Yes, indeed, you never know what you’ve got until you look.
We have the decorator man in to give the hall/stairs/landing a lick of paint before we have new carpet put down.
On day 1 (yesterday) most of the time was taken removing the old carpet. And on the turn of the stairs we were awestruck at finding treasure …
Nestled in the angle of the tread and riser, between two strips of carpet gripper, underneath the carpet were found two tiny and entire mummified mice.
The poor little things had obviously, years ago, crawled in round the edge of the carpet to escape a feline kidnapper, and been unable to get their way out (or died from injuries).
Treasure trove indeed.
Category Archives: ramblings
Predictions for 2018
So I retrieved my crystal ball from the back of the wardrobe and dusted it off. Having been staring into its mistiness, on and off, for most of the last month, these are my best guesses at what it’s trying to tell me for the next year.
As before, I’ve divided the predictions into three sections: UK, Worldwide and Personal – the latter are documented but currently redacted, as are a couple of other items which some might consider over-sensitive.
Disclaimer. I remind you that these are just my ideas of what could happen; they’re based solely on hunches and gut feel; I have no inside knowledge and I haven’t been studying the form – so if you base any decision on any of this I will take no responsibility for your wanton act of idiocy or its consequences.
UK
- Brexit. It becomes clear that no Brexit deal is possible, but no-one has the courage to cancel Brexit so the UK is sleepwalking over a cliff to become a third world country (economically and socially) by 2020
- The government will ensure that, despite its expressed wish, Parliament does not have a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal
- Increasing sexual harassment claims in Parliament and involving members of the government, on top of divisions over Brexit, are likely to bring down the government
- However, it’s unlikely there will be a General Election, but if there is it will be won by Labour with a tiny majority
- Michael Portillo is given a peerage and a seat in the Cabinet
- Boris Johnson is replaced as Foreign Secretary by one of David Davies, Liam Fox or Michael Gove
- Part of the Palace of Westminster collapses and the whole building is evacuated long-term, and may even have to be demolished
- UK interest rates rise twice during the year, each time by 0.25%
- Inflation remains at 3.0-3.5%
- Stamp Duty relief for first-time buyers pushes property prices up by 10%
- Tesco try to buy another supermarket chain but are prevented from doing so by the Monopolies Commission
- Waitrose close 20 stores across UK by YE and record an operating loss
- Ryanair buy/merge with EasyJet
- Move to regulate and meter all London taxi fares (including all private hire)
- Uber wins the appeal over its withdrawn operating licence in London
- Heavy flu season with many hospitals unable to cope with demand, contributing to 10,000 excess deaths
- At least two major disasters (industrial, train crash, plane crash etc.) with a combined total of over 200 fatalities
- Driverless vehicles kill six cyclists in the UK
- Red Arrows are disbanded after another fatal accident
- Murders. [[REDACTED]]
- No snow in London for the whole of 2018 with temperatures 2°C above average across the year
- Prince Harry’s wedding day will be wet
- Meghan Markle. [[REDACTED]]
- Deaths: Prince Charles, a current England cricketer, [[REDACTED]], [[REDACTED]]
World
- There’s an attack on Donald Trump’s life, which results in the death of several bodyguards and assailants, but only minor injuries to Trump
- Average of one terror-related attack a month across Europe (including UK) with total fatalities in excess of 120
- It’s unlikely North Korea will fire a nuclear weapon at the US to start WW3, but quite possible the US will fire first probably with conventional weapons
- Kim Jong-un will fall from power in North Korea
- There could be military conflict over China’s appropriation of islands in the South China Sea
- Vladimir Putin is re-elected as Russian President; in fact there’s a good chance he will be the only candidate
- US lose a submarine and are unable to rescue the crew
- Ukraine is proven to be illegally selling radioactive materials, and cannot/will not identify all the buyers
- Saudi Arabia. [[REDACTED]]
- Civil war in Zimbabwe which spills over into South Africa due to uncertainties about the South African presidency
- The Pope is embroiled in controversy possibly surrounding a significant shift in core Catholic theology
- At least one space disaster (possibly on the ground) which kills two; and at least one major inter-planetary mission is lost in transit
- Euro – Dollar – Pound parity
- There’ll be major financial crash, with long-term knock-on effects, although it’s not clear if this will be in US, Europe or the Far East.
