It's a slow news day today, for several reasons. First, my knee is mending well, but I am unable to take advantage of the sunny weather to get stuck into the garden. The Helleborus in particular, need some foliage to be trimmed away so they can get some more light. I also have a garden recycler to fill with debris from the pre-snow period. This will all have to wait another week or so. I am scheduled at the consultant next Monday and will hopefully get some more rehab exercises.
Second, the two major DIY projects need to be put on hold for the same reason, and third, no sport.
As a result I have been doing some random web browsing, and found out that Venezuela pay 1p a litre for diesel for their cars, just how do they do that then? I have started to StumbleUpon stuff again too, but the program seems to have lost a lot of its appeal. There must be a better one out there, will just have to keep looking.
As mentioned a few posts ago, I am exploring green energy and sustainable heat sources solutions again. I notice the government has introduced another initiative for funding, the Green Deal. The upside is that you can get repayable grants for work which will help you out of the fuel poverty trap, and the grants stay with the house, not the individual. The down side though is that the government inspectors will tell you what you can have as part of a new heating or power initiative.
So, if you want a new boiler, after the government inspection, it might be the fifth item on their recommendations list, so you would need to have the first four actions completed before the new boiler would be funded. That may not be a viable approach for everybody.
In the meantime I am looking at air sourced heat pumps to see if technology has moved on enough to make that a cost efficient solution for our hot water needs. A rep just call in so I will now await the resulting quote.
With other building work scheduled for February and March it might fit in quite well.
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Tuesday 22 January 2013
Under the knife
Well, I had the knee butchered yesterday. It was only an arthroscopy designed to tidy up and clear out the debris and wear and tear of a life of sport, and so far, it seems to have gone well.
The consultation and operation has bridged the gap between private health care and the NHS and it was interesting to see the two parts working together ( or not).
I am not sure when the problems started with my knee, but the problem was serious enough for me to seek out some physiotherapy treatment earlier in the year. I was able to have that treatment privately, and followed the advise given by attending the local council gym and using the static bike and leg press machine. This seemed to help and allowed me to continue playing golf, although a couple of short runs did confirm to me that some surgical procedure would probably be necessary.
The next step then was to have x-rays and a chat with the local knee man, a Mr Parkinson, who operated on SWMBO a few years ago and seems to have stuck his knife into half the population of the Wirral. Anyway, the x-ray showed a fairly healthy knee space, but was inconclusive as far as surgery was concerned. We agreed to follow it up with an MRI scan.
The scan showed up two meniscus tears, one on each side of the knee, and something called a Bakers cyst behind the knee itself. This then made the need for surgery clearer and inevitable. It also concluded my involvement with the private sector, as my time at IBM was cut short by a few months. The plan had been to schedule the op in early January to allow me to travel to Portugal for the last golf event of the year. Mr Parkinson did offer to get me under the knife by 5th November, my last day, but that would have meant a cancellation of the golf trip. I, therefore, decided to put myself in the hands of the NHS.
First challenge was to get on the consultants NHS list. There is no option to transfer from private to public, one is effectively starting all over again. A visit to the GP got me in the queue for the NHS procedure, and I was soon summoned for an outpatient assessment. This was where the disconnect became most apparent as the first thing the nursing staff wanted to do was an x-ray.
I was forceful in pointing out I had had an x-ray and MRI at the local private hospital and would not have another one. Eventually, after calls to the consultants secretary, the results were e-mailed over and I got on the list.
The date for the operation came quite quickly and so I managed to meet my January objective, and yesterday I was trundled in.
The pre-operative care was fine, however, the after sales service was a bit lacking. There was no visit from the consultant, which was disappointing as there were some surgical questions I had. The physio saw me and gave me a sheet of exercises which I could have got off the internet, but there was no mention of one-to-one follow-up sessions with her. I have a session booked in two weeks with Mr Parkinson, so I am hopeful by then I will be able to start gym and golf sessions, and be driving the car again. We shall see.
The consultation and operation has bridged the gap between private health care and the NHS and it was interesting to see the two parts working together ( or not).
I am not sure when the problems started with my knee, but the problem was serious enough for me to seek out some physiotherapy treatment earlier in the year. I was able to have that treatment privately, and followed the advise given by attending the local council gym and using the static bike and leg press machine. This seemed to help and allowed me to continue playing golf, although a couple of short runs did confirm to me that some surgical procedure would probably be necessary.
