Thanks, it's good to be back. Been over 5 years since I posted, and I see there's still a lot of recognisable names on here, which is really good to see. My family and myself have been thru some crap over those 5 years. We moved from Florida in 2015, to Nerja in Spain. Lovely place, lived down by the beach, which was noisy with daft Brits singing "Here we go" at stupid O'clock, so we moved up into the mountains by Frigiliana. I fell ill, and was diagnosed with pancreatitis, very painful and 3 weeks in Malaga hospital. Then a month later, back in boring hospital again for 3 weeks. I drove back to the UK for my son's wedding in October, and a couple of days after that, I was rushed to James Cook Hospital with very high blood sugar and terrible pain. I was then taken to Freemans Hospital, and spent 4 weeks in intensive care, and 5 more weeks trying to get better. The doc there found the real problem was cancer of the parathyroid gland had caused my calcium level to be 12 times to high. That calcium level had basically destroyed my pancreas and sent me into type 2 diabetes .. I lost 6 stone, and looked like a bloody skeleton, and I came very close to pushing up the daisies. Fought like hell to beat it, and with the help of the NHS doctors and nurses, I managed not to shuffle off this mortal coil .. Had a rented house in Spain with all our stuff in it, and we left all that to buy a house in "Hartlepool" .... ! Still have to have tests and take a lot of meds, but I'm still alive and kicking. I heartily and sincerely thank the magnificent NHS for all they did for me, that institution should be fully funded and never taken for granted.
It's good to be here to post this, apologies if it was a bit lengthy, but it feels good to get it off my chest.