Andy Ramblings

OK, a bit late. but just felt that, you know, better late than never. Anyway, how many of you have set yourselves up with resolutions for the year? I made one a few years back, t'is very easy to keep, in fact, I've kept it ever since, that was, to never make them again. It appears that I was correct in this, it has now been shown that making resolutions is bad for you, not only in the fact that, well, you will never keep it, but that it's bad for your health. SO says the BBC.

Deciding to turn over a new leaf in the new year could do more harm than good, a mental health charity has warned. Mind has urged people not to feel they must start 2009 armed with resolutions for self-improvement. The charity said resolutions which focus on issues such as the need to lose weight or job worries create a negative self-image. Source

 

I can imagine that the resolution to loose weight is most likely doomed to failure. Job worries, why is that a resolution? no idea, maybe I'l get of my arse and look harder. But I don't think that in it's self will not help too much with the current prevailing economic situation.

They use the forever usefully line, It will create a negative self-image. This is, I bet the same folks who also say, that telling a kid that they have failed and exam could damage their self image for the rest of their lives. What a load of Bull.  You learn from mistakes, you learn from failures it's called learning, it's part of life. You never stop learning. I bet the last thing you learn in life is that there isn't any heaven, but you have no way of telling anyone. My view anyway.

So, now that we are now 3 days into 2009, things are, so far, pretty much the same. Only time will tell.

Yep, at long last, in the whole of the UK, Wales and Scotland started earlier this year, you are not allowed to smoke in public places. This includes offices, well that's been around for a while, but it means that if you have a company car, you can't smoke in there.

For more info on what all this smoking lark is all about read on here.

So the UK is now :

Smokers, I'm not against you smoking or anything, but you know, it's not the best thing for your health, No I'm not going to tell you what it's doing to you as, well, you know it all alredy.

Mind it's been fun watching people find ways around the smoking ban. One pub landlord tried to make his pub an embassy of some tiny Caribbean island, this obviously didn't work, as nobody lived on the said island... read about this here. It's typical of the entrepreneurial spirit in the UK. Have to applaud the guy.

So I have this nagging cough that just doesn't go away. So, of to the old GP I goes. This being the UK, it's not always easy to make an apppointment to see your GP, so the quickest way I have found is that everything is an emergency, then you can get to see the doc the next morning between 09:00 and 11:00, not too bad but one does what one can.

I was prescibed simple Linctus hopefully it will work. Me being me, I look up on t'internet to see what it does, how it works etc.

Low and behold the powers of Google, I find my answer.

• there are two types of cough medicine, cough expectorant and cough suppressant - although there is little evidence that either is effective.

• the logic behind use is that:
  • a 'dry cough' with little phlegm requires a cough suppressant e.g. codeine and pholcodeine linctus.
  • a 'productive cough' requires a cough expectorant to help bring up phlegm e.g. 'ammonia and ipecacuanha mixture BPC' - expectorants are designed to force the cough reflex to propel the phlegm out of the bronchi - there is no evidence that they have any effect.

Source

 What tickled me with this one is the comment about expectorants.. there is no evidence that they have any effect. There you go, the Docs can't explain why it works.

30 years ago, there was a young boy, who 30 years ago was a not very well boy, he did go to school, but only for 2 days a week, this young boy was nobody else but myself. I was doing hemodialysis 3 days a week for over 9 hours. It all started with a phone call, I picked up the phone, the person at the end asked if they could speak with my mother, I handed the phone to my mother, It was 6pm there abouts, I was to go to Paris, there was a kidney waiting for me. I got some clothes together, with the things a 10 year old thinks he will need. I gather it wasn't very useful.

So I set off to Paris, accompanied with my eldest brother and my mother driving from Luxembourg to Paris. We arrived in the early hours of the 28th of April 1977. This was the infancy of kidney transplantation on children. I had the operation at around 7am. I remember waking up afterwards in a seeing my mother and brother who were talking to me, but through a window, the nurse was covered head to foot, I could only see her eyes. I was in a totally sterile room, I was in there for around 3 days, before being moved to children's ward, but again in a fully sterile room, but this time I was allowed to have visits from family members, but they had to wear full sterile outfit. I think I was in there for a week or so, before I was moved to a semi-sterile room.

I had my first acute rejection 3 weeks after the transplant, I can remember having a temperature of 40^o or so. I recall I was put on a bed if ice cubes, somehow they didn't feel cold, but was most definitely cooling down. 3 weeks after that I was allowed home, I was well puffed up with the steroids, My mother didn't even recognised me, I looked very much like a munchkin from the wizard of OZ.

 

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Not being a fan of Tagging and have normally ignored many, but as it's Christmas The New Year and as it was Davide Simonetti's  Birthday, I thought well  Ok, this once, I'll do it. They will be brief as I'm not at home, am in Brussels and may have a few beers as I type....