- At least two household name companies are hacked with over 100 million sets of personal information exposed
- Uber buys Lyft
- Two of Amazon, Google and IBM merge
- Scientists believe they have discovered extra-terrestrial life (not necessarily intelligent)
- Major eruption of Vesuvius or Mt Etna with widespread destruction and mass evacuation, but fewer than 50 fatalities
- Magnitude 7 or above earthquake in California which, with continuing drought, all but destroys their fruit production
- At least one major US city will be destroyed (and quite possibly permanently abandoned) due to a severe hurricane (possibly New Orleans, Orlando, Miami)
- Massive collapse of another Antarctic glacier or ice sheet
- Poland beat Russia in FIFA World Cup final, with Denmark and Brazil as losing semi-finalists
- Other deaths: Dalai Lama
Personal
- Anthony Powell Society. [[REDACTED]]
- Family. [[REDACTED]]
- Cats. [[REDACTED]]
- Friends 1. [[REDACTED]]
- Friends 2. [[REDACTED]]
Obviously I’ll keep a tally and will publish the results at the end of the year. Let’s hope I’ve seen further and more clearly into the mist than last year.
Predictions for 2017 — How Did I Do?
This time last year I made a series of predictions about what would happen during 2017. So what did I get right, and what wrong?
UK
- Brexit. The Supreme Court overturns the High Court judgement that Royal Prerogative cannot be used to trigger Article 50. WRONG; the decision was upheld by a majority verdict.
- Brexit. Article 50 will be triggered in the last week of March by government without the agreement of parliament. WRONG in that Parliament agreed by passing legislation authorising the PM to trigger Article 50, although without any explicit agreement to leave the EU. CORRECT in that Article 50 was triggered in the last week of March.
- Brexit. It becomes apparent that no deal is possible with the EU and that the notification under Article 50 cannot be withdrawn. WRONG as this is not yet apparent to the government.
- As a consequence, Theresa May resigns and asks Parliament to grant a General Election. WRONG in that Theresa May didn’t resign. CORRECT that there would be a General Election.
- Boris Johnson is sacked as Foreign Secretary and relegated to the back benches. WRONG
- The new Foreign Secretary is one of David Davies, Liam Fox, Michael Gove. WRONG as it didn’t arise
- Inflation will hit 2.5% by year-end. CORRECT: in March inflation was 2.3%; by November it was 3.1%.
- The Bank of England Base Rate will be reduced to 0%. WRONG; BoE base rate was raised to 0.5%.
- The Pound falls by 20% (cf. 1 January) against the US Dollar and the Euro. WRONG; pound was down 4% against the Euro and up 9.5% against the US dollar.
- FT100 falls by at least 10% compared with the start of the year. WRONG FT100 was up 7.6% on the year.
- Unemployment rises by 10% compared with December 2016. WRONG unemployment was down from 4.8% to 4.3%.
- GDP falls by at least 2% year-on-year; the UK is in recession by the end of the year. WRONG; GDP was up 1.7% as measured 3Q2016 to 3Q2017 (latest data available).
- The Government will introduce legislation to implement Nordic model of prostitution. WRONG
- The Government also implements alcohol minimum pricing. WRONG; although CORRECT in Scotland.
- There is at least one major incident (plane crash, train crash, terrorist attack, industrial accident etc.) with over 50 fatalities. CORRECT; the Grenfell Tower fire claimed 71 lives. Add to that two terror attacks in London and one in Manchester with a total of 35 deaths.
- At least one high street name goes out of business with over 500 job losses. CORRECT. Monarch airline collapsed with 1858 jobs lost. Also Jaeger collapsed with 700 jobs threatened as did Multiyork with 550 jobs threatened.
- At least 2 major hospitals are forced to close due to finance problems, with loss of jobs and healthcare; there is no allowance for anyone to pick up the slack. WRONG
- Two horses die in the Grand National, which is then permanently scrapped. WRONG; all the horses survived the race.
