musings (201) fun Monday (76) friendship (64) K9 (13)

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Trying Times - never rains but it pours

Aug. 4th - TKR as in total knee replacement
Aug. 6th - Ward closed and patients discharged
Aug. 12th - DNA as in Did Not Arrive...Query...who DNA? District Nurse, naturally. 
Aug. 19th - District Nurse breezed in, changed wound dressing and breezed away having discharged patient...crossed off another list. 

Aug. 26th - physio appt. #1 - making good progress, come back next week.
Aug. 29th - FLOOD - rising main began weeping slowly and grew, and grew. Like having a stream flowing into the kitchen. Mains stop valve in pavement inaccessible having been covered in 2ft of tarmac. 
2 hours to excavate, but unable to turn off. 
Called United Utilities. 
Aug. 30th - 1.00 UU plumber arr. wrestled with valve, dreaded it breaking off - managed to turn off mains supply. 
Aug. 30th - spent the day making phone-calls and waiting. Waiting continued until guy arr. to assess situation. No water supply continues...t.b.a.
Aug. 31st - phone-call 10.45 - plumber arr. to reassess situation - long in-depth discussions. Plumber went having decided on action needed. No water...

Sept. 1st - hospital physio appt. #2

Thursday 11 August 2016

NH uselesS

Neighbours of mine (single ladies) that live next door and next door but one make a formidable duo. They are charity fundraisers despite their poor health. One has Menieres and the other is registered blind. 

At the beginning of this week the latter had a hospital appt. for the Laser Dept. of our Teaching Hospital. 

Tis the 'holiday season' when that teaching hospital has increased absences thro' holidays by staff and volunteers alike. Hence some areas are without staff, no reception and so on. With great difficulty, the ladies made their way to the clinic only to be told it 'was not there' as they were without Reception Staff. I'm omitting details of the rudeness of a senior staff member.

Returning to main reception...the ladies came across the 'helpful' receptionist that gave my blind friend verbal instructions / directions to another clinic - turn left, left etc. Then when told of the person's disability said that as there's no volunteers, no-one could aid said blind person.

Finally my friends made it to a different part of the hospital; where a nurse in charge also failed to notice that the person with the long white stick is 'really' blind. This was after they'd had an 'interview' with her.

Enough said.

Tuesday 9 August 2016

So different

Apology for the generalisation; but some seem to think 'everyone' is the same no matter where they are.

I love reading blog posts from folks in different countries or places.

Noticing differences is part of the fun. Someone in S.E. England posts more regularly and it's always a delight to read about the happenings. She's always an 'overcoat' different especially in winter and crops are always ahead of ours.

Then there are friends in the U.S.A. and Canada, where life seems both similar and strange at the same time.

A recent post was about a teenager being 'home alone' for a short while. I now realise how in my teenage years (long ago) it was a blessing to have so much freedom. No-one thought anything about girls going for countryside walks. Armed with nothing more than a raincoat, and something to eat and drink we wound our way along country lanes chatting merrily. No money as there was nowhere to spend any, not even bus fare. The lanes we strolled along connected pocket-handkerchief / chocolate box villages. Waiting for a bus would have been a daft thing to do with bus services a couple of times a week. No maps, as we did not possess any nor would we think to have any with us. Just 2 or 3 of us whiling away our time and enjoying the scenery. No thoughts of anything going wrong or any assistance necessary.

Granted times were so different then.

As a child I lived in a steeply sloping terraced street. One of my early memories is of watching the lamplighter lighting the single gas lamp that illuminated the street.
Children played in that cobbled street, no danger from vehicles as they were a rarity. Only the doctor and one of the local shopkeepers had a car.

From the time I began junior school we were allowed to go and play in the castle grounds where there were swings, roundabouts, slides. We were expected to look after and to amuse ourselves. It meant we were out of the way and not 'under the feet' of anyone.

Fortunately the 'street' looked after us youngsters and was full of unofficial 'Aunts'.

So different

Apology for the generalisation; but some seem to think 'everyone' is the same no matter where they are.

I love reading blog posts from folks in different countries or places.

Noticing differences is part of the fun. Someone in S.E. England posts more regularly and it's always a delight to read about the happenings. She's always an 'overcoat' different especially in winter and crops are always ahead of ours.

Then there are friends in the U.S.A. and Canada, where life seems both similar and strange at the same time.

A recent post was about a teenager being 'home alone' for a short while. I now realise how in my teenage years (long ago) it was a blessing to have so much freedom. No-one thought anything about girls going for countryside walks. Armed with nothing more than a raincoat, and something to eat and drink we wound our way along country lanes chatting merrily. No money as there was nowhere to spend any, not even bus fare. The lanes we strolled along connected pocket-handkerchief / chocolate box villages. Waiting for a bus would have been a daft thing to do with bus services a couple of times a week. No maps, as we did not possess any nor would we think to have any with us. Just 2 or 3 of us whiling away our time and enjoying the scenery. No thoughts of anything going wrong or any assistance necessary.

Granted times were so different then.

As a child I lived in a steeply sloping terraced street. One of my early memories is of watching the lamplighter lighting the single gas lamp that illuminated the street.
Children played in that cobbled street, no danger from vehicles as they were a rarity. Only the doctor and one of the local shopkeepers had a car.

From the time I began junior school we were allowed to go and play in the castle grounds where there were swings, roundabouts, slides. We were expected to look after and to amuse ourselves. It meant we were out of the way and not 'under the feet' of anyone.

Fortunately the 'street' looked after us youngsters and was full of unofficial 'Aunts'.

Taken by surprise

Opening up social media at the start of the day (as you do) I was greeted by reference to and pictures of the Ribble Valley.

 Edisford
August 2016 and folk are still relaxing with children playing in the river Ribble.
To think that as children, we'd grab towels and swimwear then head to the river.
We always went across the bridge to the other (Yorkshire) side.
I taught myself to swim in that river and almost drowned myself once.

 Downham Brook
Paddling in and along the brook that flows thro' the village.

Under the bridge Downham Brook
Turn back time some 60 years and that would have been me exploring the brook.

Very few vehicles in those days.
We got the bus to Downham, taking sandwiches and a flask of tea.
 A large flask with a separate glass bottle that fitted in the cup and was to contain the milk.