Here is your SIB monthly news update.

Life As I mentioned in passing in a Tate Liverpool exhibition review, some time in May the bowel on the left side of my crotch made a bid for freedom leading to another inguinal hernia matching the escape attempt on my right side in 2013.  Fortunately the operation was scheduled more speedily than back then and so I returned to the Spire hospital just down the road from home about a week and a half ago for the second inguinal hernia repair of my life.

The process was much the same but faster due to newer techniques.  The whole process only took about seven hours, the bulk of which was preparation and recovery; the operation itself lasted twenty minutes.  The recuperation has been faster too due to the mesh they insert being lighter and less invasive.  This time last week I could barely walk.  Yesterday, I went out and bought a newspaper and a crumpet loaf albeit in a taxi there and back.  With the driver opening the door for me.

Back in 2013, I spent the whole process watching Doctor Who, the day after surgery spent in the company of Survival, Seek Out Science, Dimensions in Time, the TV Movie and Rose.  On this occasion I've felt less able to simply lie in bed for hours on end.  But I've managed to polish off the perfectly fine third series of Stranger Things with the rest of the time in the company of franchises and their blu-ray special features, including Mission Impossible and The Hunger Games.

Last night, I embarked on Twiglet, some of the first film being incredibly poor, the romance scenes in the middle somehow even more goddawfully sickening than the many waterfalls of Attack of the Clones.  The Cullen family feels like a far more intriguing set of characters than either Bella or Edward and the film only kicks into gear in the final half.  If only the story had been told from their POV, their reaction to the notional son bringing a human girl home for "dinner".

Apparently it'll take up to a month for me to be completely mobile which is fine, although I'm also not supposed to sit or lie down in one place for too long, so that's a paradox.  I'm wearing anti-thrombosis socks for the duration so thank goodness they weather's been cooler this past couple of days.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and stand up for a while, hopefully without the area around my particulars stinging too much.