More rambling

I never intended that it should be taken seriously. It was a joke. Don’t people do jokes anymore? Is that something else that we should mourn the passing of. It is funny if someone walks headlong into a lamp-post or falls over in the street. But it is not funny to say that you want to leave this world and live on Uranus. …weird!

The blank looks said it all. That girl is a candidate for the funny farm.

I don’t want to live on Uranus. I just said it because it seemed apt.

I met a guy years ago in the Accident Department of the Hospital where I was working. He claimed to be in constant touch with beings on Venus. It was a nice place he said. The trees were mostly purple and they had no dogs.

He was funny. Everyone said so. Most of the staff dropped by to hear him extoll the virtue of life on Venus. They went away shaking with mirth.

He was admitted to the Psychiatric unit and spent the next three months being probed and tested and was released back into society a new man. But he still thought that Venus was a good place. The medication they gave him he threw into the bin and said all he really needed was a bacon sandwich.

When the Government announced plans to raise the speed limit on motorways to eighty miles per hour I thought maybe it is time to leave. Go live on a foreign planet far away from the mad world we inhabit. So I suggested Uranus. I’ve seen the pictures from NASA, it looks a nice place…

People don’t forget. They look at me with suspicion in their eyes and they reach for the phone to look up the number for a Psychiatrist…

All of which does not explain why I started this. It started as a ‘thought for the day’, a sort of putting down on paper, or screen, what I was thinking. No particular reason, just the overwhelming need to seek some sort of immortallity on my part. Nothing important, just the desire to write it down and preserve it for prosperity. Nonsense of course, but what the hell; I am only human.

It is possible that you are waiting for the payoff… there isn’t one. I can ramble on here and it will amount to nothing at all and those that are in control will be able to read into it anything they damn well please. That is what they are good at.

Jimi Hendrix. Now there is something that will raise the hackles on the neck of ‘Authority’! I love Jimi. His music will live forever and in my mind will keep me sane in the face of all adversity.

The NHS

I work for the National Health Service. The good old NHS. In the main I enjoy working here. I am good at my job and am pleased to be part of an institution that helps people.

Alas; The current climate of change for Managements sake is destroying the Service we as a Nation once held dear to our hearts. The unhealthy obsession with Targets is not helping anyone (least of all Patients), and the sooner the politicians realise that punishing those that fail to meet unrealistic targets with financial constraints the better.

The managers and Directors that hold sway in my own workplace are lining their own pockets with excessive salaries whilst cutting back on the staff that enable the Hospital to function as it should.

~sigh~ The future is NOT good. I fear that we will end up as a glorified clinic and not the fully-functioning Trauma Hospital we once took for granted. A growing town (120,000) does NOT need cuts in medical care.

One day we will look back and wonder how we let it happen. A Public Service taken from under our noses whilst we stood by and watched.

A moment to raise a smile

This is not a rant. This is a wonderful joke. I wish I knew who to credit, but alas I know not. However, here it is...

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide on a camping trip. After pitching the tent and cooking and eating a good meal, they share a bottle of wine, retire for the night and fall asleep.

Some hours later Holmes wakes up and nudges Watson.

"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see"

Watson rubs the sleep from his eyes and looks up. "Well," he says, "I see millions and millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Asks Holmes.

Watson thinks for a moment and replies. "Well, Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially, billions of planets."

"Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo."

"Horologically, it tells me that the time is about three fifteen."

Theologically, it tells me that God is all powerful and we are rather insignificant."

Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a fine day come morning."

"What does it tell you Holmes?"

Holmes was silent for a moment, then he spoke, "Watson, you idiot. Some bastard has stolen our tent."