Hulk smash!

Today was fun.  We went to a rage room this morning and out for lunch at the Sun in Feering.  I thought that both kids would love the rage room but one decided to retire from it, while the other continued to smash and enjoy themselves.  I think that when in there, I broke one of the bats that is used.  Lunch was great and afterwards we chilled preparing for a week of work to come.

Out of the FA cup

It is not fair, we are out of the cup. It is sponsored by Emirates.  I did expect that we were to leave, but with our recent results, I thought that we had a chance, and from the highlights of the game that I have seen, we had a chance of winning this.  But we are out and we have to hope that ManUre do not win this and come to one win to equal our record.  

I am now hopeful that we do not throw away out five point lead that we have in the league the way we did back in the past. 

Anyway, family wise, I have been out for a lovely meal with my wife and two friends and my wife and I have just walked the dog together. My daughter had a friend round and my son who was looking after the dog has retired to bed.

Shotgun Wedding

That was an interesting film. We watched it as a family, my two teenagers liking parts of it and while we enjoyed it, I enjoyed it the least.

As a film, it was fun and flows well for a romcom, though the flow starts to fray a bit towards the end. If you are after surprises, it has a few, but overall, a lot of the film, notably at the end, is too predictable to be truly enjoyable. But I sound harsh as I am glad we watched it as a family and while this is not a film I would have picked out, I am glad that my wife did.

PMQs and gender (again)

Today PMQs, as expected focused on corruption, or the appearance of it in the Conservative Party. Keir Starmer started asking about the probation service and then moved on to tax issues. The answers in general were to be expected, but the one that stood out was the denial of Rishi Sunak over knowledge about the tax affairs of the former chancellor. Officials raised a ‘flag’ over Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs before he was appointed chancellor, which means that Rishi Sunak is lying about Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs or someone made a big error by not telling him about this.

Before watching PMQs, I watched Politics Live which discussed gender. My views have changed again, I feel that safe spaces such as toilets etc, should be genitalia based even if they have a gender recognition certificate. It is not just the recent case of the rapist Adam Graham (now known as Isla Bryson), who I suspect is not Transgender but is a predator pretending to be one so that they can continue to hunt prey once incarcerated. It is also that some men will want to exploit rules so that they can expose themselves. We are moving to a situation where women, who are being sent too many explicit images, will have to face up to seeing male genitalia in spaces like changing rooms. 

In my work, I sadly come across too many people who 'game' the system to act within the law but in a morally reprehensible manner, and in most cases, the person who is doing so is male, the victim being female.  

I do not consider predators like Adam Graham/Isla Bryson, Karen White/Stephen Wood or Katie Dolatowski to be TransWomen, I consider them to be men pretending to be TransWomen so that they can hunt.  I have disagreements on Twitter about this before, but I think that it is wrong to compare them to real TransWomen like Rebecca Root or Yasmin Finney. 

My views on safe spaces such as toilets have fluctuated over time and will probably change again.  I am genuinely interested in views on this, but sadly, debate on this is rarely civil. 

Corruption (again)

The UK has been hit by revelations of corruption again, twice. I doubt that Nadhim Zahawi can survive his tax row inquiry though the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp, probably will make it. The common factor with all this is Boris Johnson. 

Boris Johnson is the one who took out the loan, he is the one who appointed Richard Sharp, and he is the one who made Nadhim Zahawi chancellor. Issues had been raised before this appointment and if Rishi Sunak had not been told about them, why has be not been told about them? 

Rishi Sunak should take action though, this being to sack both. I doubt he will. 

Bullying in politics

I was watching VEEP with my daughter and asked her which character from political shows like this that she would like to be. She said Malcolm Tucker. I did express surprise at this, but was too scared to tell her that this meant she wanted to be Priti Patel. She rarely reads this so I will be safe to make this comment on the blog! 

To be fair to Priti Patel, it is not just her who has faced allegations of being a bully, the difference is that she has been found guilty of this.  When The Thick of It was filmed at the end of Labour being in office, bullying was being cracked down on outside politics.  I myself engaged in bullying behaviour when I was younger, back in the 1990's and I understand that my actions then were wrong.  But times have rightly changed and my daughters wish to be Malcolm Tucker should never be realised.

