26 February 2012
Thank goodness a trouble-free night despite me being slightly apprehensive as the mask was clamped on before going down. Quite illogical as the problem which occurred the night before is unlikely to recur.
Another lovely spring like day, but not quite warm enough for me to sit out in the garden. We have an old fashion, saying’ ne’er cast a cloud,’ till May be out’ in other words, never leave of your winter clothing untill the end of May. There has always been some controversy as to whether the reference was to the end of the month of May or, I think more likely, until the May blossom is out. It certainly is not in evidence yet so I shall heed the warning. Having said that, and seen, on the five day forecast, that the predicted temperature for Tuesday is 15°C, I have tentatively booked Ollie to take me to the golf club. I am not foolish enough to think that that is the end of the winter, bearing in mind another old saying ‘the March winds doth blow and we shall have snow’ I even remember a smattering of slowing may so we are not, out of the woods yet. Taking one day at a time. If Tuesday really almost 3 times the normal temperature for this time of year then I should grab it and enjoy it.
Smiler came down to lunch, yesterday to check up on us to and make sure we were managing and see if there was anything he could do for us. I must say both Chloe and Miles are lovely children and they make sure that one or other of them comes down to see us every two or three weeks. Today ,we add the international rugby on quietly in the background and had a good chat about this and that. Smiler, feeling his roots are very much in Wales was keen on the Welsh, beating the English at Twickenham, which is precisely what they did. I think they said for the first time forS29 years. It was a very closely fought contest and the result might have been different had the last English try, scored in the closing minutes, being allowed. Some of the commentators and I, adding carefully watched the slow motion replay the several times, would have awarded to try and then had it been converted the scores would have been level. However, in the event Wales won, and in doing so, won the triple Crown , having already beaten the Irish and Scots and they are still in line to win the overall six Nations championship.
Paul’ the computer’ came round after lunch to babysit for a couple of hours and we took advantage of his visit to complete the application form from the MND Association for a laptop to replace my present one which really has become ridiculously unreliable. It can sometimes take me the whole morning to do the blog whereas on a good day, it will only be half an hour. It only has two USB ports, the Hi speed one is badly corrupted and the second one intermittently so. Add to this the intermittently faulty keyboard. plus the problems over Dragon, in discussion with Paul, we have decided that the only solution is to start afresh with a new laptop. The reason for this is that the USB ports are not repairable and the laptop would require a new motherboard. and a new keyboard. Knowing how Toshiba charge exorbitant rates for repairs I might just as well start again. I remember paying something in the order of £400, not so long ago when I spilt a little coffee on the keyboard. Paul told legal by keyboard. I think for about £25 and it would take it no more than 10 or 15 min to install it. Not that we’re going down that route because of the faulty USB ports but it gives you an idea what ridiculous costs are charged for repairing these things. I’m not sure which is the best route to go down, loan or grant, and will check up with the MND people on Monday. I really don’t care which is and have every intention of donating my laptop to the Association on my departure from this world, in any event, but I am hoping that they will agree a sum of money and leave us free to go out into the market and choose something to suit my particular needs.
Wake up the reason I’m going on about the cost of repairs is to suggest to my readers if they have a real problem not to rush off to the makers or the local computer shop but trying to find a computer geek friend to help you out for a fraction of the cost. I had a very good example. recently, when my screen got damaged and actively replaced. Paul obtained an identical screen from eBay at a cost of just under £40 and fitted it in 10 of the 15 min-total cost £45 Etimated repair costs from a local repair outfit, £250.
Today’s little homily is recounted by an American servicemen to a Rotary Club Meeting in the Florida, USA. It is well worthwhile the effort in watching this video through and appreciating the value put on appreciation loyalty and friendship for another human being. Click here for a truly heart warming story
25 February 2012
No sooner had I got into my office (8.05 this morning than a call came through from Abu Dhabi from one of my cricketing mates., Patrick Lepper. I told him he was pushing his luck telephoning an invalid at that time of the morning. I suspect that he had forgotten about the time difference. Anyway, the good news is that he’s landed a good job with a German company operating in Abu Dhabi. He has been appointed as Corporate Director for something to do with oil and gas and freight movement.
