165/107

Well I didn't finish my shift tonight! As, when I was sitting comfortably at the computer terminal collecting blood results, I experienced a sudden mild headache and some blurred vision. I thought it strange and worrying enough to check my blood pressure and found it to be suddenly and dramatically elevated to 165/107.
One of the staff nurses came in my cubicle when I was taking off the blood pressure cuff and immediately took me down to A&E where I spent an interesting time waiting for the somewhat harassed senior house officer to review me.
Being on the receiving end of the heath service is an interesting experience for one who is usually the heath giver, and in the two and a half hours I was in the emergency department, I became just one of the many patients that turn up at this Godforsaken hour. On one side of me was the obligatory psychiatric self harming patient who wailed like a banshee, and on the other a sweet old lady with a fractured humerus. The usual collection of belligerent drunks burped and farted in opposite trolleys.
Over the waiting time, my blood pressure reduced a bit, and a polite young staff nurse performed an ECG.....which looked ok. The medics gave me a general examination, prodded and poked my nether regions (I had on my worst pair of underpants on!) then informed me that they will be writing to my own GP to initiate further investigations, but I was to return to the hospital immediately if I have the sight problems again!
Hey ho........yes a little sobering, but perhaps another product of being 47.....time to eat and drink healthier me thinks and lose some weight.......

Neurosis & animals

Can animals be neurotic?....humm it is an interesting question, especially given the fact that I try (albeit unsuccessfully not to attribute human traits to the animals under my care).....on reflection I think the answer is a definite yes!......The rapidly growing half dozen guinea fowl chicks spend their very young lives in a state of potential hysteria. Standing in frozen awareness, they watch every tiny thing that you do for them before one bird explodes into a fit of screaming panic which causes a chain reaction with the rest of them. My nerves are shot to pieces, with the constant upheaval of feathers and shrill bird calls.....after ten minutes in the shed, I could quite happily strangle the lot of them
Maddie, has a definite neurotic fear of staircases, which can be traced back to when she was two when she fell down our previous cottage staircase dragging a dyson vacuum cleaner on top of her. Ever since then she can quite happily walk up a staircase, but cannot face the downward journey on her own!.. Both Chris and I , now think it is perfectly normal to respond to her frantic barks for help on the upstairs landing by trudging up the stairs to carry her down.....

Albert on the other hand is perhaps the most perfectly balanced animal we own. In actual fact following his second accident and subsequent operation, I think it is me and not him, that overly worries about his condition and lifestyle dangers on the lane outside the cottage.

Today I thought it prudent to actually let him out again, despite still having a limp, and within 10 minutes he had caught and killed his first mouse which he paraded in front of the dogs with that snarling pride cats exhibit when they have a mouthful of rodent....

The Church wall is a good six feet high, and with his poorly leg, he still managed to scale it like a kitten on speed.With my heart in my mouth I watched his antics....until I could not watch anymore......I have said this before...these animals will be the bloody death of me...

on night shift tonight.....

Miranda Episode 1

I caught this old fashioned sit com this evening, and although this tale of a thirty something Bridget Jones has been done to death...the lumpy Miranda Hart brings something new and rather funny to the genre.....Tom Ellis is lovely to look at as well.....
very funny

Maddie Lurve

My Father-in-law, Richard left for home in Kent this morning, and seemed to have enjoyed his visit with us (he even found 2012 entertaining!)

He is an easy visitor to "look after" and will be missed especially by his shadow Maddie, who completely bonded with him, when he looked after her in the spring.

For an non cuddly dog, it is amazing that she spends every available moment clambering up onto his knee for some "quality time"..........mind you I think she is the only "person" that can actually cope with Richard's god awful bad joke telling.......I can see where Chris gets it from....

It was nice to catch up with him

Titter

I recieved this email on Sunday night from my sister....which did make me laugh


Bro,
One of the reasons I called this afternoon was to ask for yours and Chris's Christmas List, but I was distracted.I know you need the usual batteries and coffee and poultry feeder, would you like a jumper like a normal man.

much love ann xx

what do you say???

