Tag Archives: tram

Ten out of Ten

16 Replies

Farm Shop

What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail?

That’s today’s writing prompt. What they seem to have failed to grasp is that if you re guaranteed not to fail you are going to succeed. Therefore you can’t make an attempt because attempt means to make an effort to do something difficult, or to try to do something or, in the case of  crime, to try to commit it, but fail, whilst still incurring for your unsuccessful efforts. In all of these definitions I believe that failure is an essential part of the attempt.

I’m prepared to be corrected on this point, so feel free to write nd tell me if you think I’m wrong.

White tailed Bumble Bee 

A lot of the day was taken up with a hospital appointment. I was a bit annoyed about it because I originally had a 9.00 appointment on Friday. That would have allowed me to go down early, miss the traffic, find a convenient parking space and have a leisurely time. 2.00 on Wednesday is a different kettle of fish. There is no parking at 2.00 unless it is at the far ends of the site, and I can’t walk that far. I can’t use a bus as the bus stops are too far away from the building I need. So that leaves an expensive taxi or the tram.

Julia offered to come down with me, because she has no confidence in my ability to cope with the ticket machines and the choice of trams. As you may remember from previous posts, her low opinion of me is justified, as I did get lost once by getting on the wrong tram. Bearing in mind we only have two routes, that took some doing.

Biscuits

There were several young men on the journey who automatically draw my ire. One of them had pierced ears with spacers in. Now, I have seen rural Zulus with pierced ears that they carry their snuff boxes in. I don’t mind that. It’s practical for a man with no pockets. But in Nottingham? Another had a man bun. They are an abomination in my view, and a definite sign of snowflakery. The third, who was around 40 was dressed in leather, with chins and an unhealthy pallor.

And you know what? The pierced ear guy offered me his seat as soon as I got on the  tram. The chain man offered me his seat on the way back. And the man bun man offered his seat to another doddery old man (there are always plenty of us on the hospital run.

Michaelmas Daisies

It was a lesson in tolerance, humility and hope, that I needed at the time. i’m starting to get very intolerant these days. I’m going to remain intolerant of politicians, inefficiency and American spellings, but I’m going to be more tolerant of appearances.

My appointment? Well, we arrived nearly half an hour early. I sat for five minutes, ws taken through and weighed and had my blood pressure taken – neither figure reflects much credit on me. I was then taken through to the waiting room and, as I reached a seat, was called through for my consultation. That was useful. I’m going to have injectable  methotrexate, which will cut out the digestive problems and the fiddling with small pills, we have worked out a plan for transferring me to another Health Authority and I have been left with an overwhelming feeling of being happy, which is unusual after dealings with hospitals.

Poppy Brooch – beads and safety pins

All in all, it’s ten out of ten for the NHS today, and the same for the passengers on the tram.

It has been a good day. Pictures are of different Octobers.

 

 

Back to Work

8 Replies

Sherwood, Nottingham

I could have put it off for a few more days, but I am nearly back to normal and as Julia is no longer on holiday life at home is quite boring. If I had lots of energy I could do things, but as I am still quite tired all I do is drape myself on the furniture and stare at the computer or the TV. It’s OK, but it’s not really a good way to spend the day.

The truth is that if I felt this way in normal times, I wouldn’t even think of having a day off work. I have a sniff and a cough, feel washed out but am generally fine and able to get to work. However, having had three weeks of serious breathing problems, I’m a little more wary. But you have to go back some time.

It ws a gentle reintroduction to work. One person had ordered two things over night and then, a minute later, cancelled. Four others had ordered and paid for items. One more had ordered three things and wanted to know what the combined postage was. By 10.30, they were all ready, and the coffee was on the desk.

Sunset in Nottingham

By early afternoon, as I entered items onto eBay, I was bored. It happens. My camera, despite being turned up to “Vivid” was producing photos with a yellow cast – making white things look cream.  I found the black & white setting (which I had lost) whilst looking for adjustments to the colour. I also secured an ASDA delivery slot and ordered the basics, and checked out the details for applying for a free bus pass. I want to do this as soon as possible so I can use it while it’s still possible to use the trams for free. The Council is thinking of stopping this, as they have to pay the tram company and are currently looking to make budget cuts.

It is convenient for visiting the treatment centre at Queen’s Medical (which accounts for two of the three tram journeys I have taken). If I can get free travel I will make it a project to visit every tram stop on the network before we leave Nottingham. To be fair, at £5.30 for an all day ticket, I will probably do the trip even if I have to pay. Where else can you fill a day for £5.30?

Sunset over Basford, Nottingham

Pictures are general Nottingham shots.

A Good Day

11 Replies

The X-Ray went well. I caught the tram with time to spare and took the correct one (having written it on the back of my hand). It wasn’t too crowded (lunchtime/early afternoon looks like the time to travel) and I arrived with two minutes to spare. Nine minutes later I was walking out. All done. It would have been less if I’d remembered to take my wallet out of my right leg cargo pocket when we started.

