Your entitlement...

 

I am going to state, right at the beginning, that I am a grumpy old man. But then, you should know that already. I may have slipped a bit just lately but the grumpiness remains.

I am warning you now that if you don’t like what I write hereafter, tough. I don’t think that I am a bad person, just grumpy and getting more opinionated as the years go by and as the pandemic carries on.

A few days ago, Capt Tom passed away. We all know that he raised a phenomenal amount for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100^th birthday. People are now mourning him as If he was their father. Fine, nothing wrong with that. But are we doing it for the right reason? Yes, he raised a shitload of money. Yes, he walked 100 laps of his garden when he was approaching his 100^th birthday. Others could’ve done that and, indeed, they did. One lady was 104 when she walked to raise money. Capt Tom was the first and he captured the nations attention. His attitude was that of a generation that lived, and fought, through a world war, rationing and hardships of many kinds. He never implied any sense of entitlement or of being cheated out of anything.

My grandfather left school at 14 to work down a mine. Some of the money he earnt was used to pay for night school courses that led him to become a civil engineer. He became chief civil engineer in Nottingham. And on his journey through life he earned an MBE for services to the country during the war. Apparently, he planned dummy airfields for the Germans to bomb. He worked hard. He took only what he could earn in a world that was harder than it is today. And he died before he could enjoy his retirement. He asked for nothing.

Today I see on the local news that prisoners in an open prison are complaining that they have missed out on the furlough scheme. I see teenagers claiming that they have been cheated because they have been ignored by the government and their education is suffering. What are we becoming?

At one point this country was producing some of the best scientists and engineers in the world. Our armed forces were the envy of the world. Now? Not so much.

If you have been affected by anything contained in this blog feel free to sob to yourself in a corner.

Regards

Giant68 

Giant68 - The Plague Years

What did you do during the plague? Were you someone who thought that measures brought in to control the spread of the virus didn’t apply to you? Did you stay at home but whine about it? Or did you stay at home and follow the guidelines with the good grace of an adult with a sense of compassion and community spirit?

Either way, this virus caused all sorts of fear and panic. Death rates rising, stocks of toilet rolls plunging. Different kinds of rhetoric heard daily on the streets and on the TV.

Me? I was lucky, in a way. I still went to work every day. Mrs Giant68 went to work every 3^rd week, until she managed to dislocate her shoulder while playing cricket on the school field, MiniGiant was furloughed on 80% pay and No.1 daughter was furloughed on full pay.

Myself and Mrs Giant68 were classed as keyworkers and put in a bracket just beneath nurses, along with the binmen and shop workers. I don’t feel that we compared in any way to healthcare professionals, I was just doing the job I was paid for. Yes, I am a little scared of catching some virus that could kill me, after all, I am a 55-year-old man with heart disease and diabetes. But if you let the fear take over you may as well lock yourself away and never venture out ever again.

I am full of good intentions. While I am still working, I have plenty of spare time on my hands. We can't go shopping, or go out anywhere much, so what to do with all that spare time? I can finally get to teach myself how to play that ukulele, I want to learn Makaton, I can sign up for another online learning course….

4 weeks in and, while the garden is now tidy, I have done none of the rest of what I had so naively planned. But I have had video calls with friends far away and nearby. I have watched Starlink satellites float past overhead and photographed the moon and stars through my telescope, renewing my interest in hobbies surrendered to lack of time. So while I have learned not a lot I am still happy that I have come away with something. I reacquainted myself with the peace and beauty of the heavens, the peace and tranquility of a garden on a sunny afternoon and the pleasure of  good book. I hope that you have all gained something.

Although I have seen and heard things that haven’t been so pleasant. I have watched friends fall out over differing opinions, either scientific or political. It seems that in times like this everyone becomes an expert, or knows someone who knows someone who works with someone who…

Everyone seems to know better. Everyone seems to believe the rubbish that is published in the media, regardless of its source. I worry for friends when I see these arguments and I hope that when this is over they will kiss and make up. Me? I sit here and follow the guidelines given through official channels. I believe only those things I know as incontrovertible truths and I wash my hands and only go out for exercise and shopping. I will, however, achieve my goal of the Couch to 5k. Started yesterday and today I am buggered! But I will persevere.