He was extremely lucky to land this job in the face of hundreds of expatriates leaving Dubai, which is only about 40 min away. It is one’ against the head’ as they say, in rugby. There must have been stiff competition for the job. I’m delighted for him as he has had very little luck over the last 20 years since I’ve known him, so it was a good start to my Saturday morning to learn of his good fortune.
Actually, there was very nearly was no Saturday morning for me. At around 5.15 this morning. suddenly I suddenly find it hard to breath and then realised that I was not getting our air my respirator,. I struggled to get my arms from under the bed clothes, which took a couple of minutes or so, and, of course, I panicked and flailed around trying to find the alarm button, but without success. The respirator itself has an alarm but ‘my lovely’ keeps it as low as possible because of her sensitive hearing and there was no way that she was going to hear it even though she was up and about. My only hope was the alarm. Fortunately, I just avoided blacking out. before I must’ve struck the alarm and she came down, realised my predicament and I could just squeak out “get me up” She was able to drag me to a sitting position, and moved me about so I could try to get balanced. I then clung to her on for at least 15 min before managing to get my breathing under control again. It was a lucky escape and something to do with a connection between a respirator and the pipe leading from the mask, which, and then enter me, had apparently broken and Alice had taped it up using there’s bits of that paper tape and a bit of a alastaplast. Clearly, this should not happen, So Alice rang mid-morning and a couple of hours later and you respirator and pipe arrived so hopefully we will have no further problem
The other thing we must do is increase the volume of the respirator alarm which is so quiet at the moment I doubt it. It can be heard outside my bedroom. I realise that ‘my lovely’ will not be able to stand the noise, as she has very sensitive hearing and any loud noise distresses her, so I shall suggest that we purchase some earmuffs that they use in shooting ranges, which will completely deaden the sound, and keep them in the hall outside the bedroom door. It is no good relying on her finding her earplugs when I am desperately trying to breathe. The irony is that with the respirator in place but not producing any air I could not even gasp air through my mouth as it was sealed off. It was as if I had had a plastic bag pulled over my head. If I can get someone to increase the alarm volume on the respirator, I will not have to entirely rely on my personal alarm system. which, when it goes off in the normal way, Alice would assume that I wanted something rather than there was an emergency. Before today, this would have been fine. However, we have learned an important lesson.
Talking of the well-known stiff upper lip of the British reminds me of the French general who once asked his British counterpart why they always wore red jackets? Click here for his reply to the old enemy.
24 February 2012
I am pleased to report that I had a reasonably comfortable night, with minimal pain in my hips and shoulder. Ironically, the worst pain was in my knees which I believe to be arthritis and nothing is, or can, be done about that except, perhaps, to have a keyhole operation on each to clear out the rubbish back, frankly, I’ve had enough operations soldiers put up with the discomfort. .
When I was with the pain consultant yesterday he looked at my medication and decided that I was taking very little pain killer. He suggested that I dropped the 2000 m.g paracetamol if it was doing no good and increase the amitriptyline from the current10 m.g. He said I could go as high as 70-75 m.g, provided there were no adverse side effects. He described these adverse effects as flushing, sweating and bad headaches. I told him that I already have the odd surge of flushing and sweating, presumably from some reaction. from one of the other pills. Anyway the idea is that I increase the amitriptyline to a point where it becomes an effective painkiller up to the maximum prescribed dose barring adverse reactions. Last night I took 20 m.g. of amitriptyline and will stick to that for the time being to see if that can control the pain.
One of my readers have written to say that her husband has been given a chair cushion and the mattress called REPOSE, which apparently he is finding very comfortable. (See yesterday’s comment on entry). Accordingly I contacted my Occupational Therapist to see if I could try out this REPOSE and she said that this was more to do with the District Nurse and she would pass on my request and, no doubt, the nurse would come and visit me to discuss.
