What are you all up to

Throwing it down with rain here along with strong winds.  Not very good for our district scouts to walk along the sea front for their annual St George’s day parade.

I have had over 5 years of first hand experience of the NHS, my latest was taking my brother for a pre op on Friday.  The front line staff were again wonderful. But the shenanigans of managers and their expenditure on non essentials really wind me up 

From a great day out yesterday at the open air museum at Beamish and if anyone is staying in the area (North East) then it's a great day out. You can't see all the places in one day but the ticket includes visits for one year. A good tip if like me you're of a certain age past 60 then a single ticket is £21.25 but if you buy the 'friend of Beamish' senior couple's ticket it's £49 but then you get 10% off all food and drink/shop prices. We easily made up the extra!  

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, my Mother-in-law needed a knee replacing about 10 years ago when she was about 80. Her reasoning was that if she waited another 4 years, timeframe given to her, for the NHS to do it then her general health and fitness may have declined to such an extent that she wouldn't make full use of it. She was fit and healthy and wanted to maintain her lifestyle. She went private, did all of the exercises and enjoyed another 10 years of good health. We told her not to bother saving her money for us. Both her and her husband worked hard so deserved to enjoy the fruits. I bet your children would say the same to you.

Beautiful day here with just Simpson type clouds breaking the sunshine. Caught up with pressure washing the patio at the rear. Can only do about 2 hours at a time before tiredness kicks in. Half done.

Got a message late Friday to have more bloods taken. Tony Hancock really would have something to complain about. If you understood that you really are getting on.

For me the biggest improvement in NHS would be to scrap the trusts so everyone in the UK had the same chance of getting treatment. No Postcode Lottery! Then get the care service sorted out plus make people see their GPs first without thinking of bypassing them to go straight to A&E.

TTDogalong I couldn’t agree more with every single word that you have said about the NHS. Such good common sense.

We are due off On a10 day break in a couple of weeks we couldn’t decide where to go but now settled on County Durham so booked a site there this morning looking forward to it as it’s an area we have been to but not really stayed too long.

Francis, you're either there or about to go. I was looking through a diary that I kept and came across our last visit to County Durham. I made a note of a few places that weren't open then, one of them being renovated. You seem like the sort of person that might enjoy working engines and pumps etc so here's a couple of websites that might interest you. I'm not sure whether opening days for them would fit in with your plans but there's always next time:

https://www.teescottage.co.uk/visit-us

https://www.locomotion.org.uk

https://www.head-of-steam.co.uk

Hope you enjoy yourselves.

But I disagree with that outburst from Ttda about the NHS failing. Not here it isn’t 

Within this one family in the two years one has had  urgent treatment for a malignant melanoma which could have been a killer, and has had regular very thorough follow up checks. A 25 year old was rushed  to intensive care for sudden onset  diabetes,. two older ones have been cared for after strokes, and two cataract operations were done promptly without fuss, My daughter had life saving neuro surgery at midnight for a bleed in her spinal column. my wife had pulmonary embolism sorted out after an in patient stay and the  NHS has just given me hearing aids valued at £1200. 

Those who moan and complain should stop. 

This is a good read for anyone interested

https://assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/0ab966500b/rise_decline_nhs_england_2000-20_2023.pdf

coincidentally, there’s an article on the Guardian website about how many people are now having private healthcare carried out. I can fully understand why people consider private when in a lot of pain, life on hold. But not everyone can sadly. 

"Not here it isn’t"

Oh, yes, it is! I have personal experience to back that up but I am not detailing it here.

we are off on our trip nearer the end of the week WN thanks for the links o shall take a look and add on to our itinerary for when we’re there always good to get recommendations

Been a good weekend here started off on Friday morning with good news regarding 4 monthly blood tests all ok and the sun has been shining all weekend. We’ve spent it in the garden clearing out rubbish and generally doing a tidy up. Also been getting the van ready for our planned trip near the end of this week looking forward to that.

Hope everyone else has had a nice weekend 

I can thoroughly recommend Locomotion at Shildon francis. We always visited when in the area. Shildon was the first railway town. OH comes from Co Durham. Hope you have a wonderful time there.

Dreadful weather here this morning. It absolutely poured with rain all morning. I thought they said 'occasional heavy showers🙄

Although we have had some wonderful care and treatment from the NHS recently I do agree with everything that tda said. The frontline staff are amazing but the NHS needs a complete reorganisation mostly from the top down. The way it is now 'managed' is a disgrace to it's original concept. OH spent two separate periods of 2 nights of so called 'corridor care' in hospital as there were no beds available. The staff were wonderful and tried to do their very best but it was still a dreadful experience for him. I have nothing but praise for the staff and feel that their life is very stressful and difficult as they want to be able to do their best for their patients but their hands are tied.