Transplant +2,484: Still kicking the arse of the bastard beast

It’s quite a while since I last updated the blog. The good news is that there really isn’t a lot to report. It will be my 7th transplant anniversary in September and all of my blood tests remain on just the right side of normal. Still kicking … etc.

However, I’ve been put on statins. Not because of lymphoma, but due to my advancing age, family history and a marginal cholesterol result at my five-yearly NHS health-check. While the cholesterol result is rather better than it was 5 years ago and I’m much more physically active, I guess you can’t beat age, genetics and the taxman. I think that still being around to need them is a “good thing”, given the scary MCL diagnosis I received around 11 years ago.

Talking of physical activity, I’m trying to reach 3 million steps for the year again. Halfway through 2025 and I’m on target for 3.5 million steps. This would be a decent improvement on last year’s 3.3 million if I keep it up. I’ve managed to motivate myself even without having a general election to deliver leaflets for this June!

A spreadsheet and graph of steps taken in 2025. 1,733,247 have been travelled betweeen January 1st and June 30th 2025.
Everyone loves a spreadsheet and bar graph …

I became a grandfather for the first time in March and we’re in the middle of trying to move house for the first time in more than 32 years. This is despite the best (worst) efforts of a certain building society due to an error they made more than 12 years ago. Those adverts they have comparing themselves favourably to the big, nasty banks? Yeah, right. But at least they’re now belatedly talking to us about the issue, rather than ignoring it.

Gnu was featured in June’s LowFlying magazine, setting off with 250+ other 7’s on the Caterham and Lotus Seven Club’s fish and chip run from Chepstow to Aberdyfi.

Gnu (the yellow Caterham 7 in the foreground) on the Black Mountains Road, Brecon Beacons, Wales. There are two other Caterham 7's in the background.
Gnu on the Black Mountains Road, Brecon Beacons, Wales.

I’m still tinkering with my retrocomputing projects. This year I’ve upgraded my Pico MZ-80K code (a Sharp MZ-80K emulator) to provide MZ-80A support. If I have time this autumn/winter I’m intending to work on a MZ-700 emulator to complete the trinity of early Sharp home computers. If you’re here and interested in that work, you probably ought to be here instead!

A Pico MZ-80K using the RC2014 RP2040 VGA terminal card to run the Sharp version of Space Invaders
A game of space invaders in progress on the Pico MZ-80K emulator (RC2014 VGA card version)

That’s all I have for the first half of 2025. If you’re still here, thanks for reading. My forecast is that the second half of 2025 looks challenging, but hopefully very rewarding. Be seeing you.