31 May 2007
Posted in People, Rants, Work at 10:42 am by alby
Not another Caameron post though.
Just had a patient who’s been in an RTA about 6 months ago. Cue “everything hurts everywhere all the time. Pain level 10 out of 10 all the time but gets worse when I do stuff.” etc..
Moving terribly slowly and oohing and ahhing to every little tiny movement. Muscles spasmed up horribly. Basic increased pain behaviour.
I’ve had a coupl’o sessions being relentlessly positive and chatty and motivating but today she made me angry.
Me:”How are you then?”
Pt:”Terrible. Everything I do hurts”.
Me:”So what have you been doing?”
Pt:”Nothing, it all hurts too much.”
M:”So what hurts?”
P:”Everything”.
M: “OK I can’t treat everything which bit hurts most?”
P:”I can’t say, it’s all bad”.
NB I should point out that the face is contorted and the voice is quiet and there are huffs and puffs and groans coming out all the time and hand grabbing various bits at various times to give them a rub.
M:”OK then let’s talk about pain.”
etc etc etc for a bit where I explain carefully and fully that specific area pain would be a red herring and I’d be forever chasing pains around her body if I tried to pick specific “bits”.
Then I talk more about motivation and chronic pain and activity and avoiding pain behaviour etc.
Pt:”But my knee really hurts here (points at knee)”.
Me:”No I’m not going to look at specific bits remember. Where else hurts?”
Pt:”Everywhere.”
Me:”OK….”
Pt:grabs thigh, “My hip hurts and all the way down to the foot on this side.”
Me:”Remember we’re not doing “bits”".
Pt:”What about my neck?” (puts hand to neck)
Me:”No.”
This conversation went on for ages. Basically all she needs is to crack on with life again and “get with the programme”. As hard as that is to tell someone it’s sadly true. Shame she’ll not “get” it for ages (if at all). No-one is going to make her right until she understands this.
I’ve discharged her now as she’s no way going to “get” it. I’ll ask the GP to refer to the pain management team who’ll basically do the same stuff; but with more resources behind them.
I do feel a little sorry for this woman but I really wasn’t in the mood this morning.
Have more fun than her.
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30 May 2007
Posted in People at 12:00 pm by alby
I’ve just heard Caameron [sic] from Big Brother 4 on the radio. He won the apparently “most boring” series of Big Brother. Seems people thought it was boring because the house was full with reasonably nice folk and Cameron was the nicest bloke who’s ever been on the show. I loved that series because of the people who survived to the end.
Anyway turns out Cameron’s still working off the back of BB and comes across like a really sound and intelligent gent. Well done that man.
Have fun.
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29 May 2007
Posted in Juggling, People at 10:41 am by alby
Doesn’t he seem to be the flavour of the message boards at the mo?
Rec.jug has seen a couple of fundraisers for him to get to the WJF; one of which at least is genuine but…
There’s a bit of a backlash (if you can call it that even).
On GatFor there’s been a thread about it and loads of people have jumped on the “Not the WJF….Nooooooooo!” bandwagon for a couple of reasons not all of which are ludicrous.
The WJF forums seem to have very little about it at all despite someone starting 2 threads about it.
My thoughts are that Adrian could probably do with a decent bout (say a couple of years) of good solid disciplined and structured training. And who better than the WJF to provide that?
He could go to an event have fun, get some ideas re training and practice habits, meet loads of highly skilled jugglers and have an exciting trip. Afterwards he’ll be back home but those people he met will be in touch on-line and continuing with advice and encouragement.
He’s only 12 so not likely to be going to a performance or circus school any time soon and there’s no real mentor for him around here.
I reckon he’ll do well with the WJF at least in the short term. He’s not likely to have his creative spark battered out of him; the precedent is Crusher Peden who seems to have survived the WJF experience with, if anything, an increased interest in exploring creativity.
So yes, WJF good for Adrian.
Have fun.
