13TH MARCH 2012 - GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

13/3/12

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

Clever manipulation? Harry and his first tour is a big success. Don’t we ALL love Kate? She always seems to me to be in need of a serious fry up –chips and fried bread included. I am not against The Royal Family – what they cost against what they bring in is a good balance sheet. Abolishing the Monarchy would do more harm culturally and economically then we could gain. I get bored with the media driven “love-in” – another free magazine for The Mail. How come there is such emotion and hearts fluttering for them No hearts flutter for David, Nick or Ed.

Charles must be peeved. Kate is out travelling with the Queen and being groomed for the job. He’s out in the cold. Maybe there has been a deal. Like with Gordon and Tony. Probably they all met at the Kennington Tandoori – Phillip, Charles, Camilla, Liz, William and Harry and made a deal over the popadums. In between Phillip’s culturally sharp comments and Liz collecting the dishes together for the waiter.

The Queen keeps the crown until the 60^th is over. Charles gets it for ten years while Will and Kate knock a few little ones out and then… with all our hearts ringing. King William.

NO HONEST DEBATE PLEASE WE’RE BRITISH.

We need much more public debate about issues – monarchy, immigration, NHS, gay marriage – all the BIG things affecting society. Less polarised, open to options and airing opinions with clear information. Then informed choice can develop and be made.

PRESIDENT DAVID

David and Barack – the love in. Both men in need of some stature raising photos. Anything to help raise their profile and keep the focus groups happy.

THESE PEOPLE RUN OUR SERVICES?

I went to a meeting in Wandsworth. I was astonished and saddened and shocked to hear a Council official say “We are all equal” when asked about dealing with discrimination in her role. In the Public Sector too many lame duck, brain anorexic people are fluttering around. On their sides like a pigeon hit by a car. Flapping their wings busily but moving nowhere. Bits of brain and feather flying in the wind. Dying and unable to put themselves out of our misery.

8TH MARCH 2012 - FEELIN' ALRIGHT.

FEELIN' ALRIGHT

Fantastic – my best day for weeks. I was able to complete the three/four mile walk to the doctors without stopping and getting breathless. Enjoying every step of being out in the sunshine on a beautiful day. With a sky, temperature and light that marks the relentless march towards spring. The waiting room TV was pouring out classic, inspiring Britishness – Carry on Cruising. My back is healing well. And the pneumonia is all clearing up. I can breathe; no pains and I can sleep. The British Health Service is still the best in the world. My care wasn’t perfect and it’s time for people to think about perfection. But it was good enough to get me back out there. And we need more celebrating British success and less jabbing at it like we want to pop a blister.

I got home and relaxed more classic stuff – Norman Wisdom. Did I need my painkillers this afternoon?

4TH MARCH 2012 - MUCH, MUCH LESS PAIN.

4^th MARCH 2012

MUCH, MUCH less pain. More sleep. Even more joy was the visit by my sister and two nieces which raised spirits to stratospheric heights. I was last IN hospital aged eight with a broken leg. It feels like a surreal experience being IN hospital now. Normally I am here with my mum, settling her, dealing with her needs. Now I am partly helpless and dependant on others. But I am still keen to maintain my independence.

Medical practitioners are not good listeners. They are good at hearing. To reinforce their opinion, the signs, the symptoms, their hunches and past experience. They then prance on to the next step and with only a few minutes per interaction that’s no surprise. During my hospital stay I didn’t feel really listened to. Even the guy who put sugar on my cereal – seconds after being told no.

3RD MARCH 2012 - THINGS ARE IMPROVING SLOWLY...

3^rd MARCH 2012

Things are improving slowly. I am still getting pain but not as much or as often as before. Eating better – hospital food is palatable. It is like a digestible Big Mac meal. I am sleeping in between screams of agony. It is my right to be a drama queen. And there is a bit of a view of the sea, if I raise the bed high and look over the rooftops. I haven’t read a paper, an email, heard music or seen the TV. for four days – what bliss. It has been a great chance to rest my brain – let it process what is already there and add very little more. My brain is on vacation. Plus the ward had no windows. Who knows what the weather was like? And to be honest I am exhausted by this illness and can’t compute too many things in the moment.

