13 Oct 2006
Is this going to work?
This should be a picture, hopefully you should be able to click on it for a bigger pic;
Urg 2
This is quite disgusting but funny.
I’m currently sitting at the dinner table with the lap-top and doing some work instead of lazing around in bed. I have a bad cold. To assuage my bunged and drippy nose I need tissues or some such. The curtains are open to let in light.
This means that if someone were to look in through said open window now they’d have an image of a man staring intently, open mouthed at the screen with a roll of loo paper next to him.
Ew.
Have fun.
Urg
I’m ill. In fact I’ve been off work since Wednesday. It started as tonsillitis but has now mutated into a shocking cold complete with nasty muscle aches.
I’m supposed to be going to visit my brother and his family this weekend; his partner’s pregnant though so I’m not wholly sure I’ll go.
I missed 2 people’s leaving do last night as well because of it.
You’d all better hope that you can’t get real viruses through your monitors.
Have fun.
10 Oct 2006
Awards
Get in!
Britain has won an award. We’re now officially the fattest people in Europe. Woohoo!
Now perhaps we can celebrate such a momentous award. Let’s have a slap-up meal.
Oh and we have the worst sexual health and teen pregnancy rates in Europe too. Result!
Have fun.
Age
Some people are old. I’ve noticed this today. It may be a cliche but it really is nothing to do with chronological age.
I had a 93 year old stomp in to see me recently and she’s fed up because she can’t play the piano any more as her fingers are seizing up with arthritis.
Then today I had a 50 year old who looked like death was hanging around nearby and all because she has a bit of back pain. There was nothing really wrong with her but she’s just fed up to the extent of near-depression.
It comes down to enthusiasm, I’m sure of it. To use another word; it comes down to ”passion”.
“Passion” is one of the words that I like best. Not the sound or shape of the word but its meaning in the purest sense.
What’s the point of doing something if you’re not passionate about it? Agreed you have to earn a crust but if you’re doing it by forcing yourself to do something you have no passion for it’s miserable (see most workers for examples). If you have a passion for something that makes you money then you never need “work” in your life.
I’ve been listening to some shows from Mark Steel about people with a passion. He highlights such folk as Beethoven, Cromwell, Napoleon, Leonardo Da Vinci and Lord Byron. The only things that separate them from mere mortals is their talent and the depths of the passion they had for their subject. These people were lucky in that their passions were transferable and they produced things that they could either sell or other people took to their hearts.
How much better would the world be if all people’s passions were actually useful? I saw the local steam engine club in Abbey Park the other day. Loads of people were there showing off their machines. Some were beautiful pieces of engineering working like a dream and puffing around the paths of the park. Why have these folk wasted their spare time doing this? Because they care about it. How much more could be achieved if we harnessed that passion into something more useful? Probably nothing as it seems that passion is a fickle beast and you can’t choose your passions.
I used to love juggling. Did it all the time. I also used to love films and cinema going. Now I haven’t been to the cinema for months and I only juggle because I can and I like the company. The passion’s gone. It’s sad in a way.
Why have I bothered with this waffle? I get sick of seeing people having a go at people who are “into” things. They only do it to people who are into “different” things from themselves. So for instance it’s socialogically ok to be “into” football but jugglers are still seen as weird. And what about nerds and geeks? They’re only into something that “normal” people aren’t.
People shouldn’t be annoyed at people with variant passions. They should be angered by those with no passions at all. How much more boring are people like that? We’ve all met them; people who can’t get excited about anything at all. How dull must their lives be? And in this country at least this state is encouraged. Don’t be extreme, conform and do the proper thing because that’s what proper normal people do.
NO!
Get passionate and be proud.
Have fun.
Whinge
A patient without much English just came to see me. This guy’s referral did state that he needed an interpreter and one wasn’t booked.
Was this our fault? Well yes but there are a couple of hoops for patients to jump through that should have caught the error before he turns up and we can’t understand each other.
Firstly they get a letter from us asking them to phone up and book a time for their appointment. We started using this system because we were having loads of people not showing up for their first appointments. By introducing this system we had a drop from 40% no-shows to 0% in one month. We now average about 2%. It also means that they have to phone and then we can tell whether they need an interpreter. So someone phoned for this guy and booked him in and didn’t mention that he can’t speak English. Did he just assume that we all speak his language? It isn’t one of the more common ones here so it would be a feat.
Anyway it’s my fault apparently that I’ve wasted his time; so I’ve just endured a rant from someone because our team (not me) didn’t book an interpreter.