Yet another trip was planned to Addenbrookes Hospital today, this time to the Eye Clinic for a normal follow-on check-up after my counteract operations. I tried to get this appointment on the same day as the pain clinic but the consultants work on different days so it was not possible. Anyway, I was told to be ready at just after midday for a 2.30 appointment. I closed down my computer and having been put into my electric wheelchair went and sat in the hall waiting for the ambulance. We waited and waited, but having been picked up on previous occasions at a time passer which I was supposed to be at the hospital for my appointment, we were not overly concerned. Paul was with me and I asked him to ring the eye clinic, which he did. Their first response was that the ambulance was on its way they couldn’t say what time it would arrive. When it came to 2 o’clock Paul rang again and this time made more of a fuss so that the receptionist called the hospital transport only to learn that they had no record of the request and therefore there was no ambulance coming to pick me up. This is pretty disgraceful considering’ ‘my lovely’ had telephoned seven days before the scheduled appointment, confirmed it again yesterday and made a final call this morning. On each occasion she was assured the ambulance had been booked.
When I was settled back in my study. J. I telephoned the clinic coordinator and informed her that I have a home visit from an optician and could I not get him or her to check the cataract. She agreed I could ,so, the least, I don’t need to go back to Addenbrookes for a check-up..
Another lovely day. but a few degrees cooler than yesterday. After all the nonsense over the ambulance it was too late to sit in the garden too late to sit in the garden with a cigar.t. There are snowdrops in abundance with the bright yellow celadine scattered here and there .the winter roses are still going strong and the daffodils are now well on the way to blooming when the weather permanently improves.These rare warm days in the winter make one realise that spring is not far away.
With all this business about visits to Addenbrookes. I think the following medical notes found on forms filled in by NHS staff might give my readers a little amusement. This in no way is meant to denigrate NHS staff as many other body of people, we all make mistakes but click here to see these.
23 February 2012
This morning I went off to the pain clinic to have the injection in my shoulder. Dr Mark Abrahams, the pain consultant, at Addenbrookes, carried out the .procedure. He managed to do with me sitting in my wheelchair. I can’t pretend that it was particularly pleasant or pain free, poking the needle about inside my shoulder trying to find a particular nerve. Following the shoulder he injected both hips with steroids which was not such a complicated procedure. As they must always tell you. possible side effects or reactions. I was a little alarmed when he said that very rarely they can puncture a lung and that if I felt particularly breathless towards the evening I should ring for an ambulance. Of course, the very idea made me more breathless as the evening went on, particularly as I had a bit of a pain in my chest, but, in the event, all was well. Apparently the pain in the shoulder might get worse for around one month, after which, if it has worked, it should substantially reduce the pain for a year or so.
It was such a beautiful day with a temperature around 17/18°C-,something like 12° above normal for this time of year – that when I returned in the ambulance, I went straight out into the garden and sat there for half an hour with a small cigar. Apparently where we live in, East Anglia, we have had the lowest rainfall for 100 years and face Hose bans in our garden this coming summer. Certainly, the weather seems to be topsy-turvy. The five day forecast for next Tuesday is for a cloudy & sunny and day of 15°C so I’m very tempted to go to the golf club for a drive around in my wheelchair and lunch.my old mates.
Readers might well remember that, some time ago, after the Smedley suicide in Dignitas Switzerland. I propounded the idea of a programme which explained the working of Hospices, the purposes of which is frequently misunderstood as being a place where you go to die. I put the idea to the producer of the original programme, Craig Hunter, who took the matter up with the BBC. When it was initially suggested, the BBC did not reject the idea out of hand,. I chased him up today and as he has not heard anything is undertaken to contact them again and hopefully let me know the outcome within a couple of weeks.
Regular readers will recall the weeks of hou-ha over removing the Dale farm, so-called’ travellers’ (see entries between September 2 011 and early February 2012). Therefore, you can imagine my horror when I learned that an application has been made for a permanent site on the back road no more than a mile or so from our house. I accept that these’ travellers’ have to live somewhere and that permanent sites should be made available for them but they should be limited in number, say no more than 10 caravans at the time, not 50 like Dale farm. I imagine there will be a local campaign against this proposal.
