Redundancy
There is a big fuss in the papers this morning about the amount of redundancy paid by the NHS in recent months. It’s here in the Telegraph. Here’s an extract.
Nearly 1,000 health workers have received six-figure exit deals in the past year, with 157 managers and other senior staff receiving more than £200,000 — a 50 per cent rise on the previous year.
Some officials have received golden goodbyes of £600,000 as part of the Government’s ongoing restructuring of the NHS.
i’ve always believed, as someone who has generally been self-employed or has worked in a company I’ve part-owned, that if you earn over a certain amount, then you are not entitled to redundancy and perhaps only get the same legal minimum that say a secretary would get. Surely, if you’re making a six-figure sum a year, you should be able to make provision for if the worst happens.
It may be hard, but it will encourage people to perform.
Eighteen Minute Pasta
I tried to see how fat I could cook the fast pasta recipe on Friday night.
It took me eighteen minutes! The biggest waste of time was waiting for the water to boil for the pasta, despite using a kettle first.
I’m Finally Feeling Better
The rain yesterday seemed to get into my body and for the first time since probably last September, I’m starting to feel better and my nose has almost stopped running with its chronic rhinitis. My gut, which hasn’t been of the best since my stroke, has now returned to good health and any gastro-enterologist would hate all his patients to have such a healthy one.
So my left hand is still a bit gammy, but then it always has been since my arm was broken by the school bully. I can use it for the shift key as I type, but in most instances, I just span with my right. The only thing, I have done a lot with the left is fly an aircraft and ride a bike. Perhaps I should do both of these again?
My skin still itches and my scalp is tight from getting too dry over the winter, but a few days in the rain without a hat will help to cure that. Thinking about it, I’ve always liked being in the rain and rarely used to carry an umbrella. C used to think I was mad sometimes. I once joked to her, that I was short because I spent too much time in the rain.
But I’m getting there and I think more and more, that a lot of my troubles were caused by changes I made on the death of C, like the duvet and extra radiators I put in at the previous house, and the very dry atmosphere I have lived in since the stroke. In Hong Kong, the hospital had large picture windows, where the sun streamed through and guess what, it is the same in this house. The air has been particularly dry outside all last winter and only now is it getting more humid.
Quite a few of my eye problems have gone away too, although I still have the left lower vision loss from the stroke. My eyes are at last getting wetter more of the time. i think I could probably get my driving licence back! But why bother?
I shall make sure I don’t repeat drying myself out!
How To Beat Car Price Depreciation
The title of this post came from one of the most read stories on the BBC web site. It’s here.
It’s something I don’t suffer from. I don’t have a car any more and don’t miss it one bit.
Take today and Bank Holiday Monday.
I have a list of places, I’d like to visit and every one is an easy journey by public transport, where I’ll probably sit on the top deck of a comfortable bus, enjoying the view and looking for little oddities to photograph. I’m also going to try out a new restaurant, where my son and I, will celebrate his birthday. Parking at one of the places would be impossible, except for a bike, but the bus virtually stops outside.
Cutting the cost of motoring is a bit like cutting the cost of smoking!
Just give it up!
If Cows Could Fly!
Well their intestines did in the First World War according to this story in the Daily Mail and other newspapers. The title says it all.
How Germans were banned from eating sausages during WWI because intestines of 250,000 cows were needed to make each Zeppelin
It was effective wasn’t it!
No Football On Monday
I like watching football and thought I might catch a live match on Bank Holiday Monday. After all London is a big city with tens of clubs from the Premier League downwards.
But on perusing the fixture list on the BBC’s web site, there is no match from either the Premier or Football Leagues, except Manchester United against Chelsea, which I obviously have no interest in at all, as I don’t like prawn sandwiches or live in Surrey, Ireland or Russia.
In the Conference, I wondered whether Barnet were at home, but sadly they are at Braintree. The only match within reach seems to be at Welling, where they are hosting Salisbury. I did check the Welling web site to see how to get there, but instructions on getting to the ground were difficult to find.
As it seems we might even have decent weather on Monday, it seems that the curse of the Bank Holiday might have struck again.
I can’t even go to my friendly Crown Post Office to buy a stamp, as they’re on strike.
The only good thing about Bank Holidays, is that there isn’t more of them!
It’s Only A Duvet
A couple of weeks ago, I was too hot in bed, as I only have the one duvet and it is rather an expensive one with a high tog rating of 13.5.
I’d originally bought it after C died, as we’d always used blankets and making the bed with these, by yourself is not easy.
So I thought, it was time to get one for the summer and trotted off to John Lewis. I explained to a salesman, what I wanted and he explained how blankets don’t wrap around you like a duvet does, which means you actually keep cooler. He said I needed a cheap synthetic duvet, which tended not to wrap around you.
So despite it being the cheapest in the department, I bought one.
I’ve certainly slept well over the last couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see, when I change back to the heavy one, especially as I have pretty good tolerance of the cold.
So that was certainly one down to the salesman at John Lewis. How many others would have sold me the thinnest expensive duvet they had?
Disappointing BT Sport
As a BT broadband customer, who used to get Sky Sports through them, I am disappointed with their new BT Sports. The only decent football matches are on Saturday lunchtime, when I’m travelling to see Ipswich, either home or away. The solution is probably fibre-optic broadband, but I can’t get this where I live, within walking distance of the City of London.
Abbey National Lives
On Wednesday, I got some money out of a cash point machine in Bethnal Green. It was a branch of Santander and it was close to a bus stop, so was convenient, as I was waiting for the bus.
This morning, four days later it appeared on my on-line bank statement fully annotated.
Cash machine wdl Abbey
According to Wikipedia, Abbey was rebranded as Santander in 2010. But obviously, they haven’t updated the computer systems.
It seems to me, that millions of crap programmers are alive and well and working for banks.
Who Says We Can’t Win Penalty Shoot-Outs?
Not one of my football teams, like England and Ipswich ever seems to win a penalty shoot-out.
But today the England women won a penalty shoot-out to get to the final of the European hockey championship.
Let’s hope they’ve broken everybody’s hoodoo.
The Anonymous Widower 