It's not all about ME

It's Moved!!!

2006-10-16T01:12:00.000+01:00

My blog has moved to wordpress

Click here to be taken there!!!

Bad Bad Bad BA!

2006-10-15T01:38:00.000+01:00

This religious intolerance thing is getting stupid after the Aishah Azmi debacle in Dewsbury it now appears that British Airways could be facing a law suit because they forced a 55 year old check-in worker at Heathrow to take unpaid leave after refusing to remove a very small crucifix necklace while on duty
Nadia Eweida, 55, has said that she plans to sue BA for religious discrimination. It would appear that the airline is claiming the necklace breached its rules regarding uniform. The British flag carrier is quoted as saying that it allowed with items such as hiqabs and bangles as it is not practical for staff to conceal them beneath their uniforms.
Ironically it turns out that Eweida has just completed the companies training on respecting and understanding other people’s beliefs when she was asked to remove the offending item of jewellery.
BA are claiming that Eweida has not been suspended from work, but chose to take unpaid leave. Which seems contrary to the evidence in a letter from the company that is wildly quoted as saying “You have been sent home because you have failed to comply with a reasonable request. You were asked to cover up or remove your cross and chain which you refused to do. British Airways uniform standards stipulate that adornments of any kind are not to be worn with the uniform.”
Personally I am behind Nadia Eweida, even if she could have kept the cross on and hidden it under her cravat, as if turbans and the hijab (the open faced head scarf) which clearly identifies the wearers religion are ok then surely a simple cross that measures under quarter of an inch in size should be seen with the same tolerance.
Technorati: Dewsbury, Aishah Azmi, BA, British Airways, Christian, crucifix, Eweida, Intolerance, Islam, Mulsim

Publicity Stunt Re-Veil’ed

2006-10-14T15:57:00.000+01:00

I s it only me that is getting really pee’d off with all this crap about Niqab. They are not conducive to giving the Islamic faith a positive profile in the UK. I have just seen a blatantly ironic interview on BBC News 24 with a veiled Muslim woman called Aishah Azmi who has been suspended from teaching assistant job at Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire because she insists on wearing her veil when in the presence of male members of staff.
The school is understood to have deemed face-to-face to face contact was essential in her role as a bilingual support worker. It has stressed that the action had "nothing to do" with religion. Apart from the fact that she was teaching at a Church of England school, so in theory at least run on Christian values, it transpired during the interview that she didn’t wear her veil when going in front of the interview panel to get the position in the first place.
She then revealed that there was at least one man on the panel. Is this just me or does this look like a case of publicity seeking. How long has she been wearing her veil? Does she realise that she looks like she is trapped in a black pillar box?
Great Britain is a multi-cultural multi-faith country and that is with out one iota of a doubt a good thing. The sting comes when a small percentage of one of the larger minority groups start trying to expect special treatment and they pull all sorts of publicity stunts this end. With out a doubt this clip will appear on various topical shows over the next week and will in the long term do the Niqab wearing minority of the muslim population a great deal of harm.
Technorati: Aishah Azmi, Dewsbury, Islam, Mulsim, Intolerance

Priority People Please…

2006-10-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

What is causing this alliteration I hear you ask, well in the last week I have discovered the insane amount of money is being spent of research projects that have no real world application.
The best source of a list of useless research projects are the winners of the IgNobel awards dished out at Harvard on 5th October.
For instance the IgNobel award for Acoustics was awarded for a project conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.
The Mathematics prize was awarded to Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.
For Chemistry the prize was awarded to Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."
And what was the medicine prize award to Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.
Why I hear you ask have I brought this to your attention well given that someone has had to fund these projects when there are genuine causes out there screaming for any funding for instance research into ME/CFS. If like me you find the lack of funding of important issues then you can help ME/CFS research just by clicking here.
Technorati: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, IgNobel, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, CFS

Crappy Advertising

2006-10-06T16:15:00.000+01:00

Can we talk about the quality of TV advertising on British TV? These seem to fall into several categories. Ok I accept that companies need to advertise to let people know about there products or services, I also accept that TV companies need the revenue these adverts generate to survive.

If like me you have spent anytime watching daytime TV you will have seen some seriously dodgy adverts and I am not talking about those diabolical Barry Scott shouting adverts a certain multi-surface cleaner. (on the subject of Barry Scott Check this out)

For instance have you seen the advert for the building supply Company where the dog faced model is dressed in a PVC Fetish costume? What is the betting she is the companies marketing director’s mistress or just some random whore the chairman picked up on a street corner somewhere?

