Practice makes...
Week from Monday 10th March 2025 - On Friday I'd missed a call from the GP PRACTICE. So on Monday morning I dutifully called them back, just in case it was something important. Once I got through (you know what their phone services are like!), I learnt that the call had been from someone called a PHARMACIST TECHNICIAN, whatever that is. I then wasted most of Tuesday, waiting in silence for them to call back. The call never came, so I suspect it was just somebody doing 'BUSYBODY' stuff, rather than anything for my own benefit.
At the same time, I got a TEXT 'inviting' me to book my 'Spring' COVID jab. Why does nobody at the Health Centre learn to use E-MAIL? They stubbornly insist on contacting me via SMS, so I have to convert the message to HTML or PDF, then transfer the file from the phone to the laptop, before I can click on the embedded link. You can't reply directly to the text itself and they don't take bookings over the phone. It turns out they are now doing the jabbings ONLY on Saturdays and ONLY at a clinic in the backwaters of Portchester, a goodly walkies from the nearest bus stop. So I'm now doing a little forward-planning (consulting GOOGLE MAPS and cross-referencing BUS TIMETABLES) for another BIG ADVENTURE, even though it's still weeks away!
Given all that has happened to me over the last year-and-a-bit, I hold the NHS as a whole in very high regard. The folks at the hospital deserve nothing but my heartfelt thanks and praise. But time and time again, any interaction with the local GP PRACTICE has been wrapped in a dense layer of disorganised admin faffage. It's almost as if they deliberately put up control barriers against the PATIENT being able to get things done simply and efficiently and in a rational manner...
I'm relieved to see that the highlights for PARIS•NICE are still on ITV4 this time around, so I'm making the best of their higher standard of broadcasting professionalism* (as opposed to people-pleasing 'showbiz') while I still can! If that dreadful "ULTIMATE CYCLING SHOW" on Quest is anything to go by, the presentation style on TNT SPORTS will carry on from where the now defunct EUROSPORT left off - id est; complete and utter grunties!
(* Having said that, I do wish someone would give 'professional' commentator DAVID MILLAR some different adjectives to use other than "interesting".)
All-in-all, PARIS•NICE has been a bumpy ride, with the return of the new look TEAM TIME TRIAL and a neutralised stage four that left half the riders suffering from hypothermia. VISMA-WOTSIT have been the centre of telly attention as usual, but their mainman JONAS VINGEGAARD abandoned after stage five due to a hurty handy and a bump on the noggin (Oooh!).
LiDL-TREK's own 'GREAT DANES' did get some well-deserved camera time though (Hooray!).
MATTIAS SKJELEMOSE rode himself into contention for a GC podium place (Hooray!), wore the young'n's WHITE JERSEY for a day or two (Hooray!), then... DISASTER on the Seventh Day (Oof!). He crashed into a traffic island thingy and had to leave the race in an ambulance (Aww!).
MADS PEDERSEN eventually got his stage win after a couple of near misses, and he's ripped the peleton to shreds with his phenomenal pacesetting on several occasions (Hooray!). He also worked bloody hard to hold onto his GREEN JERSEY (Hooray!).
At the same time, I got a TEXT 'inviting' me to book my 'Spring' COVID jab. Why does nobody at the Health Centre learn to use E-MAIL? They stubbornly insist on contacting me via SMS, so I have to convert the message to HTML or PDF, then transfer the file from the phone to the laptop, before I can click on the embedded link. You can't reply directly to the text itself and they don't take bookings over the phone. It turns out they are now doing the jabbings ONLY on Saturdays and ONLY at a clinic in the backwaters of Portchester, a goodly walkies from the nearest bus stop. So I'm now doing a little forward-planning (consulting GOOGLE MAPS and cross-referencing BUS TIMETABLES) for another BIG ADVENTURE, even though it's still weeks away!
Given all that has happened to me over the last year-and-a-bit, I hold the NHS as a whole in very high regard. The folks at the hospital deserve nothing but my heartfelt thanks and praise. But time and time again, any interaction with the local GP PRACTICE has been wrapped in a dense layer of disorganised admin faffage. It's almost as if they deliberately put up control barriers against the PATIENT being able to get things done simply and efficiently and in a rational manner...
I'm relieved to see that the highlights for PARIS•NICE are still on ITV4 this time around, so I'm making the best of their higher standard of broadcasting professionalism* (as opposed to people-pleasing 'showbiz') while I still can! If that dreadful "ULTIMATE CYCLING SHOW" on Quest is anything to go by, the presentation style on TNT SPORTS will carry on from where the now defunct EUROSPORT left off - id est; complete and utter grunties!
(* Having said that, I do wish someone would give 'professional' commentator DAVID MILLAR some different adjectives to use other than "interesting".)
All-in-all, PARIS•NICE has been a bumpy ride, with the return of the new look TEAM TIME TRIAL and a neutralised stage four that left half the riders suffering from hypothermia. VISMA-WOTSIT have been the centre of telly attention as usual, but their mainman JONAS VINGEGAARD abandoned after stage five due to a hurty handy and a bump on the noggin (Oooh!).
LiDL-TREK's own 'GREAT DANES' did get some well-deserved camera time though (Hooray!).
MATTIAS SKJELEMOSE rode himself into contention for a GC podium place (Hooray!), wore the young'n's WHITE JERSEY for a day or two (Hooray!), then... DISASTER on the Seventh Day (Oof!). He crashed into a traffic island thingy and had to leave the race in an ambulance (Aww!).
MADS PEDERSEN eventually got his stage win after a couple of near misses, and he's ripped the peleton to shreds with his phenomenal pacesetting on several occasions (Hooray!). He also worked bloody hard to hold onto his GREEN JERSEY (Hooray!).
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