This is my first 2 monthly Snooker Nation post, which is just as well because for 3 out of 4 potential matches in October I have been unable to play. I have decided that reducing my Snooker Nation posts from once a month to once every 2 months will be better for my blog. I have ended October with a decent 6-3 lead, but there is still much to play for with a potential of 9 more matches ahead.

02/09/2022 – Match 177

While it is true I won this match 6 frames to 3, it’s hard to be pleased about it. I think both Jason and I played terribly, especially at the start. The one century break I got of 104 in frame 4 which ended with me missing the final colour before clearing up, denying myself a potential break of 138. In fairness to Jason, he was at one stage 5-0 down but he managed to win 3 frames which include a really nice 143 in frame 7 and a respectable 136 in frame 8. Honestly, I don’t know if it was because I was tired or because of how badly I was playing, but I was relieved when the match was over.

09/09/2022 – Match 178

My performance improved quite a bit when compared to the match last week. I won 6 frames to 1 and scored 3 century breaks, 128 in frame 2, 140 in frame 3 and 101 in frame 6 but missed the final red, denying myself a potential break of 136. I was on track to score a maximum break of 147 in frame 1 but missed the black with 3 reds on the table. Despite the score line I don’t think Jason played particularly badly other than some questionable safety shots. I think I just played well and didn’t give many opportunities.

16/09/2022 – Match 179

For a while Jason wasn’t missing anything and I thought I might lose, but as luck would have it I was saved by a burger and won 6 frames to 4. Around half way in to the match Jason’s wife gave him a burger which I believed provided sufficient distraction to be the cause of some poor shots, allowing me to win 2 or 3 frames I might not have ordinarily won. Jason scored 3 century breaks, 137 in frame 1 and 139 in frame 3 which could have been 146 if he hadn’t of missed the final black. Then his burger showed up and he didn’t score another century until frame 9 (after he had consumed it). During burger consumption I managed 2 centuries of my own, 116 in frame 4 and 108 in frame 8.

23/09/2022 – Match 180

Finally Jason has broken my win streak winning 6 frames to 3. For the most part Jason was playing really well and wasn’t missing many pots. The result could easily have been 6-1 but I managed to pinch frame 7 and 8 which were pretty scrappy to say the least. There were 4 century breaks in total, I scored 105 in frame 1 where as Jason scored 127 in frame 2, 114 in frame 3 and 107 in frame 6 which could have been 134 if he didn’t miss the final yellow. The one thing which stands out for me in this match is that in frame 2 the black ball somehow flew off the table. With over 500 hours play time I didn’t know this was even possible in Snooker Nation.

30/09/2022 – Match 181

Because of good conversation our game started rather late today. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to win 6 frames to 3. Just as well really, if we played the full 11 frames we might have finished around 4am. What didn’t help was my connection to steam briefly cut out twice during the 6th frame. After the second time I couldn’t get steam to work and needed to restart my computer. There were 3 century breaks in total, Jason scored 131 in frame 4 and I scored 106 in frame 5 and 135 in our twice belated frame 6. I don’t think Jason will mind me saying that his safety game wasn’t very good in this match, giving me numerous opportunities to score. Hopefully it will be better next time.

07/10/2022 – Match 182

Winning 6 frames to 1, this is a result Jason needed. I scored 107 in frame 1 but missed the final brown, from then on I just couldn’t win another frame. Jason scored 3 century breaks, 115 in frame 3, 110 in frame 6 and 105 in frame 7. The other frames were pretty scrappy, we both made quite a few mistakes but Jason managed to secure them. It’s interesting to note in frame 6 before Jason cleared the table to win, he successfully snookered me behind the yellow ball which was pretty close to the baulk cushion. What’s worse is that he used 2 cushions to do it which is quite unusual in our games and meant that there was no clear escape for me and it took several tries for me to hit a red without fouling.

Season 7 (August – December 2022) statistics

Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of World of Warcraft, have come under a lot of scrutiny over the years, usually quite rightly so. I myself have written about how disappointed I was during the 2018 Blizzcon announcements and how heartbroken I was when I learned there were accusations of rife sexual harassment and discrimination within their organisation. On this occasion however, I want to share my experience of the launch of Wrath of the Lich king for classic World of Warcraft, and give some praise.

