Category: Uncategorized

  • Christmas is approaching with amazing speed. This year I have decided to stop my annual donation to the Royal Mail and am not doing Christmas Cards. Instead I have made a donation to our local Hospice at Home service. However the appearance of cards in the shops reminds me of the time I spent working…

  • Here is a message for my local authority battling with flooding today. For thousands of years there has been a season called Autumn. During Autumn leaves fall off the trees .In the midst of this leaf drop and towards the end of October we get heavy rain. The leaves have now blocked the drains and…

  • I’ve been spending a week away in a cottage in North Yorkshire. It’s very relaxing with lots of time to read and muse on life. There’s a good local brewery nearby which also helps! For some reason I have had lots of thoughts about childhood and in particular the local characters that were about. I…

  • I have a friend who is of the belief that the UK was on a downward slide since we switched from black and white television to colour television. As evidence for this he points to the fact that when we were in black and white, we won World War Two, The Football World Cup and…

  • When I was a GP, I used to often wonder what went on inside people’s heads about their health. Its what academics termed Health Beliefs and used to be taught as part of consultation technique. If I’m honest I think most of the time we had no idea until some bizarre question emerged.. In the…

  • I am a regular reader of the Daily Telegraph. Before you label me as a right wing extremist I have to say that there are many of the opinions it promulgates that I disagree with. The history behind it is that when I passed the 11 plus and went to Grammar School, my Dad decided…

  • I’ve just been to a funeral. It reminded me of how much rituals play in our lives. And as I get older I find some rituals reassuring and helpful. When you are younger of course rituals can seem exasperating and pointless – its the urgency of youth to get things done. There are long standing…

  • Arriving in your seventies has been described as snipers alley. You can be congratulated in having dodged the illnesses that are fatal and if you are extra lucky have also dodged the disabling chronic diseases. A comforting statistic is that the average expected lifespan of a healthy male at 70 is 20 years. But this…

  • I used to enjoy doing “the big shop” when the family were growing up. We would all go together and combine it with snacks in the supermarket cafe. But as the family grew and children left home it became more of a necessary chore. And as I have got older its become a much more…

  • I’ve never been a fanatic over cars. I was never one of these people who drooled over high performance motors. To me a car was a necessary item to be able to travel from A to B, preferably in comfort and with good load carrying capacity. My favourite car was the Volvo 240 Estate car…