Various things today. I have behaved appallingly towards a Sainsbury’s staff member in respect of a failed refund from Sainsbury’s Chop Shop. I shouted at the person rather than calmly complain about the cock up and ask it to be rectified a.s.a.p. My fault, but I trust it will get the desired result in any event. He apologised for Sainsbury; I think I thanked him. It is not a large amount of money but principle is principal in such matters. I will have no qualms about going to the small claims court if necessary. It will be interesting to see how they handle a letter before action. Nonetheless my behaviour towards the help line person, whose name I did not take in, was very bad. More on remembering names to follow.
Another event was attending St Thomas’s Hospital for a Pre-Assessment Face to Face Visit. I Had to wait a bit as waiting room quite crowded with patients and they were clearly running behind schedule; however, once my name came up on the digital board I was treated as if I were the only patient and given full attention. A most wonderful Nurse/Technician (not sure what her title actually is) Neethu Paulose was impeccable and I can say that she was the best person ever to extract blood for testing, and I have had a number of people taking blood from my arm. As a phlebotomist she was superb. The only other person who matched her skill was a chap at Guys in 2015 when I was receiving treatment at the time which required frequent testing. He too was very good, quick and efficient. Neethu was brilliant. She dealt with all the various tests (ECG, Blood Pressure, cognitive etc..) with equal efficiency and care.
Apparently everyone over 65 is now subject to a cognitive test (what day it is, what year, time, counting backwards etc..) when attending hospital appointments. She asked me to repeat an address back to her, which I did, and at the end of the rest of the questions she asked if I could remember the address she’d give me to repeat. I remembered the town and the surname but could not recall the rest. Most disconcerting. It was less that a minute after I repeated it the first time. I suppose if I had been more familiar with the kinds of questions being asked I might have concentrated more; however, the whole purpose of the exercise is to see just how much the brain may have lost acuity. The series of questions will quite naturally vary and such quick response questions are necessary to gauge just how one’s internal information retrieval system is functioning. A small slip up, but what does it indicate? I shall be pondering this for some time. Are one’s marbles still intact?
As to the rest of the day, I am not wholly surprised by Trump complaining about possible Labour Party members volunteering to assist in Kamala Harris’s campaign. After all he only had Nigel Farage giving him full on assistance and support, which might have had a negative rather than positive effect. His willing acceptance of Reform Party support of any kind clearly requires him to lament the lack of Labour Party support.
Trump's absence of character, lack of integrity, woeful stupidity, mendacity and coarseness are now more than ever on full display. That anyone with half a brain continues to contemplate his becoming President of the United States again is one of the world’s great mysteries. That aside, I am hoping that the plethora of YouTube podcasts that show up the Trump/Vance ticket as a catastrophe for the American people will indeed have some effect in the voting booths across the country and Ms Harris will be elected in a landslide. It may be a vein hope but it is all we have this side of the Atlantic.
My friend, artist Duncan MacAskill is having an exhibition opening of the 6th November 2024 and I trust that as well as admiring his work we will be toasting the success of Ms Harris.
No comments:
Post a Comment