As I write this it has been 24 hours since the launch and I have to say it went incredibly well. The launch was scheduled at 00:00 server time, which is 23:00 in the UK (GMT+1) on the 27th September. Before that however Stormwind City (and I presume Orgrimmar for the horde) came under attack from the Lich King’s scourge, creating a unique and exciting atmosphere which is unlikely to happen again. In the lead up to launch I noticed no latency and as far as I could tell there was no queue to enter the Mirage Raceway realm (server) which is ‘full’. Less than 2 hours before launch, King Varian Wrynn yelled ‘Take your flying fortresses back to Northrend, before I crush them with my bare hands!‘ to which the Herald of the Lich King replied ‘ARGH! THIS SMALL VICTORY WILL AVAIL YOU NOTHING! COME! COME TO NORTHREND. MY MINIONS ARE WAITING, AND THEY ARE HUNGRY…‘

People began to gather at Stormwind Harbour to catch the first ship to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra, Northrend while others, including my pre arranged guild party consisting of Pallydude, Kyra, Tsun, Lineofsight and myself decided to wait at Menethil Harbour for the first ship to Valgarde in Howling Fjord, Northrend. If you look closely at the below screenshot you can see Pallydude contribute to a line of paladins waiting.

At this time there was some latency, but it wasn’t bad and I found the game playable. The ship arrived a few minutes early and everyone embarked on their adventure to Northrend.

To be honest, I fully expected there to be a problem. I thought that the game might crash or that we would find ourselves stuck on a loading screen but, to my surprise, everything went very smoothly. The loading screen was brief and we arrived in Howling Fjord with minimal latency and started to play immediately. I later found out that the ship from Stormwind Harbour to Borean Tundra wasn’t so successful and the passengers were teleported back to Stormwind, however, within minutes there was an in-game announcement that players could speak to the harbour master and teleport to Borean Tundra instead, indicating that Blizzard Entertainment was watching and prepared.

So far I have only reached level 72 but have ended the day about three quarters of the way to level 73. Some of my fellow guild members have reached level 75/76 but a few people have already managed to reach level 80. It’s not how I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, but all credit to those able to rush through the levels. I should mention a player with a warrior called ‘Unlikely’ was the first to reach level 80 on the Mirage Raceway realm at around 13:25 server time. Congratulations to them.

To anyone reading this who is interested in playing Classic World of Warcraft, perhaps for the first time, this really is an excellent time to start. Wrath of the Lich King is perhaps the most iconic and successful era of World of Warcraft.

Well done Blizzard Entertainment for getting the launch of Wrath of the Lich King classic right. True, the game earns the business a fortune on a monthly basis and true this is the second time you have done it. But it shows the company on this occasion was prepared to invest resources at the cost of some of the profits and it has learnt lessons from past failures. A step in the right direction.

It has been about 7 weeks since my previous WoW update and once again I have a lot to report. In my last update I said that I was considering commissioning some artwork and creating a RP (role-play) blog post for my rogue named Mithril. I went ahead with the idea and a few weeks later the art work was complete and I created my Mithril RP blog post. I am delighted with how well it turned out and I am thinking of trying to expand on Mithril’s story so far in addition to what she is doing right now. What I might do is isolate a segment of her life and dedicate a blog post about it, perhaps even commission some additional artwork.

Some legendary items have dropped for my guild while I was present, including an off-hand Warglaive of Azzinoth which was awarded to fellow rogue Afficium to complete the set. Luckily this happened just before the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch. I recorded the encounter with Illidan Stormrage and the priceless reaction of my fellow guild mates once we defeated him.

Not long after the pre-patch Thori’dal, the Stars’ Fury bow dropped from Kil’jaeden, the last boss of Sunwell Plateau and was awarded to Aboreal. Luckily I remembered to record the encounter and reaction. It was a real pleasure to have been there.

