1 June 2012
I woke at home in familiar surroundings. with my night carer close by – this one a kindly ‘granny’type, so far as I could see through sleepy eyes, when she came to say farewell at 5.00 a.m. – . after a reasonably good night sleep. Alice, now having been relieved of all her nightly duties, is beginning to assume a more normal sleeping pattern.
I should perhaps mention to old and new readers alike that using voice activation is not always foolproof. For example, if I was in the middle of piece of dictation and am interrupted by someone coming into the room and speaking before I can switch off the microphone, the result is that the microphone will pick up bits of conversation and insert gobbledygook where ever the cursor happens to be at the time. Now, although I tried to read all of the text between drafting and publishing, occasionally the gobbledygook factor occurs without me noticing. I draw this to your attention as much as anything to assure you that I’m not going loony but it is just one of those things that can happen if you rely heavily on voice activation.
Smiler came down to lunch today, no doubt to hear first-hand the outcome of my visit to Papworth. I do hope I managed to assuage any fears e-mailed for a sudden demise on my part and as a result will relax a little and not feel obliged to come down and see how I am, almost weekly. Much as I love to see him. I’m sure it is a difficult distraction in planning his time. For example, I learned yesterday that he cancelled a holiday in France that he and Kimberly had been planning for some time.
I started writing a short of a curt letter of complaint to Papworth hospital concerning then transport arrangements without holding out any hope that they will be changed but at least I’ve got that off my chest, and, also, may possibly get my bill from Ollie’s, to take me home, refunded. In order to ensure that I was of sending the letter to the right person, I spoke to the manager in charge of transportation, (John) to and from Papworth hospital.
He was very charming and apologetic at the inconvenience I had been, and to the best of his ability promised me a better service. I felt very sorry for him as he obviously gets all the brickbats and is trying to run reasonable service with totally inadequate facilities. For example, as the elderly population increases every year many more of the patients attending hospital do so in wheelchairs and many of the vehicles in the transport pool are unable to take wheelchairs at all, and certainly a few of them cannot take the high variety of wheelchair in which I travel. In the end I settled for writing to sister Sharon Loveday, the sister in charge of the Respiratory and Sleep centre, without much hope my comments will have any long-term effects but at least I have tried on my behalf and those other elderly patients who encounter the same problem.
After that long time raise I shall he is the sense of indignation by giving you some of Tommy Cooper’s best one-liners. To see them just click here.