Today was the right day!!!

25 January 2012

Today was the right day at last.  At 10.45 I had my retinas photographed.  It's called Diabetic Retinal Screening and is done every year at my GP surgery.  The technician looked at the photos and he said it was all clear.  Mind you, I couldn't see anything in the colour image but when he changed it to the mono image everything was very clear.  Anyway, that's that done for another 12 months.

We have a neighbour who has lived in this street nearly as long as my family has.  Linn is very seriously disabled.  She had a fall or something and ended up being operated on by a guy at the Hussy Hospital.  She in now crippled.  My cousin was operated by the same man - and she too has been left crippled.  I know of at least six more people he has left in the same condition.  I saw him once and he referred me to another surgeon; I was operated on by that other surgeon and I'm not crippled.  My brother Dave was also referred by him to another surgeon, and no problems there.  A friend of ours in Bed'th is OK after being referred on is OK.  It annoys me that the surgeon in question is being paid a fortune to cripple these people and gets away with it.  Back to Linn ...

Her hubby Brian goes out to work early so from around 7am until he comes home at around 4pm, she sits in the front room by herself.  She is desperate for company.  Mr Husain next door to us calls in to see her when he is up to it, but at 80 he's not in the best of health.  Jan goes over when she can which isn't often really.  So most of the day she sits watching telly and doing puzzle books.  But it's got me wondering about just how many other people there are about the town in the same boat as Linn.  Far too many I think.

Dorktown town's poppy appeal total is around £50,000 for last year.  That's a record for the town.  On the occasions when various regiments have marched through town on return from Afghanistan, they always receive a very warm welcome back.  Sadly on one occasion the EDL tried to wreck the day by taunting the local Muslim community, but Dorktowners march to their own tune, not the crap the EDL plays!  It shows how high the town regards its service men and women.

The Hussy Hospital has at long last found a partner ... or might have ... in the shape of South Warwickshire NHS Foundation.  It is now hope that if link goes head children's and maternity services will remain here in Dorktown.  Not that it will make difference to me really seeing as most of my medical bits'n'bobs are done at the Walsgrave anyway. 

It looks like we will be having problems getting petrol and diesel soon.  Not only has that refinery shut down but some tanker drivers are out on strike.  There's a supply depot at Kingsbury, just off the M42 and close to Dorktown and there are pickets outside the gate.  I'm glad we filled both cars last weekend!  But how much will it cost in the coming months when Iran starts shouting the odds? 

What's that knocking I hear?  It is my knees at the thoughts of fuel prices rising to new record levels; or is it the military getting ready for another shooting war?

I like art, visual art that is.  With this in mind I have chosen today's photo as an example of what is out there for us all to enjoy.  Meet Bully ...

He stands at the entrance to the Bull Ring off New Street.  Some guys did some test on him once to see if there was any traces of coke and heroin on him ... and there was.  The test were done because there was a report that something about moist of the bank notes in circulation at that time held traces of illicit drugs.

And from the Sage ...

Two young guys appear in court after being arrested for smoking dope.

The judge says, "You seem like nice young men, and I'd like to give you a second chance instead of jail time. I want you to go out this weekend and try to convince others of the evils of drug use. I'll see you back in court Monday."

On Monday, the judge asks the first guy, "How did you do over the weekend?"

"Well, your honour, I persuaded 17 people to give up drugs forever."
"Seventeen people? That's wonderful. How did you do it? "

"I used a diagram, your honour. I drew two circles like this: O o. Then I told them that the big circle is your brain before drugs and the small circle is your brain after drugs."
"That's admirable," says the judge. Then he turns to the second guy. "And how did you do?"

"Well, your honour, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever."

"Wow!" says the judge. "156 people! How did you manage to do that?"

"Well, I used a similar diagram," the guy says. "I drew two circles like this: o O. Then I pointed to the little circle and said, 'This is your asshole before
prison..................  

Blue all over

24 January 2012

We were up early again today because we had booked the council to come and take some old furniture away for us.  No time can be given so we had to be early enough in case they came early.  Not only that I bought Jan one of those pull along shopping trolleys with a seat on them.  I paid for 24 hour delivery again they couldn't give us a delivery time.  So here it is, 2.10pm and it's still not here.  I hate waiting in for deliveries.  Good job I have some work to be getting on with then eh ;-)))  Talking of which ...

