FLUSHING OUT THE PAST

A stately home in Staffordshire is kicking up a stink with its latest visitor attraction - a set of historic [toilets]aka loos, with authentic pongs:see www.thebestofbritishmag.co.uk October 2005

The Shugborough Estate is offering a "warts and all" experience of history. Previous centuries were described as being "...pretty fruity; [there were] open drains, cess pools, piles of domestic refuse, heaps of rotting food waiting to be carted off to feed the pigs, open privies, dung piles and two very filthy rivers flowing through the estate."

Apparently, the smells created today, are much less pungent than those of yesteryear; the management did not dare to recreate them as they would have been unbearable to genteel modern nasal sensitivites.

I thought I had a fair grasp of every day computer language but it appears I don't. Tonight I decided to upload some music from my own CD's on to my system. Nope, "You're not doing that," I am brutally informed, " You are RIPPING your disk." Ouch. Will my disk safely come out of this dreadful experience.

On the other hand, I was thinking about downloading something onto my system with the thought I might transfer whatever that might be, to equipment that was detatchable or totally detatched from the computer.

If I am not undertaking those actions, could somebody tell me please, what the appropriate terminology is so that I can communicate what I am doing.

Mobile phones seem to grow arms and legs before you know they've developed. I heard a very scary thing on BBC radio 4 today about a tracking programme that links into mobile phone users' phones. For tracking any individual/s to be feasible for the tracking company, the phone, of course, has to be switched on. Only under-age kids are asked to get written parental consent for tracking, anyone else seems to be fair game. A question was raised about including all age groups in the consent requirement. I did not hear anything about regulation of this facility.

Are we really so COMPLETELY accepting of big brother?

We attempted to celebrate the birth of the bard on the 25th of January which is Burns night; it is the celebration of Scotland's Bard and Rabbie had to be remembered, revered by many, but remembered by us.

I'm not sure the Bard would have approved of our miniscule toasting glasses containing Drambuie as we had no Whisky in the house - almost sacrilege in a Scottish household. We did our best, Drambuie, after all, is a Whisky liquer.

I think the Bard may have given us passing recognition for having the choice of two haggis's on the table, one made by Cockburn's and the other from Ayreshire through a company called McKechnie. I won't go into what the little slechit beasties contain, but they all taste individual and have different levels of various ingredients stuffed into them, one of them being oatmeal.

There is no other way of serving a haggis other than the traditional way and that is with clapshot. A traditional Burns supper may start off with a broth followed by haggis on a plate with clapshot, probably so called, because of the method used to capture the wee beasties

Who can say with any authority, is it haggis's or haggi

Not being content with having slain the wee slechit beasties with clapshot the addressee to the haggis's/haggi 'spears' a huge carving knife into the wee things. The symbolic slayin' is happening up and down the land to all these haggis's/haggi in a celebration of Scotland's Bard.

I did not intend to blog tonight but I came across a matter of importance for everyone, especially for us here in remote areas but it is a signal as to what could be around the corner for regions in the UK as a whole.

There is a proposal for neurological units in Scotland to be merged. It is likely that there would be one main centre of excellence expected to serve diverse and far flung communities, many of which have limited access to resources now.

What resources do exist locally are at a relatively low base and because of poor transport infrastructure, are expensive to reach. Compensation for trips further afield, and there are many required, does not cover anything like the true costs; it does not extend to the need for overnight stays and the expenses incurred. Families are split apart sometimes, for months on end while a parent, for example, stays nearby a sick child in hospital hundreds of miles away from home. The expense, physically and financially, for those that manage to stretch to the cost is enormous, and for those who cannot make arrangements or afford the costs involved, their children are not supported by family whilst undergoing treatments for serious conditions.

Our community physicians do not have ease of access to medical information that could be vital to care in the community, communications could be better and need to be. People are discharged from major hospitals that have the specialised departments that their conditions required, sometimes without appropriate follow-up care and they are left to chase whatever they need, or can get, or fester in the community. Much of the follow-up care required is only available on an outreach outpatients' clinic system where consultants from the regional hospital rotate visits bi or tri monthly. As the regional hospital does not have all the major departments, some areas, like neurology may have limited ongoing attention.

There are dialysis patients, many of whom are very elderly, who are expected to travel up to three times a week on a 240 miles round trip on a bus or train. (There is to be an expansion of local service as the current eight beds are in full use.)

Our area has just avoided having the local maternity unit downgraded to a midwife-led service. We are remote, with difficult roads to travel. We can be cut off in bad weather and the medical helicopter cannot be relied upon to be available if a dire need arises. There have been difficulties obtaining the services of an ambulance and a very serious, case personally known to me, suffered delayed ambulance transport as there were none to be had in the county. Another was found elsewhere to cover the 120 miles south. It had to travel northwards to collect the patient, but then there were problems obtaining the services of a midwife because the ambulance crew could not get her home! Mother and expected baby were in a very, very serious state, because of the delays, when they eventually arrived at their destination. An enquiry ensued. It has not, sad to say, improved the state of the ambulance service.