2012

Grandmother Sonam (Lisa Lu) with all American survivor a typically bland Amanda Peet)

The problem with CGI, is that the more, you are faced with "unreal computer" imagery, the less your emotions engage with the narrative and 2012 is crammed to the gunnel's with the most exciting, impressive yet ultimately vacuous scenes of disaster ever seen on film since the awful The day after tomorrow!
Los Angeles is crumpled like tissue paper and slides into the ocean, St Peter's in Rome collapses on thousands of fleeing nuns and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio loses his outstretched arms in an earthquake that echoes around the world....add to the mix ,20 thousand feet tidal waves washing over the Himalayas, the White House being flattened by an American Navy aircraft carrier and Las Vegas being sucked literally into the ground and you will get the film's gist........namely MORE s definitely MORE!!!
Unfortunately Roland Emmerich who loves his disaster movies from the 1970s)....has thrown every effect known to computer Geekdom into this film, which is a shame, as the more you see the less you feel......He should have realised what the first rule of the disaster film is ....... and that is to make the audience care about the characters!!!!!!
Having said all that, I kind of enjoyed this three hour romp, (once I had disengaged my brain) and despite the rubbishy script, cardboard characters and end of the world platitudes...it actually worked as a piece of entertainment.
African American President (Danny Glover) his art lover daughter (Thandie Newton) and wonderfully righteous scientist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) make for likable passengers in the new high tech arks developed for the salvation of humankind (and are all black which makes a change for major disaster film characters!)....meanwhile the ordinary people- ( John Cusack) and his ex wife (with her boyfriend and two kids) travel from the US to China to join in the exodus with a motley group of survivors that comprises of a handsome Tibetan monk, his grandparents and a Russian bimbo with a small dog! -like you do!!!

2012 is pure rubbish.......but it does entertain in that typical disaster movie sort of way. Characters die, but they do sort of cleanly ( dont blink but passenger liner lounge singer George Segal drowns when in a homage to The Poseidon Adventure,( and a finger up to the movie Poseidon) his ship is capsized!)....but in the end most of your favourite characters make it to give it a go in the "brave new world"
I wanted to hate this movie but in the end I had to give it a begrudging and enjoyable 7.5 out of 10.....

Ps. I was thinking this morning about some of the not-so-subtle messages Roland Emmerich wanted to share in 2012, and I think that the single message seems to be centred around the concept of fatherhood! Historically Women have never really featured favourably in disaster films and this is especially true in all of Emmerich's movies. In 2012 the three women portrayed ( bland mom, bland president's daughter and bland Russian trophy wife) hardly get a look into the action and drama, and the main narrative drive is dominated by the father (and son) relationships of the piece...No less than 7 characters John Cusack,Thomas McCarthy,Danny Glover,Zlatko Buric,George Segal,Blu Mankuma and Jimi Mistry all have issues of resolution and love with their children (interestingly all but one sibling is male!)....I would love to be able to discuss this with the director himself to see where his motivations came from...Gawd I feel am back in my film degree assignment days.....where I could discuss the smallest motivation of a director for the whole assignment quota of 3,000 words!..... I am such a geek

Gustav Holst - The Planets Op.32 Jupiter

See previous blog!...wonderful

Parents

Another day, another wet and blustery fight with the elements. The weather is not as bad as in the South, where 100 mile an hour winds have been recorded around the Isle of Wight, but still it is a day to be outside as short a time as possible.
Chris has taken his Dad to Llandudno for the afternoon leaving me to prepare supper (a huge dish of corned beef hash and the obligatory apple pie (I scrumped the apples from Trevor up the lane) I walked the dogs up a very muddy Gop (above) to the strains of Gustav Holst's "Jupiter".....which always has the ability to make me cry! (especially around 3 mins in!)
Anyhow, I got to thinking about parents on today's walk, namely my own!....Chris has both his parents living, albeit way down in South Eastern Britain and he is lucky enough to have a good relationship with both of them. They will always phone each other almost daily for a chat, will organise visits at least twice yearly and will catch up for shopping and theatre visits in London....not perhaps quite like the relationship I had with my parents........who were much older and perhaps more staid in their habits and relationships....
As Holst blasted out his "bringer of Jollity"...I had a sudden bolt of realization!......that, at the age of 47, I am, in fact, an orphan!......
Hey ho!
When I got home the turkey poults had broken out of their cage and were mischievously winding up the guinea fowl chicks by clambering over their cage. I topped up their water and feed and left the whole bunch to it.....I needed to get on with making supper!
.