Author: miltonline

Hey all! I enjoyed my 35th Birthday yesterday. Played guitar most of the day and went with Bridge to see Derren Brown’s live show in the evening. I usually dislike magic but this guy is different, not hats and rabbits just amazingly interesting and impressive psychological techniques bordering on the Jedi. The BEST show of any genre I have ever attended. Just catch him whenever you can and I won’t say anything more. All in all I appreciated this birthday more than any other in my life- I just feel so f&cking grateful to be around.

Please spare a thought for 20-year old Gareth Mace A really cool and brave kid who is going through a terrible time with his treatment. I will be thinking of him in particular tomorrow when I do my 10K Charity run. I will also be carrying around these names with me- If you have a request for someone who is battling or has battled cancer/leukaemia to be included let me know soon- there is just an overwhelming number of brave people to remember. I will do my best for them, you all and myself tomorrow. Just don’t expect me to win 😉

The total raised is a funky

Not sure if you know about this, but last month I was interviewed by the BBC for the Spanish/South American arm of the BBC Website: It was an article about 4 blogs from around the world (of which Miltcentral was one) You can read the article here- perhaps it will make more sense to you. Looks very nice though and some lovely people have responded from Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela. Ole!!

El Milto xxx

Just arrived back from a weekend in Greece- I went for the 40 day commemorative service of my grandmother’s funeral. A sad but somewhat uplifting event. It was followed by traditional greek coffee and food with many friends and family members. As much as I don’t relate to formal religious practice, it was a very good send-off.

What have I been up to? Well Bridge has been very busy with teaching at Radley and a ‘demanding filming schedule’ (Stylish Holland Park, eh?) Since the last update, I have had my ear pierced (quite fun actually), been training, run another 10K, started weight training again, completed the Academy’s new studios and had a week of events launching them, won my first ever pub quiz, did my first post-cancer function gig (It was refreshing to do a wedding gig when there was no attention whatsoever to my cancer- people there didn’t know or care just any other treated-like-waitstaff musician. I give them 6 months, tops:)). I also wrote an exam for RAM which leads me to my next story:

I had to get 50 16-page exams printed for the monday morning exam.
It was late on a Saturday and I went to a shop that was just closing but said they could do it double-sided ‘no problem’ in the morning.

When I went in the morning, the assistant insisted that double-sided was impossible so after much faffing I said f*ck it single-sided then.
I came back to find that he was printing 46 page 1’s then on top of that 46 page 2’s. So i had to re-sort them all in the shitty shop which took over an hour of my time while he stapled them. VERY badly. When at last it got to the end, he said it would cost

I love the Spring. When it finally breaks it is never a disappointment and I feel just as good as a kid on the last day of term. Still it took its f&*^ng time.

Been really busy, since the last post: Bridge and I recorded a classical guitar piece at the Academy Studios, I’ve written a new ‘cello piece and had it performed by Nick Allen at the London College of Music, put in 4 funding applications for my work, rehearsed and performed 45 minutes of music for Bridget’s band at the South Bank (check out the pictures ) Rehearsed and performed with a 60-piece orchestra for the MAAM concert at the academy, been interviewed by the BBC for their website, worked on the Academy’s studios and been training for the 10K. Not enough time!

Bridge has been chosen to appear in a 7-series BBC programme in the capacity of the ‘Guitar Expert’. Her job is to be filmed teaching a tv ‘personality’ over 20 weeks in preparation for a big performance. Filming starts Friday… More as it unfolds. FYB, milt x

Sophie & Floyd showed up in a women’s mag called ‘Pick Me Up’ So I took the mag’s advice and did, here’s the article. Good on them- they are wonderful people! When she read it, Bridget cried into her cappuccino in StarBucks:) More later…. milt

The MiltChat forum & guestbook is hotting up with more than 40 wonderful people now sharing their experiences. Survivors, battlers, family and friends, you are all very welcome.

FYB, Milt

Except for having to deal with a recent infection I have kept up the training, runing 3 short distances 4-5k and 1 long distance (7-10k) a week. I’d like to say its getting easier, but it is still a bit of an uphill battle. Am not complaining though, it is an enormous privilege to be able to move at all anytime after November 2004. And with a current sponsorship of

If anyone would like to come and hear me play a couple of nice (but free) gigs. 26th April Universiy of Surrey- Electric guitar and electronics improvised concert and May 1 Southbank Centre, Purcell Room Foyer 4pm, Bridget’s band (plus me + bass and drums) -lovely pop, country bluesy vocal tunes with words that mean something and no endless jazz solos. lol. Love to see you there!

