the indians send signals from the rocks above the pass....

So there we were, watching "University Challenge" on the telly as we ate our tea. One of the bonus questions was a picture round: three pictures of three different breeds of cat; each breed was named after a country; name the breed. There was a Russian Blue, a British Shorthair and a Norwegian Forest Cat. This last one was a funny-looking long-haired white thing with shimmering blue eyes.

I turned to C. "That's also called a Skoggkatt"
She looked at me.
"A what?"
"A Skoggkatt"
"What does that mean?"
"Norwegian Forest Cat"
"You are making that up"
"No I'm not"
"How do you spell it?"
"S-C-O-G-G-K-A-T-T"

C. shook her head and reached for the laptop.
"You don't believe me do you?"
"No. I'm calling your bluff"
She knows me far too well. There was a short pause, interrupted only by the gentle tapping of keys. After a couple of minutes, C. looked up at me.
"It doesn't exist"
"It bloody does!"
"Alright, it does exist, but it's spelt with a 'K', not with a 'C'" She shook her head again. "You're always bloody doing this."
I smiled smugly. "Of course, in Norway they just call it the Forest Cat"

She's going to catch me out soon.... but not today.

---

I went back to see my neurologist this afternoon to discuss my new symptoms. I described what I had been feeling, but obviously there isn't an easy way for sure of knowing what is going on inside my nervous system. There are two possibilities apparently: either I am suffering some late developing symptoms from my existing lesion, or I have developed some new lesions. The former would mean that things haven't really changed but - after 20 months - I still haven't seen the end of the symptoms. The latter would probably mean I had MS but that I could look to start some treatment (although there is no cure). Neither option is especially enticing, to be honest

More MRI scans to follow - the first glimpse inside my head since August 2005.

Woo-hoo.