Situations like this bring out the very best in some and the very worst in others. Ask yourself what its brought out in you. hopefully, it is the former and not the latter. Think Capt Tom rather than the Trumpster. 

And it has brought out some amazing examples of the dark humour of the British. I have laughed quite a bit. 

Look after yourselves. Follow the guidelines. Socially distance. It will pass. Things will get better and we will meet in the pub for a pint again. Stay healthy. Love you all.

And I really hope that my friends, newly moved to Somerset, finally see a Starlink satellite...

Giant68 😊

Interesting times at the moment, don’t you think? Virus, lockdown, no pubs, no restaurants, nothing really.

I have been lucky that I can still go to work, others, like Mrs Giant68, have to stay at home and try and avoid going stir crazy.

So what have you all done to try and relieve the tedium? I guess that those with kids haven’t had much chance to suffer the boredom of being home as the young’uns will be taking up most of their time while the rest is spent chucking gin down their throats. But I haven’t done a lot really. I have been off work for a couple of weeks, working in a school I still get the school holiday off this time. I have binge-watched a few things on Netflix and Amazon. I subscribed to the Disney channel so that I could watch The Mandalorian which, I hasten to add, I quite enjoyed.

Back in the 1970s there was a TV program called James Burkes Connections. I vaguely remember watching it and enjoying it. It seemed to be the start of the popular science scene that has lead to Brian Cox. In the program, James would follow a twisting trail linking one scientific discovery to others. It would start with a Roman Chariot and end with the space shuttle, or it would if the shuttle had been around in the early seventies…

I like all this popular science stuff, not that keen on Brian Cox to be honest, but the science is good. I read an interesting book recently that showed that the origin of the production line and mass production goes back to the American War of independence and the musket.  I used to watch Tomorrow's World when I was a kid, I bet a lot of you won’t be old enough to remember that or it’s original presenter, Raymond Baxter. Yes, I am old.

The other day I found a series seemingly based around the concept of the James Burke program. It is called Revolutions, presented by Jim Al Kalili. It shows that the telescope could have been in existence a thousand years before Galileo made one and found that Jupiter had moons and Saturn had rings.

But the most interesting thing I have discovered via this program is that Hedy Lamarr, film star and once voted the most beautiful woman on the planet, was also an inventor. She devised a way of guiding torpedoes to their targets during WW2. She also came up with the spread spectrum method which allows our smartphones to work without clogging up the airwaves.

I am a sucker for trivia like that. These things stick in my brain. For instance, the first traffic lights were in Parliament Square in 1868. Gas-powered with semaphore like flags as well as the red and green lights. Unfortunately, the next year they exploded and killed a policeman.

Voyager 1, launched in 1977 is now in interstellar space, having left the solar system in 2012, and is just short of 14 billion miles from home. In 40000 years it will be near  AC +79 3888, a star just over 17.5 light-years away.

Now, you can’t deny that those facts are fascinating, can you?

What I should be doing is learning the ukulele, something I have been trying to do on and off for a couple of years. Or maybe taking advantage of the many offers of free online diplomas. But where’s the fun in that?

Regards

Giant68 J

I really need to change that profile pic!

I have always been a bit of a social distancer...

So, how are you all doing with this social distancing? The world has become a bit of a strange place at the moment and there is no real sign of normality, at least not in the near future.

In a way, I have been lucky. I am one of those that still have to go to work and, while the threat of this damned virus scares the living crap out of me, I am thankful that I can still get out of the house.