When I wrote my last WoW update I wasn’t sure if I was going to be playing the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Now I am certain that I will be playing and I have made some commitments with my guild mates when it launches later tonight. What I am still not sure about is whether I will still consider my rogue to be my main character or my new warrior tank my main. Before the pre-patch for Wrath of the Lich King, I found that my rogue was consistently benched for raiding and I thought that I missed opportunities to raid with my guild because I wasn’t as transversal as some of my guild mates who have worked on multiple characters. Some guild members were and still are able to heal, deal damage or tank with consistent results, where as all I could do is play rogue which is in low demand. I thought that if I had a warrior tank, something I enjoyed playing in Wrath of the Lich king 14 years ago, I would be more transversal. As it turns out I made the wrong decision, the guild has a lot of tanks and it might have been better if I had played a paladin or druid which can perform multiple roles.

Unfortunately my friend did not respond to me 7 weeks ago so I decided to use a character boost to instantly level my warrior to level 70 at the beginning of the pre-patch roughly 4 weeks ago. A lot of people frown on people doing this, but with a lot of preparation, effort and help from my guild, my warrior is is now reasonably geared and I have started to play it quite well. With the exception of fishing I have even leveled her professions to 375 (the maximum until tomorrow). This is predominantly what I have spent my time doing these last 4 weeks and I feel well prepared with both my rogue and warrior for Wrath of the Lich King.

With today being the official end of The Burning Crusade, my next WoW update will focus on getting my characters to level 80, completing dungeons, acquiring new sets of items and perhaps clearing some raids. I don’t really want to set myself any goals other than to try and be a valued member of my guild and to reach level 80 to avail myself for the guild raiding schedule.

This post is different to anything I have written for my blog. I want to try and give my World of Warcraft character, Mithril, some meaning other than being just another Night Elf. I thought I would create a legend for Mithril and create this RP (Role-Play) post. I also had an image in mind to feature this post of Mithril sitting outside of Sunwell Plateau carving her name in a bench. I commissioned an artist, explained what I had in mind and provided in-game screenshots of Mithril and the setting. I hope anyone reading this will agree that if nothing else the artist, who goes by the name of Lorkhan, has done a spectacular job. Here is their Instagram account showing off more amazing pieces.

Born in Auberdine a few years before the first war, Mithril is the youngest of 2 sisters. Her father, the captain of a modest cargo ship the Mooncrest and her mother a botanist. Mithril was never content exploring Darkshore and Ashenvale with her mother and sister who were busy searching for herbs to make salves. Instead Mithril would daydream she was at sea with her father. Mithril’s family and the other Night Elves were completely oblivious of the Eastern Kingdoms continent and of the Alliance and the horde at war there. Towards the end of the second war however, Mithril’s father decided he and the Mooncrest crew would set sail and explore the east. Mithril begged her father to join him on his voyage, she had heard rumours of strange sightings in the east and wanted to join him on an adventure. Despite the refusal of her father, during the night Mithril snuck aboard his ship and concealed herself among the supplies.

After a full day and night at sea, Mooncrest and her escort were attacked by 2 Orc destroyers. The crew did their best to evade the destroyers however Mooncrest was struck by cannon fire and was boarded. The Orcs massacred the crew, including Mithril’s father as she watched between the wooden deck planks in the ships hold, hidden from view. Realizing Mooncrest was taking on water, the Orcs quickly disembarked back to their own ship and set off to continue their hunt for Alliance warships. It couldn’t have been more than 10 or 15 minutes before the ship began to tilt and list, forcing Mithril into the water, clinging to a wooden plank. For no less than 2 days Mithril drifted helplessly until a sympathetic Kul Tiran fisherman found her starving and exhausted.

Mithril was taken to Freehold and spent years surviving on the streets, avoiding brawls, pickpocketing drunken pirates and hiding in the shadows during times of danger. It was a hard life but Mithril eventually saved enough gold to acquire transportation back to Auberdine. Mithril, no longer a little girl but a woman, found that over the years everything had changed, not only through war with the Horde to the south but also The Burning Legion in the third war. She had even learned that the Night Elves had joined an Alliance consisting of humans, dwarves and gnomes that had armies away in the North. Mithril had also changed and the people of Auberdine no longer recognised her. Her Darnassian was poor and she didn’t fit in with her nefarious set of skills. Searching for her mother and sister, Mithril travelled to Teldrassil and the city of Darnassus where she met Syurna who convinced Mithril that she could use her skills for good and that if she were to travel the continents, helping people along the way, she might find clues about what might have happened to her family.