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28 May 2007
Posted in Life at 12:33 pm by alby
Late one night at Bungay (oh how many stories could start with that line) Dr Ruth was nattering about this wotsit called the colour test. Apparently there are 8 colours and you rank them in order of which you feel is best to worst. It then waits 2 minutes; rearranges the order of the colours and asks you to repeat the ordering in the same way.
Turns out that lots of psych research has been done which gives it some legitimacy. Cue Susannah scoffing re this. At this point Richard gives her his phone with net connection and offers her the chance to test it out. When the results came in they were accurate enough for Susannah to leave immediately before the 3rd and 4th pages of results were read out. Spookeh.
So I had a go (the website is here if you fancy a go) and my results were reasonably spooky too.
Your Existing Situation
Imaginative and sensitive; seeking an outlet for these qualities–especially in the company of someone equally sensitive. Interest and enthusiasm are readily aroused by the unusual or the adventurous.
Your Stress Sources
Wishes to be independent, unhampered, and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which he imposes of himself or by his own choice and decision.
Your Restrained Characteristics
An unadmitted lack of confidence makes him careful to avoid open conflict and he feels he must make the best of things as they are.
Able to achieve satisfaction through sexual activity.
Your Desired Objective
Strives for a life rich in activity and experience, and for a close bond offering sexual and emotional fulfillment.
Your Actual Problem
Fights against restriction or limitation, and insists on developing freely as a result of his own efforts.
Now that’s not far from accurate really. I’m aware that there may be some broad brush stuff in there though.
I also quite like that one of my “restrained characteristics” is “able to achieve satisfaction through sexual activity”. Does this mean that I’m waiting to be “unrestrained” in this area? Wow!
Have fun.
And do comment with whatever you get from the quiz.
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Posted in Juggling, People, Reviews at 12:14 pm by alby
Says so on the box.
I’ve just been to my first ever Bungay Balls Up. The longest juggling convention there is. Although I didn’t manage to stay for all of it.
Rather annoyingly there is a new job at my work place that’s a grade higher than my current job. I’m applying but the advert went out on Friday (25th) - the start of the BBU. And the application form is due in tomorrow (the day after BBU). So I had to spend some of my time away filling in the darned form. And when I’m done here I’ll be finishing that little job off. It’s also why I’m back home now instead of still chilling in a rainy field.
The first weekend was a bit dodgy weatherwise so I held off from travelling until Monday. Arrived in the middle of nowhere to find a good few tents up but no sign of local pals who’d been there since the start on Friday.
I’d sort of gathered that the whole event is more a holiday with jugglers rather than a juggling event per se. The site seemed to bear this out from the start with just a few people juggling when I arrived but more camped out in the sun reading or catching some zeds rather than clubs.
Now I could do a point by point “this is what happened” type thing but there would be far too much to write and I’d forget the order and then I’d forget some bits and then I’ll get complaints etc… So I won’t do it like that. I’m going to use the HLGCB format just to annoy the whingers who can’t help but feel that “Old style reviews were so much better”. Pah to you all (both).
Highs:
- Company - the whole point of the event is to meet and mingle and chill out. Met loads of people and got talking to many I’ve met but not really talked to. Kudos to those that put up with my ramblings.
- Scrabble games against Gary (lucky), Parit (pwned, well beaten by 1 point) and various others.
- Some passing managed with more than just Clurb; I’m such a hooer.
- Lovely weather for the whole week until Sunday. I have slight burnage.
- Giggling far too much at rather puerile stuff (see photos). Most puerile was DB saying he missed Luke; and bum sex was mentioned. The gales of laughter are still echoing.
- The show. Not necessarily for its extreme level of technical stuff but for the sheer sense of goodwill evident throughout. Think the opposite of a raucous renegade show. Excellent reduced show style compere and better reduced reduced show bit by Void.
- Random showing up of some folk. Rebecca turned up in Halesworth just as I happened to be passing the train station and Rod appeared late on Friday. Woot!
