next though was to use the QR code on my bike and go online and register the bike. I got all the way to the end completing the relevant information for the warranty, when I happened to notice, just by chance, a message congratulating me as I recall on registering my new Orbea Gain M30. Hold on a minute, did you almost miss it too? M30 I thought I am sure I ordered an M20. I then had that sinking feeling.

I immediately went downstairs to my new bike and started checking her out for signs of different components to verify what model I had. I also asked my dad to bring up on his computer what the difference was in the two models, so that I could do a quick comparison check.

I discovered some tiny writing on the back of the brake calipers so used my camera on my phone to take a picture and sure enough it said Shimano RX 400. Oh dear, not good. Upon further inspection, it became clear that I had the wrong model bike.

 

New Shifters RX-810's with a dropper lever on Left Lever

New RX-810 Calipers

By this time it was about 16:45 pm. I rang Leisure Lakes Bikes and fortunately got to speak to one of their supervisors. He explained that he was off the following day, but that he would pass the information over to someone to follow up with the next day.

I wasn't really hopeful that anyone would contact me the next day, as many of you will no doubt have had the same experience when buying stuff, it generally takes a few calls to get anything done. So imagine my surprise when a very friendly chap called Jack got in touch and explained the situation.

Apparently the bike I received had been at a different Leisure Lakes Bikes store and had been mistakenly put in stock as an M20 size Large. Jack had contacted Orbea, and they had informed him that there had never been an M20 delivered to Leisure Lakes Bikes. Well, that solved that mystery.

Jack then offered me a few options, with no pressure.

1. return the bike and get a full refund of my deposit, saying he would ship a new box up and all costs would be paid for by Leisure Lakes Bikes.

2. Keep the cheaper model bike and have the difference refunded.

3. Keep the bike and Leisure Lakes Bikes would get in all the components required to upgrade my bike to the M20 model I wanted at no further cost to myself.

I explained to Jack option 3 sounded good, as the reason I wanted the
Shimano ST-RX810 shifters was that they are dropper seat post compatible.

Jack then said to leave it with him, and he would see if a dropper post could be retro fitted. Something Orbea informed me couldn't be done due to the battery pack. Oh! And I also asked Jack could he have my bike wrapped.

A few days later Jack got back in touch saying yes he thought a dropper post could be fitted, however the other components would take a little while to come into stock, asking did I mind waiting. I thought I had waited this long, what was a few more weeks/months.

Mahle mini computer that came with the Orbea

X-Fusion Manic Dropper post successfully installed and working a treat

And so last Saturday the 13th November, my dad and I went down to Leisure Lakes Bikes at their Leeds shop and picked up my new ride. She is completely upgraded to an M20, with an X-Fusion manic 27.2 dropper post, activated from the Left shifter, and she has been wrapped to protect here and looks superb. I have some TIME ATAC XC pedals to fit. I know they are more Mtb orientated, it's just I hate wearing road shoes and using road pedals as when I need to walk anywhere in the shoes I am all over the place. Plus, I always get a nice secure clipped in feeling using my Time pedals, essential when using my Bartlett Tendon Knee.

Time ATAC pedals

I haven't as yet had a spin on her as I am having serious socket issues and have a poorly painful stump, plus in all honesty she looks so good I don't want to get her all dirty.

The bike looks stunning

The protective wrap is flawless

I know things didn't go as planned with the bike at the start, however I can't fault Leisure Lakes Bikes for their customer service, how friendly and professional they were, especially Jack who rang and emailed me throughout the process Oh! And for their attention to detail, plus the handover of my bike down at Leeds.

Thanks Guys.

I will give a more in-depth review of the Orbea Gain once I get my butt in gear and I head out on her.

When being an amputee really sucks!

 Just a heads-up no pictures with this particular blog, as I mean stump pictures aren't exactly pretty.

I have never asked the question "why me?" with regard to my amputation or even when I got diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma a year after having my leg off. 

 I mean what is the point in questioning things that you can't turn the clock back on. It gets you nowhere, other than possibly feeling bitter, angry or depressed.

That said, I am not saying I don't get frustrated with my situation. Never more so than when my leg is not fitting properly, and it is causing me no end of grief.

At the moment, I feel as if every step I take is going to fracture the end of my wee leg (stump) I hate that word. You see although when I get on the weighing scales I don't appear to have fluctuated much in weight, my residual limb, wee leg, stump call it what you will has shrunk. It's probably about the size of my arm now. My socket, which I have had for going on over 4 years now, just doesn't fit anymore. I'm gutted, as this is the best relationship I have ever had with a socket in my fourteen years as an amputee.

Like I say, I have been an amputee for, Oh! About 14 years, and I have tried every trick I know to keep my prosthetic limb in place. This includes extra stump socks, there's that word again LoL, extra seals. I have tried sticking bits in my socket with Gaffa tape. Tried raising the seating area, with bits of foam and Gaffa tape. I have even cut a piece off a Yoga matt, made it into a circle, Gaffa taped it and then tried slipping it around the seal. Oh! And let's not forget using  Mepilex Borders on the end of my stump Grrrrrrr! And I even experimented with putting a pair of socks inside my socket before lowering myself into it, just to try and cushion the area where my bone rests on my socket as I walk.

If you are not an amputee and a "Norm" Lol let me try and give you an idea of my daily grind. So imagine you have had your leg lopped off, above knee of course and the doc has cut through your femur, that is the large thigh-bone. Now imagine putting all your weight on the end of that bone. It's like having permanent toothache but in your bone.

Awwww! Great I am now getting serious phantom pain.

Oh! That is just the physical side of things, I haven't even mentioned the mental side. I am not sleeping, I think this is due to stress and anxiety. You see, I am a pretty active lad. I am continuing to do my daily challenge of riding every day. This is not so bad as the pressure from my socket is not directly on the end of my stump, as long as I don't stand out of the saddle, something I can no longer do to be honest. What is worrying me is getting sorted and possibly having to give up my passion of riding my bikes. Then of course a big issue is work, I am stressed to hell as I can't do my job to the best of my ability, and feel like I am letting everyone down.

I am terrible at accepting kind words, and quite recently have been told some lovely stuff relating to how I work with patients in my job. Of course, this all goes out the window as "Critical Glenn" jumps in and presumes people are carrying me and feel sorry for me.

This year has been an incredibly hard one for a lot of people, what with Covid, and I don't want anyone thinking I am writing a blog bleating on and whining full of self-pity. Unlike Facebook, which I came off a few months ago, I like to keep things real and allow people to see what really goes on, the good the bad and the ugly, not all this false crap that folk post about and how their lives are amazing.

I am sure someone somewhere will read my blog and be able to think "man I am not the only one" and take some sense that you are not alone.

Of course, I am not going to end there, I absolutely refuse to give in and will work through these problems like I always have. I guess writing this is a good way for me to also release some tension.