It’s important, I think, to mention when the NHS does well. The receptionist I spoke with this morning to make a blood test appointment was very cheerful and efficient too. I was “Number One” in the telephone queue and I can’t recall the last time that happened.

Very little else happened. We had veg stew with dumplings tonight. Tomorrow it is sausage sandwiches with soup –  that will be bean and vegetable soup, which is, by coincidence, the ingredients I have left after the two stews.

Daffodils at Mencap garden

I now have a notebook full of ideas too, as it’s the first time I’ve done anything part from work and blood tests for many months.

There were very few masks in evidence. Just three on the tram and a couple in hospital. I can see problems resulting from this.

It seems we have a re-emergence of Whooping Cough as a disease of note. Lockdown and masks just about put a stop to it, so we have brought up a group of kids with no natural immunity. Add this to low vaccination rates and we are looking at a potentially serious situation. Of course, scientists always say this, as do newspapers, who are calling it “the 100 day cough” and “the Victorian disease”.  What they don’t tell you is that what they are reporting as “an explosion” of cases is merely a return to the levels we had before lockdown.

Then we have measles.  It has killed millions. It can leave you with permanent problems.  We have virtually eradicated it, but vaccination rates are a little lower than ideal. On the other hand, I had it as a kid, as did my sister, and we are fine. It’s all a question of balance and it’s easy to get hysterical about these things. I’m sure that there’s a module in Journalism courses “Hysteria and How to Provoke it”. That’s the only explanation for some of the headlines they come up with.

Forsythia

Pictures are random spring flowers from previous years – roll on spring.

Trams and Transportation Trauma

10 Replies

Today I went to hospital to see my rheumatology specialist.They say that you can tell you are getting old when the policemen start looking younger. In my case it’s the consultants in hospital. The two I’ve had both look like they should still be at school. I was sorry when the previous one moved on, but they new one seems very good too. I like this new sort of consultant.

The rest of the day wasn’t quite so good, as was eleven minutes late for my appointment, which meant I had to wait to be seen. Really, I was only four minutes late, because I then had to spend seven minutes waiting as the receptionists dealt with patients who both seemed to have long, complicated requirements. I hate being late, but I particularly hate waiting in a queue and becoming even later.

Trees in a car park

I all started with my decision to use the tram to go to hospital.

We only have two tram lines in Nottingham, so it’s quite a simple system. You go to the tram stop, buy a ticket from the machine and get on he tram. Last time I used one Julia came with me and we had an interesting time on cramped seats looking at the armpit of a Dutch woman. It reminded me why cars, though killing the planet, are still more popular than public transport.

With so little to go wrong I was rather put out when Julia mentioned she wouldn’t be able to come with me this time. As if I am a small child who can’t be trusted to travel alone on a very simple system.

I think these are near Slaidburn

As it turns out, I actually had trouble before I even saw a tram. The ticket machine has a key pad, a couple of places to swipe cards and a screen. I couldn’t get any response. I couldn’t use the coin slot as I’d emptied my pockets of change as I knew it would take a card. It seems that the brightly lit screen with the advert is key to all this. If you tap it, it becomes some sort of space age console for buying tickets. How things have changed over the years. This sort of technology only used to be available on TV sci-fi programmes.

One of the advantages of having sticks, white hair and a confused expression is that complete strangers stop and ask if you need help. There is a bright spot in every event.

So, back to the simple system. I managed to miss the first tram whilst messing about with tickets. It was about ten minutes until the next one. I waited. A tram arrived, on time and accompanied by a flashing message on the platform display, so I boarded. Seconds later started, and a recorded announcement revealed that I was on the wrong one. What are the chances of that? I’m still not sure how it happened.

Fortunately, despite this, and the lack of maps in the carriages, I was able to work things out and get off several stops later where I then waited again and boarded the right tram. I tried ringing to tell them I would be late but couldn’t get through.

Pretty sure this is South Wingfield, where Mary Queen of Scots as an unwilling guest

Eventually, I was delivered to the tram stop at the hospital, where a walkway gave me access to the Treatment Centre. It’s quite an impressive piece of construction. Sadly, though I come from a nation that features such explorers as Cabot, Cook and Captain Scott, it seems that my ability to undertake long journeys into the unknown does not compare to theirs.

The trip back from hospital, being more crowded, and featuring various assaults on my olefactory system by a liberally applied combination of cosmetics, was an eye-watering exercise in why I want to live in a desert, and further highlighted my lack of fortitude compared to my forbears.

The pictures are thrown in at random. I haven’t been taking many recently. The captions show my lack of organisation in my early days when I didn’t caption every photo.

Trams, Transport and a Trembling Mountain of Flesh

11 Replies

Today we had Welsh cakes. If you like your cake with fat, spice and dried fruit these are just the cake for you. I like them, but I think we’ve already established that I’m no great judge of what’s healthy. Having said that, I went to the second part of my course this afternoon and we compared cholesterol levels. Mine was the lowest in the room (apart from the two lecturers, who didn’t share). I was also the only one not taking statins. This has nothing to do with anything that I do, as my diet and lamentable lack of exercise should be delivering a much worse result. I’m just genetically prone to having low cholesterol. This is why doctors hate me.

