Beardie

with some serious assault

well eat a horse

Absolutely spot-on about the unemployment figures. I wonder what the figures would be if they sacked the courses that don't have any real chance of resulting in employment and allowed 16-18 year old's to leave school and 'sign-on' while they looked for work.

I am sure there are plenty of expert, caring and dedicated staff in the NHS. The problem is that neither my wife, myself or other members of my family seem to have been lucky enough to meet them. I have had only two operations in my life, one was a complete failure with surgeon apologising that he had made a mistake that meant the operation failed, in the other, 25 years ago for appendix I was taken out of surgery after the recovery room was closed so I was taken straight up to the ward unconscious and hurled into a bed as I was coming around in agony I then endured two days feeling like my left arm had been hit with a sledgehammer, I asked the nurses several times why my arm was feeling like this and was ignored until a new nurse actually listened, understood the problem and turned down the drip feed rate resulting in instant relief. I have to say that, in neither case did I sue, or even complain just limped off into the sunset but I have lost any confidence I had in the service. I don't wish to see a private health service as, from what I know of private health services, they aren't better just much more expensive. I do have to say that I think the end of the NHS is inevitable and, judging by the increasing number of adverts on TV for private doctors, WebMD's, etc. it is probably going to be sooner rather than later. The sharks are circling and they have finely tuned senses as to when the blood is in the water.

if it ever happens (for about eight weeks now the BBC weather reports have been promising snow in around a weeks time and, in all that time not one flake of snow!)

I actually have a real and angry grump with the quality of the NHS in Glasgow. On Thursday my wife had to attend a Gynaecology unit in Glasgow's 'Flagship' hospital for a painful and unpleasant test. I wasn't present for the test but she tells me that, for the first twenty minutes the nurse fiddled about trying to get her machine to work, or at least to appear to work. She then carried out the sticking of probes, tubes etc. in sensitive places with all the finesse of a bricklayer leaving my wife having to take an 'emergency' only fast acting morphine tablet and spent the rest of Yesterday and all of today in pain. This 'nurse' kept telling her she wouldn't get her operation if the tests didn't show the problem. Clearly she wasn't aware of why this test was being carried out. Problems with this scenario? 1. If the machine in question wasn't giving the correct readings when being set up how do you know it is giving the right results in use? 2. Given that my wife has an extensive history of severe pain in the particular area why was she treated so brutally. At one point she tells me the nurse went to pull out a probe, rather firmly only to then say, as my wife writhed in agony, oops, wrong one. 3. My wife wasn't trying to win the 'prize' of an operation, as the nurse seemed to think, but to try and get a solution to a problem caused by an operation and questionable implant that has pretty much succeeded in ruining her life. Personally, if it had been me in my wife's position I'd have called a halt when the nurse was having problems trying to persuade her machine to give what would 'appear' to be the correct readings. It would have been "test suspended, let me know when you figure out how to use your equipment or get it fixed!" I can't help but feel that the NHS is stuffed. I have decided that I will only seek assistance for myself if I am fairly certain that I'm dying(possibly not even then) although a witch doctor might be more useful.

your dog is dead

Indeed being grumpy is an art form, we should all get grants from the Arts Council for our contribution to the art. A grumpy fellow is like a stand-up comedian tasked with pointing out the sheer absurdity of human life to those less gifted. I am now grumpy that we are underappreciated artists!

no-one pulls my string

he keeps the ashes

who won't stop laughing (I'm assuming it's the Dalai variery?)

in the January sales

a brave new world

in need of stuffing

from the charity shop