No one’s waiting: go online is the message for patients. (Picture courtesy: R+O on Unsplash) DOCTORS must be loving this new world order. The one where they filter enquiries to such an extent that they are rarely bothered with having to deal with patients face to face. Those nuisances (once known as patients) are kept firmly at arm’s length; or an aggravating (Dial 1 for …) phone call away. Barriers have been set in place to deter all but the most persistent. The idea of a doctor actually seeing what ails us has gone the way of home visits and… Continue reading
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Shopping cycle, courtesy Raoul Cross, Unsplash LITTLE wonder it is called a freedom machine. One that becomes more and more so as the years (and miles) roll by. I refer, of course, to that two-wheeled wonder, the bicycle. Thanks to the recent addition of electrical power, it is now a… Continue reading
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Cursed by a name: great-uncle Edwin OKAY, so we know you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. For verification, just ask any woman who has tried to persuade a man to stop wearing the same old grey and switch to something brighter, cheerier. Anything to make a change. Further… Continue reading
What’s not to understand? EDUCATION standards are definitely slipping. Casual observation of the dosy dawdlers slowly refilling out streets indicates that this is so. So many citizens are showing an inability to read. To them, the inscribed shapes appearing all around them are nothing more than heiroglyphics. And those who… Continue reading
Past lives. Picture courtesy Gemma Evans, Unsplash Hi Mum, everything all right? No reply. Morning Dad, how’s tricks? Silence, not a word. And why should I expect one? It’s been such a long time since we last spoke. Something like thirty years or more in dad’s case, probably going on… Continue reading
IN these uncertain times (I write in the era of Covid-19) there is little better than delving into a book knowing that satisfaction is guaranteed. Plot, characters and dialogue will meld into a teasingly enjoyable story of good fighting evil with at least some measure of justice being served. The good guys will at times act roguishly, even illegally, and the evildoers will deceive with kind deeds and winning ways. Deception and duplicity play for both sides. How The Dead Speak is (by rough reckoning) Val McDermid’s 33rd crime novel and the eleventh in the series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and… Continue reading