Mostly lemon based

Category: General

  • Abandoned Norfolk

    So, while wandering with my girlfriend we came across pseudo abandonment. It’s odd, because the adjoining buildings are part of an active university faculty, but these buildings, which one presumes are simply completely surplus to requirements are clearly in severe disrepair. There’s a sign up on one for planning permission to convert it into a bar…

    Whilst the fencing wasn’t exactly set up to prevent entry (there was a huge gap in it), the buildings themselves seemed fairly well sealed…

    This is actually the roof of what appears to have at one time been a stable. Further along it’s completely collapsed, big gaping holes allowing water straight into the building, this bit however is fairly much intact.

    A shattered light fitting hangs from the wall; I’m not sure when we stopped using ceramic for light fittings, but I think probably in the 50s…

    Interestingly it shows signs of having been rewired though, so perhaps the building’s been actively maintained until more recently.

    And another shot of that roof.

    On the opposite side of the courtyard there’s a barn-like building; a selection of broken and boarded up windows and doors bar entry; it appears to have some storage use – despite its condition. It’s even got new padlocks on some of the doors – despite the fact they don’t look like they’ve opened for years.

    For some reason that glass in the previous shot was a complete nightmare to focus on. I’ve no idea why. It took about four shots before I got one that was in focus!

    Looking downwards through the missing glass panes, you could see into the barn like building.

    But from another angle you could actually see directly in – and it also appears to have been used as a stable…

    Then there was this pair of round windows… reminds me of “playschool”.

    In between them was this door; freshly padlocked and yet overgrown and with the metalwork the padlock’s attached to showing no signs of having been moved at any point in the recent past. No scrape marks…

    Oddly, near my girlfriend’s house there’s a bit of abandonment, well, several bits, and so just ‘cos I’m too lazy to stick it in another post, here’s the abandoned shopping trolley :-)

    Hope you enjoyed the pics :-)

  • Flit-tastic

    Normally I’m pretty good at concentrating. I’ll sit and read entire books cover to cover given the opportunity. Most of the time I’m happy to read from page 1 to page n of a (research) paper without too much hastle. Good days, I can read several papers in a row. Magazines tend to annoy me because I finish them in minutes.

    But at the moment my concentration span is that of a gnat with ADHD. Because I’m trying to study, ready for my interview (revise? learn? something) at St. Fred’s, but I feel like I have so much to learn. I’ve kind of got half way through the European Resus Council’s recommendations, and then lept wholesale to ‘Emergency Nursing made Incredibly Easy’ (which suffers when read here, because it’s very American, and this is the NHS, and doesn’t work that way).  But I’ve revised my ABCDE (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure), I’ve got my 4H’s and 4Ts (four main causes of cardiac events: Hypoxia, Hypothermia, Hypovolemia, Hypokalemia (and other metabolic causes); Toxins, Tamponade (cardiac), Thrombosis and Tension pneumothorax) (damnit, couldn’t remember the last T) (from the ERC recommendations). I’m remembering how I used to assess patients coming into the ED in my training…

    I’m trying to come up with good reasons for employing me, and good reasons for me wanting to work in the ED (“it’s fun!”…no? darn… I’ll work on that then). And all the time I’m feeling stressy as hell, and I can’t concentrate on any one task for more than about 30 seconds.

    My all powerful lord and master has promised me the day off as Annual leave despite it only being a week away. Since I’m taking it as AL I’m not so much feeling the need to tell him about me going for an interview. It’s not a good time in Q-Ward, with a big (and frankly unjustified) complaint and lots of staff off sick; so me adding in the stress of ‘Hey, I’m going for an interview’ just seems a bit unfair. Of course, I’ll have to tell him if I get the job…

    Yesterday was a nightmare on the ward, with the duty-matron telling our nurse in charge it was unacceptable for him to say we weren’t able to take patients (despite the fact we were running on very low numbers because we were meant to be closed, and were now in fact open) . In the end I admitted 7 patients (granted 1 of whom I rather skimped on the admission because he should be going home today) and was actually taking handover’s for patients while writing the admission on the previous one. I barely saw the patients I admitted, which thanks to the new SAP paperwork (Single assessment process) I didn’t have to worry about – why see patients when you can sit at the desk overwhelmed in notes?