And it is not just small companies that have crappy or strange adverts. How about the male voiced advert for perfumed tampons? I have canvassed several female friends and acquaintances to enquire if the first thing on their mind is what there crotch smells like during their period. Funnily enough I have not come across any woman that has that concern. And why is the advert voice by a guy?

I am not even going to venture into the all the so called debt management/finance company adverts that seem to run almost back and to back on satellite channels.

Go Jack Go....

2006-10-06T01:30:00.000+01:00

Just seen on the news that former Foreign Secertary Jack Straw as been stiring up the islamic community here by suggesting that any female muslim that comes to see him should remove there FULL face veil the Niqab or the Burqa.

My opinion is he is right I being a white nominally christian british male am sick to death of the country bowing to minority ethnic or relgious groups.

If the ethinc or religous minorities want to be included and respected as regular members of british society then they should make an effort to fit in whcih means

Learning the language
Breaking up the getto culture

Look at what has happen elsewhere in the world where some loon attacks a minority group 5 armish girls dead and another 5 injured

ME/CFS/CFIDS Watch

2006-07-29T20:38:00.000+01:00

On my travels round the net recently I have come across lots of Blogs about ME/CFS
ME/CFS/CFIDS Watch

Smoke & Missles

2006-07-29T19:27:00.000+01:00

It is not often that I write about politics however the current world events driven me to actually fire up the word processor and have my 2 cents worth.

Surely it is not only me that can see that the current situation on the Israeli/Lebanese border is a proxy battle between two groups of religious extremists.

On the Israeli side you have the Jewish puppets being directly supported by the world most dangerous Christian extremist, the Bush administration loosely disguised as the will of the American people.

While on the Lebanese it is the Islamic extremist allegedly backed by Iran & Syria.

However who is or isn’t backing the combatants is in many ways as irrelevant as Bush’s so called war on terror.

Far be it for me to sound like a conspiracy theorist which I hope is the last thing that anyone can accuse me of however as there are only really at best two superpowers in the world, namely the USA and China, both of whom are almost completely dependent on Oil. And the majority of the world's remaining supply is where?

When the ultra right wing neoconservative Newt Gindridge said that the current situation was the start of the third world war he was; for a change; not far wrong just several years late. In my opinion the third world war started on with the skirmishes in Afghanistan that immediately followed the 9/11 attack and escalated with the second Iraqi war.

Given that the Middle East is predominately Islamic and more to the point most of the oil producers are what can literally be described as fundamentalist in as much as Islam is the fundamental root of there culture to the letter of the law. Religious Fundamentalism should never be confused with Religious Extremism.

The Extremists are like a bad apple in the barrel that both pollute and distort the religious beliefs to there own ends. The biggest problem with the current situation is that the extremists on both sides of the conflict have ‘agenda’ other than those in the public arena and the religious bickering is a convenient vehicle to hide what is the War for Oil.

Your Help Required

2006-07-25T23:32:00.000+01:00

Well after SWTSMBO actually got a free Ipod Nano for filling in a few forms and surveys and stuff like that I have decided to try and get a Free XBOX 360.

So what you need to do is click the link below and follow the instructions. You do need to access at least one of the 'FREE' Offers. I would suggest that if you go for one of the DVD rental services - they do have to send you a DVD but it is free for 30 Days so you could get a good few titles in that time. thn after 21 or so days cancel it if you want to.

So help me get my free disc CLICK HERE thanks.

New Medication, Neurologist and an ME Specialist = New Hope?

2006-07-17T17:46:00.000+01:00

Well having had a moan about my lack of treatment and the increasing pain levels to my GP as well as my loss of faith in the local hospital, I have managed to bully my GP into action.

After my long drawn out research and an enlightening conversation with the local primary care trust (PCT) and lo and behold there is an ME multi-discipline treatment team in St Albans, just 15-20 miles away. I am seeing the consultant at the end of August.

On the neurologist front I am seeing someone at the Addenbrookes hospital on July 28th. Maybe this one might be interested in my Migraines and may even understand ME/CFS.

The GP also prescribed low dose Amitripyline to help with the pain and my disturbed sleep patterns.

It is a case of ramping up the dosage from 10mg a night to 40mg I am at 30mg and the pain is not as bad. As for sleep patterns well I am now falling asleep at about 1am rather than 3am so who knows. I seem to be sleeping better however the weather is not helping even with my 18inch fan on full it is sweaty however on a cool night things are much better. Normally able to surface some time around lunchtime.

So is there a new hope well lets see.

Here comes the sun.....

2006-05-03T02:14:00.000+01:00

CFS/ME & me.

