A Day of change & a damned culture

It feels like a day of change today. This morning we welcomed two new members to our support group. Both are unique and bring their own problems and experiences. I am reminded of just how diverse society is.  It is very easy to get used to people, those you see regularly and interact with. New people bring fresh insight and dynamics, and it is interesting to see the new connections being made between the new and old members of the group. Change can be good, but it can feel odd.

Weather today has been pretty miserable. It's still very misty, but quite mild. My drive to Spalding this morning was peppered with countless mindless idiots who don't understand when they should use the bright shiny lights on the front of their cars. Another (blue Vauxhall Cavalier driver) even thought it would be great to overtake anything in front of him, at speed and without indication. In a changing world, one thing seems to remain constant - the driving skills and behaviour of South Holland road users. Rant over.

I see that Ceefax will be switched off tonight at 11.30pm when Northern Ireland's remaining analogue TV signal is powered down for good. It's amazing to read that Ceefax has been around for 38 years and how at its peak in the 1990's, 20 million viewers regularly used the service, relying on it for their news headlines, weather forecasts and and sports results - all in a simple though blocky format.

The Jimmy Savile scandal is still very much in the news and continues to dominate the headlines. George Entwistle appeared before MP's earlier today to explain why the Newsnight report into the original allegations had been dropped. I like many do find his explanation a little difficult to understand and I question why he was not in the least bit curious as to why the report had been cancelled. I find it very hard to believe that a person in his position would not want to know why, or enquire at the very least into what the report was about.
I do feel that although obviously the person at the centre of the allegations and investigations is Jimmy Savile, what we are also investigating and to some extent blaming, is an entire era and its culture. It seems to me that it is not just the actions of an individual, but a culture that allowed for such actions to take place and go unreported for so long. I cannot believe that no one else knew. One only has to watch an edition of 'Top of the Pops' from the 1970's to see young girls literally falling all over the presenters. Other programmes of the era record over-familiarity between presenters and audience members. There is a stark physical element to many - arms around shoulders and waists, embraces and touching - that today simply would not happen. It would be judged as assault, pure and simple. The culture then was totally different to the culture of today, and it is the culture then that played an important part in allowing the abuse to take place. We judge that period by the standards of today. Yes it was wrong, very wrong but the culture and the society of the 1970's allowed it and expected to see it - a few hours of TV from the period is evidence enough.

My Moodscope rating is 33% today, pretty good.

Whatever Next...?

I was horrified to read a report in our local Spalding Guardian today that a sheep has actually been butchered in an open field in Spalding. What makes this all the worse, as if it could be, is that the sheep was pregnant and all its four feet had been removed along with some of its innards. How absolutely appalling. Have we really allowed our society to go full circle and return to the days of barbarism and savage acts of wilful depravity? The carcase will no doubt be doing the rounds locally being offered for sale to someone idiot enough to buy it with no questions asked. What they won't know is that the sheep was pumped full of medication to assist it through the lambing phase. This makes it totally unfit for human consumption. It seems the sheep has had the last laugh, well bleat....

Catch these inhuman, savage and feral idiots and lock them up for good.

My son's first swear-word & Friday road idiots

For a Friday, today was quite typical. It will though now be remembered for the day my 4 year old son uttered his first swear-word - 'Shit'. There were witnesses to it - my mother-in-law and my wife heard him say it as he rolled about the floor in a small tent. He's managed to get himself stuck and out came the expletive. Now, I'm against bad language generally - especially where children are concerned - and I can only assume he's picked up this new word from playschool, for the language used by other children his age is really terrible. It's no great surprise when you meet some of the parents responsible for these little budding brain surgeons and airline pilots (not!) - they communicate only by shouting at the top of their voices and every other word is an expletive. You cannot blame the children when they are growing-up in this kind of environment and I shouldn't be surprised at all that my son has brought the word home with him. I'm actually quite resigned to the fact that his language will become more diverse and expletive ridden the older he gets. He knows what guns are for and associates them with instant death, as he demonstrates on his mother and father (and the dog) regularly. I suppose I don't really want him to grow-up. The world is just so full of nasty things and equally nasty people. I must face the fact that I can't protect him from everything...

I can guarantee at least one idiot every Friday evening flouting our road laws or endangering road users. This evening was no exception. Once again the new and clearly marked 50mph limit was ignored by two drivers who shot past me at 60-70mph, and once again I was nearly pushed off the road by some idiot who had no idea how to safely overtake. The standard of driving in this county has to be the worst I have ever seen, and possibly the worst in the UK. It's no wonder Lincolnshire has some of the highest incidents of road accidents and fatalities.
Enforcement is the answer and I don't think education is. Those breaking the law are young and education has either failed them or they simply can't be bothered. It's sad, but it's a fact. But all the while there are fewer and fewer police on our streets, they'll simply continue to get away with it. If you want people to drive according to the law, I'm afraid you have to make them.