    The ward they’d come from was in complete chaos too, the handover’s I got being minimal and the notes with the patients bare of anything useful, and myself and the other staff nurse on walked out at the end of the day saying ‘this is how mistakes happen and people die’. 3 staff nurses, 2 health care assistants and 30 patients? Many of whom with conditions that we’re not that experienced in dealing with…

    Still, what can I do? Just the best I can manage I guess.

  • Answerphones…

    I have 5 things to do this morning, well, 6 since one got split into two separate tasks by me forgetting to do part of it. Of these 2 require speaking to other people on a telephonic device. Both of these people appear to have answerphones. Answerphones which are on whenever I ring – my timing must suck. *whimpers*.

    And no one’s online to tolerate my whining. It’s no good at all really.

    I can’t concentrate on anything, I’m trying to organise extra work through NHS-P, who’s onsite person never returns my calls (seriously I’ve made about 10 and left messages most times and I *never* get called back), and I’m also trying to organise an ‘informal visit’ to St Fred’s Hospital for the Clinically Unwell where my interview is – made harder by the fact I’m working all the days between now and then.

    I had more to say, but it’s wandered off somewhere. Oh, yes, I may be able to do my bathroom rather cheaper than I thought – which is double-plus good really. Uh, yeah. ‘s all.

  • Librarians Rock.

    Linky (bizarrely, you have to click read more to get the link)

  • Floating courtesy of the magic pixies

    So, I’ve had an interesting couple of days. Last night, because our ward, indeed a large chunk of Saint Bob’s Hospital  is closed due to an outbreak of diarrhoea, our ward was strangely, well, quiet. Empty beds and because we’re good and also lucky, our ward appeared to have escaped very lightly – we had very few cases of diarrhoea; so we had what has got to be the very first properly staffed – or at least appropriate staff-patient ratio’d shift I’ve ever had.

    It was pleasant. I came home and I didn’t hurt, I wasn’t exhausted, I was sleepy and tired, but not exhausted. I got up this morning to go to work, and y’know what, I didn’t struggle to get up, I didn’t hurt as I got in the shower, and I drove to work in a cheery mood.

    Sadly, all things come to an end and our ward is now filling up. But hey, 2 days of joy – I know it’s wrong of me to have enjoyed the time while other wards struggled – but to be able to give *really good care* to patients; to check them properly, to wash them slowly and take time over it. To wash between people’s toes, to remove everyone’s anti-embolism stockings and wash their feet.

    To shave all the male patients who wanted it… To actually know what’s going on with patients, and be able to answer questions and hand over accurately to the late staff… Oh, and to just spend some time talking to the patients. To do my job properly, the way I’d like to, just for 2 days.

    Anyhow, enough dwelling, some things were less fun today. I realised, like I said that I ordered the wrong size tyre. So I rang up Berkshire Motorcycle Centre and said ‘Hi, look, I ordered a tyre on Saturday…’ [they cut me off] ‘Yes, it’s not arrived yet, it should be in tomorrow’.

    To which I said ‘I’m sorry, I’ve been astonishingly silly, and ordered the wrong tyre’ or polite words to that effect. Their response was “well, it’s yours now. You have to pay for it”.

    Uh, no, actually I don’t. Not legally, no. Not in any sense of the word. It’s not even arrived. In the end I argued my side and the guy was incredibly rude and then told me that he wasn’t interested in my custom and hung up. So, I recommend not going to Berkshire M/C Centre in Slough.

    At any rate, I’ve ordered my tyre from an online tyre place, and I’ll get someone local to fit it – my local tyre place probably.

    And in better news; my builder came! He came and built stuff. Well, technically, he demolished stuff, and then built stuff. And discovered that my house has had some half-assed-botch jobs done on it – it currently has two joists which while they are fixed (one presumes) at one end, are floating – held in place by the floorboards – he’s planning to put joist hangers in (which should have been done a when the chimney breast was originally modified).

