Suddenly the swine flu pandemic hits home ........ too close to home ....... actually in the home! And you realise first hand how the carefully prepared emergency plan doesn't actually work in practice.
The scenario goes like this. Five Australians arrive on Tuesday from Melbourne to visit for a month. (Mrs Journeyman's brother and his family). They are supposed to stay with us for the first few days and then transfer today to a caravan at a local holiday park. Yesterday the youngest two, aged 1 and 3 are not feeling very well. The youngest one was born 4 months premature and, as a result, has lung problems so, to be on the safe side, his mum and Mrs Journeyman took him up to the Medical Walk-In Centre last night for a check-up. As soon as the receptionist saw the word "Australia" on the paperwork she decided it must be swine flu. She wasn't having any of that in her clinic so she ordered them home with a phone number and told them to ring the out-of-hours doctor. This they duly did. The doctor said he could see them at 10.20pm but they would have to come in. Guess where? ............. Right next door to the Walk-in Centre. They actually share the same reception desk! So back they went across town. This time, after a brief examination, they were told to go and wait in the car park. Luckily it was fairly warm last night but even so, a 25 minute wait outside with a sick 1-year-old is somewhat stressfull. ........ so they gave up and came home. Shortly afterwards we got a phone call to say that a doctor would come out in the morning to take some swabs. Finally got to bed at 00.45 (way past my bedtime).
Nine o'clock this morning the flying doctor car arrives. Doctor gets out and kits up in the street with face mask, apron and gloves. He's obviously not used to this because it takes several attempts to get the mask on properly. Then he comes in with two pre-wrapped packets. Each contains the necessary equipment for taking, preserving, packing and labelling a throat swab. All goes well with the one year old. He then opens the second pack to swab the 3 year old and finds there is no preserving medium present. He goes out to the car to fetch the other two packs he had brought, only to find they had no medium either. His driver is promptly dispatched back to base to get some more sampling kits. She eventually returns and says she found the medium in the fridge. So the second swab is taken. He has brought a prescription for Tamiflu for the youngest but not for the other child. I explain that the whole Australian family is due to move onto a caravan later today. Doctor says he will contact the Health Protection Unit and take advice on that, and also write out a prescription for the other child. He disappears out to the car for ages.
Eventually he returns to inform us that the two sick children must be quarantined in the house but that anyone with no symptoms can go where they like. He hands over the two prescriptions and says we can get the Tamiflu at Boots. So Mrs Journeyman and I set of to get the medication. We go to our local pharmacy where we know the owner (it's also much closer than Boots). They look at the prescriptions and shake their heads. "We don't keep that in stock". "Alright", I said, "we'll carry on to Boots". "They won't have any either", the pharmacist said, "local Tamiflu is all kept at a central point ........ in this case... (wait for it) ......the Walk-in Centre!".
She then phoned the Head of Medicines and Pharmaceuticals (who just happened to be on holiday in Yorkshire - but she answered anyway!). She then had to ring the Walk-in Centre to arrange the medication for us because the original doctor had put the doseage at 2ml twice a day when the doseage should have been 30 mg twice a day. How many mgs you get in a ml will obviously depend on the concentration of the liquid, which was not specified.
So eventually we got the medication. And we also get to keep the Australians until we get the test results.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
A Level Standards
Another Times report this week, bewailing the lowering of A Level standards, meaning that students are now much less well prepared for university. Making courses "modular" has badly affected students' overall understanding of the subject, and resits have developed students who always seek a second chance.
Elizabeth Truss, the deputy director of Reform (the organization that produced the report) is quoted as saying:
"Today's students are being badly let down by the A-level system. They are not developing what they really need: a spirit of independent inquiry and confidence that will set them up for university and later life."
This is amply borne out by the typical quote of current 6th form students - "I don't need to know that - it's not in the syllabus".