- There’s significant flooding somewhere in the UK in March, May and October. WRONG about March and May; CORRECT as there was major flooding in Cumbria in October.
- A meteor strike destroys two houses, but there are no fatalities. WRONG
- There is finally proof that there are non-native big cats living wild in the UK; there are enough to maintain a small breeding population. WRONG
- The Queen dies unexpectedly followed within 3 months by Prince Philip. WRONG
- Prince Charles ducks becoming King thus allowing William to take to the throne. WRONG because it didn’t arise.
- Other Deaths: Paul McCartney, Bruce Forsythe, Bob Geldof, Michael Parkinson. CORRECT about Bruce Forsyth. WRONG about the others.
World
- Donald Trump is inaugurated as US President amid strident protests, possible rioting and several fatalities. CORRECT, although I don’t recall any fatalities.
- During the year there are moves to impeach Trump which may succeed. CORRECT although they have come to nothing.
- Obama care is scrapped. CORRECT
- NASA’s budget is halved. WRONG
- An accident (maybe a debris strike?) destroys the ISS with loss of the crew. WRONG
- Consequent on the above NASA abandons manned space flight for the foreseeable future. WRONG as it didn’t arise.
- Trump visits Russia; Putin visits the US. WRONG, surprisingly.
- US imposes severe restrictions on immigration. CORRECT although the courts seem to be unsure about whether the bans are legal or not.
- Against all the odds the USA abolishes the death penalty. WRONG
- Major banking collapse somewhere in the developed world, possibly Italy, USA or UK. CORRECT; the Italian government had to bail out two banks to the tune of €17bn.
- Major cyber attack brings down power/utility infrastructure affecting hundreds of thousands, probably in USA but maybe Western Europe. CORRECT; the WannaCry attack in May affected over 200k systems worldwide including a significant chunk of the UK NHS.
- Marine Le Pen is elected French President precipitating an existential crisis in the EU. WRONG; Le Pen lost the run-off to Emmanuel Macron.
- Turmoil in South Africa after the arrest of a top politician. WRONG; not noticeably although it seems to have been a close run thing with President Zuma.
- President Mugabe of Zimbabwe dies. WRONG; although he was forced from office in November only to be replaced by one of his acolytes.
- Consequently the regime in Zimbabwe becomes even more repressive, in an attempt to prevent a civil war; this triggers a mass exodus of blacks to neighbouring countries. WRONG as it didn’t arise.
- At least one major earthquake (magnitude 7.5+) with over 200 fatalities in Asia and another in South America. MAYBE: two quakes in Mexico (magnitude 8.1 and 7.1) with 360+ deaths; a 7.9 quake in Papua New Guinea with few deaths; a 7.3 quake in Iran/Iraq with over 400 deaths.
- Scientists in Tasmania discover a small breeding population of Thylacine. WRONG; although there were reports of possible sightings in Queensland.
- At least two major civilian plane crashes each with over 100 fatalities. WRONG
- There is a significant downturn in air travel which causes at least one major carrier to fail. CORRECT; the economic/trading environment was a major contributor to the failure of Monarch Airlines.
- At least one conspiracy theory of 2012-16 turns out to be true. WRONG, as far as I am aware.
- There’s a major epidemic of a new infectious disease across a whole continent (or more). WRONG, again as far as I am aware.
- IBM is bought by/merged with another large US corporation (possible contenders: Microsoft, Apple, Google). WRONG
- Other deaths: Rupert Murdoch, the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush. WRONG on all those.
Personal
These predictions were previously redacted.
- Knee Surgery 1. Operation on right knee successful although recovery takes >3 months. CORRECT; surgery was very successful although recovery was nothing over 3 months.
- Knee Surgery 2. Left knee replacement not before November and probably in 2018. WRONG; operation was done in September and again successful and good recovery.
- Pension. IBM reduces all pensions by 10%. WRONG
- Deaths amongst Family & Friends. Joan Wayman (before end-January); Cyril; Jessie; Stan Owen. CORRECT about Stan who died in April. CORRECT that Joan died, although on Boxing Day and not in January. WRONG about Cyril and Jessie.
