What are you all up to

You have certainly been busy, B2. Hope that the new treatment solves you eye problem.

We have had another couple of fine days, but there have been a few very short hail showers. Yesterday prevalent the morning in Ballock Castle Country Park before going to Aldi in Alexandria to stock up with food before our move up to the Club's Clachan site at Killin today.

It was an easy drive to here with just one holdup on the Glen Ogle stretch. Both sites and the village are very quiet, with the Maragowan appearing to be be only 1/4 full, with perhaps 3x as many caravans as M/Hs, and here at Clachan there are only 14 units on, including 8 seasonal pitches with caravans on them, 2 of which are occupied, and of the 6 other units 2 are M/Hs..The site wardens were saying that it is not just here that the sites are quiet but ones such as Troutbeck are similar. 

Yesterday went well as we disappeared for a couple of hours to have lunch, locally, with my cousin and her OH. MiL promised to behave herself and did. It was great to do something normal.

Decided I was going to get stuck into the power washing and cleaning of the back garden flags when I returned from my morning stroll. Just got started when we had a 3 hour power cut. Carried on doing a manual job of clearing moss and weeds and some gardening at the front.

We fortunately still have a gas hob and a whistling kettle so were not unduly bothered at lunch. I did actually attach the Calor in the caravan just in case as I need to cook something in the oven but back on now. Seems it covered a wide area. As we are down as having a vulnerable person we received regular updates from Scottish Power.

Hope the change in treatment works B2.

Youngest son came to cut my hedge today, he also did the next door neighbours as well as its the same type of hedge, bless him. It's interesting as you get older watching the energy with which younger people tackle jobs like this. It would have probably taken me the best part of half a day but within an hour it was done! So having established how quickly a non professional gardener can do the job I and still trying to work out in my mind how I was quoted £150 for it to be done by a professional hedge cutter. Had it been nearer the £100 mark I might well have gone with it but £150 seemed excessive? 

David

We have decided relaying our Sun terrace is too much for us. We made a start, raised a few paving slabs, but it’s not a task either of us is keen to do, and we could tell apathy and finding other things to prioritise was happening. So I contacted person who laid Mum’s paved area a few years ago, and boy have prices shot up. However, it will all be done in a couple of days, so we shall let someone else do the task. I love gardening, even quite heavy digging, but hard landscaping is something else. Will order a load of bark and pebbles alongside slabs. That will keep us busy.

Managed a couple of hours in garden today, not overly cold at first, but has dropped chilly now. I am still playing catch up with some things, mainly because of weather, but also having to spend so much time away from home. Have lit stove now, me and hound taking it easy, OH is up in attic pounding around Crete virtually on his bike🚴‍♂️ 

2nd day of high energy!!!

Not caused by the weather, dull grey and chilly. Slight frost this morning im reliably informed. Yesterday, the school field was white at 0530, it had gone by 0730 when I got up, but we had a lovely bright day.

Tidied the garage, mainly because we wanted to find the pump for the water feature. Succeeded, so that means it needs setting up at this house. One job always leads to another!

Actually lifted the garden table out, not the chairs - they're easier to handle and it's not been warm enough to need them. Even a cuppa on the bench has been pushing it whilst gardening. I think we're going to rearrange outdoor seating this year and store the bench from the back garden but leave the bench in the vegetable garden, nice and enclosed tidy hole there too 😀 and the one by the front door where we can watch cul du sac activity 😉.

Since OH performed with heart attack, bypass and stroke we've used 'trades' rather than DIY. Prices/charges vary greatly. I prefer recommendation but that isn't always possible. We inherited a very tall hedge, about 15 feet, at the back of our house. Neighbours behind and a couple or 3 feet lower than us so very private back garden. Naturally trimming it is beyond both of us 🤣🤣. Had a couple of quotes, almost identical, in our first year £250 ish this also included a trim of the evergreen hedge at the front. Not as tall or as long. Last year our garden help did both, took about the same time and then continued gardening for the rest of the day. He doesn't charge as much either! Yes trimmings cleared away both times.

Actually it's nice to be able to pay someone else to do the big jobs, but not as satisfying. But far less tiring 🤣😃.

The lighter evenings are very welcome, but some warmth would make them usable. Sitting watching the activity from the lounge we have noticed a distinct lack of bats this year. There's an odd one some evenings, I'm hoping it's the cool weather meaning they're staying hibernating longer? I've seen one swallow,I presume they're staying where its warmer and likely to be more insect activity.