- People coming up and asking me for advice re pains and aches although the majority came and asked me just as I was packing up to leave.
- I unicycled. Hoooooo! Actually managed about half the way to the brewery before my legs would do no more and my heart was fit to burst.
Lows:
- Leaving.
- Watching one or two acts just not work on the night.
- Silver’s jokes were a case in point. ;o)
- Lack of sleep.
- [bit edited out - decided I didn't want it in]
Goals:
- Chat to people. Met loads of note. In no order at all.
- First off was Belgian Martin - very good to pass with, sorry re the nickname.
- Dr Ruth - sorry about the low quality of the camera shop.
- Sarah from Glasgow. Have a grand birthday and hope you find your borrs.
- Bri (Bree?) the most enthusiastic person there if that’s possible.
- Parit. Most excellent scrabble opponent and I want to see that photo!
- The Talls. Lovely family.
- Silver and family - played Top Trumps vs Fred and whupped him good and proper. I am officially now “Mr Stripey Deckchair” or even better “Mr Blue Trousers in the Right Light” according to Fred and Pol.
- Alex and Charlie Hull. Ta.
- LP - didn’t chat much and should have been more. It was his stripey deckchair too.
- Barnesy - Kept me nattering all the way home as well as offering lots of lines worthy of misreading.
- Lynne! Ooh Lynne nearly forgot you. Forgive me. Lynne’s lovely.
- And probably a few more. But names and faces were beginning to merge by the end of the week.
Crush:
- The Hulls. Top folk and ta to them.
- Likewise to farmer Paul.
Bane:
Surprise.
- The unicycling. Was just going to be one or two of us but ended up with 5 or 6 and I didn’t make too much of a tit of myself (in the end).
Well that’s about it for now. I’m running out of stuff for the mo but I may expand later. A great week with lovely people. Ta to all for making it ace.
Have fun.
Oops I forgot I was going to do a potential post names bit for this entry so here it is:
- …and bum sex was mentioned.
- Brie with garlic and onion.
- Gay shop.
- Baybeh! Chickens!
- Taste my Nut Juice.
- Sexgoat and Dykebaps.
- and probably some more I forget now.
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17 May 2007
Posted in Comedy, Reviews at 10:11 am by alby
There’s a show on Radio 4 last night called Heresy. It’s supposedly a comedy show which looks at “received wisdom” and the panellists puncture it remorslessly whilst being funny. You may have noticed I hold little truck with “received wisdom” in the main so this show is great for me.
Last night’s was a doozy. Firstly the panellists were excellent and really too good for a radio 4 show. Germaine Greer, Stewart Lee and Harry Enfield were the names I remember; along with the host David Baddiel. So there are some brains there.
One of the topics was “Has PC gone mad”. One of my favourite bugbears is the overuse of this trite nonsensical gibberish by those who think their lives are restricted by PC gone mad.
Well young Mr Stewart Lee came in guns blazing with a beautiful impassioned speech denigrating the idiots who subscribe to this disgracefully lazy way of thinking and in the process called the 84% of the audience (the number who agreed with the idea that PC has gone mad) idiots. There was an audible moment of disbelief from the audience and one or two wild cheers only. What a moment to hear a bunch of lazy thinking, self righteous, smug gits being told to their faces what they need to know. A magic moment indeed.
Well done Mr Stewart Lee.
Have fun.
PS Listen again is available here for a week.
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16 May 2007
Posted in News, Rants at 1:11 pm by alby
Please help us to find her. [edit: I've just been told off for intemperate views and language in this post. Pah.]
I’m nigh on incandescent with rage this afternoon. I just got back from the shop with my lunch to find a badly photocopied “wanted” poster on the practice door. I was torn between ripping the damn thing off the door or plastering a “For fuck’s sake!” sign over it.
Pretty much everything about this current media hype/overload is creepy and/or just plain wrong.
