Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning, at noon to the ‘Change, and there met by appointment with Captain Poyntz, who hath some place, or title to a place, belonging to gameing, and so I discoursed with him about the business of our improving of the Lotterys, to the King’s benefit, and that of the Fishery, and had some light from him in the business, and shall, he says, have more in writing from him. So home to dinner and then abroad to the Fishing Committee at Fishmongers’ Hall, and there sat and did some business considerable, and so up and home, and there late at my office doing much business, and I find with great delight that I am come to my good temper of business again. God continue me in it. So home to supper, it being washing day, and to bed.

Ha ha I am not sure what going home to supper has to do with washing day. I reckon Pepys must be dog tired* when he writes his diary, so I am amazed by such coherence and written by candle light to boot. I wonder if he fell asleep sometimes.
* a phrase used in the time of Alfred the Great who used to send his sons out with his extensive kennels of hunting dogs.

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Maybe this will be scanned by a satellite

Reading the papers in the morning (or any time come to that) is not a particularly joyful experience but the image above cheered me up. 10/10 for imagination and lateral thinking.

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aimed at de-frightening children (Ctrl and + key for enlargement)

So, off to RUH for a knee X ray. I signed in at 12.40 and out by 12.45. The open door no appointment X ray Dept was deserted save a sweeper. Whilst waiting I noticed a poster, above. I am quite used to machines but when you are attached to one or inside one that’s quite a different matter.

Clinical cutaway diagram of this $150,000-$400,000 range of machines. In USA the prices for a scan are stratospheric hence the high cost of travel insurance. A typical scan would be $500.  26,000,000 MRI scans are performed in USA annually.

I remember when I was subjected to the MRI machine when I had my accident in October 2016. I felt nervous and overwhelmed in spite of being drugged up with morphine. You move slowly but surely down inside it as we have all seen so many times on TV and that is scary. You are asked to keep completely still and that adds to the poignancy.

In general people have fears of one thing or another. Fear of going under (somniphobia), fear of seeing knives (aichmophobia), fear of injections (trypanophobia), of pain (agliophobia), of blood (hemophobia), of water (aquaphobia), even of doctors (Iatrophobia), fear of possible permanent effects of the insult (Nosophobia) which bought the patient into hospital or fear of hospitals themselves (Nosocomephobia).

RUH does a great job in informing people about their condition and attempting to de-stigmatise them, dementia  being one such.

And now to the next installment in the ever changing photo and painting exhibition that adorns the corridors of RUH.

“Hare’s dream” by Vicky Yeates, Oil pastel and lino Ink. I like the thoughtful look of the hare on the left. He is very much aware.

“Smallcombe Farm” Elizabeth Hughes. Photo art print

To the big city dweller such pictures are very much a siren which some of my readers may not know as meaning “a partly female creature in Greek legend whose beautiful singing lured sailors to their deaths.” This type of place probably needs more maintenance and upkeep than you might imagine. It will certainly be socially isolated and your nearest friendly co-op will be at least a 20 minute drive away, not an attractive proposition on a dark winter’s evening when you have run out of milk. If you are considering an ‘idyllic’ life try staying a few nights in a B and B and just walk around, talking to the locals. Oh, and don’t forget the frost on narrow muddy winding lanes.

a display table outside the main restaurant at RUH

Back to the hospital for a moment. There is an annual flu brain washing campaign talking the usual alarmist scare tactics about flu.

Remember folks:
1. the body has its own immune system which if kept healthy will fight off most bugs given half a chance.
2. the flu virus like all others mutates to survive so it is one or two steps ahead of the vaccine that has been prepared for it
3. The effect of vaccine on people over 65 is very small
4. many vaccines contain thimerosal (mercury, a toxin) and aluminium.
5. many of the studies on efficacy and safety are paid for by the pharmaceutic companies that stand to benefit from sales.
6. Oh, and ANY medication that has been available for less than three years is using the public as guinea pigs, certainly in the USA.
7. PS Read medicine labels with a magnifying glass as the key giveaways are hidden in para 34, page 3.

If you want to be really brave, do your own research on the relationship between NMR vaccine  and autism then just type in – maybe on YouTube – those three key words.  557,000 references in Google and 5,790 returns in Youtube.  Check it out for yourself, folks. (stats correct as of 21st September 2017),