A week or so ago I went to get some tablets the Doctor had prescribed but the chemist was 2 tablets short of the full amount. They gave me a receipt for the missing tablets and I picked them up last night. I can’t help but think that for two tablets the amount of packaging was a bit over the top – what do you think?
I’ve been to the Doctors three times in the past few weeks and each time it has been for a different aspect to do with my head!
The first problem is quite straight forward – the pollen count was very high a few weeks back and it caused my nose to run constantly with the over the counter antihistamines having no effect on it. The Doctor gave me some stronger tablets and a nose spray but they seem to have had little effect. I’ve often joked with Sarah that I didn’t have these allergy problems until I met her and that maybe it was her I was allergic to. However something the Doctor said today made me think about that statement. The Doctor commented that Gillingham has been put forward as the allergy capital of the UK. Tesco says that it sells more anti-allergy drugs in it’s Gillingham store than in any other store in the UK. This made me think that as my living with Sarah also coincided with a move in the direction of Gillingham and eventually to Gillingham then my comment about the allergies starting when I met her may have some substance. Obviously she’s in the clear and Gillingham now stands accused – wonder if there has been a study to see why this should be and what causes such high levels of Hay Fever in the area.
The second visit to the Doctors was to do with sleep problems. I had found myself waking up far too often during the night and hence wasn’t sleeping too well. Sarah also pointed out that I snored a lot and that there were times during the night when I appeared to stop breathing for short periods which worried her. The Doctor suggested that I may be suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea and as such has referred me to an ENT clinic for further investigations.
The third visit this week was triggered by the return of my periodic headaches which I have blogged about on numerous occasions but most recently here. They started on Friday night and by Sunday morning I had been up three times during the night with pain. Luckily for me they so far haven’t reached the “wanting to rip my eye out of it’s socket” stage and I would say that at the moment they are about number 6 on this scale I found today. The problem is, like the issue of the Sleep Apnea, is the lack of sleep. However with the headaches not only do I lose sleep I find that I don’t want to go to sleep as I fear being woken up an hour or so later by the tell tale signs of the headache. I started taking the anti-convulsants on Sunday night but as yet they haven’t given me any relief. The more I look into it the more I’m convinced that the problem is a condition called Cluster Headaches which is very similar to Trigeminal neuralgia which is what I originally thought it was. It could be that the anti-convulsants might not work this time which could mean that I’m in for a rough ride – I hope not!
I’ve also been chasing up the Doctors who were supposed to be referring me to a Neurologist but as yet I’ve heard nothing from the hospital. It also transpires that there have been recent studies that suggest that a percentage of people who suffer from Cluster headaches also suffer from a sleep disorder such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea which would make sense. The headaches seem to come on about a hour after going to sleep which is roughly when I was waking up feeling like I’d had a who;e nights sleep and which triggered the aforementioned Doctors visit. I will mention the problem when I see the ENT specialist on Monday.
It has struck me as funny, yet annoying, that for the best part of fifteen years I have described my symptoms to a huge number of Doctors (including a previous ENT specialist) and not one of them has even mentioned Trigeminal Neuralgia or Cluster headaches but as soon as I mentioned during my last attack in November I’m told “oh yes those are classic symptoms” – obviously not classic enough without a prompt! It should also be noted that despite the suspected Sleep Apnea no connection was made between that and the cluster headaches!
Last night we needed to go to a pharmacy but with it being Bank Holiday Monday we struggled to find one open. We tried the one we usually go to but when we got there it had just closed. We tried to call another but there was no answer. Sarah decided to ring NHS direct and they gave her the number of the local NHS Walk in Centre. When we called them they told us about another pharmacy located on St Mary’s Island which is quite close to us. We phoned and sure enough they were open till 10pm so we set off to go there.
When we arrived we walked through the door and from our vantage point the shop appeared to be empty. As we were walking in we saw a plaque on the wall which told us that the the pharmacy had been dedicated to the glory of God. At the moment an unseen deep baritone voice suddenly asked “Can I help you” – I nearly jumped out of my skin!
A few months ago we discover that one of the kids, who is almost 15, still had 7 baby teeth left. What was worse was that we discovered that her adult teeth were growing in behind them giving her two rows of teeth. After consultation with the Orthodontist we were advised to make an appointment to have them removed. We contacted the dentist and they referred her to a local clinic so that it could be done under sedation. So last Friday we went to have them removed.