Yesterday afternoon while Jan was off visiting our son Tom who is in hospital, I sat and got on with some writing.  I sat here at me 'puter and looked and looked at the open file that I wanted to work on.  No, this wasn't a case of writer's block, I knew what I wanted to write but what I couldn't find was where the preceding part was.  Then it dawned me ... I hadn't written that part yet!  deeerrr ... and I only have one head, how can I be so daft with just one? ;-)))  I'd been lying in bed planning where to go with the story and got the plans and work muxed ip ...  Once that was sorted I got 2,000 words done very quickly and still didn't finished the bit I'd planned; there's a good 1,000 words to go on it.

Not only is our son in hospital we had a phone call yesterday from the care home my mother is in.  She is confined to bed right now with a serious chest infection.  Jan was saying that she was hardly bothering to breath last night when she visited her.  Sad to say, but I don't visit all that often and when I do I tend not to stay there for long.  It upsets me too much to see just the shell mother has become from the ravages of dementia.  Last time we both went mother was clinging to our hands with one of us each side of her.  She didn't know Jan and then asked who the other lady was.  Yes, I find it very hard indeed.

The weather here on Dorktown has dried up for now at least.  I'm hoping it will still be dry tomorrow when I go to get me eyes photographed.  If not Jan will have to drop me off and then pick me up late in town.  I'm sure I can find somewhere nice, warm and dry to wait for her.  I'll take me netbook with me and get some more work done while I wait.

Today's photo is one I got years ago on Nikon Coolpix 4500 - one of those magic cameras where the lens bit turned 900 from the body.  It was very good at macro shots like this one.  I also have this one as my desktop image on my desktop computer upstairs.  I can't get Windows 7 to accept it on my lappy and netbook for some reason ... any pointers would be welcomed.  Here it be then ...

Nowt from the Sage today but how about this for a change ...

When the foot slips, you may recover ... when the tongue slips, never! 

(No idea where this came from originally but I found it in an old notebook once belonging to my father-in-law.  he had collected loads of such nuggets in there.)

Canons and tripods

23 January 2012

Wasn't I a good boy last night?  I set the alarm for 8am just we had agreed seeing as we both had appointments in different parts of town, Jan at 10.30 and me at 10.45.  We got up, Jan got ready and went off for her appointment while I had a shave and got changed.  I came back down stairs and Jan sent me a text to say that her appointment was on Wednesday, not today ... deeerrr - so was mine!  Now we have to go through the whole lot again on Wednesday.  Ah well ... all ads to the variety of life I suppose.

Today's Dorktown News is a hit and miss affair again.  Front page story is about the truck parking problem at Bermuda industrial estate where trucks are double parking along the road.  Double yellow lines are to be painted in an effort to stop it.  But unless they are policed I don't see how it will work.  The drivers will ignore them anyway and just pass them on to their firms to pay so I don't see any how double yellow lines will work.

The Dorktown mayor has quit smoking for his own sake and also to help raise funds for his charity appeal that runs during his one year in office.  I applaud him for his efforts here.  I've never been a smoker and have always found the idea as being dirty and nasty.  Pipe smokers are just as bad really and I wonder whether they use their pips as a substitute dummy they used to have as child.  Like any normal male I see good looking women every day but I'm also disappointed when I see then lighting up.  I would suggest that most ladies are the same they see a good looking doing the same.  Of course, the answer to smoking is not to start in the first place.  And I have time for the that it's hard work to stop smoking when you've been a smoker all your life.  My mother stopped smoking in 1996 when she moved back in here after the house had some major renovations to done to it.  She did it easily - and she was between 60 - 80 a day.  It was the cost implications that made her stop.  If she can do it, so can others if they put their minds to it.  How many times have I heard a smoker say as they down another pint, "It's the only bit of pleasure I've got."  Off he goes to the bar, sits down picks up the paper, fills in a betting slip and off he goes to back a horse.  Fags, booze n hosses ... what a sad life! 