    That and the original chimney is supported on two ‘tie in’ bricks. Uh, only one of them seems to only have maybe 1/5th it’s length in the wall it’s tied in to. It’s currently propped up with a bit of wood, a bit of brick, and a screw driver. The wall also appears to have been built from random brick; the new one’s not exactly any prize – being a mixture of block work and brick – and it’s imperial brick and metric blockwork – and they don’t tie together terribly neatly, but he is trying to keep materials costs down for me – and it’ll all be behind plaster.

    There would be pictures, but the CF card reader is on my desk by the Mac. And the mac is sat above the floaty joisted floorboards.

    Whilst they’re no more unsafe than they were yesterday, I don’t *particularly* want to tread on them. So you’ll have to be waiting for them.

  • Playing with the camera (and hunting snapshots)

    So, this week’s snapshot hunter was ‘soft’; there were billions of kittens and flowers and cuddly teddy bears; thankfully, being as I’ve been laid here trying to rest and get well (and how well has that worked? huh?), I’ve had plenty of time to think. I came up with this:

    For once, there are alternatives here and here. This is because I had great difficulty deciding between the ones I’d taken. Is it still a snapshot when you’ve taken about 15 of a scene you’ve set up? There’s a question. Still, it’s soft. I really liked the pseudo / almost black and white ones (my towels are, incidentally, blue) of which one is up there as an alternative – but they looked really rather stark and kinda contradicted the soft that I was aiming for.

    I also had a bit of a play with the camera, and here’s two more little shots from round the house.

    My back door is, I suspect, fairly rotten. It flexes a bit as it opens along the joints – and it’s very damp; there’s a mixture of streaks of water and mould spots on it.

    And this is the view through my current back door – I love the distortion from the glass.

  • …I blame money.

    So, last year I went through a fair struggle but this whole house / money / job game has got me stressed. Perhaps that’s why I’m dreaming – and remembering snippets – because there’s something to worry about so I’m dreaming. I feel like my body is falling apart – despite me living better (although no real exercise, I need to do something about that); and eating better, I’m sick – and I’ve been sick with this sore throat for nearly a week now. In fact, it’ll be a week tomorrow. And there’s no sign of improvement, I just feel as bad as I did the first day I got it.

    I get frustrated at my body at times like this – wanting it to be better, cursing my immune system for not kicking out the invader. Which is revoltingly unfair of me, but after experiencing a year of not getting unwell; well; this repetitive sickness is getting to me.

    Ironically, so far this year my hayfever’s remained mild – mild enough that I debate not taking the tablets – I may have mentioned I went for 4 days without; but the occasional sneezing fits on top of the headache and sore throat, that was a bit much.

    I’ve tried to be as gentle with myself as I could whilst still preparing for the builder; I split up the work over several days; and I’m glad I have. I do still need to do the washing up and move the washing machine, but that’s it now. I’ve taken the recycling to be recycled, I’ve dried laundry on the line (a bit at a time, ‘cos it’s a bit stretchier than perhaps you’d expect, mind it is a *long* run) with no supports, I’ve cleared the kitchen door, and uh, I’ve watched 3 episodes of Hustle (how come they’re getting Hustle in the US before we get it here; it’s *our* programme. Since when did the BBC start showing shows in the US before here?!, huh?). I also watched Dr Strangelove, which I still think is a fantastic film.

    I gargled with salt water (so much I actually made myself sick :( ), and with TCP (which tastes revolting, incidentally). And I drunk so much to try and soothe my throat that I started to feel unwell.

    I don’t really know what to do; I want rid of this but I’ve got work tomorrow and it’s going to get worse.

    Oh, and I ordered the wrong size tyre for my bike, so I get to make a very embarrassed phone call tomorrow…. Bah.

  • BT Homehub (again)

    Does anyone have any tips for making the BT Homehub less shit? I’ve had to reset it 4 times today – it crashes and then sits there displaying a few of it’s little dinky lights (broadband, wireless and data) but fails to reconnect correctly. It has crashed though, because the wired machine can’t connect to it’s administration interface, and neither can the wireless machines – although they still show themselves as connected.