But there is one thing that will keep me sane(ish). And that is my collection of books. I have been an avid reader for many, many years.  I discovered science fiction and fantasy at quite an early age when I found Destination Mars by Hugh Walters in the school library, previous to this I had read all of Willard Prices books. From then on I regularly got criticized by my English teacher, Mr Mouncher, who felt that I should be reading Dickens or Austen; ‘Stop reading that Star Trek rubbish’

Needless to say, I didn’t stop reading it. And I was encouraged by my maths teacher who lent me books by Cordwainer Smith and Arthur C Clarke, thanks Mr Cobley! I worked  my way through the Hugh Walters books, powered my way through Clarke and Asimov and then discovered fantasy, in the writings of Robert E Howard and his creation, Conan the barbarian.

Over the years I collected many books. It wasn’t enough to borrow them from the library, I had to have my own copy. I didn’t read a book and then get rid of it, I kept it to read again. I ended up, a few years ago, with thousands. As you can imagine, Mrs Giant68 was never that impressed.

Then she bought me a Kindle. I think there was hope that I would get rid of all the novels piled up around the house. And I did get rid of them. As I replaced them with the electronic version I would send the physical book to the charity shop. I am now the proud owner of thousands of ebooks. I still have some ‘real’ books, those with some sentimental value and signed copies.

Back to the current situation. While I have been sat, social distancing, I have had a chance to scour Amazon for new books to read. Amazon is a great place for people like me, especially in this day of self-publishing. There is a myriad of books at knockdown prices. I rarely pay over 99p for a book. There is, however, a drawback to self-publishing, and that is that some of them are absolute shite. But in amongst the dross there are some absolute gems and these range from proper ‘pulp’ scifi to some that would hold their own against literary classics. And there are a plethora of sub-genres to choose from, steampunk, urban fantasy etc. In the old days of paying over a fiver for a paperback, I would finish every book I bought. I was going to get my moneys worth. Nowadays, if I have spent 99p on a book and it proves to be crap, I don’t bother. Life is too short to read rubbish books. I tend to avoid ‘zombie’ novels as they all follow the same idea, and I feel that it is lazy writing and authors without the imagination to write something original. Apologies if you are one of those writers but please feel free to convince me otherwise.

Currently, I am waiting for Neal Ashers latest episode from his Jain series, The Human, to hit the shelves. The previous books being absolutely amazing and unputdownable. But then that is what I have come to expect from Asher, as well as Peter F Hamilton.

I have discovered fantasy from the keyboard of Justin Lee Anderson, The Lost War. A story that could rival the writing of David Gemmell.

I am currently reading The Atomic Sea by Jack Conner and loving it. It looks like it is a long series so I am not sure how long I will stick with it before it starts to bore me but at the moment it has captured my imagination with the imagery it contains. Next in the reading queue are books by Steve McHugh, excellent urban fantasy writing, something by Michael Anderle, real pulp fiction but, like the others mentioned here, good for losing yourself in for several hours.

In a way we are in a golden age of writing, more so, I think, than in any other time. The opportunities that the ebook have presented to budding authors seem to be without limits. Anybody can live one life but a reader can live thousands of lives.

I expect that Mr Mouncher, the old English teacher, has long since passed to the great library in the sky but I wonder what he would say to me now.

In the meantime, and while you are self isolating, get along to Amazon and check out the offerings of Neal Asher and Peter F Hamilton for vast, sweeping space operas with complex plots and even more complex characters. Or Justin Lee Andersons Lost War if you are into well imagined fantasy. For the urban fantasy fan, try Steve McHugh and his Hellequin series. I make no apology for plugging these authors, they write some great stories, but remember that Amazon has a vast catalogue of books in all formats, why not try something new?
 Stay indoors. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Read a good book and stay sane.

Regards

Giant68 :-)

The naked and the recovering.

I am a little late in writing this, sorry. We went to Spain in October and it is now February.

So there we were, sat on the beach, and what a nice beach it was too, I was reading my Kindle, and I look up and there are two naked people walking past on their way to the sea. What is wrong with this? I hear you ask. Nothing, apart from the fact that, being English, I am more used to seeing naked people looking like their birthday suit needs a good iron or it has been overstuffed. These 2 were quite good looking, not that I really noticed, or was looking…

I think that the gentleman was affected by the coldness of the sea… Anyway, I went back to reading my book, lets face it, I was recovering from a quintuple bypass.

