Fucking Bastard Twatting...

VOLCANIC BASTARD ASH!

A State of Health

We may not have the best healthcare system in the world here in the UK, but we do have one that doesn't discriminate between rich and poor...unless you choose to go private and get treated quicker by the same doctors and nurses as NHS patients.

So, is socialised healthcare a good thing?

It certainly works in Cuba.

It kind of works in the UK, once you can actually get your GP to refer you to hospital.

Last week I attended an emergency appointment at hospital, made by my GP - or his receptionist - which I had only six weeks to wait for. I was given a list of hospitals to choose from - as I am entitled - and chose the only one that was on the list.


Thankfully, the gastroscopy revealed nothing sinister inside my oesophagus, stomach and duodenum. But they took biopsies none the less. Just to make sure.

The consultant asked me my symptoms, which I've had for around a year, and was astounded that I'd only just made it to hospital after all that time.

Unfortunately, it would seem I had been sent for the wrong kind of test given my symptoms.

So, now the consultant is to write to my GP, suggesting I get some bloodwork done to see if I have gallstones. This will take around two weeks.

And in the event that the blood tests point to gallstones, I will only have to wait between four to six weeks before getting an ultra-sound, and then a further two to three weeks for surgery.

Those times might seem like a long time to some readers but my symptoms would not seem to be life threatening - at this stage - and given that the treatment is free - well, if you exclude income tax and statutory National Insurance payments - I'm quite happy to wait and keep what little money I have in my pocket.

I'll probably need it for prescriptions.

Rip Torn

What a legend.

And more on the way...

Just a Man on the Bus

Public transport has become a way of life for me. It's a daily necessity.

And I don't look back on my days as a car owner with fondness.

No road tax to pay, no vehicle insurance, no fuel costs¹, no MOT², no breakdown recovery and repair and no service bills.

Certainly, you get the freedom: the freedom that is the shackles of all those financial commitments. And just when you think you have some extra cash saved for a holiday to the South of France, your gearbox explodes. bang goes the gearbox, bang goes the holiday.

Public transport - in the age of the Internet - is the best place to learn social skills. Forget that social networking shit. Catch a bus or a train.

The vagrants who occupy bus stations across the land, the ones who sit there with their cheap booze, and threadbare clothes: they're the ones who have the real stories, the ones who have led real lives. Just try talking to one, you might be surprised as to what you learn.

Then there are the same people you see, at the same stops, with the same glum faces. Somebody cracks a joke about Tiger Woods losing several advertising deals but landing a multi-million advertising contract with Durex, and the glum faces are replaced with smiles.

The sounds of complaint about the weather are replaced with sounds laughter. More jokes are told.

We mostly ever see each other on the station or on the bus. But we know each other's names. And when we chance upon on one another in a pub, we speak, and are introduced to each others' friends.

Now, this is real social networking.

¹At £1.10 a litre, this makes £4.95 a gallon. In us dollars, I estimate that to be around $8.00 US. It's not cheap.

²The MOT certificate. You don't have one, you can't get insurance, or if you have a certificate and it expires your insurance is invalid. But, of course, it promotes road safety.

Apologies for incoherence. Post skunk post.