Disgraceful Rider

Hospitals Parking and Phones

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:15:01 +0000

My friend, a Ward Clerk, with a relative at present in St James Hospital, Leeds, told me that there is only one central switchboard now, based at Leeds General to cover both hospitals. Consequently if you phone up you may expect to wait several minutes to be answered at all. At the moment – and for the last 2 days – the Ward my friend’s relative is in has a fault on the phone which means it appears constantly engaged and nobody can get through to the Ward. As it is weekend, the switchboard say that the fault won’t be attended to until Monday. Therefore unless a patient has a mobile (and charger) then they must wonder why no relative has enquired about them. My friend could, of course, phone to the one by her relative’s bed – at a cost of 50p per minute. Yes, that’s right, 50p a minute for someone who may not be very well off and might want to have an actual conversation to reassure themselves and cheer up the patient. How long before the NHS starts charging patients for food/drink/bandages/drugs? Already there is a system for bringing patients requiring surgery into the hospital the same morning they are to be operated on. This means that someone who is very unwell must be up around 5.00am to phone the hospital by 6.00am to be told if there is a bed available and that they can actually come in that day. The system means that someone else, admitted during the previous evening/overnight, may be occupying the bed already despite some highly-paid surgeon presumably then twiddling their thumbs, having expected to be operating? Some Wards, as I have been told, are craftily getting their patients in the previous evening so that they are actually occupying a bed for the morning of their surgery. Dear God… get yourselves private insurance people if you can possibly afford it. Unfortunately Rider cannot but hopefully a little bit in the Building Society might help. There is something deeply wrong – shown in just these two examples of what goes on. Don’t get me started on the exhorbitant parking charges – you can’t claim some of the charge for being delayed past your appointment time. Money making scam…go into providing telephone services and parking for patients/distraught relatives …. make yourself a fortune. Did I say that there is a proposal to make the central switchboard voice recognition only? God help you if you don’t speak the Queen’s English.

Warrior and Galloper Jack

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:57:59 +0000

Just finished reading ‘Warrior – The Amazing Story of a real War Horse’ by General Jack Seely (Lord Mottistone). Jack Seely bred Warrior – who was a thoroughbred but only 15.2HH – and they both had an incredible time during WW1. Man and horse developed a wonderful understanding to which only a true ‘horseperson’ can relate. Warrior lived to the great age of almost 33, when sadly he was put down due to feedstuff shortage in the Spring of wartime 1941 – Jack Seely would not have asked for special privilege as a man of old fashioned honour. He wrote the closing words in his book – ’26 years of intimate friendship with such a horse is a privilege granted to very few, but it has been mine’. My feeling exactly about my old Pony ‘Star’ who I was lucky enough to have for 10 years. A ‘must read’ book, together with the story of Jack Seely’s life ‘Galloper Jack’. The man had a life which, if it were not absolutely true, would not be believed. He was a Minister in Asquith’s government from 1911 to 1914. A contemporary of Churchill. He commanded the Canadian cavalry on the Western Front in WW1 and horse and rider were painted by Sir Alfred Munnings who illustrated his book about Warrior. What a character – what a horse. Enjoy…..

Supermarket Checkouts

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:53:32 +0000

Rider and Him Indoors only wanted a few things forgotten for Xmas. Supermarket self checkouts are not used due to a hatred of machines that talk at you but never say what you want to hear, not enough room to pack and store full bags of shopping and wanting to keep people in work. However on this occasion Him Indoors took charge as men often do when they rarely do the weekly shop. Suffice to say we left the shop with an extra item in the bag than appeared on the checkout list – a stick of celery. Oh dear…. Rider is worried. Will our faces appear on some security camera and then in the local paper? ‘Parish Clerk and husband steal stick of celery’. Will there be a knock on the door just as presents are being exchanged on Xmas morning? Will Rider be hauled away leaving family to sob into their Xmas Bucks Fizz whilst they cook beans on toast since turkey will be off with no-one with the knowhow to cook it? Perhaps celery should be buried in the garden or burnt to destroy the evidence. It isn’t a very large stick – and to be honest it doesn’t have much of a heart as supermarket bought ones often don’t – it would have hardly been worth paying for. Do you think the Judge would be convinced ? Rider is forced to wonder how many shoplifters are actually innocent and whether the machine would have registered bottles of wine instead of a stick of celery which would have at least given going to goal more street cred. Merry Christmas. S:^)

Wind Farms

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:51:23 +0000

A Planning Inspector has passed five white (elephant) turbines to be built on a bit of land next to the A1 between two villages at the extreme edge of Leeds City Council’s AREA. To be fair to the City Council they did oppose them. These turbines may enrich the company which builds them but, in practical terms, they will be quite useless. They don’t work when there’s no wind or when there’s too much. Five are neither here nor there in terms of energy produced even when working optimally. The nearby communities won’t be getting a reduction in electricity bills directly from the turbines. There may be a case for large off shore wind farms – may be – but the tide will always come in and out as at the generating station at the mouth of the River Rance in France; the sun will blaze down in many many Countries in the world giving them free energy; on many rivers the Archimedes Screw will always produce power. Five turbines to tick some box somewhere? Why bother about Green Belt. Why bother to consult local residents. Why bother to take notice of a massive Local Authority’s views. Will ‘our’ turbines actually get built now that the Government has tinkered with subsidies to make it less attractive for them to be built? Fingers crossed somebody gets real – and no Rider won’t be directly affected but blood pressure has been raised.

