Gimme the damn needle and I'll do it myself!!!

I have a very painful joint at the base of my left hand thumb.  I can't hold things firmly if it means using that thumb, so undoing jars is out, and I can't hold very small or thin things at all, so picking up a sheet of paper or a pin with my left hand is hopeless.  It often hurts even when I'm not trying to use it, when I'm out on a walk for instance, and holding the steering wheel or Felix's hand can be a torment so on the whole it aint much fun.

My GP has referred me to my local 'Advanced Primary Care Service' to have a cortisone injection.  This isn't a consultant, or even a proper hozzie appointment, it's a group of ordinary GPs who do this on the side.  He actually referred me in December, today they sent me an initial appointment for March 22nd.  When I asked them for the NHS target from initial appointment to treatment I was told 18 weeks. (For a simple jab !!!)

So that's going to be another few hundred quid going to Nuffield.  Whose hands is the NHS safe in??

AAAAAAAAAAAARGH

helpful tips for mobile phones :O)

 

1. The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

2.  Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a mobile phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your mob phone and have them locate the spare car key.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end.  Your car will unlock.  Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you.  Distance is no object.  You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the boot)       

3. Hidden Battery Power:
Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

4. How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone:
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone * # 0 6 #
A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.
When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.
You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either.

If everybody did this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Anything planned for today poppet?

12.00 Soccer match, followed by Indoor Athletics, followed by.......... another soccer match.  Less than 3½ hours away and what's on TV?  Yup, Match Of The Day.  My cotton pikkin cup runneth over.

'Oh boy ebay blues'

 

Of late I've been ebaying, buying wools for tapestry work.  I did the same dumb thing that once landed me with 2 Georgian doll's houses - saw several auction lots I liked and, having lost the first at the very last minute, like a dimwit put bids on all of the others.  Since the postie bought them to my door we could give up making the beds and just throw ourselves at night onto the huge piles of wool I've scattered around the house in hopes that my husband wouldn't twig how dim I've been, again. I've not seen the dog since the last lot arrived, I'm hoping she's sleeping under there but who knows?

 

Now my husband, having asked 'what the f**k???' at the endless bundles the postie has been handing over, has discovered the joys of ebay for himself.  I'm not talking bundles of tapestry wool, nor even Georgian doll's houses, but banjos and guitars.  If he wins the Dobro he's currently bidding on at least I'll be glad I've got all that wool to stuff in my ears and bury my head beneath. 

I bet the dog's baggsed the best heap tho.

Not saying no does NOT mean yes

 

The government have mooted the notion that they are to bring in legislation to allow the removal of organs for transplant purposes from the bodies of people who have not given their permission.  The suggestion is that those who object to this governmental assumption of the ultimate right of disposition of their body may take steps to opt out.

 

The right to ownership of one's own life and body are the only real rights that we all, rich or poor, healthy or sick have.  Others may direct or destroy one's rights over one's body but they can never morally possess them.  Therefore it is ethically untenable for anyone else to make decisions in respect of that right and this holds true no matter whether others might benefit from the theft of that right. 

We are not owned by the state and the state cannot abrogate that right.

 

Opting out is a moral nonsense; by doing so you are accepting that the State does indeed have the right to your physical body and that your physical self is ultimately the de facto property of the State. 

'Presumed consent' in this context is a chimerical deceit. 

We could, and many do,  voluntarily 'opt in' by carrying a donor card - the only ethical assumption can be that those who do not carry a donor card do not wish to opt in.  

Similarly many people voluntarily donate blood - another bodily organ which can save the lives of others; accepting the right of the state to dispose of one's organs is exactly the same as accepting the state's right to take blood from anyone whether they actively volunteer or not.

 

The lie of 'presumed consent' is propagandized to the unthinking by reference to the lives lost through lack of donor organs; it's dressed in the clothing of caring for the sick. 

But of course there are other ways of sourcing donor organs without abrogating the individuals inherent rights to their own body.  More money and time could be spent on persuading people to opt in; on developing the notion of a 'gift community' such as exists in blood donation; of service to others, to the 'greater good'. 

And there is the crucial factor motivating this government proposal - money.  

It is all about saving money on caring for people who are waiting for kidney transplants, waiting for corneas, waiting for grafts.

 

Alternatively, instead of stealing our innate rights over our own physical bodies the state could allow individuals to do what private medicine already does with the donor organs - blood and sperm and ova - which they acquire free of cost from volunteers - they could allow people the right to dispose of their own organs if, and as and when - and if they wish, for the price they see fit.