There is nothing quite as good as blue sky and sunshine to help a recovery from major surgery, or anything, come to think of it. We had retired to the Costas for a week and it proved to be worth it. October ½ term and the weather at Platja D’Aro was mid 20’s, blue sky, hardly any people. We stood on a beach on the first day and were the only ones there. Paradise.

It’s also strange what you can learn about a place if you put your mind to it. There are paddy fields in Spain. They grow rice, who’d have thought it?

We were in a good hotel, quite multinational but mainly Germans. They have weird things for breakfast. I  saw people collect just a plate of eggs, I get that, but then there was the guy who collected a massive plate load of cake and a bowl of milk and proceeded to dunk the cake in the milk, weird but each to their own, or chacun à son gout as the Europeans might say, not that we are European any more but that is another story and not from me.

Spain is a beautiful place but, seriously, who paints a building this colour and puts orange blinds on it??

And then you get views like this:

Do you see why myself and Mrs Giant68 picked this place for the mental recovery from surgery? We both needed it.

Regards

Giant68 😉

Up, Down, Up, Down...Now the other eyelid...

18 weeks down the line from a few heart attacks and quintuple bypass surgery and, on the whole, I feel pretty good. What? You didn’t know I’d had a heart attack? Where have you been? If you had been following my blogs you would know all about it. So go back and read the previous couple of blogs, but be warned, I have been told that they made a few people cry. Anyway, back to being 18 weeks on.

I have spent the last 8 Fridays at Cardiac Rehab. Basically, for people like me, heart attacks, bypass and heart failure, it is 8 weeks of exercise and talks. Exercises to help with the recovery and beyond, and the talks to give me the information I need to be able to live a life that doesn’t see me having another heart attack and shuffling off this mortal coil.

Week 1 was a bit of a shock to the system. I turned up to find that I was the youngest there, 54 and the youngest, who’d have thought it? But I wasn’t the fittest, by far. The first set of exercises took me 3 days to get over. Everywhere ached. I was shuffling around like the old man I thought I was. Georgina, 84, was fitter than me! It was explained that the amount of muscle mass and stamina lost is considerable during the 8 weeks post-op, that time when I can do nothing but let my body try and recover from what is some serious butchery. Over the following weeks I gained some stamina and a little strength. It was a real surprise to me as I never thought I was unfit. Fine, I could not run a marathon, or even sprint 100m, but mere weeks before the heart attack I was carrying railway sleepers on my shoulders. Suddenly I was as weak as a baby. Mind you, I still pulled… Georgina, 84, and Jill,69, seemed to like me, oh dear! By week 8 I was running and using weights. Not a Charles Atlas yet (I bet that not too many of you are old enough to remember him!) but improvement nevertheless.

Talks were about things that affected us, drinking, smoking, diabetes, medication, exercise, etc. The whole process from surgery to this point had seemed to fly by. And there were things I should’ve known that I didn’t. One of those things was the medication I was now taking for the rest of my life. And that was stupid. We should all understand what we are putting into our bodies, and why. We all know that smoking and drinking are bad for you, I think that is a given, as well as the fact that exercise is good for you. But what were Ramipril and Bisoprolol doing to my body? Why was I taking an aspirin in the morning and a statin at night? I know now. I know why some of them are having their doses increased and why I will, eventually, stop taking Furosemide. The practitioners who ran the rehab program ensured that all of us had the knowledge and tools to live the best life we could from this point. And we were like a little family. Having had a shared experience of the heart attack, regardless of whether we were stented or, like me and Georgina, cabbaged (Cardiac Artery Bypass Graft  or CABG, cabbage.) and as had been explained me at the beginning, in A&E, there is no such thing as a mild heart attack or severe heart attack. There is just the heart attack, it can kill anyone, or act as a warning if you are very lucky. I will miss Fred, Frank, Mark, Georgina, Jill and all the rest. I wouldn’t say it was fun but we laughed quite a lot. Megan, the practitioner who got us moving was a tyrant. But she was good. By the time the sessions ended I was knackered and sweating, fit for nothing else, but improving.