The next step then was to have x-rays and a chat with the local knee man, a Mr Parkinson, who operated on SWMBO a few years ago and seems to have stuck his knife into half the population of the Wirral. Anyway, the x-ray showed a fairly healthy knee space, but was inconclusive as far as surgery was concerned. We agreed to follow it up with an MRI scan.
The scan showed up two meniscus tears, one on each side of the knee, and something called a Bakers cyst behind the knee itself. This then made the need for surgery clearer and inevitable. It also concluded my involvement with the private sector, as my time at IBM was cut short by a few months. The plan had been to schedule the op in early January to allow me to travel to Portugal for the last golf event of the year. Mr Parkinson did offer to get me under the knife by 5th November, my last day, but that would have meant a cancellation of the golf trip. I, therefore, decided to put myself in the hands of the NHS.
First challenge was to get on the consultants NHS list. There is no option to transfer from private to public, one is effectively starting all over again. A visit to the GP got me in the queue for the NHS procedure, and I was soon summoned for an outpatient assessment. This was where the disconnect became most apparent as the first thing the nursing staff wanted to do was an x-ray.
I was forceful in pointing out I had had an x-ray and MRI at the local private hospital and would not have another one. Eventually, after calls to the consultants secretary, the results were e-mailed over and I got on the list.
The date for the operation came quite quickly and so I managed to meet my January objective, and yesterday I was trundled in.
The pre-operative care was fine, however, the after sales service was a bit lacking. There was no visit from the consultant, which was disappointing as there were some surgical questions I had. The physio saw me and gave me a sheet of exercises which I could have got off the internet, but there was no mention of one-to-one follow-up sessions with her. I have a session booked in two weeks with Mr Parkinson, so I am hopeful by then I will be able to start gym and golf sessions, and be driving the car again. We shall see.
Wednesday 16 January 2013
On top of the world
As part of the retirement experience, I today visited a property auction. It was not a random action, but one tied in with number two son looking out for a property to buy. One of the lots was a two bed flat in a small block of three. His sister already owns one so we had the thought that eventually we could own all three and be able to sell for a higher margin than individually.
As it happens the reserve price was set above what we thought was reasonable and the flat remained unsold.
It was a particularly interesting auction. Very few lots sold, and one which went for a much higher amount than the estimate gave me the feeling that the owner was in the room bidding up the hammer price. Not a very honourable thing to do but they appear to have pulled out at the right time to let the underbidder be successful.
The one property which did catch my eye though was large house in Birkenhead which backed onto the Park. This property had some provenance as it was the residence in the early part of the twentieth century by Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, the famous mountaineer.
George Mallory was a more well known English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. During the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only about 800 feet from the summit.
Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on 1 May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains. Whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.
The house in Park Road was presumably Irvine's family home given he was only 22 when he died, and still at Oxford University. It is a huge pile, which most recently has been some sort of social or working men's club. It has a crown green bowls links in the back garden and has had a tennis court there at some stage.
The architecture on the roof alone is staggeringly impressive and is not done justice by any current photo, I fear though that many original features inside have long been removed. The next auction is at the end of February so it will be interesting to see if it comes up again. The guide price is £350,000 which was clearly too much even for the property developers.
As it happens the reserve price was set above what we thought was reasonable and the flat remained unsold.
It was a particularly interesting auction. Very few lots sold, and one which went for a much higher amount than the estimate gave me the feeling that the owner was in the room bidding up the hammer price. Not a very honourable thing to do but they appear to have pulled out at the right time to let the underbidder be successful.
The one property which did catch my eye though was large house in Birkenhead which backed onto the Park. This property had some provenance as it was the residence in the early part of the twentieth century by Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, the famous mountaineer.
George Mallory was a more well known English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. During the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only about 800 feet from the summit.
Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on 1 May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains. Whether or not Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.
The house in Park Road was presumably Irvine's family home given he was only 22 when he died, and still at Oxford University. It is a huge pile, which most recently has been some sort of social or working men's club. It has a crown green bowls links in the back garden and has had a tennis court there at some stage.
The architecture on the roof alone is staggeringly impressive and is not done justice by any current photo, I fear though that many original features inside have long been removed. The next auction is at the end of February so it will be interesting to see if it comes up again. The guide price is £350,000 which was clearly too much even for the property developers.
