My Life In An Eggshell

Surely its a crime to be disabled in Britain now?

2011-09-26T13:04:00.000+01:00

Don't dare to be disabled or sick in this rotten country. This government is even worse than the last one, and that's putting it mildly. Their latest wheeze is to time limit the contribution based WRAG (Work Related Activity Group) of the ESA (Employment & Support Allowance) to 12 months retrospectively, so that IF this change is made law it will come in to force in April 2012 and those unfortunate enough to be in this group will have their money cut immediately, so they won't be able to pay rent, pay for food, or medicine and well, make your own mind up about where that's going to lead. But the Department for Work & Pensions are starting to send letters to those affected NOW, why? They are obviously all of one mind that this nasty government will get its way in the House of Lords when the bill is debated, and you know why? Because they have shifted the reading of the bill from the main floor of the house, where they know they'd be defeated and put it instead into a side room where there are not enough places for a decent enough hearing and therefore not too many objections - nice eh? Bet these bully boy millionaires are all congratulating themselves on how they are getting their own way so easily, but then it's easy to do when you circumvent democracy isn't it.

This group is meant to be for people who could work given the right support, but in fact people with terminal illnesses, people from hospices and those really too disabled to work are being put into this group because the company being paid by the government to find people fit for work is happily doing this even where people are way too ill or disabled to work. It stinks and everybody just lets it happen but a word of warning, disability doesn't care who it strikes next. Keep baying for all the benefits to be stopped and you may very well end up being on the receiving end of this government's nastiness towards those unable to fend for themselves. Even jobcentres are wholly disgusted at the people they are seeing for work related interviews (a condition of being in this group) saying people from hospices and those too ill or disabled to work, they say they have never seen these people before and they are shocked. This government is failing those who need this care at the very time they need it. But why should they care? They don't have to worry about paying bills, or not knowing where their next meal is coming from.

I am amazed that instead of blocking this nastiness by this wholly abhorrent government, people are actively encouraging it and in some cases even pre-empting it. Where has the compassion and the caring gone? stifled that's where. It is now ok to abuse the disabled, mock them, throw stones and verbally have a go because people know they can do it and get away with it. Try writing to your MP but because they are so blinded with being in power they are not even remotely interested in helping. I've written to mine three times now, a conservative member for my area, and surprise, surprise - nothing.

While we are busy giving our money away to other countries and worrying about their welfare, we are taking it away from our own people. Those who have jobs and their health seem to be thinking they are better than their disabled countrymen, but like I said earlier disability doesn't care who it picks and chooses. Seems we all have to suffer for those 3% who play the system and who really are the scroungers but we are always told we are all the same, yet what about those who have paid into the system when they could work? Why are they having money stopped arbitrarily? If you haven't paid in to the system you cannot have any benefits paid – end of! But no, we take in everyone from anywhere and give them money, no wonder we have to start taking it off the disabled, as they can't afford to keep paying out to keep the world.

It is downright disgusting and because not too many people know what's going on unless they have a family member with a disability, they're being kept in the dark by this rotten excuse for a government. Seems to me it is wholly the fault of the disabled of Britain who has caused the dire financial state we are in, not the bankers. No, if it were the bankers they'd be penalised surely?

What an utter disgrace this government is. In a few years time when the scale of their nastiness becomes apparent when the disabled are out on the street, or worse they will have some serious questions to answer but in all probability we will be propping up another useless excuse for a government, and by then it will be too late.

This party has gained the nickname the nasty party and boy are they ever showing their true colours now. They forget that the sick and disabled in Britain have a vote, we will use it at the next election, if we still have homes, and are still here. Seems to me we won't be if this government keeps on the way it is.

Nasty by name???

© silversapphire 2011

Goodbye Midsomer Murders as we know it

2011-06-02T14:20:00.000+01:00

Brian True-May, the producer of Midsomer Murders is 'stepping down' at the end of this current run to be replaced by Jo Wright. Apparently the still to be commisssioned 15th series needs to be 'refreshed.'

This sounds ominous, and I fear for the series' future if it is, as expected, going to change dramatically to appease the politically correct; all this will do in my humble opinion is kill off the series altogether. We have far too many androgenous cop shows on telly at the moment as it is. Anyone remember how good The Bill used to be in it's hour long formats?

Brian True-May had integrity and vision for MM and I fear for the show's longevity once he leaves.

© silversapphire 2011

Village Idiot Convention 2011 - Auditions Start Today!!!

2011-05-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

It's official, the Village Idiot Convention begins local auditions today.

So far we have a young idiot who goes round the village doing that godawful noise from a song on an insurance advert; you know the one - the one with the disco ball and the bridge in the song which goes 'owah owah' in a high pitched tone. Well, there's ya winner right there! This is a village idiot par excellence; the parents must be so proud! It actually encourages the other idiots (in training) to emulate their leader; what a singularly glowing advertisement this village is to anyone daft enough to stumble across it.

Midsomer County anyone?

© silversapphire 2011

Parched Earth, Battered Roses and Old Dogs

2011-05-27T15:14:00.002+01:00

Well, we managed to have a semi torrential downpour here yesterday (sodding bully boy of a thing, battered my lovely white roses to hell and back) and a little bit more of the same today. It's all very well saying 'at last - rain' but it's not much use unless it rains for a while, like all day for a couple of days. Earth here is as dry as concrete. Makes me wonder why this little bit of the south east corner of England is always the driest, warmest place in the spring and summer. Why just here and not, say the south west; Cornwall, Devon and the like, it's unbearable at times especially when there is high humidity. It's not like the south east is anything special weather wise, like under a gulf stream all the time, drives me mad.

The sunshine and the warmth is very nice but not at the cost of the crops and the flowers which need the rain. At least it's not snow (can't even say that word out loud yet or the dog goes potty looking for it, yes and he's a border collie too - gives his breed a bad name at times). Old doggie (and he is old now bless him) still goes out in the rain, using the hedges in the back garden to scratch his back, and come in again with half the garden on his back where he's been right in under the hedges to the fence to see who is trying to get in (gardening to you and me). He refuses to believe he is getting on for 12 and still behaves like a 2 year old. His brain is leaps and bounds ahead of him and he looks so bewildered when he can't get to whatever it is he needs to get to as fast as he thinks he can. Yep, getting old is no fun and I can vouch for that. Me and him in the same boat at times.

© silversapphire 2011
All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author

I am officially converted into a Midsomer Murders Fan

2011-05-15T16:49:00.007+01:00

Some fourteen years after Midsomer Murders (henceforth referred to as MM) arrived on British TV I have, for my sins, finally and forever become a fan of this great show. Starring the ever brilliant John Nettles (Sgt Jim Bergerac in the eighties) as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, ably assisted by Sergeant Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) at least that's where I'm up to at the time of writing. I love this portrayal of an older, more experienced policeman than the shoot em up squads we seem to get from all over the place. Barnaby's gentle voiced policeman is much more effective at getting at the truth than the shout and scream at 'em brigade.

It's all the present husband's fault; he decided one Wednesday night to go an a sponsored sulk and took himself off into the night 'for a drive' so I, took myself to the living room with a large glass of a very expensive red wine and flicked on the telly. MM was just about to come on and, having dismissed the show for many years I thought I'd watch it as there was nothing else on. Cringeworthy to all the die-hard fans out there I know, but hooked I was from the moment the eerie theme tune started. The theme for those like me, who didn't know what the music is played on, it's called a Theremin. A device which is played without being touched! The device has two antennae which protrude from the top, one controls pitch and the other controls volume. It's quite an achievement to be able to play it and the person who did the theme for MM is obviously well practised in the art of playing this spooky sounding piece of kit.

My Wednesday night episode was The Maid in Splendour, guest starring William Gaunt, yes, him off The Champions if you're young enough to remember them and remember them I do, fondly. I met William Gaunt once in a charity shop in Chester, as you do. He was opening the shop as he was appearing in a play at The Gateway Theatre in the city and I happened to be in town that day. He was lovely, I asked him to sign one of my Champions photos and he groaned and said it was such a long time ago. I said I know, I was young back then too. Shop opened and people had photos taken and autographs signed and then he was off, blending effortlessly into the crowd on his way back to the theatre.

Loved the episode and now love the series. Collecting them regularly in the boxed sets which look like books and have ten DVDs in them. Great idea as they don't take up too much space. As I was busy collecting these I wondered what Bergerac was like way back then because I was too busy in the eighties to be watching telly. In 1981 I had just been married for the first time and was living in deepest darkest north Wales in a tiny village you couldn't pronounce so I won't write it down, took me ages to learn it and I'm a scouser! Farm life meant being busy after my regular job in the daytime, and at weekends too - lambing, shearing, dipping, baling hay and driving tractors across fields; obviously to get the hay, not just for the hell of it ... although I dunno. Bliss at the time, it really was. Anyway, in 1987 I was divorced and started off on another chapter. Thus telly then started to play a big part in my lif but Bergerac had all but finished by then, so I must be the only one who never watched it. Buying these discs now too, only to find that one some of them the manufacturers have included the daytime edits and so the episodes are cut to bits (Granada TV eanyone?) and I'll have to go buy the boxed set of the whole thing when I have a spare £50+ knocking around. Just loving watching all this stuff now, Jersey in the eighties is probably a totally different place now but it's good to see it as it was back then. Perhaps the boxed set will be a bit better to see, the single sets are so dark it's hopeless.

DCI Tom Barnaby (and his family) are the creations of the amazingly talented writer Caroline Graham, her plots and twists, turns and anything else she can get into them is wonderful to read. So glad that ITV decided to make some of the stories into MM otherwise DCI Barnaby would still be ensconced in the pages of her exquisitely written novels. Incidentally, the series is internationally known as 'Inspector Barnaby' so when John Nettles retired from the role they had to keep the main character's name the same. When Neil Dudgeon took over the role as Tom Barnaby's cousin John everything seemed to be ok, except I've just seen another early episode (Garden of Death) with Mr Dudgeon in MM as a very, well, erm, randy gardener to put it mildly. He did reprise his role as DCI John Barnaby in The Sword of Guillaume, an episode set in Brighton where Tom asks for help in sorting out a problem which began in Causton. The interaction between the two characters was wonderful. My only hope now is that the show does not fail after the departure of John Nettles as his character retires but feel this will be it's final outing and that ITV won't renew it's contract after 2012. If last night's episode The Oblong Murders was anything to go by, MM is careering off down the very slow action only route and not investing in the wonderfully written screenplays which were the benchmark of the John Nettles era MM. It's all about the writing and if that goes, well then so does the show. I actually walked away from MM last night, that's how poor I found this episode. Also, dropped like the proverbial last night is the news that we've lost another main character in the shape of George Bullard, the erstwhile police pathologist, (ably played by Barry Jackson) who is off retiring to Ireland. In MM prior to this, George did not have a sister that we knew about, yet they suddenly introduce her and whare is George's GP wife all of a sudden? Desperation on the part of the writer? Awful, and asking the viewer to invest their time in such nonsense is not acceptable ITV.

I've also asked ITV why they are mucking about with the new show as it started off ok on Wednesday nights and then it's kinda been dropped like the proverbial, they said it was 'never intended to be shown every week but when there was a gap in the schedule'- eh? No, sorry, if you want a show to be succesful, especially when the star has just left it, you need to keep it on air to give it a chance. They said it will be back 'towards the end of the month.' Which month I hear you ask - well, take your pick I'd guess. When I asked why they were treating it so badly, almost like they want it to fail they said: 'Well, we have commissioned it until 2012' well, there we are, that's all right then! It's failing all right guys, with hopeless storylines like this to come it's such a sad end for such a great show, but this happens all too often when the lead actor leaves.

I'm probably like all the die-hards out there who wish Mr Nettles hadn't left but I'm sure, once ITV have stopped buggering about with the schedules that it may have a decent enough chance to keep going and I wish it would pick itself up, dust itself off and keep going if nothing more than for the sake of the now 2 stars of the show Jason Hughes and Neil Dudgeon, both trying very hard to make it work but if last nights very poor excuse for an episode is anything to go by they will struggle.

Bah Humbug ITV, and it isn't even Christmas yet.

© silversapphire 2011

Farewell to Legends

2010-10-02T13:37:00.004+01:00

It's been a little upsetting to say the least this week, hearing of the passing of the wonderful Tony Curtis (he will always be Danny Wilde in The Persuaders for me) a true legend if ever there was one. A very very fine actor and still sparkling with the joy of life throughout all of his glorious 85 years. A couple of years back he was seen on UK TV screens in interviews with that great big cowboy hat on, sometimes seen sitting by the presenters in his wheelchair, but sometimes not. He was not only one of the greatest actors ever to come out of the Hollywood System but he was also a fantastic artist. He was delightfully funny and flirtatious and he will be very sorely missed. They just don't make them like that anymore.

And farewell also to one of the greatest TV (and film) writers ever - Stephen J. Cannell at age 65. It seems far too young to be taken but it is true, he passed away on 30 September after battling cancer. As with the wonderful Mr Curtis - we won't see his like again. He came from an era when TV was at it's finest, writing for so many shows it is impossible to name them all but here's some you may know:- Ironside, The A-Team, Rockford Files, Baretta, Greatest American Hero and Hardcastle & McCormack to name a few. Most recently I'd seen him as himself in the US Comedy/Drama 'Castle' where he played a writer friend of the main character, often seen round the card table playing poker 'with the guys.' Another sad loss to the industry and at far too young an age.

RIP gentlemen, you leave behind wonderful legacies and we are all the better for them.

© silversapphire 2010
All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author

Siphiwo Ntshebe 1974 - 2010 - In Memoriam

2010-06-14T16:32:00.002+01:00

This incredibly gifted, young singer was due to sing, and therefore open the World Cup Football in South Africa this year but died suddenly at the tragically young age of 37 from meningitis. It's tragic because his voice is incredible, he sings mainly opera but contemporary songs and hymns and believe me, he is just outstanding.

I caught a few minutes of him with Piers Morgan in an interview he did a while back where he was standing at the entrance to a stadium; I'm not sure if it was the World Cup Opener but Sip (as he was known) suddenly bursts into song and this incredibly powerful, sweet and golden voice just took off, soaring serenely up into the air and hovered for a few moments as if basking in the golden sunlight bathing the area. It was the most wonderful thing I've seen and heard in such a long time it made me a bit teary I have to admit, and the thought of this amazing talent, this rich, huge voice - gone! I know life isn't meant to be fair, and illness and the end of life is no respecter of age, ability or status and seems to indescriminantly pick people to take as if by a sudden whim.

This time it was not fair, and if there is any lightness in this sadness it is that Sip made a CD before he passed away and it has only just been released. If you would like to hear Sip sing here's a link to his website:-

http://www.siphiwo.org/music.html

And to Amazon.com (& co.uk) where you can buy this incredible CD if you would like to own this lovely music. It's available in Europe right now and available in the US from June 22nd. I think downloads are available too but in the UK it's already selling out. What an incredible tribute to an incredible young man.

http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Siphiwo/dp/B003JUFOJU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1276529185&sr=8-1-fkmr0

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Siphiwo/dp/B003JUFOJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1276529610&sr=8-1

© silversapphire 2010 Except for the copyrights of Amazon.com & Amazon.co..uk

Thyroid Fiasco and Blood Taking

2010-06-14T13:17:00.004+01:00

I go to have blood tests done again tomorrow by the nurse who blames me for the blood not being in the vein! I know! You couldn't make it up could you? The first time she did this she was fine as the tourniquet wasn't too tight, didn''t have to make a fist and the blood came out ok. Since then she's wrecked my arms - they are really painful for weeks afterwards but she won't be told, so tomorrow she will be told. She is so nice usually that you feel like you're kicking a small animal when you complain but it's my veins and arms against her hurt feelings; guess who'll win? Now she has a new tourniquet and it's postively lethal, it almost cuts the circulation off it's so tight, so she'll be told tomorrow to do it with the old tourniquet and to use the small needles like eveeryone else does because I have such small veins. If she won't, then I'll tell her she is the only one who won't listen because she feels she does it her way or the highway kinda thing. No madam; you won't - you will do it my way or I complain and sod your hurt feeings this time. I tell you these things for a reason nursey, not so you can ignore them and press on like some cack handed clown who's never taken blood before.

I see the thyroid doctor again next week, they only wanted me to stop taking the meds so I could have another scan! What's the point of all these sodding blood tests which cause untold misery for me to go back to the beginning? Does my head in I tell ya. I threw my toys out of the pram at that and said I want to see her without having to stop meds. Once/If they ever get the dosage right perhaps I'll consider another scan but as she shouldn't have discharged me in the first place she can damn well see me without a scan as soon as possible. They said ok and I see her next week. I shall report back as to what happens as soon as I can. I shall probabnly be offline tomorrow and Wednesday while my arm and veins recover from the blood taking fiasco.

© silversapphire 2010

World Cup Football v Twenty20 World Cup Cricket

2010-06-14T13:01:00.004+01:00

It's that time of year again when England proudly displays the flag of St George. Sad really I think that we cannot be patriotic all the time, only when England, sorry Eng-er-land are playing in the World Cup. Ah well, beter now than never eh? I'm minded to think of our American cousins who proudly display their country's flag whenever and wherever they can, true patriots you see, and not just 'cause the US are playing in a World Cup.

What a laugh the first match was for us eh? We took on the US and it was a draw. Apparently there is a lot of disgruntlement with the ball being used as it's too light, and this coupled with the cool night air of South African winter nights drawing in just makes it too slippery to catch a hold of (as our poor maligned goalie will tell you, it frittered itself out of his hands and crept agonisingly slowly over the goal line and just couldn't be held). You could say 'bad workman and tools' coming to mind but there is real dissent amongst all the teams, managers etc that the ball will cause problems, and so it is proving.

I am so happy to see the fans delight in thinking that England will win the World Cup this year. The fact that we last won it in 1966, some 46 years ago and not since, has no bearing whatsoever on their enthusiasm. I wish them well, it would be nice to think they could win again but somehow I don't think the players have the winning metality to attack and not consider defeat, to win at all costs; it's just not in them (you can't teach this stuff either, you either have it or you don't) and so I think they'll make the quarter final stage and then we'll see. Come on England!

I wish the great Pierluigi Collina, THE BEST referee in the world ever hadn't retired; he was the only ref the players respected and didn't try to fool. Even those who were so obviously in the wrong sport for the diving they used to do and/or the wrong profession for all the play acting they did. He does referee for charity now, last seen here in England refereeing the Sport Relief Game 2010 where the rest of the World Team beat England on penalties.

If the players want to see the attacking, winning mentality I'm talking about they can always take a look at the Cricketing World Twenty20 Tournament held ealier this year, when Paul Collingwood led the English T20 squad onto the victory of all T20 victories, and won the World Cup against the old enemy Australia. Fantastic to see, they went out to win and win they did - in style. A crowning moment in sport is when you believe in yourself enough and you spread that enthusiasm to the team so that there is no thought of defeat - and it carries through into the game naturally. Well done Colly and the lads, an amazing feat to be sure. Now if we can just transfer that mentality over to the other forms of English Cricket then we'll be unbeatable. It was SO depressing recently to come off that fantastic high of the World T20 Cup to an English Test Match! Oh man, like watching paint dry, it is so slow. Took the likes of Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen (also from the T20 squad) to show the old guard how it's done, we did win the International One dayers, but it was horrendously slow, they were expected to win quickly over the minnows of the game - Bangladesh, who really made them work for it. Their opener Tamim Iqbal went on to the board at Lord's after making his test century there, they should have been outplayed but they weren't. Some of the England bowlers need a good shake up, or 'rested' imho. Only T20 has the form to make cricket exciting, it's a new development yes, and this is only the second T20 Cup but it's so fast and furious and really exciting as the game goes one way, and then another and you really have no idea who will win until the last over. The the Test matches arrive and you could put a couple of tortoises in in whites and let em go, wouldn't notice the difference.

Now when they go to Australia they are talking about winning The Ashes again. Newsflash: Not with the present incumbents in the team you won't. Australia live, breathe, work, eat, sleep and die cricket so you have to be better than you usually are and England test team players are not. What they usually are is complacent and very inconsistent; perhaps with the exceptions of Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kiewswetter, Steven Finn, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen. Lets hope they make the squad because the selectors recently are happy to keep the old slow coaches on board and I'm afraid if you play the same guys all the time you get the same result all the time. Have the courage this time guys to make the decent change and put in your T20 squad, they KNOW how to win and are hungry enough to go out and do it for England.

© silversapphire 2010

Trooping the Colour

2010-06-14T12:28:00.000+01:00

Watched the tail end of this spectacle on Saturday and it really makes me come over all patriotic. All those people filling up the Mall on the road to Buckingham Palace after HM The Queen has been driven up there in an open carriage with Prince Philip at her side, surrounded by the lifeguards and members of the Household Cavalry all in their slendour, a 21 gun (cannon) salute going off in St James' Park after the troopers had ridden in with their guns and smart livery, a sightt o make you proud. It's the Queens Birthday as well you see, and it's all combined. All the troops parade before The Queen and the colours (flags) go with them. Up until a few years ago The Queen used to take the salute on horesback too, but now at 80 + years old it's not something she can do anymore, bet she would still love to though. I'm proud of our Queen, all her life given over to public service. So ok yes she does have pomp and ceremony wherever she goes and has the good fortune to be born into a royal family where poverty is unknown and she's never wanted for anything but although I'm not a royalist I still admire her for what she has done. She's never been involved in any scandals and has always been good, decent, brave and honourable and I salute her for that. What the royal family will be like when she is no longer Head of State I don't know. HM The Queen has ALWAYS been, and will continue to be our First Lady and not the wife of the Prime Minister (a certain hard nosed woman from the previous but one administration who thought she was the First Lady comes to mind, who thought it above her to courtesy/show deference to the Queen, the Queen being who she was didn't take any ntoice in public, but how rude!). Thankfully PM's wives since that one have been much more willing to go with tradition.