- Anthony Powell Society. I am replaced as Secretary as the Society Trustees decide on a new direction/strategy. MAYBE: I wasn’t directly replaced but announced (voluntarily) that I am standing-down at the 2018 AGM so as not to impede the refocussing of the Society.
Well that’s not a very impressive year! Definintely could do better.
I’ll be posting my predictions for 2018 in the next few days, so if you have any good predictions please do share them.
My 2017 in Summary
As for the last few years here’s a summary of my achievements and engagement (or, more accurately the lack of it) during 2017.
Yet again it has been a strange year with significant depression all year round (not just in the winter) and in effect two knee replacement operations (OK the first was in the last few days of 2016, but recovery wasn’t!). Despite that I have somehow managed to function most of the time and have been insanely busy, although I will be cutting back commitments during 2018. All in all I don’t feel I’ve achieved anything and haven’t even managed to get anything off the bucket list! So here’s the summary …
At the beginning of the year I posted 10 Things I’m Trying to Do in 2017. The results are in and, yet again, it’s fair to say I lost badly.
1. Keep breathing – WIN
2. Do something not done before – WIN; attended a book launch
3. Go somewhere not been before – WIN;Islip & Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire; Tutbury & Sudbury Hall, Staffordshire/Derbyshire; Stondon Massey, Essex
4. Be drawn/painted/photographed nude (again) – LOSE
5. Walk across Millennium Bridge – LOSE
6. Complete AP London Photography project – LOSE
7. Do more photography – LOSE
8. Monthly Day Out – LOSE; we managed two
9. Visit Horniman Museum – LOSE
10. Significant family history progress – WIN; in that I reconnected with my family in Canada as they told me about my Aunt’s and my cousin’s deaths
That’s a pathetic 4/10. 2018 really can’t get any worse!
Looking at the year through the usual 25 questions doesn’t look any better.
1. What did you do that you’d never done before?
a. Had my photo in the Guardian magazine for 27 May (it was the image from Laura Dodsworth’s Manhood).
b. Attended the book launch of Manhood.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No because I didn’t make any, and I never will.
3. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
a. A big lottery win.
b. Free time.
4. What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory?
13 September – left knee replacement.
5. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Only the left knee replacement – and recovery from the right kneee op as well.
6. What was the best thing you bought?
a. Knee replacement.
b. Hilary Spurling’s biography of Anthony Powell.
7. Where did most of your money go?
Other than an exorbitant amount of tax, fuck alone knows.
8. What did you get really, really excited about?
Nothing; I don’t do excitement, just like I don’t do panic and crisis.
9. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a. happier or sadder? – sadder, because the depression is worse.
b. thinner or fatter? – a couple of kilos heavier (it’s called Christmas!).
c. richer or poorer? – about the same.
10. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleep.
Sitting in the garden.
Being generally active.
11. What do you wish you’d done less of?
a. Sleep.
b. Depression.
12. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Continuing to breathe.
Knee replacements.
13. What was your biggest failure?
Depression.
14. How many one-night stands?
None – where would I find the energy and enthusiasm?
15. What was your favourite TV program?
Yet again, I’ve watched hardly any TV programmes from end to end all year, mainly because it is all such garbage. But the best of the few? Probably the RI Christmas Lectures.
16. What was the best book you read?
Hilary Spurling’s biography of Anthony Powell.
Laura Dodsworth’s Manhood.
(I must get round to writing reviews of them!)
17. What did you want and get?
a. Hilary Spurling’s Anthony Powell.
b. A second new knee.
18. What did you want and not get?
a. A big lottery win.
b. Cancellation of Brexit.
c. The lack of depression.
19. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
a. Universal acceptance of nudity and sexuality rather than stigmatisation.
b. Everyone being treated properly, as a person, with gender, ethnicity etc. being totally unimportant.
c. Not having depression.
20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
As little as possible as much as possible.
21. What kept you sane?
Nothing – it’s a lost cause.
22. Who did you miss?
My mother.
23. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017:
a. All men are guilty.
b. Biological gender is irrelevant to worth and ability. [Well I knew that, but this seemed a good way to encapsulate the concept in a soundbite.]
24. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year:
“Statistics … suggest it is truly dismal these days to have a Y chromosome.”