Thursday 10 January 2013
Into 2013
The festive season is now behind us, and I am frankly pleased about that. I usually enjoy Christmas, but this year was strange. Having retired in early November it became evident to people that I 'had time on my hands' and could do a lot of the preparation. This at a time when I had more pressing early retirement things to do.
Anyway I juggled and survived. It was kids away year for Christmas Day so we had my mother (87) and SWMBO parents ( both in seventies) together with number two son, who, at 26, brought the average age down and saved us from it turning into Cocoon, the Christmas Special. Got some good presi's though
New Year SWMBO and I ran away to Scotland and stayed on the banks of Loch Lomond for a few days. It was too wet under foot to play golf or to do too much walking, but we found enough else to do. New Years Eve was typically Scottish. The haggis was addressed and toasted, a marching pipe band saw in 2013, and the hotel very kindly put gifts in the room, together with a lump of coal. We were on a mixed table which worked well, and we did manage to participate in some of the Calieh dances, like the Gay Gordon's and Strip the Willow.
So now that we are into 2013, I can start to plan the year ahead. I have terminated my signing on ritual with the DWP, as there was no monetary benefit and I have learnt how the process works. I have access to all their web sites through the Government Gateway so can look for and apply for jobs as I wish.
I did put my CV into one Company before Christmas, but got knocked back. It was to work for Chubby Chandler, the sports agent. I think the role was that of Darren Clarke's drinking partner, and in that area I was obviously found lacking.
I have a knee op to get out of the way next week, after which I am hoping to be able to target a few 5k and 10k fun runs later in the Summer as well as the Santa dash in December.
I have a huge box of photo's going back thirty years or more which I am planning to scan onto my laptop and have enrolled on a Photoshop class to learn how to tidy them up a bit. First class was today and it turned out to be registration only. The tutor did not engage very well on first impressions, but we will see how we go. Its the subject matter which will be more important.
As well as the shed project and the office which needs redesigning and decorating, I am once more progressing air source heat pumps, both for the pool and for the house hot water system. Technology seems to have moved on since I last looked so it will be interesting to see if there are savings to be made. Its not so much for us, but as a reselling feature whenever we need to.
I have a significant birthday in early March so have already lined up my B & Q heritage card which gets 10% off everything on a Wednesday. I need to apply for my Mereseytravel free pass and my senior citizens rail card. With the latter I will be able to attend several pre-Christmas knee's-up in London during December as well as any Autumn internationals we choose to go to. Any subsequent medical treatments can be sorted out with the free prescriptions I get, which I can read with the glasses from Specsavers for which I get 25% off.
Ah, yes, I have one New Years resolution, to buy no clothes, shoes or golf attire, except for essential socks and underwear. A recent wardrobe audit indicated I had more that enough NWT to get through the next 12 months at least.
Anyway we shall see, but all in all its going to be a hectic year.
Anyway I juggled and survived. It was kids away year for Christmas Day so we had my mother (87) and SWMBO parents ( both in seventies) together with number two son, who, at 26, brought the average age down and saved us from it turning into Cocoon, the Christmas Special. Got some good presi's though
New Year SWMBO and I ran away to Scotland and stayed on the banks of Loch Lomond for a few days. It was too wet under foot to play golf or to do too much walking, but we found enough else to do. New Years Eve was typically Scottish. The haggis was addressed and toasted, a marching pipe band saw in 2013, and the hotel very kindly put gifts in the room, together with a lump of coal. We were on a mixed table which worked well, and we did manage to participate in some of the Calieh dances, like the Gay Gordon's and Strip the Willow.
So now that we are into 2013, I can start to plan the year ahead. I have terminated my signing on ritual with the DWP, as there was no monetary benefit and I have learnt how the process works. I have access to all their web sites through the Government Gateway so can look for and apply for jobs as I wish.
I did put my CV into one Company before Christmas, but got knocked back. It was to work for Chubby Chandler, the sports agent. I think the role was that of Darren Clarke's drinking partner, and in that area I was obviously found lacking.
I have a knee op to get out of the way next week, after which I am hoping to be able to target a few 5k and 10k fun runs later in the Summer as well as the Santa dash in December.