I assiduously avoid putting anything offensively critical or political on this blog. I get quite a lot of propaganda from the USA criticising their president, which I have never repeated. However, this current piece of propaganda spells out the cost of illegal immigration in America. I have been an advocate for some long time now on some sort of control on the number of people who are allowed to come here to work, even from the EU, with positive discrimination in favour of our own unemployed over these incomers. These figures , in the following note, on what it is costing America, may well be an object lesson to those who feel there should be a complete freedom of movement between countries and therefore no such thing as illegal immigration. One expects propagandists to exaggerate but even if these figures are anywhere near the truth. they are real eye-openers when it comes to the cost of illegal immigration. At least the author has given readers the opportunity of linking through to the original source of the statistics. Click here to see the cost to America and speculate on what it is costing us .
22 February 2012
At last the agreement to bail out Greece has been agreed, signed and is in place, so for the time being we can all breathe a little easier. How long this arrangement will survive remains to be seen. Certainly the Greek populace are not at all pleased with the outcome to which their government has agreed and daily riots continue.. After already being in the recession for five years, the new arrangement makes available €113 billion with the proviso that by 2020 . they have got their expenditure down to no more than 120% of GDP. (This new loan is given to them on the basis that it should be possible to reach this target, but only after having written off half of their debt-€110 billion) If they achieve this it will probably take another 3 to 5 years before their economy begins to grow. In the meantime they have to suffer quite severe cuts in expenditure-which means that the minimum wage has to be reduced and all public servants will have to take a further cut in their wages, on average, amounting to €400 a week, a number of public expenditure programmes will have to be delayed and taxes will rise. During this period of austerity they have to somehow repay a total of €203 billion. Frankly, I think it will be too steep a hill to climb and they will leave the Eurozone as a bankrupt nation, but as this is unprecedented, so. it is impossible to forecast the effect on the rest of Europe.
In the meantime the tender shoots of recovery continue to appear in this country. However, these early signs of recovery are very tender and it would not take much to kill them off.
Syria continues to be an embarrassment to the rest of the world who, because of the Chinese and Russian vetoes, are powerless to do anything about the vocal opposition to the present regime who daily get fired upon and many killed. How long can we stand by watching this massacre of the innocents. Clearly the veto system in the Security Council must somehow be weakened to prevent this sort of situation occurring in the future.
To continue the International roundup, the build-up of nuclear material in Iran is getting America and a number of other Middle East countries, very edgy. The Iranians continue to maintain that they are merely building up this for peaceful purposes, i.e. nuclear power stations but they do not deny that they have sufficient plutonium (?) to make a nuclear bomb. Unless this situation is nipped in the bud,.it is feared it could lead to a proliferation of nuclear powers in the Middle East in those countries who feel they could be threatened by Iran. After everything that America and Russia have done to educe this threat over the years, such an escalation would be disastrous.
The stripper episode in our village hall (see 10 February entry) has now managed to reach all of the, daily newspapers, including The Times. I’m sure that my friends will be incredulous that such a quiet English village could become embroiled in such a sordid business.
Alice has been onto Dr Lort and sorted out what appears to be suitable solutions to my various problems. Once’ my lovely’ gets the bit between her teeth she is formidable, and will not take no for an answer.
Talking of nuclear threats click here for John Cleese’ view of the state of alert in the major countries of the world.
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21 February 2012
Paul’ the computer’, has fixed up my music, as he promised, so I can control it from my laptop and play it through my Bose speakers. He has yet to set up the macro commands for me, like scrolling down scrolling up; selecting a named composer or piece of music etc, all of which is possible, even if we had to purchase a special Dragon Lifestyle programme, but in the meantime I have the added pleasure of being able to listen to my classical music once more..
