Tag Archives: Blighty

You can die in Oxford easily, but staffing is hell

Fragment of RewleyLike many another part of Blighty South, the Quality Care Commission (QCC) reported on the state of the Oxford University Hospital Trust a few days back.

The PDF is here. We’re not quite sure why the Care Quality Commissars bung the Care up to the Quality without a space. Marketing, we guess.

It all seems sort of OK until you get to the staffing section in the PDF. There’s an elevated risk related to staff registration. There’s an elevated risk of whistleblowing, whatever that means. Is something wrong, then?

If you’re thinking of dying, it appears that the Oxford University Hospital Trust passes on all points.  There’s no “elevated risk”.

Everything must go in UK sales

SHOPS IN THE UK were panicking before Yuletide because nobody seemed to be buying anything. Quite a few started sales well before The Day of Turkey Nemesis in Blighty. And then came the after-Christmas sales. Everything must go. The level of nervousness in the High Street is palpable. When I bought a book from a chain the other day, I said is it true everything must go? The lass at the counter looked nervous and said “I haven’t heard anything about everything”.

Unfortunately, the period of tinsel brings with it a large amount of indigestion in the shape of the cold and long January which inevitably seems to attract bills.

It’s very cold here in Blighty at the moment, while the pundits are predicting that as many as 600,000 jobs may be lost during 2009. No one knows where it’s going to end.  A Happy Hogmanay to ye all! Hic! ♥

God bless the Manzanita, the Madrone and the trolley bus

I FIND MYSELF in Ole San Francisco, where you find plants such as the Madrone, and the lovely little Manzanita.

You also find exotic little items such as trolley buses and trams, which were common in Old Blighty until the mid 1960s but are now rarer than hen’s teeth. The pic on the header is nothing to do with San Francisco, it is of Bhairava, from a statue in the British Museum. Ancient treasures are everywhere.

Trolley bus corner Presidio Ave, California

Trolley bus corner Presidio Ave, California