When I recently asked Alice (currently doing Biology A-level) a biology question, the response was "don't know". When asked why she didn't know, as this would certainly be in the syllabus and she was very nearly at the end of the course, the response was that she'd done it last year and already passed that module!
Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I like to think that if you had learnt something and passed the module, then, if questioned later, you would know it. Education isn't what it was.
Elizabeth Truss, the deputy director of Reform (the organization that produced the report) is quoted as saying:
"Today's students are being badly let down by the A-level system. They are not developing what they really need: a spirit of independent inquiry and confidence that will set them up for university and later life."
This is amply borne out by the typical quote of current 6th form students - "I don't need to know that - it's not in the syllabus".
When I recently asked Alice (currently doing Biology A-level) a biology question, the response was "don't know". When asked why she didn't know, as this would certainly be in the syllabus and she was very nearly at the end of the course, the response was that she'd done it last year and already passed that module!
Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I like to think that if you had learnt something and passed the module, then, if questioned later, you would know it. Education isn't what it was.
Two Ways of Looking at Things
Strange story in the Times this week.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6513866.ece
An orthodox Jewish couple are suing the other neighbours in their block of flats for installing a motion sensor to automatically turn on the light in the communal stairwell when anyone leaves their flat. Their argument is that they will now be imprisoned in their flat over the Sabbath because if they try to leave, the light will automatically come on and they will have been responsible. They will thus have done "work" on the Sabbath, which is forbidden.
Whilst I am fully in support of maintaining religious customs, I can't help thinking that they are approaching this issue from completely the wrong side. An automatic motion sensor should be every good Jew's answer to prayer as it prevents the necessity for them to do "work" by manually switching the light on, and ensures that they don't break their necks falling down the stairs in the dark - thus creating a lot more work for the doctors and nurses at the Jewish hospital!
Come to that, if they are that strict in their observance, why would they want to leave the flat on the Sabbath anyway? In scientific terms, even a leisurely stroll round the park opposite would involve considerably more work than simply flicking a light switch (or not, as the case may be).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6513866.ece
An orthodox Jewish couple are suing the other neighbours in their block of flats for installing a motion sensor to automatically turn on the light in the communal stairwell when anyone leaves their flat. Their argument is that they will now be imprisoned in their flat over the Sabbath because if they try to leave, the light will automatically come on and they will have been responsible. They will thus have done "work" on the Sabbath, which is forbidden.
Whilst I am fully in support of maintaining religious customs, I can't help thinking that they are approaching this issue from completely the wrong side. An automatic motion sensor should be every good Jew's answer to prayer as it prevents the necessity for them to do "work" by manually switching the light on, and ensures that they don't break their necks falling down the stairs in the dark - thus creating a lot more work for the doctors and nurses at the Jewish hospital!
Come to that, if they are that strict in their observance, why would they want to leave the flat on the Sabbath anyway? In scientific terms, even a leisurely stroll round the park opposite would involve considerably more work than simply flicking a light switch (or not, as the case may be).
Monday, 8 June 2009
A Run of Bad Luck
Sorry ...... been a bit busy lately with a run of bad luck.
Two weeks ago Laura fell over and tore the cruciate ligament in her knee. This has caused immense problems for everyone. She can't use crutches so she has had to manage with a leg brace and wheelchair. Manipulating a wheelchair in confined spaces is an acquired art at the best of times but with a leg sticking straight out in front .......?? We have great difficulty getting her into the car, and even getting her to bed is an effort because, once in the standing position, she can't hop on her good leg so has to be lifted everywhere. With a bad back myself at the moment, this is not good news.
