DHB does decent kit

They used to be my first choice but for some unfathomable reason this years sizes are 4-6 inches smaller than last years so xxl top is no longer 48-50 inches but 42-44.

I am using FLATB and Aero tech design[/url] for the less roadie stuff.

Just got to get round to building my pizza oven for more STW points

That’s so last year in our garden.

I think your approach seems very reasonable and I am glad that the surgery was otherwise successful. There is now a duty of candour which requires NHS staff to be open about accidents or mistakes. There is also a requirement to internally report incidents such as this and to investigate them in the hope of reducing the risk of it happening again. I find it inconceivable that this will not be happening here.

For your own peace of mind you may well benefit from a better understanding of why this happened and to that end asking for more information at the follow up seems very reasonable to me. If for whatever reason they don’t have all the information at the time, then the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) should be able to get the information for you including in all likelihood a copy of any incident report.

Hats off to MrsGrahamS

+1

The women on the course was devastated to learn that her mum could possibly, even probably, have been saved by simply opening the airway.

I taught major incident management for some years and was always acutely aware that I might be walking through other’s emotional minefields. Over the course of 6 or 7 years I met people with first hand experience of the Bradford fire, the Herald of Free Enterprise and Dunblane. Very sobering.

OK, been out this afternoon and the good news is its dried out a lot in the last few days. Still some puddles and patches of mud but where the wind and sun have got at it the surfaced paths are firm and even dry in places. Under the trees they are still a bit greasy in stretches.

The unsurfaced stuff is also drying out but there are stretches of soft going particulalry where the tractors, motocross bikes and horses have been churning up the ground. Leave the semi slicks off and the crudguards on and you should be fine as long as we don’t have a deluge between now and then.

Was mostly rideable but fairly greasy and muddy last weekend when I was out on the Dalby, Wykeham edge of the moors. Had a few short sharp showers in the meantime and some snow on Monday which was fairly localised and didn’t stick at low level. The minor tracks haven’t really dried out yet this year, Hopefully going out this afternoon and will try and report back later.

Best wishes to you and your family

Done the North Yorkshire NYMBO series for the last few years. Thoroughly enjoy it even though the height of my competitive ambition is trying not to come last in my age group.

with a good DSN (Diabetes Specialist Nurse – more valuable in my experience than the consultant)

As a consultant, can I say that I entirely agree with this statement.

Good advice here from a lot of people with Type 1. As a diabetes specialist I would particularly endorse developing a good working relationship with the diabetes specialist nurses, testing regularly and, once the honeymoon period is over in about 6-9 months, look to get on a DAFNE course if at all possible. DAFNE should be available pretty much everywhere now.

Good control means less problems in the future and minimal interference in current lifestyle.

Rata the labrador died just before Xmas at the great age of 17. When she was a mere pup she didn’t like going for walks, the world outside the gate was a bit too scary. I discovered that the only way to make progress was to get behind her and sing loudly. Bat out of Hell in my best Meat Loaf impersonation was particularly effective.

The kids weren’t born at the time but are still horrified that there may be people around who remember. It’s a small village. I have not told them that I learned the phonetic alphabet by singing it to the dog and spelling out any instructions (SIT sierra india tango).

Grew up in L25, spent 6 years in NE3 and the last 18 in YO13,

Had to use Google to check the post code of NE3 and first hit was from Right Move resulting in a HOW MUCH!! moment (5 times what I sold it for) followed by a swap to Google Earth to make sure I had the right house.

Mind, it has had a bit of work done to improve the bathroom and kitchen. The description also made much play of the wonderful front garden with mature and interesting planting. Nice to see how it has matured over the intervening 23 years since I planted it!

w/c 16th North Yorks

Are you actually safe doing your job at the end of these marathon shifts?

No, that’s why they stopped. Like others, as a junior doctor I worked Friday morning to Monday evening. In one job three of us shared the rota so when one was away you worked Monday morning through to Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning through to Thursday evening and then Friday morning through to Monday evening. Worst week for me was 133 hours or 127 if you excluded the time I was asleep.

I can tell you that I was so tired on one occasion that I saw the patient and did the right things ( I went back later and checked ) but when I came to write the notes I couldn’t remember how to do joined up handwriting and after some very slow thought did the entry in block capitals.

My main aim was to fail safe and allow the seniors who had had sleep to sort the problems in the morning.

Nowadays, my longest period on call is 40 hours and that is availability with a couple of 10 hour days in amongst it. However, already had one night with no sleep this year which makes me unusually grumpy by late the following afternoon.

Like others a recent combination of viral infection, high winds and this weekend, ice. Lots of thin black ice around at the moment. Not much fun in a car or on foot and absolutely diabolical on a bike.

And I agree.
The Archers is, indeed, excellent.

Personally, I don’t think it has been so good since Phil Archer and Walter Gabriel deceased and it has developed an unfortunate habit of killimg off much loved characters whenever it has a major anniversary or wants a ratings boost. Mark Hebden, Nigel Pargetter, Grace Archer herself….