"What are the seven best things you did this past year?"

Well, 7 of the best things? Not too hard then.. Here goes.

1: Finally getting of the steroids that I've been on for the past 29 years,  They were beginning to cause, well, not beginning, they had been for a few years, causing a lot of havoc with everything else but what they were been taken for. Good riddance to them!

2: Very recently, seeing England loose the Ashes so spectacularly that it but a full stop on all this cricket stuff  and that the English team of 2005 didn't actually win because they played well, but that they had had a pact with the weather.

3: Seeing Bush loose power in such a democratic way! Now too see him go back to his old job of Village idiot, hopefully he will bring along his pet dog with him.

4: Building up new commercial websites, and well, this is still ongoing, but hopefully to make something more with it.

[After a pause of a few days Internet techie problem, parties and evenings out]

5:Seeing Bush get a serious bashing in the US Mid-terms, Not that I think that much is going to change, at least it' gotten rid of that smog look of his face, oh and a certain Rummy has gone. Hoping to see him ride into the sunset with his poodle and a huge boot out the backside.

6: Seeing Blair the Magnificent start his slow, ( wish it was faster) decline, and seeing him dig his political grave live on TV. I don't think many people believe a word he says any more. Just wish the guy would not keep trying to save himself, but his party.

7: Well, it has been a long year, many events have happened, many people have gone, so good riddance, some, well you would have liked them to have stayed a little longer, but you know in yourself, that time moves on, and we are all left with the good memories of those. For me, as this is about me, I'm glad to have to have made it to the end of this year in one piece. Ok, I have plenty of spare parts, but that's different.

So now to tag a few other people to see what they have to say about their 2006 seven best moments, So, in no particular order.
Keith, Zoe at MBIAT,Karelian Blonde, Guyana Gyal, Anna at That's the way life is, and anyone who would like to share

So reader(s) as 2006 comes to a close, how was it for you? I hope that you like the new theme, it's still being worked on, but I'm sure you will agree with me, that it is a lot faster.
Happy New year, Bonne année, ? ????? ?????, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar, Nuovo anno felice Lyckligt nytt år and for everyone have a great Hogmanay!! Drink lots and be safe.( I can't vouch for the correctness of the translations)

So, the date has been announced and is England leading from the front? Of course not, we never do! We wait, like a master, to see if the food taster dies, before we'll start to eat a meal.
What brings this up? Well it's the smoking ban, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, in fact, I'm rejoicing! So way all the baa humbug and all that? Well it's because, England will be banning smoking last, and in my view, not the best time either.
Here's the banning list, in order of who's going to ban first in the UK.

• Irish Republic: March 2004 (ok not in the UK)
• Scotland: March 2006
• Northern Ireland: April 2007
• Wales: April 2007
•  England: July 2007

Read more about the time table here

OK, the Irish Republic (Eire) banned it and the pub industry didn't die! In the Summer I can imagine the pubs being empty inside and all the smokers falling over themselves outside in the pavement. If it's raining, well, they'll all be huddled in a corner under some ledge getting rain down their necks.

All I can say is this, I'll be glad, I just don't like going to pubs in general, you go in, you leave smelling like a big pile of poo. And yes you, if you smoke you smell like that too, especially when you have just come back from your fag break..

Yep, So 1st of July 2007 can't come quick enough!  But why can't England start at the same times as everyone else? Scared? Vote loser? (May Local elections?)

The UK doesn't have one of the best transplant systems, the system is primarily and opt in system. This basically means that you have to have your I would sign up to be added to the list, incidentally, you can do that here and if your based in the UK, I urge you to do so. There was one main problem with the system, ok there are many, but you work with what you have. The main problem was that if you, had joined up, but your next of kin or relatives said no, then that was it, you would not donate anything. This happened in 1 in 10 cases.

Chris Rudge, managing director of UK Transplant, said the wishes of approximately one in 10 possible donors were overturned by their families under the current system.

Source

From next week, the system will be changing, if you signed up, yes sign up here, your wishes will be respected.
Ok, I am totally aware that this is an emotive subject, but there are people here in the UK who are waiting for a life changing transplant, and believe me, I know it's life changing, I've had 3 kidney transplants, and believe me, I do think of the donor families and the loss that they have had for me to live on.
All I can say is this, if you do sign up, don't keep it to yourself, tell your family, tell your friends, and most of all tell your loved ones. It makes it so much easier for them, if they know that you wanted to donate.

Oh did I tell you? You can register to the UK transplant list here. They also allow your to amend you details.
As some slogan went, You don't need to go to heaven with all your organs, as they are sure to hell needed down here.
Ok that's it, that's my public announcement over. I don't need to advise you... Read More