1^ST MARCH 2012

EMERGENCY WARD 10.

Two days on and I am lying on my back with needles and things being poked in to me to create a drain for the fluid on my lungs. This will help to clear draw it out. The job is expertly done with immense care and precision by this team of people who are superb. Just like so many of the Professionals in our National Health Care Service. The impressive CT scan is whirring away while they find the right spots in my back to insert the needles using its imaging. With all this technology I feel like I am on a Star Trek set and the future is now. I have a form of pneumonia and this procedure will clear it out and stop the pain- and be worth it in the end the nurse assures me – the pain for the next two days doesn’t back that up. I don’t do pain. Painkillers galore help keep me from being a blubbering wreck.

28TH FEBRUARY 2012 - FREE AT THE POINT OF ACCESS.

28^th Feb 2012

FREE AT THE POINT OF ACCESS.

Normally I would have walked up Trafalgar Street without a worry. Today – a few breaks were needed to catch my breath. With no chance of an appointment at my GP I decided to use the Queens Road Health Clinic, Brighton and see someone quickly. An hour or so later I had my five minutes of fame – the amount of time the nurse has to hear my story. It would be five minutes if you didn’t keep interrupting me and let me tell you my problem. After a quick physical examination he disappeared- “back in a few minutes”.

He came back with the calming news- an ambulance is on the way. (Start to panic). “We don’t want you collapsing when you are walking up the hill.” (Another chance to panic) Two Paramedics arrive – (more panic). We have to take you to the ambulance in a chair – (more panic). And still I am having problems breathing – until they plugged me into the oxygen. Nice. The Royal Sussex County Hospital Accident and Emergency Department – very busy place, so join the line. As I lay there on the stretcher enjoying the corridor lights in pain and breathless – I thought, all those tests, injections, blood samples, ultrasound, serious but dedicated people marching around (lots of them) and no one has asked for my credit card. My ability to pay America was not an issue. My need for my health problem to be sorted was paramount. First step is lots of antibiotics – which make me initially, feel worse. – Why?

27TH FEBRUARY 2012 - OUT TO LUNCH.

27th Feb 2012

OUT TO LUNCH.

I phoned the Labour Party Head Office today just before 1p.m. I followed the instructions - choice four she said and I waited with great expectations. Hark another message – please call back in an hour. What? Must be a mistake – so I called again; choice four again and the recorded message again. Call back in an hour – are the Labour Party closed for lunch? Maybe losing to a Government that is pushing up unemployment, prices, pensions etc. must build up an appetite. The Conservatives don’t stop for lunch – they have Waitrose send it in. Lib Dems – who cares what they do. EDF and the BNP have only just discovered fire anyway. I emailed Ed about him being out to lunch – let’s see what the response is......

TIDY YOUR OWN BACKYARD.

The United States of America - the World Police and our lead Democracy. The beacon guiding our way through the moral maze of our time. During the period of a week or so in Cleveland, Ohio a teenager goes in to school and before breakfast shoots five schoolmates – one dead. In Seattle an eight year old is critically ill after a nine year old shot her accidentally in school. The nine year old appears in court in an orange jumpsuit, the fashion choice of the American penal system. To the country that gave us Coca-Cola, the Ford Mustang, Motown and Dick van Dyke – you are in serious trouble when your children are shooting each other in the school playground.

SOMALIA

I was pleased to hear David Cameron talking about Somalia – helping them sort out their problems and find peace; with the usual self interest mentioning fighting terrorism and therefore helping us. And then a few days later, there on the front page of The Observer (I don’t buy the paper – it was in a coffee shop and I wanted to sound intellectual) – oil, the U.K. photos of a nervous William Hague in an armoured personnel carrier and Somalia – so that’s why we are helping. Oil. Zimbabwe can go fly- Democracy being strangled live on the evening news. No oil.

Somalia – oil – we will help you get at it. The modern face of Imperialism is a natural place for Cameron and his people to hunt. We don’t use warships – just BP, brown envelopes and ministerial trips with Prime Ministers signing deals.

And what will the ordinary person get – here in the West, more fuel to power a life we already know is unsustainable. Somalia? – Who cares I have the life I need.