To big up our role in his life: He got to see a doctor for free. He got a referral to see a physio for free. He only had to wait 2 weeks from referral to appointment. And yet he’s whinging like a girl who’s just noticed that the cushions are out of their proper place. I’d be interested to see what the services “back home” would be like for him. I’d also like to know whether an English interpreter would be paid for out of state money to help someone from here over there.
Help me, I’m turning all Daily Mail.
Have fun.
09 Oct 2006
A low point
For some reason I’m feeling really shitty today. I hadn’t been in a great mood even before I heard about that wacky Kim Jong-Il and his new toy.
Me and K were thinking about car buying yesterday as my bro feels that the car they were going to give us will cost more to mend than it’s worth and they haven’t the time to get it sorted neither. Seems fair enough but K wants a car. We had a look at some new ones (online) and the finance schemes they have and we might try the new Panda and possibly a Polo (expensive though; I’d rather have a Fox but they’re only 3 door). The Japanese small cars were all hideous or too plasticy so they’re out. Don’t want another Corsa and the Korean cars are worse than the Jap ones.
The other idea is to have a look at one of those car supermarkets and see what they can offer but they’re not much cheaper and don’t have as good financing deals.
So what else is depressing today.
The siege mentality of those professing the idea that wearing a veil is liberating and that people treat them properly as they are not judging on appearance. I still find this laughable as people are generally judging them precisely on appearance and not likely to be judging them fairly. Still it’s not unusual for religious people to be divorced from reality.
Then there’s Kim Jong. “We need nuclear weapons to defend ourselves” he cries. No, you need to be nice to people, then there’s no reason for them to attack you. Anyway the world (well North-East asia) is now more perilous rather than less. No doubt there’ll be no new food-aid and North Koreans will starve in multitudes. Either the threat will be ignored and then the world will be woken again by this stupid child going all tantrummy again and demanding attention. Or something will be done - but I can’t see that happening. The “good” news is that China doesn’t seem desperately keen on having NK as a nuclear power. Whatever happens it’s about the worst thing that could happen to the poor sods who have to live in NK. Nice choice, war or starvation.
Well after all that; have fun.
05 Oct 2006
Genius
I’m told that the episode of Genius that I might be on is at 6.30 today on Radio 4. There is a “listen again” option on the beeb website here. I would guess that today’s episode will be on there some time tonight until next Thursday.
[Edit] Ah well that was ok. They missed some stuff out which was a bit funnier but never mind.
Have fun.
04 Oct 2006
Eateries
I’ve been out to a few places for food recently so I thought I’d do a bit of a review of them.
- Sholay’s - Narborough Road, Leicester. A regular one-time haunt of me, K and Darren. We occasionally wandered down that road looking for somewhere to eat and always ended up there. Recently they’ve changed their menu’s a bit. Originally they were pizza with the odd Indian side dish. Now the Indian part seems to have multiplied but their pizzas are still pretty good. Crap decor but the food’s ok and cheap.
- Ask - Leicester. Had a couple of meals here recently. I like the food but the drinks menu is very restricted. If you want beer then you have the choice of 1. And it’s an expensive one.
- French place near the Coliseum in London. Gorgeous food and nice setting. Best meal I’ve had in ages. But you have to pay for it.
- Namaste - Leicester. One of my fave curry houses. Had lovely flock wallpaper deco and nice atmos. Recently they’ve got rid of the wallpaper and painted the place a garish orange. Perhaps one to save for take-aways only now.
- Peking - Leicester. Excellent Chinese place now doing set meals for a decent price. Noted for its food and for the variety of staff you get there. There’s an ancient bloke who’s lovely and a battleaxe harridan who stomps around being loud and abrasive.
- Burger King - Leicester Square, London. This place has a place in my memory. It’s where I went at 2am on New Year’s Day 1999 with a rather lovely Italian girl. It was the only place open that was warm and affordable for a poor student. Me and K popped in there this weekend for her to grab “something”. Now I’ve not eaten in a BK for years (and McD’s for longer) so I was interested to see what the food was actually like. Well I tried the chips and decided that perhaps they would be better if there was any taste of potato. The burger was tasteless dross. If this is what they are clearing the rainforests for then they really deserve to go to hell (or at least be shot for services against mankind). How can anyone eat this shit? And then their advertising pitch. “Come and eat here because you can have it your way”. To paraphrase: “Come here and you can have what you want”; well thanks very much, that’s very big of you to allow me to buy what I want instead of what you feel I should have. Idiots.
- TJ’s - Leicester. Independent burger, kebab and chicken place. Crap food but nicer than 6. On the only trip I’ve had there for years we were joined by a tramp. He ate our leftovers. Nice chap but “sod off”.
Anyway there’s a different topic covered now.
Have fun.