© silversapphire 2010

Chinese Porn Bloggers- A Warning

2010-05-23T12:07:00.001+01:00

Folks, for every post I blog I am pestered by a Chinese Spammer who sends a 'comment' on every blog I write. Unfortunately his/her emails contain porn and therefore they are automatically deleted, but he/she may wish to know that his/her emails and comments are being forwarded to Google for their investigations. Your comments, once they have been reported to Google, are deleted.

I don't read them so you're just wasting your time.

Apologies to the genuine blog readers who genuinely follow me, your comments are always welcome but the Chinese person's comments are never posted and always deleted after reporting, it's is so sad that this person has nothing better, and more constructive to do with his/her time.

© silversapphire 2010
All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author

Goodbye Mr Brown.

2010-05-11T19:55:00.009+01:00

After the events of yesterday by senior Labour figures saying that they were in talks with the Lib Dems it has emerged today that no deal was in any danger of being passed. Labour have now realised they have no mandate to form the government and have finally bowed to the wishes of the British people. After all my comments yesterday when it appeared Labour would be in power for what seemed like forever Gordon Brown has resigned as Prime Minister and is now at Buckingham Palace where he will be speaking privately with HM The Queen. It had been bandied about for most of the afternoon by all media outlets that Gordon Brown was resigning and would be leaving imminently. All this chatter started around 2.30pm and now at just gone half past seven in the evening of Tuesday 11th May 2010 Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah came to the lectern in Downing Street, flanked a little distance away by Downing Street staff, to announce he was resiging with immediate effect. He then allowed his little sons to have their photographs taken with mum and dad before walking to the car to go to Buckingham Palace. To be honest I found myself becoming unexpectedly emotional as the moment drew near. Gordon Brown at least had the dignity to come out of the front of No 10 and tell us his intentions and not leave out the back like his predecessor.

Democracy has again won the day.

As was explained by the media too, any alliance of what they called 'The Rainbow Alliance' because of all the colours of the parties needed to get this 'strong stable government' by forming Labour, Lib-Dems, Plaid Cymru (Wales), SNP (Scotland) and DUP (Northern Ireland) would have had no chance of getting anything passed as the time it would have taken to go round every MP of every part of the alliance would mean it would take so long to get anything passed it would not have been feasible to do this; perhaps that is why it was reported today that any such alliance was not workable.

We have just watched Gordon Brown and Sarah met by the Queen's Equerry before going inside Buck House and to be sure he looked like he had just had the cares of the world removed from his shoulders. Goodbye and good luck to Gordon Brown, enjoy your retirement with your young family.

Once the Queen accepts the resignation she has to call upon someone else to form the next government and become the new PM, in this case it is David Cameron. For some reason I have visions of him hiding behind the sofa so that when she 'calls on David Cameron' to form the next government he will pop up from behind said couch and say 'you called ma'am.' Being a little facetious I know but in the middle of all this gravitas we need a little light relief.

Of course it is going to be horrendous for anyone taking on the mantle of Prime Minister given the state of public finances and the state of the country in general, will it be sorted out soon? will it get easier? - who knows? All I will say is good luck to Mr Cameron whether he chooses to form a minority government or whether he does indeed form a coalition with the Lib Dems; the latter would be preferable as it would provide this strong, stable government we need.

So there it is, a momentous day in British politics, an outgoing PM, a new PM coming in. There's a really long road to recovery for this country, hopefully it will now be unified and our problems ratified and sorted in a fair and decent way.

Just as an added footnote here, on the way into the Palace there was a gorgeous rainbow, almost like the Rainbow Alliance was still trying to get the last word ;)

© silversapphire 2010

Banging my Head on the nearest Brick Wall

2010-05-10T17:24:00.000+01:00

For Heavens sake! Labour just don't get it do they? Soundly REJECTED by the British people they are now 'in negotiations with the Lib Dems to give them what they want so that a new government can be formed' - eh? come again? YOU LOST THE ELECTION!!! Not even the poor, put upon British people will stand for a government of all the losers cobbled together just to beat the Tories.

Even though Gordon Brown has, finally, said he will resign as Labour leader, the Tory Party are the Party with the most votes, not enough I know to form a majority government, they should go ahead and form a minority government before Labour do it for them!

I am amazed by Labour - they have NO mandate to form a government OF ANY KIND and we will, if they force themselves upon us again, be in another Election in a few months time. How hoepelss is this country, just come and have a look.

© silversapphire 2010

The Health Fiasco goes on ... and on ... and on

2010-05-10T16:58:00.001+01:00

Now at my third lot of bloods being taken to see if the thyroid has been controlled and nope, you guessed it, it's all over the place. TSH has shot up again to 18 while the T4 has come down to 17. TSH being high means high cholesterol and that's what I also have. I have been around 8 stone for years and now that I'm 50 and because of the ignorance of the consultant concerning my other health issues I am having more problems heaped on top of those I am already stuggling with.

Seems the more Thyroxine I have the T4 goes up and the TSH comes down, the less I have the more TSH goes up and T4 comes down. Can this ever be controlled?

In my family there is a history of heart attack and stroke, so high cholesterol country beckons. Luckily I don't smoke or drink but I do like chocolate and it's a real struggle trying to conrtrol my weight which has now ballooned to 10 stone. My spine is struggling because of the weight which is impossible to shift. I can just not eat yes, but that affects the thyroid readings. I'm waiting on the bone density test to come back but the doctor called today to say that my FBC is all over the place and I need an iron test now. More blood tests, but the only problem I have is that the nurse taking the blood is hopeless, she can't find a vein and then when she does blames me for 'sending adrenaline round to stop the blood' what a load of old tosh!!! The tourniquet she uses is lethal, really pulls it tight and then when she gets a vein leaves it tight so it hurts the vein and all the muscles in my arm which today, two weeks afterwards are really sore. She refuses to use the small needles which i usually have so I'm off to see the doctor this week to see where else I can go. Because I've been 'discharged' I can't go where the phlebotomists are fantastic, they use a tourniquet but as soon as they have the blood coming out of the vein they loosen it and I have bloods taken with no bruising and no soreness. This stupid nurse at my surgery doesn't realise that their incompetence leads to no decent veins and yet they still blame me for their cack-handedness when they need blood but can't get it- only in Britain eh?

Meanwhile my doctor is writing back to the consultant, not very happy at the unhealthily fast way I was discharged. All I was told before I had the radioactive iodine was 'you'll be fine, if anything you'll just be a little underactive' - try having blood which is a nightmare to take because of cack-handed nurses, high cholesterol when I've never had that in my life, be mightily overweight with an already damaged and fragile spine, a history of heart problems and strokes in the family and then tell me I'm fine. I can't believe how some doctors are so stupid, but this consultant really is and boy will I tell her so when I see her. I'm already considering a formal complaint to the hospital .. I'll keep you posted.

© silversapphire 2010

The farce goes on ... and on ... and on ...

2010-05-10T16:41:00.000+01:00

In all my years on this planet, I have never been so ashamed of my country as I am now. How long does it take to form a new government>

If you believe the media (all over every tidbit like a rash, analysing it to death and back) then Gordon Brown will have to be physically ejected from No 10, he is trying to form a government by giving the Lib Dems everything they want. Firstly, he and his government have been firmly REJECTED by the British people so he cannot form a government of any sort; he is only remaining where he is because the law says he has to - but only until a new governmment is formed. I am incensed that the Lib Dems are dragging this out to the nth degree, the country is suffering guys have you noticed or do your ideals come first? You are making your party unelectable in any form in future governments by all this wrangling. Remember the election last week, that's right last week where you came third? what gives you the right to demand anything? you came third, ie last!!! If I were David Cameron I'd form a minority government and be done with it. This nonsense is making a mockery (as if we could be taken seriously in the world anymore) of this country, and while the Lib Dems are banging on about the country needing a firm and fair government they would be better served by believing that and not hammering on for electoral reform, which by the way, was NOT a key factor in the election. People are more worried about the state of the economy than anything else. That the markets are in free fall should tell the Lib Dems that they are the only people (apart from the rentamob at the weekend who came out of nowhere demanding proportional representation as electoral reform) who see this as the most important topic in Britain today. By the way rentamob, PR means you lose your member of parliament and therefore the opportunity to have him/her support you in your consituency, did you know that?

It's no wonder that Britain is seen as a joke around the world, this really is a complete shambles. I can just see America dithering like this - NOT.

© silversapphire 2010

UK General Election - Oh, where do I start?

2010-05-08T12:47:00.002+01:00

Well, way to go Britain, really did it this time. It's blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes that Gordon Brown and his detestable government should go ... but of course he won't. Just like Ted Heath (Tory Party) in 1974 he won't go. Instead he'll have to be physically removed from the premises (akin to clinging on with his fingertips to the door of No 10) but he just won't accept that he has LOST this election. Of course the Tory Party won - not with a workable majority but win they did, and they should now be allowed to form the next government, except that with a minority government trying to pass any of it’s legislation is so difficult it's nigh on impossible.

So where do we go from here? David Cameron the Tory leader is trying to garner some sort of agreement with the Liberal Democrats (or Lib Dems for short) to see if they can get together and form a kind of majority government. Difficulties here are vast and some are insurmountable as both parties policies are at different ends of the spectrum, so getting any sort of deal together will be interesting to see; a kind of ‘who blinks first’ scenario - well, that's what we're up against. The WORST thing that could happen is Gordon Brown and the failed Labour Government teaming up with the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader should be careful if he does this because he will be tarred with the same brush as Labour. The people of this country wanted a hung parliament if you believe the media, perhaps they didn't fully understand the ramifications of getting one, more Brown? - Please God No!!!! The people of Britain sent a clear message to Brown, that he is finished as PM and he should go and go with good grace, but like Heath in 1974 he will hang on as long as he can.

The Lib Dems want a reform of the voting system and given the ridiculous Banana Republic Style scale of Thursday's debacle is something people are waking up to, but whereas in Europe coalition governments are the norm, they are not the norm in Britain. Personally, I feel this will be a disaster, as with most of the Lib Dems policies (Illegal immigrant amnesty, scrapping trident, the nuclear deterrent, reform the voting system, enforcing the disastrous Euro on Britain etc al). These policies are damaging for the country but that doesn't matter I feel, as the Lib Dems want these changes and actually think they are good [shaking head here, you just can’t make this up]. The Tories on the other hand will have to give way on a lot of their red line policies like no to any more powers going to Europe, NO to the Euro and No to scrapping Trident, No also to an illegal immigrant amnesty. See the problems? What a shame UKIP (the tiny United Kingdom Independence Party, a good idea but too small to do any good) felt it necessary to poll seats in parts of the country where the Tories would have won those seats and thereby getting closer to a majority government. Did they set out to deliberately undermine the ‘integrity’ of Britain – who knows? All this nonsense makes me seriously question the mentality of these parties deliberately out to scupper the chances of the Tories and leaving us with - God Forbid - more of Brown. Brown (the only UNELECTED PM TWICE) and the Labour government are all for these policies of the Lib Dems, so have a guess how much longer Britain will survive. I would expect Britain to become a region of Europe at some point. No more national identity, no more independence, instead to be ruled by Europe – why did we fight and win two world wars to keep our country safe from this take over, all those lives appear to have been sacrificed in vain; it is a crying shame to see this once great country of ours lying tattered and bruised in the gutter of the world.

The Lib Dems, whilst demanding their policies are non negotiable should be reminded that they came third, they have no hope of getting any of their policies passed in their current position, so it is well worth their while to try and support the Tories in some way. Please don’t foist any more Brown on us, Britain cannot afford it. There are of course other parties 'eager and willing to do a deal' notably Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP of Scotland, no doubt at the expense of England (as now) they will be wanting more concessions for their respective countries but it will be England alone who pays for it. All we can do now is wait and see who says what to whom, and what happens as a result.

So great outcome Britain. Perhaps with the debacle of the voting shambles, 14 year old children getting voting papers ‘by mistake,’ people denied their votes because they arrived too late to vote, others queuing up for hours to be told they can’t vote because it’s past 10 o’clock, (note to the jobsworths who closed the polls dead on 10pm, in other third world countries, they keep the polls open till everyone has voted), postal voting being opened up to 'anyone who wants one' and all the fraud that may have been going on in that area perhaps we should be renaming the GBR of Britain from Great Britain to Great Banana Republic; sadly that is what we have now become. Sad also that for the first time in Britain’s history we have had Commonwealth Inspectors ‘monitoring’ the voting system, this is shameful because they only ever do that in underdeveloped (not developed and supposedly democratic) countries, and Banana Republic states … oh, wait ...

© silversapphire 2010

£20+ hike in Car Tax just BEFORE a General Election!!!

2010-04-15T14:11:00.008+01:00

I can't believe how stupid this government is. There are millions like me who have just received their car tax reminder from the DVLA, except where it says £190 for a 12 month licence on paper, when you go online and come to pay for it it has jumped to £205. Last year I paid £185 and that, in all my 27 years (so far) of driving I have never paid over £180, was the highest so far, thanks solely to New Labour and their idiotic 'green taxes.' 'Green' to me means naive, and that's what those of us who believe this claptrap are. I know the size of the engine dictates the cost but why have I suddenly got to pay an extra £20 this year when I don't even drive 500 miles per year, for the most part my car sits on the drive as petrol is way too expensive under these governmental fools appeasing the 'green lot.' How stupid some people are believing all this nonsense, all that money simply goes into government coffers, it never gets spent where it should, like on the roads. This is a complete whitewash and a deliberate attempt to squeeze even more money out of the hardest hit motorists in the world for taxation.

Way to go Gordon, you've just lost my vote and those of the other beleaguered motorists whose taxes are due on 1 May, we won't forget you come polling day. What a fool eh? an obvious case if ever there was one of shooting oneself in the foot. See, while they are chauffered around in their gas guzzling Jags and Daimlers etc they don't actually pay any taxes or fees or petrol so they have no idea at all what their idiotic schemes to appease the greens actually costs in the RW (that's the Real World to you and me).

© silversapphire 2010

If you're sick and/or disabled DO NOT VOTE LABOUR

2010-04-13T14:10:00.001+01:00

Here's why:-

Even harsher new ESA medical approved

13 April 2010

Tens of thousands of claimants facing losing their benefit on review, or on being transferred from incapacity benefit, as plans to make the employment and support allowance (ESA) medical much harder to pass are approved by the secretary of state for work and pensions, Yvette Cooper.

The shock plans for ‘simplifying’ the work capability assessment, drawn up by a DWP working group, include docking points from amputees who can lift and carry with their stumps. Claimants with speech problems who can write a sign saying, for example, ‘The office is on fire!’ will score no points for speech and deaf claimants who can read the sign will lose all their points for hearing.

Meanwhile, for ‘health and safety reasons’ all points scored for problems with bending and kneeling are to be abolished and claimants who have difficulty walking can be assessed using imaginary wheelchairs.

Claimants who have difficulty standing for any length of time will, under the plans, also have to show they have equal difficulty sitting, and vice versa, in order to score any points. And no matter how bad their problems with standing and sitting, they will not score enough points to be awarded ESA.

In addition, almost half of the 41 mental health descriptors for which points can be scored are being removed from the new ‘simpler’ test, greatly reducing the chances of being found incapable of work due to such things as poor memory, confusion, depression and anxiety.

There are some improvements to the test under the plans, including exemptions for people likely to be starting chemotherapy and more mental health grounds for being admitted to the support group. But the changes are overwhelmingly about pushing tens of thousands more people onto JSA.

If all this sounds like a sick and rather belated April Fools joke to you, we’re not surprised. But the proposals are genuine and have already been officially agreed by Yvette Cooper, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. They have not yet been passed into law, but given that both Labour and the Conservatives seem intent on driving as many people as possible off incapacity related benefits, they are likely to be pursued by whichever party wins the election.

We know that many people will find this news deeply upsetting and even frightening and we know that some people will condemn us for publicising the planned changes or for the language that we are using to do so. But we also believe that it’s not too late to stop these ugly plans in their tracks if claimants and the organisations that represent them act now.

With 1.5 million incapacity benefit claimants waiting to be assessed using the work capability assessment in the next few years and tens of thousands of people already on ESA and set to be reviewed annually, these changes will be of great concern to many voters – if they find out about them before polling day.

So, please spread the word in forums and blogs and to people you know who may be affected. Ask any disability charity you have a connection with to speak out now, before election day, against these plans. You might also want to contact local newspapers and radio to warn people about the proposals.

And above all, contact not just your MP, but the other candidates in your constituency, and let them know you will not be voting for anyone who does not loudly condemn this shameful attack on sick and disabled claimants.

These plans really are a potential seat loser, but only if enough people know about them.

Limited capability for work

The biggest changes and cuts are to take place in the limited capability for work assessment which decides whether you are eligible for the work-related activity group of ESA. Claimants need to score fifteen points to be placed in this group unless they are exempt or covered by the exceptional circumstances rules.

Walking

The activity of walking has been replaced by the activity of ‘mobilising’, with the fifteen points for ‘Cannot walk at all’ to be removed. Instead of looking at how far you can walk with a walking stick or other aid if such aid is normally used, the test is now ‘Mobilising with or without a walking stick, manual wheelchair or other aid if such aid can reasonably be used’ In other words, even if you don’t use a wheelchair you can be assessed as if you did – an intention which is made clear in the body of the report. To score fifteen points you will need to show that you could neither walk nor wheel a wheelchair 50 metres without stopping in order to avoid significant discomfort or exhaustion. If you cannot do so repeatedly ‘within a reasonable timescale’ you will also score fifteen points.

Nine points are scored for 100 metres and 6 for 200 metres.

This means that many people who get the higher rate of the mobility component of DLA may not be awarded ESA at all. Even the fifteen points for being unable to walk up and down two steps is to be cut to nine points.

Standing and sitting

Points for these activities have also been slashed. At the moment, you can score points if you can’t stand or if you can’t sit for given lengths of time. Under the revised test you will have to show that you can neither stand nor sit for more than 30 minutes at a ‘work station’ before having to ‘move away in order to avoid significant discomfort or exhaustion’. Even then you will only score 9 points, or 6 points if you can last for an hour, not enough to be awarded ESA.

Fifteen points are only available from this activity if you can’t move from one seated position to an adjacent one without help.

The chair has also been changed from an upright chair to an ‘adjustable chair’ even though the reality is that these are not readily provided in most workplaces, regardless of what the Disability Discrimination Act might say.

Bending and kneeling

The activity of ‘Bending and kneeling’, for which 30 points are currently available, is to be completely done away with. Bizarrely one of the reasons for doing so is ‘health and safety reasons’ as people should not ‘bend forward when lifting’.

Reaching

The fifteen point descriptor for not being able to put either arm behind your back is to be ditched.

Picking up

The panel have decided that the fact that you do not have two hands should not be a reason for scoring points for problems with moving a half litre or one litre carton or moving a light but bulky object. They argue that ‘an item may be transferred by wedging it against the body, or another limb’ and that many amputees who chose not to have a prosthetic limb ‘remain able to complete the task’. All references to using hands in this activity are therefore to be removed.

Manual dexterity

The nine scoring descriptors for manual dexterity are to be reduced to just four. Problems with just one hand and problems with pouring will no longer score points and references to a ‘conventional keyboard’ are to be changed to a ‘suitable keyboard’. Problems with pressing a button are to be added.

Speech, hearing and vision

The three activities speech, hearing and vision are to be replaced with three new activities. Speech now becomes ‘Making self understood through speaking, writing, typing or other means normally used; unaided by another person’.

To score fifteen points a claimant will need either to show that they:

‘Cannot convey a simple message, such as the presence of a hazard.’ or that they have ‘significant difficulty conveying a simple message to strangers.’

So, the fact that your speech cannot be understood by other people will no longer score points if, instead, you are able to write, type or communicate by ‘other means’.

Hearing is replaced with: ‘Understanding communication by both verbal means (such as hearing or lip reading) and non-verbal means (such as reading 16 point print) using any aid if reasonably used; unaided by another person.’

To score fifteen points a claimant will have to show that they ‘Cannot understand a simple message due to sensory impairment, such as the location of a fire escape’ or that they have ‘significant difficulty understanding a simple message from a stranger’.

Being unable to hear someone talking will no longer score points.

Problems with vision have been turned into ‘Navigation and maintaining safety, using a guide dog or other aid if normally used.’

To score fifteen points you will need to be able to show that you are: ‘Unable to navigate around familiar surroundings, without being accompanied by another person, due to sensory impairment’ or that you cannot safely cross a road.

Being unable to see well enough to read large print or to recognise people will no longer score points.

Continence

This is one area where the descriptors do seem to have been improved. Previously there were three separate and highly complex activities. These have been reduced to just one where the issue is whether the loss of bowel or bladder control or the leakage from a collecting device is ‘sufficient to require the individual to clean themselves and change clothing.’ If this happens at least once a month, fifteen points are scored.

Consciousness

Points for losing consciousness at least once a month are to be reduced from nine to six and a six point descriptor for losing consciousness twice in six months is to be axed.

Mental, cognitive and intellectual function assessment

The mental health and learning difficulties section of the WCA has been slashed from 41 point scoring descriptors to just 21.

For example, one of the fifteen point and one of the nine point descriptors have been removed from the ‘Learning tasks’ activity, and a fifteen point descriptor has been removed from the ‘Getting about’ activity.

The three activities relating to ‘Memory and concentration’, ‘Execution of tasks’ and ‘Initiating and sustaining personal action’ are all rolled into a single activity called ‘Initiating and completing personal action’.

Currently claimants have 5 opportunities to score fifteen points outright from the three activities and many more opportunities to score fifteen points or more from a combination of points from the three activities.