Then to make matters worse we had a bit of a flood on Friday night. We had a new bathroom fitted a year or two ago with one of these new fangled toilet cisterns with a piston valve rather than a normal syphon. It was all boxed in and looks very nice ......... until something goes wrong. And when it does it's disastrous because you can't get to the cistern to do anything about it. In this case the valve would not re-seat after the flush, which meant that water was continually flowing into the pan and the cistern never filled up. We are on a water meter and could have run up a huge bill if we didn't do something about it - so try we did. We managed to get the front panel off so we could see the front of the cistern but there was then only about a centimetre gap between the top of the cistern and the fixed worktop above. No room to get my hand in. I recruited James with the smallest hand in the family, and instructed him to feel for a plunger and push it down. As he pushed his hand into the gap the cistern moved backwards a little and the pipe from the cistern to the pan came adrift. There was immediately a flood of water onto the bathroom floor. Panic all round. We'd only just had a new carpet fitted on the stairs and landing four days previously so top priority was to prevent any water leaving the bathroom. Every available towel in the house was pressed into service to act as a kind of sandbag barrier across the doorway while I rushed downstairs to turn off the stopcock. This was achieved fairly rapidly but unfortunately the flood did not stop. Water was still pouring out from behind the WC pan. It took a while to click that this water was actually coming downwards from the tank in the roof. ........ Ladder ...... up into roof ....... try and reach the tanks from the hatchway (there's not a lot of room to actually get up, and loads of cross beams to block your way if you do manage it). There were three pipes coming from the tank and only one had a tap on it. I turned it anyway. We turned all taps on full to drain down the system as quickly as possible and, eventually the flood stopped......... only about two inches deep on the bathroom floor and not a drop on the new carpet! However, at some point before I disappeared into the loft, it was noted that water was running down the light fitting in the hall below. A bowl was strategically placed to catch this but a minute or two later the entire electrical system was blacked out. We carried on baling and mopping by torchlight.
Then Alice came home. Now Alice has a different set of priorities to everyone else. She was not the least concerned that we had had a major flood and had all been working manically to prevent the new carpet being ruined. Her only concern was that we now had no electricity in the house so she would not be able to use her hair straighteners in the morning! If only that was my biggest problem!
Two weeks ago Laura fell over and tore the cruciate ligament in her knee. This has caused immense problems for everyone. She can't use crutches so she has had to manage with a leg brace and wheelchair. Manipulating a wheelchair in confined spaces is an acquired art at the best of times but with a leg sticking straight out in front .......?? We have great difficulty getting her into the car, and even getting her to bed is an effort because, once in the standing position, she can't hop on her good leg so has to be lifted everywhere. With a bad back myself at the moment, this is not good news.
Then to make matters worse we had a bit of a flood on Friday night. We had a new bathroom fitted a year or two ago with one of these new fangled toilet cisterns with a piston valve rather than a normal syphon. It was all boxed in and looks very nice ......... until something goes wrong. And when it does it's disastrous because you can't get to the cistern to do anything about it. In this case the valve would not re-seat after the flush, which meant that water was continually flowing into the pan and the cistern never filled up. We are on a water meter and could have run up a huge bill if we didn't do something about it - so try we did. We managed to get the front panel off so we could see the front of the cistern but there was then only about a centimetre gap between the top of the cistern and the fixed worktop above. No room to get my hand in. I recruited James with the smallest hand in the family, and instructed him to feel for a plunger and push it down. As he pushed his hand into the gap the cistern moved backwards a little and the pipe from the cistern to the pan came adrift. There was immediately a flood of water onto the bathroom floor. Panic all round. We'd only just had a new carpet fitted on the stairs and landing four days previously so top priority was to prevent any water leaving the bathroom. Every available towel in the house was pressed into service to act as a kind of sandbag barrier across the doorway while I rushed downstairs to turn off the stopcock. This was achieved fairly rapidly but unfortunately the flood did not stop. Water was still pouring out from behind the WC pan. It took a while to click that this water was actually coming downwards from the tank in the roof. ........ Ladder ...... up into roof ....... try and reach the tanks from the hatchway (there's not a lot of room to actually get up, and loads of cross beams to block your way if you do manage it). There were three pipes coming from the tank and only one had a tap on it. I turned it anyway. We turned all taps on full to drain down the system as quickly as possible and, eventually the flood stopped......... only about two inches deep on the bathroom floor and not a drop on the new carpet! However, at some point before I disappeared into the loft, it was noted that water was running down the light fitting in the hall below. A bowl was strategically placed to catch this but a minute or two later the entire electrical system was blacked out. We carried on baling and mopping by torchlight.