While travelling the roads of Kalimdor and The Eastern Kingdoms Mithril found friends and helped them overcome many threats to Azeroth, including the Qiraji and the Scourge. When she learned about the Dark Portal and that it had reopened, she joined the Alliance and Horde coalition with her friends to repel the invaders and gain control of the portal in Outland. For a while Mithril explored what remained of outland until one day she received an Alliance missive about her mother being buried in Astranaar, Ashenvale. After visiting her mothers grave Mithril learned from the quartermaster of the Silverwing Sentinels, Illiyana Moonblaze, that Mithril’s mother was killed by Warsong Outriders when they invaded Warsong Gulch but there was no knowledge of the whereabouts of Mithril’s sister.

Beset with grief, Mithril spent 6 months in seclusion and searched for her long lost sister. She eventually gave up and returned to Outland to rejoin her friends in order to free Outland from Illidan Stormrage and repel Kil’jaeden. While in Outland rumours had started about the continent of Northrend and the armies that were sent there. There was now a new frontier with new threats to Azeroth and mysterious death knights started to arrive, completely free of the scourge. Could it be possible her sister is a death knight? Might there be clues to her whereabouts in Northrend? One thing is for sure, Mithril will be joining the next expedition.

I hope anyone who reads this enjoys the story of Mithril so far, but to be honest it is written as if the reader is familiar with World of Warcraft. It might not make much sense to some readers. I am not a very creative person and I found this post difficult to write. I think the hardest part for me was trying to make sure that the story was easy to fit within World of Warcraft lore and canon. But with some help from Kyra, a member of my World of Warcraft guild, I think I got there without any major infractions.

Ordinarily each Snooker Nation season between Jason and I will last 6 months and run from January – June then July – December. Because I was still in a semi state of recovery in July however, we decided that for this season we will start in August and finish in December.

Having won 2 out 3 of the matches we played this month I am quite pleased with how season 7 has started, especially with the final match of the month winning 6-1. But I think the highlight this month has been me reciting a very odd and vivid dream I had, potentially putting both Jason and I off our game in match 175.

05/08/2022 – Match 174

Being the first official match of season 7 this is a really good start for Jason winning 6 frames to 3. I am finding hard to decide whether we played well or badly, about half of the frames were scrappy with both of us missing relatively easy shots or running out of position. I also made 2 or 3 really bad decisions which probably cost me the match in the end. On the other hand we got 4 century breaks between us, Jason scored a respectable 131 in frame 9 and 119 in frame 7. I scored 109 in frame 4 after an incredibly fluky shot on the second to last red. After I had failed to split the remaining reds and effectively ran out of position I tried the old hit and hope shot, miraculously it worked. I also scored 105 in frame 5 but missed the final green, denying me a potential break of 130.

12/08/2022 – Match 175

Winning 6 frames to 5 gives me my first win of the season. This match largely reminds me of last week, where some frames we played quite well but others quite badly. I scored 3 century breaks, 100 in frame 1 but missed the final yellow, 111 in frame 7 but ran out of position on the final yellow and 133 in frame 11. Jason only scored 1 century break but it is a superior one of 138 in frame 5 and is the new highest break of the season. For frames 2, 3 and 4 I think we were both distracted when I was telling Jason about a dream I had which featured him as a sentient self drinking pint of beer.

19/08/2022 – Match 176

This has turned out to be a very convincing win for me, winning 6 frames to 1. Of the 6 frames I won I scored 4 century breaks, 118 in frame 1, 138 in frame 3, 118 in frame 4 but missed the final blue and 100 in frame 5, missing the final red. I am sure Jason will not mind me saying that he really didn’t play well, having said that Jason was on track to score a maximum break of 147 in frame 6, but ran out of position with 3 reds remaining and couldn’t quite secure a century. I on the other hand probably played one of my best Snooker Nation matches so far which I hope to replicate in the weeks and months ahead.

Season 7 (August – December 2022) statistics

I find it hard to believe, but it has been 4 years since I started blogging. Time for my year 4 review. In this review I am going to consider some lessons learned but as part of that I don’t think I am going to set myself any goals moving forward.