I have a huge box of photo's going back thirty years or more which I am planning to scan onto my laptop and have enrolled on a Photoshop class to learn how to tidy them up a bit. First class was today and it turned out to be registration only. The tutor did not engage very well on first impressions, but we will see how we go. Its the subject matter which will be more important.
As well as the shed project and the office which needs redesigning and decorating, I am once more progressing air source heat pumps, both for the pool and for the house hot water system. Technology seems to have moved on since I last looked so it will be interesting to see if there are savings to be made. Its not so much for us, but as a reselling feature whenever we need to.
I have a significant birthday in early March so have already lined up my B & Q heritage card which gets 10% off everything on a Wednesday. I need to apply for my Mereseytravel free pass and my senior citizens rail card. With the latter I will be able to attend several pre-Christmas knee's-up in London during December as well as any Autumn internationals we choose to go to. Any subsequent medical treatments can be sorted out with the free prescriptions I get, which I can read with the glasses from Specsavers for which I get 25% off.
Ah, yes, I have one New Years resolution, to buy no clothes, shoes or golf attire, except for essential socks and underwear. A recent wardrobe audit indicated I had more that enough NWT to get through the next 12 months at least.
Anyway we shall see, but all in all its going to be a hectic year.
Tuesday 8 January 2013
A knock on the door
The sight of a hunched and broken Stuart Hall shuffling into Manchester crown court yestersday was a sad one. The football pundit, and star of 'It's a Knock-out' has been arrested for alleged sex offences against minors and young people which seem to be a knock on affect to the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. Stuart is 83, and the offences date from the 1970's and 80's
Jim Davidson is the latest high profile individual to be accused of similar acts, and he was arrested last week as he flew into England to take part in Celebrity Big Brother.
The facts behind the Saville case seem to be well proven as more and more BBC personnel indicate that his habits were well known and brushed under the carpet, as things were in those days. Saville is not around to defend himself, and one wonders why it has suddenly become big news? Cyril Smith, the ex-MP for Rochadale and another larger than life character has also had allegations thrown at him which he too cannot answer.
Quite why Max Clifford has been accused needs some explaining, as it is unlikely he was anytrhing other than a run of the mill hack at the time of the allegations made against him. Jim Davidson, Stuart Hall and other TV and radio personalities were all high profile figures with easy access to fans and at the height of their fame were unlikely to be lacking in male or female company as was their preference.
It all seems to be gathering momentum as a result of more and more potential victims jumping on the band waggon and hoping for a few quid at the end of it. They give little regard to the affect on the individulas and their families.
There are , of course, two sides to every story, and these victims may well have been subjected to sexual assaults of a style which would be unacceptable today, and these acts could have been tearing them apart ever since.. Why, though, did they not call it out when it happened? Were the victims part of what would be described as the 'groupie' culture, and saw any sort of attention as a playground plus point? Only now do they think they will get a fair hearing for their contributary negligence. We shall see.
In the meantime I just hope no dissapointed girlfriends of mine are looking for retribution.
Jim Davidson is the latest high profile individual to be accused of similar acts, and he was arrested last week as he flew into England to take part in Celebrity Big Brother.
The facts behind the Saville case seem to be well proven as more and more BBC personnel indicate that his habits were well known and brushed under the carpet, as things were in those days. Saville is not around to defend himself, and one wonders why it has suddenly become big news? Cyril Smith, the ex-MP for Rochadale and another larger than life character has also had allegations thrown at him which he too cannot answer.
Quite why Max Clifford has been accused needs some explaining, as it is unlikely he was anytrhing other than a run of the mill hack at the time of the allegations made against him. Jim Davidson, Stuart Hall and other TV and radio personalities were all high profile figures with easy access to fans and at the height of their fame were unlikely to be lacking in male or female company as was their preference.
It all seems to be gathering momentum as a result of more and more potential victims jumping on the band waggon and hoping for a few quid at the end of it. They give little regard to the affect on the individulas and their families.
There are , of course, two sides to every story, and these victims may well have been subjected to sexual assaults of a style which would be unacceptable today, and these acts could have been tearing them apart ever since.. Why, though, did they not call it out when it happened? Were the victims part of what would be described as the 'groupie' culture, and saw any sort of attention as a playground plus point? Only now do they think they will get a fair hearing for their contributary negligence. We shall see.
In the meantime I just hope no dissapointed girlfriends of mine are looking for retribution.
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