Pawn Revisited

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:55:58 +0000

On our Route 66 we spent a couple of nights in Las Vegas. Driving into town we actually passed the Pawn shop which has featured on a TV programme (Pawn Stars) for all the weird and wonderful stuff which gets taken in there. What isn’t filmed is the long line of people (maybe 40+) snaking out of the door and around the side all waiting to go in to pawn (or maybe reclaim) stuff. Our guide said they were all either waiting to pawn stuff to use the money to go back to the casinos (at midday) or – less likely – they’d actually won enough to reclaim the stuff they’d pawned. Las Vegas was jaw dropping for the size of the casinos. Otherwise – if you’ve been to Paris or Venice, New York or Egypt et al, then the pastiche of them is not quite as amazing and wonderful as to the many Americans who will never be able to travel to see the real thing. The monorail was terrific – a great piece of engineering and one to copy. Wonderful Shows of course but all built in the middle of a desert and requiring masses of water to be brought from somewhere. Millions and millions of dollars being spent in a hedonistic pursuit of more millions – only in America!

Waists

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:21:58 +0000

Have you noticed how so many women these days don’t have waists? Obviously this is why makers of jeans and trousers have made them to ‘sit on the hips’ for so long. Rather than being brutally honest and saying…. these sit on the hips for those of you who are either overweight or too skinny to have a shape….. they’ve tried to con us into believing it’s desirable and wearable fashion. Like the Emperor’s new clothes. Well here’s the good news… Next have some gorgeous cords which sit on the waist for those of us with a proper womanly figure. Time to start a bring back the waist movement. Stop showing your navel – ugly if you’re skinny and hideous if you’re fat. Move over for those of us who’ve had the willpower to maintain our svelte figure for over ?? decades (I shall not reveal how many). Yeehaw for waists …. I shall put another pair on my Xmas list S;-)

The Lost Sheep

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:09:28 +0000

Parents never stop worrying about their children. Only when those children get some of their own do they realise this and wish they’d been less stressful to their parents. We’ve had plenty of angst at our house but only the sort everyone gets. Some friends are having a particularly tough time with one of their children at the moment – after suffering from depression for quite some time, the young man departed in the middle of the night to sort himself out according to the note he left. His parents don’t know where he’s gone so all they can do is wait – they just want to know he’s OK. Every possible scenario has gone through their minds – probably not the actual one of course. Fingers crossed it will be the making of him and he will come back his own man with a clear idea of what he wants to do and become. Friends can only stand by and be supportive and thank their lucky stars they’re not waiting for that knock on the door. They will never stop looking for their lost sheep … think of that the next time you see a young person huddled in a doorway, a friendly enquiry might reunite a lost sheep with their family… will you pass by?

Hackfall Woods

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:18:20 +0000

If you go down to the woods today… go to Hackfall Woods between Ripon and Masham, just outside of Grewelthorpe. Gorgeous autumn day spent walking there today. There are scattered follies – one like a castle which has stupendous views – one you can stay in, again with the same fantastic long-distance views including across to the mock castle. There are water features together with the River Ure running through the tree shrouded valley. There are lots of different paths to take, some short and some long. Follies to marvel over. Collect a leaftlet or download information before you go. You can make a day of it. Have lunch in Masham and visit the Black Sheep brewery (food there too), or lunch in Grewelthorpe before setting off. There were lots of families (and dogs) enjoying the paths. It would have been perfection but for the wasp…. a beastie attacked Rider’s lefthand little pinkie. Ouch! Stop laughing!! Into every life a little rain must fall… so had to call in at Ripon on the way home for a sticky bun to make me forget the throbbing.. S;^)

Autumn Day

admin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 08:59:55 +0000

It’s a gorgeous sunny October day, after 5 miserable ones. One of those days to rip off all your clothes and run into the woods yelling ‘who’s for a game of conkers then?’ Not that Rider has done that yet but as I’m being dragged inexorably towards the twilight I’m becoming bolder and, between you and me, I’ve got the figure for it – and the competitiveness. There were no cissy gloves which had to be worn back in the day. No goggles in case a bit of conker flew up into your eye. No Health and Safety officials stopping the bold shinning up into the trees to get the biggest specimen. I wonder if kids can still run about in the school playground – probably stopped in case they run into each other and cause an injury which can be claimed for. No wonder so many kids are piling on the pounds. Anyway – I digress – ‘Why naked?’ I hear you ask. Reader – the fun is all in the risk….. S;^)

Walking in the Rain : Or Not

admin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:22:07 +0000

Decisions, decisions… whether to go on a 5 miler in ‘soak you through but not notice it because it’s drizzly’ rain or whether to do something else. (I know that kind of rain from way back when I was riding. Doesn’t feel too bad – not beating down – but insidious stuff and you end up sitting in a puddle of water on the saddle which is quite funny when you trot… sort of ‘up’ down ‘squelch’ and so on). Anyway, I digress, we went for the something else. We went to the Lavender Cafe in Knaresborough - once the oldest chemist’s shop in the country. There are all sorts of goodies for sale on the ground floor and up some deeply bowed wooden stairs is the cafe. Rustic tables and chairs which may have been rescued from a skip but OK for all that. No straight walls. Don’t leave it too long if you want a pee as there is just one unisex toilet. We had lemon and lavender scones with lemon curd and clotted cream. There are all sorts of other goodies to be had if you want something more substantial. We wondered where the 5 who set off on the walk were… were they head down slogging across a soggy field….were they poking clumps of mud off their boots… were their rainproofs really proof…did they have that annoying drip down the hood onto the nose, or the sudden rush of water when they looked down…did they enjoy the halfway hot drink. Him Indoors took a photo of his plate of scone to put on the walking website as he thought they might appreciate it…. S;^)