    Rebooting it transiently fixes the problem, but since it continues to live upstairs (I’m thinking that once I’ve found a wireless dongle for my Hackintosh then I’ll move it downstairs) I am forced, each time this happens to trail upstairs and unplug it, plug it back in and then wait. Whereupon this morning it would connect work for a good 2 minutes, and then fall over again.

    I think I’ve got a bit over half an hour this time which is positively astonishing.

    I did wonder if it had endured some kind of software update, but it still claims to be running the same revision it was a few days ago, before it got this bad… So, uh, suggestions for fixing it (before I’m forced to ring BT’s “help desk”), well, they’d be useful…

  • I’ve nearly not done anything today

    I tried, I really tried – and frankly the period of time when my body was informing me that I was freezing cold, followed by the later period where my body was telling me that I was insanely hot; yeah, they made me think I shouldn’t really do heavy lifting and working.

    So I’ve mostly sat around, slept, kinda stared faintly at stuff on the laptop; listened to more WW..Dtm. I’ve also done some useful things – e-mailed a bloke about a potential interior for the Viva (I did say I’d tidy him up); and paid for the electronic ignition – it doesn’t look like my mileage is likely to drop in the near future; and the Viva needed new points 3,000 miles ago. So, yeah, let’s get that in and in, hopefully I’ll get slightly better starting with it :-)

    I also paid off one card, the other one though is starting to scare me as it’s getting out of hand. I need to get some bank work sorted, quite urgently. All I can do this month is pay off the minimum. Last month I paid off a lot less than I put on it. I’ve kind of accepted that there’s jobs which I’m going to have to do, but it’s somewhat scary at the moment.

    On the plus side, my friend Dave reckons the ‘zed can be MOT’d sans wingmirrors; I can’t *see* anything about wing mirrors in the MOT testing manual. So anyway, that would be good. Tyre, MOT and Tax (since I’ve accidentally renewed my insurance) and I should be able to rat about on my zed. And Dave reckons he has a suggestion for making my ‘zed run better – apparently the standard ignition unit fails to give enough advance for the 251 – it can be tweaked though with a dremel…which apparently gives vastly better performance and economy…

    My one exception to my resting was while I was cooking dinner and the, uh, box of kitchen stuff magic’d itself into the lounge. Yes. And that dishwasher, I never touched it m’lord, it just shuffled itself across to that other wall. As did the bookcase. I was astonished. *looks sheepishly at Kathryn*

  • Four small bits of news.

    1) It is, in fact, possible to get nylon splinters from nylon rope. I was unaware of this before now, because all the rope I’ve dealt with has been moderately modern. Whilst switching over the washing line for the new washing line I – in the process of taking down the old one discovered that brushing your wrist up against 30 year old nylon leads to little splinters of nylon piercing your skin – just like wood or metal splinters but smaller – and staying there. Irritating you, preventing you from wearing a watch and giving you a nasty red spot on your arm.

    2) My new homehub is joining the old one in terms of sheer shiteitude. It’s reset itself for the second time today. Or more accurately, crashed-reset-come-up-in-a-non-working-state. Crushing the urge to jump up and down on it, because it is, after all a complete pile of unadulterated crap (and the second piece of crap that BT have seen fit to dump in my house), I shall, in a moment, walk up the stairs (again) and reset the godforsaken object in the hope that it may, just may, decide to work again. There, done. Now we shall see. At least this one *generally* allows the computers in the house to connect over wireless; hell it even allowed [info]bluwyngz laptop to connect without any hassle.

    3) My throat is distressingly, still sore. I’m sat with an entire pint of water beside me which I’m endeavouring to drink (in addition to the pint and a half of fruit juice, lemon and ginger tea, and more water that I’ve already had). If I keep drinking, it seems to stop feeling like I’m attempting to swallow an egg, and this as I see it, is a good thing. I may spray my throat with more anaesthetic in a minute.

    4) I have a job interview at St Fred’s Hospital for the Clinically Unwell in nearby Largerville. Although the commute will be not that different, the job is in the Emergency Department, and if I got it I would be terribly pleased. Wish me luck oh people of the internet.