This has become a yearly mantra but I would like to remind any readers of a ‘disclaimer’ in that I do not consider myself a ‘content provider’. Yes I am technically creating content, but this blog has always been a platform for me to write about and enhance my gaming experiences. A way to document my gaming achievements and share them with whoever is interested. I have only made a minimal effort to share my blog with others and I have no intentions of changing.

Lessons learned

I have learned that I am not very good at meeting my own set goals. Last year I set myself the goal of creating a high quality YouTube video which I would be proud of. Since then I do not think I have created any videos to speak of and certainly none which required any effort on my part. Another goal was to play through some of my favourite Final Fantasy games, I made a pretty good start with Final Fantasy IX in February and wrote Final Fantasy IX Part 1, but haven’t completed the second half of the game for part 2. It’s not all doom and gloom, I am pleased to have played through a few new games such as Aliens: Fireteam Elite and Terminator: Resistance. I also made time to finish playing through one of my all time favourite games Front Mission 3. I have to say that Terminator: Resistance and the expansion Terminator: Resistance Annihilation Line are easily the best ‘new’ games I have played in a long time.

In October last year I felt I needed to quit playing Classic World of Warcraft. At the time there were a lot of real life issues needing my attention and I found myself struggling to find the time to play. Around 6 months later some real life issues had improved and I had more time on my hands. I decided to return and have been trying to catch up on the content I have missed ever since. I don’t think I will provide monthly World of Warcraft updates like I used to but will provide an update as and when I feel like a lot has happened.

Moving forward

Rather than setting goals in this year review I think I will try and go with the flow for a while and see where my gaming takes me. One thing I would like to do however is complete my Final Fantasy IX project by completing the second half of the game and writing part 2, for now this will be my only goal and should be easy to achieve, even with real life issues.

There is no need for a website reskin or change of ‘branding’. Right now I have no intentions of evolving the website or adding new pages, plugins / features. Maybe someday I will, it has been something I have thought about from time to time, but right now I am happy with the basic functionality it has. It’s easy to use and allows me to better focus on gaming and having fun.

The most important thing I need to do is consider healthier gaming habits. There are many games designed to combine fun with exercise, which is a possibility for me, but I am more so considering ways of avoiding what happened to me in June, where I could have died from a pulmonary embolism, more commonly known as a blood clot. Right now I am more conscious of how long I have been sitting and make an effort to get up and move around, even if I have no other purpose to do so. I also plan ahead and move around prior to gaming sessions and meetings.

What do you think?

If anyone would like to provide feedback and/or suggestions for my year 4 review, please feel free to do so. You could leave a comment or contact me by any means.

It has been well over 2 months since my return to Classic World of Warcraft and although for about 4 weeks I couldn’t play too much, I feel like I have achieved quite a bit. I reached exalted with Netherwing which is something I didn’t do when I played WoW retail and was awarded a Netherwing drake. To be honest, I never did like the look of these drakes so will more than likely never use it. I also got lucky and have been given an Amani War Bear by completing the Zul’Aman timed event with my guild. Being a bit of a ‘completionist’ I am happy to have also reach exalted with the following factions.

Keepers of Time
Sha’tari Skyguard
Shattered Sun Offensive
Darnassus
Exodar

Here are some screenshots of my two new mounts. They’re not really special in that most people have them, but I am pleased to have got them before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King.

This leaves Ogri’la which I am just not interested in even starting, Ashtongue Deathsworn with which I am currently revered but I am reliant on being able to attend Black Temple raids and The Scale of the Sands with which I am only honoured and relies on me being able to attend Mount Hyjal raids. I get the impression that a lot of guild members don’t really want to attend Mount Hyjal raids, which makes it very unlikely I will be able to achieve exalted before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. There is still some appetite for raiding Black Temple, which is why I have reached revered, but a lot of the time I find myself on the bench and unable to attend. I can’t say I blame anyone, having not helped with the progression of these raids it’s hardly right that I should expect to go, not that I ever did expect to raid.

From the raiding I have been able to do, I have been lucky enough to be awarded the following loot.