Another thing I have learned, and this makes me seem very ungrateful, is that I am still looking for an upside to all of this. I have yet to discover the fun. Everything I eat I have to investigate to make sure that there isn’t too much salt or sugar or saturated fats. Alcohol still reacts with my meds to affect my blood pressure. Sneezing still hurts my chest, as does coughing. Rolling on to my side in bed still makes my ribs ache. And all sorts of other things. I should be grateful to be alive but I am still pissed off that I didn’t get to Canada. When I finally get the money back from ATOL (Thanks Thomas Cook!) I will have spent £12000 on a holiday that I haven’t been on. Yes, full grump mode has been restored.

Next time I might talk about Spanish autumn and nudists…

Regards

Giant68 😊

Hospital food and a police raid...

Hospital food. The mere thought of it strikes terror into my alimentary canal. Having spent a couple of weeks in hospital recently I can attest that hospital food is not exactly cordon bleu. Breakfast was a choice of soggy cereal or soggy toast and a cuppa. Lunch, a prepacked sandwich or a bowl of soup. But the finest cuisine was saved for dinner. Several times I had a plate with some brown stuff, green stuff and, a sort of, cream-coloured stuff. Yum!  I wondered if it was deliberate in an attempt to, either, kill patients off or get them to go home as soon as their taste buds start working again. I was not surprised that the guy in the bed next to mine was constantly stuffing his face with bag after bag of crisps. Indeed, I did cheat one day and send a friend down to Subway to get me a wrap with lots of chicken and salad in. I didn't think it would be appropriate to have a steak  & cheese while recovering from heart surgery.

I'm not sure about STD chicken...

I since heard that the government have drafted in Prue Leith to help sort out hospital food. Didn't they draft in Heston Blumenthal a few years ago, how did that work out? Obviously not well otherwise we would have decent hospital food. I don't understand why the government doesn't employ those with skill and experience in feeding lots of people. The Army Catering Corps. Surely those who can feed thousands on a battlefield a hot, filling meal can sort out this problem. 

Along with filling yourself up, there is the issue of getting yourself empty. Now, nurses seem obsessed with bowel opening. Every time they came round with the medication they asked everyone if they had opened their bowels. I was determined not to use a bedpan. Not dignified.  I would lie and say yes each time. Unfortunately, they are wise to this and kept giving me laxatives anyway. In the end, you have no choice. The pressure built up so high that I had no choice. I could've easily hosed down the whole ward. Not fun. I am sure that the nurses get used to it, but I was feeling a little sorry for myself at that point, especially when I was still going ½  an hour later...

As for the police raid, well, we were all by the window watching as several police vehicles came screaming into the hospital grounds and slid to a halt outside the Eye Unit. Coppers jumped out and ran inside. We watched for ages but saw no one come out. Disappointing. We would see the Air Ambulance landing but that wasn't excitement, for that to be landing here meant someone was having a really bad day. 

There's not a lot funny happening in hospitals. They've even changed the nurses' outfits to be more practical so I can't make any sexist comments about those. Although I still flirted shamelessly with them when I could. One poor nurse, a bloke, had the unenviable task of checking my backside for pressure sores. You've got to feel sorry for him! You can imagine them drawing straws for that job. 

Now I am home, I have been sat around at home for weeks, slowly building up my strength by walking every day and working my way through Netflix. No one can understand my burning desire to get back to work, although I think that my boss and my team will be glad to see me. 

I still have to attend the Heart Failure clinic, can't they give it a better name?? and cardiac rehab. The insurance company has paid out for our Canada trip that had to be cancelled, so we can go and rebook that for next year. Things are starting to look brighter. Apart from the fact that I have nearly finished Netflix...

Regards

Giant68 :-)