Your Blogging With Dr P... search result is below this annoucement.
In April 2008 Blogging With Dr P... moved to Blog Bypass.
If you're using the Blog Studio Search Facility to find a link to a previous blog, then I've been very generous, and NOT included an automatic re-direct which would take you there.
So, what this means is you have to use this link: Blog Bypass to find more Blogging With Dr P....
Thank you to Blog Studio for all the help over years! :)
(Feb 2010 Update): Haloscan is no more. Therefore the comments on this blog are no more. Sad, but true. I'm not paying $12 a year for the occasional comment with Echo. Apologies to all those who have commented. I have saved them and may well stick them somewhere else at some point.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Cologne! Koln! Cologne is excellent! I mean the people are very friendly, polite & helpful. They virtually all speak English. The streets are clean, there is no "rowdism" - we saw no police, or police activity. It was relativity "quiet" for a city. It was very enjoyable. I strongly recommend that you all go there.
This is just a little short blog about Cologne, I shall expand in greater detail some time later - once I've got the zillions of photos sorted out. But! I couldn't let you go without showing you this one:
Melaten Cemetery
This was in the middle of a HUGE cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Yes, I did read about it in a guidebook first, and - yes - I did go looking for it :)
We also went to the Gestapo H.Q. in Cologne - which is now a museum :)
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Saturday, October 22, 2005
Auf Weidersehn!Yes - we're off to Cologne early tomorrow morning. If you're there (!) we'll be visiting the original Eau de Cologne factory/house, a rather nice chocolate factory, and having a boat trip up, (down?) the Rhine etc etc.
Anyway, we'll be back next week. Look after yourselves! :)
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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Cake Induced SeizureI don't know why... but there's something mildy amusing about this :) ...
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Saturday, October 15, 2005
Diuretics & Doppler TestsI suppose I best explain the unfortunate side-effects of diuretics to everybody - particularly to the platform guard at Fenchurch St station who has seen me race down the platform, through the barrier, and heading towards the toilets like a thing possessed, only to emerge at a casual stroll, go back through the barrier, and out of the station exit at the other end of the platforms, so I can get on the tube at Tower Hill.
Diuretics make you pee - big time.
And thanks to Lauren and Chris for their unswerving help & support(?) in this time of crisis over my feet :)
I say again: Diuretics make you pee - big time. And when you take one at 06:30, get on the train at 07:32, and the little bugger "kicks in" around 07:45 - with another half hour of the train journey to go - you know you're in for a rough ride! And, if it were only the peeing that was the problem..... but they make you sweat like something not right as well.....oi vay!
But onto more pleasant things - hospitals. The hospital phoned me yesterday to make an appointment for today - they wanted to see me "urgently". Oh er missus! So, off I trotted this afternoon for my Ultrasound "Doppler Test" on my footsie. (Apparently this was testing for DVT - Deep Vein Thrombosis - clogging of the veins). The ultrasound technician/doctor was the strong, silent South African type. (Perhaps it's how they train down in Jo'burg?) The only noises that could be heard were when he grabbed the back of my right calf, (whilst rubbing the gel covered ultrasound device in the same area), and the sound of whales farting came out of the loudspeakers of the PC. This, he told me, was the sound of the blood going through my veins, indicating that everything was okay.
It sounded like the MacDonalds lunch going through my bowels whilst fighting off the diuretics attempt to remove it my system in record time!
Anyway, it's back to the doctor's in two weeks time - after a further fortnight of Olympic Railway Sprints - watch out for me in 2012!
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
My FeetYou can't beat a good blog title can you, eh? It's direct. To the point. It leaves nothing to the imagination. Yes, dear readers, tonight's blog is about my feet. My feet have been with my for some time now....
March 19th 1963 was when my feet first saw the light of day on God's green and pleasant land. Naturally, they were all small and wrinkled, and were probably described as cute at the time - as was the rest of me, I'm sure ;) Well, the years went by, and my feet soon found themeselves in Clark's Attackers - which were a groovy style of 1970's boy's shoe which contained such things as a compass in the sole of the shoe, and also a bear print in the sole - which you used for stomping about in the snow and leaving bear tracks everywhere to frighten the neighbours. Interestingly enough, I don't think the bear tracks had the desired effect - being in the North East of England, where the last bears roaming freely were probably eaten up by the last dinosaurs who were also roaming freely at the time. That time being many years before Mr Clark ever had his first shoe shop....
Anyway, the first major foot incident occured in the year of the Apollo moon landing. In fact, it was quite close to July 1969. Was I emulating Neil Armstrong's "One small step for mankind..."? Er.... no. My dad was putting some central heating in the house, and had left a big, heavy iron radiator leant against the wall. Of course, I HAD TO INVESTIGATE, didn't I? And thus the radiator came crashing down on my left ankle, and left my left foot permanently sticking out at a slight angle. (Had there still ha dbeen National Service this might have been a good excuse not to wear those lovely, fashionable Army boots. But we'll never know...)
These feet were made for walking... - and that's what they did. Everywhere. Over the years these feet have hitched-hiked around Britain & Europe, sailed from Wales to Spain, redecorated the former Bolivan Embassy in Brussels, tramped the streets of Maibu delivering flyers for a party ballon business, and countless other wild and wacky adventures.
And now.... I've got some sort of swollen foot going on. Blood tests - negative. Blood thinning tablets - miminal effect. I'm now onto a mild diuretic - OMG - and I have to have a Doppler Test, (what the hell is that?), at a local hospital soon.
