KT Dodge

Check out Andrew Ian Dodge’s latest work of fiction ‘The Gathering Dark and Other Tales’.  If you like cthulhu or a good bit of dark fantasy you’ll love his book - I did.  For more info visit Andrew’s blog www.andrewiandodge.com and click on the banner on the right side.  You won’t regret it……

I am really pleased to report that ‘Somers Town’ directed by Shane Meadows of This is England fame has been chosen to be in Robert de Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York.  My brother Perry has one of the lead parts so he’s going to be attending the Festival too - how exciting.  I can’t wait to hear if he manages to meet the man himself.  Am I jealous?  Of course I am …….. 

Guido has challenged us to come up with a clever pub tune to fully show our discontent for his booze hikes. This was a joint effort between Andrew and I.Dear Mr DarlingDear Mr DarlingYou’re not welcome hereWe’re fed upCos you put up our beerVery Sorry dear darlingYou are banned from hereVery sorry dear DarlingFor you putting up our beer Not impressed by yer new budget law And your consistent effortsTo make our life a sober bore Why don’t you shave your eyebrowsSo you can see clearThat you’ve made a mistakePutting up our beerYou’re banned,You’re not welcomeStay outta my pubCause you’ve spoiltSomething that we love We’ll take a drinkHoping for your demiseWe’re fed upWith being victimisedVery Sorry dear darlingYou are banned from hereVery sorry dear DarlingFor you putting up our beerVery Sorry dear darlingYou are banned from hereVery sorry dear DarlingFor you putting up our beer

In light of the latest reports on the danger to tourists in Goa and a family’s fight for justice to find out the truth about their daughter Scarlett Keeling’s death or as they suspect murder is going to be tough. Ok when I first heard that she had been left with an Indian tour guide whilst her mother and other siblings toured another part of India I thought that was irresponsible. The problem is that Goa is sold as this idyllic, cheap getaway with friendly people. As tourists very often the ’safeguards’ you would have at home you suddenly forget when you’re abroad ‘in paradise’. However, to have your daughter taken from you in such a way deserves justice and publicity.

This story is just one of many British tourists who have ‘died’ in India. It seems that there is a seedy side of Goa that is run by the ‘criminal underworld’ who target tourists there. I know that ‘nasty’ things happen there as a friend of mine was drugged whilst having an afternoon drink on a beach bar and raped in Goa… not something you really bargain for from a holiday!

Unfortunately, scantily clad liberated holiday makers are easy prey for rapists/murderers who want to exploit them especially if the justice system is hard to negotiate and full of corruption. The widespread image of hippies and drug fuelled beach parties in paradise make it easy for the police to dismiss any tourist deaths as suicide and not investigate them properly.

There was a time when I wanted to visit Goa but not any more!

I’ve just read an interesting article in the weekly magazine Autocar by Hilton Holloway describing how the new infrastructure for LEZ zone charges, introduced quietly on 4th February to help decrease pollution from lorries, coaches and commercial vehicles in London could actually be used to introduce a toll for all motorists crossing the new network of cameras around London i.e. effectively anyone crossing the M25 which is a Transport for London legally defined border now.  It seems that the sums just don’t add up  - the financial benefits of charging commercial vehicles because they do not comply with low emission levels will never equal the cost of  running the LEZ scheme therefore, it is quite evident that there is a hidden agenda and we all know who will activate this road tolling if he gets a third term …. Ken Livingstone! 
 

I’ve read another article today about bad nursing care and cleanliness in one NHS hospital Bath’s Royal United Hospital . Lord Mancroft was appalled at the dirty wards and poor nursing care. However, he did have a choice as he was swiftly transferred to a private hospital, lucky him. But many of us who get sick and cannot afford private health care fear the prospect of entering into the ‘lottery’ of NHS hospital care.I must say that Andrew’s care in the oncology out-patients ward at the North Middlesex Hospital is very good and the nurses are nice and efficient. If there are delays it’s usually because chemo has not arrived from the Pharmacy … which is frustrating. Sitting in the waiting room for treatment we are constantly hearing stories of patients who have arrived at 10am and are still waiting for treatment at 2.00pm because their chemo hasn’t arrived. Now this kind of stress is not good for any patient especially someone suffering from cancer. Obviously, here it seems to me that it is not the ‘nursing’ care that is disorganised it is the ‘administration’ side that lacks management. The communication between different departments seems amiss.Andrew has chemo that lasts 48 hours and has to wear a bottle which continuously drips into his body. After 48 hours a District nurse has to remove the bottle and re-dress his arm. We asked for more dressings for Andrew at the hospital (as they gave us a bag of them at the beginning of his treatment and these had now run out). We were strictly told by one of the nurses that these had to be supplied by the District Nurse not them, as it should come out of their budget. Financial awareness from nursing staff is now commonplace in NHS hospitals and surgeries. Unfortunately, it is much more evident that financial constraints affect the care of patients in the NHS and how expensive a treatment is takes priority over whether you get it or not. We are constantly being told how much the chemo is costing as it’s being administered …. which is actually something a patient does not need to hear at that time.Well since we didn’t want the dressings to come out of the hospital’s budget we asked the District Nurse to order more supplies .. this was greeted with, you need to get them from your GP not me. I challenged this unhelpful response and she agreed to fax the GP and order more supplies. It seems to me if they can ‘pass the buck’ they will.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

On our way to dinner last night we came across a frog sitting completely still on the pavement.  I was pretty surprised at this as I’ve never noticed any frogs before on the busy pavements where i live …. then it clicked, it must have sensed the oncoming UK earthquake that we had last night …. next time I will pay more attention and read the sign!

Well as I am not a customer of the failed mortgage lender Northern Rock I really am not delighted by the announcement that the government is going to nationalize Northern Rock with tax payers money.  It is estimated that this public ownership decision will cost the tax payer in the region of 2k each.  For me this is just another nail in the Gordon Brown government’s coffin. 

I was interested to read a recent article in The Telegraph regarding the differences between healthcare in the US and the UK.  It says that the obvious difference is that in the UK we have the NHS and health care for all, whereas healthcare in the states is reliant on ‘private health care schemes’.  

The article is written from the point of view of an ex-pat family who have health cover via the husband’s job, she seems to think that without private healthcare in the states you do not receive healthcare. This is wrong as there is health care for ‘uninsured’ people in the US and a whole variety of different schemes to help you if you ‘can’t pay’.

She states that Private Healthcare is expensive in the US if you’re employer isn’t supplying it, but healthcare is expensive wherever you pay for it, no less so in the UK. Having experienced both NHS care and ‘private health care in the States’, I would never try to compare the two. There is no comparison .. but how can there be??? State run healthcare is never going to be the same as ‘private’ healthcare!! I think the NHS machine struggles as it tries to do a good job but due to financial restrictions will always fail a percentage of people with long waiting lists or misdiagnoses, because the whole ethos is you’re getting care ‘for free’.

A new film is being released on February 28th, based a bank heist in 1973 at Lloyds Bank in Baker Street.  It seems that there was more to this robbery than just ‘looting the money’,  it seems there may have been compromising pictures of one of the royals in the heist too.  It all sounds fertile stuff for a film and I am looking forward to it especially as it’s written by Dick Clement.