I went to the course by tram. The tram stop is only 100 yards away from the centre where they were running the course. It started with me not being able to find a decent parking space and missing the tram I had planned to catch. This meant I was five minutes late. The lesson there was to set off earlier, but as it only takes 20 minutes to drive and 40 by tram it already felt like I had allowed plenty of time.

First thoughts on public transport were that I prefer my car – less walking, less time and more convenience. The time I spent not having to search for parking at the end was taken up by the time taken to find parking at the beginning. Plus I don’t have to share my car with a howling mob. Why can’t people talk quietly so that I don’t need to hear them?

Elderflower Drizzle Cake with floral decoration

That, of course, turned out to be the good bit. The journey back was more interesting, but much more crowded as it was 5pm by that time. One woman spoke on her phone for several stops, then tried to get off just as the doors closed. She should have looked where she was going instead of boring us all to death with her banal phone calls. Another, caught without a ticket by the ticket inspectors, claimed to be a nurse, the changed that to “a professional”, and claimed she was using the tram for the first time, as if that was going to make a difference. There are plenty of signs up about tickets, so she should have known there was a £70 fine for not having one.

Then “the family” got on – the loud mother of ample proportions (this will be mentioned again in due course), the daughter, the son, the son-in-law and the baby in the pushchair. First they rammed the pushchair across the carriage to stop people moving along. then they formed a loud, lardy blockage that stopped people being able to get on and off via the doors. When people did need to get on and off the mother became very sniffy about being asked to move, even though everyone was very polite.

Chocolate and Cherry cake

Eventually, having driven people away. they spread out.  There were two poles near me, and she hung onto both of them, filling the space, with her outspread arms like a lardy Christ the Redeemer. For three stages of the journey I was thus treated to a view of armpit and bingo wings that is still in my head as I write.

And with that picture, I will leave you to imagine how I feel about public transport.

I will persist with it, as it’s the responsible thing to do, but I’m going to experiment with talking to myself, which should make people give me more room.

Photos are from our trip to Gibraltar Point. It was a while ago, and I never got round to doing a full write up of the tea and cake. I see from the link that we had difficulty with people on that day too. I really don’t do well around people.

Day 204

15 Replies

I had an untrasound scan today. After being shown into the room I was told to sit on the couch by a lady in scrubs.

“Do I need to remove any clothing?” I asked, thinking that I knew the answer already – this is the second time this are has been subjected to a handful of cold gel and the scrutiny of a stranger.

“”No,” she said, just sit on the edge of the couch and the sonographer will be along in a few minutes.”

It’s a good thing I asked, or all sorts of embarrassing circumstances could have arisen.

Last week when I had my chest X-Ray it was very efficient, and the same was true today. The main difference was that today was cheaper. Last week I paid £10 each way for a taxi (parking being poor at the hospital and my walking not being great). Today, with it being a quieter day, I took a drive down. I found parking in the Treatment Centre then took the lift up to the tram terminal and walked to the department. It was about 600 yards, which was enough. It was about 500 back, because I didn’t get lost, though I did have a sit down after the first 300. Car parking cost £2.40.

Next time I will try the tram. It will cost £4.40 but I can have a ride round afterwards.

It is time to become more adventurous, as I am becoming very set in my ways and apprehensive about going out. I have been telling myself I can only do 50-100 yards without trouble, but I can do 500 – 600 yards if today is any guide. By the end of the 600 I admit I was glad to sit down. The return 500 were trickier and I’m feeling sore at the moment,

I may even try shopping properly instead of hiding behind my computer, though I will then have to add “impulse buying” to the list of problems I need to control.

 

Driving through history

14 Replies

I ended up in Beeston this morning after I took the wrong road (the Nottingham one, not the Cheshire one – once I see Beeston castle I really have gone wrong!). As a result I was able to eat breakfast (see Pies and Prejudice for more details), drive past a former silk mill (burnt down in the riots of 1831) and have a look at the new tram system.

We were actually on our way to Chilwell (a name you may recognise if you are into the history of shell-filling factories in the Great War) to do some shoe shopping. I need big shoes, have no sense of style and dislike spending money, so it’s off to Sports Direct for a selection of their discounted size 12 Karrimoor shoes.

Having secured my shoes I was then struck by an idea.

It wasn’t the best of ideas, but a while later we found ourselves in the car park at Denby Pottery. It was a visit of mixed fortunes.

They are changing things round so we weren’t able to look round the museum, which is being relocated, and they didn’t seem to have a very good selection of animal models. This was a shame as I like to look round the museum and I was hoping Julia might express a liking for one of the animals as I’m desperately looking for presents for our wedding anniversary and her birthday. Check the 1930s section of this page to see what I mean.

On the other hand they do have a new farm shop run by prize-winning pie makers Walter Smith. They also have meat, black pudding and a fine selection of oils and stuff.

As a result I now have a pie to test and a bottle of Cranberry Balsamic vinegar that is so good I’d be happy to drink it neat.

No pictures today – I originally set off to buy shoes, not photograph them. I really must remember in future.