My faith is increasing

I have only watched the highlights, but from that, we were lucky to win today. But any team needs luck at times and without it, it would have been a draw. It was good to see Eddie Nketiah continue to score goals and my fears about the absence of Gabriel Jesus ruining our season, appear, for now, to be unfounded. I imagine that this would have been a good game for a neutral to watch, five goals after all, and watching England performers play well was great.  I cannot help but have a soft spot for Marcus Rashford even though he plays for ManUre, but to see the smile on the face on his face as well as that of Bukayo Saka after they score makes me happy.  

Drinks last night

I was at a course yesterday and this morning. It was run by AstraZeneca  which meant that what the NHS would do in one day, they did over two. Working in the NHS since the 1990’s it is the first time that I have been on one where they pay for accommodation and meals, so last night, I attended the first drug sponsored meal I have been to in a while and I may have drunk too much (free) wine.

The children (and my wife) accused me of drunk texting them. Obviously I would never do that.

The meeting was a good one and I have a lot to take back and put into action. In the meeting they had a chart, one to put down a word about how we felt after it on making changes to asthma management (mine was inspired) but they had another board, at the request of a consultant, about how we felt about the NHS. She has three children, two went to medical school. One had left the NHS, one is about to leave and the third, who is a lawyer, is very happy.

Anyway, onto more cheerful matters. After I left the meeting today, it was a trip to Epping where my wife had a reunion of old school friends. It was great to see them, though three of the crowd were not able to make it. They are already planning the next meet… 

Ambulances and PMQs

I think that both the PM and The Leader of the Opposition think that they won PMQs today. I am biased, but I feel that Keir Starmer won it with his simple and repeated questions about the ambulance service.

More or Less this morning talked about ambulance response times, starting with the time taken for a 999 call to be answered to the wait for an ambulance once one was dispatched. As noted before, this is not a new issue, though it is one that was not present during the years Labour looked after the NHS. This was debated in Parliament in 2016.  It turns out that the time that NHS England expects an ambulance crew to be at a hospital to hand over a patient is fifteen minutes. After that, they prepare the ambulance for the next job and then go to the next patient. Now, they have to wait at A&E to offload the patient which means that they cannot collect the next patient. Patients like my Mum who had to take herself to hospital by taxi after having a suspected heart attack because no ambulance was available to collect her.  Fortunately it was not her heart, but her symptoms sounded like it could be. 

Sadly, I do not see this improving until some time after the next election. 

The Gender Recognition Act

Interesting times have come about.  Scotland has passed a Gender Recognition Act and our government may veto it.  I think that this is the wrong course of action.

While I have concerns about this, notably that it could mean an end to single sex schools (i.e transwomen would be allowed in a girls school as A level students), my main concern about the GRA is if it would allow people like the sex offender, Katie Dolatowski the legal right to stay in a women's refuge. Also I have concerns with people like the rapist, Karen White being allowed to be in a female prison.  I know that some consider me transphobic to have these concerns, but so be it.

Defenders of the bill state that such issues are not going to arise, those who are against it state otherwise.  I am not a legal expert so cannot really understand the bill to see what it says and I rely on others.  It appears that I will only find out what will be allowed or not when it is allowed, or not, and that means the law should pass.

I do think that it is silly to make people who are non-binary to have to wait ages for a medical diagnosis for the ability to have such a certificate.

But I should not be surprised considering that the government who have rightly banned conversion therapy for people who are not straight, have refused to ban conversion therapy for those who are non-binary.  

In summary, conversion therapy should be banned, and rather than forcing a veto on the Scottish GRA, an act of Parliament could be passed to make it only legal in Scotland if the concerns about it are valid. 

      

Do I Believe?

My question is if I should start to think that we can win the league. We are eight points ahead in the league after our victory against The Scum and also this is thanks to the way ManUre beat the team that rhymes with City. From the highlights that I watched, the game could have gone either way. Our defenders still make me scream and I am surprised to see that we have the second best defensive record in the league. But that may be due to our goal keeper. In fact, I am also starting hold hopes that we may win in the next round of the FA cup. The thing is, we have thrown away a five point lead in the past to finish third in a two horse race!

Man Up

My stress from yesterday has improved a bit and this film helped a lot. Yes it is a RomCom, but I feel it is one of the better ones. I know not everyone agrees, but it has memorable, though simple characters and a decent plot. It was what I needed for today and I may even watch it again! 

