Thursday, September 28, 2023
Pendant Bail
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
This show will run and run.
An appointment is now booked for you as shown below.
Date: Thursday 28 September 2023 at 9:00 am
Clinic: 2WW Gastroenterology (Triage Service) University Hospital - RJ7
Note: This is a telephone/video appointment, you do not need to go to the clinic.
During the telephone assessment the Clinical Nurse Specialist will decide which diagnostic test is most suitable based on referral information. These include:
- colonoscopy
- flexible sigmoidoscopy or
- CT colonography
This test date/time will be agreed with the patient over the phone during the telephone assessment and they will be given instructions re: light diet & bowel prep. This test will be carried out within 14 working days.
Now you know as much as I do. Watch this space.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
The more things change...
The new establishment has taken leave of what passes for its senses over the last day or two, with the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police all but competing to see who can placate the Scotland Yard officers who handed in their weapons following a force marksman being charged with murder the most cravenly.
The decision about the charge followed an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). These are the official bodies whose role it is to hold the force and its officers to account. I don't have any knowledge of, or insight into, the shooting of Chris Kaba but is it being suggested that the IOPC and CPS aren't performing their duties diligently? If not let justice follow its course.
A note on context: The largest armed police unit in the UK is the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection, in which Wayne Couzens and David Carrick served.
David Carrick joined the Met in 2001 and was selected in 2009 to carry a gun and guard parliamentary and diplomatic sites.
In sentencing him for 85 serious offences during 17-year campaign of terror and attacks against women, the judge noted that in one attack – the first he was sentenced for – he told a woman she was safe with him because he was a police officer, before raping her while holding a firearm to her head. In other attacks, he used police-issue handcuffs to restrain the women, and sent a photo of his police gun to another, warning her: “Remember I’m the boss.”
Wayne Couzens used his handcuffs in the abduction of Sarah Everard. Is it seriously being suggested, under pressure from armed police that there are no longer systemic problems with them?
Just join the dots Sir Mark, mate. It ain't all that difficult. A fortnight ago (a fortnight!), you were saying just the opposite. What changed?
Monday, September 25, 2023
Sunday, September 24, 2023
I Loves The 'Diff
O brave new world, That has such people in't.
Saturday, September 23, 2023
“Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order.”
Prodnose: The title above is one of these secret message things I suppose, intelligible to a select coterie, possibly resonant for you when revisited in some tranquil future, yet opaque to the great unwashed?Myself (settling into armchair and lighting pipe): It could be. Unless of course, rather than a reference to my circumstances, it is reminding us that a new film 'Dance First', directed by James Marsh and starring Gabriel Byrne as Samuel Beckett will be with us on November the third.
ESTRAGON: Il pourrait peut-ȇtre danser d'abord et penser ensuite? Si ce n'est pas trop lui demander.VLADIMIR [à Pozzo]: Est-ce possible?POZZO: Mais certainement, rien de plus facile. C'est d'ailleur l'ordre naturel. [Rire bref.]
Myself: But Beckett himself renders it in English as follows:
ESTRAGON: Perhaps he could dance first and think afterwards, if it isn’t too much to ask him
VLADIMIR [to Pozzo]: Would that be possible?
POZZO: By all means, nothing simpler. It’s the natural order. [He laughs briefly.]
Prodnose: Someone comes along, and scoops the first phrase out of its deontic modality (which the infinitive prevents one from doing in the French). Thus reduced to the imperative mood, it is paired it with the second phrase and a shitty Beckett-as-Fred-Astaire quote is born.
Myself: Yes. “Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order.” as an arch reference to my life is already reduced to a mistranslation; a forgotten redaction. You are putty in my hands.
Addendum
Looking through my old version (Icons passim) of the panache speech from Cryano I noticed I was a vowel short in the penultimate line. Thus, given my mood, it has had a little rejig to emphasise my defiance.
What now? It is not practical I know.
To cast a loaded dice for one more throw.
No, no; a beautiful, a hopeless stand
What is this horde? I shall not stay my hand.
I know you now, old foes, old enemies!
Dissembling, Prejudice and Treacheries!
Deception! Here's my sword's point, ask no truce.
I fight and will die fighting. No excuse.
Take what you will, you send me to repose
Beyond the prize, the laurel and the rose.
You've done your worst and yet I still retain,
Respect you cannot strip me of or stain.
And when I leave tonight to meet my Lord
If heaven's azure vault's not my reward,
And all I left behind on earth was ash.
Despite you all I kept, and keep still my .... panache!
Friday, September 22, 2023
Quantum poetics
How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within
From the former Conservative Cabinet minister and co-presenter of 2022's breakout hit podcast The Rest is Politics, a searing insider's account of ten extraordinary years in Parliament
Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister - before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise.
Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become. Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today.
