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1 September 2010

Posted by DMC on 1 September 2010 in Diary |

I managed OK after my fall yesterday, so no real harm done.  However I’m rethinking the two visits that I was going to make to the Arbitration Club, in London in London next week.  Keith Kirkwood was originally intending to accompany and assist me but now, unexpectedly, has to go to New Zealand on business and I’m not sure that I could trust anyone else who has not had the experience already.  Also Keith’s absence is a blow for the 20th Anniversary Dinner all the Arbitration Club, scheduled for the 23rd September, because he is the organizer and todate, apparently, he has only received 56 firm bookings.  For the 15 years of I ran the dinner I never failed to fill the 225 places in Drapers Hall.  There is still another three weeks so I suppose I might be being a little pessimistic but I have every confidence that KeIth has, and is, doing his very best to fill the place. 

Readers will remember the saga of getting the Essex County Council to agree to provide a fingernail cutting service for the elderly of the county, through the good intervention off Sir Alan Haselhurst MP. In mid-July I received a letter from the Essex County Council which in essence said that the matter was not as straightforward as we were led to believe when told that this service would be introduced. 

I telephoned the Official concerned yesterday but as told, in true bureaucratic style, that there is still some negotiating to do with the Patients Can’t Trusts [PCT’s] before the service will be up and running.  The big problem to resolve is whether or not the podiatrists will be able,or indeed  allowed, to cut fingernails as well as the toenails.  No doubt this will require a number of committee meetings!.

The other episode with which I had to deal with today was the unsatisfactory  business of my  visit to the community hygienist to have my teeth de-scaled, which turned out to be a fiasco. (See 12 & 26 July entries). As instructed, today I telephoned the Tooth Fairy (Teeth Commissioner) to whom my private dentist has already reported the facts.  By the sound of it  there will almost have to be a public inquiry before I get my teeth seen to.  Again maybe I’m being a little pessimistic but we will see.

No sign yet of my laptop.  I must say I am disgusted with Toshiba for charging almost £400 to deal with the slight spillage of tea on the keyboard.  I do not know precisely what the ‘repair’ involved except I did hear mention of a system board.  Even so the cost of these components to Toshiba must be minimal and to charge an amount which exceeds the price you would pay for a brand-new computer with 320 gigs of hard disk and three gigs of RAM  seems to me to be scandalous..  But then what choice does one have?

Apologises to my readers for this whingeing, rather negative, entry but then, as we all know, it’s good to get these things off your chest.

 

2 Comments

  • Christine says:

    As to whingeing, you go right ahead! All I can say is for the hours of enjoyment you give all us readers compiling this blog, the least we can do is absorb a touch of raving once in a while – in fact I am amazed how serene you are most of the time with what you have to handle each and every day. Hope the next few days improve and Toshiba gets its finger out and returns your laptop.

  • D Mark Cato says:

    Thanks Christine. Your sympathetic words are always welcome. No sign yet of the Toshiba!

    Best wishes

    Mark

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