Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 10 September 2023

Morning All - its RAINING her in East Suffolk - such a relief!

I had a few days away in Kent on my own last week - mainly around Dungeness which is the largest expanse of shingle earth and is the only desert in the UK. It is offically classed as arid.

However I developed a nasy cough while away and finally got to see a physician Associate and she listed to my back and I had a wheeze and a rattle so on a weeks worth of antibiotics.

Usually I have no trouble getting through to reception but I called at 8am yesterday and was 39th in the queue - 43 mins later I was number 1 - and then got cut off. I was so angry I walked to the doctors. there were at least 4 staff on reception and just one man waiting to be seen. What is going on....

Annette - glad the wedding was good and enjoyed by all.

Diane I hope your power supply improves.

OG - great new that J has some work.

Everyone else - have a good week and keep the posts coming.

HARELADY: I hope the antibiotics clear up your cough/lungs. Your experience with the physicians' office is awful. Just awful. Sorry that happened to you when you felt so bad.

Good Morning. Its been raining here, too -- very welcome for the garden, and the birds, although I always make sure our bird bath is topped up. A bit cooler at last. Hate to moan about the heat but its hard to get things done when you feel tired from it.

Harelady - We hear daily reports about our health services "going to the dogs". My OH and I get text messages about once a fortnight saying that our GP Medical Centre is going to be shut for a morning or sometimes even an entire day, for some kind of "staff training!" Bah. Hope the anti bios soon work and you feel better. You did right to get something done about it as it could have been nasty.

OG - Good to hear that J is happy to find some work and that its not too far.

We are with Virgin Media for our Broadband, phone etc. We got a letter saying that they are now digitising or something, our phone line and next week we will have to unplug the phone and put it nearer to our router as everything will be coming down the cable. This means moving the main phone from the hallway and having it in our sitting room, where we already have about a dozen things plugged into the wall including lamps, TV, Digital Box for our TV service, Sound Bar for the TV, DVD Player, and video player (!! - Yes we still have one but it may have to go!). Grrr....

One of our neighbours has called the police as a car has been parked outside her house for over a week and she has knocked on all our doors to find out if anyone knows whose it is. It may be stolen, she thinks.

Harelady - It's the same at my GP practice. You either get the 'engaged' tone from 8.00am when the lines are supposed to open, or you are held in a queue ... or the line goes dead. A friend of mine, who has several medical problems, has now discovered that she needs to arrive on the doorstep of the surgery at 7.59am and might get an appointment that day. Otherwise she is referred to a local hospital with a walk-in clinic. She doesn't drive and has to spend a fortune on taxis. Indeed the NHS is failing patients - unless you have an emergency, in which case they are brilliant. But they don't seem to realise that a small thing which could be sorted out by a GP will quickly turn into an emergency if this sort of thing continues. Most of us just put up with things at the moment because we don't want to run the gauntlet of trying to get an appointment ... sorry, end of rant, but it is a really serious problem.

We have had a tiny sprinkling of rain this morning, and are now threatened by thunderstorms for the rest of the day. Ho hum ...

We are clearly very lucky with our surgery. Limpy rang them yesterday - it being a Monday, there was a long queue. He waited and duly got through, which resulted in a callback. I think he's been flagged on their system as a priority if he rings up with certain symptoms - sometimes the callback comes within a few minutes of his call!  Neither of us has had an engaged tone and we've never been cut off.

Unknown said:

Just popped into the Starr ranch webcam - and what are those squirmy wriggly little things! Millions of bugs? Um. Yuk.

Honey bees !!!

If it's not OK to post videos here I'll delete it, but you might be interested to see what happened.

Honey bees have often shown some interest in this cavity over the years, but this time they were in earnest.  The owl is the last of the 2023 clutch to be spending its days in the cavity.

(Explanation of (not to say "excuse for") poor quality - (1) the site has never recovered from Flash being discontinued and having to change to YouTube hosting -  (2) the cam hasn't been cleaned since before the pandemic - (3) resident mice who used to live up in the "attic" and even raised a family there have been blamed for damaging something, causing the jazzy stripes across the nightcam view, ie when there's insufficient light for colour.)

This is what the bees are masking, we hardly ever get to see this much, it's zoomed upon

EDIT - PS

The first time that Edison reconnected the power temporarily the "limb cam" came back on after months of absence, so we were able to see the outside view of the cavity entrance and perching branch - a Barn Owl has been visiting and has tried twice, that I've seen, to get into the cavity but it only lasts a split second, as you can imagine

But the next time power was cut off and re-connected, no limb cam 

Magnificent Scylla, you can post as many videos on here as you wish. It's not like you're going to show us dodgy content, is it?

We don't get cut off on the phone to our GP, but the queues are dreadful, and a message is read out to you that it's easier to get an appointment if you use the online system. This makes me feel heartily sorry for the older part of our population who can't cope with modern technology - after all, they're the ones who probably need an appointment the most! But no one cares about that. Grr. (My spellchecker thingy decided here that I was trying to say that I felt "heartily dirty!!)

Dull and showery here - my OH had his golf game cancelled so set to, to finish the new door off, & also stuck down some wallpaper which is trying to fall off the wall.