Golf again

It was a beautiful day on Friday, and I was fortunate enough to be out on the golf course with Shelagh from next door. No need for jackets, or even jumpers. Shelagh gave me some good tips, and I managed to complete 10 holes before needing to head back to the clubhouse. As usual I tracked myself with a GPS app I've got on my phone: I walked just over four miles over the hills and dips. I even hit a few decent shots. All very satisfactory!

Govt Report into Prosthetics Services in UK

Contributors to the UK Limb Loss Information Centre Forum have been asked to contribute to the government's investigation into how good (or otherwise) prosthetics services are in the UK, and as one of these, I've been asked to take part. We are writing up our experiences and sending them, via one of our co-contributors, to David Bickers, chairman of the Douglas Bader Foundation, who will be compiling them to send to the review team.

David Cameron has given a commitment that military personnel returning with injuries will get a "first class service" for rehabilitation. Servicemen and servicewomen returning from the warzones with amputations currently get this first class service from Headley Court Militery Hospital near Epsom, or at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham; and because this is what we (and the MPs) always see on the telly, it has been assumed that this is the level of service they will get when they return to civvy street. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and it is because concerns have been voiced about this that Dr Andrew Murrison MP has been asked to carry out a review, to find out what level of service will be available to ex-service personnel when they have to rely on the civilian system.

He's going to get a shock. As usual, it's a postcode lottery, a.k.a., "services commensurate with the needs of the local community". In other words, commensurate with the amount of money the local Health Service Trusts are prepared to spend. In some areas amputees are not offered any prosthetic service at all, but have to live in a wheelchair and on crutches, with few or no adaptations in their homes - they're basically sent home and told to get on with it. One guy on the forum doesn't even have a wheelchair to go home in! He's going to have to wait until he gets his first appointment at his limb-fitting centre.

I know from reading the LLIC Forum, that I was very lucky with the service I received from the Astley Ainslie hospital, which is second to none in the civilian service. I had very few bad things to say, so couldn't really support the thesis that services are really bad; but my contribution will serve to point out the differences from one region to the next. I didn't have access to the very expensive prosthetics given to the soldier amputees, but within the civilian service, there were very few limits as to what I could have.

Dr Murrison will be reporting to the Prime Minister after Easter, and it's a great opportunity to put forward our case for bringing services in the poorly performing regions up to some kind of reasonable standard. A similar review was carried out for psychiatric care, and improvements were made in that area, so there's no reason why the same shouldn't happen in prosthetics.

It's a shame, though, that nobody thought it was worth reviewing this area of care until we had injured military personnel returning home. This review should have been carried out years ago, for the unfortunate civilians who have had to live in misery, trapped and immobile.

Blue Disabled Parking Badges - Limited to 'Suitable Cars'?!

The following is reproduced from a post of mine on the UK Limb Loss Information Centre Forum

I was very angered by a response on Radio 4's You And Yours programme the other day. They were talking about rationalising the issue and control of blue disabled parking badges, which I obviously wholeheartedly endorse. One caller, however, commented that he had seen a Porsche Boxter at the supermarket, parked in a disabled parking space and displaying a blue badge. Their immediate response that this was 'obviously fraudulent use' of the badge, because 'only a young, able-bodied person could get in and out of such a car'.

Erm ... three things:

1. 'disabled' does not always mean 'old';
2. 'old' does not automatically mean completely helpless, and
3. 'disabled' mean necessarily completely helpless either.

I drive a Mazda MX-5 Roadster. Admittedly, it is easier to get in and out of when the roof is down, but a few minutes struggling getting in and out of it is worth it for the fun I have when I'm on the open road. It's also quite amusing to watch people's faces as I pull up in a disabled slot and plonk my badge on the dashboard. People stop and frown. Then I push my seat right back to give me a bit of extra room, shove the door wide open (which is why I need the extra space in the parking slot) swing my legs out, my right one being very obviously false (I make sure my trouser leg rides up to show the carbon-fibre post), totter round to the the boot and pull out my NHS issue walking stick. As I lock up and walk away, I can sense the confusion in the people around the parking space.

Now, all the acting up is a bit of mischief making, and probably not the most supportive of our cause, but if I can manage with a sports-car, why shouldn't I? Christ knows our lives are enough of a struggle without denying ourselves a little self-indulgence now and then. I feel guilty about the MX-5, but I'm not sure that I should. Are we not entitled? Should we be restricted to sensible MPVs and Nissan Notes? (rant, rant)

Actually, and this is my main argument, I had to use a disabled parking space in the sensible hatch-backed saloon car I had previously. I still had to swing the door fully open to swing my leg past the door frame, so needed the extra space the disabled parking slot affords. It's got nothing to do with the car I'm driving. The need is the same!

I do sometimes feel a little guily using disabled parking slots. If there's only one space left, and someone else is pulling up in a big MPV with a wheelchair in it, I'm a good lad, and figure their need is probably greater so I let them have it, and try to sort myself out elsewhere in the carpark. In such cases, I can get out of my car, and back in again, but it's a real struggle. For a wheelchair user on their own, the disabled parking slot is essential, whereas in my case it's just a tremendous help. Should I be feeling all this guilt?