Although Paul and I I have pretty well cracked the problem of voice activation (mainly Paul), it is still not 100% of what it could be. This is because the high-speed USB port on the laptop is corrupted and there are only two USB ports and, in addition, there is something wrong with the keyboard as it occasionally inserts a space after a letter without being prompted to do so. When the program froze. This morning I got onto Dragon, as they requested, gave them access to my computer and left them to it. whilst I had lunch. When I settle down again and read my e-mails I saw one from them are asking if I could recall what programme Dragon had frozen on. I told them that the best of my memory. It was Microsoft office Word 2010.
I got onto the MND Association this morning,, who own this computer, and because of two hardware problems not working correctly, suggested that they replace it. My main problem however is that I cannot be without a computer for two or three weeks while the exchange takes place. I told the lady concerned that they need to deliver the replacement computer so that we can transfer all information over and then we will send the other one back. She told me that they have changed their policy and no longer provide laptops to their members. I pointed out the importance to me of continuing my daily blog which is mainly for the benefit of MND patients and their carers and I hoped she would take this into account when discussing the matter with her superior. After discussing this with her supervisor. She sent me a Financial Application Form which I drove fill-in with Paul at the end of the week.
Alice was concerned about an inflamed sebaceous cyst. I have on my shoulder, so I telephoned the local surgery hoping that a district nurse could pop in and have a look at it. In the event, to my GP, Dr Lort, came herself and after examining it suggested that we put a hot flannel on it three times a day in the hope of drawing it out .When I told”my lovely’ what the doctor had suggested, she was not at all pleased and got on the war path this morning to the surgery to insist that they send a district nurse out with a proper poultice and not expect her or any of the carers to cope with this in an amateurish way. Making the usual noises about being short staffed -which I am sure is the case, as are only two of them for the whole of this district – the district nurse did agree to come and look at it and hopefully bring some poultices with her. Alice was also concerned about a small mole on my back, which has become inflamed and itchy Again we must have this checked out ASAP as I spent my life in the sun in various parts of the world and if anyone deserves to get skin cancer is me, so better save than sorry. When the district nurse arrived and looked at it . she said that it must be checked out by the GP. Such a pity it was not itching when she came yesterday as I do not think she will be too pleased come back again so soon. (The district nurse did not have any poultices and did not seem to know where we could obtain them from!)
Whilst Dr. Lort was here. we discussed a number of other things, including my highly disturbed stomach, trapped wind and bloating. She suggested it was probably a combination of the medication I took and she would look at them when she got back to the surgery. I suggested that at the same time she consider if any of them could be converted to a liquid as the process in the evenings of shovelling in something like 15 pills is becoming a bit of a nightmare, particularly as I’m fearful of choking, which I know is all in the mind, but nevertheless I begin to dread having to go through this performance every evening. Just to cheer me up, whilst she was here, Dr Lort. produced a DNR form (Do Not Resuscitate)., As she said, mainly for the carers who tend to panic if something untoward happens to their patient. She said that the practice doctors sit down once a week to discuss patients like me, (i.e. those on the way out!,) and raise the matter of being resuscitated in an emergency. She said that the carers tend to flap. If anything happens to their patient and call the paramedics, whose duty it is to try to resuscitate the patient.
Unless, like me, have made it clear, they do not want to be resuscitated if they cannot be sure that I would have the same quality of life. As I had before, then I would rather slip away. I certainly do not want to end up as a vegetable, for months or years in bed, unable to move or do anything for myself and become monstrous burden on my family.
Tonight was the first occasion that we tried the earlier bedtime – 9.00 instead of 9.30. It is these last two or three hours, each day, when I am fatigued that I fele I would be better off in bed. The only drawback being that if I have a painful right. I would not want to extend it. However, last night, to be honest, I did not notice the difference. So we shall stick to the nine o’clock time for the foreseeable future.
‘My lovely’ has this quaint idea of making me comfortable in bed around six and installing a nice new flat screen HD TV at the end of the bed so we can both sit there and watch something that goes on after nine o’clock,, whereas what we can watch the at present is very limited. I think the only problem with that is, I might find ,it difficult to get comfortable,. sitting up in bed., However, we will see.