Slayer’s Helm
Slayer’s Chestguard
Slayer’s Handguards
Shadow-walker’s Cord
Blade of Life’s Inevitability
Blade of Savagery

While it is great that I picked up Blade of Savagery as an off-hand sword, until I get a good main hand sword I decided to acquire Vanir’s Right First of Brutality and Vanir’s Left Fist of Savagery for 150 Badge of Justice. This also caused me to change my talent points to be a fist weapon rogue. This isn’t a good thing for a rogue player, but considering how old my swords were, I thought it might be better this way until I am lucky enough to get something better.

It’s worth mentioning that I have finally completed levelling my fishing skill to 375/375 and have also reached maximum 350/350 in guns skill. These things are no big deal, but were causing me OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) problems.

For a few weeks I have been thinking about what I want to do moving forward with Classic World of Warcraft. Wrath of the Lich King will go live mid to late September but I am not sure if I should play and whether or not if I do play I should carry on with my Rogue or try my hand at tanking. Years ago when I played Wrath of the Lich king I had a Paladin and Warrior tank, they were fun to play and I was pretty good at tanking back then. Between now and launch everyone can take advantage of a +50% experience buff, so if I want to tank I should start levelling a warrior soon. I have reached out to a friend who played a lot of WoW with me in the past, I doubt they will respond, but if they do I will try and encourage them to level a character with me. Another thing I have been considering is creating a sort of RP (role-play) biography for my rogue and have some art work commissioned, just for a bit of fun and to give her some character and purpose.

As before with my previous Snooker Nation post, this is very much delayed but I will be up to date from here on. Jason and I only played 1 of a potential 4 matches in June, the other 3 were skipped because I fell seriously ill and required more than a month to recover. Although Jason has been very understanding, it is a disappointing way to end season 6, especially as there was still a chance Jason could win the season if he had won all 3 remaining matches. You could argue that since it was I who defaulted, Jason should be given the win for all 3 matches, but considering my reasons I know that Jason would hate to take advantage of the situation and win this way. As would I if it was the other way around. What is pleasing however is that between us we have scored 3 maximum breaks of 147 this season, that’s 10 maximum breaks since June 2019.

03/06/2022 – Match 173

I wasn’t feeling well but I still managed to win 6 frames to 2 giving me a 2 match lead with only 3 left to play for the reason the season. For the most part this was a scrappy match with both Jason and I running out of position a lot and missing some easy shots. There were however 3 century breaks, Jason scored 116 in frame 3 but missed the final brown where as I scored 112 in frame 6 and 134 in frame 7. It’s not the worst match of Snooker Nation we have played, but we are capable of playing a lot better.

Season 6 (January – June 2022) statistics

Seasons 1 – 6 (June 2019 – June 2022) lifetime statistics

This is obviously a very much delayed Snooker Nation post. The reasons for this are outlined in my previous ‘I Nearly Died: My Story‘ blog entry and since then I have needed more time to recover and get other, more important elements of my life back on track. To be honest, since these games were played over 2 months ago, I can’t remember the details. I make notes during the match, but these are less useful as time goes on.

06/05/2022 – Match 169

For the most part this was a good start to the month of Snooker Nation, especially for me since I won 6 frames to 2. Almost as importantly it seems that both Jason and I are back on form when it comes to scoring century breaks. I scored 124 in frame 3, 108 in frame 5 but missed the final yellow and 101 in frame 8 but ran out of position on the final brown. Jason scored two century breaks of his own, 138 in frame 4 and 129 in frame 7. These 5 century breaks are already more than what we achieved in the entire month of April. I think Jason will be a little disappointed at how bad his safety shots were having made some really bad blunders. I on the other hand am pretty pleased with how I played other than a series of ‘haphazard’ shots in frame 2. One interesting thing to note is that in the final frame I managed to pot 3 reds at the same time, which is pretty much unheard of and I think is a first for us.

13/05/2022 – Match 170

Although there were some scrappy frames with both Jason and I missing some easy shots or running out of position, it was an enjoyable match which I won 6 frames to 5. Both of us scored 2 century breaks each, I scored 120 in frame 1 but missed the final yellow, costing me a potential maximum break of 147 which was heart breaking. I also scored 114 in frame 10 but missed the final black. Jason scored 103 in frame 6 and an impressive 144 in frame 7. What I liked most about this match is that it wasn’t one sided, there have been quite enough 6-1 or 6-2 results lately.