Under the new test, however, there will be just one opportunity to score fifteen points. This is likely to greatly reduce the chances of being found incapable of work due to such things as poor memory, confusion and depression.

The three activities ‘Coping with social situations’, ‘Propriety of behaviour with other people’ and ‘Dealing with other people’ are to be reduced to two activities; ‘Coping with social engagement’ and ‘Appropriateness of behaviour with other people’. Again, the opportunities for scoring points have been considerably reduced.

Limited capability for work-related activity

The limited capability for work-related activity assessment decides who is eligible for the support group, based on any one of a range of descriptors applying to the claimant. These descriptors have largely been altered in line with changes to the work-related activity group.

However, there are some notable changes and even some improvements. For example, distance for being unable to what we must now call ‘mobilise’ has been increased from the original 30 metres to 50 metres.

In addition, there are now more ways to qualify for the support group on mental health and learning difficulties grounds. These include: ‘Awareness of hazard’, ‘Coping with change’, ‘Coping with social engagement’ and ‘Appropriateness of behaviour with other people’.

However, descriptors relating to ‘Maintaining personal hygiene’ and ‘Eating and drinking’ have been removed.

The exemptions relating to the support group are also to be widened to cover not just people who are receiving certain types of chemotherapy, but also people who ‘are likely to receive chemotherapy within the next six months’.

It could have been worse

In spite of some improvements in relation to the support group, overall the changes to the work capability assessment are likely to lead to many thousands more sick and disabled people being forced onto jobseekers allowance.

And yet, it could have been even worse. The original changes proposed by the working group were even harsher. It was only after their proposals were looked at by the Chief Medical Adviser at the DWP, following complaints by disability group representatives, that some were toned down and additional points attached to some descriptors. It was this final review, contained in the Addendum, that was approved by the secretary of state.

Participants

The participants in the review are listed at Annex B of the Internal Review as:

Individual Attendees:

Brigid Campbell, Social Security Advisory Committee

Dr Angela Graham, Atos Origin Medical Services

Dr David Henderson Slater, Consultant in Neurological Disability/Rehabilitation Medicine, Oxford Centre for Enablement

Dr Ed McDermott, Atos Origin Medical Services

Dr Gordon Parker, Consultant Occupational Physician

Professor Tom Sensky, Professor of Psychological Medicine at Imperial College, London

Represented organisations:

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Citizens Advice Bureau

Disability Benefits Consortium

Disability Employment Advisory Council

Mencap

MIND

National Autistic Society

Parkinson’s Disease Society

Royal College of Psychiatrists

RNIB

RNID

RSI Action

Two issues about this list may be of concern.

The first is that two of the individual attendees are employed by Atos Origin Medical Services. Atos is the company that carries out benefits medicals on behalf of the DWP in return for hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers money. Some observers may be troubled that employees of a company which might gain a commercial advantage from the medicals becoming simpler and quicker to carry out should be involved in the process of reviewing how points are scored.

The second is the wide range of disability organisations whom the DWP has been able to name as having participated in this review. We have no doubt that most of them were against many of the changes proposed and that they even won concessions from the DWP. But the fact remains that, with the exception of MIND, we are not aware of any agencies speaking out against these proposals with the kind of outrage their clients might reasonably have expected.

If claimants manage to make their voices heard on this issue, it will only be with the genuine and vocal support of the disability charities listed above.

Sources

Building bridges to Work

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/building-bridges-to-work.pdf

Work Capability Assessment Internal Review

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/work-capability-assessment-review.pdf

Addendum

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/work-capability-assessment-review-addendum.pdf

If you are sick and/or disabled please do not vote Labour in again. Not only have they agreed ALL of these things, they are keeping it all quiet until after the election. Really nice, caring Labour government? No way!!! They forget though that disabled people have a voice and they have a vote. denying them access to this abhorrent policy is probably what you'd expect from this government, but since when did Labour become The Nasty Party?

© silversapphire 2010

© Benefits And Work.com

As If To Prove A Point - Someone is Barbecuing Old Socks!

2010-04-09T19:50:00.001+01:00

Yes, it has happened. Just a few hours after I wrote about Barbecue Season, some fool in the village is barbecuing sweaty socks; that's what it smells like. You know the smell of a damp tea towel that's been left somewhere and the part of it that is still wet because it's rolled up somewhere and been forgotten - it's just like that; that and mouldy festering socks. It is the most revolting smell I have ever come across, it is barbecue because there is a small waft of meat cooking on the top of this awful stink; perhaps those 'cooking' whatever it is can't smell their own stink but in this village they don't care about that. In this village, it's the 'me first brigade' that has the upper hand, mainly because the powers that be usually have 'no-one available to help,' so knowing they can behave as they like; they carry on doing so. It used to be the quaint, quintessential quiet Kentish country village. How places can change practically overnight because of the mindless morons who think it is their right to inflict anti social behaviour on the quiet, law abiding majority. Ten years ago (when we came here) this village had NO antisocial behaviour of any sort. Now though it's going the way of the sink estate complete with all the anti-social idiots, their idiot offspring (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree etc) and the (owah owah anyone?) behaviour they bring.

I want my village back the way it was before the mindless morons moved in but for now I have to contend with this foul stink (and it IS very foul) - Heaven alone knows what the meat is but that doesn't smell very appetising. See, I told you that the VI''s would be out in droves, it's barely spring and they're out. Betcha tomorrow we have even more, which reminds me of a certain family we have here who have barbecues in the pouring rain, even in thunderstorms! Also tonight and tomorrow night we are blessed with the curse of the 2 local pubs, who are a fair way away, treating us to their 'live' caterwailing (sorry, music) which goes on until 2am and later as the idiots who have consumed their own body weight in alcohol pick a fight with a lamp post on their way home, lose the fight and then vomit all over the floor as if in protest. Disgusted yet? Are you? Try living here with no means of getting out and you'll not only be disgusted, you'll be downright angry that these morons have no self respect and so have no respect for the rights of others to be fast asleep by 2am but can't because of these morons being so loud and raucous at that time of the morning. Don't suggest getting the local council involved as they don't want to know, neither does my Conservative MP who did his level best to pass the buck in the hope that it would go away. They don't want my vote in the local elections or the general election obviously because they're not getting it. Neither are the lot that's in now, all they have done is let the country be over-run to the point that Britain is now full. Rudy Guiliani where are you when we need you???

Quick! Hurry up, get here now as the Fartbox is coming .. hurry up or you'll miss it ... actually, no, you're ok, take your time, you might just get up here as the rider leans forward over the handlebars in a vain attempt to make it go faster than it's lamentable 0.5mph.

© silversapphire 2010

My Thyroid Doctor is Just As Bad As All The Others

2010-04-09T09:32:00.001+01:00

There was I thinking that my thyroid doctor was one of the better ones, tsk tsk, silly me. She is just as bad as all the others. You know I'd sent her that email and the secretary had said the doctor would deal with it herself? Well by 'dealing with it herself' she actually meant ignoring me completely because that's what happened, lovely isn't it when you think of how serious underactive thyroid is. I am so annoyed it is beyond words. The doctor had quite casually said to the secretary, apparently, that if I called again (!) to tell me to go back to my GP and be re-referred (DONE) but what an appalling way to treat someone. You can guarantee she will be told about her appalling actions when my appointment comes though, and when I get past this useless hospital's new 'Triage Assessment for Appointments' system. I'm also going to raise a complaint with the hospital over it; something I didn't want to do as I thought this doctor was great, apparently not. I will never, ever, as long as I live EVER trust a doctor again, no matter who they are, no matter how nice they appear, they are all the same. I have said for a long time, that the hippocratic oath they all swear to should be very quickly renamed the HIPPOCRYTICAL OATH!!! because that's what my experience of 'doctors' has taught me.

© silversapphire 2010

Barbecue Season starts this week - Don't Miss It!!!

2010-04-09T09:23:00.000+01:00

Coming hot on the heels of the Village Idiot Season is the Barbecue Season where the whole of the village starts up with their old and battered, some new and lovely, barbecue systems. The teeniest, tiniest hint of warm air and they're all out in their droves throwing fuel on the coals and creating that infernal stink of hot fuel which always precedes the smell of cooking. I'm surprised there are not more accidents as those lazy souls in this village won't start their barbecue properly therby not infesting the air with their stink. Cooking food is not a horrible smell you understand but that stink of fuel is!!! Add to that, clouds and clouds of dense billowing white and grey smoke which you cannot get away from, and you start to get the picture. Our house backs onto and is surrounded by other properties all with their barbecues out, it's like living in a smog infestsed city centre. Those of us who like to breathe FRESH air can go whistle as far as the BS is upon u. Trying to breathe with all your windows and doors shut against these infernal stinkmeisters is not appealing or conducive to breathing in the hot summer months. Yes it does happen every night, it is ongoing as one ends another one starts up. Once the stink of fuel is in the house it is impossible to remove as if you're not quick enough to smell it happening before it hits the house you've had it. What a lovely village to live in eh? I can highly recommend it if you like VI and BS!

© silversapphire 2010

VI Season (for the uninitiated that's Village Idiot Season)

2010-04-09T09:12:00.007+01:00

Yes folks it's that time again. That sunny, always funny time of year when the Idiots in the Village start flexing their idiot muscles and come out to play. This year we have a new module in the season, that is the Village Idiot in Training or VI(i)T for short. The VI(i)T's can be easily recognised by their antics which usually start at 11pm most evenings and continue at sporadic times throughout the night. These VI(i)T's are usually younger than their peers and female, screaming and shouting for all they are worth, tottering up and down the street (yes they do sound like other 'ladies of the night' but to my knowledge, that doesn't go on here - least I don't think so) on ludicrously high heels before falling off into the gutter where more screaming, effing and blinding carries on. Now add to the mix a couple of the male VI(i)T's and you have the heady mix of swearing, vomiting, loud music and the eventual 'Piece de Resistance' at every VI(i)T event: the fist fight; where they attempt to fight each other but are too drunk and incapable and end up swiping at their partner only to miss, spin round three times with the centrifugal force of the unlanded blow and join their female counterparts in the gutter, which, given the state of them is probably the best place for 'em. I will be selling tickets to the events a week before they happen so you can get the best seats!

Add to this the annual sighting of the Fartbox - that's the Fartbox Motorbike which sounds as if it's running on a matchbox, an elastic band and a fart. The rider, usually a spotty faced teen with a crash helmet that doesn't fit so sits atop his head rather than covering (and therefore protecting) it, resplendent in tee shirt sleeves and shorts (these fully paid up members of the VI Society are so idiotic as to think they will never come off their precious farties and that 'it will never happen to me' until they end up in A&E (ER) with their skin hanging off after they've come off onto a road surface. Now you and I know that in an argument between human skin and a tarmaced road who'll come off worse, but these morons, well their skin isn't like ours, obviously, until they are sadly clogging up A&E because they are too stupid to realise just why professional motorcyclists wear leather and have crash helmets that fit. So, the Fartbox Riders are complete and utter VI's of the highest order so they deserve their place in the Village Idiot Blog). Add to this the pre-requisite 'leaning forward over the handlebars' to ahem, make it go faster! This sight can usually be seen up and down the length and breadth of my tiny road (a cul de sac) with the holy grail at the end of it (village hall car park) where he goes to meet his mates (who are never there so earning him the title of Billy No-Mates) all throughout the summer afternoons from 4pm onwards, up until he either can't see where he is going or he runs out of petrol and reluctantly goes home.

This season starts in earnest when the evenings get lighter (so they can see where they are going) the weather is warmer (they don't like getting cold and/or wet depending on whether it is raining or snowing) and it's quiet, but not for long. The long suffering folk who have never been inclined to take up the job title of Village Idiot hope constantly for freezing cold nights with rain and/or snow to keep the VI(i)T's indoors where they can annoy the older Village Idiots who spawned them. Talking of which we have a juvenile VI(i)T who rides around the village on his bike making that 'owah owah' sound from the 1970's disco song 'Lets All Chant' yes, if you're of a certain age you'll know the one. I am really hacked off with those idiots at the advertising company here in the UK who chose it for an ad campaign to sell house insurance as this little moron, sorry VI(i)T has adopted it as his signature call. Try listening to that twenty five times plus a day and see if you are happy to listen to that abhorrent sound as it rides around infesting the air with his infernal racket,; his parents must be so proud! Add to that all the other little morons who think it highly amusing to copy it - but all they are doing is making themselves stand out like a sore thumb and are getting up peoples backs into the process. Instead of sounding cool they sound like immature hyenas and are well deserving of the title Village Idiot in Training.

© silversapphire 2010

Portrait of Grandpa Doc

2010-04-03T14:37:00.003+01:00

Well, I did watch 'Portrait of Grandpa Doc' and it's just as good and as brilliantly acted as 'Peege.' Bruce Davison as Greg (the grandson) reminisces about life with his grandpa, who encouraged him to be an artist. Upon reaching adulthod and now a successful artist, Greg recalls moments from his early life and paints them. He won't let his mother know what the subjects are, but she goes with him to the grand opening of his one man show. When she gets to the gallery, she sees the works, all memories that she too has; she stands silent and still watching the moments in her life, so readily called to mind almost alive on the canvas in front of her. The one masterpiece she cannot tear her gaze away from is that of her late father - Grandpa Doc (as he was to Greg). When Greg eventually catches up with her, after being waylaid by well-wishers and the press, he can see in a moment the impact this one painting has had on his mother above all the others and he gently steers her away as the tears begin to well in her eyes. As she leaves with Greg she gazes back at the painting and the tears fall.

It is such a powerfully acted piece, it is just as heart rending as 'Peege' and if you can get to see both of these movies then I hope you find them as honest and true to real life, raw emotion and feelings as I did.

© silversapphire 2010

Buying from Amazon.com is now prohibitive thanks to Royal Mail 'Fees'

2010-04-01T14:39:00.000+01:00

As a regular buyer of movies from the States, I regularly buy DVDs and VHS direct from Amazon.com but it seems that our erstwhile post office will happily charge VAT at a reasonable price of around £4.50 but then, I can't believe they get away with this but they do, they slap on a further £8.00 in handling fees! Handling fees, what the blue blazes can cost that much??? I don't mind paying the VAT but I do mind, very very much, having to pay this extortionate 'fee' to receive my goods. Talk about having people over a barrel, it is disgusting. I wouldn't mind if Royal Mail were consistent but they are not and I have found that DVD sets which are quite expensive will not be hauled out of the system for these punitive fees whereas one, yes one, small single DVD will kop for the lot. This happened today, I've been trying to get the follow up to 'Peege' which is called 'Portrait of Grandpa Doc' and I was able to get it from Amazon.com at a price of $29.99 - for a 28 minute film. Yes, it's hellishly expensive and some would say overpriced bearing in mind this is the cost of some full DVD sets, but these movies are quite rare and only produced on a 'demand' system. These two mini movies are the early works of the wonderful Bruce Davison (amongst others) and as a sometime artist myself, was interested in the story line of Grandpa Doc, and as I say it is the follow up to the heart wrenching 'Peege' about a young man (Davison) spending time with his infirm grandmother (who has been left to her own devices in a care home) after the rest of the family has left. They merely passed the time as families do, not really taking much notice of the old lady who is to all intents and purposes in a vegetative state but when the grandson really talks with the old lady instead of at her, the whole dynamic changes. Such beautifully restrained and emotive perfomances, it is literally real life unfolding before the eyes. Grandpa Doc is the follow on where the grandson wants to paint a picture of his beloved grandpa but cannot find the starting point. He is preparing for a one man show of his work and wants this to be the centre piece. Eventually, through reminiscing he manages to complete a painting he is happy with, and which portrays his grandpa the way he wants it to. I'm just off to watch it now and shall return at some point to tell you how it was.

© silversapphire 2010

Did The Thyroid Doctor Contact Me?

2010-03-30T15:54:00.000+01:00

Did she heckaslike! It's almost two weeks now since the doctor said 'she would sort it out herself' did she really mean by 'sorting it out' that she would just ignore it and hope it would go away? WRONG!!! I don't 'go away' you see and after Easter, I will be back on the phone to her erstwhile secretary to ask what the blue blazes (polite version) is going on, and do I really have to take this higher? I really don't want to have to do that as I don't think this doctor, out of all of them, needs a complaint making against her but if she persist in this non communication then I'm afraid she will.

It's highly likely that's she's been so busy she's forgotten, which is abysmal in it's own right but when you also consider this is the NHS are you really surpised? I'd be surprised if you are.

Further updates as they happen ...

© silversapphire 2010

A Very Small Thunderstorm?

2010-03-30T15:35:00.003+01:00

Last night, about eight o'clock it started raining heavily, very heavily. In fact we thought it was never going to stop. It was so heavy we thought it was hailstones, but no, just rain, lots of it; oh, and wind too. Then, for no apparent reason there is a huge bang ourtside the house accompanied by a very bright flash. This was at eye level, not absorbing the clouds, menacingly moving across the sky like a maurauding army as thunder and lightning usually does, it was most odd. The thunder sounded like a mortar bomb it was that loud, a huge, cracking, ear splitting bang. Yes it could have been a firework or a car backfiring, or even (Heaven forbid) a gun going off but, and here's the thing, there was no after effect like you'd get with a gun (no spent cartridge), firework (no casing or residue), and no car outside.

We concluded it was a single, solitary burst of lightning and thunder. A thunder & lightning hybrid child having a singular tantrum because it's older siblings wouldn't come out and play. In fact, it's just as odd as the thunderstorm we had in the snow in January here. I have never seen a thunderstorm happen in the middle of a snowstorm but it happened, I think that January's thunder and lightning had given up waiting for the snow to turn into rain that it decided 'to hell with it' and just jumped right in there.

© silversapphire 2010

The Husband is at it again ...

2010-03-30T15:25:00.002+01:00

... No, not that! This time he's been trying to mend our kitchen sink tap which drips and drips and then becomes a major stream. All because the people who had this house before us were into 'Destroy It Yourself' in a major way. What they did to the plumbing system under the sink mystifies even the most knowledgeable plumber, so it doesn't bode well for hubs - but, he tries, and you gotta love him for that.

This time he announces at 10pm on Saturday evening last that 'it'll only take me an hour' to fix it! If you've ever read any of my other blogs on the hubs' DIY (yes that does mean Destoy It Yourself) then you'll probably know what's coming. For those who haven't read them here's what did happen: It took way more than an hour (which I said it would before he started, not to sound superior or anything like that, just going on past experiences), the air turned purple (we are way past blue at this point) as the tap refused to mend. Hubs well and truly blows his stack, all angry eyes and hard looking face and then announces: 'And I've lost my favourite screwdriver.' At which point I just lost it and burst out laughing, telling hubs he can't really be angry when he comes out with lines like that, and it made him laugh too. Thing is it upsets doggie as he doesn't really know the difference between angry and just talking loudly so he thinks there's a storm a-brewin and he was wrong, all he hears is the tone of voice changing and fears the worst.

It's so hard not to be angry back when hubs starts, but with little gems like the screwdriver going AWOL (and whom hubs has christened Matilda) it takes all the steam out of the argument. Hubs had a brainwave in bed (apparently it does happen) that he would change the washers over in the hot and cold taps, and it would suffice till we get the plumber in to mend the damned thing once for all this week when hubs is threatening to have a holiday! He did change the washers, went out and bought a new screwdriver - a big one! He then announces that it is fixed, not with arms outstretched and head back sort of announcement you understand, just passing a comment. We decided between us that we'd get a new tap altogether and we did, but it's not cheap this tap replacement lark - oh no, the one we have is a mixer tap and we've now moved away from having the conventional screw tap on each side in favour of taps which move up and down - far simpler (allegedly) as the cold tap is the side that's causing all the problems. So we get the new one which as I said isn't cheap, it cost £114 + vat, and then there's the plumbers fee to consider. All in all, we think a second mortgage might be in order but first, I feel I have to have a lie down in a darkened room ...

© silversapphire 2010

And talking of Yogurts ...

2010-03-30T15:07:00.003+01:00

Why are ALL the major brands these days (including my all time favourite brand -Ski) adding probiotic and/or the grossly sounding 'lactic cultures' to their yogurts? Is it REALLY necessary? Why - because everone else is doing it?

Whereas Ski for example, used to be a great flavour yogurt it now has this abominal stuff added to it with the result that I don't eat it anymore. Whatever happened to having good old plain and simple yogurt without lactic cultures in them? I detest these yogurts now, so I certainly won't be buying them anymore, I'll stick to the stores' 'own brand' until that too falls under the sinister cloak of 'probiotic.' Just because every major chain have to add this stuff to their products doesn't mean they couldn't give the customer a choice. I do not like being dictated to, especially by yogurt makers over whether I have probiotic and/or lactic cultures in my foods. It would be far easier to give the customer a choice and let THEM decide instead of doing it for them.

© silversapphire 2010

Revolting Perle De Lait Yogurt/Dairy Dessert

2010-03-23T20:17:00.000Z

If you've ever seen the advertisements on UK telly for Perle De Lait, you'll understand why I'm laughing at the thought of it. They feature a woman eating what she describes as a horrible, bitter and sour tasting yogurt - complete with facial grimaces and scowls to match; then we see her eating a Perle De Lait and she is all smiles and telling us how 'lovely' this new yogurt is ... except it isn't, it is more like the first one she tried, bitter, sour and absolutely horrible. It makes me laugh just thinking about it but honestly, imho, the only really nice thing I can say about Perle De Lait is the name, that and the packaging 'cos the adverts and the stuff itself are abysmal.

© silversapphire 2010

I've now joined The Double Chin Club

2010-03-23T14:07:00.000Z

And I'm not happy about it either; if it's possible for me to look any worse than usual this is it.

My late dad had one but no-on else in the family did so guess what? yep, muggins here is the one that kops for it. I have a choice, live with it or go find a liposuction bod at £2000 a pop and get it sucked out, nice eh? Makes me look real old and I'm not - that's the point.