The highlight of today was the visit of my daughter Chloe and my three grandchildren., Fred, Sebastien (Seb.) and Lara They buzz around the garden burning up some of their, seemingly endless, energy which expands from the grim constricted area of their small London garden into the freedom of the large open space of our garden. I do not expect them to spend a lot of time with me .but I usually manage to find a couple of things on my computer that interest them, but beyond that they run around the garden and let off some steam. We all had lunch together in the breakfast room and I was able to have a small cigar before being wheeled back into the study. From my point of view is just a joy to see them from time to time..
As this entry includes a comment on my medication. I got this little joke about tablets would be appropriate. Click here and see if you agree.
20 February 2012
I have a new problem and I hate mentioning it as I feel as though I’m always complaining about something, however this one is getting a little serious. It’s all to do with the cushion in my NHS lounger. I think the flesh on my backside has virtually disappeared and I find myself sitting on two bones from eight o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night. Although we have taken to relieving this pressure by hoisting up at lunchtime and briefly at six o’clock, there are still a number of hours in between when this can be extremely uncomfortable. Accordingly, I have chased my Occupational Therapist to see if I could get one of those Roho cushions which are customised, through a computer reading, to an individual’s backside. I have one fitted on my wheelchair and I must say it is very successful.
The soft rubber cushion I have on the chair at present is fine for a few hours but towards the evening I find myself getting very uncomfortable and there is no excuse for that with all the wonderful equipment they have today to make patients feel as comfortable as possible. I telephoned my occupational therapist and from the conversation you might get the impression that I’m the first person who sits all day in one of these NHS loungers. In other words, she was not very conversant with alternative cushions and when I told her I thought I needed something like the one in my wheelchair, which I do find comfortable, she suggested that I perhaps spend a couple of hours a day in that. With the greatest respect, not a very useful suggestion. Apart from anything else, although the cushion is comfortable, you certainly cannot relax in a wheelchair and it would mean being hoisted out of my normal chair into the wheelchair and then back again at the end of the two-hour session. Who did she expect to do this.? Not a very practical suggestion. Anyway, she’s agreed to look into the Roho cushion. for me.
Yesterday, I discovered amongst all of my papers, that I had an envelope containing book tokens. One with a credit card at Waterstones’ and another one for £40 at Amazon. I went onto the Waterstones’ site and bought four books. I got onto the customer services division and explained that I was severely disabled and, in particular he could not write and add no use of my hands and they were very helpful and talked me through the whole process. I must say I find the business and reading books on my laptop, easy and enjoyable. I use the Kindle software which is free, and this enables me to change the font size and to turn over the pages orally.
Harriet, the head of Ross Nursing popped in this morning for a cup of coffee and a chat. It’s her new thing. She has decided to spend more time going around chatting to her clients to ensure that they are getting the service they want rather than spending her time doing the administration. I think this is a very good idea as one can diplomatically then sort out any little wrinkles in the service. Lovely though most of the girls are ,there certainly are one or two who are a bit dithering and nervous. – I expect it’s me who makes them so – but I suggested to Harrietit would be better for the clients if we could stick pretty well to the same people, at least, for the two key calls, the one first thing in the morning and the six call in the evening when I’m prepared for bed. Apart from the early morning call the other three seem to be serendipity, sometimes someone turning up who has never been here before, or perhaps only once, which means we have to take them through the process. Harriet took that on board and I believe will do something about it.
After that catalogue of misery, click here for some classical British humour.
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19 February 2012
I’m sorry to say I had a really bad night last night. The pain in my shoulder and my hip were excruciating. Thank goodness I have an appointment with the pain clinic towards the end of the week and hopefully day will be able to ameliorate this situation.
The other medical condition which I have now determined. I’m going to follow through on is the troublesome wind that bloats me out and causes my tummy to rumble and grumble the whole time and feel very uncomfortable. Nobody seems to have taken this very seriously in the past so I’m going to insist on seeing a senior gastroenterologist by being referred from my MND team. If I have to pay, then I have to pay but ,I cannot believe that if Prince Charles had the same problem as I have he would have to put up with the misery that I do. So why should I?
