Planned obsolence

You’ll recall that I’m a big fan of our local repair café, but there are some things they can’t fix, such, I suspect, as our kettle.  It has served us here for over 18 years (and Martyn and his Mum since 2001 to my certain knowledge), but it has taken to tripping long before it boils.  I guess it has earned its retirement: it has probably worked as long as I did.  Well, having amalgamated numerous households over the years, we have no shortage of spare kettles, so our ability to make tea (if by candlelight - see below) is unimpaired.

Less deserving is the strip light which has worked for about four years.  Fed up with the buzzing of the old fluorescent strip light, we got sparky Colin to replace it with an LED job about four years ago.  Until a week or so it worked quietly and reliably, but having flickered off and on for a while, it gave up the ghost last night.  We finally managed this morning to separate the tube from its base, and I schlepped it along to my usual suppliers, confident that they’d come up with the goods.  No match on their system for the part number, so I schlepped it back home again, and called Colin to ask where he got it.  He couldn’t remember, but gave me the names of a few factors he might have used.  The one I could raise on the phone looked it up, and came back with the answer: obsolete.  Dashed poor show, what?  So that’s for the bin, and Colin is coming to fit a complete new unit on Friday.  It may see me out….

Family day

We’re slowly getting serious about clearing out the loft, and were thinking of taking the Scalextric to the Hospice shop.  (Our days of playing on hands and knees are over!)  But then it occurred to me that the great nephews might like it.  A good excuse for a family lunch party.  Plain fare: lasagne, pizza, apple crumble and one of Martyn’s celebrated cakes! 

Here are bro John, nephew-godson Richard and great-nephews Thomas and Toby - whom we’d hardly have recognised, not having seen them for a few years.  Apologies to Anna for the rear view only, but the photo was taken stealthily!  The kids got the hang of the Scalextric pretty quickly, as did their kids!  There’s a bit more track in the box, so they’ll be able to set up a decent little circuit in their den.  It was great to see them all, though I’m reminded that entertaining is a bit like work. 

Otherwise a pretty restful week.  I’ve done a modicum of gardening, but - cooking apart - have been pretty idle.  But then, that’s why I retired.

NHS nowadays

Though our protégée has been well cared for in hospital, the experience has hardly been a delight.  Her ward was cramped - four to a room - and dingy.  Yesterday’s discharge process was reminiscent of mine two years ago, only worse.  A long wait in the ward for transfer to the discharge ‘lounge’, and another wait there for medications to arrive: though less long than I’d to wait.

The said lounge had a number of patients in beds.  Overspill?  Or maybe they were waiting to return to beds in care homes.  Another patient awaiting discharge was firmly shackled to a prison officer, with whom he seemed to be sharing a friendly repartee.  Anyway we were glad to be out of there, free tea and biscuits notwithstanding (and gladder still today to have reports of a good night’s sleep at home).  I was a little disappointed that there was no attempt to talk through the discharge letter, nor to explain the new medication regime.  Celà dit, we ought to have done that when we got her home, but were maybe too tired to think of it. 

Modern Times, Chapter 97

We sat for some hours yesterday in the Emergency Department of the main hospital of a nearby unitary authority, though not as long as the customer of their services had had to.  It took 13 hours to complete assessment and admission (with, thank goodness, a relatively minor issue that will nevertheless need some days’ monitoring).  As always, the care received, however slow, was thorough and competent, mostly at the hands of immigrant staff.  As with my experience over the past couple of years, we got to meet a lot of lovely caring people.  But.  (1)  The Brit medics with ambition bugger off to the Gulf or Australia where they are paid appropriately for their skills.  (2)  The South Asian, African, Pilipino and other immigrant medical and caring staff are attracted by higher salaries than they would earn at home, thus depriving their concitoyens of their skills.  (3)  Meanwhile, the remaining junior hospital doctors are about to go on strike again.  Get the picture?  WTF?

As for the hospital, unlike ours it has grown and sprawled over the decades, and is plainly struggling to meet demands.  The ED (of which more anon…) waiting room was full to bursting, and we three sat for hours on hard chairs in the corridor, having constantly to dodge passing beds, trolleys and wheelchairs.

Nomenclature.  What we used to know as ‘Casualty’ came for a time to be known as Accident and Emergency (A&E).  Perhaps to discourage people with cut fingers (j’y fus!) from cluttering the place up, it has been re-named Emergency Department (ED).  A visitor might wonder for a moment why such huge resources were being devoted to erectile dysfunction.

Back at the ranch, I’m allowed to drive again, which takes a bit of the load off Martyn.  It’s nice to have the independence again, though I was reminded yesterday why I try to avoid driving at night.  Fortunately, the roads were dry.  I used to dread returning from a tiring day at the hobby after dark along busy, winding wet roads, dazzled by oncoming traffic.

The leaves have been falling for a while now, so - to put a positive slant on matters - we are starting to enjoy the coloured bark of the cornus shrubs.  The magnolia stellata is budding up nicely, and the little cyclamens are flowering fit to bust.  Our rather confused cistus pulverulens bloomed yesterday, and we have quite a lot of antirrhinum flowers - all self-sown.  It’s almost time to chop down the sedums and hellebores.  We still have a lot of pansies and bulbs to plant in the pots on the terrace, so are hoping for fine weather tomorrow.