Journal Entries
The Grauniad's Berliner
Posted Nov 8, 2005
After a couple of months of persevering with the new style Guardian, I'm on the verge of giving up. There's nothing for it, I really can't get used to the changes:
1) The printing goes much closer to the edges of the paper than it did before. This means that I have to hold the paper in a different way to read articles in the last column on the page.
2) I don't like the taster articles along the bottom of the first page. Yes, those did exist in its previous guise, but they were longer, and were continued on a predictable page in the main body of the paper.
3) With the Observer still as a broadsheet, it is impossible to create a stable stack of papers for recycling purposes - 6 days of 'Berliner' with a braodsheet on top becomes totally unstable within 3 weeks.
Of course this doesn't mean that I'm going to start buying a different daily paper, as there isn't another one that I could buy. It means that I'm going to be spending my time reading the free on-line edition instead of the paid for paper version.
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Latest reply: Nov 8, 2005
Skiving off in office hours?
Posted Nov 3, 2005
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007190999/qid=1131034054/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/026-5108659-7883656
You wrote how many pages, boys? 
Discuss this Journal entry [17]
Latest reply: Nov 3, 2005
A hole in my bum
Posted Nov 2, 2005
About two weeks ago whilst having a bath, I noticed that there was a small lump on the inner side of my right buttock, down near the gluteal-fold. I thought nothing of it and carried on playing with my rubber duckie.
Last week I noticed that the lump was a bit bigger, and a little bit tender to the touch.
By Friday of last week it was uncomfortable enough for me to ring the Doctor and say, "My bum is a bit sore. Can I come in and let you have a prod around with it?" The answer was yes, but that the first date that was free would be five days later on the Wednesday.
By Monday the little lump was not a little lump any more. It was a great big angry looking red swelling. I couldn't sit down properly, I was walking a bit like John Wayne, and I was taking pain-killers like they were smarties.
Time to ring the Doctor again - "No, sorry. We really can't see you any earlier than we've already agreed. It's going to have to be Wednesday."
Wednesday, my arse. Quite literally I suppose. I take myself down to my local A&E department at 3pm on Monday afternoon, as I can't take the pain any more.
By 3:30pm they've decided that they don't like the look of my backside one little bit, and that I had better come in and get it seen to. Four hours later and after being prodded by a succession of doctors (all young, all blonde and all female) a bed is found for me on the Surgical Assessment Unit in the bowels of the hospital's tower block.
The nurses tuck me up in bed and start administering IV antibiotics and more painkillers. The plan is to stick me on the end of that night's surgical list. So I can't have anything to eat or drink, but as I'm a bit dehydrated they decide to put me on a saline drip - hey what's one more link to the cannula in my wrist between friends.
Sadly, the list takes too long to complete, and I'm not going to be operated upon until the morning. So still no food or drink for me. Hence another saline drip at about 3am - aren't we supposed to be keeping our salt content down? So what is it with all this pumping me full of salty water?
Anyway, come 7am on a bright Tuesday morning (Well it might have been bright. I had no way of telling. This ward is, as I said before, stuck down at the bottom of the tower block and has no windows or natural light at all.) the abscess, for that it was it was, on my bottom burst. Now this probably sounds like a really painful thing to have happen. Well it's actually not. It in fact comes as something of a relief. The pressure in the abscess has dropped and hence the pain starts to go away. The downside of course is that you find yourself lying in a slimey pool of bloody puss, and boy-oh-boy, does that stuff stink.
A quick clean up and I'm ready to be shipped off to theatre. I'm there and back inside an hour, with a nice slice taken out of arse and a load of wadding stuffed inside it.
I spend the rest of the day lying in bed reading the paper, drinking lots of water, and eating hospital food - which is surprisingly tasty by the way.
On Wednesday morning, this morning, I'm given the once over by another doctor. Yes, young; yes, female; but ginger haired this time around. I'm given the all clear and send home with a bunch of drugs and dressings for the wound.
For the next few days I'm going to have to present myself daily to the GP practice nurse and get the wound redressed. Apparently what they do when operating on an abscess is not just drain it but cut the top off it as well. The idea being that if it were just drained, then it could reform. Whereas leaving it as an open wound/pit allows the wound to heal from the bottom up. Hence the need to have it professionally cleaned out, repacked and covered up on regular basis.
So there you are. I am now *officially* a pain in the arse 
Discuss this Journal entry [37]
Latest reply: Nov 2, 2005
Falmer for All - The Result!
Posted Oct 28, 2005
And it's excellent news!
After years of legal wrangling, several millions in legal fees and millions more lost in potential revenue. Brighton & Hove Albion have been given permission to build a new stadium at their preferred site in Falmer, up at the north-east end of the city, by Sussex University and the A27
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4319026.stm - the news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3512006.stm - the back story
F2231914?thread=1302692 - you can add your congratulations here
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Oct 28, 2005
GreyDesk
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