Category: General

THe ANgel On THE TRee

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Not long ago and not far away Santa was getting ready for his annual trip…but there were problems everywhere… four of the elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule….then Mrs Claus told Santa that her mum was coming to visit.

This stressed Santa even more…when he went to harness the reindeer he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out heaven knows where…more stress.

And then, when he began to load the sleigh, one of the boards on the sleigh cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered all the toys…so, frustrated Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey…but he found that the elves had hit the liquor cupboard and there was nothing there to drink…and in his frustration, he dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor… he went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw it was made from.

Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed on his way to the door ..he opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. And the angel said: Santa, where would you like to put this Christmas tree??

And that, my friends, is how the little angel came to be on top of the Christmas tree…

Censoring Or Deleting Lies?

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There’s been a debate rumbling on for some time regarding the major social media platforms. It seems that they’re wrong if they do and wrong if they don’t.

I’m talking about removing posts that are not considered truthful. The problem with social media is that we can all be journalists but without doing any investigative work or research.

Users can, and do, repost articles from both within these platforms and from outside sources without checking if they’re actually factual. We’ve all got a built-in bias and tend to echo material that fits our own ideology – that applies to many areas of life, not just politics.

Since the US election there’s been something of an exodus from the two major platforms – Facebook and Twitter – by right-leaning folks who feel that these platforms are censoring conservative material unfairly. The networks respond by saying that they’re just removing material that is clearly false.

Are they removing any left-leaning posts in the same way? If not, why not? Perhaps there are more dubious conservative postings than liberal ones? Either way, the arguments are not going to stop anytime soon.

It’s the problem that arises when everyone can be their own journalist and publisher, and it’s probably here to stay. My view is that with freedom of speech, surely comes the responsibility to be truthful. The issue there is that everyone’s version of the truth can be different.

Endoscopy

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I woke up just at 6.30 am. Time to get up, get ready and get to the hospital for the cameras. No, not my five minutes of fame, but cameras at each end of me to check on my insides.

We took a minicab to the hospital as it’s much quicker than the bus. That meant we didn’t have to leave the house until around 7.15 am.

Got there about 7.40 and there was no-one in Endoscopy reception at that time. I waited a little while and someone appeared and then I signed in. Got taken through to the prep room and changed into a gown and waited some more.

In A gown awaiting surgery
Waiting In A Gown

A nurse came in and wired up my hand so I could have some sedation prior to the procedure.

All Wired Up
All Wired Up

I had the gastroscopy and the colonoscopy in the same place one after the other. The colonoscopy was a little uncomfortable but otherwise wasn’t too bad. Afterwards, we made our way back to Hounslow and went to Hug A Mug for lunch.

Then we made our way home.  Was feeling rather drained after the events of the past couple of days, and went to bed rather early and slept well for a change!