The moral outrage is appalling and misplaced. “But she’s an innocent little girl”. So are the 2 or 3 kids killed everyday on the roads but you’re still going to complain that you’re not being allowed to speed in built-up areas ‘cos speed cameras are “just another tax”. Are those kids worth less to you? Just because you don’t know them off the telly. [edit patient was whinging today that he got a fine when he was "only" doing 45 in a 30 zone]
The outrage that would have come about if she was a chav scum kid left on her own by chav scum parents would have been deafening. But no the parents are good middle class folk with a photogenic family so that’s good for sales innit?
But then we have nigh on everybody feeling sorry and wanting to help. Fine but shut up about it. Care more than a jot for anybody else’s kid. The only reason you give a shit here is because you’re being told to give a shit. Does it really take advertising to make you care about people suffering?
How appalling has our society become that a supposedly media savvy population is so easily manipulable by such outrageous and obvious tactics?
The person I feel most sorry for is the poor sod who’s been identified as a “suspect”. Chances are he’s got bog all to do about anything. But a reporter says she felt “creeped out” by him. So it must be him. And even if it isn’t we’ll wreck any chance of his having a decent life beyond this circus shall we. Good yes, let’s. This is what Chris Morris so ably punctured years ago. Why are we still victim to it?
Good on the parents here for managing to keep things in the public eye but for christ’s sake get some perspective people!
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14 May 2007
Posted in Juggling, Rants at 3:56 pm by alby
Bloody hell has rec.juggling EVER been so sodding boring?
How many more threads along the lines of “What’s your fave color [sic]?” do we have to endure.
Someone put a blurb on a thread that said:
Hello, What are everyones favorite and least favorite colors? (one of
each) Thank you, I’m trying to figure
something out. The more responses the better : )
What TF? Add to that we’ve had “Who’s your top 5 3 ball jugglers”. ”Who’s the best 4 ball jugglers” and probably more of the same but I can’t be bothered to look now.
So far only LP has given this enough credence with his response. Vaguely sane people seem to be playing along. Why?
As far as I can tell the “thing to work out” is why the hell are people so much as bothering to respond. Either that or “what’s the most pointless and banal trivia I can ask about before someone other than LP responds appropriately?”
Even the Bungay thread has turned into a sodding horticulture discussion. Bloody hell!
Stop it now you lot.
And now we move onto the “negativity” debate:
Both me and Bear_blog have been grumped at for occasionally being negative about some of our juggling experiences. Usually this is from someone whom we didn’t like on stage or an organiser disagreeing with one of our reviews (usually because we didn’t know the back story as to why they did that thing instead of a better way).
A couple of times now there have been comments on rec.j along the lines of “don’t be so negative” after other folk have complained about something or other. Hell even Peachie had a go at the grumpy bums on the BJC thread.
The latest is someone whinging about the podcast Luke did about the WJF:UK. I quote:
Does this discussion, or the podcast, or the convention, make any prospect of juggling conventions more attractive to anyone?
Not me.
So it’s not worth having then? Do discussions really have to tend towards adverts for “the scene”? Seems rather an odd way to look at the world to me. Lah lah lah, nothing wrong nothing wrong. How great would our world be if problems were never addressed.
Don’t people get it? If problems are addressed properly you have ways to change and new ideas. Perhaps the flawed present is good enough. But isn’t the hobby about improvement? That’s what I thought anyway.
Have fun.
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Posted in Comedy at 12:02 am by alby
Quote from the BBC:
Beverley Silke, of the Stroke Association said: “Someone in the UK has a stroke every five minutes.”
As I said. Poor sod.
Have fun.
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13 May 2007
Posted in Life, People at 11:46 pm by alby
Well Ana’s gone home again. Terribly lovely to have had her here for a while and she seems to have managed to convince most of my pals that she’s cool. Really very sad to say “bye”. Hope it’s not another 4 or 5 years before I get to see her again.
Anyway for those wot care. There’s a bunch of photies over here.
Have fun.
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