The pictures ain’t great either.

Combination of water, soap and electricity seems to do them all in sooner rather than later.

Bosch, Siemens, Whirlpool and Zanussi all seem to give 4 years service plus or minus a few months. Currently giving an Indesit Innex a go as it was decent value and their dish washers have proven surprisingly durable in our hands averaging 8-9 years a go.

Our non combi ran for 15 years before becoming uneconomical to repair. Has been replaced with updated version of the same. Other makers were a lot more expensive and consensus of 3 different plumbers over lifetime of process was that for what we wanted ideal are good no nonsense kit and increased pricetag doesn’t come with any guarantee of increased life expectancy.

First of all best wishes to you and your family.

All the above is sensible advice. PALS will feed issues to the relevant managers. As this is a nursing issue rather than a general manager I suspect that the person up the ladder from the ward sister who will have most need to know is the Matron and I would be surprised if he or she was not already aware of your particular problem – certainly I would be upset if if that did not happen in my own hospital.

Macmillan/palliative care team involvement now will also get best plan of care in place be that at home or hospice.

On the wider point, staffing is problematical at the moment in many hospitals. It is not a lack of funds in most cases, it is a lack of people to recruit. Hence the hollow laughs at the pronouncements from government this week that they have provided 300 extra doctors and 1000 extra nurses. The funding may be there but the nurses will take 3 years to train and the docs between 6 and 10. Frankly, if you can find 40-60 nurses and 15-20 doctors of all grades looking for a change of scene and good local riding then point them in my direction.

The reasons for the lack of candidates are complex but include changes in training and immigration policy and the increasing attraction of the Aussie and NZ health care system to trainees in this country who are fed up with being overstretched and no longer see a significant pay differential.

The fairly dramatic cuts in social care have both resulted in an increase in elderly patients needing to come into hospital and an increase in the difficulty in getting them home again and in some areas the private companies that took the social care contracts on an any willing provider basis are handing them back as uneconomic. This seems to be the main cause of the problems prominent in the news this week.

Agree with colournoise re dilemma.

Any local decision is up to school governors. I am sure they will be well aware and taking appropriate advice

Met Jason Connery at a friend’s 21st. They were at school together. Nice bloke.

Met my grandfather, who taught John Lennon music and socialist politics and ran the youth club where Lennon and McCartney first played on the same stage.

She sounded like a thoroughly decent human being.

+1

Agree, Ubuntu or Mint.

Managed to resuscitate a 7 year old Dell laptop with a Broadcom wifi card that confounded most other software. Mint is based on Ubuntu and there is plenty of info around on the web on different laptops and the likelihood of them working with Ubuntu. You can run the distro off the disc first and minimise the risk of compatibility issues.

Thackray was a genius whose lyrics stand comparison with any poetry and I bitterly regret not having seen him play live, albeit in his later days not many did as he apparently had dreadful stage fright. Allegedly, he rang up his agent a few days after a no show and explained that the snow and ice had just made travel impossible. All very plausible until you know the gig was in Norfolk in August.

As a teenager, I remember seeing him on telly and both Sister Josephine and The Bantam Cock stick in the memory. Years later, after he died, there was an excellent TV documentary and while researching it they found a pile of unreleased tapes and demos at his record company. The result was 4CDs of great stuff. I now have a particular fondness for “Isobel makes love on National Monuments”, “The Kirkstall Lane Girl”, “Castleford Ladies Magic Circle” and “Caroline Digby-Pratte” but frankly there is something for everyone.

Miss Caroline Diggeby-Pratte was at Roedean;
Her daddy is a Brigadier (a big wig).
Miss Caroline Diggeby-Pratte is seventeen
And she likes men who are sincere (jig-jig).
Caroline likes marzipan and pussycats.
Caroline’s the latest in a very long line of aristocratic Prattes.

Thacray website here[/url] for those that want to find out more.

One option to explore is inov8 roclite goretex boots and warm socks. Works OK with flats and has the hike a bike sections sorted.

I was always thinking of it as a winter/ early spring 1X10 crap weather bike so might still come through on time. Got other bikes to ride in the meantime ( although not today as not got a sheet ice bike in the stable as yet ).

Missed out on them first time round but Mrs R was brought up on them and introduced them into house once kids were old enough. Were much appreciated.

On Drac’s rules I had mine done when the postman came yesterday.

Good stuff, but for this year they have radically changed their sizing so that an xl this year is about 6 inches smaller than an xl last year. At least they have now changed their size guide so you know. I bought a gilet that should have fitted me about 2 months ago and it just fitted my 14 year old and he ain’t fat.

