h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I do agree, I usually find it excessively hot where I work, although some parts of the building are rather chilly. But remember the staff are obliged to be 'bare below the elbow' for hygiene reasons & patients (on wards or having tests) are often in thin gowns.

I think the main problem is not being able to zone the heating so it's warmer where needed but reasonable in other parts.

Hospitals here in the States are typically . Of course we pay exorbitant prices for healthcare. Maybe it's the A/C bills that accounts for our high rates.

Country file and the Antique Road show, Matt Baker's grin irritates me beyond belief, and the other thing, my missus sits oohing and ahring at a load of old tat, not me, the stuff on Antiques Road show, depressing Sunday evenings are, I'd go out for a couple more beers but my knees are giving me gyp. I hate Sunday evenings me.

Oh and the tennis, my missus will be up half the night watching that, I hate tennis me, and watching them Aussies sitting in the sun, makes me sick. And the cricket, drunken South Africans lying around in the sun all day, drinking beer, makes me want to micturate.

People who use my matches (no problem), then put the used ones back in the box.
Why? What do they think happens next? Fairies visiting in the night to pick them out and dispose of them?
The waste of time's irritating enough, but the illusion of plenty when shaking the box can lead to all manner of problems.

People do that!?

Plural? More than one?

Yes, people do that. I've only encountered it once and on that occasion there weren't any bins available. I'm guessing that the perpetrator didn't want to leave the used match lying around, so they put it back in the box. Otherwise there's no excuse for it.

Not so Petty Hate: continuing eye trouble. A specialist diagnosed uveitis, but the eyedrops don't seem to be having much effect. Reading is one of my favourite pastimes and it's hard to do when everything is blurry. Using a computer is difficult, too. At least I can zoom in for some things on my tablet, and the Microsoft magnifier helps on my laptop. Print books are almost impossible, though.

I have a friend who had literally The Worst case of uveitis.

He was complaining for weeks about his eyes and they were frightening. He looked like he had a very serious case of conjunctivitis, as his eyes looked pink and "spongy". I kept urging him to go to a proper ophthalmologist but as he had no insurance he just went to a friendly GP who would subscribe some pain pills and eye drops. This went on for a few more weeks until one day he became very ill, vomiting with fever, &c. He went to the emergency room (at a hospital my mother used to work for, but that's not relevant). The doctors there barely treated him. And once they found out his job was as a DJ at a topless bar, one doctor kept checking his penis. All they basically did was dose him up with antibiotics and get him rehydrated and "well" enough to discharge two days later. Their diagnosis was meningitis even though he didn't display many of the typical symptoms of meningitis, like a sore neck. What they DIDN'T do is get an ophthalmology consult. No one even shined a pen light in his eyes. If they had, they might have noticed his pupils were not adjusting to light.

After being discharged with antibiotics in hand, he went back to work for a couple of weeks, avoiding bright lights and taking more pain meds. Until one day at work his eyesight became extremely poor and his eyes very painful. He called me to get the name of the ophthalmologist I'd mentioned before, my father's, and another friend picked him up from work and took him to the office.

As soon as he walked in, even the receptionist could see this was an extreme case and escorted him past all the other waiting patients. The doctor who would be seeing him was out of the office but requested he be taken immediately to his other office where his surgery was located and he'd meet them there. This doctor performed some emergency surgery including sticking needles in my friend's eyes to relieve the very high pressure (glaucoma) he was experiencing. (I believe he said there were pressures around 40+ PSI.) He said that if he had waited to come in after the weekend (this was a Friday) he would likely have been permanently blinded. This doctor even offered, unsolicited, to testify against the hospital ER doctors if he decided to sue. (He didn't, but I think he should have.) Again, the ER doctors never even looked closely at his eyes even as red and swollen as they were.


Anyway, don't let this tale worry you. This tale is about the plight of the many here that have no insurance and my friend's stubbornness regarding his health. Oh, and his soon to be ex-girlfriend at the time later claimed responsibility in a way when she admitted to someone that she had put a curse on him.

I'm glad you qualified uveitis as 'eye trouble'. For some reason, had I not known, I'd have been too embarrassed to ask about the symptoms.

We've only known a few people who put dead matches back in the box - there just seems to be more of them because they've forgotten our pleas by the next visit.

They're usually the same people who hover with the door open in winter, letting out hard-won fire heat. ("In or out - SHUT THE DOOR!" is our oft-heard refrain).

Icy North, were you worried you might hear something like this?

http://youtu.be/pRoGEWj6ka4

You know on Flog It, when the hammer's gone down, and that unctuous Paul whatsisname asks people what they're going to spend the money on? (it averages about 50 quid) I generally scream at the telly mind your own effing business! And I'm fed up of getting told off by my missus.

PH - the squidgy bit that holds DVDs & CDs in the case. I can never extract the disc easily, I'm always afraid I'm going to break it.

You're supposed to press the little circle into the little hole with your thumb. Then the DVD pops easily onto your waiting fingertips.

Or, if you prefer, you can use your index finger to pop it out, allowing your thumb to form a full circle and grip the other side.

PH: Having to print off an official document, and finding that most of the sheets aren't necessary. What a waste of ink and paper.

I know that's how it's supposed to work. Just rarely does for me!

Long-life milk cartons - the 500ml ones with a little flat plastic lid covering a slit in the top*. I have the choice of either using that opening and having the milk slop across the worktop EVERY SINGLE TIME, or else cut a triangle from the side flap and have the milk leak out into the fridge and still sometimes slop across the worktop.

Deb


* as opposed to the 1L ones which have a sensible raised spout and screw off lid)

I'm with Teasswill. We all know how they're supposed to work, but many of the case manufacturers use slightly different configurations or their QC tolerances are lax and some cases fight to hold on to the discs. The ones I especially despise have a center "button" that doesn't give and each of 2-4 the indicated finger grooves around the disc edge has a raised line or lip defeating the purpose of the grooves in the first place.

PH: Companies that give new customers better deals than old ones.