20/05/2022 – Match 171

It’s been another great match of Snooker Nation, this time however it is Jason who won 6 frames to 5. I am a little bit disappointed in myself, At one stage I had a generous frame lead but in the second half of the match there was a combination of bad luck, poor decision making and bad safety shots which ultimately cost me the match. There were 4 century shots in total, I scored 119 in frame 6 while Jason scored 114 in frame 4, 137 in frame 9 and 119 in frame 11.

27/05/2022 – Match 172

This was a good way for me to end the month of Snooker Nation, having won 6 frames to 2. I managed to score 125 in frame 2 after Jason was penalized for forgetting to nominate a ball colour. It’s a shame to take advantage of this mishap, but the rules are the rules. Jason scored 106 in frame 4 but missed the final red and I got a second century of 121 in frame 7. Other than that the rest of the frames were pretty ‘scrappy’ with both of us missing shots and running out of position.

Season 6 ( January – June 2022) statistics

There may be some readers of my blog who have noticed that I have not blogged at all this month, this is because I nearly died and have been in recovery ever since. Finally however, after a painful and tiring 4 weeks, I feel strong enough to blog about my experiences. While my blog has always been about my gaming experiences and opinions, this is one of the few circumstances I feel it is warranted to stray from that path. Besides, there is a gaming connection which I will come to later.

During Friday 3rd June I felt that something wasn’t right. I would walk perhaps 5-10 steps and feel completely exhausted. I would sit panting as if I had completed some exercise when in actual fact I simply walked to or from the bathroom or perhaps walked up some stairs. Eventually I would catch my breath and I ignored what was happening, which in hindsight was foolish but in all fairness in 37 years I have never been seriously ill. I carried on with my day as best as possible, I even stayed up late speaking with my best friend, Jason, who has since recalled that I said I didn’t feel quite right. Later in the early hours of Saturday morning, after no sleep, an unrelated incident got me out of bed and once again I found myself out of breath from walking down some stairs. Sense prevailed and I decided to call an ambulance for myself, especially as my heart was pounding and there is family history concerning heart disease, my father died instantly from a heart attack while at work in the early 90’s and both of my grandfathers had to deal with heart disease later in their lives.

The ambulance didn’t take long to arrive, perhaps 10-12 minutes. The paramedics did a round of tests and didn’t find anything obviously wrong with my heart, detecting no heart attack or stroke but they could see there was something wrong and asked me to go with them to hospital, it was especially obvious to them something was wrong when they asked me to walk the 30 or so steps down my driveway to their ambulance. They ran a new set of tests and could see my heart rate had jumped to a very high level. When we arrived at the hospital A&E (Accident & Emergency) department I entered a triage system and, since I was stable when doing nothing, my triage was relatively low however I was eventually given an initial assessment from a doctor and the paramedics handed me over.

The doctor had decided to move me to the ‘majors’ area of A&E which meant his assessment of my condition was serious enough that I require constant observation but it was not serious enough that I needed immediate treatment and that I could wait for a bed to become available and wait for test results and a treatment plan. A doctor explained to me that they suspect that I had a blood clot on my lungs or in other words a ‘pulmonary embolism‘ which was preventing my body from getting the oxygen it required and that I would be given blood thinning medication to remove, dissolve(?) the clot. The doctor also explained there was an anticoagulant medication available which they might consider using but it was high risk in that in 10-15% of cases it would thin the blood to such an extent that it would cause internal bleeding, possibly even on the brain and that she would like to avoid using that medication if possible.

During my time waiting in the ‘majors’ area I needed the bathroom and, being a foolish independent stubborn man, I took it upon myself to take oxygen apparatus off of my face and make my way to the nearest bathroom. I don’t quite know how, but I made it there, did what I needed, washed my hands and left the bathroom but could go no further. I collapsed on some nearby seating and was gasping for air, I couldn’t really talk or move and started to perceive that the room was spinning, expanding then collapsing. I am not sure how long I was there alone, but eventually a medical professional found me and went to get help. The best way I can describe how I felt is if you can imagine you are exercising and for the last couple of minutes you push yourself as hard as you can and when you stop your heart rate will be elevated and you will be breathing heavily for a minute, probably less. For me it became constant, I wasn’t catching my breath and my heart rate wasn’t slowing. It was at this moment I nearly died, something no less than 3 medical professionals later confirmed.