[Mark Rice-Oxley; Guardian; 21 November 2017]
25. Your hopes for 2018
a. Sanity all round.
b. A government with the courage to cancel Brexit.
Yet again the overall result is REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT; kicking the depression would seem to be one of the keys!
Will the manager last another season, one asks? Or does he still have the full confidence of the board?
Anyway, enough of my misery. How was your 2017? And what are your hopes for 2018?
Happy New Year
“a provocative and thoughtful purple shade” which is the designated colour for 2018.
Auction Amusement
Out local auction house’s final sale of the year has come up with a few nice gems amongst the lots. Odd things, and strange combinations, but sadly no stuffed ferrets.
A charming early 19th century boot snuff box with pique decoration inlaid with bone and dated to the sole 1848 [below]
A charming 19th century treen nutmeg grater styled as a post box indicating the inland letter rate with a small picture panel behind
A collection of old lighters, a farriers pen knife, a propelling pencil, safety razors and a Chinese knife in a shagreen scabbard etc.
A plain silver photograph frame, London 1913, containing a period photograph of a young Royal Artillery officer, together with a late Victorian silver-topped glass jar and a match-holder made from the wood of HMS Victory
A collection of approximately 250 china and pottery thimbles
A collection of blue glass wares including a liqueur set, a hardwood temple bell, two horn purses, a turbo tiger vacuum cleaner, a metal shoe last, a large 19th century family bible, model soldiers, further glass ware including sugar bowls etc.
A 19th century Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine in original wooden case
Two 19th century irons, two vintage watering cans and two boxes containing vintage padlocks and keys and screws
Five model ships in glass bottles, a glass model sailing boat, lustre sugar bowl and silver plated figure of a swan [above]
An Amplon gramophone arm, a The Little Kracka fishing reel and a cased timepiece
A varied lot including a copper bed pan on turned wood handle, two brass fireside companion sets, a Burago model Porsche 356B, old planes and chisels, two Whitefriars glass vases, a small quantity of flat ware, a silver plated toast rack and dish, a vintage beaded bag, unused perfumes including Chanel No.5., vintage boxed dominoes, a small quantity of china etc.
Two shelves of interesting vintage wood and metal wares including hip flasks, binoculars, steins, dominoes, buttons, 19th century papier mache box, leather case containing old keys, ceramic and silver plated oval tray, wooden architectural fitments etc.
A vintage wooden cased NHS prescription dispenser [above]
No, I don’t know either!
A fine Japanese carved bone sword of impressive size, decorated overall with warriors and formal ornament, Meiji period
A vintage Tate & Lyle pine packing case for Afternoon Tea Cube Sugar
A stuffed leather figure of a rhinoceros
A large metal walking staff surmounted by a crow [right and below]
Thoughts on Family History
In doing my family history I, like most, keep my records in a piece of software designed for the purpose. In my case this is Family Tree Maker (FTM), which (is no longer owned by but) syncs with Ancestry [https://www.ancestry.com]. I looked quite hard at the options many years ago and found that FTM was the most useable of the many family tree applications available.
And then a couple of years ago, when Ancestry announced they were ceasing support and development of FTM, and before it was acquired by Mackiev, I looked again at the market and still found nothing I thought came up to FTM for either functionality or usability. So like many others I was very happy when Mackiev took on FTM and have worked with Ancestry to maintain the FTM-Ancestry integration.
What all family tree software allows you to do is plot not just your direct line, but also the branches by adding the laterals (siblings etc.) for each person. I know many don’t bother with this but concentrate only of their father’s father’s father’s … line, or at least their direct lines. To me this is not a good approach for two reasons.
First of all, adding in all those laterals (siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, half- and step-siblings, and more, going ever backwards) provides more information. And hunting around them can often provide key evidence to verify (or at least suggest) one’s actual ancestral line. Nefarious family members are often witnesses at marriages, the person registering a death, or shown on a census as sharing a house.