Tried dieting, massage, excercises but nothing works. It just sits there mocking me because it knows it can and there's not a damn thing I can do about it ... well not yet anyway.

© silversapphire 2010

Thyroid Doctor Not Responding

2010-03-22T15:20:00.004Z

So now it's nearly three weeks since I was unceremoniously 'discharged' by my thyroid doc. After I get her letter explaining things, I sent an email in reply, telling her I was not happy being discharged as I've still not had the promised scan. I am not being discharged until I've had one, I need to know what's going on inside. I'm not convinced by her just looking at my neck or her comments that 'your thyroid has shrunk nicely' - it may well have done but are the nodules still there? if not, why am I still feeling all the things I had there BEFORE I had the Radioactive Iodine? I want to go back and see her and that's what I said. This was on 8th March but I was then informed by the secretary that the doctor was on holiday again and would be back on 15th March. I waited a few days after this to give her time to get back in and when nothing had happened by Thursday 18th March I called again. This time the secretary told me the doctor had my email and was 'dealing with it herself' and guess what, it's now Monday 22nd march and still nothing. Bet she forgets. But I've told the secretary that I'll call again in another two weeks if I don't hear anything and failing that, I'll have to get my GP to send me back to her and start the useless messing about in the merry go round system. Apparently now, the hospital I go to has introduced a triage system of appointments - ever heard such rubbish? It goes on though. Now, you get an appopintment but in sinsister overtones further down the letter it says that the appointment date is merely a pending appointment which means it has to be passed by a triage assessment and if they think you are 'seriously ill' enough to see a doctor then you'll see one, otherwise you are, I hate this saying, 'released back to the care of your own GP.' Now, considering the GP is the one referring you to the hospital, what's the point? The point is, they mess around with your health, they pass the buck, by the time you've fought through the system you could be dead (which, secretly I think that's what they want - one more name ticked off the list then). Imagine how much luck I'm going to have getting back in to see my thyropid doc as I've been 'discharged.' Why do these idiots in the administration think this is a good way of saving money, it probably is to them, but they alwyas foregt they are there to serve the patients, not the other way round. All this nonsense comes at the expense of the patients well-being. The last thing I need right now is to go fight this lot to get to see my thyroid doc again, despite her assertions to the contraty that it's easy to come back - oh yeah? - you try it.

© silversapphire 2010

Sorry BBC but it's still a huge Boo with added Hiss here and there

2010-03-22T15:07:00.000Z

How can you have the nerve to show, wait for it, Special Highlights from the Paralymic Games? Parading your 'commentary' before us claiming 54 medals have been contested over the last 9 days. yeah, WE KNOW. One question: BBC where were you???

© silversapphire 2010

No More Dancing on Adverts, sorry, Ice, for me

2010-03-21T20:46:00.001Z

What is it with the present run of Dancing on Ice? Is it necessary to have one skating couple's performance, their scores and judges comments immediately followed by an advert break? - hey, anything to drag out this spectacle for a whole hour.

They should rename this show: Dancing on Adverts and/or Pantomime Audience Screaming as that's all we get, as well as the rather daft studio manager encouraging the even dafter (and therefore gullible) audience to boo the judges if they say something the audience don't like and to cheer and scream madly when the judges say something the audience agrees with. No doubt these moronic studio mangers must be no older than 10 years old as all this screaming and booing, especially when poor Jason Gardiner is trying to comment is so rude.

I'm tearing up my DOI Loyalty Card because of it now, and will watch something else from now on; it's too much hassle. The audience have no manners and neither do the childish studio managers who obviously think it makes for great viewing - NEWSFLASH MORONS - IT DOESN'T.

© silversapphire 2010

The present Husband, Mr Malaprop!

2010-03-21T17:02:00.000Z

Hubs just came out with a corker. I'm channel surfing to see what's on tonight (BBC wall to wall sport) other channels not much but I came across a channel with a film called: Caramel. Hubs pipes up: 'isn't that an opera?'

'No dear' I reply slowly, 'that would be Carmen' - SIGH!

© silversapphire 2010

Not voting Tory? then expect Labour to be re-elected!

2010-03-21T16:57:00.001Z

Not that I have much truck with the Tories under Cameron (their last, greatest leader was Mrs Thatcher imho - can just see her putting up with uncontrolled immigration and bending over backwards for the EU - NOT) but if those misguided, sniffy idiots amongst us who smugly claim 'No vote from me Dave, I'm voting Independence' because they take umbrage at one yes one, teeny tiny argument in the manifesto think they'll get an independent party elected they are sadly mistaken but then they are literally too stupid to realise that. In reality, much as we'd love to have UKIP elected and therefore get us OUT of the EU, we are stuck with Dave and his Tory party. If we don't vote in our millions for the Tories then we can expect another five years of Labour and that will include five MORE years of uncontrolled immigration, jobs and factories closing, British workers passed over in favour of foreign nationals, illegal immigrants living in YOUR back gardens, ineffective policing, council snoopers being given the green light to come into YOUR home when THEY like to 're-evaluate your council tax' - seems under labour, we have NO rights to privacy at all, we are sleepwalking into a Stasi state but hey, those idiots amongst us will blindly carry on voting for anyone but Tory and then will be bleating that 'they can't understand how Labour got in again' - well here's why I'm spelling it out for you, vote independence and see what you land us with. I cannot believe we are such a nation of idiots.

© silversapphire 2010

Why has the 'Cadbury's' Creme Egg taste gone from great to horrible?

2010-03-21T15:49:00.000Z

You really can't answer that? Well, it's because of cheaper products creeping in to the mix - literally. Don't know what they've done to them but the Creme Egg is a complete no-no for me now and I used to love them. The last few I've had taste diabolical, like there is something 'off' in the mix. They do not taste like they used to; they were delicious. Coincidence that Kraft have just taken them over? No, not really, us Cadbury eaters were warning furiously that this would happen and sadly the Creme Egg is just the first casualty, wait till they shift everything to Poland and then see how bad and uneatable the whole 'Cadbury' range becomes, sadly the Creme Egg debacle has just started the rot ...

You were warned not to mess with the formula Kraft!

© silversapphire 2010

VGA Card 'Buzzing'

2010-03-20T16:13:00.003Z

Working on the computer is now getting to be a problem. The VGA Card inside the box is buzzing so loud it gives me a headache. Apparently the fan and it's ball bearings are failing and we have to have a new one! Oh Joy! Firstly it was thought that it was the main fan failing so hubs goes out (in a nark) to get one, throwing his toys out of his pram left, right and centre. Every little thing that goes wrong he HAS to make a crisis out of it, it gets wearing on the nerves y'know. It's got so bad now that I've only got one nerve left - AND HE KEEPS GETTING ON IT!!!!!! Turns out, after all the gnashing of teeth and the tantrums that it wasn't the main fan but the VGA card (and fan) so that just made things worse. This racket is so bad it sounds like there is a wasp or six hundred thousand in there!!!

One day I'll live a quiet, peaceful, untroubled life - but it's not here yet.

© silversapphire 2010

Trespass in not a criminal offence ... in Peterborough, Cambs, UK

2010-03-20T15:51:00.003Z

Pity the poor people of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, UK.

In one of our Saturday papers it is reported that illegal immigrants have descended on a part of the county and moved in ... to resident's garden sheds and gardens! They have all pitched up in one area with their filthy mattresses, toilet material (polite version), drug paraphernalia, syringes etc - all within areas of quiet, peaceful, respectful domesticity. The response from the local council and police is pathetically unsurprising. The council say they can't do anything to help the residents but they will be down en masse to make sure the illegal immigrants have everything they need! Excuse me?? What about the rights of the householder? Why should they carry on paying their council tax when you blatantly will not help them? The police there are apparently no better; as trespass (which is what the illegal immigrants are doing) is no longer a criminal offence they can’t shift them. Again, what are the residents of Peterborough paying their taxes for? One poor chap has an illegal immigrant living in his coal shed! You could not make it up could you, only in this festering sore of a country would this happen and no-one in authority seems to have the will, the courage, or the backbone to do their duty. Regrettably, if the householder moves the II's on by using 'reasonable force' you can guarantee who would be prosecuted, yep the householder. So, do I understand this correctly - anyone from anywhere in the world can come and invade your garden, your shed (and probably very soon your house, turfing you out in the process - watch and see) because if these illegal immigrants and anyone else who fancies the look of your house can now move into or onto your land and not be prosecuted? Really, well how about getting a caravan and moving onto someone's drive? It will happen - because the people who are responsible for doling out law and order and civil justice in this country let it happen. Bet though, that if these illegal immigrants pitched up at Westminster or in say Mr Brown’s constituency and lived in their sheds and gardens the police would soon shift them then. So the question remains: When is trespass a criminal offence? Answer: when it happens to the present incumbent government and/or any of their representatives. Question: When is trespass not a criminal offence? Answer: When it happens to the ordinary law abiding, tax paying, indigenous population, who just ‘have to lump it.’ Apparently the only way the residents can get rid of these gangs is to take legal action themselves, great to see democracy in action isn’t it?

A very sad but not surprising indictment of life in Britain under 'New' Labour. You see, while this problem blights the hardworking people of this country, it is totally ignored by the government. The region's MP has even been trying to get something done and is just as appalled as I am at the state of things in the part of Peterborough that is affected.

Of course, all these problems are a direct result of that failed immigration policy of new labour. In other countries in the EU they don’t have this problem, because their governments stand firm to uphold their country’s nationally and will not allow it to be eroded by hordes from every given country on the planet, but Britain, well see, that’s a whole other story, our government does not want Britain to exist as it was. They blame the EU for all these rules and regulations which we can’t, for some reason, ignore. Most other countries in the EU don’t behave like a whipped pup when the EU demands something, but Britain does. So, it’s about time Mr Brown that we left the EU. Switzerland does very nicely out being a non-member, betcha they don’t have illegal immigrants taking over their back gardens and sheds, no, because their police wouldn’t stand for that. And while we’re on the subject, the reason illegal immigrants flock here is for the benefits (which they have no right to because they, unlike the indigenous British people, have never paid a penny in contributions so they should not get a penny) but say this in public (ahem) and wait for the inevitable cries of racist to come screaming out of the wood work. Those who scream racist are morons (whose lack of decency and common sense has deserted them) so now that we have the name calling out of the way, can we deal with the reality of the situation? We must take all of the indigenous British people who are unemployed, sick and/or disabled so we can give that money to any illegal immigrant who wants it. Shouldn’t the term illegal immigrant give these morons a clue? Illegal means they should NOT be here, so send them back where they came from and if there are no papers on them, simply pick a country and send them back there. You can bet they’ll soon remember where they came from if you say you’re sending them back to a place that is worse than here, but believe me that list is getting smaller all the time. Australia and Canada are not over-run with illegal immigrants because they are tough on them, not spineless like the British Authorities, and it doesn’t matter how many times you write to your MP, the Prime Minister or how many petitions you sign and send, the government will not listen, so although over 90% of the population of this country want illegal immigration stopped and the country put back to how it was before this New Labour lot wrecked everything, it’s only that 10% who matter, those who actively support this crowd. Those of us who remember back to the times before our country was wrecked by New Labour pine for the loss of our once beautiful country, we pine because it will take generations to go back to before the blight of New Labour set in and it will take a tough, harsh government to do it. Unfortunately we do not have the statesmen that we once had, the old guard who would take the decisions necessary. No, all we have now are politicians who don’t look like they’re old enough to be out on their own. Those who have never worked in industry or held any sort of life outside of Westminster; they are a waste of time, and sadly that is what our future governments will be made up of, so don’t go holding out for a change in this country for a long, long time, if ever. If you have the money emigrate, I would if I had the chance.

There is allegedly a general election coming up (but Brown is delaying the naming of the date, probably to wrong foot the opposition, great to see democracy in action eh?) and whereas in the past the British people would get rid of this, the worst government we have ever, ever had bar none, this time round they have become so spineless now that they'll happily vote Brown in again for 5 more years of the same. They won't vote Tory because they don't like them, I have to agree that Mr Cameron is style over substance and had the party faithful elected David Davis instead of Cameron they would be elected by a landslide; what a shame.

Boo to the BBC & their Licence Fee and Hurrah for British Eurosport

2010-03-19T12:00:00.001Z

Following on from my last blog, it appears that British Eurosport are now covering a tiny bit of the Paralympic Winter Games, 20:45 till 22:00ish most nights. That is a live feed with catch ups here and there throughout the programme. It's NOT ideal by a long way but at least it's a little glimpse of an otherwise ignored sport by the BBC, they should be ashamed as I said in my last blog, but where there's no shame there's generally no feeling either!

They should remember, but they don't seem to have long memories (or memories at all for that matter) that while we still have to stump up for this ridiculous TV licence (telly tax) they impose upon us (and which should be scrapped and the BBC made to fight their way onto the airwaves like every other station has to, but that's my opinion) disabled people are among those who pay what amounts to a fine to watch the telly, cos if you don't pay you can end up with a criminal record - how stupid is that? Liccences are provided for practical things like being a motorist or a fisherman/woman amongst other things, it should NOT be for watching sodding TV. The BBC has become way too big now with it's bloated and self indulgent programming tv channels and radio. We also have to subscribe to satellite TV to watch the independent channels AS WELL AS all of the BBC channels; so we pay twice! Great to see democracy in action, wouldn't you agree? Whoever gave this telly tax the green light years ago was sadly misguided as they created a very greedy and unsustainable monster. There is NO respite from this tax to watch telly; none at all. Their very dark and rather sinister 'adverts' warn the populace that 'we know where you live.' then they cut to a TV Detector van which roams the streets of britain checking that people have bought their licences and if they haven't well, then it's knock knock on the front door time (if this was a movie you'd laugh yourself silly at that but it's deadly serious). I despair of this country of ours sometimes, really I do.

Paralympic Winter Games 2010 started yesterday - WHY NO TV COVERAGE?

2010-03-15T13:06:00.000Z

Is it because disabled athletes don't count as far as TV Companies are concerned? Isn't this pure discrimination? Even the politically correct-to within-an-inch-of-it's-life BBC are not bothering to cover it. I am absolutely disgusted at the lack of coverage. Disabled athletes win more medals for their country on average than their able bodied counterparts. The TV Companies should be ashamed, but then, they probably don't even know the meaning of the word.

© silversapphire 2010

Scouse Passports and farewell to Peter Graves - Star of Mission: Impossible

2010-03-15T10:14:00.002Z

Watched a telly programme here last night called: 'Come Dine With Me' - now for all UK residents we know what this is but for the benefit of anyone reading this from overseas (I know, I should be so lucky ... there's a song in there somewhere but that would take this entry into a whiole new direction). The programme consists of 4 (or 5 people depending on which version they're doing) who have never met each other before cooking each other dinner on 4 (or 5) consecutive nights, and marking each other accordingly out of 10 for their efforts. The winner of the £1000 cash prize is the person who gets the highest score. The programme goes all around the UK and for each set of 4 (or 5) people will concentrate on one area of the country. The latest programme kicked off last night with the usual 'Celebrity' version which saw fellow scousers Comedian Tom O' Connor, Actress Clare Sweeney, and non-scousers Kim Woodburn and Actor Darren Day. Their £1000 cash prize is donated to the winner's charity. This is, I think, the fourth or fifth version of the 'Celebrity' compettion and it was by far the funniest, absolutely hilarious. Tom O' Connor won, and at the end of his night he produced 'Scouse Passports' which he gave as gifts to the rest of the diners. In it are phrases which aim to get you speaking like a scouser. One of the phrases is: 'De Do Dat Do Don't De?' and if you say it fast enough you'll sound a bit like a scouser (a quick translation of the line is: 'They Do That Though, Don't They?')

I'm online right now looking for some of these as being a scouser myself and wanting to have this little gem (I had no idea they were available) as being an ex-pat scouser I am so far away from Liverpool down here that I can't even get the wonderful radio stations of Radio City and/or BBC Radio Merseyside. I can listen to the BBC station online of course, but not the independent Radio City, which is great and has been going since I was a kid.

Farewell to the wonderful Peter Graves.

Woke up to some very sad news this morning, turning on the news to be told that Peter Graves (Jim Phelps) of Mission: Impossible has died at the age of 83. According to reports he collapsed and died of a heart attack as he was approaching his front door with his family. I am saddened at his passing but also feeling for his family who were with him after they had all been out for a family brunch. Family attempts at CPR (can you imagine how distressing that was for them, it is unimagniable and I am very very sorry for the loss) were unsuccessful; they must all be so distraught. I will keep them in my thoughts and prayers; a very very sad loss.

© silversapphire 2010

Andre Rieu anyone?

2010-03-02T20:21:00.000Z

Should have writtent this a while ago but being 'clinically hypothyroid' just haven't had the energy.

First came across Andre Rieu at the Royal Variety Show last year when he and his orchestra (the Johann Stuass orchestra) played for the Queen and it was wonderful. Not only was he greeted with gasps of amazement as the curtain drew back but with appreciative applause the minute he began playing, it was wonderful. In amongst all the wailing wannabees of the pop world and the acrobatic endeavours of the gymnastic acts and the hilarious routines of the comics came this little piece of TV nirvana. A full orchestra with ladies in period dresses and men in suits from the same era, all guided by this amazing man, this violinist with shoulder length hair and a gleam in his eye. In England, we, like the seemingly backward lot that we are sometimes, have never heard of Andre Rieu, or to give him his full title: Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra, the Waltz King of Europe. This man is in his 60's and tours constantly! (he has a fleet of tour buses and 2 planes; well you try ferrying a full orchestra, their instruments, costumes and make up etc without all that) and his concerts sell out faster than anyone else's. After listening to him I too am a fan, and I'm not really surprised that his tickets sell out within minutes of going on sale. He brings a lightness and humour to the music, it is not stiff and staid and all stiff upper lip nonsense. No, it's fun, it's really uplifting and it's happy. Andre says he likes to make people smile and be as happy as he is. Not only do this wonderful ensemble play classical music, waltzes etc, they play modern tunes, show tunes and tunes from the movies, it is a joy to listen to. I have a few of his CD's and DVD's and I'm hoping to get more as money allows but if you need to be uplifted, or just want to listen to some real music played with love and attention to detail then you really should listen to Andre Rieu, go and watch a DVD or try and get a ticket to a show. People are encouraged to dance at the concerts and it's such a wonderful sight to see as there is no age barrier everyone is welcome and all are encouraged to dance. Not this moronic stuff the kids do these days, this is proper dancing where people dance 'in hold' unless Andre is playing Zorba the Greek and then it's every man and woman for themselves!

I'm so glad I was watching the Royal Variety last year or I would have missed this amazing act, where people were walting in the aisles and I can honestly say I have never seen that at the Royal Variety Show! in all the years it been going, so had I missed that I would have been like the rest of us, and remained ignorant of this amazing man and his orchestra. Incidentally a BBC text programmer for the Ceefax pages proudly exlaimed that 'An unkown Dutch composer was No 1 in the album charts with his new CD Forever Vienna.' A few hours later I was happy to see it had been changed to Andre Rieu is No 1 in the album charts etc; even at the BBC he had not been heard of by this particular programmer but thankfully someone else had heard of him and corrected the mistake.

If you'd like to know more about Andre Rieu (his name is pronounced Ondrey Reeyou, visit his site at http://www.andrerieu.com/ and enjoy (I know you will).

© silversapphire 2010

RIP Kristian Digby

2010-03-02T14:51:00.001Z

Such a complete shock today to hear of the very sudden death of Presenter/Director Kristian Digby. He was only 32 and a very likeable young man. I never knew him and never met him but he always came across as a warm, funny and genuine guy. He will always for me anyway, be associated with 'To Buy Or Not To Buy' with the equally talented and funny Dominic Littlewood.

I had only recently been watching Kristian on 'Living In The Sun' and thinking what a nice change it was to have him on the programme instead of the female presenter they used to have; her voice sounded like nails down a blackboard, so it was great to have a fun take on the show. My condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues. What an utter shock, what a sad, sad loss.

© silversapphire 2010

The Continuing Saga of The Underactive Thyroid

2010-03-02T14:41:00.001Z

And we have yet another chapter in the life of my underactive thyroid: Mrs Hypothyoidism aka Mrs Myxoedema.

Now I'm told my results are TSH 3.8 (still high) and the T4 up at 23 (should be no higher than 19, 11 or 26 depending on whose scale you use! the scale they use here is 19). Confusing? yes isn't it? What a palaver.

Went to the hospital today expecting to have an ultrasound of the neck as this is what the doctor had told me I was getting, but she looked blankly back at me when I said I was having that done. I go trolling off to the ultrasound department to check and they also have the blank look lurgy thing going on. So come home and ring in to be told that if the doctor had thought it necessary she would have done it in the consult as she has one of these little ultrasound things in the consulting room. If I hadn't been told about it, I wouldn't have expected to have had it, what a complete nonsense eh? Now I'm discharged! How can I be discharged when they haven't even checked to see if the nodules are gone, what about follow ups??? I have no choice but to wait for the 'after consult letter' to come out and see what it says, in the meantime they would like me to stay on 100mcg but my heart is racing away so they will agree to drop it to 75mcg. Problem here is as my thyroxine maker doesn't supply a tablet in this dosage, they do 25, 50 or 100 only. So I'll have to end up having one 50mcg tablet and one 25mcg tablet for the next 8 weeks when I'm to have another blood test (which I will have done at the hospital next time as the practice nurse at my GP's surgery has bruised my veins badly this time and the arm is very sore almost a week later) this will show where I am with the hormones. If it wasn't for the racing heartbeat 100mcg is where they would like me to be but other people I speak to in the health service agree 100mcg is quite a high dose. My consultant tells me that some women like to stay on a high dose as it gives them more energy. Good for them I say because they probably don't know about the damage that too much T4 does to the body, things like bone density reducing (not good for me if it happens because of my spine issues) heart damage and a raft of other things I won't bore you with. If the 75mcg does work I'd be happy but I have my doubts as my last results of TSH at 51 and T4 at 15 when I was taking 50mcg compared with TSH at 3.8 and T4 at 23 on 100mcg is worrying. 3.8 is still high and has been linked with cholesterol problems which I really don't need because there is a history of heart problems and stroke in my family so it's something that should be alerting the medics here but isn't.

