Well so much for my diagnostic skills. I've woken up with a thick head, sore throat, aching limbs and stuffy nose. So not just tired, I have a cold as well. Oh how I remember the days when I shrugged off colds and staggered into work smelling of Vick and clutching a packet of Lemsip. Now I have PH my body no longer has the energy and can either fight the cold or take me to work but not both. Sod it! I'm more upset because I've broken a long spell of good health, I haven't actually missed a day of work through illness since February, than I am at being ill. The one redeeming factor is that so far my breathing has not been compromised, hopefully it will stay that way. So it is out with the Olbas and steam bowl and on with a determined effort to get rid of it before it turns into anything else.
The Olympic shambles continues apace with only seventeen out of an expected fifty eight security personnel turning up at one of the venues yesterday. The crisis has got so bad that now not only the army but the police are being reassigned to fill in the gaps. Let's see how popular the Games are with the British public when they start having to wait even longer for police to arrive, if they do at all.
The biggest humiliation, so far, has been the announcement that the opening ceremony has had to be cut by thirty minutes because there will not be enough staff to get people in or out of the stadium quickly enough at the start and end of the ceremony. Apparently there is a real danger of people missing the beginning of the ceremony or missing the last bus home because of the longer queues this lack of staff will generate.
However what has really shocked me is the boss of G4S, Nick Buckles, insisting on keeping the full fifty seven million his firm were paid for their services. Hate to tell you this Nick but that money was meant to guarantee a full and efficient service, which you have failed to deliver. As a tax payer who has contributed to your enormous pay packet, I would prefer the money to go as a little extra into the pay packets of the poor soldiers and policemen who have had their holidays ruined due to your incompetence. David Cameron has vowed to get some of the money back, I hope he succeeds but I can't help feeling it is going to cost more in legal fees than will be actually retrieved.
And today it gets worse, 'TWO Olympic security guards have been nicked as suspected illegal immigrants', screams the headline. These two from Parkistan got through all the vetting processes and were lined up at one of the football venues, in fact they had actually been working for G4S for several weeks before their status was discovered. A G4S spokesman said “It is highly embarrassing.” You don't say!
Do you believe in God?
I usually avoid religion in these blogs because it is the cause of more bad feeling, rows and wars than possibly anything else on the planet. However, listening to the local radio yesterday, I came across a discussion on whether God actually exists. The opposing views were represent by a blind man, no, I don't know why that was relevant either, and a vicar. Things were already getting heated, see my point above, so I decided to stick with it and turned up the volume.
As I listened I realised how narrow the discussion was, the only views being expressed by the speakers, and those phoning in, were those of the non believers and those of Christians. Mercifully our country remains one of the few who allow any faith to be practiced without fear of persecution, this is why so many other countries, who don't, hate us so much but I digress. It got me wondering why other religions are rarely invited into this sort of discussion. Maybe they are but refuse because they have better things to do, who knows. Ok, I know Britain is still, just, predominately Christian but who is to say that it is the Christians that have the right idea. What if the Jews are right, or the Buddists, Muslims or Hindus. What if the blind man was right and they are all just fairytales that have got out of hand, what then?
The non believers argument is that science has proved that we didn't just arrive fully cooked and decorated but evolved over a vast amount of time and are continuing do so. The Christian point of view was that, while science might be right, something must have started it all off. And so the argument goes around and around and this is sort of my point. If you have faith you believe something happened even if there is no actual evidence that it actually did, I have never quite managed that. Yes I have had my spiritual moments, haven't we all, I have thanked God for getting me through my exams, my driving test and several operations. I can also pinpoint the exact, heart crushing moment when I decided there couldn't be a God. I also remember going into a church and screaming my fury at God when diagnosed with PH. If I don't believe why did I do that? I think the answer must be that we all need someone to blame when things go wrong and thank when things go right. It is much easier to chose someone who only exists in faith to scream at than a real live human being who might thump you for your outburst.
I don't have the answers, no one can have answers but I do know this, if your child was trapped in a burning car and was pulled clear and unharmed just in the nick of time you'd thank God, believer or not, weird isn't it?
The destruction of the bathroom carries on apace. Peter was rather pleased when I announced I'd be staying at home today and celebrated by knocking out the tiles in the shower. He is working today so I was left to wash my hair in the sink and have a bath with strict instructions not to splash. As I lay in the fragrant water I surveyed a scene of utter devastation, we are at that really horrible stage where it looks its worst just before the new tiles start to go on, and I hate it. To be fair Peter is doing his best to keep the mess to a minimum but even his best efforts have failed to stop some of the debris making it's way onto the carpet and then down the stairs. Still he has assured me that by Tuesday the majority of the bathroom will be back to normal. Looking at the hole where the shower head once resided, I'm beginning to have my doubts.
Andrew is still enjoying himself and has tried Octopus, which apparently tastes like pork. This may well be but if he thinks I'm serving it up with two veg for Sunday lunch he can think again.