Secondly, this provides a huge amount of rich interest, and often the odd skeleton in the wardrobe. Ah, so great-grandmother was actually a tailor with her own business and not just any old seamstress. GGGG-uncle Bulgaria did serve at Waterloo, as Grandma always said. And no-one in the family knew great-grandfather had a bastard child after he left great-grandmother in 1910, and in the process he told fibs to either the registrar of births or the 1911 census. [This latter actually happened in my family: my mother had a half-aunt who she was totally unaware of until I found her.]
But in amongst all this it is often quite hard to remember where the gaps in your research are, and how good is the quality of the data you have. This is important if, like Noreen and I, you believe in being forensic in proving linkages. I’m never really happy until I can be pretty sure my evidence would stand the “beyond reasonable doubt” test of a criminal court. However, as Clarenceux King of Arms has reminded me more than once, you do occasionally have to fall back to the civil court standard of “on the balance of probabilities” – which does still require substantial evidence which would be allowable in court but not quite as rigorously as in a criminal court. There’s far too much guesswork and wishful thinking amongst family historians, and that won’t do, nor will copying other people’s research without checking it. Remember also the plural of anecdote is not data.
All the software packages I’ve looked at do allow you to reference and source your information, as any good researcher should. But what I have never found is a package which allows you to set, for each piece of information, a Red/Amber/Green traffic light style flag to indicate the quality of the data with a quick visual check. For instance a birth registration might be GREEN if you have the birth certificate or have seen the baptismal register; AMBER if it is information which is known in the family but not well documented, like Great-grandma’s birthday; but RED if is a date you’ve back-calculated from the age given on a death certificate or census (both of which are notoriously unreliable, albeit useful). To me this is a major failing and any family tree software application which includes RAG flags will have a significant selling point.
One thing I have found useful, and which provides some part of a way round the omission of RAG flags is a “family table”. Many sources provide pretty charts which allow you to plot out you, your parents, their parents, and their parents, and so on; ie. just your direct ancestors. This can be in circular form or in the more usual form of a tree. And they are mostly large cumbersome wallcharts with room for little more than the name; dates of birth and death if you’re lucky.
I’ve found it better to make my own using a simple table structure in MS Word (any word processing or spreadsheet software should do) – I stole the original idea from my wife and have since adapted it. I have three sheets, which takes me back to my GGGG-grandparents (so 250 or so years). It is designed to be printed on normal A4 paper; and carrying two or three sheets of paper in a pocket or handbag isn’t unreasonable – and very useful if you get into family conversations with relatives or friends. OK, so it isn’t as pretty as many of the commercial offerings, but that’s not important; it’s much more convenient.
Here are the first couple of pages of my table (click on the images for a larger view):
[I’ve redacted a few details, just to make it a bit harder for the criminally minded, but even if I hadn’t all the information is in the public domain, although it might cost a few quid and a lot of time to get at it.]
For me the other way this table wins is because I’ve used colour-coding. That means I have a very quick visual check on where I have holes and information I need to prove. The more black there is on the table the better the data. And as one might imagine by the time one reaches page 3 there are a lot of gaps and a lot of red – it’s all work in progress.
If anyone would like a blank copy of the table you can download the MS Word version here. If you do use it, let me know – just so I can wallow in feeling slightly useful! 🙂
Meanwhile happy ancestor hunting.
Ten Things
Having just had my second knee transplant (sorry, total prosthetic knee replacement) I thought that for this month’s Ten Things I should maybe write a few of the important things I’ve learnt about knee replacement operations.
Ten Things I’ve Learnt about Knee Replacement
I’m taking as read all the usual stuff about operations, general anaesthetics, etc. (like anti-DVT stockings, morphine causing constipation). This is knee replacement specific things. First of all it is important to realise that no two knee operations are the same, so what follows is based on my experiences; yours may be different.
- There are three key people in a good outcome: a good surgeon, a good physiotherapist and you! Yes, you! A good surgeon and good physio are critical, but it is equally critical that you put in the work at rehab!
- If you can find out who your surgeon will be, check him (or her) out. If you have a choice, ensure you get someone who specialises in knee replacements rather than a generalist. What’s their track record? How many have they done? The more experienced they are the better.
- Anything you can do before your operation to strengthen your legs muscles, specifically the quads at the front of the thigh, is going to be helpful in rehab.