I really thought I had found a decent service in the hospital with this thyroid doctor but it seems they are just like every other department. I asked about having the T3 levels checked at the next bloodtest because not everyone can convert the T4 into T3 which is the important hormone. I was told I can have it done but it's not usually done as, wait for it, yes that's right - IT COSTS TOO MUCH. Sad that we have to put a price on health eh? perhaps if our NHS became just that, the NATIONAL Health Service and stopped trying to treat the whole world for free we would get better results, that and if the government stopped messing about with it! We are not the IHS (that's International Health Service) but doctors won't be immigration officials and who can blame them.

© silversapphire 2010

O Canada

2010-03-02T14:10:00.003Z

O Canada! How glorious to see the beauty of the west coast in all it's wintry spelndour for the Winter Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver, BC. Amazing scenery and amazing people. Vancouver(ians) embracing the world as if they were members of their long lost extended family, cheering wildly as races were run and concluded with the cheers being just that bit louder for the home team. Well done to the Canadian Mens Ice Hockey Team for their narrow win over the US in the ice hockey final. As men's ice hockey is something of a religion out there I can well imagine the huge sense of disappointment if they had lost. See, being British, we KNOW what disappointment is like - believe me! Here, we are praising our one, yes that's right our ONE gold medal which is all we have won in 30 years and we are PRAISING that? I think it's a disgrace that we are so far behind the rest of the world, winter sports wise, that this is the best we can hope for. Ah well, lets look forward to our next gold medal in the winter olympics of 2040 in whatever host nation there is left on Earth then. Back to the ice hockey for the briefest of minutes, it is a shame that anyone has to lose but personally I prefer silver to gold, whether that would apply to a medal I will, thankfully, never know as being slightly 'over the hill' now I am way too old for all that throwing myself off a mountain on a pair of flimsy looking sticks to land, not on my butt, but on my feet. Although I think I would probably end of up on the former.

Digressing slightly, came across something on one of the sports channels here which was showing coverage of the Winter X Games from Aspen, Colorado. Know what I saw? go on guess? no go on - you'll never get it ... snowmobile aerobatics!!! Had to look twice as guys were throwing these huge behemoth machines off of ramps and completing very difficult acrobatics off the back of them, looping the loop and all. Mad, totally bonkers, but hey each to their own. Looked really good though, has to be said, just glad I'm not doing it .. or know someone who is as I'd be watching from behnid the sofa through closed fingers.

Anyways, if I had the money I would be offski to the beauty of British Columbia. My mother's brother and her sister emigrated to Canada before I was born, and they were trying to encourage my mother to go as well but there was some problem over the £10 passage fee, and so she stayed in Britain, which used to be called Great Britain until 1997 and the 'New Labour' lot took over and reduced it to what it is today; a ramshackle, stumbling, morose and broken excuse for a country. So, imagine if you want to emigrate now; you are not wanted unless you can provide an essential service. Dare to be sick or disabled and you can stay in your own country and fester away there thank you very much - we don't want you!!! I was therefore, a bit miffed at the rousing anthems sung at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics by good old 'Mickey Bubbles' (that's Michael Buble's affectionate name by the way, apparently his fans call him that), singing away he was about how Britain colonised Canada in the stirring 'Maple Leaf Forever' but try and go over now without huge sums of money to invest in a Canadian business, or in other words, buy your way in, you can forget about coming here. So so different to the way 'immigration' is handled in the UK. If only my mother had gone, I would either not be born (depending on whether she had married my dad and he had gone too), or I would be Canadian.

I long for wide open spaces, the colder the better. I yearn to be in a place of inspiration. Looking out into the mountains draped lovingly by the clouds to keep them warm on the colder days. Where frost is sprinkled finely on the ground, making that pleasing crunching sound underfoot and the incredibly beautiful snow, shedloads of it as far as the eye can see, glistening brightly under the pale yellow gold of the sun in the daytime, and glowing softly, almost lazily, under the night skies with the ethereal milky white of the winter moon shining her magnificence across the frozen land; bliss, utter bliss. So I keep playing the lottery in hopes of fulfilling my dreams, but it's a very long shot, a very very long shot indeed.

And finally a note about the early tragedy that befell the games before they had even started. I'm talking about the very sad loss of the young luger from Georgia, Nodar Kumartashvilli in that awful training accident which claimed his life on the eve of the games. Such is the dedication and spirit of every man and woman there that the games continued as the young man probably would have wanted. Fitting tributes were paid as they should have been but it was a sad time and we must not forget that. A life lost at such a young age is tragic and as this young man died doing what he loved at least there is a tiny modicom of comfort (if that is the right word to use here), but I know that there is no wish dearer than that of wanting the loved one home again. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of this young man, his family, friends and colleagues.

© silversapphire 2010

Cadbury's No More!

2010-02-03T08:20:00.003Z

As a lifelong fan of Cadbury Chocolate, I cannot tell you how sad I am to see the greedy shareholders accepting the takeover by Kraft. Cadbury and all it's traditions, it's workplace ethics, it's belief and well treatment in and of it's workers has all gone at the stroke of a pen. Kraft say they cannot guarantee that they will continue to maunfacture Cadbury's Chocolate in Britain, so it's goodbye to all those loyal and trusted workers in Chirk North Wales, Bournville Birmingham, Hereford and all the other outlets across the country. No more Cadbury World in Birmingham where you entered a chocolate paradise as you were taken around the factory where the beloved bars were made, a veritable Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory in real life - and that's all going. It is a very sad day inded for Britain. What is left in this country now? Britain plc has now lost it's soul, everything is foreign owned so is it any wonder we don't have a sense of national pride anymore.

What I cannot understand is how these fat cats at the top of the tree, despite all the outpouring of support from the public and the workers to keep Cadbury British, have just sold us all down the chocolate river in return for the mighty dollar! What they don't realise is this - if you take the manufacturing of Cadbury Chocolate products out of Britain and out of British workers hands and outsource it overseas (I think Poland has been spoken about) you destabilise the whole thing, you change the flavour at your peril. Change the ingredients that people all over the world, not just in Britain love and have grown up with and you lose sales; it is that simple so why mess with it at all by selling it out?

I for one, am not buying any more Cadbury chocolate once it is rebranded as Kraft as they will be substituting the 'glass and a half of full cream milk' in every bar for inferior substitutes; remember they have a huge debt to clear after this takeover. So, the chocolate content will go and instead of full cream dairy milk chocolate which is so good to eat, and which is like no other let me tell you, they will use cheaper products and the taste will be like every other rubbish chocolate bar out there. I feel very sorry for my American cousins, their chocolate, or candy as they sometimes call it is not really chocolate - anyone had a Hershey Bar? dreadful isn't it, I can imagine that's what eating cardboard would be like but Americans have grown up with that for chocolate and think that's what chocolate is all about. I know in some parts of America, like Florida, there are ex-pat shops which import Cadbury chocolate for the British people living out there, Americans are realising how good the product is as they are eating it too, well make the most of it I say, cos it's all a changing. The likes of Hersheys IMO are bland and tasteless, it looks like chocolate but that's all and how long will it be before your favourite Cadbury brands are exactly the same? Cadbury's Cheese Egg anyone (that should be Cadbury's Creme Egg for thos who know what I'm talking about) but that's what you can expect. No more Cadbury loveliness, just Cadbury blandness, no taste rubbish in the years to come, watch and see.

Anyone remember Terry's of York, a really nice chocolate maunfacturer making good chocolate in the City of York - gone, sold off, and the ingredients changed out of all recognition. Result? falling sales and just another sad story of a once greeat British product lost in the maelstrom of manufacturing in the big boys brigade, and Cadbury will go exactly the same way.

Let's be clear here, I have no problem with brands being taken over as long as the product remains the same and the workers are still employed as they have been done for centuries. What I do have problems with is brands being taken over, the products made with cheaper and therefore inferior products and the workforce told to sod off in so many words - in short Cadbury Management and Shareholders, this stinks. You think you have made a great investment no doubt and you are patting yourselves on the back while counting the green BUT be warned that quick profitability and net gains DO NOT guarantee sustained growth epsecially when you sold us down the river, especially when you allow foreign companies to mess with and alter the very fabric of the products out of all recognition.

Mess with the formula of Cadbury Chocolate at your peril and watch the profits fall. Where will your wisdom be then? To all the Cadbury Family I say sorry we were not able to change the minds of the shareholders and people at the top of Cadbury's. What a crying shame and no mistake! A very, very sad day indeed for Britain and British workers.

© silversapphire 2010

So, now I'm 'clinically hypothyroid!'

2010-01-30T12:47:00.007Z

Had bloods done middle of last week up at my GP's on hospital headed request form, so naturally I thought that the results would be copied to my hospital doctor but no, silly me, they weren't. Thanks to my GP at least being on the ball it turns out my TSH (that's the bit that makes the thyroid stuff apparently, oddly known as the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is way up at 51! I know! It should be no higher than, erm, 5; so you see why I'm so worried that things are not being done as they should. The GP though rang at 18:25 on Wednesday last and told me I should speak to the hospital 'in the morning' and take it up with them as I'd had no word from them. Thanks SO much for telling me when it's too late to do anything about it TONIGHT!!! and instead, leave me wondering (I've given up worrying over med stuff now, there's just no point) all night as to what's going on, or not as the case may be. In the absence of any telephone calling to be done I do the next best thing and send off an email to my hospital doctor and left it at that, telling her all I had just been told and giving her all the facts as I had them. That was that for the night, cue next morning 08:45 call the hospital and get the secretary, she asks if I am who I am and I said yes (who else would I be for ****'* sake???). She then tells me they have not had the results back 'otherwise we would have been straight on to you.' Taking a deep and very calming breath, I tell her that I need the doctor there to sort this out pretty sharpish as my own GP's surgery closes at lunchtime Thursday, so if I am to get another prescription for a higher dose of thyroxine (or to give it it's full moniker: Levothyroxine Sodium). The secretary gets a bit snippy at that, as if I'm telling her to do her job and it gets a bit much how precious some of these women can be. They are probably not suffering the effects of an underactive thyroid and will argue back and forth for as long as they like over one issue or another. My notes are not where they should be (shocker!) and they take great delight in saying the doctor 'won't speak to you unless she has your notes as she won't know who she is talking to.' I thought - get her on the phone and she'll soon know; we have such a good consult me and her she would remember me. Secretary then takes my number and promises to call back (I send positive vibes to her to lose the 'tude' hon) and it works, because when she calls back she is as nice as pie. She says the doctor has dictated a letter and they are waiting for her to sign it. I ask how much the dosage is for and she says oh 50mcg! When I say I'm already on that, they get all worked up again 'oh we didn't know that' she says. COME AGAIN???? You are dispensing thyroid meds and you don't know what dosage I'm ALREADY on???? Doesn't surprise me anymore but that's how so many people die or are mismanaged in this hopsital. They rely on paper notes but surely where thyroids and nuclear medicine are concerned would it be too much to ask if they could have a computer record in the absence of notes, which hold things up royally, to see what they are prescribing - apparently, yes it would. I leave everything to the GP now and then a scrip is ready for 100mcg, I go and get it and everything runs as it should.

What really makes me laugh is the letter I got from the hospital this morning where they thank the GP (if you please) for faxing my results to them, NOT ME for starting the ball rolling with my email which preceeded that!!! The they take the initiative and say 'she is clinically hypothroid' (didn't know they had suddenly started treating the cat's mother but never mind) and to take bloods again in four weeks to see if 'she' needs the dose increasing further. I am heartily sick of having this medication because I am bloated, having migraines almost on a daily basis and am geting fat, even though I'm not over-eating into the bargain. I have spine issues so weight gain is NOT an option for me. I am tired, I am cold, I am lethargic. Periods all over the shop, and sometimes consti as well, not nice at all. Then they go on about increasing the dosage, it is a horrid drug to be on but a necessary one, so I'm now having to go through the swollen and dry throat business again as the drug is increased and I'm really hoping they will sort this out SOON because I really can't be doing with being like this for years while they get the dose right - I won't have any veins left for a start I can tell you that.

Apart from that the sun is shining - incandescently bright, migraine inducing bright, so I'm reduced to being indoors today with all the curtains drawn, I'm a happy little camper today aren't I?

© silversapphire 2010

Be Careful What You Wish For

2010-01-06T20:53:00.009Z

Well, I admit it - I was wrong, it did snow like a good un at the predicted hour of 3pm and hasn't stopped since. It's been blizzarding and getting into near white out conditions and everything. Seems some errant snowflakes decided not to join in the big bash in Central Southern England and decided to have a little snowy soiree all of their very own in the South East Corner. Seriously though guys, please follow the advice of the emergency and motoring services - if you don't need to travel stay indoors or risk being trapped or even stranded out in this weather. Our local media were even reporting that people are going out in trainers and high heels, short skirts and no coats - and that's just the men! (that's a joke right there, just in case you thought I was serious) but they have a point though, not being prepared for the severe cold this weather brings can be fatal!

Remember to always have the following in your car:-

Shovel, sleeping bag or blanket, coats.

Flask(s) of hot drinks and/or even soup.

Boots/snow shoes/wellies (if you're not already wearing them).

An up to date road atlas (in case the sat nav conks out).

A torch and spare batteries for it.

Anti-freeze.

A fully charged mobile phone.

If you are able, please tell someone where you are going (if you do have to go out) with an expected ETA and the route you hope to take. That way if you are delayed and possibly stuck in snow then people will have a good chance of finding you.

All the usual hotspots (or cold spots) in this weather have started playing up and are now closed, one of which is hubs' main route to work via Detling Hill on the A249, closed in both directions since around 5.30pm with police advising motorists to stay in their cars overnight, oh what fun that must be for those poor souls and I really hope they are safe there and get home ok tomorrow. Hubs' boss said he could have his parking space tomorrow and was met with a blank stare. Said boss didn't realise that although it's not snowing where he was at the time, it is snowing at peoples destinations, and said boss must surely realise how bad roads are going to be in the morning. I doubt most will get into work tomorrow if todays travel nightmares were anything to go by. Overnight we will have freezing temperatures again and so ice will form on snow, very pretty to look at but not to drive on! Present snowfall is meant to cease operations at midnight tonight whereupon it will freeze - so nothing will be moving tomorrow, and not a gritter in sight despite the council assertions to the contrary. Apparently there are only 8 gritters out for the whole of Kent, and ok, so maybe most years we don't get this much snow, bit of rain, odd day or so of snow perhaps but on this scale they have been well and truly caught out. The rationale of thinking that it will never happen and so 8 is probably a good number WHEN YA DON'T NEED THEM GUYS!!! is not so good after all is it? Local radio reports that the council have been out gritting continually but hubs coming home via Sittingbourne tonight and getting stuck behind cars unable to cope with an ungritted road would disagree. As I've been banging on about in many a blog or ten, a gritted road will not let cars slip and slide all over the place and they don't get stuck! An ungritted road does allow slipping and sliding all over the place and cars do get stuck, ergo, proof is in the seeing - no matter what the councils say.

On top of all this I am in the middle of writing all this the first time around, hubs signs in to his email account on his laptop and the whole system goes down, he comes upstairs and rather stupidly says 'don't get upset' and 'I'm sorry' and thinks that's all alright. I asked him how he would feel if he'd just lost work which he'd been typing for the last 15 minutes and see what he'd do to someone who rather lamely says 'I'm sorry' yeah, you get the point? Well he did, from the toe of my boot up his erm .. well you know.

Doggie HAS been out trying to eat ALL the snow in the garden, he did try making a snowman but then he can't really pat it down and he gave up when it fell over. He didn't have any spare carrrots for its nose (because he'd eaten them all on the way out) and he wasn't going to pick coal up in his mouth for its eyes; mind you I could tell you the thngs he will put in his mouth but then I don't really want to gross you out, specially if you haven't had your tea yet!. I do think doggie is a reincarnation of a six year old child because he just cannot contain himself when it snows. He goes absolutely beserk. His eyes are wide with excitement, his mouth is in that perpetually happy doggie smile, he's running up and down, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, yipping and crying in equal amounts with glee and an almost uncontrollable desire to get out by any means. That, and supreme sulking if he can't get out at the exact minute he wants to get out (oh, you haven't seen anything till you've seen him sulking - trust me) - I mean he's got four legs and he travels faster than I can on two, so like I always say to him - no point rushing to be first there, you still have to wait for me.

No Snow Kent?

2010-01-06T14:44:00.003Z

It had to happen didn't it? The whole of the UK is under six feet of snow, well according to the media anyway, except for the south-east corner of England, namely Kent. Nothing new since a few teeny tiny flurries last night but they don't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere on their ownsome when there's well attended gatherings elsewhere in the country. We are meant to 'have it heavy' by 3pm today but even though the sky has been white with unfallen snow since around 7am this morning and it still hasn't fallen, I won't be holding my breath. Lets face it if you had the chance to go to a massive party or be stuck on your own in a rather cold and forgotten little place with a few other souls who could be bothered to turn up wouldn't you rather be at the main event? Exactly. So all of the snow has gathered in neighbouring counties and is rudely blowing some unkind raspberrries to their rather forlorn and forgotten cousins over the border.

Ah well, s'pose we should be grateful, but it's so frustrating watching the pretty scenes in the media all over everywhere in Britain ... except Kent. I know, I know, it's only pretty if you don't have to be out in it. Just wish I could stop doggie from trying to go out and build a snowman (he does try believe me!) and we know when it is doing it's best to snow (the odd teeny tiny bits I was telling you about earlier ... the ones that fell last night?) as doggie sits by the back door mumbling and grumbling (cos he wants to go out and eat each one before it hits the floor) so we know it's trying to snow but it just hasn't got the heart.

Bernard Cribbins on Dr Who - WOW!

2010-01-01T20:19:00.000Z

Just watched the latest Dr Who where we say goodbye to David Tennant and hello to the new guy. Can I just say what an amazing performance from 81 year old actor Bernard Cribbins. A very powerful, emotional and genuine performance. You made me cry too when you were saying your goodbyes to the doctor at Donna's wedding. Not many actors can do that; there are a few but that emotion was heartfelt and the tears just came. What an amazing actor and an amazing talent. Mr Cribbins deserves a Bafta and I for one sincerely hope he gets it. An outstanding body of work from one of our finest actors.

© silversapphire 2010

Happy New Year?

2010-01-01T13:29:00.000Z

And so, the new decade is upon us, a Happy New Year to all. Except those idiotic morons who think we want to hear their drunk fuelled expletives, screaming and shouting at the tops of their voices, crying and singing, vomiting and general effing and blinding outside the houses in my close as they wend and totter their abhorrent way home from the local village hall, some with young children, some in prams and I kid you not. Whose great idea was it to site a village hall in the middle of a quiet residential neighbourhood whilst living miles away from it and then ignoring the many complaints about louts and their behaviour?

This village used to be quiet and genteel with self respecting people who were of that generation where they had respect for themselves and others, those who knew when to celebrate and also when to stop! New Year has been celebrated here for years without any trouble at all and the village hall has been in existence since before we arrived here over ten years ago. All used to be quiet, peaceful and respectful because people in the village liked it that way. Then comes the arrival of village wrecking housing associations and the blight some of their anti social residents cause. Since their arrival we have had louts running out of control in the village, and now the village hall, which was on open ground has now been fenced in with horrendous looking metal stakes to stop these morons sliding down the roof at night. The police here are of no use because even if you call them their standard response now is: we haven't got any cars free. So, you have to put up with it. What a shame that this once lovely area of Kent has now been turned into a quagmire of disgust, as the idiots who can't or won't hold their drink think it fine to employ this kind of behaviour simply because it's a holiday. I do not relish the idea of being woken up (after waiting till after 2am for the fools to finally leave said village hall to get some sleep) by some useless moron yelling Happy New Year and trying to sing Auld Langs Syne at 3.15 in the morning. Bet your life these drink sodden morons are still carousing when they get home, so I feel sorry for those who have to live next door to them.

What a shame. Housing Associations have a lot to answer for because they blight every community they come into. Not everyone is a bad tenant I know and I must make that clear; but it always seems to be that when HA's arrive down goes the neighbourhood and all the good tenants get tarred with the same brush as the morons, and that too is a great shame.

© silversapphire 2010

Sunday Express and Benefit Claimants

2009-12-20T16:37:00.005Z

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

What is it with The Sunday Express and people on benefits? What they fail or forget to realise is that most genuine claimants need this money, paltry as it is, to live on. It is not, contrary to their 'research' a fortune. Most are not scoungers and most are definitely not thumbing their noses at the taxpayer. This paper has a go at claimants because they are an easy target. I have given up complaining to them and one of their writers who shall remain nameless, who is usually the main writer of these missives. Whether he is responsible this time or not I don't know but it really is not nice to tell readers half the story. Some people play the system and they are the ones who need stopping but you cannot blithely go on at length about how badly the taxpayer is being conned by all these claimants. If the Express cared one iota for it's readers, many of whom are disabled they would soon realise that NOT everyone claiming these paltry benefits is a shyster, but they won't print that exception because it takes away the power of their arguments. Most claimants have already paid into the system and not being able to predict when or even if they would become disabled in their lifetime, are simply claiming back what they need to live, but as the money received is so poor even that cannot be guaranteed. Until fresh air is able to feed, clothe and house a disabled person then the state, as a 'caring' state has to do it. Tax payers need to know that, God forbid, if anything happened to them in their lifetime they would have help when they need it. Just because they are able bodied now does not guarantee mishaps in the future but NO-ONE even thinks about that, and it's something they do not realise, disablement can easily happen to them. Most disabled people do not choose to be this way, and if the Express think it's right or fair to have a go at these people then they are wrong. One line which really angered me was where they say 'Research shows that if a person claims benefit for more than 1 year then they stay on it for 7 years.' They leave the statement like that, so what are they saying? that someone decides to claim benefit for a year and then says 'oh I can't be bothered lets stay at home for another 7?' Doesn't work like that Express. Let me explain it for you yet again - most long term disabled people are on benefit long term because their condition worsens over time and in some cases is not operable, you are simply left by the NHS to get on with it.