So, now, presumably as a cost-cutting exercise our already difficult access to services is to be made impossible by merging centres of excellence into one farther afield corral. By default, there will be a further rationing of services, accessing their use will be more of an obstacle course than it already is and, if I am not mistaken, it may encourage another Highland Clearance.

There is an on-line petition for retaining the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Neurology services which can be accessed through the following link;
http://www.brainhelp.co.uk/

We really do need lots of support on this matter. Thank you.

See Purple Dragon as well, on this issue: http://purpledragon.blog.co.uk/

It is reported on P.11, issue 207 of Computer Active Magazine that vicars are using podcasting to get across their messages and sermons to parishioners; it is described as being particularly helpful to the elderly and the housebound. These same benefits were noted for the same groups of people when radio and TV took on religious broadcasting umpteen years ago, and I should think that many housebound and elderly nationwide(maybe even the majority), will still be tuning in to those wavebands and using familiar technology to do so. However, in the article the Rev S.Ledbetter states that,

"...a church in Merseyside has nearly 600 people tuning in for a weekly update ... all you need to do is fix them up with a portable music player and they're good to go."

Interestingly, Godcasting.org has reached out even further, podcasting the bible translated into Klingon.

Okay folks, hear ye, hear ye, according to Cliff Arnall (Mathematician at Cardiff University) the 23rd of January will be the saddest day of the week so in preparation for that event, BBC Radio 4 (20.01.06) in their programme Word of Mouth have sought out a range of types and styles of language. I was taken with the following:

The Scandinavian countries have Romantic angst in the word form, Litosht (my phonetic spelling). It is a state of torment created by the sight of ones own misery.

I much prefer the Chinese thought - '...no sadness no poem.'

The Japanese have an 'enjoyment of sadness'.

The English become onomatopoeic and 'rue'.

Celtic - 'The sadness is upon me/the sadness completely weighs me down'.

Welsh - 'Brooding for something lost' (Usually Wales. )

In Galicia - it is seeking for the greenest of greens.

and finally,

Portugal: sadness is a state of being that leads you into jolly little songs that illustrate the point ...

Beats me!!

I decided amongst many things to decide to do, that I would make today backup day between my PC and laptop; they are networked and had not met for a while. I had not bargained for backup literally taking all day. It really has knocked out my schedule and, there I was thinking how good I was getting through all those mundane tidying tasks that need doing but have been put off till now, erm and even more so now I decided to backup...

I thought (simple little me) that the twenty minutes or so it took to backup my PC on the most recent occasions I did it (note plural) would be replicated by cutting and pasting or copying the files to the laptop. I still have, according to the little timer, 147 minutes remaining for the job to finish and as I check again, the time span is increasing!? (Ooh it's gone down again. There's no rhyme or reason to this.) The purpose for doing this particular backup is, that I do use both computers as double back-up to avoid repetition of all the disasters I have experienced which has included losing some irreplaceable data.

I have to admit, there is a wee bit more on the PC than the laptop but not everything on the PC needs to be copied onto the kid sister which is why I thought copying over the backup file would do.

The time span has increased again - I think I shall leave the equipment to it's mad moments and do something more productive. It can have a restless night, I won't.

So the situation is confusing as it stands but to try and put it right would be even more confusing: the Home Secretary is therefore, running an enquiry, pardon me, another enquiry to look further into the problems associated with the use of cannabis but there is no clarity about future of its classification other than maintaining the present status quo.

The English language never ceases to amaze me; all those words strung together sound as if they really mean something.

BBC Radio 4 news (PM) 17th January 06 have risen to the bait - I know it doesn't take much for that to happen but there we are, they have brought out the knights in shining armour again.

A private college in Brighton is to make the learning of a Chinese language compulsory because of China's projected future place in finance and commerce. (I wonder what that will do for the college pass rates.) Various university linguists were asked for their views and one spoke up for Esperanto, another for Spanish, one for French and another for Arabic. The Eastern European tongues, some of which are also in the ascendance due to their countries' projected place in finance and commerce (oil and Gas commerce in particular) were notable by their absence in the discussion.

Rubber Gloves: I use them regularly and when one disintegrates it always seems to be the same hand that departs, ergo one collects a pile of gloves all either left or right. I do the turning inside-out trick for the bereft hand but there is definitely a reduction in efficiency. I always have a new pair of gloves available together with several odd ones to spare.

Today, while putting on one of the gloves, the rubber top parted from the wrist and the wrist showed signs of departing from the hand and thumb. Imagine, when looking through my store, I found that I actually had an appropriate hand to spare:this is unheard of! I now have two not so odd gloves partnered up and in use. D

My ears pricked up when I heard that we should, according to our illustrious Chancellor of The Exchequer, have a national holiday called a British Day to celebrate being British. This all makes a change from the polemic surrounding sexual offenders, suspected offenders, List 99 etc and its impact on the Education Department and the teaching profession.