When I opened my e-mail this morning I saw that I had my online account from Orange, who provide my broadband. I pay a flat rate of £32 .75 a month which i is advertised as including free telephone calls but there are always extras which amount to between £6 and £10 a month. Then I constantly see advertised what appeared to be incredibly cheap offers from other providers (Talk Talk £3.24 per month).
No doubt there are additional items to pay, on these cheap offers, but like line rental and possibly some limitation on calls, although they advertise no limit (no doubt qualified in the small print, which is just about impossible to read at the bottom of the screen) This being so, I cannot but feel that I’m being penalised for loyalty. This being said, I telephoned Orange this morning and asked them whether I really had the best deal.
They agreed. I did not in a good offer me a new deal saving five pounds per month. Their excuse was that we do not have a very fast broadband and that when (and if) a new exchange is fitted out it will be quicker (just how that’s going to affect my bill, he did not explain). However, in the politest way I asked the representative how I could be sure that I’ve got the best deal with this seemingly slow broadband.. He agreed I could switch to another one Orange program on offer which would reduce my monthly account by five pounds. I asked the representative what was the difference between this £27.75 per month and my present arrangement and he confirmed that there was no difference!. He openly admitted that new customers get a better deal. In effect, then you get nothing for loyalty in fact quite the opposite. You pay through the nose for being loyal. Most of us can’t be bothered to check ,on a regular basis (life’s too short) whether we’ve got the best deal or not. It is such a hassle to change providers , quite apart from the problem of retaining your e-mail address which in my case is absolutely imperative.. The same applies to gas and electricity. It is a disgrace. But then what can we do about it other than to pester these providers on a monthly basis to ensure we are getting a good deal. In this case, the representative said he would change the over contract immediately. The only stipulation was that I must agree to stay with it for at least 18 months. I told him that there was no guarantee I would even be here in 18 months so I’m quite happy with that proviso. Accordingly I ‘signed up’ and was told that I would find my monthly bill reduced from next month. The just shows you, it pays to ask.
‘Bill and Ben’, our good handymen, came this morning to go through a whole list of small jobs that we needed doing that neither Alice nor I could manage. They are usually very good and are prepared to turn their hand to anything. However, today they did not stay long (I expect, ma’am and laid on a good roast for Sunday lunch) and are coming back on Friday when I will be at the eye clinic so they can have a good crack at cleaning my study.
It’s about time we had another joke about golfers. So, here goes, click here... ‘
18 February 2012
I’m pleased to report that my blog appears to be working perfectly well after the fright. I had a couple of days ago when the whole thing was wiped out. Richard did a great job in recovering all the data. Regular readers will notice that it is in a slightly different template from before, but is fundamentally the same. I must admit I preferred the earlier template – the colours were more attractive – but I am very grateful for small mercies. One thing which is different about the current version is that if you go into the archive and click on a particular month, you will see that the daily entries only appear as an abstract, i.e. only the first few lines. To pull up the entire entry double-click on an abstract, otherwise everything else appears to be the same as before.
I heard yesterday that my second grandson Sebastian has won an Academic Scholarship to his public school. We are both very proud of him – well done Seb. In effect, this means a reduction in fees which is very welcome when you have three children to educate. It’s also nice for Seb and will no doubt boost his self confidence, particularly as brother Fred got an Academic Scholarship at the same school a year or so ago.
My good friend and contributing editor to the update of my book Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Interlocutory and Hearing Problems had a letter in The Times yesterday, which I found quite amusing. He wrote:
Inns and Outs
Sir, Students’ choice of Inns of Court (Feb.15) has nothing to do with architectural aesthetics. Tradition has it that their motives are reflected in the following lines of doggerel.
Middle for the rich man
Inner for the poor
Lincoln’s for the scholar
Gray’s for the bore
DR JULIAN CRITCHLOW
Tregaron, Ceredigion
As a member of Lincoln’s Inn, I cannot but agree with him.