The Menu

This morning was quite stressful, and the effects of this lasted a while, we went to have a late lunch at The Shepherd, great Guinness and service, but a shame about the food.

An irony then that my wife and I started to watch The Menu afterwards. It is very dark and she had to stop watching it after a while. I continued to watch it, and I have to say that I enjoyed it and would recommend it to those with a sick and depraved sense of humour. 

Anyway, here is hoping that I feel less stressed tomorrow. 

The Conservatives stealing a Labour policy

Many people complain that they do not know what Labour stands for. A reason for this, is that the Tories will steal Labour policies. Labour unveiled a plan to help jobseekers find work earlier this week. Jonathan Ashworth (Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary) promised improved support for those who have recently left employment, the plan designed to encourage older workers and those with medical conditions back into work.

Today, the Tories, in effect stole it. 

I think that we do have a system where it is hard for those who are ill to get benefits, but if they improve a bit, they are in a catch 22 situation where if they do try to return to work, they will lose benefits, and this can be catastrophic if it turns out that they cannot remain in work.

While this is not the Universal Income that I would prefer, this is a step in the right direction.  It is a shame that Labour will not get the credit for these changes though.

A minimum service level legislation for the NHS

The government want to ensure that the NHS provides a minimum level of service during strikes.  What I want to know is what they consider a minimum level of service to be outside of strikes. 

An ambulance dispatcher has spoken about their fears on the BBC website.  This as a personal feel for me as my mother, who woke up with crushing central chest pain last year had to get to hospital by taxi as no ambulance went out to see her.  Where I work, I saw a lady who had a similar issue, waking up at night with chest pain, but cancelled the ambulance when her pain went.  I saw her the following morning and it looked like she had some heart damage as a result.  My mother was fortunate, it was not her heart, but for too many, they do come to harm due to these waits.

While the government like to blame the pandemic, this was a problem for too many before it.  It is just worse now.  The issue of waiting times for ambulances was discussed in Parliament in 2016 and in 2018, there were reports of patients waiting more than a day for an ambulance as well. 

Patients are dying in hospital corridors now, but again, this was happening before the pandemic, this article being in 2018.

I would love the government to state what standards are to be expected during a strike and to be accountable if those standards are not met when there is no strike action taking place. 

Oxford United's FA Cup tie with Arsenal

I forgot to post about this last night!  I had listened to most of it while charging my car (our home charger was being used by my wife) but I did get back home to watch the last few minutes and then saw the goals I had been listening to earlier. 

My worry before the game was that we would slip up, but winning it will mean nothing if we lose, as expected to Manchester City in the next round.  If nothing else, I do hope this game means that Eddie Nketiah continues to improve and also that Smith Rowe returns to his amazing form. 

The Conservative health policy

Many years ago, when the GOP was opposing the Affordable Care Act, the alternative plan (or lack of one) as described as “Don’t Get Ill, And If You Do, Die Quickly” which I think is the mantra of the Conservative Party today. 

That is the only reason I can think for them to allow the NHS to get so bad, and then to blame the NHS for it being so bad.  

While the Conservatives have increased funding, they have not done so according to its needs, hence the rise in the waiting lists as well as its failure in so many other areas. 

Retaining NHS staff

First of all, my son and I are back from France. He had talked about an early morning trip to Paris, but come the morning, faced with getting out of bed he decided to stay in bed. A trip to the airport in a taxi and then the flight home. Though it turned out we had not paid for everything and our cabin luggage had to go into the hold. My wife picked us up, having spent the weekend in London with my daughter having a great time themselves.

Anyway, one topic that has been discussed is if NHS staff are valued. In the last two months, as part of my job I have talked to two nurses who have left their jobs for better money elsewhere. One has now left for Australia, where she is to continue working as a nurse, just somewhere that will pay her properly. I need to write to by MP if they should have stayed in their jobs and accepted a below inflation pay rise, or if they should have left.

I am also going to ask him about an email from one of this fellow MP’s…

My return to Space Mountain

My feet hurt. Originally we had planned on getting to Disney so that we could be on the rides for 0930. But my son was asleep, so I let him rest and we did not actually wake up until 0900 when we went to have breakfast. My son did not eat much, but he normally does not have much for breakfast. I did eat, but the standard of the food here is not great. 