Then Alice came home. Now Alice has a different set of priorities to everyone else. She was not the least concerned that we had had a major flood and had all been working manically to prevent the new carpet being ruined. Her only concern was that we now had no electricity in the house so she would not be able to use her hair straighteners in the morning! If only that was my biggest problem!
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Business Woman of the Year
Laura (my stepdaughter) is now a business. It's official! It must be, because the government says so! So the world gets ever more insane and the Office for National Statistics is now inventing businesses that don't exist. [Must be something to do with the credit crunch]. I've heard plenty of people moan that they are now regarded as nothing more than a number, but I've never heard anyone complain that they have been turned into a business.
I knew the government was getting desperate, but to invent spurious businesses in order to prop up the ailing economy strikes me as really being a bit beyond the pale.
This interesting perspective on Laura comes to light because we have just received a very official form from the Office for National Statistics headed "Business Register Survey 2008". It is to be completed for "the business named above" ...... i.e. Laura. It must be returned by 12 June or "penalties may be incurred under section 4 of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947". The form goes on, "We hold details of your business ......". That's quite clever, considering this alleged business does not, and never has, existed. I shall be returning the form with a Freedom of Information Request demanding to know where they got this information from and what other information they hold about this fictitious business which is, in fact, my stepdaughter.
I knew the government was getting desperate, but to invent spurious businesses in order to prop up the ailing economy strikes me as really being a bit beyond the pale.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Identity Crisis
The cost of the government's identity cards has gone up by more than £160 million to more than £5 billion. In a time of recession such as we are in at the moment, with huge public debt, how on earth can the government justify spending this sort of money on a scheme that very few people seem to want and will only tell us what we already know ....... who we are. I have known who I am from a very early age and I expect most people are the same. Why should we have to keep proving to other people who we are? If they want to know, we can tell them. If they don't believe us it's their problem. They can take it or leave it.
Moses once asked God who he was. God didn't lower himself with "proof". He simply said "I am who I am". That was good enough for Moses ..... it should be good enough for everyone else, including the government!
Moses once asked God who he was. God didn't lower himself with "proof". He simply said "I am who I am". That was good enough for Moses ..... it should be good enough for everyone else, including the government!
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Why can't managers manage?
Sorry for the long pause in transmission. I've been very busy and not having much luck :-
(a) Our cat disappeared on Easter Monday and hasn't been seen since.
(b) I have had serious back problems which wrecked our post-Easter holiday as I was hardly able to walk anywhere.
(c) I was short-changed in Superdrug to the tune of £5. Had it been just one or two pounds I wouldn't have made a fuss but I can't afford to lose £5 in one go. Just imagine if that happened in every shop you went into!