I like my feet :)
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Monday, October 10, 2005
The Worst Breakfast You Can EatIt may be fast and convenient to stop at McDonald's for breakfast on your way to work, but this may make you think twice: Eat two McMuffins and two hash browns for breakfast and your arteries will remain inflamed until lunchtime, HealthDayNews reports of a new study from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Why worry about inflammation of the arteries? This is a direct pathway to atherosclerosis and heart disease.
The specific breakfast cited by the SUNY Buffalo researchers is a McDonald's Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin, and two orders of hash browns. Total calories: 930. (It was supersized to reflect the typical amount of calories in a fast food meal.) Eat this and within an hour, it will trigger inflammation, says study co-author Dr. Paresh Dandona. What's more that inflammation continues for three or four hours longer.
Most of us are well aware that high-fat, high-carbohydrate meals raise our cholesterol levels and send our blood sugar rates soaring. That puts us at greater risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But now nutritionists are aware there is a third danger: inflammation of the blood vessels. The fats and carbohydrate sugars appear to release "free radical" molecules within the blood cells, which in turn trigger the inflammation, reports HealthDayNews.
When nine healthy young adults ate this 930-calorie McMuffin/hash brown breakfast after an overnight fast, their blood showed a definite change compared to individuals who ate no breakfast. Those who ate the McDonald's breakfast displayed "evidence of free radical generation by the circulating white blood cells, which would cause inflammation within the white blood cells," Dandona said.
The primary culprits of the McDonald's breakfast are the hash browns, cooking oil, and muffins--not the egg or sausage. The SUNY Buffalo team is now studying the effects of 300-calorie and 1,800-calorie breakfasts. Note that McDonald's isn't the only breakfast that can stress your arteries. Sit-down restaurants and even home-cooked meals can do the same thing.
The study findings were published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Saturday, October 08, 2005
Amateur and Ham Radio NewsIf you want to know about amateur and ham radio, then go to Radio 2 Radio - a new blog about amateur and ham radio.
I used to be into DXing myself many years ago, (short wave radio listening), and this sort of blog:Radio 2 Radio would have been so encouraging to take the leap into amateur radio.
So, if you, or anyone you know, want the lowdown on world amateur/ham radio news and current events, then go to Radio 2 Radio. The chap who runs it, (going under the imaginative name of Radio Guy!), also wants you to contribute to the blog by emailing him with any of your own amateur/ham radio news and current events - which he will include on the blog.
I like that kind of enthusiastic blogging. Spread the word around - Radio 2 Radio - for all your amateur/ham radio news and current events.
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Friday, October 07, 2005
Viking FuneralYes - you can have yours now as well. Funeral pyres used to be the burial choice of Vikings. Go As You Please, a Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, England, funeral company is offering, amongst other things woodland burials, fireworks and burials at sea. Funeral director Carl Marlow started his business after being disappointed with his mother's funeral choice.
Personally I'd want the Full Monty as far as the Viking funeral goes - the whole buring longboat - very nice :)
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Spanish Telephone MessagesThis made me laugh. I was working with a few of our Latin friends today. A phone call was received. It was answered by a Spanish lady. The call was for one of the Spanish guys in the room. She relied the query to him. He went bersek! He was F'ing & Blinding in English and in Spanish - with all the usual finger, hand & arm gestures.
The lady - clearly an astute businesswoman - surveyed the situation, and, with remarkable style and wit she slowly annunciated in a slow, sexy, gravelly-type Spanish voice:
"He said 'No'"
And she smiled and put the phone down.
It was a classic moment in Spanish Telephonic history :)
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Monday, October 03, 2005
Buying Shit Online - can be such a pain in the ass sometimes! At the end of October we're going off to Cologne, Germany, for 4 days. But can you find a map of Cologne, (Koln - haven't got the umlaut to stick over the o), or a guide book of Cologne? No.
So after searching for ages - and that's something when you consider I'm a bit of a whizz on the old search engines etc - I finally came across Maps International where I ordered a nice big plastic fold up map of Cologne back on 18th September. It has a 5 - 10 working day time slot. Hmmm.
I emailed them over the weekend. Got no reply. I tried phoning them late, just now. Got no reply. I must try to ring them tomorrow sometime.
And a guide book - hell you think we were after The Treasure of Sierre Madre or something?! Do you know I finally had to buy a 1992 guide from Honed Edge - a bookdealer in the heart of Lancaster County, "Pennsylvania's Amish country"(?), where, (according to their website - "....our neighbors on both sides drive horse-and-buggies....".
It says a lot when I can't get a European city guide from anywhere in Europe, but have to rely on my colonial cousins across the water. Incidentally, Dennis Faix, (who runs the Honed Edge website with his wife Pam), is a very nice guy, as we exchanged emails a few times whilst sorting out the book purchase :)
However, I still can't resist this one:
Q. What goes "Clip clop. Clip clop. BANG BANG!! CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP!!!
A. An Amish "drive-by shooting"!
There - that's our hols in Pennsylvania ruined! :)
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Saturday, October 01, 2005
Leather Handbag Zip ScamOkay - firstly it's not my handbag - it's Sue's. But we went to town to see if we could get the zip fastner replaced - the zippy bit became detached, (probably in a flurry to get to a credit car, or something!). Anyway - here's the scam:
Zips are repaired by the inch - which means that they measure the length of the zip in good old fashioned inches, and then charge you by the inch!. What a scam! The handbag was only 10 off the market, but still leather - and it was going to cost 10.50 to replace the zip! (Yes - the bag zip is 10.5 inches long for you math(es) freaks).
So - there you have it - if you haven't earned your fortune yet - go open a Handbag Zip Repairer Shop - and you'll be retiring early with that sort of business practice! :)
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