They sent me a why have you deserted us email a week ago and seemed surprised when I explained that the evidence suggested that they had deserted me rather than vice versa

Been using it on my winter bike and my commuter. Gone for slime tubes in the 26er and Sludge in the 29er. That is Sludge of South African manufacture (and sourced from ebay)rather than Dr Sludge which is Weldtite’s take on it. The SA Sludge has a nifty designed top that makes it fairly easy to put into any tube. If you are using presta tubes then continental ones with removable valve cores make it a lot easier. Seems to last about a year before it needs replacing/topping up. No experience of using artists’ latex although seen it written up.

Avoided an awful lot of punctures come the hedge cutting season.

It can become addictive.

Mrs Ratadog failed to see the usefulness of me building a wheel in the middle of the dining room table on Xmas Eve even though it was a red rim and a white jig and I tried to claim that it would make an appropriately festive centerpiece for the Xmas table.

I started with a spokey and the jig and nipple driver from Musson’s book. Total cost around 20ukp as I had the MDF and wood already sitting around.

because unlike Hospital Docs, we don’t get ours paid… About 4500.

Ouch. I am old enough to remember when the Government had to step in and offer crown indemnity as around a tenth of my income as a junior was going on professional indemnity. Despite that change hospital doctors DO still pay for professional indemnity if they have any sense at all. There are circumstances e.g. GMC investigation, when the crown indemnity will not cover you and without the insurance bankruptcy looms. Amount varies with specialty and happily I am in one viewed as relatively low risk.

Pretty sure medics pay at least the same if not more.

General Medical Council: £390/year (mandatory)
Medical defence society/professional indemnity: £283/year (I personally wouldn’t work without it)
Royal College of Physicians: £126/year (mandatory if I want to use my postgrad qualification letters after my name)
British Cardiovascular Society: £100/year (optional)

Sorry legolam, it’s going to get considerably more expensive after you are registered as a consultant. Per year:-

GMC 390ukp,
Medical defence society around 1200ukp pa,
Royal College of Physicians only 310ukp by neat trick of being in a Scottish College and therefore being an “overseas” member in Yorkshire ( London College was around 600ukp when I jumped ship )

Semi compulsory BMA (trade union) 432ukp
Specialist societies X3 a further 200ukp

Not sure I want to add all that up. I think it is roughly a Superfly per year.

Ah well.

Don’t know about folding pedals but there are a few detachable ones. You screw an adaptor into the crankarm and then remove the pedals when you fold the bike. MKS have a whole range of EZY pedals. The cheapest are resin ones that are fine for round town but I found slippy on a folding MTB and traded up to one of the metal caged ones. SJ Cycles seem to have a fair cross section of the range and they are 40ukp and upwards although occasionally cheaper on ebay. The “cheaper” range need a yellow clip to lock them on, I believe the more expensive ones do not but have no experience.

I also have a pair of Wellgo QRD pedals which are on ebay for about 20ukp and although the system is not as elegant and I needed to play for a bit with pedal washers to get the QR knob in line with the crankarm where it keeps out of the way, they seem to work fine. Again, there are a whole range of different pedals using the system.

MKS also make a folding pedal and judging by their other stuff it will be fine but pricey.

Out the the door and pedal up the hill.

+1

Dalby at the top of the hill

Specialized Hardrock. Bought when I moved to North Yorks and the biking obsession started to bite. Only bike I have bought from an LBS and therefore had help/advice finding the right size.

Was the wrong size and too big for me. For the money it was a good deal but I just couldn’t get on with it and it might have put me off. Got replaced with one of the original 456 complete bikes which was the right size and after that nothing to hate.

Octavia, very happy with our petrol 4×4 version. Only issue is that it can be a bit heavy on oil but that is a well known issue with that particular Audi engine. Otherwise it is Audi/VAG technology on the cheap. Diesel Octavias seem to be the preferred choice of taxi drivers round here which says a lot, and What Car consistently rates the octavia estate as best in class

We did this some years back for our wedding and like ekul had Black Sheep. Brewery were very helpful but are about 90 miles north of you and that may be too far.

You need the kit to tap the barrel and someone who knows how to do it. Luckily the bride had the necessary skill set.

Local independent pub should be able to help but may charge markup. If you pick a beer, brewery should be able to tell you nearest one to you.

Agree, round here Lidl and Aldi are cheaper and Sainsburys and Waitrose are better for the rareities, plus this is rural North Yorkshire so independent farm shops and butchers abound.

Tescos not doing well in Scarborough. They have a fairly small store which is built on a hill with the car park in the basement. Not easy to get to and not easy to park. Always seems quiet on the rare occasions I visit and never has what I want.

They found a big site to the North of the town centre which had formerly been a hospital. They put in several somewhat grandiose planning schemes for a megastore which would involve closing and redesigning local roads and possibly blocking access to the central coach park and a number of local businesses for a length of time during the build. This led to a prolonged planning process.

While this was happening Sainsbury’s rebuilt their store to double it’s size, Morrison’s revamped. Aldi opened, Lidl set up nearby and Asda and Waitrose started doing home deliveries from York. Possibly as a result, Tescos have announced that they have abandoned plans to build.