2006-03-20T22:41:00.000Z

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a recognised neurological condition by the World Health Organization. My symptoms include constant exhaustion, constant chronic muscle pain, memory & concentration problems, sleep disturbance, migraines and huge mood swings.

I am frequently asked how long I have had this condition. And to be completely honest I am not sure.

Hindsight being what it is and given what I now know about CFS/ME I have had symptoms for over 10 years however it was not until the end of 2000 that it took over my life and I had to stop working
.
Even though the WHO has recognised the condition getting a GP to give you time of day let alone take you seriously is a major problem. I had been complaining of separate symptoms for years it was not until I managed to see a certain Doctor at the practise that anything happened that was early 2003.

It was he that sent me for a battery of blood tests and even recognised that I was quite seriously depressed. He actually listen to me and put the all the pieces together, major migraines, constant fatigue etc.

It is now 2006 and despite the support of my GP I have had very little in the way of treatment. I have had a partial course of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy that didn’t go anywhere as I didn’t really get on with the Therapist. I have been on several different types of anti-depressants which just numbed everything and suppressed not only the negative side of my personality but the positive side.

Currently I am not taking any regular medication.

Other treatments I have tried include dietary modification which saw me cutting out 90% of the things I like to eat and drink such as red meat, wheat, dairy products, Caffeine & Alcohol and taking numerous supplements. Initially the detoxing nature of my restricted diet really did have an effect; I lost weight and started to feel better however the CFS/ME bit me back as I was unable to maintain the regime which included eating six small meals a day. Not to mention the cost of the supplements started to be a major problem.

Back in the summer of 2005 the GP suggested that I try a program of graduated exercise, offering me twelve sessions with a personal trainer at the local gym. I managed to do five sessions before I got an autumn cold and the recovery times were getting longer and much more painful.

Incidentally since the graduated exercise the muscle pain has increased massively and I have since read that if graduated exercise help then you don’t have CFS/ME.

This brings me up-to-date I am still not well. My mobility is if anything getting worse even a trip to see my friend Ron, involves me walking 10 feet from my front door to the car, driving for 15-20 minutes, then walking 30-40 feet from the parked car to my friends door can be too much. Fortunately Ron also has CFS/ME and fully understands if I doze off or have to cut my visit short.

Lately I even have to watch the number of times I go up the stairs at home as depending on how I am some days just 5 trips up and down the stairs can wipe me out for several hours.

Let’s not even talk about going shopping, not that long ago I used to be able to take a leisurely stroll round the local Tesco Extra looking for interesting new stuff and hunting out the special offers. Now if I do go in there I am either walking with my stick or hanging on to the trolley for dear life. If the whole experience takes more than 30 minutes I know that I am going to be in trouble when I get home.SWLTTSMBO really has her work cut out to look after me. She is a saint as she never knows if that when she walks in from work whether I am going to be cooking dinner or still in bed in pain. She has never questioned my condition, unlike several of my friends, and provides an incredible level of support while still managing to do her own thing.

On the subject of friends, CFS/ME doesn’t bode well for keeping friends around especially as they “can’t see anything wrong with you”. I can understand their point of view especially as SWLTTSMBO freely admits that she doesn’t fully understand what it is like to suffer with this illness.

My friends are loyal and kind of supportive especially as I know some of them think that I am a hypochondriac or that is all psychosomatic. They only see me for short periods of time rarely exceeding a few hours during which time I am more than likely sitting down or merely pottering around. On the odd occasion I might exert myself doing something physical I will have rested well beforehand and have some planned recovery time set aside. None of which they ever see.

Pain is never a nice thing but added to constant tiredness and the other symptoms it is hard for anyone who has never experienced the combination that is CFS/ME to fully appreciate the full impact that it has on day to day life.

I have just discovered that there is a private hospital in Hemel Hempstead that offers a really radical approach that starts with a through diagnostic procedure back up with a tailored treatment program. Now all I need to do is get my GP to get the local heath authority to fund what will be an expensive process that could see me get something approaching my old life back.

Friggin’ Football…..

2006-03-20T20:57:00.000Z

There is going to be bugger all on BBC 1 for three evenings this week, the cause of this latest rant is that friggin’ football is taking over again.

Football or Soccer is in my opinion an insanely boring and pointless sport that involves twenty two overpaid educationally subnormal twats chasing a bit of synthetic leather round a pitch for 90 minutes.

The so called ‘Fans’ are just as bad. They wear their team shirts as a badge of merit when in fact is just mark them out as the losers they are.

