Hi Everyone
Two jaw dropping events happened this week. The first was the stabbing of a 15 year old school girl in a busy street in South London as she was going to school. A 17 year old boy who she apparently knew has been accused of her murder. At the other end of the country at Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago that defined the border between England and Scotland, a tree was cut down with a chainsaw. Both events have dominated the news here for most of the week as a 16 year old boy was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage to the tree. Both events caused outrage and anger. You are probably asking why a tree caused so many headlines. It was a nearly 300 year old sycamore tree that was probably the most photographed tree in the world due to its isolation and unique location. The question in both cases is why. Why would a teenage boy ruin the lives of his victim, himself, and the two families involved and why would a teenage boy commit a stupid mindless act on an iconic tree? Of course, these sad events are not uncommon but those of us approaching middle age find it almost impossible to understand how things have changed so much since we were teenagers. I do not have answers but somewhere there has been a gradual breakdown in respect and communication between a minority of teenagers and their peers.
Since I got my pacemaker in 2019, I had to have it checked at the hospital once each year. Well, that only happened for one year as I was given a bedside monitor so that I could download the information to them, so saving the need for a hospital visit. I get a letter each year telling me what day to download the information. Now as I only do it once each year I have to get my head around the procedure. On the day of the transmission this week, I sat by the monitor with the app on my phone. It asked me for my date of birth, I am pretty good at remembering that, before asking for the serial number of the monitor. No problem as I entered SN........... but apparently it was not recognised. As there were three other sets of numbers on the monitor I fed each one into my phone without any of them being acceptable. Now this is where the fun really starts. In my letter, it said that if I was having trouble I could contact the hospital technician for help so I logged to the hospital website but there was no link to a technician. No problem as I had four telephone numbers on my letter. The first one did not exist, the second went through to an answerphone, while the third and fourth numbers just rang out for three minutes before cutting out. I went back to the second number and got through to the main Hospital switchboard. I asked for the technician's department to be told that the line was busy but the lady gave me another number, so now I had five numbers. That number took me to the cardiac department where the lady gave me another number for the technicians, so now I had six numbers. I phoned that number without reply for three minutes before it again cut off. Now I have to wait for another letter with a new transmission date. I think that if I have to go through all that again, my pacemaker might be working overtime. Why have things become so complicated and inefficient?
I am fairly sure that most of you enjoy a delicious cheese salad sandwich. Apparently this week those lovely researchers have concluded that cheese can be a considerable help with the onset of dementia. We buy our fresh cheese from a stall in our local market where the same family has had the stall for over fifty years. Enough of this Rubbish, I am off to make a cheese sandwich for lunch if I can remember where I put the cheese.
Just a Thought :
I never considered myself to be sentimental, but after I got my pacemaker I knew that it would always have a place in my heart.
Two financial advisers were in a restaurant eating their sandwiches. The restaurant owner told them that they could not eat their own sandwiches in his establishment. The two financial advisers sigh and swap sandwiches.
Brian
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