Palermo Cathedral
Palermo cathedral isn’t as grand as some in Italy, but it’s worth a visit.
It was about five hundred metres from my hotel, so it was an easy walk, except for the dodging of traffic.
Carriages In Palermo
Palermo has lots of horse-drawn carriages for the tourists.
Not for me though a ride! I’ve only ever been in a horse-drawn carriage once and that was in Seville.
But unlike many places nearly all of the horses, looked to be in good condition.
Wandering Around Palermo
I spent most of the afternoon and some time before I left in wandering around Palermo.
I like the buildings of the capital of Sicily, even if some parts are a bit run down. I wouldn’t stay in the Hotel patria, judging by the look of the outside.
My Hotel In Palermo
I stayed in the four-star Palazzo Sitano.
The only problem was that I’d booked a single room and it wasn’t ready when I arrived, so I got an enormous and very comfortable suite for the same price.
I liked it and would stay there again.
It says on their web site, that it is close to the centre of everything, and I certainly didn’t have to go far to the station and important sites like the cathedral.
And the staff were excellent, as was the map I was given to find my way around.
the television system was also very good and remembered the last channel, when it was switched off.My Sony in this house does that, so why does the usual television in a hotel forget?
Walking Around Windsor
It’s been a long time, since I’d been to Windsor.
The weather was lovely and it made for a very pleasant day, walking amongst memories of the times I had spent in the town with C and other friends like a guy from Liverpool University, who lived in the town.
If you decide to go, it might be better to choose a rainy day and certainly a train journey might be less stressful. The only problem with the train I took from Waterloo, was the lack of toilets, which was compounded by long queues to access the station toilets at Windsor and Eton Riverside station.
Carluccio’s Do A Gluten-Free Crostini
This week, Carluccio’s have a gluten-free crostini on the special menu.
Carluccio’s Do A Gluten-Free Crostini
It is all about garlic, mushrooms and rocket.
It made a nice change as a starter.
Incidentally, the Carluccio’s in Islington now has wi-fi. And like the system in Manchester Piccadilly, it is easy to connect to it.
Is A Good Memory A Disadvantage When It Comes To Reading Fiction?
I rarely read fiction and the title of this post occurred to me as I travelled north today.
I read a lot of non-fiction, both in a printed and an Internet form, and most of it gets remembered. Or at least hopefully the major facts do. As a child I was always reading encyclopaedias and other factual books and my mother was always telling me to read more fiction. C used to sometimes despair at my holiday reading, which could be a bit embarrassing to her.
So do I not read fiction, because it’s more about emotion and action, and not about facts I can remember for use later?
A Stadium In Need Of Updating
Hillsborough has seen better days.
These days you expect to have an uninterrupted view and some form of decent match timing device.
You can understand, why it is no longer used for FA Cup Semi Finals. I know the reason is to get more matches at Wembley, but I go to so many stadia, that are far superior to Hillsborough these days.
The NHS And Disruptive Innovation
I’m a great fan of disruptive innovation. It summed up in Wikipedia as follows.
A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology.
In some ways the classic disruptive innovation is iTunes, where Apple changed the music industry totally.
I, of course, would be a fan, because my first great success was Artemis, which took the project management industry out of the domain of large mainframe computers and cumbersome management structures into a computer that fitted under a desk.
But I have given this post, the title I have, as the NHS and other health systems is coming under pressure from disruptive innovation.
My other big innvation success was also disruptive innovation.
I was one of the backers of the technology that led to Respimat, a metered-dose inhaler.
That device seems to be too disruptive, as despite many years of development, I don’t think it is in general use.
It doesn’t use any batteries, compressed gases, nasty chemicals and is affordable to be throwaway. But despite their HCFC propellants, the incumbents in the healthcare industry, have not given market share.
But I have the satisfaction, that because of my scientific knowledge and practical experience, I spotted that the guys I backed could do something special. At least too, when I sold my share, I was well rewarded.
I do feel though that the NHS doesn’t do things in the same way as perhaps John Lewis would, when it comes to handling new methods of working.
As an example I was talking to my excellent GP about how having my cholesterol results on my blog, helped the doctors in Hong Kong when I had my stroke. I said it would be great if all our medical records were searchable on line. We were also discussing a small operation I had on my nose ten years ago and wondering if it should be done again to stop the nose bleeds I sometimes get.
We then both said that computerisation had been an expensive farce, but we were both agreed it would be a good thing, especially if like me you travel a lot. He did say Google launched something called Google Health, but that has now been discontinued. Read about it here.
So did the general conservatism of health professionals and a lot of the general public kill the project. Google don’t have many failures.
Reading about it, it seems that it would have been something I would have used.
If I look too at my Coaguchek, that is classic disruptive innovation. I don’t know how many use the device in the UK, but I suspect it’s not a large proportion of those who could benefit from such a device.
I suspect though that in a few years this device and its probably simpler successors will be as accepted as the monitors used by diabetics.
Small personal patient used technology like this will become more common. After all, we now have a population, who love their gadgets and what better gadget is there, than one that helps you improve your health.
The NHS is going to have to get used to new technology and especially where that technology shows substantial cost savings. But a lot of it, will mean changes in methods and management structures.
Disruptive innovation will improve the NHS, but it will be an NHS with a different number and type of hospitals, and staff not always deployed as they are now.
Scotland Score 12 Out Of 15
Kate Muir is a fan of three films about Scotland released this week; Sunshine on Leith, FIlth and For Those In Peril.
All scored four out of five in her reviews in The Times.
The Anonymous Widower 