National Health Service In England/ UK

I've heard a lot of rubbish from USA explaining how the health service works in the UK. So here is a simple explanation from somebody who lives in England and uses the NHS from time to time. We all pay our taxes and national insurance levy when we get paid  every month, PAYE or pay as you earn its called, in total this  is roughly 25%. so if your earn 1200 a month 300 is taken away and you have 900 in your hand. Now if you are sick you make an appointment on the phone then you go to the doctors surgery. There you are examined and if medicine is needed then you get a perscription. The perscription you take to the pharmacy and the pharmacist gives you the medicine. The perscription costs 7.20 or so per item. If you need a few items on this occasion then you pay 7.20 or so for each one. However if you are on regular medication for say blood pressure and or high colestrol then you can get a prepayment card for 140 a year. So your medications may cost a lot BUT by buying the prepayment card you can save 100s of pounds.

There is NO charge to see the doctor. If you need to see the nurse at the doctor's surgery for any reason, say for checks of any kind then that too is FREE of charge. If you have a problem and the Dr refers you to the hospital for an Xray or Catscan or Physio then that is FREE too. You may need to see a specialist too for whatever reason. That is FREE too. When my dad nearly died and was given 1 week to live back in 96, my dad stayed in hospital for 12 weeks or so. There was NO charge for that either. So if any US politician says otherwise then they are just plain STUPID and a LIAR. You may think that paying 25% of your wage in tax/insurance is high, maybe it is I don't know what the USA figure is. BUT in return you get a good health service that looks after you from cradle to grave. Before my mother died she slipped on ice and broke her elbow. The medical care she got was FREE, she also had a slight stroke 6 months before she died, the medical care for that was free, as was the ambulance ride to hospital. My dad had a few heart attacks before he died, all of the medical care he got was FREE. As was his medicines, when you are old all medicines are free and you don't need to buy a prepayment card. If you are on a low wage then medinices come free too, I think under 16k income then its free medicine.  If you read Padre Pio and Me attached to this blog then you'll  have your eyes opened in another way.

Over here you don't need a mortgage to pay for your medicines nor a mortgage to pay  for doctor's visits. That's what makes this society a great place to live in, YES its not perfect but there is a Health Safety Net for all. If you have money you can pay for things IF you want, but remember the line "WE the People" that should mean something in any society.

Attachment: Padre Pio and Me.doc

Let Them Eat Cake or how the wife tried to poison me

 

 

me with the flu in 2005

My wife loves cake. She always brings home some really nice cake and  if I'm lucky I get the crumbs, and I mean crumbs. But we end up laughing so that's fine, the kids love cake too. So I'll see the wrapper and be told that it was the kids fault and there was none left. I'm too big already I'm told, so I get none. You can get some really nice cake in Sainsbury's or you can get some cake and coffee in Drucker's cafe in the city centre by House of Fraser. My mum used to buy glazed ring donuts when I was a child, somehow I always ended up with 2 or sometimes 3. That's a long time ago now. As for the wife and her cake, she loves eating it and there is Chinese cake which is different to western cake. So the wife decided to make cake and I was the crash test dummy so to speak.  The first attempt was ok but the filling was not totally baked. I still ate it anyway. The crust was a little burnt too, but didn't King Alfred burn the cakes too, so she is in very good company. Next she contacted the good and the great in the Chinese community, even the Dr wife of the Dr who had given me acupuncture last week. No it wasn't a medical problem, just what was the methodology for making the best cakes. Chinese people are totally focused on anything they do, whether its science, industry, building Shanghai, or as I've discovered making cakes. There is good news though, the one think Chinese people are bad at, is, drinking beer. They fall over after just a few pints. So my wife armed with fresh insight and the correct gas setting for the oven tried again. The second attempt was even better, I was scolded for eating all her hard work. She even left a trail of flour dust all over the computer after she'd checked a Chines site which had a cookery section. Today she was practicing making beef, so obviously I had to try it, and it was very good. The 3rd attempt at baking was also today. And it was perfection, her Chemist training no doubt had helped, even if she joked she was a Chemist and she could kill me if she wanted. The cakes were good and I reluctantly had to leave some for the kids for when they got home from school. Tomorrow another lot of baking will happen.I will pretend to be a porcupine as I have more acupuncture while downstairs my wife will be dressed in her bright red cook's bib with the Korean writing on as she cooks. Masterchef in our house.