 

Or they could simply leave people to die in peace and put more money into the NHS to care for the British sick rather than spending it on arms to kill foreigners.

Beating the exercise pain barrier

I've discovered the perfect weight loss exercise programme.  It could almost have been designed with me in mind.

Winter Exercise program...

Take one Weetabix .

Take an Aero chocolate bar.

Crumble the Aero over the Weetabix. 

Voila!  AEROBIX  !

Stuff it's taken me over 50 years to learn :O)

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
 
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race  has not achieved, and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
 
3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
 
5. You should not confuse your career with your life.

6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

7. Never lick a steak knife.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

13. A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person.  

14. Your friends love you anyway.

15. Never be afraid to try something new.  Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

16. Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes; and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Cats n legs

Can you figure this one out:

- There are 7 girls on a bus
- Each girl has 7 backpacks
- In each backpack, there are 7 big cats
- For every big cat there are 7 little cats

How many legs are there in the bus?

The new decisive me

In line with my new year resolution to make my own decisions and follow them through I've now cancelled my Sharps wardrobe order. 

Grrrrrrrrrr, men!

We have an area of the house which was originally 3 rooms but with walls taken down is now quite a sizable L shaped space comprising kitchen area, dining 'room' and a daytime sitting room. The Christmas tree which stood in the bay window of the sitting room space was dismantled on Sunday before we went to Evensong.  All well and good, and the space looked nicely clear and clutter free.

On Monday when I began to clean the bay windows I noticed that the window frame itself was in dire need of a good clean too.  Having washed it with sugar soap and rinsed off and then cleaned the windows I realised how it showed up the other 5 windows, french doors and courtyard door, so I washed, rinsed and polished all those too.

Then I noticed how where the sugar soap cloth had rubbed the painted walls alongside the windows, the colour looked so much brighter, so on Tuesday I washed the walls.  Then, having seen them close up I realised how mucky the ceilings were, so I sugar soaped them too.  We are talking a hell of a lot of step climbing and cloths rinsing here.

This morning it struck me forcefully how grungy all the kitchen units looked against my pristine walls so I gave them a really good clean, and while my nose was near the floor I saw that the sugar soap drips from washing the ceilings had left mucky looking grey marks, so this afternoon I washed all the flooring - parquet and terracotta tiling.  While I was on my hands and knees I noticed how grossly filthy the legs of the painted table and chairs were - little kids, dog & cat rubbings, jam, porage etc so sugar soaped and rinsed them too. 

 

Looking at the newly washed parquet - with eyes that won't focus properly to enable him to help with the "close up" work of cleaning anything - my husband mused whether, you know Jane, I rather think this wood really needs another oiling.

 

Tomorrow, when I've oiled the parquet I'm going to grease the stairs too.

New Year

I made a couple of new year resolutions - 1] to get on and actually do stuff I want to do regardless of any lack of enthusiasm from my other half and 2] to lose weight <again>.

 

In pursuit of the first I decided to sort out some new storage for clothing and had a look at the Sharps Bedrooms website.  I cannot begin to tell you how utterly mind-numbingly tedious I find this stuff.  A chap came to measure up, show samples, work out prices etc.  After 2½ hours he said that for the main bedroom alone, after their 50% off sale offer, and with the £100 off voucher from their website the cost would be £3500.  Now I dunno about you but that seems a ludicrous amount to pay for fairly average looking flipping fitted wardrobes. 

Nevertheless I ended up ordering a much smaller version for the en suite mostly because they do all the work and can do it within 4 weeks and guarantee it won't fall down for 5 years which is approximately 4 years and 6 months better than the hub and I have ever done with flatpack.

 

I've also decided to go, by myself, on a holiday to learn to scuba dive.  My hub can barely swim and has never even liked playing in waves so unless I do it alone I won't do it at all and I'm not going to put up with missing out any longer.  I may also take myself off on a <medium> long distance walk altho I'm quite anxious about doing that alone in case of accident or threat.  It remains to be seen whether I can summon up the bottle.

 

The weight loss programme will begin when the last of the brandy butter has gone <g>

 

BTW My hub had his 2nd cataract operation on Wednesday and today drove without spectacles for the first time ever.

 

Felix having a good time on Christmas morning <gg>

 

 

Felix and his cousin Imogen - sometimes it takes more than trifle to keep them happy.

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