Health & Education


January Crisis – Diets, Debts and NHS

Posted on January 5, 2018

The first week back at work after Christmas always features me listening to radio phone in shows where people are taking advice on debt and diets or bemoaning the demise of the National Health Service. It’s like Groundhog Day is the first week of January. At Christmas, I am led to believe, we spend too much money on presents and eat too much, so come New Year, we are fat and in debt, particularly if we were poor and in debt in the first ...

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A Trip to the Doctor!

Posted on October 30, 2014

I went for a general health check with a nurse today and was surprised to discover at reception that it was my first doctor's appointment since 2009. Upon hearing this news, I was overwhelmed with irrational and paranoid hypochondria, convincing myself that I was just about to be sentenced to death. However, the news was good, in fact very good, as I am four pounds lighter than I was in 2009 and I have blood pressure (150/70) that is at ...

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Stopping Fags as I Pursue a Glorious Half-Century!

Posted on October 27, 2014

Since my mother died in 2003 I have given up smoking on several occasions, notably for six years, eighteen months and exactly a year, with plenty of other negligible attempts in between, ranging from an hour to a couple of days. When I did my first stint of six years, courtesy of a hypnotist, I watched my step for a few a while as several of my fellow smokers had warned me I would probably get run over by a bus the next day. They would also ...

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