By contrast the centre page spread is about a man from the town who spends most of his time in South Africa working as a volunteer with the Darwin Primate Group who have a rehabilitation sanctuary out there.  He has returned to Dorktown to raise the profile of the group and also to raise funds too probably so that they can continue their work.  The difference in the two life styles couldn't be any wider could they? 

       

Tonight's telly should be good.  I'm looking forward to the closing episode of Above Suspicion.  It's been a good show that one.  Then there's Coppers on C4, and Police Interceptors on C5.  I like Panorama to too.  On top of all that there's Roadshow and Countryfile to watch on Catch-up.  Good job the weather forecast is bad for tomorrow and we have to stay in any way for a delivery and a collection, both at different times.

So then, today's photo - now what will it be today ... ah right ... here it be ... 

Cushenden Harbour on the Antrim coast in Ulster.  It was really nice there when we went.

Sage time ...

The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.'

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to...'

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.'

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?'

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat !.

After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?'

'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'

'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!'

'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.'

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith.

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.'


'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said.

'Oh, my God!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

'And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with..'

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith.

'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look'

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.'

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?'

'It's true, Ma'am, yes.. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away..'

'Tripod?'

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long.'

Mrs. Smith fainted

Poetry ...

22 January 2012 

Poetry is something that I just can't my head around, it makes no sense to me at all.  I remember being at a tutorial for my arts foundation course in 1996 when the tutor read out a poem something, about a dark leaf on a wet branch - see how well it actually registered with me? - and he asked me what I thought about it.  I asked where to the rest was.  He said that was it, how does it make you feel.  Shaking my head I relied, "Tell him not to give up the day job!"  Apparently it was written by one of the foremost poets ever.  I just continued shaking my head.

A couple of Christmases ago I bought myself a Sony e-reader, and very good it is too.  Soon after I bought a load of books on CD and DVD from Amazon which can be loaded onto the reader.  Most f what I have on there are sci-fi books.  Right now I'm about half way through Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsinger.  I have always liked her work but do you think I could spell her name???  So I Goolged it to get it right ... and found out she died last November, sad that.  Anyway, there I am half way through Dragonsinger and I come across a poem and it really gets to me.  Maybe because it's all part of the story that the poem comes in as Menolly writes a song about an incident within the story.  Whatever ... I was more than a bit surprised when I came across this ...

Don't leave me alone!

A cry in the night,

Of anguish heart shrinking,

of soul-killing fright

Live for my living

Or else I must die,

Don't leave me alone

A world heard that cry.

It would take far too long to explain the story behind the writing of those words which are set to music within the story.  Maybe I'm not so totally cut off from poetry after all ;-)))

There was a good reason as to why there was entry here yesterday.  We had a phone call from Kile's mum asking us if we wanted to have him for the weekend.  He's now off to church with Jan leaving me in peace and quiet for a few hours.  So yesterday we went for a short run out in the car just to get him out of the house.  Jan is looking for one of those 4 wheeled shopping trolleys that are strong enough for some to sit on.  We had seen a number of mobility shops here and there so we went off to see if we can find one; we didn't, but we enjoyed the ride around anyway.  Today was supposed to be a birding day for me but I forgot to set the alarm and later fell asleep again sat on the toilet ... oh dear, Jan was not amused ;-)))  But it does mean we can have a birding day together later in the week.  We'll probably got to the new RSPB site up Chester way. 

Today's photo is of a scene on Brum ...

I'm not sure it actually looks like this now seeing as there has been a load of new building going on just there and I haven't been over there for some time now.

Some time ago the Sage sent me this ...

A fleeing Taliban, desperate for water, was plodding through the Afghan desert when he saw something far off in the distance.  Hoping to find water, he hurried toward the oasis, only to find a little old Jewish man at a small stand, selling ties.
 

The Taliban asked, "Do you have water?"
 

The Jewish man replied, "I have no water. Would you like to buy a
tie? They are only $5."
 

The Taliban shouted, "Idiot! I do not need an over-priced tie! I need water! I should kill you, but I must find water first!
 

"OK," said the old Jewish man, "It does not matter that you do not want to buy a tie and that you hate me. I will show you that I am bigger than that. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the ice cold water you need. Shalom."

Cursing, the Taliban staggered away over the hill.  Several hours later he staggered back, almost dead & said:     "Your f***ing brother won't let me in without a tie!"