Sad to report the passing of my maternal grandmother, Ismene. She was an amazing woman and will be very fondly remembered. Farewell, Nana.

The Evening Standard (First edition) ran a full page article about me on page 47- It is really well written I think. I have an electronic version here in case you missed it. Milt 🙂

“A slight, emotional figure” – Evening Standard. lol!

I am told that there will be an article on me in the Evening Standard tomorrow (Monday 10th April) on page 45 or 47. Haven’t seen it yet, so don’t know what to expect! Will scan a copy in case anyone interested misses it…It’s all lies I tell you lies!(Unless I come out good)

cheerio, milt 🙂

Bridge has a new site! Please check it out and warm up her guestbook with a friendly hello:)

The Leukaemia Conference in York was fantastic, full report coming up. In the meantime i just want to express my gratitude for surviving one year after my Bone Marrow Transplant. To honour those many who have gone before and pave a way for those that follow, I will do all I can to live my life to the full and make it one year more. milt x

Off to the Leukaemia Research Annual Conference 2006 in the beautiful city of York tomorrow. Serendipitously, It will concide with my “re-birthday” on Saturday April 8th- Please nobody bother with a bone marrow cake, “Don Peridone” or chemo cocktails. Very grateful to have made it this far relatively intact-hope I am living up to the privilege of being alive- I will endeavour to do my best always. FYB, milt

The Fundraising Target of

NEW PODCAST EPISODE! LISTEN TO MILTONAIR HERE

Very sad to report that Allan Miskell (Ontario, Canada) passed away on March 22nd at the age of 22 following a relapse of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Allan was a talented & busy percussionist and drummer and much loved (& sorely missed) by his family (Suzanne. Michael & Sara), best friend Caitlin and a huge community. I encourage you to pay tribute HERE(write a condolence and/or donate to Leukeamia Research Fund, Canada) Allan’s mother Suzanne has offered great support to me over the past months and I want to express my deep sympathy. Please join me. Milt x

Allan Miskell

You guys humble me. What amazing support for my run. Thanks. I have upped the target dramatically to 10k for the 10k. One British pound to one British meter. Just want to thank you all again. To be honest, when these generous amounts came rolling in I was rather embarrassed and felt like hiding. But Bridget said the immortal line: “Oh, Just take the money and run.” Genius.

Over the last few months I have had an overwhelming amount of SPAM (Can I just announce to the whole world that I do NOT, I repeat do NOT need VIAGRA, CIALIS or other prescription medications. I earned myself TWO university degrees and am not in the market for buying anothe- Don’t give me the third degree man. I am also extremely happy with my ‘size’ and I am, as it happens, not interested in transferring $23,000,000 from a Nigerian bank – not even for a 2% cut for my trouble.

For this reason I have just uploaded a lovely new guestbook and forum(oooh) http://miltnet.com/miltchat Why don’t you be the first to post? Please help me make it a groovy happening, positive, helpful forum – wouldn’t that be great?

Visited CancerBACUP HQ near Old Street, London. Shown around the offices by the hospitable Danielle Larner and Jane Murphy. Lovely people working hard to keep a good thing going (Advocacy/Informational/Support to those affected by cancer).

Presented a cheque for

Been toying with the idea of doing miltlatest via PodCast, so those hard-of-reading folks who would rather hear my updates/music may do so and the lucky Ipod-ly ones could get automatic updates and carry them around their persons. Sounds interesting, maybe? So I (and my guitar, and monkey) did a short little technical test of it here.(Click on ‘listen’ under Podcast test, then hit play under the x-ray pic of my lungs)

Please let me know whether it worked or not (could you ‘subscribe’ to it? Did it appear in Itunes?) So do you think MiltOnAir is an idea with ‘wings’? Or is it the Icarus of podcasts??? Cheers, milt

Okay, a little overwhelmed by the response to my sponsorship request. I was hoping for over

8-year old Daniel Kerkhoff received his stem cell transplant yesterday. So far, so good. Wishing him the best. Wanna help?

23-year old Jessica Mason (ALL(phase 2 end) Unrelated bone marrow match recently found has started her own blog of her great writing. Be a chum!

Okay, as you may know I am doing a 10k charity run on 28th May 2006 in Regent’s Park for the marvellous CancerBACUP If you feel like sponsoring, may you live to be a thousand with the body of a 20 year old, a host of lovers and the latest Apple Mac- click here If you are unsure then please remember a couple of things.

1) It is less than a year since starting my Bone Marrow Transplant
2) I received the most intense amount of treatment a patient is expected to have in their lifetime

3) Ignoring points 1) & 2), when it comes to running, I am, well…shit.

so SPONSOR ME!!!