I will no longer buy the Express after this article was printed today because I am sick to the back teeth of this persecution of those on benefit.

Perhaps they would like the people on benefit to be forgotten about and live on the streets because if you want to take their money away that's the outcome. So, here's a question they can't answer for all their bluff and bluster - what will you replace it with?

© silversapphire 2009

Whisky Fuelled Mince Pies!

2009-12-20T16:18:00.001Z

Blimey! Talk about alcohol in mince pies! Hubs put whisky in these as I don't drink brandy (don't drink whisky for that matter come to that) oh well, suffice to say that these whisky ~~fuelled~~ filled mince pies are the best home made pies I have ever tasted bar none, and no I'm not just saying that because he made them - they are really that nice. I helped as well by coming over all arty and making square bases for the pies; then just putting some of the homemade filling on them and lightly dusting with icing sugar at the end. Hubs went for the more traditional little pie shape - awww. Both lots were totally scrummy and needless to say like there are only a couple left. Well, didn't really want my roast lamb dinner tonight! Yes, we did use 'proper' whisky, yep, the famous one! Not the usual paint stripper variety we seem to have had in previous pies in previous years. As ever, doggie is occupying the front row seats between the kitchen and dining room ever hopeful as always but he really couldn't cope with whisky ... sleeps enough as it is.

Then hubs, proud as a peacock with his endeavours (I'm surprised I can spell that right after having whisky ~~fuelled~~ filled mince pies) pipes up: 'First time I've ever made mince pies' to which I reply: 'So you've made we wait 13 years for this, while greedily shovelling shop bought down your neck knowing I can't have shop bought because of the apples and other assorted crud that goes into prepackaged food these days.' He went ... oh, er, yeah. He is priceless isn't he? No really, I mean I couldn't give him away!!!

© silversapphire 2009

A Tuneful Chorus of 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' is not nice at 3.30am

2009-12-20T12:29:00.002Z

I swear this village is filling up with more idiots than it can handle. Was woken up this morning by two of them launching into a very tuneful rendition of 'Its a Long Way to Tipperary' at the delightfully ungoldly hour of 3:30am! Does nothing ever curtail these idiots? It's snowing, it's freezing cold and very icy out there - even moreso at half past sodding three in the morning. Perhaps when you're that well oiled you don't feel the cold but you'd have to be pretty well trolleyed to be that far gone - trust me. They finally sung their way past the house and I suspect got home ok. Does that then give me the right to turn up outside said home with a huge brass band at let's say 7am when they will still be asleep and repay their very kind serenade with my own medley of Christmas songs and tunes?? Well I would you see, but I don't feel it's fair to the other people who live alongside the idiots to wake them up even though they were probably serenaded by said idiots too.

© silversapphire 2009

A Hairy Baker in The Kitchen?

2009-12-20T12:16:00.002Z

For those wo are in the UK you'll know who The Hairy Bikers are (Dave Myers & Simon King) and they are accidental chefs who are also motorcyclists who ride round the country (nee the world) on their powerful machines cooking delights all over the place. They sometimes slip into Hairy Baker mode where they bring us the delights of baking, sugary confections, cakes and chocolates when they are not being The Hairy Bikers. You can follow them on Twitter if you'd like, and you can find them on this link:- http://twitter.com/HairyBikers and on their website here:- www.hairybikers.com/

That said, the hairy baker in my kitchen is neither Si or Dave, no, it's the husband! Threatened last night, completely out of the blue, to 'do some baking tomorrow.' He's hairy in sofar as he has a bit of a beard going on and he bakes, so Hairy Baker in the Kitchen seemed like a good title; go on admit it, you've gotten this far on it eh? Any road up, he's in the kitchen now making some mince pies without the apples because I'm allergic and they give him erm, wind. He's prepared I'll give him that - not! Goes into the kitchen first thing and is searching for hours for baking tins, swearing that he had some 'somewhere' well wherever 'somewhere' turns out to be it isn't in our kitchen this morning. So off he goes to the local store, main roads clear of the old white stuff but the pavements are another matter, like well, ice (probably because it IS ice dear). The local councils will only ever be interested in salting the pavements when they are sued because some poor soul has gone A over T. Hubs then comes home with an assortment of tins and bowls and heaven knows what else to do battle in the kitchen. A small set to occurs when I am taking up the space he wants by getting the dog's dinner sorted out. Small ripple of bad temper flares and then quickly subsides when dog is fed and he can limber up to do his 'baking' - the husband that is, not the dog; although if he could bake we'd never have to work again, he'd have his own agent and he'd give those talented dogs on the Simon Cowell mega money making machine Britain's Got Talent a run for their money!

See, thought it was too good to be true, he's just come upstairs and asked if he can have the printer on! You're SUPPOSED to be baking matey, s'cuse me while I go crack the whip!!!

© silversapphire 2009

Mad Dogs in the Snow and the Final Paul O'Grady Show

2009-12-18T19:32:00.006Z

S-i-g-h!!! Yes, dear beloved border collie is at it again! Not content with humping the hosepipe in the summer, he has to eat every single snowflake in winter (when else?) and tries to eat all the snow when it lies on the ground. Anyone else have a dog like this? I have no idea what he thinks snow is, but I really don't think he's is honestly thinking 'yum, dinner time' but with him, you never know. That's one for Cesar Millan isn't it, bet a pound to a penny he wouldn't have an answer for that. Imagine if you will, a crowded arena somewhere in England and The Dog Whisperer, the Great Cesar Millan is introduced to the crowd. After the talks and the instructions on how to be your pack's leader, the inevitable cry goes up: 'Any questions?' My hand goes up, and I'm picked. I take the mic and say: 'Cesar, why does my border collie hump the hosepipe in summer and try catching every snowflake and eating as much snow as he can get down his gullet in winter?' I can imagine the howls of laughter reverberating around the arena, and poor Cesar standing on stage open mouthed as he thinks 'What am I doing here?' it would be a riot, I bet he wouldn't have an answer for that but as I'm unable to go to any of his shows we are never likely to know the answer LOL, what a shame eh? cos I'd LOVE to know. I mean, the hosepipe isn't even female dog shaped ya know?

Oh Paul O'Grady, how heartbreaking was that show tonight? You HAVE GOT TO COME BACK somehow to TV, this CANNOT be the last of you at teatime. Surely someone, somewhere can get you a deal to come back?

You have a wonderful way of chatting to your guests like they're old friends and it makes the viewers feel like we are too. No one else has the same knack of making people feel instantly at home like you do, and you get away with saying things to your guests that other people cannot do, take for instance saying to Dame Shirley Bassey: 'Your'e a frustrated stripper really' - anyone else would have had a clout in the face, but you just get laughter and everyone loves you for it. You get away with it because you are, like me, a Scouser and you have that irreplaceable cheeky charm that cannot be taught. You are missed already matey, get back on TV soon or else ok? - you really are missed already. You are an institution at five o' clock and please note I did say you are an institution, not you should be in an institution, just before you start kicking off heh heh. Whoever decided they couldn't afford you needs their bumps feeling, how can they let you go? - well, they can only sit and watch the viewing figures slide to zero 'At Five on Four' now that they've let you and your hilarious show go for good. It's our loss my friend and what a shame!

© silversapphire 2009

Well, it snowed and Kent stopped.

2009-12-18T19:00:00.008Z

We had a light deluge and Kent came to a standstill! M20 stuffed, M2 stuffed, A249 Stuffed, A299 stuffed, well, you get the picture. All of our major transport links stuffed; what a day. No postal deliveries or collections, nothing! na-da! zero! Why does this happen e-v-e-r-y single time it snows??? I know I go on about north Wales and I need to again, because the roads up there are properly gritted with the results that the roads are open and safe to use. Yes, ok, sometimes the weather is SO bad the gritters fight a losing battle but the snow has to be constantly falling and building up to almost unmanageable levels NOT the measly 4 inches we had in Kent, I mean come on!!! All those concerned with gritting in Kent say the roads were gritted 'properly' but in my own experience properly gritted roads do not contribute to the total closure of the main roads and infrastructures of an entire county. Even on the main A2 just outside of Bapchild near Sittingbourne a lorry jack-knifed and rather selfishly straddled the carriageway, crossing it's arms and snubbing attempts to cajole it out of the way so other vehicles could pass!

We have more of the same predicted for tonight so Saturday will be another day of nothing moving I guess. Obviously people have to be safe and stay at home where they can, but watching some people driving like it's a balmy 70 degrees and wall to wall sunshine is a joke; THAT'S why there are so many accidents, well, that and the fact that the roads do not appear to be gritted properly to start with. Cars and lorries do have purchase when the road is gritted, they do not slip and slide all over the show. But no matter what the prevailing driving conditions some drivers carry on regardless; if they paid attention to the conditions they would learn to drive slowly; they'd have no choice, they'd not use their brakes but instead use their gears to control the car, and in automatics they'd use their lower gears. When I lived in north Wales I had no choice but to learn the hard way as north Wales snowfalls do teach you how to drive in winter if nothing else. Perhaps that's why there are so many accidents and shunts, ice skating with cars (4x4's on Ice anyone?) here, because the only time you do get to learn (or practice if you will) is when the snow hits but it's not a good way to learn if you end up on your roof because you've hit a patch of black ice.

Pity the snow didn't hold off for one more week when most people would have been at home for Christmas, with the obvious exceptions of the men and women of our unfailing emergency services who do a wonderful job, and all the other unsung heroes who work over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Mostly the roads would have been clear, all presents and cards awaiting delivery would have been delivered and would not now be sitting crying in a darkened post room waiting for some poor soul to take pity on them and get them to where they need to be. Next week, you can bet the sun will be cracking the flags and it will be a balmy 70 degrees, only joking, but you never know eh? I do know though that this global warming con is worrying isn't it, all this snow and ice!!!

So, is it to be a deluge or a sprinkling???

2009-12-17T21:23:00.003Z

According to the weather bods here in Kent you'd think we were going to be under six feet of snow come morning! Notice how they generalise and say 'The South East' and when you look at the weather map there is NO snow at all going to be falling on your particular part of Kent?

I am a northerner by birth and as such have endured some really cold winters, and I do mean cold. Walking to school in skirts and socks and bare legs because trousers were not allowed for girls. Snow so thick on the pavements you had to walk in the road. The types of winters where you can wash a pair of jeans and hang 'em on the line to, ahem, dry (well atttempt to at least) only to find you go out later in the day to bring them in and find they are frozen solid and will happily stand up by themselves in the corner of the kitchen for at least an hour until they thaw.

I have also endured some long and pretty substantial snowfalls in north Wales where I used to live for many years. To say that what we get down here and what forecasters consider substantial bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to those snowfalls of the 1980's in north Wales, I would class these here today as light dustings but then I don't know how much snow one forecaster has ever seen in their (usually short) lifetimes because they seem to be getting younger each year. I have been lucky enough to see major falls of snow which need a snow plough to keep the roads clear. One year even they couldn't cope, for as fast as they were clearing the main A5 from Corwen to Llangollen it was falling again (and building up) behind them. All they succeeded in doing was creating walls of snow on each side of the road up to 6 feet each side and only passable by one car despite it being a main trunk road through the valley. Those drivers must have been knackered to say the least, as they would usually have done a full day's work and be clearing the snow or gritting through the nights when it was really bad, still do as far as I know.

When you have driven on compacted snow which has fallen on top of ice and then frozen and are experiencing a blizzard at the same time then you will know what real snowfalls are like, and for forecasters to compare what dustings we get here to those major snowfalls is just plain daft. So when they talk of centimetres falling, I have to laugh because they wouldn't cope with what north Wales produces.

Mind you, driving down the M1 in a swelling, swirling blizzard is fun, especially when it wasn't forecast!

Not far from where I used to live in north Wales is the always beautiful Horseshoe Pass; mountainside reaching vainly up to try touching the sky on one side and on the other a drop so severe you are terrified to come down the pass on a good day let alone a winter's day. So, on the days like today when it is very cold and sudden severe frosts are forecast the pass will be closed. You see, even on good days it is possible to travel down the pass and see a tyre go sailing past from some poor soul behind whose tyre has either burst or come loose, course once it starts going ....

At the top of the Pass is The Ponderosa, a cafe and small arcade where skiers and outdoor enthusiasts gather to have fun in the snow because once you get up there (if the pass is open) it is truly spectacular and rivals places like Switzerland and Austria, dare I say the French Alps for beauty. I was up there one day having a coffee and watching the world go by when a group of skiers came in with all their gear, and started depositing their skis etc in the corner while they went off to get warm and a coffee. It was just like being in the Alps and yet I was only half an hour away from home at the time in north Wales. It was majestic and beautiful and that is why the beauty of north Wales for me, takes some beating. It is a fabulous place and if I had the money I would be back up there like a shot. For now though, I have my memories and all this talk of snow brings it all back, bounding and tumbling towards me like a playful puppy.

If you get the chance to see north Wales, particularly the Horseshoe Pass just outside of Llangollen then please do, you will not be disappointed. Just make sure you go when the pass is open, it is safe to do so and for Heaven's sake be careful on the way down!

And so, the end of an era RIP little Buster

2009-11-24T15:43:00.002Z

How incredibly sad was Monday's (23/11/09) Paul O'Grady Show? You could see how hard it was for Paul to do it but he did himself, and little Buster proud and you know what? I don't blame him one little bit for losing it briefly at the end, before the tribute to Buster, because I did too.

It's at sad times like this that I feel the need to write something, and I hope I've done the little guy justice because, having lost a treasured companion myself, also at age 14 I know exactly what it is like to have your companion with you one minute and the next he or she is gone.

This is called Old Friend.

Old Friend

Goodbye old friend
we’ve come to the end
of the roads we travelled together
those that were fun
and those that were none of
the glorious days of summer
those twisted and turned
the ones that burned in our memories
long and forever
the calming and cold
the unerringly bold
gave us stories, well some can be told
the others we’ll keep
until outwards they seep
in my tears which I cry for you now
such a painful goodbye
till the day that I die
that moment is with me forever

Now each road that I travel
I travel alone
nothing will ever replace
that small tiny face
the one that I trace
in my thoughts, my dreams and my prayers
my other companions
try as they might
will do what they can to console
but you were my first
unconditional love
the one that I treasured bar none
they know you’re not there
and I know that they care
and are wondering where you have gone
so we keep each one close
till the time we repose
and are all together again.

© silversapphire 241109

This Poppy. A Remembrance Day Poem by SilverSapphire

2009-11-07T18:38:00.002Z

Two years ago, I wrote this poem which, truthfully, had been a bugger of a thing to write. It had been going round in my head for 18 months prior to it being born on paper, and was eventually published in 2007. It started out as a poem for my late father who served in WW2 and who died in the 1980's age 57! but I want to dedicate it tonight to all of those servicemen and women who are still serving and to those who have fallen in wars (some which should never be fought; you know the one I mean).

I wear my poppy with pride every year as I have done since childhood. My dad was also in the Royal British Legion and so I was immersed in the history and reasons behind Remembrance Day since as long ago as I can remember.

So, if you will permit me, I'd like to present it here today in preparation for Remembrance Sunday 2009.

This Poppy

This Poppy fell for my father
it does so every year
and with it comes the heartache
and many red hot tears

Shed for those who won’t come home
the ones who died out there alone

This Poppy falls in remembrance,
it’s impossible to say
how much we owe to those who fell
they fought for us, they died for us
through a living man made hell

This Poppy fell for a reason
yet its message is always lost
on those who should know better
those who never count the cost

This Poppy falls to remind us
of the sacrifices made
it’s not some casual observance
it’s not just a parade

It’s a deep and heartfelt tribute
to those faultless memories
of those who gave the only thing
they could to make us free

And to those who should know better
and we all know who they are
In remembering those
who fell in war

I won’t betray their memory
I won’t give up my liberty.

Bonfire Night, Scaredy Dogs, Birthdays & Remembrance Day

2009-11-07T18:26:00.004Z

I know November 5th was a few days ago but round here, the local youths think it better to keep a few back to set off outside people's homes. Usually at 1.30am and they do this because they know a) Police won't get near 'em in time to tell 'em off and b) Because they can! Upshot of all this is dear old doggie gets very uptight over it (no, not worth bothering rewriting Uptown Girl by the ever wonderful Mr Joel to the words of Uptight Dog) suffice to say that as he's getting older he's getting more scared and I have no idea why, he was fine in his youth but not now. Some expert or other says it's because their hearing is way more sensitive than ours (yep, dog owners usually know this) will ever be and I agree, to a point. His hearing has not become more acute as he's gotten older, I would assume it would be like ours - ie, getting duller as we age - not so apparently. Poor guy sits down, walks around and lies down looking very down in the mouth, ears back and panting and won't sit near us (as if he thinks we are the architects of all this noise somehow) and if he thinks that, then he's way too clever for his own good, over analyzing things never helps and yes, he is a border collie but he can be so stupid at times he gives his breed a bad name (but that's an entirely new blog).

I've been watching The Dog Whisperer when the mood takes me, and he advises that you don't pet the animal when it is fearful because it's just reinforcing the behaviour and as it feeds the insecurity, it makes it right in the dogs mind that being fearful is a good thing. I knew that from ages back when I read up on it (not a total dunce ya see) as to why dogs and cats should not be encouraged in scared and fearful behaviour, because isn't it the first thing we want to do when we see an animal in distress? We want to cuddle it and speak soothingly - NO, it's all wrong I hear DW cry. By not giving affection when the noises start is meant to make the animal see it's ok and not to be worried, well Cesar Millan, it's not working with my old guy, he just hates the noise. He even dislikes high winds and lightning so I think the next step is noise aversion therapy (thank you nods to BBC's 'The One Show' for that) whereby you play a disc or a tape of thunderstorms/fireworks etc (not at the same time obviously) at a level where the dog (or other worried animal) notices the noise but does not become fearful of it. Having it on in the background makes the dog comfortable with it eventually, and hopefully it will get rid of the anxiety associated with fireworks etc.

I'm no killjoy by any means but I do think fireworks (or mortar bombs as they are round here) should be sold just for displays (like the one across from me right now in the local school, big bonny and everything (bonny is a scouse (Liverpudlian) term for bonfire, and if you didn't know already I am a scouser born & bred). Big red fire engine comes and makes sure bonny is out properly before they all go home. Thankfully, it's all over in about two hours and once the bonnies out, it's not so bad, unless the wind is blowing the smoke all over the place and into the houses opposite (ie MINE!). Being asthmatic, smoke inhlataion of any sort is not a nice thing Mr School Caretaker Sir!.

And now, the bit I'm dreading ... tomorrow, I reach a birthday of a certain age (no, not that one - the next one) and I'm not looking forward to it at all, but as there's nothing I can do about it, just have to accept it and move gracefully on. Someone told me earlier this week: "To embrace it" - oh yeah, that'd work! Just imagine me walking down the high street 'embracing my birthday of a certain age' - I'd get locked up!

Other half took me out to the local eatery today for lunch. Usually it's quiet and peaceful on a Saturday lunchtime but, well, you know my life; yep it was heaving. The table they had for us was right in front of the open fire (which was nice to see but not right in front of it) and so I refused it because I'd melt. We sat in the bar and had lovely food, I had a prawn cocktail (being a child of the '70's, it never leaves you that) and a minted lamb steak in a red wine gravy (what they didn't tell you was they emptied half a packet of paprika all over the plate in an effort to make it look all arty and stuff). I asked them to get me one without half a ton of paprika on it and they did, and then we had new york cheesecake. But I don't feel so good after it, so hope the chef didn't put anything else in the other dish that he shouldn't as you do hear things of what certain chefs do to food that is sent back! I wasn't just being awkward you see as I have an allergy to peppers and paprika and I'm reacting now, my face is so hot I could go out and be the bonfire myself- ah well Happy Birthday eh?

As well as being my birthday tomorrow, it is also Remembrance Sunday (being the closest Sunday to Nov 11th) and I am honoured that this year it falls on my day. The Service of Remembrance is also on BBC1 tonight at 9.15pm for 1.5 hours! I say 1.5 hours with an exclamation mark because anyone who is the same age and/or older than me will remember back to the 1970's and '80's when there was a whole Festival of Remembrance on the Saturday night before Nov 11th - always! It wasn't a paltry hour and a half of singing and marching, no, it was a full evening of military and gymnastic displays by the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF along with, marches, music, prayers, singing and honouring the fallen with the poppies falling at the end of the evening. Now, it seems Strictly Come Dancing and Meat Market sorry, X Factor, are way more important than remembering the lives of those serviceman and women who gave their lives to let us all live in the relative peace and ahem, security we are allotted by the great and good (if any exist) in the EU!

The curious case of Uptight Man at the vet's today.