 

When in Disneyland, we went to Space Mountain. When we had been here before in 2014, my son was too short to go on it. My daughter did, but she hated it and refused to go on it again. He loved it but wanted to see the rest of the park. We later returned to the Indiana Jones ride, but he was not able to remember this, but that was almost ten years ago. After this we wen to the Marvel park. When there, I found my scariest ride ever, this being The Tower of Terror, and I also found my third scariest ride, this being the Avengers ride. When it comes to me and rides, the two things that get me are accelerating and dropping. Space Mountain accelerates, but it stops doing so before it gets very scary. Not so with the Avengers ride where it continues for longer. It was the Tower of terror that was the worst though. When I finished the ride, I was literally trembling with fear, and my son laughed. And then made me go on it again. 

 

We stayed till late, making use of the rides, including a return to the Buzz Lightyear ride that he loved so much back in 2014. We saw bits of the firework demonstration which is at the end of the day which I had wanted to watch. Seeing the few bits that I did see was good enough for me. 

 

Anyway, time for bed, and tomorrow, back to Blighty!

Paris, well a glimpse of it.

Today, my son has had a non-pupil day. I have tried to take such days off so that we can go to theme parks. Most are closed right now and my fabulous wife mentioned that I could take him to Euro Disney. We had been here many years ago, almost ten, 

She drove us halfway to Heathrow and drove the way back home by herself, which we were grateful about due to the Train strikes. The flight was packed but other than being late, was uneventful. Sadly, we did not bring toothpaste so we went into Paris for a bit of shopping to get some. An Uber drive later through the beautiful city and we were at the hotel.

I have just seen young children here, so it may be that we get to go on Space Mountain tomorrow (or hyperspace mountain as it is called now), something my son did not get to do before. 

One win and one draw

Our lead over the team that rhymes with city has been cut thanks to a draw against Newcastle. A season ago, I would have expected three points at home against them, but with their new manager (well not new now) they have been a force to be reckoned with. With the two teams with the best defensive records playing against each other, a draw would be expected by many.

Our game against Brighton was a different matter. We did well to win it, but they exposed the defensive issues that I am still concerned about and the game was almost closer than it ended thanks to an offside decision.

Here is hoping that we keep winning rather drawing, but I doubt our form will continue when we play the big teams but I do expect us to finish in the top four. At least the team most likely to take the title did not win both matches.

NHS waiting lists and funding

Downing Street has said the government is “providing the NHS with the funding it needs”, amid warnings of a winter crisis at hospitals.

We have people waiting over a day in A&E, oxygen shortages, ambulances queuing outside hospitals unable to hand patients over to hospital staff leaving people waiting for hours for help to get to them.

Here is a graph on NHS waiting lists from the Financial Times. 

As you can see, under the Conservatives, waiting times have increased, and this graph looks at the funding that the NHS has got over this time.

There are calls from Conservatives that the NHS needs reform, forgetting that reform took place under the Conservatives after Labour were voted out of office in 2010.

Avatar: The Way of Water

This is a film that I can imagine will either be liked or hated. I liked it. But, I can see why many will not do so. 

Plot wise, it is a simple plot with a few issues which I suspect will be dealt with in the next two films. There is a huge plot hole and this may be addressed in a directors cut, or even in the sequels to come. It is not too taxing to follow and watching it with my son, who had not watched the first film, he was able to come up to speed fairly quickly. Issues of greed and exploitation which were the plot in the first film came up again. The visuals are spectacular and while some have complained that the film was too long, I think that with the content included, it was about the right length as it flowed well. Overall, the plot was mostly predictable, though there were a few surprises for me. The tale was told well, but like the first film, other than the special effects, this is not a notable film that will be a classic in the future.

If you liked the first film, I would be surprised if you do not like this. And if you do not like the first film, then do not bother watching it. I am glad to have watched it and I look forward to the sequels which are to follow. I am not sure if my son will be watching them though. For those who do not wish to watch it, here is the trailer, but like with many films watching it will reduce the enjoyment of the film.

A failure to flatten the curve

When my brother came to see us last year, we discussed what was to happen with both Christmas our mothers birthday. After all, she was to turn 80. We discussed the different options and he agreed to book somewhere. At the time, I said that I was not sure that the birthday and/or Christmas would take place as I stated that the NHS was under pressure and I imagined that Christmas would be cancelled. Of course, it turned out that my mother did not join us for her birthday, but she did see us over Christmas.