Ok I can almost understand the international game and that it needs a domestic game to find the finest players to feed that squad, however when compared to other sports that have both a domestic and international level football is over exposed.

Look at Cricket as an example, not only does it have a real season at a domestic level you rarely see someone wearing a county side shirt in tesco; and if you do they may be on their way home from playing a match and you certainly don’t see people wearing a massively expensive replica county side shirt as Smart Casual wear when on holiday.

But back to the specific detail of this particular rant. Let’s look at this from a demographic angle here – there are eight clubs taking part in the Quarter Finals of a domestic competition, namely the FA CUP.

So there are only a maximum of eight tribes, sorry groups of fans interested in the outcome of these matches so therefore unless each team has a following of in-excess of 8.75 million people it should be on a specialist channel, maybe on the other ten sports channels available in the UK that seem to be football focused. Incidentally given that we are talking about the BBC there isn’t even advertiser issues so it really doesn’t matter one iota what size of audience they achieve.

Seriously if you are a fan for Overpaid Tossers FC then you are more than likely to want to actually go to the match to trash the joint and kick the crap out of the opposing tribe. Which of course it is your right; however I for one do NOT want to have to suffer your obsession at prime time on a primary free to air (FTA) TV channel.

Don’t forget that if the twenty two morons can’t put the ball in the net in the allotted 90 minutes the Ten O’clock news will be delayed while they batter each other with their handbags or however it is they decide a draw in a knock out tournament these days.

I have satellite TV and several hundred channels and at any point there are at least six seemingly specialised channels showing bugger all but this inane game. And of the more general sports channels three or four of them are showing football.

My thing might be motor sport and thankfully we have a dedicated channel covering the more obscure series as well as main stream stuff. And yes there is very occasionally, three times a year, motor racing shown in primetime on a major FTA channel when they show live F1 from the Canada, USA & Brazil. There maybe many things wrong with F1 but at least it is international. I would not expect the schedules to be cleared for the British F3 or Touring Cars although it would be nice.

Just look at what the BBC swept from the schedules to show these 3 matches:-Daizel & Pascoe (Monday & Tuesday) quality British drama.

The Commonwealth Games from Melbourne is on for the rest of this week. Not only does this showcase a great number of different sports on an amateur basis but it only happens every four years.

Fair enough it is happening 11hrs ahead of GMT and is on all night on the BBC. The Olympics warrants live and recorded highlight coverage on BBC1 where the poor British Teams showing can be dissected in slow motion when required.

With the home nation teams doing really well against world class competition having already won 21 gold medals between them you would expect a primetime highlight show on BBC1 but don’t bother looking in the listings as all the primetime stuff is on BBC2.

I think I am going to start a campaign to take football off primetime FTA TV and put it where it belongs on specialised sports channels.

What a week......

2006-03-11T22:47:00.000Z

Well things come and go - Just found out that the great comedian Linda Smith died while we were on holiday. Apparently she had cancer for years. She will be missed on "Just A Minute" and every other topical comedy show that she contributed too.

I see the interestingly revised Formula One qualifying broke cover today.. My opinion - erm.....

All I will say is that it looks like Ferrari remembered to pay their 'subscription' so that normal service can be restablished - Tomorrow morning will tell us all.....

I am warming up even now for a though post race rant......

If you want a laff click here as this is the 2nd funniest thing I have seen this week.

And this must be the 3rd funniest....

Deal or No Deal......

2006-03-08T10:26:00.000Z

Being stuck at home most of the time I need to find ways to kill the time and just before Christmas I discovered Channel 4’s excellent day time game show Deal or No Deal (16:15 Monday – Friday & 18:00ish Saturday).

It is nice homely show where real people stand to win a substantial sum of money (Upto £250,000) hosted by Noel Edmonds.

It can be nail biting stuff, when I was in the Dominican Republic I saw the US version on NBC. Ok the basic mechanics of the game is identical as is the name however that is where the similarities stop.

Howie Mandel the host is excellent however the contestants are complete freaks. Yes the potential prize is US$1,000,000 but the insane behaviour of the contestants is gut wrenching (and not it a good way).

Several of the contestants walked away with a fraction of what they could have as they were TOO greedy and there advisors were just as bad.

With the exception of the potential maximum prize money the other differences are marked in the UK game they are 22 boxes as apposed to the 26 cases.

Each box on C4 is opened by someone who will be in the hot seat eventually on NBC the cases are opened by models (or as I suspect Bimbos).

The most interesting change is the sequence of the box opening. In the UK game they open 5 boxes in the 1st round then 3 boxes in each of the subsequent rounds. Where are in the states it is 6 cases then 5 then 4 then 3 then 2 then single cases till they end up with just the 2 cases.