2009-10-31T19:11:00.006Z

Back to the vets again today for dear old collie to have his nails trimmed. Vet was running late and he really doesn't like to. There were two other dogs in the waiting room and everyone was chatting away - even the dogs. Except collie got a bit scared of the lab trembling and working itself into a state of near apoplexy trying to get over to say hello (now my collie was doing this when two cats tried staring him out a visit or two back, and he definitely doesn't like being on the receiving end). He even tried getting under the chair I was on and standing up, nearly toppling me off it. Everyone, including me, had a good laugh at that - the things dogs do when they want to hide eh? All the times I've been a dog owner and been to the vets I've never had that happen - first time for everything I s'pose. There was a wire haired fox terrier, gorgeous little guy up there too. Lab gets seen and goes home and then the terrier. Terrier and his owner come out and are waiting to pay when a silver car screams to a halt outside the vets (on a single yellow line no less) and out gets a very uptight looking man with two cats in one cage (poor little sods), miaowing and carrying on for all they were worth! His wife strolls in behind. Cue collie going ballistic, his favourites are back! The terrier's owner, a woman after my own heart, says to her dog: "No, that's not lunch." As the cats were crying and making a really horrible sound collie starts barking which is not like him and we quieten him down.

Collie gets seen and we come out again, engaging the receptionists in chit-chat while we wait to pay, we explain that collie is tormented regally by cats strolling along the garage roof and wagging their tails ... at which point uptight man pipes up: "Oh well, that's just awful isn't it, it's a shame for your dog that a cat wags it's tail ... " he would have carried on, probably till he was blue in the face and burst something, but I just cut him off and carried on talking with the girls, thanked the vet and we left.

Firstly, how bloody rude is uptight man (thinking of rewriting 'Uptown Girl' to fully illustrate the point with very profound apologies to the master - Billy Joel). Secondly, why can't he behave himself like every other owner (cat, tortoise, frog, budgie, dog etc) we encounter? Last cat owner was a lovely lady but this guy; well, he needs to go cool off. What a a moron! Now, it's entirely possible that his cats had been hurt by dogs but that is no excuse for his dreadful behaviour, after all it's not my dog who attacked them, and not all dogs are the same.

Most cat owners I know don't hate dogs and vice versa (even if the cats and dogs themselves do - it's their ancestry - no, they haven't been using a well known ancestry site to look up their ancestors, just trust me on this - ok? - notice I almost resisted saying it's in their genes, and then trying a joke about how we can't get a pair to fit!! but thought I wouldn't do that one as you probably know somewhere I can get jeans for dogs and/or cats) just the odd one who gives the owners a bad name, and uptight man was very odd indeed. Hope I never have the extreme bad luck to encounter him, his wife, his cats or his big fast car ever again!

Where's a traffic warden when you need one eh?

Swings and Roundabouts on eBay (I guess they sell them as well though, right?)

2009-10-27T17:02:00.009Z

Newbie sellers on eBay, aren't they a hoot?

Don't get me wrong, most newbie sellers take the time to read about selling, and are clued up on the do's and dont's before they start on eBay, but there are a small number who don't, and I seem to be getting landed with them more and more and it's really hissing me off!

The latest escapade happened two days ago when I bought something from this particular seller. I don't pay immediately any more as I don't get paid immediately any more, so I pay within the sellers timeframe, and if they don't give one like this person then they get paid when I do (about 4 days after the auction) which is usually within most people's "reasonable" expectations. Except, this one decides to pester me with a barrage of emails as soon as the auction ended demanding to know when, where and how I am paying. I have learned from bitter experience that these types are after starting up a war of words by email because despite saying things to the contrary, they have no other life than having a go at a stranger in cyberspace. I did not reply to her mail until today. Yes, yes, I know I should have followed my own advice because the last time I tried sorting something out amicably I ended up in in a war of words with some eejit in the west country because I had dared to advertise postage which was for special delivery, and was therefore higher than what this fool considered normal. Every five minutes there'd be an email from her till I asked her to either buy the item and I'd look at the postage or go away. She wouldn't go away and she wasn't even buying the item. You would not believe the state this one got herself into, degenerating into spiteful, nasty language until I had no option but to block her email addy and report her to eBay. All because she wanted some stranger to lower postage on an item she wasn't buying! Isn't that the most moronic thing you've ever heard? There is absolutely no sense in it at all - what a moron!

Anyway, back to today's debacle, new person decides I am at fault for her getting married a few weeks ago; because I haven't paid yet her 2 kids won't have xmas presents. This as well as saying she hasn't pestered me and I wasn't being fair because I had somehow forced her, by replying to her email, to tell me all this. Yep, really worrying isn't it - didn't realise I was so powerful. Any way, after her last missive, I told her not to send any more emails as they would be deleted without being read. So go on, guess what she did next - that's right! She sent another email! I'm so stupefied by the eejits on eBay really I am, and yes I did delete it without reading it.

Ebay is a great way of buying and selling, but people like this one really do bring it down and make it a less than enjoyable experience.

On the other hand, my little camera arrived today with all the bells and whistles on it (why you need bells and whistles on a camera is anyone's guess), it's a reconditioned Kodak, and it's so perfect, a little gem of a thing. There had been a problem with getting it due, not to the post strikes like you might imnagine, but because the shipment mine was in had been damaged and they wrote and told me so, kept me informed evey step of the way, said that a new shipment was coming on Monday 26th Oct and I'd be told when it was coming out. It arrived this morning, in a FedEx bag and delivered by Royal Mail - go figure! The company also gave me £5 refund for all the hassle. It is such a refreshing change to have a company that treats it's customers decently and does exactly what they say they're going to do, I am really pleased with them so I'm going to buy from them again when I need more batteries and any accessories for this little beaut. Oh yeah, forgot to mention the company trading on eBay is based in New Jersey with European depots (mine was sent from a depot in Swansea), being an American based company probably explains the courteous, polite way in which I've been treated; all employees work to the same standard and it's really encouraging.

If you're interested in the model it's a Kodak EasyShare ZD710, it's tiny but perfectly formed and I love it ta bits!

Yes, It IS necessary to blow my stack when talking with my bank!!!

2009-10-26T13:17:00.002Z

You know I'd told you about the problem I was having on Saturday and how I'd found a bod at my bank who'd help? He didn't!! I should have been worried when he kept telling me how good he was at 'helping people.' How is this bank able to employ people who say they'll do something and don't, all they do is pay you lip service? Is this unique to me and my bank, or does this happen to everyone? It's abysmal service.

What my bank has done has charged me a 'late payment fee' even though it was their fault, it was the computer doing it, allegedly. Funny that, I'll only ever fall for that one when a computer becomes sentient (and even then I'd wonder) because these guys programme the bloody things, so how is it 'the computer's fault?' They must think I'm as stupid as they are, and that is the wrong thing to do believe me! It's not as if you only have to tell one person the problem and get it sorted, what happens is that I have to tell different people (usually in different departments 'cos you've come through to the wrong department madam' or 'I need to transfer you to soemone who can help you as I can't do it') the same problem and it gets as bad if not worse as when you're looking for car insurance. What I need is something along the lines of go.compare (and no, I'm not breaking out into opera at the moment) or one of the other available comparison websites where you ask the question once and you get the answer many times. I know that sounds daft but that's what happens with my bank, only I have to ask the question many times and it gets so annoying and very, very frustrating to say the least.

Now, apparently because their error has put my account 'in arrears' (something I never am by the way) they want those arrears before they take off the late payment fee. After explaining for what seems like the 45th million time that I am not in arrears - it is their error, ergo they remove their error and the charge too; or I take it further, I am put on hold while they discuss the matter yet again. Then they come back and magnanimously announce that they will remove the arrears and the late fee and give me £5 compensation 'for all the phone calls' - but, if we're talking compensation for stress and irritation here, throw in some hurt feelings we could be talking about a few grand here, oh yes! But, that won't happen, because all I want is fair play and their errors taken off my account and not passed on to me as if it's my fault!!!

Moral of the story here is don't just put up with what your bank say if you know for sure you are in the right. If you can't get anywhere speaking to the bod at the end of the phone, ask to speak to someone higher up, thereby reducing stress, cost and any frustration ... unless, you're with the same bank I'm with and if that's the case, I suggest you find a nice clean, flat piece of wall where you can bang your head!

Is it necessary to blow my stack every time I need to call my bank?

2009-10-24T16:49:00.004+01:00

It seems so!

I have problems every single time I need to talk to my bank over one problem or another (usually of their making). It gets so bad I think I may as well just give up, but I don't give up and that's probably not a bad thing but I can feel it having an effect on me. Apparently, after years of low and normal blood pressure, it is now high, or at least it's on the 'high' side of normal or so the doc says, I mean is it any wonder when some teeny tiny little problem that should take no more than 5 minutes to sort out takes over an hour?

Before it was taken over by a bank I would never go near with a ten foot bargepole, it was a great bank, very helpful people you could call on a dedicated line and problems large, small and indifferent were sorted out quick and easy, but things went from great to unbelievably abysmal in the matter of a few months. Doesn't matter that I've been with present bank since the early eighties, still get treated by some of them like I'm 6 years old and that's not a good thing to do to me!

Since the complete domination of the call centre, personal, decent service has gone (this lot are in the UK and can understand what I'm after which you'd think would be half the battle, but no, they are always 'not the right department madam, I'll transfer you' at which point you are not transferred but cut off). Not only do I end up being cut off (is there a more annoying and soul destroying sound than the single tone you are left with when that happens?) and wanting to throw the phone out of the window, I want to go down and pitch up at 'Bank HQ' and have it out with 'em there and then. If I manage to get reconnected to this 'service' after waiting an eternity for the phone to be answered, I am likely to be met with a pseudo sympathetic teenager saying: 'oh that shouldn't happen' when you tell them you are likely to explode if they don't help. Oh, and that recorded message in one of the most infuriating tones ever which 'us lucky customers' must endure, telling me they are: 'busy helping other customers.' Wonder how long those lucky people waited to be 'helped'?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggggg (pause for breath) gggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Today I finally got the problem sorted out, a full hour and twenty minutes after I started calling. I wouldn't mind (well I do actually - see above) but I ring the right department, and am led upon a useless and time consuming merry chase around the various departments and personalities that infest this bank's call centre, before the merry-go-round stops at the very first place I came in. So, the upshot is that I did finally get the current problem sorted by a helpful guy in the (right) department (a full blown rarity I grant you). He not only sorted the problem out but is going to give me a small amount of financial compensation - which won't be going into double figures so don't get excited.

Why banks don't employ people who have a brain cell (like the guy above) I don't know - probably costs more you're right.

The current problem was, apparently, the computers fault! 'Oh,' I heard myself saying 'that old chestnut.'

Now it;'s time for a well earned cup of tea with sugar in and possibly a lie down in a dark room for an hour or so till the husband traipses in from wherever he's been today, Bluewater I s'pect! Ah well, at least the old car passed it's MOT today! Small mercies I know!

The Truth about Cats and Dogs (at the Vet's)

2009-10-23T20:40:00.003+01:00

My dear old collie had to go for a second blood test today as the first one showed he had low calcium & high potassium but he had to be retsted as in 98% cases that can just be an anomaly in the phials they use to collect the blood. Upshot was he had the blood taken (same vein as last time) almost fell off the table when the assistant stood on the wrong side of him when he made his usual break for freedom, good job I had a secure hold. We were than asked if we wanted to wait as it would take 5 or 6 minutes to retest at the surgery, or go home and be called later with the result; we chose to wait. Had we known what was about to unfold we would have opted for the latter.

Waiting room is gloriously empty and collie lies down, really wanting to be home for his breakfast. Enter a lady with 2 cats in cages and all hell breaks loose, well sorta. Lady puts the cats down facing collie who is by now in a state of near apoplexy. I have never seen a dog shake and shiver himself into such a state before, but then this is a collie who has been tormented beyond the realms of reason by the neighbourhood cats parading themselves along the garage roof to peer down at him as if to say 'yah boo sucks mate, ya can't get me up here' (well the cat equivalent anyway), they are almost laughing at this poor collie in a frenzied twisting blur racing from one end of the garage to the other barking furiously up at them.

Had my camera been working the other morning I would have had a brilliant picture with which to illustrate my point; sadly said camera had gone on strike (must be affiliated with a certain union at the moment, but that's another story entirely) which was a shame as it was a really fine tableau of collie standing in the garden looking up at a black cat perched on the garage roof looking down at him. No-one moved, even the birds were still anticipating the dog to suddenly get up to the garage level or the cat to fall. Neither happened but the cat saw me and took off, which caused more barking and mad dashing to and fro from collie.

Lady with the cats turns the cages round to face away from collie who stops shivering a little - but he was having a moment all of his own there this morning. Then the vet comes in and says bloods are fine and we can go - well once we've paid the bill, cue more shivering crying, semi-howling, and that's just the husband!

We seem to attract cats, despite hubs and I being allergic and the dog just hates them on sight. What a morning, don't know about the dog being worn out, I know I am.

© silversapphire 2009
All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author

As well as 2nd hand radiation not being safe, it now comes to light that low level radiation doses are dangerous too!

2009-10-23T13:04:00.001+01:00

Researchers today have decreed that low level radiation doses are damaging to the heart! The guys on the other side say that because there is no data to back this up no-one should worry about it.

Oh, well that's all right then!

Seriously though, it's not just us poor old patients who have this to worry about but the people who work in the nuclear medicine areas where LLR is given out. I suppose time will eventually tell of course, in the meantime I'm still doing my own research and finding out for myself about the 'dangers' of these drugs which the medical profession would rather you did not know.

Having to say that the LLR I received for my thyroid hs started to get rid of the swollen and very dry throat I had, it's only been just over a month so still too early to tell. Just hoping now that I haven't swapped one problem for another! Hmm, lets see if it's been worth it *balances heart damage in one hand, and thyroid treatment in the other* - nope, can't tell yet.

Please help us save Stephen Fry's TV series: KINGDOM

2009-10-22T13:45:00.004+01:00

I know there are far more important issues going on in the world (see last blog) than trying to save a TV show but a lot of us feel that this show should at least be given a further outing and if you agree, please help us save it.

There is an online petition to be signed by going here: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/bringbackkingdom/

And a website here: http://bringbackkingdom.yolasite.com/ where you'll find campaign updates and a flyer which you can print off and distribute (where legally possible of course).

In these days of doom, gloom and postal strikes it's nice to have a Sunday night drama which isn't full of the bad stuff and for that reason ITV, we'd like our Kingdom back.

An Open Request to anyone who reads this Blog

2009-10-19T13:29:00.009+01:00

As a member of twitter and a follower of Stephen Fry, I received the following in my updates earlier today.

"Desperate story of Akmal Shaikh, bipolar British man facing execution in China; we must help Reprieve save his life."

It is such a distressing case to be sure, and I feel moved by reading about this man's plight; don't know about you. I'm not really one for getting involved in things like this but it's so sad that this mentally ill man is being criminalised after being duped by others into carrying illegal substances simply because he does not have the mental capacity to understand what he and they were doing.

There is an organisation called Reprieve, who are working to save his life, but time is fast running out; read here about their fight, and how you can help by visiting the link at the bottom of this blog.

About Akmal Shaikh

A British national from London, Akmal is facing imminent execution in China for carrying drugs. Reprieve has strong evidence that he is seriously mentally ill, most likely suffering from bipolar disorder.

Akmal has a lifelong history of erratic and bizarre behaviour. People who knew Akmal have said 'he seemed crazy to me' and that 'he was severely mentally disturbed'. It appears that he was severely delusional at the time of his alleged offence, believing himself to be a world-famous pop star, and that drug smugglers took advantage of his confused state by promising him super-stardom in China.

Akmal's appeal has just been denied in the High Court; it is now with the Supreme People's Court, and he faces possible execution within days.

On the following link, you will see a small video which Stephen Fry has made appealing for people to help. There are a number of ways in which you can do this, one of which I used this morning, is a letter already written which is copied into the body of an email and sent to David Miliband as an urgent appeal for him to save Akmal's life.

Please help if you can. Thank you.

http://static.reprieve.org.uk/stephenfryappeal.html

All blog content, except where notated is © silversapphire 2009 All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author

An Open Blog to David Cameron MP

2009-10-05T16:17:00.004+01:00

Dear Mr Cameron,

I, like many other disabled people in the UK today, are appalled and sickened even further by reading your proposals for the removal of people from IB and DLA. What you forget to say is that there are genuinely disabled people out there, I am one of them, who cannot work and need this money to live. You make this sound like an attack on the genuinely sick and disabled and you surely have not forgotten that we also have a vote. I am certainly not voting for someone who is going to make my life more difficult than it already is because he has no idea of how meagre these benefits are, and are the lifeline which gives us a modicum of independence. I dread to think what will happen to this once great country of ours if Labour is elected to another term, which is what will happen if people do not vote Conservative.

I cannot believe that you Mr Cameron, would be so callous and insensitive to people who are genuinely disabled. There are no jobs in this country and employers, take it from me, would always employ an able bodied person over a disabled person any day of the week. Ignoring that fact, or saying it doesn't happen is ridiculous in the extreme. I had hoped the Conservatives would have had some experience of life as it happens outside of Westminster but it seems that these policies are thought up by people who want a 'one size fits all' stripping of the meagre monies we have to live on. We are still reeling from the mauling by the last work and pensions secretary before he resigned and it's a complete disgrace. Yes, there are scroungers, workshy, feckless people out there but NOT all benefit claimants are, you should rethink this idea as it is just scaremongering for those of us who have a small amount of independence, and frightening for those who cannot see any future if this happens.

When I was able to work I paid tax to support those who needed it, now that I am disabled I am being looked after by those who pay tax now; just like I did. I did not begrudge my tax being paid and neither should tax payers today, but they are always told that the people on benefits are workshy, feckless morons who have never paid tax in their lives. This is a monstrous lie, completely reprehensible, disgraceful and morally insulting! Previous taxpayers who are now on benefit are always treated like the rest, it stinks Mr Cameron and until you redress this appalling attack on the sick and disabled then you will never get my vote.

If those lucky enough to have full health are happily joining the 'bash the sick and disabled bandwagon' then they had better hope that they never become too sick, or disabled to work because they will have voted in a disastrous state of affairs whereby they are stripped of any dignity through the inexcusable act of becoming sick and disabled under a Conservative government.

Yours,
silversapphire

So, is secondhand radiation safe?

2009-09-17T11:51:00.005+01:00

The more I've been reading about people's experiences with radioactive iodine, the more I'm concerned. We all know the dangers of secondhand smoke, but secondhand radiation exposure? The hospitals and doctors treating a person would have you believe that if you stay 1m away from everybody (including pets) for 11 days you, and they, will be fine. Except, according to real people's real experiences they are not being entirely truthful. Take for example, a woman in the US who walked into her father's garden shed a few days after treatment where she proceeded to set off the Geiger Counter he had in there! As if that wasn't scary enough, reports say that the 'send people home' approach instead of keeping them isolated in hospital for the few days immediately afterwards (the danger period) only came into force in 2007. Pre-2007 patients having radioactive iodine were kept isolated for four days afterwards and after that they were sent home. Is this just for economic purposes? I definitely think so. Treatment varies around the world. In Australia you ARE still kept in hospital and isolated from others, in Hawaii you are kept in and monitored; in the UK and the US you are sent home to contaminate every living thing you care about. I am so angry about the dangers of secondhand radiation NOT being explained fully to me so I could take more than the paltry regulations they tell you to take. They are: sit in the back seat of a car in which you are travelling with another person. Impossible when that car is a jeep (because of my back problems) the close proximity of sitting in the back seat to the driver (hubs) is as close as if I were sitting next to him, which is what we had to do as I can't sit on the back seat where it is more bumpy because of being over the wheels because of the back problems. The doctors aren't worried are they? lets be honest here, they are not living with you in the same house. I am also advised not to travel on public transport, to keep away from pregnant women and children under 5 until October 1st. Everything else will be ok until 20th Sept. Other advice from differing NHS trusts and indeed from hospitals around the world are: Keep an arm's length away from anyone else, keep 1m away from anyone else, no flying for 6 months, do not get pregnant for 6 months (helpful to men I always thought!) wash your clothes every day, shower every day, do not prepare food for others, do not share utensils, and it goes on and on and on. Hospitals only ever cherry pick their 'conditions' you are never told all of these things by the same hospital, it is downright illogical and confusing. Better to go and live on the top of a mountain for 6 months and be done with it eh? (except you'd probably contaminate the mountain!!) Seriously though, it does make you wonder if it would be safer for all concerned to stay in hospital until it's over, but then of course, like I said earlier that costs money doesn't it.

Because it is not visible, we are unaware of the dangers the radioactive field we are emitting just by being in the same house as someone. My dog thinks I don't love him as he can't sit next to me on the couch I presume until October 1, as I could affect his thyroid as well as hubs. Hubs and I already sleep in separate rooms because I don't sleep well and keep him awake, which is unfair when he has to go to work, so we decided a while back to have separate rooms, therefore sleeping apart was not going to be a problem; just living in the same house is. Flush the loo twice, rinse utensils before washing them yada yada yada.

Apart from this, radioactive iodine can permanently damage the saliva glands and cause a very dry mouth, it also plays havoc with the body's mucous membranes, which are critical for digestion, all the enzymes go haywire and all they tell you before you take this thing is: 'You will only get a sore throat for up to 48 hours afterwards' except I didn't, I had to go back for an x-ray 4 days afterwards and had to stretch my neck upwards so they could take the picture, now I have a sore throat and neck. The problems I already had with my swollen throat, catarrh and mucous and unable to swallow saliva have definitely been exacerbated. I was told, and had indeed hoped I would be making my problems better, not worse. Then, later when the thyroid cells begin to die off I can expect to put on a huge amount of weight, which apparently is impossible to lose, I will have problems with no saliva and I will be constipated because the body will start to slow down. Add to this, further blood tests to find out if my thyroid has become hypothyroid (underactive) will be needed, probably for life. I say probably, because in this country, and definitely where I live, follow up healthcare is a lottery. I have had undetected thyroid problems since mid 2000's yet pre-treatment, my blood test for thyroid always came back normal, so how will they tell I will have an underactive thyroid or not if the tests keep coming back normal. I suppose I'd have to go into the coma (myxoedema) which can happen with underactive thyroid, or collapse somewhere (knowing me, it will be highly inconvenient) before they will help me. Also, because my veins have been completely buggered up by inept junior doctors and some nurses in local hospitals who can 'never find a vein' but doggedly persist in digging around for one until I am black and blue literally, and my veins have thrombosed. Because of one person's cack-handedness, I suffered with a thrombophlebitis in my left wrist for 18 months, how attractive is that? It looked for all the world like a slug under the skin, all green and black bruising and then yellow as it healed, oh yes it was delightful - NOT.