A beautiful podiatrist and a mindless idiot

Two things to mention today... Firstly I had an appointment at the Johnson Hospital in Spalding this afternoon. This visit was for my feet, specifically to find out if my diabetes has damaged them. It was my first visit to the Podiatric Dept and though I had a good idea of what was involved, I still had a nervous feeling while I waited for my name to be called. The dental department was right opposite where I was sitting. I have an acute fear of dentists so I felt better knowing I could be waiting for a tooth extraction or a filling.
After about ten minutes, my name was called and I followed the voice into a room to find an absolute vision of loveliness. I really didn't have any pre-expectations of what a podiatrist should look like, but it's fair to say I didn't expect what I found. Being happily married, I shouldn't be writing this, I know and if my wife ever reads this, I'm in trouble. My feet were about to be handled by a stunningly beautiful young lady. I can't say anything else and I certainly won't lie. She was beautiful. As she read through the list of medication I take, we joked about the things I had wrong with myself and for a very short time, we were in each other's company and enjoying it. I imagined what it would be like to know her better. It was wrong, of course it was, but there was a longing to find out more and I drifted off to situations and places where we were together.
I was brought back to reality as I felt something cold on my feet. It was some kind of gel which was needed so her probe could detect circulation. She was very gentle and she seemed so interested in me. Of course it was for purely professional reasons, but I couldn't help but imagine how caring she would be in different circumstances. It left me thinking that whoever won her heart would be a very fortunate person indeed.
My feet were given a clean bill of health and she told me she would discharge me as there wasn't anything seriously wrong with them. I detected a tiny hint of reluctance in her voice as she told me this. But she quickly added that I could contact her at any time if I had any problems or needed her help and advice. She printed me off some leaflets on how to look after my feet as I put my shoes and socks back on. She asked if I had any questions - I told her no but that I was glad my feet weren't going to drop off. She laughed and we parted company. I wondered if I would ever hear her laugh again. Probably not, unless something goes wrong with my feet. I expect to her, I was just another patient - a bit younger than she's used to - but a patient nonetheless. But to me, she wasn't just another nurse. She was more than that but she'll never know...

Once again, I am compelled to write about the mindless idiots that are allowed to continue using the roads here in South Lincolnshire. I am absolutely convinced that road safety training in any shape or form is non-existent and that motorists simply drive the way they want to and with no respect for the law of the road, the safety of others or common sense. The latest idiot (a dark blue VW Golf) decided it would be fine to ignore the new 50 mph speed limit imposed on the main road linking Sutton Bridge with Long Sutton and over take me after overtaking another driver. A look of disapproval was met with the now familiar one fingered salute as he disappeared into the distance overtaking everyone else in his path.
My conclusion is clear. If you set a new speed limit, it MUST be enforced.
A few minutes later who should appear in my rear view mirror, so close to the back of the car I could count his teeth, but the same f***ing idiot who had shot past me a few minutes earlier. Once again he was determined to demonstrate his contempt for the law and the safety of others by carrying out another reckless overtaking routine.This time, he left barely an inch between his car and mine and made sure he'd sprayed me with stones and gravel as he sped away. What makes this all the worse is the fact that this dangerous little prick knew my 4 year old son was on board, but this made no difference to him. It is obvious to me that his mind is incapable of processing common sense commands. This dangerous individual needs to know that he will one day be stopped. He cannot be allowed to put the safety of others at risk through his mindless attitude to driving. But he is of course just one of many idiots of the same mind-set making our roads here a dangerous game of chance for law abiding drivers. I'm watching you and you will be stopped.

New month, same old idiots

So bye bye March and Hello April... We start the month with a a visit to the local doc with my son. A swift check over and we're told he has a cold (which we already knew)... so that was time well spent.

I don't know if it's the weather but so far today, I have just seen idiots on our roads. Where I live, there is a generally poor standard of driving skills. We are surrounded by farmland and long roads with little traffic. I think this gives people the impression they can drive how they like, with absolutely no regard for anyone else. I do take extreme exception to dangerous drivers particularly when I have my son in the car with me. To give an explicit example, I was driving back from the doc's along a road that up to very recently had a 60 mph limit. It has since been changed to a staggered 50 mph, starting at 40 mph for the first few hundred yards. I am a stickler for safe driving, so imagine my anger when some blithering idiot decided he could drive as fast as he wanted and overtook me. The road is marked with think red stripes with white speed symbols and the lamp posts also display the new speed limit. 

The other idiots this morning included a woman who didn't know her right from her left and indicated right whilst turning left and someone else who thought that because he had a big car, he didn't have to give way when the law required otherwise. Unbelievable...

I've managed to leave my poorly son at my parents for a couple of hours. They have my sister's kids there today so he's very happy playing with them and didn't even notice the fact that I'd left.

Whilst there, they asked me to look at their VCR. It had been making a strange noise. True enough, it was and I deduced that a drive cog had worn out. They are still in the dark ages when it comes to technology and believe me, it is not a good idea to bring them into the 21st Century. I've tried. So imagine my horror when my father produced a DVD recorder - the same machine I had a year ago taken a month trying to teach them to use. I recall actually making myself ill at the time, it was that stressful. They simply cannot get their heads round the fact that a recordable DVD is not the same as a tape and cannot be re-wound and taped-over. DVD's have to be finalised and erased if you want to use them again. No, I think the simplest thing to do is to find a replacement VCR - they understand them and it means less stress for me. I should have hidden that bloody DVD recorder when I had the chance...

OK, that's off my chest.

I'm off to work on my model railway later. I'll get some more photos while I there.