I couldn’t say for sure how many, but a team of perhaps 5 or 6 medical professionals were with me, talking to me and each other. I can’t remember seeing their faces, only hearing their voices. Somehow they managed to get me on a bed, cut away my shirt, put me on oxygen and were desperately trying to fit a catheter to an arterial line which I later learned was proving difficult for them. While they were doing this a female voice was explaining they were desperately working towards giving me the dangerous anticoagulant medication I was previously told about and was explaining the risks to me. To be honest, during this time I couldn’t do much but gasp for air, but I did say ‘OK’ or ‘Yes’ occasionally when they were telling me what they were doing. This will read corny but while these people were working on me, I couldn’t help but think of the people that matter me. I thought about my mother, Jason, my work colleagues, even my cat. I was worried that all of this would upset a heavily pregnant colleague of mine, worried if my mother was coping on her own, hoping my boss was going to have a nice holiday, wondering about some of the problems Jason confided me with, I even wondered how an ex girlfriend was, who I haven’t spoken to in years.

Thankfully the treatment worked, my heart rate reduced and my breathing became normal. I was moved to an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for constant observations and was required to wear a mask for oxygen, day and night. After I showed improvement I was sent to a regular ward, but after 1 night I contracted a chest infection (probably the worst thing I could get with a pulmonary embolism) and ended up back in ICU for more oxygen (my oxygen levels had dropped) and antibiotics given intravenously along with blood thinning injections (2 x 100mg Clexane injections twice a day). While in ICU I shared a nurse with 1 other patient but constantly ended up giving blood samples, temperature readings and was almost constantly attached one way or another to a variety of equipment giving my vital signs on their monitors. While I am sure being in ICU was needed, I can honestly say I have never been so uncomfortable for so long in my life. On top of everything I have mentioned so far, some of the other ICU patients were very confused people and would shout and complain, it wasn’t their fault, they didn’t know where they were or what was happening to them. One lady was screaming for help and I overheard that she was pulling her catheters away from her arms, another old lady was worried ‘the other’ ‘children’ were trying to get her in trouble. Above all else however, there was a little girl in the bed space beside mine, she couldn’t have been older than 10. I don’t know anything about why the girl was there, but she wasn’t conscious for the 3 days she was there. I remember thinking that I would give my life if it meant that she would be better, I still feel that way, if only it was that simple. I sure hope she’s OK.

After 9 days and 8 nights I left hospital with a course of antibiotics and Clexane injections which I was shown how to administer myself. Because of how uncomfortable I was and because of all of the tests, my neck, two forearms, the back of my legs, stomach and left hand finger tips were completely bruised. I had very little sleep, very little food, was totally weak and emotionally drained. I had Sciatica in my left leg and foot, an ongoing dry tickly cough and would get dizzy if I stood up too quickly. In spite of this it was bliss getting to my room, things I took for granted such as privacy, peace and quiet, not being attached to anything and other simple comforts were heavenly and I think I pretty much slept solid for a couple of days. Since returning home from hospital I have slowly recovered. I still have some Sciatica pain and numbness, some bruising and a cough, but I am getting stronger each day and plan to return to work on Monday and start gaming again. I still need to take Clexane injections and also take Warfarin for a while, to make sure the clot is completely gone, but I am almost certain that I am going to fully recover and that there is minimal if any danger to my life.

Now for the gaming connection, readers of my blog, or StarCraft fans might remember my blog post about Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson who literally died from this exact same thing back in July 2019, aged 33. Geoff was a professional gamer and spent a lot of time traveling the world. He spent a lot of time sitting without a break to stretch his legs. I spend most of my day working from a desk and then spend hours playing video games, with hardly any breaks. Anyone can get a pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal, if you’re a gamer, work in an office or are otherwise sedentary for long periods of time, please take the time to regularly stop for a few moments, stretch the legs and get the blood flowing. It just might save your life.