This means that the later rounds contain less risk as once they get to single cases with big values left the risk is much less.

All this said, I can appreciate the difference and I understand that the C4 show would not work in the states as it is too ‘nice’ and the inverse is all true the NBC version is very brash and would not work in the UK.

After a week of watching the NBC show I did find it strangely compelling especially as they were raising the maximum prize by US$500,000 a show however I don’t think it would have the lasting appeal for me that the version hosted by Mr Edmonds has for me.

Aaaagggghhhh!

2006-03-08T00:01:00.000Z

On a day that is was reported that nurseries in Oxfordshire have gone barmy with political correctness by changing the words of several well know and loved nursery rhymes so as not to offend the ethnically challenged kids the following arrived in my email…

In the year 2006, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Manchester and said, "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans."

He gave Noah the plans, saying, "You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights".

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard....but no ark. "Noah", He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"

"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah. "But things have changed. I needed planning permission for change of use from residential to B2. It took 3 months, was refused and it has now been referred to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the appeal will not be heard until late 2008.

I've been arguing with the building inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.

The DDA officer tells me I will need Disabled toilets and the all the doors have to be1000 mm wide. The ramp up to the Ark cannot exceed 1:20 and it will not fit in the yard.

My neighbours claim that I've violated the neighbourhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to Planning Department and reapply for planning permission for the Development.

Then the Highways Department demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I argued that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.

Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls. But no go!

When I started gathering the animals, I got sued by an animal rights group. They insisted that I was illegally confining wild animals against their will. They argued too, that the accommodation was too restrictive and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.

Then Environmentalists insisted that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact assessment on your proposed flood.

I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Race Relations Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew. Also, the trades unions say I can't use my sons and they insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.

To make matters worse, the Inland Revenue seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.

Then I found out that the Customs and Excise would not register me for VAT and so I am not able to recover the VAT on the building materials.

So, forgive me, Lord, but it will take at least ten years for me to finish this Ark." Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean, you're not going to destroy the world?"

"No," said the Lord. "It turns out Blair and the beaurocrats have beat me to it!"

Patronising Gits

2006-02-12T16:38:00.000Z

Is it my CFS/ME addled brain or are we all getting so stupid that we everything has to be laid out for us.

I think it started with the arrival of the litigation culture in the UK, first we got the "Caution Contents Hot" labels on McDick's coffee cups.

Now everything has gone to the N'th degree, I had a packet of peanuts that said and I joke not "Warning: May contains Nuts", ok before you hit the comment button and point out the techincally the Peanut is not a nut, I know....

But the thing that winds me up the most at the moment is the bollox on the ads for films. When did we start getting the "Contains Language and situations of an adult nature" and who decides on the language they use. When I was a teenager it was the old certificate all FOUR of them U,A,AA,X it was simple now we have at least twice as many categories and this new content clasification system that is down right patronising.

Sorry I don't need to be told that coffee might be hot or that the latest harry potter film "contains peril" I bloody well hope they do.

Costly Cats

2006-02-12T15:46:00.000Z

Got dragged out of bed way to early this morning (9:30ish) to go check out the cattery that Henri & William will be staying in while She who likes to think she must be obeyed and I are on holiday.

It was a nice enough place on 20 mins away the only bad thing is that I will have to get my arse out of bed at the crack of the sparrows fart to drop them off on saturday. Henri is driving mad at the moment he somehow managed to cut one of his rear paws on wednesday which meant the SWLTTSMBO dropped him off at the vet on her way to work so they could fix him up. So several stitches and a general anestic later it was all patched up and we picked him up on Thursday evening (Another £140 down the pan).

With in 30 mins of being at home was his nice dressing was off! So it was back round to the vet to get them to redress it. However they decided to give him one of this conical collars that stop him grooming.

So we have a seriously pissed off cat walking round looking like one of those old telephones.

Welcome

2006-02-12T15:11:00.000Z

Ok so I have jumped on the blog band wagon, so welcome to my Blog.

So what can you expect? Well a good few rants, some humour and a general impression of what it is like to be me.

If you want to know what make me tick, what drives me mad and how my medical condition has completely changed my life.

She who likes to think she must be obeyed and I are off to warmer climes next weekend so you can follow the build up to our trip and find out where we are going on a dedicated blog click here to jump there

You will also get to know the other people in my life and also meet our 2 cats.

Expect regular posts and expect some controvesy I decided a long time ago that life is too short to pull punches.