 

 

New Technology

            New Technology (c)

                    By

              Michael Casey

I was a computer operator a long time ago, back in the 70s to be exact. People used to be impressed when you told them. A computer disc drive was as big as a washing machine and it vibrated just as much. Tape drives were used too, 2400 feet of tape that had to be screwed onto the machine, which was as big as a wardrobe. The sensors on the tape drives had to be cleaned regularly, the cleaning fluid used to turn my finger tips white. Every now and then you had to cut back the magnetic tape as it became worn out as only the first few hundred feet were being read and so the start of the tape was  crumpled.

You had to be inventive too, one night shift disaster came calling our names. The beginning of the tape of a master file just broke. We just had to fix that tape, so what did we do?  We cut off 30 feet from a spare tape, and literally tied it with a knot to the beginning of the master tape. By doing this the master had enough run in tape before the silver marker. After the silver marker was raw data, in front was just the run in, enough tape  to wind around the post before reaching  the silver marker and then the all important data.

So holding our breath we typed in the command, the update run began, we scream in relief. And then we did just what we always did. We hit play on the ghetto blaster which lived on top of tape decks. For those technology historians reading this we used Dec PDP 1170s, then later on we updated to Dec PDP 1184s.  The height of previously used computers. Now people  will laugh, but back then 30 years ago and more we were all "Smooth Operators" we just loved the Sade song when it came out. As for todays technology, a touch screen HD quality 23inch all in one computer is what everybody will have soon. Life moves on.

Pennies scattered around my house

They say that if you look after the pennies the pounds/dollars will look after themselves. So what  should I say if I have a trail of pennies, if I keep on finding pennies all over the place, a kind of trail of pennies. And they are pennies and sometimes dimes, for my daughter has decided to leave American coins all over the place for me to find. We were in Florida in 2006 and we no doubt brought back a few coins. My daughter has found them and thinks its fun to leave them all over the house for me to find. I don't know if its just a joke, or is she trying to encourage me with this trail of coins. Someday I'll win some money, or maybe even the lottery and then we can buy a big house and then she can have an arts and crafts room. That would be better than a trail of paint and water up the stairs to her room. It is nice to find the odd American coin, it makes me smile and it reminds me just how much she loves me.  Her younger sister has no notion of money, we don't give her money, we buy her any things she wants so we avoid giving her cash.

Its better to keep children innocent as long as possible, some children demand money and  know notes are a lot better/bigger than coins. This always strikes me as taking the innocent away from children, just as saying Santa does not exist is a bad and evil thing to say. Everybody knows Santa is real. Anyway don't let your children fall in love with money, my youngest doesn't even know that the brown coins have less value that the silver ones, nor that the gold ones are best of all. I want that to stay that way as long as possible. Streetwise kids are a sad reflection of society, mine will stay safe for as long as possible.

And as for a trail of American coins around the house,  they are my big daughter's joke, for she knows I'm happy to find even one penny, especially as it means she loves me.

Goodnight I have to tuck my children in bed now, and that is better that all the pennies or pounds in the world.

feb 19th snowman

Attachment: Padre Pio and Me.doc

Sex and The City

Sex and The City is a big hit tv show. Perhaps it was a girl thing that  spread to everybody else after girls loved it first. I never used to watch it. My wife introduced me to it. The outrageous behaviour of the 4 girlfriends and their outrageous friends,some gay some straight, but all funny.

