Danskcolin: Monday November 18th 2024 "Are YOU dissatisfied with YOUR local NHS?!!!"

Friends, here's a "doozy" of a question that I've got ready for you this morning - are YOU dissatisfied with the services of your local NHS Hospital Trust?

Most of us are pretty unhappy about it at the moment aren't we. Sometimes it seems like we, the patients, are just here to serve the medical community rather than vice-versa, which purists are now saying is "the wrong way round". And it's glaringly obvious that the complaints in our local Onion News are becoming middling-to-frequent, on some days almost "legion" (!). Did you see this shocker in this morning's print edition (p.94) ?

And before you turn away, just glance down that p.94, and you'll see some of the other stories that are "trending" just at the moment - and don't forget, this is the journalistic haul from just one day's "beefs" (!).

Those headlines make pretty shocking reading, don't they, and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I try not to think about them this afternoon, as we wait in our local NHS doctor's surgery for the practice nurse to give Lois some routine tests.

We try to take our minds off the current press "furore", by regaling the other patients in the waiting-area with boasts about our daily walk this morning by the Worcester-Hereford railway line - we're anxious to tell the we saw a record 3 trains passing, indicating that local scare-stories about train cancellations are just "a bunch of hooey" (!).

while waiting in our local NHS doctor's surgery for the practice nurse

to administer some routine tests, we regale the other patients

with our "record-breaking walk" this morning - when we saw 3 trains

We're surprised but fellow-patients seem unimpressed with our star anecdote today, would you believe?!

[You don't say! - Ed]

So, in a further effort to cause a sensation, we pull out our "trump card" (no pun intended (!)) - the latest set of weekly amusing Venn diagrams, emailed to us today by Steve, our American brother-in-law: just take a look at this "doozy" (!!!):

Yes, "unplugging someone else's phone to plug yours in" - I think we've all been there, haven't we. It's part of the modern world isn't it, all this recharging of devices.

Before our daughter Sarah moved to Australia 2 months ago, she would often bring her 11-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica to stay the weekend with us here in Malvern, and it was a regular nightmare at every bedtime, to trying to find sockets for my electric shaver and other devices, plus phones and i-pads belonging not just to me but to Lois, Sarah, Lily and Jessica. What a crazy world we live in !!!!

It used to drive Lois and me "potty" sometimes, so I just want to share with you this idea of ours that we came up with: a so-called "charging station".

my brilliant idea; a "charging station" capable of

recharging, like, a billion devices!!!! Simples!!!!

See what I did there? Sheer genius isn't it - no wonder I'm praised so much locally, "in these here parts", as people say "in these here parts" (!).

[That's not what I've heard! - Ed]

flashback to mid-August: the last time our daughter Sarah

brought the twins to stay the weekend with Lois and me,

before jetting off to Australia to start a new life "down under"

9000 miles away on the other side of the world- sob sob!!!

21:00 Lois and I go to bed on an interesting TV documentary all about beloved actor Jason Watkins' discovery that he had not just one but two ancestors in charge of prisoners in the Tower of London, at various times in the 16th and 17th centuries.

It was time of bitter religious conflict and bigotry between Catholic and Protestants, but it's heart-warming to learn that Watkins' ancestors found it in their hearts to put all that aside and be nice to their prisoners occasionally, allowing them special privileges they weren't supposed to be enjoying.

Awwww!!!!

The first of these two ancestors of Jason' was John Brydges, who was Lieutenant of the Tower when the Catholic Queen Mary locked up her Protestant sister, Princess Elizabeth - the future Elizabeth I, putting her under Brydges's supervision. The charge was that Elizabeth was plotting against the Queen to take the throne for herself.

Apparently Brydges had a heart of gold, however, and so he wasn't too hard on the young 20-year-old princess in his charge, which is nice to hear. Historian Tracy Borman explains that Brydges gave the young princess privileges that he wasn't supposed to grant. Elizabeth was allowed to exercise, for example, and to leave her apartments to walk along the walls.

Apparently, food prepared in the Tower's kitchens was a bit "rubbish". Oh dear! And I expect Brydges himself was fed up with it, so this would have been a good excuse for him too to be eating something a bit nicer for once.

Poor Brydges!!!

However, there was a nasty surprise still to come for Brydges, because when the Constable of the Tower found about these secret "gourmet dinners for two", Brydges got the sack.

Poor Brydges (again) !!!!

For the young Princess Elizabeth, however, the story had a happy ending. Eventually Queen Mary agreed to release her young sister Elizabeth on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to convict her of treason, so that was all good.

Jason's other ancestor who was in charge at the Tower a bit later on, was Sir Edward Hales, another nice man. It was again a time of bitter religious conflict and rivalry. England had been Protestant for over a 100 years, when the then king, James II, tried to take us back into the Catholic fold.

When MPs retaliated against James by inviting the Protestant William of Orange to come over from Holland and take the throne away from James, Sir Edward Hales felt sorry for the King and helped him when he tried to escape to France by boat. One night James slipped away from his palace at Whitehall under cover of darkness, with just 3 companions, one of which was Hales.