So having a national day for ourselves is meant to put the world to rights in a parochial kind of way. I have thought of other purposes this platform may serve, however, others can cogently comment on those.

Meantime, I decided I wanted to hear what Gordon Brown actually said and I therefore visited the BBC site. First problem, no 'Real Player'. Therefore, I was met with a happy picture and silence - to be truthful, there was the odd click in my headphones that might pass for something, though not effective communication.

I then pfaffed around for ages trying to obtain the basic freebie 'Real Player'. I did eventually succeed and installed it onto my system. By that time other pressing domestic needs arose and I have not yet got round to setting up the performance of Mr Brown's dulcet tones. My interest in hearing about G B's ideas of British-ness has waned.

This got me thinking - has all this silent kerfuffle (bar clicks) presented me with a metaphor for what British Day would really evolve into, if it ever did evolve

A feature in our local paper midweek, showed that one of our primary schools had a record 10 sets of twins in the school who made up one tenth of the school roll. Apparently the intrepid reporting team scoured the land, found a school in Newcastle had 9 sets but our local school has pipped them to the post. A film crew from Grampian TV (an ITV type channel for you souls south of the border) arrived in the town to record this marvel and make a pictorial news feature of it.

We've been advised that more 'weather' is on its way this
weekend with wind gusts up to 80mph expected, and the county in which I live and the northern end of our neighbouring county will bear the brunt of it. An additional note, placed in the article more like an addendum really, states that driving conditions are expected to be dangerous!!

It is sad that our blog community has to be blighted with a minority of twerps, exhibitionists,bullies and vandals. One of our community has been harrassed to the point of desolation. I have seen this situation twice before. On these occasions, the blog community has risen up to defend the rights of its members and friends to participate in the activity, untroubled and unhindered by offensive behaviour.

Isn't it great that we as a community can pull together to support and assist whoever is being troubled, and win through!

We had more weather last night. It was about this time last year that we had storms which blew down a concrete wall, lifted a wendy house the size and weight of a 3/4 size shed, which was weighted down with heavy duty pegs and took some of the pebbledash (called harling here), off the front of the house.

About 8pm 'the weather' stealthily crept up on us, horrendous gusts suddenly hit: there was reverse suction of air through vents that made the weirdest of noises. At one point I was cut off mid telephone call (I was using a cordless) and there was a succession of power dips. I don't know if we actually lost power, the usual tell tale signs were not evident this morning.

MUM'S FERVENT WISH FOR HER NEW-STUDENT SON

"... I HOPE THERE IS SOME WORK GOING ON IN BETWEEN THE HAPPINESS!"

Tonight most of our meal has been concocted as I went along. Yep, I had decided that I would provide Moules Mariniéres along with the customary bread, which in our case was wholemeal rolls.

It was pointed out to me that the quantity of moules I was preparing between two would provide just starter portions. So, hey ho, small and medium sized bowls containing goodies appeared on the dining table along with plates presenting hurriedly designed 'mains' to feast the eyes upon and hopefully, satisfy the tum.

I was thinking of downing tapping tools for the night when I was awoken with brilliant cerebral feats of dexterity laid bare in text for all to see. Not my feats I have to admit, nevertheless, I am priveleged to be the recipient of these remarkable texts and to thoroughly enjoy them!

Slange...

Beauty is never past tense- it develops in depth as it matures.

The job is done and as expected - it did cost me an arm and a leg.

Manufacturers of car spares really know how to de-skill the skilled and force the user to pay up. My local, very helpful, trustworthy and friendly garage mechanics, have good old fashioned thorough, mechanical apprenticeships behind them yet, because everything is now made in sealed units, mechanical tinkering cannot be undertaken. Minor spares are not available unless you have access to a car scrap yard, time to mess about and the deep pockets to pay for the labour costs that are incurred in the process.

However, the wipers are working beautifully, smoothly and silently, as they should. So far, since I have re-started driving in 2006, there has been no 'weather' to cause any further concerns. As the unit included a complete set of new wipers this pair are unlikely to attempt to cross swords for some time (I hope!)

Is this a scam or not - my own view is, that it is a scam. I have had passed on to me a card, (it came via London) pre-printed for Royal Mail delivery; this element is rather odd given the circumstances outlined below.

The card is headed Digital Camera and a reference number is given. A company calling itself PDS (Parcel Delivery Services) is, according to the card, attempting to deliver a digital camera. One assumes then that it is PDS who have sent out the card. I should add, knowing the circumstances of the addressee, as I do, the camera is very unlikely to have been ordered.

The recipient of the card is asked to phone to arrange delivery on 0906 661 1911 Alert - 090 numbers are premium rate call numbers.

My enquiries to BT reveal that BT operators have been receiving umpteen calls from people either receiving cameras that have not been ordered and the recipients cannot communicate with the number given (another oddity) or, callers cannot obtain the number. (Fortuitous for all of them!)

I am advised that the number is not allocated to anyone so is not traceable...

What is going on