Laurence is coming to tea tomorrow so I'm really looking forward to having one of my boys back under my roof, even for a short time. What he is going to make of the bathroom I don't know.
It is another afternoon on the settee for me today, I hope this cold passes soon or I'm going to get hooked on Doctors again.
The Olympic shambles continues apace with only seventeen out of an expected fifty eight security personnel turning up at one of the venues yesterday. The crisis has got so bad that now not only the army but the police are being reassigned to fill in the gaps. Let's see how popular the Games are with the British public when they start having to wait even longer for police to arrive, if they do at all.
The biggest humiliation, so far, has been the announcement that the opening ceremony has had to be cut by thirty minutes because there will not be enough staff to get people in or out of the stadium quickly enough at the start and end of the ceremony. Apparently there is a real danger of people missing the beginning of the ceremony or missing the last bus home because of the longer queues this lack of staff will generate.
However what has really shocked me is the boss of G4S, Nick Buckles, insisting on keeping the full fifty seven million his firm were paid for their services. Hate to tell you this Nick but that money was meant to guarantee a full and efficient service, which you have failed to deliver. As a tax payer who has contributed to your enormous pay packet, I would prefer the money to go as a little extra into the pay packets of the poor soldiers and policemen who have had their holidays ruined due to your incompetence. David Cameron has vowed to get some of the money back, I hope he succeeds but I can't help feeling it is going to cost more in legal fees than will be actually retrieved.
And today it gets worse, 'TWO Olympic security guards have been nicked as suspected illegal immigrants', screams the headline. These two from Parkistan got through all the vetting processes and were lined up at one of the football venues, in fact they had actually been working for G4S for several weeks before their status was discovered. A G4S spokesman said “It is highly embarrassing.” You don't say!
Do you believe in God?
I usually avoid religion in these blogs because it is the cause of more bad feeling, rows and wars than possibly anything else on the planet. However, listening to the local radio yesterday, I came across a discussion on whether God actually exists. The opposing views were represent by a blind man, no, I don't know why that was relevant either, and a vicar. Things were already getting heated, see my point above, so I decided to stick with it and turned up the volume.
As I listened I realised how narrow the discussion was, the only views being expressed by the speakers, and those phoning in, were those of the non believers and those of Christians. Mercifully our country remains one of the few who allow any faith to be practiced without fear of persecution, this is why so many other countries, who don't, hate us so much but I digress. It got me wondering why other religions are rarely invited into this sort of discussion. Maybe they are but refuse because they have better things to do, who knows. Ok, I know Britain is still, just, predominately Christian but who is to say that it is the Christians that have the right idea. What if the Jews are right, or the Buddists, Muslims or Hindus. What if the blind man was right and they are all just fairytales that have got out of hand, what then?
The non believers argument is that science has proved that we didn't just arrive fully cooked and decorated but evolved over a vast amount of time and are continuing do so. The Christian point of view was that, while science might be right, something must have started it all off. And so the argument goes around and around and this is sort of my point. If you have faith you believe something happened even if there is no actual evidence that it actually did, I have never quite managed that. Yes I have had my spiritual moments, haven't we all, I have thanked God for getting me through my exams, my driving test and several operations. I can also pinpoint the exact, heart crushing moment when I decided there couldn't be a God. I also remember going into a church and screaming my fury at God when diagnosed with PH. If I don't believe why did I do that? I think the answer must be that we all need someone to blame when things go wrong and thank when things go right. It is much easier to chose someone who only exists in faith to scream at than a real live human being who might thump you for your outburst.
I don't have the answers, no one can have answers but I do know this, if your child was trapped in a burning car and was pulled clear and unharmed just in the nick of time you'd thank God, believer or not, weird isn't it?
The destruction of the bathroom carries on apace. Peter was rather pleased when I announced I'd be staying at home today and celebrated by knocking out the tiles in the shower. He is working today so I was left to wash my hair in the sink and have a bath with strict instructions not to splash. As I lay in the fragrant water I surveyed a scene of utter devastation, we are at that really horrible stage where it looks its worst just before the new tiles start to go on, and I hate it. To be fair Peter is doing his best to keep the mess to a minimum but even his best efforts have failed to stop some of the debris making it's way onto the carpet and then down the stairs. Still he has assured me that by Tuesday the majority of the bathroom will be back to normal. Looking at the hole where the shower head once resided, I'm beginning to have my doubts.
Andrew is still enjoying himself and has tried Octopus, which apparently tastes like pork. This may well be but if he thinks I'm serving it up with two veg for Sunday lunch he can think again.
Laurence is coming to tea tomorrow so I'm really looking forward to having one of my boys back under my roof, even for a short time. What he is going to make of the bathroom I don't know.
It is another afternoon on the settee for me today, I hope this cold passes soon or I'm going to get hooked on Doctors again.
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