Stewart emerged battered but with a profound affection for his constituency of Penrith and the Border, and a deep direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict.
Politics On the Edge invites us into the mind of one of the most interesting actors on the British political stage. Uncompromising, candid and darkly humorous, this is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life; a new classic of political memoir and a remarkable portrait of our age.
This month's Audible credit has gone on the new book by Rory Stewart; WBI man crush - (see Icons passim) for twelve years now.
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
One for the bucket list
Did you know that there exists a remarkable walking route spanning the globe? Starting from Cape Town in South Africa and culminating in Magadan, Russia, it presents the longest continuous distance that can be covered on foot without crossing any oceans.
This extraordinary journey covers a staggering distance of 21,808 kilometers. To complete this awe-inspiring trek, one would need to dedicate approximately 4,492 hours of non-stop walking, which equates to an astounding 187 days of continuous movement.
Hat tip: African Hub
Wow! About that holiday?
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Schadenfreude. I like it!
Daily Star"WHAT A WAY TO ANNOUNCE YOURSELF TO THE CITY GROUND CALLUM HUDSON-ODOI" ☄️ pic.twitter.com/MSXVLEvJur
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 18, 2023
Chelsea chief Todd Boehly told to bid £80m for Callum Hudson-Odoi after Forest rocket
Callum Hudson-Odoi has found the net in his debut for Nottingham Forest on Monday evening - and cheeky Chelsea fans have suggested Todd Boehly should bid £80million for him
Cheeky football fans have told Todd Boehly to bid £80million for ex-Chelsea star Callum Hudson-Odoi following his wondergoal against Burnley.Nottingham Forest were chasing the game at the City Ground as Steve Copper's side started to crank up the pressure against the Clarets - leading to a ball being lumped in the direction of Taiwo Awoniyi.Awoniyi chested the ball down to Hudson-Odoi, who skipped past one defender and let fly with a wonder strike that dipped into the far corner of the goal."Chelsea should really look into signing this Hudson-Odoi fella," one fan joked. While a second shared on social media: "Chelsea are gonna buy back Hudson-Odoi for £80m after that goal!""Paying £88.5m for Mudryk and only getting £3m for Hudson-Odoi, who's still only 22? Todd Boehly is a criminal," a third said. And another added: "Chelsea could do with Hudson-Odoi!"
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Form is temporary but class is permanent. |
Monday, September 18, 2023
The 7 Constructive Faces (of Gareth the Karmic Rugby Gnome)
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The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision, referee. |
Portugal are nicknamed ‘Os Lobos’, or The Wolves, and while Wales kept them from the door in Nice, Patrice Lagisquet’s team delivered a joyous display that captured the intoxicating potential of underdogs at World Cups.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Greenaway, Myrtle, 1919–2002
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Going to Mass in Eire 1951 |
Saturday, September 16, 2023
What'd I Say, Pt. 1
Friday, September 15, 2023
Who's in Backstairs Billy? Fnarr fnarr!
Wilton plays the Queen Mother and Evans her loyal butler in the new playThe Michael Grandage Company has revealed the complete cast for the world premiere of Marcelo Dos Santos’ play Backstairs Billy, exploring a significant moment in the 50-year relationship between the Queen Mother and her loyal servant, William “Billy” Tallon.Joining previously announced Penelope Wilton as the Queen Mother and Luke Evans as Billy are Emily Barber (Annabel Maud/Lady Astlebury) who reunites with Evans after The Alienist, Iwan Davies (Gwydion), Ian Drysdale (Kerr), Ilan Galkoff (Young Billy), Eloka Ivo (Ian), Michael Simkins (Mr Harrington-Bahr/Hugo McCoyd), Nicole Sloane (Mrs Harrington-Bahr/Lady Adeline), with David Buttle, Amy Newton, Keanu Adolphus Johnson, Georgie Rhys, and Jacob Ethan Tanner.Michael Grandage’s production is set to open at the Duke of York’s Theatre on November 7, with previews starting on October 27 and running until January 27. In line with the company’s ongoing commitment to accessibility in the West End, £10 tickets will be available for every performance throughout the run.The production marks a reunion between Grandage and Wilton, who previously collaborated on productions including The Chalk Garden, John Gabriel Borkman, and Hamlet. Additionally Evans performed twice at the Donmar during Grandage’s artistic directorship, in Small Change and Piaf. Dos Santos was a recipient of the MGCfutures Bursary in 2019, a charity established by Grandage to support various aspects of the theater industry. Following their introduction through the bursary program, MGC commissioned Dos Santos to write Backstairs Billy.The creative team also includes set designer Christopher Oram, costume designers Oram and Tom Rand, lighting designer Ryan Day, music and sound designer Adam Cork, wigs, hair & makeup designer Carole Hancock, casting director Jacob Sparrow, associate director Sophie Drake, and costume supervisor Mary Charlton.