Barry’s Ramblings

Trains

I am going to London for a meeting. Cost on Virgin Trains from Liverpool to London to arrive by 10am and leave about 17:00 is £245 standard class with booked seats on specific trains.

A similar length journey with SNCF, Lyon to Paris can be done for £228 as an open first class! It’s £157 for the similar ticket to the Virgin one. WTF! Virgin first class was something like £489 single, that joke should go in the hall of fame as the funniest this century.

This country is going somewhere! Not sure where but I suspect it’s not upwards!

Dangerous new morons on the block

Please do what you can to help fight the morons at FireBurnDoctor.com.

I have sent them the email below:

I am intrigued by this new and exciting medical breakthrough you have discovered for the treatment of burns. That by using a telephone to ring in some personal details, tissue is repaired and re-grows and pain is prevented.

Could you send me the references to your published papers on this as I am interested to know the biological mechanisms you employ, especially in the case of 3rd degree burns, that cause the re-growth of damaged dermis, epidermis and hyperdermis tissue and how without any intervention you prevent wound infection.

I was unable to search the literature as your website omits to provide the full name and institution for “Medical Doctor Joseph”, so I am unable to read your research.

I do hope you have developed a spectacular new treatment as there are so many frauds around these days that sell fake treatments that prolong suffering or even persuade people to avoid proper medical care completely often resulting in lasting injury or even death.

Yours.

Barry Dean BSc. (Hons)

This is the latest group of dangerous individuals I have heard of. There is bound to be a body count related to this one eventually, which will be especially upsetting if it involves children.

Woo fighting

Please go to http://www.libelreform.org/ and support this campaign.

If we do nothing the woo will take over.

Did you realise that is an American author says something about a Russian person, legal under American and Russian law, the case can be tried in an English court if two copies of the document appear in the UK? It includes on-line information as well!

This is plain silly.

British journalism at it’s worst

Please go to the Press Complaints Commission web site and complain about this drivel from Jan Moir of the Daily mail.

This is why I won’t waste my money on newspapers, they are not even fit for tearing into squares for hanging on the back of the toilet door.

The great house tidy begins …

Well we have tidied the conservatory out:

We just have the little matter of the lounge to deal with now:

Tall Chimney

The University of Liverpool is about to get another Chimney…

Chimney being built.

Google AdSense

I have installed and I am trying out a new Widget to get the Google AdSense back.

Hope this one works cos I am fed up trying to get this to work!

If you see ads in the side bar, hoorah!

BBQ

I got volunteered to help with the Parish BBQ. All was going well until that black cloud came over, it went colder, the wind increased and then rain.

I think it was Marks and Spencer rain, not just rain, but ….

It was not just rain, it was a monsoon! Within seconds I was as wet as if I had jumped in a swimming pool!

I have helped set-up today, cooked millions of burgers, and cleared up after, also fitting in a meeting for parents at the Cathedral Choir.

Finally I have got the girls to bed. Unbelievable how naughty a 4 year old and an 8 year old can be in a short time!

Why do I get myself into these things!

Ski-ing? In June? In Manchester?

Yep, its all true. Matthew and I went to ‘Chill Factor e‘ today. The main purpose was to get Matthew some experience ski-ing on snow. But I enjoyed having a beginner’s lesson anyway.

Had a great time, but as an old timer, I am feeling it now. Back ache and very tired!

Still, I want to go back and have a proper lesson on the full 180m slope. Could be expensive though!

Toxic World

Below my office is a plant room and it is getting cleaned. Due to the usual Health and Safety hoo har, it is being assumed that the muck they will be disturbing contains asbestos or Radium or spent nuclear fuel or something, so they have sealed off the room, built an impressive structure round the door and the clean/dirty trailer and for good measure switched off the fresh air system to the offices. My office should be OK, cos I can open the window, but combined with my general lethargy lately, I am getting sleepy in the office in the afternoons!

So today I decide I will go across campus to another building to replace some old labels. A silly little job, but I took the laptop so I could read my email whilst I was doing it and it got me out of the office and woke me up a bit!

So I am carrying a labeller, my lappy, and listening to a podcast on the iPhone. Some joker phones me! Now this should not cause a drama, except that the button on my earbuds that answers a call does not work, so I have to take out the phone from the holster, unplug the headset, pull out the right hand ear piece from my ear and answer the call, all without dropping my MacBook Pro, or the labeller!

Who is it that dares to cause me all this grief? Carcraft! To remind me that the Peugeot 406 I have already told them I sold needs a service or MOT!!!

I carry on my way!

I get the job done and head back. I have just crossed the road when the phone goes again! I thought “Bastards I’ll give em what for this time, I’ll tell em where they can stick a Peugeot 406!”. But this time it is my daughter’s school, “Hello Mr Dean, Charlotte has eaten some Laburnum seed and is saying she feels sick, can you come and get her from school”!

Laburnum is NOT good to eat! See this paper for details! (I read this en route on the iPhone)

So I rush home, well as fast as you can go on a Number 15 Arriva Bus in Liverpool!

I phonef my Mum to pick up Charlotte early and take her to the walk-in centre and I met her there. I also phoned NHS Direct in case they suggested A&E at Alder Hey! Turns out she only chewed one seed, and spat it out. The poisons unit seemed to think she would be OK, and the triage nurse seemed to think she would be fine as she had not been sick, even after 3 hours!

Well I wanted “waking up a bit”, and that seemed to do the job, kids bless.