So, to sum up, I am not happy to have had this treatment with all the side effects kept away from me, and the fact that I will have to have regular blood tests to see if I am going underactive, with all the digging around in my veins, I will have none left, what will they do then? Well, then it becomes my fault that they can't find a vein, and at which point I remind them that I didn't bugger my own veins up just to spite them, rather they did it to me and this is a consequence of staff who don't do it properly, because on those occasions when you get a really good phlebotomist you don't even know you have had blood taken, no bruising, no scarring and no pain. Sadly, I only ever see these people once in a blue moon, the rest of the time I'm at the mercy of gung ho nurses who take great delight in saying things like 'hope the next one is normal' thinking I can't hear the insult, I am normal my dear, least I used to be until cack handed junior doctors and some nurses buggered up the veins, it's your fault NHS, not mine, stop blaming the patient for your mistakes.

At least they have now found out why my earlier RAI was not in my records, apparently I have two sets of notes! No, I'm really not joking, you couldn't make this up could you? They promise faithfully, just like they have so many times before, to amalgamate them. I am not holding my breath I can assure you.

© silversapphire 2009

NHS losing my records of past RAI treatment, and the implications

2009-09-14T13:09:00.005+01:00

Went for my follow up x-ray today to see whether the thyroid has taken up the Radioactive Iodine, and it seems it has. I was telling the woman who was doing the x-ray that I'd been here before and she said: 'No you haven't, we haven't got any record of you being here before this.' The Hubs and I know that we were there about 2 years or so ago for a radioactive drink thing, where we had to spend 2 hours in the hospital to enable the gland to be seen and I had the same rigmarole then as I did today. I get a snotty woman wanting me to lie down for the x-ray, and I can't lie down because of my back problems, she wouldn't believe me, she said: 'So you don't even want to try?' I'm getting annoyed now because they should be helping me to get comfortable so I can have this done, not be badgered into doing it their way to make theor life easier, honestly I despair of the way the service is going. I said, rather tiredly, cos I am knackered after this RAI last week: 'It's not a case of trying dear, I simply cannot lie down.'

I had the x-ray sitting n a chair with the camera almost up my throat, like last time. Except that the nurses were more friendy last time, and I cannot belive they have no record of this at all. Their demeanour is such that if we haven't got a record of it you didn't come here, but I did and I want to know what the implications are for my thyroid and my health if they have given me this present treatment wothut looking at the contra indications of last time. Luckily, we still have the date of the test and the appointment letter, so they WILL HAVE TO look for this lost paperwork, I was not making something like this up ... honestly, I really do have better things to do.

The Ashes 2009: How England Men's Team Won

2009-09-12T13:33:00.000+01:00

Australia's Assassinator Brett Lee did not play.

Radioactivity, A Dogs Life & Cricket

2009-09-12T12:47:00.015+01:00

Feeling a bit ropey today, apparently it's to do with my body breaking down the radioactive iodine thingy which I had 48 hours ago. A bit like the sicky feeling you'd get when your body breaks down the anaesthetic after the dentist has numbed you up for a drilling!!! Doing my level best right now not to go talking to Himself down the big white telephone.

The dog is mightily fed up with me at the mo, you know he'd had that rawhide bone yesterday? Well, he finally decided he wasn't going to bury it anywhere, after much walking round the house and garden looking for somewhere suitable, at one point trying to bury it under a pile of CD's which were on the floor. He repaired to the garden and lay down facing away from us (so's we couldn't see him I guess) and starts wiring into it. Hubs goes out to check on him and finds he's been gnawing so hard on it he's made his gum bleed, so that had to go. Gave him a bonio and took the bone away while he wasn't looking, but he spent a long while looking for it cos he could still smell it out there, which is heartbreaking. Although he's fine today and the gum has stopped bleeding, it's not worth making him ill just to let him have this bone so it's gone now, suffice to say that that is why we haven't bought one for a while as it must have made his gum bleed last time. With the passage of time, I forgot that we don't give him these things for a reason, he's far too precious to me to let him loose on these things. Being a border collie he in intense, with everything, so whereas another dog would lick it slowly to soften it up for chewing, he just tries to eat the whole thing in one go. His toys are all the tough stuff as he has broken or ripped most of the other toys he had. His favourite is still the little blue bone.

He still doesn't understand why he can't sit next to me on the couch and is being moved to the required 3 feet away until I am no longer radioactive (next Sunday). Can't even cuddle hubs and having to observe strict routines like keeping my towels away from his, not using cutlery that I have used in cooking, say I'd tasted something I'm cooking - I can't then put the spoon back into the food, just little things like that, keeping toothbrushes and cups etc away from his, and flushing the loo twice just in case there's a pesky bit of radioactivity lingering. I know they said I won't glow in the dark but it would be helpful to see what is going where as if you can't see it you tend to think it's not there, but you can't take any chances. Little niggles which you wouldn't think are a problem, really are when you come to observe them.

I'm also aggrieved a bit whith the doctors at the hospital as they say I have to observe all these things but just say 'it's just a precaution so you don't give anyone a dose of radiation' when you ask why. I am curious enough (or just plain nosy if you will) as to what would actually happen if their observances were not adhered to!

And finally for today, the 4th ODI England v Australia

With the Aussies cruising steadily at 3-0, I ask myself what is the point of this current England Team. 'Resting' players is a misnomer, poor babies eh? - what they should say is replaced! I don't know what Ravi Bopara has over the team, but they will not drop him and replace him with someone who can score runs. Their present effort is a miserly 150+ which, in a limited over game is just not enough. I think Strauss does not understand that to win these types of games, as opposed to the longer test matches, you have to put runs on the board quickly, you cannot have the luxury of being 'in' for tow or three days to get a decent amount of runs on the board. Blocking and defensive playing is not what ODI's are all about. It really annoys me that there are so many great players out there in county cricket who never even get a sniff at playing for their country in favour of the current mollycoddled players out there at the moment. The rest of the world must be laughing their socks off at this lot, I know I am and it's a joke.

If our Women's Cricket team can play AND WIN their ODI's and their Ashes series consistently then why do the men find it so hard? Answer: The women have the right mental attitude, they want to win and they see Australia as equal; so they play accordingly, they do not see Australia, like the men seem to do, as conquerors. It's so depressing to see this lot almost quaking at the crease, turning away from the ball as if they don't want to hit it, or be hit by the ball, it's daft to the point of nonsense. I doubt that England (men's team) will ever be good enough, until they change the way they think about the game. We are not the sum total of one or two batsmen (Flintoff and Pietersen) there is no I in team; they need to realise that they themselves are capabe of winning every match they play but they lose so much that that is what they expect and so that is what happens ... with monotonous regularity. I just wonder how many more times the crowd will be willing to get behind such a losing side time and again, and how many times they will be willing to fork out all this money to see them play at these expensive venues, watching the team lose again and again and again. Ok, they may win today but can you see them winning the next 4 matches? me neither. How they ever wrestled The Ashes back is beyond me, it really is. Australia must be having a good laugh at us in private, they know we are weak and now so do I.

Putting up with Them - The Dog's Viewpoint

2009-09-11T17:24:00.002+01:00

When they came home today they brought me one of those bones made of hide or some other such stuff. They present it to me and then watch as I try to go outside and bury it, I mean don't they know anything? I HAVE to be on my own so's they can't pinch it when I'm not looking, any self respecting dog wouldn't let another see where he's burying a bone for heaven's sake! S'cuse me for a mo while I sit down for a bit, it's thirsty work all this running round the garden trying to outsmart them and, after trying to bury it in my dad's sweetcorn plant, they must have heard me trying to upend it I think, cos mum came out and stopped me. She said it was in case I hurt myself if the pot tipped over but I know it was really so she could see where I'd buried the bone so's she could half inch it when I went to bed tonight, I'm a border collie you know - I'm NOT daft (well, she says I am sometimes, but I don't agree with her). I mean, they are the daft ones, they give me this bone and then expect me to sit in my bed and chew it! The ignominy of it all. See, told you I was clever, I know big words like ignominy and stuff. So, as a proud border collie, I can't for the life of me understand them, probably never will but I have to try it on sometimes, especially with her cos she thinks she's top dog and she's always saying stuff to me which to her sound like "When you can open your own dog food and serve yourself then you can be top dog" which to me sounds like Blah blah blah blah, food blah blah, blah de blah blah! They never understand do they?

Anyway, back to this bone, I am doing my best to make them understand that I want to bury it outside but dad keeps telling me to blah blah blah, or bring it in he says, and he won't see that I want to stay outside and bury it, there's nowhere inside is there? My daddy and my mummy are so daft at times but they love me I know they do, even if mum is staying away from me and daddy for some reason [Because I'm still slightly radioactive doggie darling] see, again, butting in. Blah blah blah stuff. Ah well, soon time for my bonio. I know that word all right, do I ever, AND they brought me black ones today, daddy says they make my poo black and mummy just says it's supposed to help with flatulence, but I don't fart ... well, not that much anyway.

S'cuse me now while I go and see if my bone is still where I buried it. I'm letting mum have the copyright here cos she's sitting there pressing some little buttons for me and looking up at a window with pictures on it. I love 'em really, cos they love me.

Overheard in the hospital lift whilst on my way to my appointment today

2009-09-10T19:05:00.001+01:00

I had 22 BLOODY patients in last night - 22 bloody patients. This from a nurse in front of her colleagues and other such 'patients' in the lift. My first response was, 'well if it wasn't for patients you'd not have a job would you?' - but then I thought 'eeeuuu, that must have been messy!!!'

Nice to know the NHS is staffed with 'nurses' like this isn't it? or should I say BLOODY nurses!

I am now radioactive - so pleased to meet you

2009-09-10T14:55:00.003+01:00

And it finally happened today. I saw my ~~physisit~~ ~~phycisit~~ ~~physicyst~~ nuclear medicine doctor today, and I have now had my tablet. What a carry on though, my appointment was at 11am and we get there, just, after doing battle with their car park entrance aka traffic backed up onto the main road!!! I had to sign forms to consent to the treatment and they proceeded to tell me what the dangers were (as well as the benefits obviously), I can't go near children or pregnant women, I cannot be near my beloved dog, the husband I can live with but hey my poor dog thinks he's in disgrace. I cannot fly (in an aeroplane) obviously (hey if I could fly without one I'd get myself an agent and a caribbean island out of the proceeds thank you very much!) Anyway, back to reality - I have to carry my card (in said reality a bit of yellow paper) which tells people at the airports that I am not (yes, I'd love to use the T word which rhymes with berrorist but they'd be down on me like a ton of bricks, or should that be tonne, oh poop, who cares) as I'd set off their radiation thingies at said airport. So I promised I would not fly until 1 October when I am officially free of radioactivity and can do what the hell I'd like (even though I have never been on a plane, or been abroad in my life, all 49 years of it). I also asked if this stuff is so dangerous for other people around me, is it actually safe for me to have in the first place??? Doctor was quiet than, so you see why I was so worried in my last post! Apparently it IS safe, just not for other people to be around me. Oh, don't you just love going round in circles???

As a brief aside, in the hospital's entrance today there was a workman loading boxes into a cupboard, specifically for boxes and some bright young thing had helpfully (in their eyes bless 'em) had written 'Please store all box's here.' I am speechless at the lack of decent education in this area if that is what people are being taught today, you just couldn't make it up ... and why would you want to when there is this wealth of idiocy sweeping the nation's spelling, it is such a rich stream of material.

Until next epistle, ta-ta for now.

Great to have our old neighbours back next door.

2009-09-09T16:53:00.001+01:00

It's been a while, but our old neighbours have come back to live next door again (yay!) and their little boy is so funny. He's a gorgeous, confident and happy (sometimes naughty) little boy of four, cute as a button with soft blond hair and lovely soulful brown eyes, he's going to be such a heartbreaker when he grows up!

I had heard someone roaring in the garden next door and thought it was just someone having an off day, but nope, his mum told me it's the little fella, standing there, legs braced, leaning backwards, arms outstretched roaring at the top of his voice to scare the cats away. He's a case, he really is.

Dragonfly Fighting and Mosquitos performing Night Time Dive Bombing Manouevres

2009-09-09T16:45:00.008+01:00

Just thought I'd write this down before I forget it. Hubs was trying to dislodge what he thought was a dragonfly from committing suicide in our lightbulbs last night when he suddenly cursed and said: "That's not a dragonfly, little buggers just nipped me." It looked like a dragonfly, although it was red in colour, but sounded like a whole army of them in the light bulb. We were very wary of what flew in after that I can tell you.

Then there are the squadrons of mosquitos who, true to form, are well versed in flying in formation en masse and buzzing at ear level just as you're dropping off, makes you jump. The little sods we have here seem to have been practising their art for years, some are obviously in mosquito intelligence as they hide when the light goes on but it's a devil of a job trying to swat them in the dark! Then when they think they've gotten away with it they try again, swooping low, in formation, buzzing and dive bombing as they go on a co-ordinated fly past of nuisance making, until the light goes on and bam, they bought it cos we're lying in wait for them most nights with a rolled up newspaper, which for some reason makes our collie go mental.

© silversapphire 2009

Is being made Radio Active as good as it sounds?

2009-09-09T16:25:00.018+01:00

Well, big day tomorrow, I am being made radioactive!! Well, ok, not as glam as it sounds, I'm having a radioactive iodine tablet to shrink my thyroid nodules -oh joy! Apparently this is a new thing they can do to shrink growing nodules - so great - if it works though. I'm getting a bit jittery over it to be honest, I was meant to have it last month but my kindly dentist split my lip, (no, we were not fighting)! And my thyroid doctor wouldn't give me the tablet as she said the RI (I'm getting fed up writing radio iodine (sounds like a pirate radio station "Hey, welcome to radio iodine - we glow in the dark"). Ahem, apparenty I will not be glowing in the dark so that puts paid to hubby's idea that he can plug me into the mains for a fortnight to power the lights and the telly. Well that was his excuse for wanting to plug me into the mains, so I guess that's disappointing for him eh?

If there are any injuries, or surgery knocking about in the body then the RI will go there and cause untold problems and not to the thyroid where it is meant to go, and where the hospital's literature assures me it will go - and nowhere else!! See why I'm getting jittery? So, I had to wait four weeks for the split lip to heal. It took two weeks to heal as I developed a cold sore in the cut. Not even a simple slipt lip is a simple thing for me, and waiting four weeks is just waiting for something else to happen and it did, I developed a cold and I still don't know who gave it to me, but that went and left me with other problems. The hospital said to let them know a week before if I can't come due to illness or injury etc but bearing in mind that the split lip happened three days before the RI treatment that's not always possible. I am hopeless at predicting when I'm going to be ill, how about you?

Hope they don't postpone it again as I'll be getting into the realms of flu jabs and that could be a disaster waiting to happen. We're still pondering whether to have the swine flu one as we don't believe this government when it says this jab is safe - would you? - they've lied to us about everything else, why would they suddenly come clean on this. We'd rather take our chances thank you Mr B. We're just hoping it's not disguised as the seasonal one we have to have each year, I wouldn't put that past Mr B and his cronies either.

So RI and a healthy body, apart from the nodules, is something which may or may not happen, wish me luck cos guys, I'm gonna need it.

My great big softie border collie, my own overgrown teddybear ... with teeth!!!

2009-09-09T15:55:00.009+01:00

What would the world be like without our beloved dogs in it? Well, cat owners would be rejoicing for one thing, but that's another matter. Yes, my own wonderful woofer, my darling collie is now 9.5 years old and he still behaves like a 2 year old. It's a border collie thing isn't it? they never do grow old, not as long as there's something to herd - like an itinerant husband wandering round the garden watering his sweetcorn (I kid you not) said sweetcorn plants are taking on gargantuan properties as I write; think day of the triffids and you'll get the picture. I can hear their leaves rustling malevolently in the wind from here.

Anyway, back to my lovely boy, he plays with his toys in the garden, just like dogs do but when we first had him (he's a rescue dog) he didn't know how to play - imagine that? He's more than made up for it since with his antics, he has this really old plastic blue bone that he idolises (it's a border collie thing apparently) he throws it in the air, waits for it to fall and then pounces on one end so the other end sticks up which he then bites for a bit and then lets it fall, play bows to it while watching closely (the intensity of the stare is enough to frighten it into submission) for any sign of movement, like a sudden break for freedom, and then pounces on it again followed by lots of running up and down the garden, criss-crossing in figures of eight, followed by a perimiter check and lots of play growling and then he stops for a quick slurp of water (if the birds haven't been using his outside dish for a quick dip) before discarding the bone in favour of a squeaky ball that's just popped into view. He chews on that so hard that you'd think he'd break it but it still comes back for more (this is the last one with a still working squeak it has to be said, he has desqueaked the rest). This time it's the ball that's thrown up, caught sometimes, but mainly left to rest for a second, no more, between his front paws as he play bows to it and then snatches it up before running away with it squeaking it for all it's worth. He's such a wonderful boy and needless to say I love him to bits, he is a total joy to have in my life I can tell you.

He'll sort those pesky sweetcorn plants out, no worries, unless they fall over then he'll run like hell. He's not stupid, he's a border collie! "You look after yourself mum" he'd say, if he could talk, which he can't but oh boy, if he could ...

Alternating Days of Summer followed by Winter followed by Summer etc...

2009-09-09T13:30:00.000+01:00

What is it with this country and it's weather? I hail from the north west of England and for my sins have ended up in the south east of England. Whereas in my youth we would be subjected to steady, dependable days of winter, spring, summer and autumn all roughly three months in duration, I have now found myself in the most barmy (note that I said barmy, not balmy) of weather systems in one part of the Garden Of England ... the county of Kent! (Although, the way it's going down here it should be renamed the Motorway of England ...but, I digress) ... last year we had a normal summer: wall to wall rain with a few nice days of heat thrown in for good measure. At which point Kent was overwhelmed by the sound of barbecues being dragged out and fired up to accompany the raucous and forever beating throb and thrum of 'live music' from one of our local hostelries. A few wasps made a half hearted appearance, a small unit of worker bees lazily looked up from the flower they were on, decided it wasn't worth the effort, and then went back to what they were doing.

This year though, was promised, by every weather person to be a barbecue summer! Well, to be fair, it has, but this year we have had heat, heat and more heat with a few days of cold weather thrown in which plays havoc with the sinuses I'm sure you'll agree. Humidity is the killer though, it's so hard to breathe, imagine please, trying to breathe underwater with no diving gear on and you'll see what I mean. So, to all the heat huggers out there, be grateful you can hug the heat to your heart's content. I used to be like that, then I got older and so did my innards and they have decided over the last few years they don't like the heat and humidity and it's horrible, no really it is. Which brings me back to where I came in ... today is Wednesday 9th September 2009, it is officially a gloomy, cold miserable old git of a day here in my part of Kent, a miserly 20 degrees. Yesterday, it was 28 degrees and boiling hot! Where is the logic in that, where are my steady, dependable days of seasons (and their resulting temperatures) being in the right order?

Whoever thought it was funny to turn winter on now, at the beginning of September, please turn it off again, we're not ready just yet thanks.

NHS Choose & Book - anyone had any luck?

2009-09-09T13:07:00.000+01:00

I thought this Choose and Book thingy would be easy, and it is widely known (at least in the upper echelons of the NHS) that it is meant to save me, the patient, time by letting me choose and book an appointment with relevant consultant at a time and date convenient for me; it's also meant to be easy to use etc etc.

This would all be fine ... if it did work! Each time I've used it it has proved time consuming and obstructive to the point I ask myself:"Why bother? lets just go down the GP and get referred the old way" Simple, you'd think yes? NO! because good old GP uses C&B ... and the whole sorry cycle starts again. I think this is a ruse conjured up by the NHS to lose people in their antiquated and sometimes hopeless systems.

Take, if you will, my latest experience. Beginning August this year I see GP and ask for a referral to a local hospital for a complaint which I won't bore you with but will involve a CT scan. He looks on his screen (yes, he was one of those who was dragged kicking and screaming into the age of technology) and announces there is a C&B scheme at the local hospital and he gives me the details, except at the time of booking there are NO appointments available. So, what, is the point of having C&B which is meant to allow me, the patient, to have an appointment at a time and date which suits me when there are NO appointments available. It has even me stumped, and that is an unusual occurrence I can tell you. What happens next is that the request goes to the hospital as usual, they flag up it's a C&B thing and I get a letter from the hospital saying that there are NO appointments available - and I will be given an appointment in due course via the hospital NOT C&B!

After four weeks of waiting I call the number given on the hospital's letter to be informed that because it's a CT scan 'we don't do those appointments.' - would you be getting annoyed now .. would you??? I know I am. So, taking a very deep and measured breath I explain that it's for a consult first and then a CT scan and they seem to think they can manage that ok ... but there are still NO appointments available - for 13 weeks - I'm looking at 12 November before I can even see a consultant.

Whoever thought up C&B was obviously thinking the scheme would work but did not build in to his equations the dinosaur that is the NHS, it has not saved this patient time and has not let said patient choose and book an appointment at the time and date of my choice because there are NO appointments available ... for 13 weeks .. sigh. It's a nonsense, it really is, perhaps it was set up for a laugh to see how many people it could lead on a merry dance until we either gave up or died.