I bought a packet of Neurofen (for my back pain mentioned above) for three pounds something, gave the girl at the till a ten pound note and received change for five pounds. I remained at the till with my hand out and said "where's the rest?". Instead of admitting the mistake and giving me the rest of my change, she said "Wait here, I'll have to go and see the manager". She disappeared and quickly returned saying, "can you go and see the manager. He's in the middle of the shop". I went to see the manager and asked him for my £5 outstanding change. "Well I can't open the till now," he said, "it's lunch time. I'll check it straight after lunch and phone you." He took my phone number and I reluctantly left. Needless to say, he didn't phone me, so I went back to the shop on my way home from the office. The manager was nowhere to be seen. I enquired at the central till and they immediately put out a call on the tannoy - no response. They then sent a runner up to the staff room and manager's office - still no luck. Further tannoy calls and further waiting. After about 15 minutes he eventually turned up. No apology for not phoning or being so hard to get hold of. Merely an assertion that he had checked the till after lunch and found it was two pounds over. Naturally, if my claim was correct it should be five pounds over. He didn't directly call me a liar, but the inference was there. I pointed out that I was quite certain I had given the till girl a ten pound note as I had checked the money in my pocket before I left the office (to see how much I needed to get out of the bank) and I checked it again when I got back. Allowing for the money I had taken out of the bank and my lunchtime purchases, I was five pounds short. I further pointed out that this must mean that mine was not the only inaccurate transaction at that till today. The manager did not seem to grasp the implication of the last statement. Instead he said he would have to ask the regional manager what he wanted to do about it. Why? Was this a regional problem? - No of course it wasn't. It was a minor branch issue that should have been dealt with promptly by the very minor branch manager. So the obvious conclusion is that we have here an incompetent manager and either an incompetent or thieving shop girl.
Time after time in my professional life I come across managers of shops, offices, restaurants, pubs etc who are simply unwilling to accept the responsibility of a manager. They are really no more than the guardian of the key - to unlock the premises in the morning and lock it again at night. If anything goes slightly wrong they abdicate all responsibility to the area or regional manager.
My plea is simply this - please appoint managers who are capable of managing ...... or the state of the country will decline even faster than it is at the moment.
(a) Our cat disappeared on Easter Monday and hasn't been seen since.
(b) I have had serious back problems which wrecked our post-Easter holiday as I was hardly able to walk anywhere.
(c) I was short-changed in Superdrug to the tune of £5. Had it been just one or two pounds I wouldn't have made a fuss but I can't afford to lose £5 in one go. Just imagine if that happened in every shop you went into!
I bought a packet of Neurofen (for my back pain mentioned above) for three pounds something, gave the girl at the till a ten pound note and received change for five pounds. I remained at the till with my hand out and said "where's the rest?". Instead of admitting the mistake and giving me the rest of my change, she said "Wait here, I'll have to go and see the manager". She disappeared and quickly returned saying, "can you go and see the manager. He's in the middle of the shop". I went to see the manager and asked him for my £5 outstanding change. "Well I can't open the till now," he said, "it's lunch time. I'll check it straight after lunch and phone you." He took my phone number and I reluctantly left. Needless to say, he didn't phone me, so I went back to the shop on my way home from the office. The manager was nowhere to be seen. I enquired at the central till and they immediately put out a call on the tannoy - no response. They then sent a runner up to the staff room and manager's office - still no luck. Further tannoy calls and further waiting. After about 15 minutes he eventually turned up. No apology for not phoning or being so hard to get hold of. Merely an assertion that he had checked the till after lunch and found it was two pounds over. Naturally, if my claim was correct it should be five pounds over. He didn't directly call me a liar, but the inference was there. I pointed out that I was quite certain I had given the till girl a ten pound note as I had checked the money in my pocket before I left the office (to see how much I needed to get out of the bank) and I checked it again when I got back. Allowing for the money I had taken out of the bank and my lunchtime purchases, I was five pounds short. I further pointed out that this must mean that mine was not the only inaccurate transaction at that till today. The manager did not seem to grasp the implication of the last statement. Instead he said he would have to ask the regional manager what he wanted to do about it. Why? Was this a regional problem? - No of course it wasn't. It was a minor branch issue that should have been dealt with promptly by the very minor branch manager. So the obvious conclusion is that we have here an incompetent manager and either an incompetent or thieving shop girl.
Time after time in my professional life I come across managers of shops, offices, restaurants, pubs etc who are simply unwilling to accept the responsibility of a manager. They are really no more than the guardian of the key - to unlock the premises in the morning and lock it again at night. If anything goes slightly wrong they abdicate all responsibility to the area or regional manager.
My plea is simply this - please appoint managers who are capable of managing ...... or the state of the country will decline even faster than it is at the moment.
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