Books, trolls and food

14 September 2012

Bloomin eck!  It's half way through September already!  Where has the time flown to?  Soon  be Crimble at this rate.

So it's officially happened at long last. The Hussy Hospital is to close Caterina Ward, the children's in-patient ward.  This has been on the cards for a long time now, that and the closure of the maternity ward.  Not that TPTB will ever admit it of course but it's all to do with concentrating as many services as possible at the new Walsgrave site.  I say new because even though the site has been open for some time now, it is still new as such; and of the course the old one has gone.  The University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire to give it it's proper name is one of PFI hospitals built under the last government.  It's a huge great big site and very easy to get lost in.  It regular appears on the telly in shows like A&E which claims it's A&E department is the busiest in the UK.  It needs to attract as many patients and services as possible because they have a very large bill to pay back to the PFI fund providers.  I wouldn't expect the Hussy's A&E to be around much longer now.

In 1996 I began to read for my BA Hons with the OU; and I did a lot of reading too.  So when I left my books on my desk I wanted something nice and easy to read, something I could lose myself in, something didn't have to think too much about to enjoy.  The result was that I returned to SciFi books and found a few new writers, Tom Clancy being one of them.  Now I yet another new writer in Pert James.  I mentioned him yesterday of course.  I've also found quite a few others, Michael Connelly, Mark Bellingham, Ian Rankin, Ian Irvine to name just a few.  Peter James is now making me think as well as enjoying his story lines.   

I mentioned the depression gene yesterday, but last night I came across another one.  Is medical science interfering with human evolution?  I'm not sure, don't know enough to really argue a position on the subject but I do know that if it wasn't for medical science I wouldn't be here today!  Nor would Jan.  But would my mother?  She's 86 now and has advance dementia.  Would she still be here now if she wasn't taking pills for her condition?  See what I mean?  We are damned if we do and damned if we don't sort of thing. 

I'm sure you all know just how much Facebook is a way of life these days.  I like millions of others use it daily.  However, it does have its dark side.  A Dorktown mum of five has become the target of a troll who took photos of her kids and offered them 'free to good home' as sex toys seeing as they had supposedly been abused at home.  Well, just as you get dick heads out on the street then we can expect to use sites like Facebook too.  But I remember one such incident from my OU days.  A certain student signed up for the OU's intranet system but had no intentions of following the rules.  He said he would post what he like about what he liked and whoever he liked.  OK, fine.  He then did what he said until one day he really upset another using on that system.  The upset man found out that the troll lived in the same town.  he then found the trolls address and paid him a visit.  That was the last we ever heard of troll!  I can't condone what happened but we were all relieved when the troll was gone.

I'm hungry!  First time in ages I've hungry for ages.  Normally I feel pretty bloated and stuffed.  It's a bit early yet for lunch so I shall wait a wee while.  But thinking of that, here's a lucky guy at Meadow Hall shopping centre already eating his lunch ...

The Rochdale Sage has been in touch again - I much get on and answer his last email too ... 

A little old lady was walking down the street dragging two large plastic bags behind her.
One of the bags was ripped and every once in a while a £20 fell out onto the sidewalk.
Noticing this, a policeman stopped her, and said," Ma'am, there are £20 notes falling out of the bag."
" Oh, really ? Darn it ! ' said the little old lady, " I 'd better go back and see if I can find them. Thanks for telling me officer."
" Well, now, not so fast," said the cop," Where did you get all that money ? You didn't steal it, did you? "
..." Oh, no, no", said the old lady. " You see , my back yard is right next to a Golf course. A lot of golfers come and wee through a
knot hole in my fence, right into my flower garden. It used to really tick me off. Kills my flowers you know.
Then I thought ,' why not make the best of it ? So now I stand behind the fence by the Knot hole, really quiet, with my hedge clippers.
Every time some guy sticks his thingy through, I surprise him, grab hold of it and say,' O.K., buddy ! Give me £20 quid or off it comes.'
" Well that seems only fair," said the cop, laughing. " OK Good luck ! Oh by the way, what's in the other bag ?"
" Not everybody pays.  I 'm off to the tip."