We waited in the waiting room until after the procedure and then were taken in to where she was recovering. It was quite funny despite what she’d been through because she looked as if she’d had a bit too much to drink! Her eyes were all blurred and her speech was fuzzy! While we sat there she asked us twice if they’d done it yet – despite having a mouth full of swabs to stop the bleeding. We managed to get her on her feet and into the car for the journey home during which she asked us again if they’d done it yet! Once home she had a little rest and was back on Facebook before we knew where we were!
Apart from having a few gaps where the adult teeth haven’t grown in yet or where they’re in slightly the wrong place she looks fine and we were just glad that that part was over.
Then yesterday we were in the car and our 5 year old asked us what the hard thing in his mouth was and when we looked it was an adult tooth growing in behind his wobbly baby tooth! We had a sudden sense of deja vu and they are now known as the Shark twins!
6:00 Alarm goes off
Shower & clean teeth
Empty rubbish bins from bedroom and bathroom
Sort out recycling from above
Make cups of tea
Lay table for student’s breakfast
Make 6 packed lunches
Put paper to be recycled into carrier bag
Put out rubbish and recycling
Get dressed
Walk down to Co-op to buy butter
Make Ben’s Breakfast
Finish packed lunches
Hang out washing on line
Catch Pasta (the wussy cat) and bring her back inside
Wash Sarah’s back
Try and convince Lissi to see what Students want for breakfast
Make more tea/coffee
Make toast for (my) breakfast
Clear away Student’s Breakfast stuff
Talk to them in French!!
Eat Breakfast and drink coffee
Get Ben’s clothes
Get him dressed
Give students packed lunches
Speak to them in French again
Find Ben’s shoes and put them on
Go to Loo
Get everyone in car
Drive to Rochester via Strood to drop off Students
Drop Sarah and Ben at Work/School
Put petrol in car
One hour drive to work
Arrive on time at 9:30
And it’s just like any other day
That’s ever been
Sun going up and then
The sun going down
Shine through my window
And my friends they come around
Come around, come around
Photographs by deadheaduk Words by Robert Hunter
25th February 2011 was a very emotional day – more to follow when the time is right
Something happened 40 years ago that some people still haven’t recovered from!
On the 15th February 1971  a monetary system that had lasted for centuries came to an end. The old system had to give way to a new modern system that was based on the decimal counting system of units tens, hundreds etc. Old money, as it became known, was originally based on the value of gold hence the name pound. A pound was subdivided into 20 shillings and each shilling was divided into 12 pennies (symbolised with a d) so One pound seven shilling and six pence (~£1.37) could be written £1 7s 6d or more usually £1/7/6.
The penny was then subdivided into a half penny or ha’penny and even that was subdivided into a farthing (although these were phased out before I was born I would occasionally come across them when I was young. In much older times even the farthing was subdivided into smaller denominations such as the half farthing and quarter farthing but these  had ceased to be used in the 19th century (presumably due to inflation).
Before you even got as far as a shilling there were a number of coins, all of which have passed into history but still linger on in our language. There was a three pence coin known as a thrupp’ny bit and a six pence coin or tanner – the former was bronze coloured and had multiple edges (like a 50p piece), the latter was round and silver. The thrupp’ny bit was a quarter shilling and the tanner a half shilling, there had been up until the mid 19th century a third of a shilling coin too called a groat – in case you ever wondered what one was!
One of my earliest memories was lying awake just before I started school worrying in case they tested me when I got there (I was that sort of kid) – I could count up to 11d but didn’t know what came next! I knew I had never heard anyone say twelvepence and anyway it just didn’t sound right! I didn’t know that the next stage was a shilling. Chances are I’d never had as much as a shilling (5p) in my life!
Obviously there was a shilling (also referred to as a bob) 1/- and then of course a two shilling coin (or a florin) – these became the 5p and 10p pieces in 1971 and were still around for many years to come before being finally pulled from circulation in 1990. Then there was the coins so beloved by children’s storytellers the  half a crown! The half a crown was worth 2/6 (two shillings and sixpence) and was essentially an eighth of a pound. These had disappeared in 1969, two years before decimalisation and a few years after the coin which was double it’s value the crown (5 Shillings) – although again I don’t remember ever seeing a crown.
The half a crown (12.5p) was a standard gift or treat – say for a Birthday or Easter (in lieu of eggs) and was invariably spent buying an Airfix model! These were the last of the coins after that the next piece of currency was paper. The piece of paper in question was the much lamented Ten Bob note!
The value of this was ten shillings or half a pound (ie 50p in today’s money). The replacement of the note by the rather vulgar coin caused probably the most outrage at the time! the pound and five pound notes survived unchanged into the decimal era. The expression Guinea was still in use although again i don’t think I ever saw one – the Guinea was equivalent to 21/- or a pound and a shilling!
