Strange Beast
Posted: Wed 26 May, 2010 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »Not content with being a pain in the arse in general, last night Psycho Cat decided to sleep on the kitchen table.
No idea why, and he looked totally pissed off and angry about it this morning. Bear in mind there’s a comfortable sofa-bed he could’ve slept on, or any of the furniture in the living room. But no, the kitchen table was the location of choice.
Wakefield Struck Off
Posted: Mon 24 May, 2010 Filed under: Health, News, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Today the GMC has struck off Dr Andrew Wakefield, the doctor whose ‘research’ caused so much of the tension and bad press for the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) innoculation jabs, and a purported link to induce autism-related conditions.
The GMC also said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.
And the panel hearing the case took exception with the way he gathered blood samples. Dr Wakefield paid children £5 for the samples at his son’s birthday party.
It also said Dr Wakefield should have disclosed the fact that he had been paid to advise solicitors acting for parents who believed their children had been harmed by the MMR.
Quite amazing, how this doctor’s research was both so universally accepted as Truth, and was so flawed from the start. That research has caused so many knock-on effects with the increasing incidence of both Measles and Rubella in children whose parents decided not to innoculate them because of the supposed issues.
Hard Life
Posted: Sun 23 May, 2010 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »It’s a tough life, being a Psycho Cat…
Parking – Again and Again
Posted: Sat 22 May, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Parking, People, Photography Leave a comment »Same day, same bit of the carpark. Possibly that was just the section for people who can’t park cars…
AP05HTG, you’re supposed to park in the bit between the lines, not on the bit with the lines through it. FFS.
Parking – Again
Posted: Sat 22 May, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Parking, People 2 Comments »Another trip to the supermarket, another bunch of twats that can’t park…
Maybe this one thinks the white lines either a) don’t apply to them or b) are just guidelines to be ignored at whim. Maybe that car is just too damn valuable to run the risk of getting it damaged by being too close to other vehicles.
Or maybe – just maybe – the driver of YS05DBU is just a fuckwit cunt. Who knows?
Nearly Killing
Posted: Thu 20 May, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Today I nearly killed a child. That’s a pretty scary thing to have to write – and in this case there was nothing I could do about it, except avoid the situation.
On the way to work I popped in to the little supermarket to pick up a couple of things. No biggie. There’s a car-park right next to the shop for about six cars, and a bigger one on the other side of the (very minor) road, which is the one I use.
Coming back from the supermarket, there’s a family getting out of their car a couple along from me. There’s two adults and three kids, one of which gets put in a pushchair from the boot of the car. The mother (I assume) is managing the impressive task of talking on her mobile phone (which appears to be superglued between her ear and shoulder) while also talking to her partner, who’s getting back in the car.
To get out of the car park I have to reverse out and turn towards this group in order to get to the exit. You can see where this is going, can’t you?
Yup, reversed out, keeping an eye on the two mobile kids. At no point did the mother even move from what she was already doing. No call to the kids to keep out the way, nothing.
It was as I was turning that I realised the kid in the pushchair was still behind the car – about three feet away from it, so pretty much slap bang in the middle of the carpark. Fortunately I was keeping an eye open, and missed everything by a good foot or two. Even then the mother didn’t move at all.
But – And there’s always those buts in hindsight, aren’t there – what if I’d done the turn closer to their car? What if there’d been cars parked on the other side, meaning I couldn’t roll back as far as I did? That pushchair was low enough that I couldn’t see it out of the rear-view mirror, couldn’t see it if I’d looked round and out the back window. It was only visible in the side mirrors as I came round.
If I’d been driving much faster, done the turn much tighter, or not been paying total attention, I’d have killed – or at least impacted with- a child today.