Its not the kind of thing I'd write,my style is my style, a gentler kind of comedy, harking back to Ealing Comedies and Don Camillo books. But as for Sex in The City its big its brash and very loud, just as Americans are, I believe Michelle Obama is/was a fan. The blonde in the show has the most outrageous lines and is the one with the biggest lust, but there is pathos too. In one episode after a bout of cancer she is now wearing a wig and at a benefit she says its all too horrible and as for the wig it makes her sweat, so she takes the *(&^ thing off, and the audience of female cancer survivors do the same and there is massive applause. I suppose the thing about Sex and The City is that it shows women as lusty ones, normally its men who are chasing women in films and tv shows. We all remember Michael Caine in Alfie probably 40years ago now. With Cilla Black singing the title song "What's it all about Alfie" Now decades on we have women who know what they want and will get it, if a man has what they want then they will take it with both hands, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. It is very funny and at times very touching.I would recommend the tv show to anybody.

Though I know its not everybody's cup of tea, you can always read my book and see how I deal with the subject. Though Sex and The City must have 1,000,000 more times readers/watchers than any of my stuff, so far.

1999 me and the wife

Tv Table for Chinese New Year

Well we are updating our tv, after 16 years our Toshiba is playing up, though I'd not spend money fixing it. After thinking about it for a few weeks we finally decided to get a new LCD tv. In the end Toshiba was chosen again. There are cheaper ones, but the best deal was with John Lewis, you do get a free 5 year guarantee and thats what swung it. If you buy from other stores its 100 on top for a 3 year guarantee. Or other places say its only a fiver a month for peace of mind. Which turns out at 180 for 3 years! Robbery I say, I've just reminded myself of what my own dad used to say in those situations. I'm smiling now at the memory, it wasn't Queen's English either, a bit more  blue. So there you have it John Lewis won. As my old Toshiba has its own stand we decided to buy a  new fancy tv table. I had a trawl through the internet and picked one out, me the kids and my wife agreed. It arrived today and I had to build it, Its a kind of jigsaw that you do. Last time I did a kind of jigsaw was when I built the cot for our 1st daughter. My brother had 2 kids and just when we were having our kids he donated the cot. So me and my Shanghai mother in law together built the cot to go by the bed. My mother in law did not know any English then, and I didn't know any Chinese, but together we built the cot. Steve who runs the Chinese take away had given me a lift to my brother's house and my brother had loaded up the car with all kinds of stuff. So thats how I ended up building a multilingual cot, even if we didn't speak each others language, So as I built the tv table I though of my mother in law. But as you all know its hard to avoid any mother in law. Now as for my old tv I did email a charity who could have taken it away, but they did not even reply. With just a bit of TLC and the old Toshiba would be company for somebody. I checked with the local council and they charge, normal we just stick old stuff outside the house and within hours soembody will take it away. A kind of street burial in a way, our unwanted stuff goes off for another life. When the new tv arrives we have to remind our girls that Irish dancing, or any other kind  of dancing is only allowed if they are ten paces away from the tv. Its Chinese New Year this weekend so the tv is a family Chinese New Year present for us all. We will be eating loads  of crackers and watching the variety show on Pheonix tv, channel 785 on Sky. I remember 10 years ago when I was in Shanghai for the 1st time it was Chinese New Year then and I really loved the variety show. You don't need language to have fun and enjoy the show, its one of my life highlights the tv show and the neighbours outside letting off huge huge fireworks, almost as if an army was invading.

So I'll end there and say Happy Chinese New Year, year of the Golden Tiger

The Birthday Card

The Birthday Card.

Well we forgot to get a card for my sister. But our two small daughters both love marking things. So the 2 of them each came up with 2 designs which they put on 2 cards. One was a rainbow and happy birthday to Aunty written several times on the card. With half the card covered in kisses. And in best handwriting the card was signed by our 6 year old, the smaller one in the photo. We managed to find an envelope amongst our stash of other greetings cards, even though we had not got an aunty one. Then the other daughter appeared, she's the really arty and crafty girl. Her card for her aunty was neatly drawn and shaded in and very well produced. Who needs moonpig when you have a daughter with over 400 crayons and felts at her disposal. Our daughters win hands down, The 2nd card was bigger, luckily my 2nd daughter had previous borrowed some envelopes from my stash of envelops. So her card was all ready now. Luckily for me I had already sealed the 1st card, there is always rivalry between them as to who is the best at making cards. So if anybody wants a pair of great card designers them do get in touch