As I said the change wasn’t popular, about as popular as the thought of introducing the euro would be today. People saw it as an erosion of our national identity and traditions (and most likely a nasty alignment with Johnny Foreigner!). The change of a currency is not something that happens overnight so there had been lots of preparation for the big day in the months leading up to it. In those pre-computer, pre-internet days the Government still relied on printed matter to spread the message and we were all given a card with a currency conversion table on it.
One of the things that confused me, I was only 10, was how could 1 new pence (which I recall we wrote as 1np for a while) be equal to both 2 old pence and 3 old pence at the same time? The same was true for 9 old pence and 10 old pence which were both equal to 4np! I never really got a satisfactory answer to that one but I guess it was the only way they could make 12 go into 5!
The more observant among you would notice that there is a half pence shown on the list above. This was one of the original coins that was introduced in 1971 and was used until it was withdrawn from circulation in 1984 and ceased to be part of the currency of the uk. The only two coins that were introduced that day that still remain unchaged are the 1p and 2p coins – all the rest have been changed in some way. The 5p, 10p and 50p coins have all shrunk since they were introduced. The 20p coin along with the £1 and £2 coins have all been introduced in the years following decimalisation . The £1 note has also followed the 10/- note into the history books.
The other thing I remember about the introduction of the new decimal coinage was that a new set of stamps had to be issued and being a keen stamp collector (told you I was that sort of kid) we wanted to get the historic first day cover. The only problem was that in that typically British way back then the Post Office staff were on Strike! I can’t remember if the post office opened just for the day but we bought the first day cover and posted it in the special box and it was then delivered to us after the strike has ended so the special piece of history has a little stamp on it explaining that it was delayed due to a strike!
The change was inevitable I guess – the system was outdated and as the world was opening up we needed to have a currency that worked alongside the other currencies of the world. Given the increase in prices over the years I think that even if we still had the old system most of the coins that people still mourn the loss of would have gone the way of the groat by now anyway. I’m old enough to remember it, just, my brother who was a year younger than me doesn’t. My wife was born into a decimalised world three years later.  My children would probably wonder what the hell I’m going on about! So why, after 40 years, does it still raise such passion?
Well I guess you can’t erase centuries of history overnight (or even in 40 years) but I suspect it goes deeper than that. The old money had become entrenched in our language, “Bob a Job Week”, “Sing a song of sixpence”, “If you haven’t got a penny then a ha’penny will do” etc – the names of the old coins gave them character – how often do you hear someone waxing lyrical about a 50 pence piece? (Mind you we used to say Vic Halom had a head like a tenbob bit! but that was in 1974 and as you can see the new coin was still known by the old demomination!) Do we still give things alternative names?
Then there’s the argument that the decimal system was all too clinical, it fitted nicely in a box, something we as a nation have never been too good at. It could be that it was the beginning of the dumbing down of our national psyche – making it easier but not necessarily better! Maybe decimal coinage was demonized as being the event that heralded the modern era and the huge amount of change in our society in the last 40 years.
Who knows given another 500 years or so the new currency will have integrated itself into our culture (although whether the decimal system will remain the Pound or become the Euro remains to be seen) and when we finally adopt the Martian hexadecimal dollar we will wax lyrical about the good old days of pounds and pence – that may well be the case but somehow I doubt it!
For those who are interested there is a list of British Coins on Wikipedia
Interesting view by Stephen Bayley in the Telegraph
Apologies if you have been trying to access any of my websites. This is because Virgin media changed my IP address and I have had to change my DNS settings and this takes a while to be propagated around the web. The 3 sites shewan.co.uk, geraghty-shewan.co.uk and furthur.co.uk will be back up and running very soon.
We had planned to go into Chatham today but after several attempts to negotiate the roadworks we gave up and went to Maidstone instead. We parked up on the roof of the Mall (formerly Chequers Centre) and headed inside. As Ben was quite hungry we went down to the lower level and got something to eat from the Baker Oven.  As Ben sat munching on his cake Sarah went into the 99p shop so I stayed with him on the bench outside.
While we were sitting there I heard a woman squeal and saw something drop from the floor above. At first I thought it was a drop of water or something someone had dropped but as the woman moved off I saw what it was. Lying on the floor was a little mouse that must have fallen off the rail that runs around the opening. I went over to see but as I got there I could tell that it was dying. The poor thing was shaking and breathing really heavily and after a few seconds it stopped.