Imagine my surprise when it was not and the queues to be seen in A&E had increased so much. In addition to this, the antibiotic shortage with Strep A may have not been as much of a problem if social distancing was put back into place. 

We went into lockdown on the previous two Christmas periods to avoid this. Yes, things would have been worse in the last two years if we had not done this, but the use of a mask alone would have reduced the horrific scenes in our hospitals up and down the country with COVID, and social distancing would have meant less worried parents trying to find antibiotics.

The Honeymoon

This is a truly terrible film. I am sorry that I suggested this to my wife yesterday. It will be hard to beat just how bad this film is. 

 

The best bits include the scenery, not just The Lake District at the start, but also Venice. It was good to see Maria Bakalova again after watching Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Also the other great part is that it ended. Not just for the track played as the end credits rolled, but also for the second deleted scene. The film is watchable until the best man’s speech, one that is even worse than the speech from Four Weddings and a Funeral. Once you get to this part, read these spoilers and skip to end end, or just watch a different film.

After the speech, Bav accompanies Adam, his best friend, and his new bride, Sarah, on their honeymoon as Adam is worried that Bav will kill himself (later turns out that his comment about not being there was because he was to travel to India). Bav christens the honeymoon suite with diarrhoea as he blocks his own toilet due to food poisoning. He accompanies the couple on a boat trip with a “See You Next Tuesday” t-shirt but is left to his own devices for a day. During this time, he befriends the son of a Mafia boss (Giorgio) who has fallen for Sarah. The three are invited to a party with this very handsome Giorgio, who flirts with Sarah. Adam finds them cutting drugs when looking for the toilet, then as he tries to get them to leave, Baz destroys some priceless Venetian masks while trying to impress a lady. In order to pay for this, Adam and Bav are sent to deliver drugs to Slovenia and return with the money. They get pulled over at the border, but despite Bav leaking narcotics, they leave. Rather they flee after being allowed through, burn their car in panic and have to find a safe house to stay overnight. 

 

During this time, Sarah has been charmed by Giorgio who takes her to parts of Venice that has been closed off to her when she had toured the city with Adam. Giorgio promises to aid her career and shows how he can do so before allowing her to pick a fantastic dress from a selection and then charming her with a rooftop dinner overlooking the city. The boys meanwhile find the safe house. Adam waxes strips of himself as he takes of the numerous drug packets that are sellotaped to him while Bav soaks them off in the bath, inadvertently breaking a lot of the packages which mix with his bath water. The following day, the two fight over this when being taken to the drug drop (by an intimidating man called Ivan) and lose most the drugs they have remaining. 

The drop does not go well but they are saved and almost killed when the police, tipped off by Giorgio, raid the drop. The two escape with the money and make it back to Venice. When Bav leaves Ivan’s car without the drug money, they decide to rescue Sarah. They are caught but Sarah rescues them and they flee through Giorgio’s villa, more art being broken in the process. Bav sacrifices himself, but they try to same him. Giorgio let’s them go due to his love for Sarah and it sends with Bav meeting an Italian beauty just before end and Ivan discovering the money in the first of two end credit scenes.

New Years 2023

Time for a quick update before bed. Yesterday we entertained Lyndsay and Nick while my daughter went to a friends for a sleepover. It was great seeing them though I passed out after midnight. 

Today, we met up with my brothers (and partner) in London. My daughter had not got much sleep the night before though. We were hoping that my mother would join us, but she declined.  I am not sure what we did to annoy her over Christmas, but she may relent and allow us to see her again.  I had offered to pop round and see her before the meal, but she said she would be out, but was present when one of my brothers visited her before our meal.

It was a great meal though and it was amazing seeing both brothers again as well as Lauren, the partner of one.  The only good point of my mother dropping out was that we changed the venue to a dog friendly place, which turned out to be at the site of a meal that we had with my mother several years ago.

Being in Islington always brings back fond memories from when I was younger. Back then we used to take the bus to Chapel Market as my brother and I found the walk too hard.  When older, my mother would give me a shopping list and on the weekend and I would get the shopping from Sainsburys’s (which is still there).  I used to know the prices of most the everyday items we got such as milk and bread as every hard earned penny my mother had was invaluable. My father did pay child maintenance at times, but he was never that reliable.

Anyway, time for bed after a very enjoyable start to the New Year.