Douglas Gordon came round this morning for a coffee, having missed out the other day, as the result of being stuck on a train. Wife Cecilia, very considerably decided not to come with him as she had a mild cold and did not want to risk me catching it. I think most people have got the message about coming here with cold but I ought to ask the Papworth people what happens about my respirator, if I really do catch a filthy cold and I cannot breathe under the mask. I suspect they will suggest that I sit up all night which will not make me very happy. I’m also going to ask them if there is such a thing as a small mobile version that I can take with me in the ambulance when I go to the golf club on Tuesdays or to Lord’s for the cricket. I do occasionally get very breathless and suspect I could easily hyperventilate, particularly if I was aware that I had no respirator available. I know a l post title ot of it is in the mind and I should be able to just calm down but panic can take over, particularly if you are struggling to breathe..
The situation in Syria is becoming farcical. Night after night we are shown clandestinely pictures of the Army firing into the crowd of thousands of protesters. Heaven knows how many they have killed already. Without Russia and China agreeing, the United Nations seems powerless. We have to sit by and watch hundreds of innocent people being slaughtered. I know it is a dilemma in interfering with the sovereign rights of the state, but there must come a point at which it is totally unacceptable to stand on the side lines and I suggest we have certainly reached that point now.
To get away, for a few moments, from the horrors in on what is happening in Syria, click here and see this amazing encounter with wild gorillas.
17. February 2012
Not a brilliant night. I had a painful hip and shoulder both of which were relieved only when’ my ‘lovely’ came down to turn me over. I have stopped the cortisone tablets, given to me by the good Dr Michael, which may have something to do with it. In any case, I’m going to the pain clinic at Addenbrookes next week and so hopefully will be able to sort out some satisfactory solution, then .
I received a note this morning from the secretary of The Arbitration Club, Martin Potter, warning that he had a bug in his computer, which he may have passed on to others. Perhaps this was the origin of my worm.
Paul came round of the lunch and set up my music for me. He got a cable from Hong Kong, which he was able to plug into the Bose speakers and the Buddy goose necked microphone. True, this means inserting some special macro commands which I shall have add to my voice activation programme, Dragon, then I should be able to play any one of my 5000 odd tracks of music, by voice, from my laptop. I have really have missed listening to my classical music over the past few months but I simply cannot point the remote control at, the iPod and do not have enough strength in my fingers to press the buttons, so this new setup will be a real godsend.
The self-confessed terrorist Abu Qatada, has been released from prison but has a 22 curfew each day at home, whilst our Foreign Office are having frantic discussions with the Jordanians to see if they can extract a guarantee that none of the information gained from this man by torture can be used in any subsequent trial in Jordan.. If they are unable to agree something which satisfies our authorities, heaven knows what we are going to do with him.
The row about the strip show, organised by our local primary school PTA in the village hall, has now reached the national press – the Sun and the Daily Telegraph. I suppose someone local saw the main chance of making a few bob, but fortunately it was only on page 29 of the Sun so I don’t suppose it will create much of a stir nationally. . However, locally, this business is far from settling down and I’m sure some heads will roll before long. Even though the event raised around £1500 for school activities or equipment, it was totally unacceptable and certainly must not be repeated. I am certainly not a prude and if people want to get their fun out of such show, that’s fine by me. but put it on at a more suitable venue, not a hall in a quiet English village.
The fact that there is a young girl in hospital, having been allegedly run into by one of the attendees of this show, who, it is said, was the worse for wear from drinking and who abandoned her 4×4 and ran home leaving the scene of the accident, really has little to do with the principle of what is, or is not, a satisfactory show in our village hall and should not be allowed to obfuscate the issue, dreadful though this outcome was.
I have not heard recently what condition is this poor girl but hopefully she will make a full recovery in the fullness of time. If the gossip about the person who ran into her turns out to be true, then I hope that person is incarcerated for, however brief a period to teach her a lesson.
I don’t want to appear to be too flippant after such a serious accident but to lighten the mood a little, click here to see the importance of giving clear instructions