I decided I couldn’t leave the poor thing there so I picked it up and put it into a bag we had got from the Bakers Oven as Ben ran off to tell Sarah, in a very loud voice, that we’d found a rat! There aren’t any bins in the Chequers centre, sorry the Mall, so I looked around to see if I could find the man I had seen pushing a rubbish cart around earlier. We wandered down to the end of the floor but couldn’t find him, we found the management offices but sadly they were shut. Even worse they didn’t have a letterbox so I couldn’t post the mouse through it (joke).
So we went up the escalator to the next floor where there was an information desk. I asked the lady if she had a bin and when she said she did I asked if she would like to put the carrier bag in it. She said “no problem” and reached out to take the bag from me just as I added “because it’s got a dead mouse in it!” You’ve never seen anyone pull their hand away so quickly! She did take it from me and gingerly popped it behind the counter while she radio’d the man with the rubbish cart to come at get it.
Oh well he may have had an untimely death but at least he didn’t get squashed underfoot. the least I could do was to make sure he had a decent burial in the rubbish bin
It’s Christmas Eve and the farmer strides across the snow covered field followed by two other figures hunched against the elements. As he comes into view we see he is a hardened country figure dressed in work worn corduroy trousers which are tucked into his wellingtons. A huge woolen scarf round his neck almost obscurs his face especially as his cloth cap sits perched on top of his head. The other two figures, by comparison, are not country folk which is obvious by the way they are dressed as they stumble and slip their way towards their intended destination.
They are making their way towards a solitary tree which stands at the centre of the field alone and bent against the prevailing winds. As they reach the tree the farmer takes a pipe out of his pocket and as he stuffs it with tobacco he points with it towards the tree and says to his two companions “this be the holy thorn”. The three stand in silence for a few minutes and slowly they are joined by other people who have make the trek up the hill through the snow to the site of the tree.
As the number grow the people tell the story of the tree, which they say, has stood alone in this field for almost 2000 years. the legend is that Joseph of Arimathea had traveled to England after the death of his nephew Jesus and had thrust his staff into the ground and it had turned into the tree that now stood before the group. There were other stories that the infant Jesus had also traveled to this spot with his uncle many years before and that the golden challice that had been used at Christ’s last supper had also been buried somewhere in the area.
After some time the distant clanging of a church bell is heard signalling that it is now Christmas day and as the bell tolls the tree suddenly starts to blossom shining out in the middle of a bleak winters day.
This all happened 40 years ago but not in a snowy field but on stage at my junior school. I played the farmer on whose land the Holy Thorn stood. I wore my Grandad’s old cloth cap and the pipe belonged to my father although it was long unused after a brief flirtation my father had had a few years earlier with the idea of smoking one! I’m not even sure I remembered to get it out of my pocket during the play but I like to think it was there as a prop!
The story was of course about the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury which as I already mentioned is said to have sprung from a staff that Joseph planted in the ground on a hill overlooking the town. The tree in the play was just a fake Christmas tree with lights that came on when it was supposed to blossom but the story is based on an actual tree which has stood in and around the town for as long as anyone can remember. It even survived being chopped down during the English Civil war by Puritans but survived by people planting cuttings around the town and was eventually replanted back on it’s original spot. It flowers at Easter and Christmas and cuttings have been sent from one of the descendants of the original tree every Christmas to decorate the King or Queens table for almost 100 years.
Obviously on that night in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s I had no idea how much the town of Glastonbury would figure in my future – I had barely heard of popular music and hippies and music festivals would have been an alien concept. In fact the first Glastonbury festival probably hadn’t even taken place! And even though I started going to the festival in 1984 it wouldn’t be for a few years more that I actually made it down the road and into the town itself. Over the next ten or so years we were regular visitors and it was only after a while that the story told in the school play and the story of the Glastonbury thorn actually resolved itself in my head.
It was therefore quite sad to hear the news this week that the tree had been vandalised and had all of it’s branches cut off on Wednesday night. This mindless act has angered so many people especially the locals and those who see the tree as holy. No one knows why the tree was targeted but some have seen it as an anti-Christian act while others wonder if it was a vendetta against the landowner whose company just went bust owing millions. It could of course be just a mindless act of vandalism.
I hope that the tree can recover or if not then it can be regrown from a cutting from one of its relatives around the area such as the one that grows in the grounds of St. John’s Church in the high street from which the annual cutting for her majesty is taken every year. Glastonbury is a place loved by many people for many different reasons and it’s sad that something like this can devastate the community there.
deadheaduk 