Stay

Just got round to watching a film called Stay (from 2005, starring Ewan McGregor & Ryan Gosling) which I recorded off Film 4 before Christmas. It's one of those trippy sort of films with lots of clever cuts & effects where you don't really know what's going on until the end. One of it's central themes is art, so the production is suitably arty, maybe to the extent of trying a little too hard. It made my head swim a bit, so it achieves its intended effect; but I enjoyed it when I stopped trying to figure it all out and and let it just take me along for the ride

I'm always behind everybody else when it comes to seeing films, since I don't have Sky, and don't go to the pictures (only for films that really need to be seen on the big screen) or buy DVDs very often, so when I do talk about a film, it's because it's been on the telly, and everyone else says "That? I saw that YEARS ago!" I am not bothered about seeing films as soon as I can after they come out, but I do enjoy watching them at home when I get the chance.

Anyway, Stay is one I'd recommended if you've not seen it already.

All quiet ...

It's been a pretty uneventful time since my last post, but there have been a couple of developments.

Firstly, Denise's mum put me in touch with a chap that helps run a day centre for oldies in nearby Whitburn to see if I could help them with any voluntary work. I was a little alarmed at first, when I looked the place up, it seems that it's for people suffering with dementia and depression - just what I need ... not! Turns out that there is also a drop-in facility, and it is in this area that they were looking for help, particularly in basic computer training and assistance. I went along for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and was able to make quite a contribution. There were three people needing help, so it was a little like spinning plates; getting one started with something, then the next one, then going back to the first one again because they'd got stuck, etc., etc.

This week there were five of them! Still, it's not stressful - they're very patient with there only being one of me there. I was put in a bit of an ethical dilemma though, as one of the guys wanted to download movies from a torrent site and burn them to DVD. He acknowledges that it's illegal, but I put it to him that it would probably be a lot less effort to buy the DVDs from Play.com or some such. The other thing is that he's got a ripped off copy of the DVD burning software, which I think has expired and locked him out. Tried to convince him that he should get a legit copy of the software at least, which you can pick up quite cheap from the aforementioned retailer. Anyway, it's very difficult to help someone when the problem is on their home computer. I'm not doing home visits, so he'll have to figure some of this out for himself! The local council are doing beginners' courses to tie in with the last government's programme of getting older people on the net, but they're full, so I'm getting some of the fallout. I'm telling them that I'm not doing a course as I'm not qualified, and it's ages since I did that sort of thing; I'll help them out with specific tasks, though.

The other thing is that I now have Skype for my desktop. I got a very good little webcam with a microphone for less than £10! I saw some for up to £175 that didn't seem to have much more in the way of features except auto-focus and really high resolution HD imaging. As I'm only going to be using the 'cam for Skype, there's no point in having a high resolution one because that would generate too much data to be useful over a live video link. I think Skype only transmits at 640 x 480 screen resolution anyway: there's certainly no chance of using HD levels of video clarity. If you have cable broadband you might be able to justify it once Skype starts its HD service, but that's still apparently a long way off.

My cam's focus is set on infinite, and everything down to a few centimetres away is perfectly sharp anyway, and the picture and sound is more than good enough for my purposes

Local govt: clever or sinister?

Ran out of milk, so I had to bite the bullet today and go shopping. There had been a partial thaw followed by a freeze last night so the path was slushy in some parts but covered in uneven slick ice in others. I slipped and nearly fell twice, so I decided to pop into the council office, which is very near the supermarket, and (politely) give then some grief.

About half an hour or so after I got back from my shopping, I got an e-mail from them to confirm they'd logged my enquiry, and that they'd passed it on to the roads operations dept. for evaluation. The spooky thing is, I didn't give them my email address! OK, they did have my name and address, and I have contacted them by email before, but who would have credited them with joining the two events up and doing something useful with the result? Would never have happened in my days of working for a council. IT systems that work efficiently! What a wonderful world we live in, eh? ;-)

This snow isn't funny any more

More snow again last night; not very much, but it's frozen over, making it very treacherous to walk on, even in walking boots & with a stick.

I've just tried to go shopping, but after slithering about fifty metres, I remembered we do have a breadmaker and since the only thing I really really needed was bread, I decided that I didn't need to get to the shops that much.

I am also heartily sick of shovelling snow away, only to have it snow again, covering the drive before I've had chance to use my car. I was thinking of only doing just-in-time snow clearing, but that won't work very well either, since it takes me a couple of hours to clear the drive, so I'll need that much notice of needing to use the car!

To quote Rich Hall, "Hell no, I ain't happy"!

Oh no! Not again!

We've had more snow. I can't believe it! BUT, miracle of miracles, this time they've ALREADY brought the snow-plough down our road. Wonders will never cease.

Surprise Xmas Gift of the Year

Our niece on Denise's side played a blinder this year by giving me a wonderful book entitled "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die". The games are listed in order of the date they were released, and each one that is included represents a developmental step forward. The result is a fascinating history of the development of the art of video gaming, and a brilliant and absorbing nostalgia trip. Nice one Katherine! Thanks!

Where are all the Aussies?

Half an hour ago England's cricket team retained the Ashes Down-Under, bringing them back from Oz for the first time in about 28 years, if I remember correctly. And for the first time in about 12 years I'm not working with any Aussies, so I can't get my own back for all the gloating that I've had to endure over many of those years! I know we've won them at home, but winning in Australia is something special. It would be really nice to win the last test in Sydney, & win the series outright, so that we don't merely retain the Ashes by drawing the series (and so keeping them as the current holders), but bring them home as series winners. I am already looking forward to the home series, in England, in 2012!