- Before you go into hospital ensure everything is ready at home, especially think about trip hazards: gangways are clear, rugs are stuck down or removed.
- Get a urinal (maybe two) with a lid – something to pee into in the middle of the night. (They’re cheap and many come with a “female funnel attachment”.) Even with a light on, you do not want to be staggering to the bathroom, on crutches, maybe in pain, barely half-awake, in the wee small hours and while trying to avoid the lurking cats and dogs.
- Unless you have a “slave” (aka. a partner) to fetch and carry for you, get a good bag (shopping bag size) which you can put over your shoulder or round your neck to carry things around when you’re using crutches.
- Post-op your #1 enemy is infection. Ensure no-one (and I mean no-one) touches your operated leg without having visibly washed their hands and are preferably wearing disposable gloves.
- Do as much as possible to ensure you get a good physiotherapist. Poor, or no, physio is the fastest way to ensure you don’t recover your mobility. Rehab physio will start in hospital; they’ll likely have you standing with a frame and walking a few gentle paces just 12 or so hours after your operation. You will be given exercises to do. Do them – as much as you can through the pain (but stop when it gets too painful). And keep doing them. Make sure you get as much post-op out-patient physio as you can and that your first session is within 7-10 days of leaving hospital; these sessions will help monitor your progress and adjust the exercises to your needs. The physios are not there to be sadistic (though sometimes it feels like it!) but to get you doing the right exercises, the right way, and at the right time, to ensure the best possible outcome.
- Recovery is painful! Think about what has been done – someone has done around 90 minutes serious carpentry to remove the degraded bone and replace it, very accurately, with some highly engineered metalwork; and that’s all on one of the most complex joints in the body. Discuss pain control with your clinicians; they will prescribe the right analgesics. Although the pain will recede over time, do not expect to be pain-free for several weeks. But a good outcome is well worth the pain.
- You should be provided with elbow crutches and taught to use them in the day or so after your operation. You will need them for several weeks. Go carefully and don’t get over-confident as this will lead to accidents. On the other hand you should be encouraged to dispense with the crutches as soon as you safely can.
There is a lot more I can say, and I do intend to try to write all this up for the benefit of others. But that will do for now!
Written Rules
If you think that good, clear, written English is irrelevant, pedantic or elitist you really need to think again and read this from the Guardian …
Regardless of style (which needs to vary with context) good, clear, factually correct writing which is correct in grammar and spelling, helps engage the reader. And after all, that is what you want, isn’t it!?
And yes, NHS and HMRC, I’m looking especially at you!
Just One Person
Following on from my post of yesterday, British Naturism (BN) are challenging those of us who are nudists/naturists to talk about it.
Their campaign is called “Just One Person” and we are being challenged to tell one person about our naturism. As their press release says
We hope to inspire those who do not talk about their Naturist lifestyle choice outside to tell just one person.
Many people don’t even know they know a Naturist and assume that we are still that fringe minority on the far edges of society. In fact, we are their next-door neighbours, their work colleagues, the people on the next table in the pub, in the aeroplane seats in the row in front, in the car hire queue behind them at the airport … everywhere.
We completely understand the individual fears and possible complications … but do want to encourage you to help Naturism in the UK to grow and to become normal. While it remains hidden, misguided and incorrect views of Naturism will continue … We want to escape from the association that nudity means sex, or even worse, perversion.
[The aims] are to:
– Improve the public understanding of Naturism by engaging people in conversation about it.
– Encourage more people to become involved in Naturism.
– Help increase people’s confidence in themselves (by having the conversation) and their bodies through experiencing non-judgemental social nudity.
So if you’re a naturist – even, like me, a solitary naturist (largely through force of circumstance) – or just someone who is not afraid of naturism and social nudity, go out and tell people. Help break down those unnecessary taboos – taboos about keeping naturism to yourself; taboos about not talking to people about naturism; taboos about the fear that naturism will deprave and corrupt. Even just a blog post or something on Facebook will help; but better to talk to people face-to-face and have an open conversation.
What? You’re still scared of nudity? Remember two things. First, we all know what’s underneath this t-shirt and jeans. And second, nude bodies are not sexual per se; it’s the context that makes them sexual. So really, why is there a problem?