Margaret's wait for a hip injection has taken a step forward. Originally she went to an appointment with a private physio (paid for by the NHS) who diagnosed locked hip syndrome, this was probably back in March. He agreed that a steroid injection would be done and she would hear in due course. Several weeks after she rang to check on progress, apparently she was 171 on the list! Role forward to yesterday and she decided to ring again as time was going on. Asked if there was any progress and had she moved up the list. Voice on the phone said can you come on 4th May which was a bit of a shock, even more so as its a Saturday! So progress at last. I hope it works as she has been in pain for months and both me and the boys have been saying why not have it done privately but she has insisted that the NHS should pay! Still no news on my knee x-rays but in may case a bit more difficult to know where to chase!

David

I heard a tale from someone that they decided use the company scheme to go private but they'll still have to pay for certain items.

They were floored (polite word used) to discover that one of the "extras" was paying for an Anaesthetist! I kid you not. What next? The electricity used? The Operating table, charged per hour? 

B2 - If I were a bat I'd be hibernating! OH has me down as a Long Eared one.

I think fortunately for things like knee and hip steroid injections most places work on a menu basis so you usually have a clear idea how much the cost would be  before you commit. Margaret's hip saga has been going on over a year and when the doctor was sending her for a scan she suggested to Margaret that she might want to consider having it done as a private patient as it would be quicker. Fortunately that appointment came through quite quickly, its everything else that has been slow. I think the problem we seem to have is that you see a whole series of doctors and you don't get the complete follow through you need. I can perfectly understand why some are willing to dig into their savings (if they are lucky enough to have them?) to pay for operations like hip and knee.

David

On the subject of going private rather than the NHS. As some maybe aware from my previous posts our daughter was suffering badly with her back/hip. She had a big op on the NHS many years ago which went well. A few years ago she was again in great pain, she researched her symptoms and concluded the initial problem, the op, time, etc had damaged her back and also this time her hip. 2 Drs at our local hospital disagreed and sent her for physio, neither physios would touch her saying it would cause more damage. She was just being sent in circles for 3 years. She was in dreadful pain, on higher and higher doses of morphine etc couldn’t do her job, working with problem youngsters, and virtually bed bound. We paid for a private specialist appointment. Within 20 minutes he diagnosed what she suspected all along. Told it could be another 3 year wait for an op on the NHS her daughters crowd funded for her and we topped up the rest for the specialist to do her operation. 1 year later - she is out of the wheelchair, just walking with sticks, no painkillers, she can’t return to her old profession yet but she is working at the moment full time as a receptionist. The specialist said her recovery may take 2 years as she was left too long. So from being almost bed bound, in a wheelchair, unable to work and doped up on morphine, she is now working, laughing and being with her kids. Worth every penny of our savings, thank goodness we could do it. I’m afraid, between our daughter and our granddaughters problems sadly I have little faith in the NHS. Although I do believe it’s a postcode lottery and Devon doesn’t do very well at all.

I feel for those who need urgent medical help, and/or living in pain.

My own thoughts are that our NHS system, at its inception (coming out a huge global conflict, country on its knees, hugely in debt to the US, cities desperately in need of rebuilding, etc..) is the most positive step the UK ever took. It enabled very ordinary people to have access to decent, ongoing health care, giving us a healthier more active and therefore productive workforce, able to rebuild the country and go on to have in the main, longer, fitter lifestyles with improved infant mortality rates. Many of us, unless very rich, are products of this NHS.

Today? It’s a sense of despair in many ways that this absolute treasure isn’t receiving the careful management, proper targeted and administered funding, required staff levels and ongoing future planning it should receive. It’s used as a punch bag by political parties, bypassed by the rich who can afford to pay out vast sums to look after themselves, abused by too large a percentage of those who lack the will or understanding not to succumb to smoking, drugs, alcohol, violence, high sugar intake etc… that requires ongoing treatment via A&E. Medical research and application is vastly superior to what it was back in the 1950’s, and many folks are now living into extreme old age, but there hasn’t been any joined up thinking for years, linking this with the kind of care required, not just for the elderly, but those who have survived previously unsurvivable conditions and accidents. Wards are full of elderly people waiting to go back home with no back up and they yo yo back and forth in and out of hospital  on a regular basis until something eventually gets them. Care homes are about a few reaping big profits, no matter how kind or caring underpaid staff are, and that’s if families can afford to use a care home. The care you might get is a geographic lottery, as we have found out trying to access a variety of care and drugs/support aid for our own family.  Funding related, and it depends on Clinical Commissioning for a particular area. 

NHS deserves so much more than to be something as part of an election soundbite. It should transgress, rise above political dogma, and be given the planning, future proofing and funding that we all deserve, across all the political spectrum. I for one wouldn’t want to think that my relatives won’t benefit from all I have had, merely because they don’t earn enough. 

Not intended as a politically biased statement in any way, I hold allegiance to no one party. Just a hope that something so important to all of us can be recognised and more valued.😕