Bloody Home Hub!

We may be seen as fools for sticking with BT for our home interent connection but we've had reasonable service with BT and they did offer us a new Home Hub 2.0 which was nice... Until it didn't arrive!

Having contacted them about this lack of equipment several weeks later, we did get a hub & hub phone sent fairly quickly, with apologies and having connected it to the computer, I was thrilled to find set up was pretty pain-free and - OMG - we were able to file / printer share on the home network for the first time ever!! Yay!

Two big thumbs up for BT Home Hub...?

Well, on Friday, the whole thing went tits up (following a software upgrade it wanted to make of it's own accord)! Whole wireless network stopped working for no apparent reason! Grrr!

Sudden;y, the Mobile Phone & Laptop just simply wouldn't connect to the network! Phone couldn't even find the wireless signal and the laptop said it had a great connection but wouldn't load any internet pages!

This has been a real headache to sort out! Several hours wasted on refining settings, checking the help topics in the manual, the online help, the help programmes installed with the hub and still not a blip of improvement on the connection front - frustratingly, the main PC connected fine so it kept saying everything was ok!!

However... In their uselessness regarding delivery of equipment, BT had (shhh - don't tell) sent us a second home hub! Rather than attempting customer services for a long drawn out: "have you tried turning it off and on again" conversation, going through all the steps I've already repeatedly taken, we figured it might not hurt to just try the new hub - why didn't we do this hours ago?

Whole thing works great again! File sharing, internet, printing... I've re-packed the old hub in the box all neat and tidy like - they can have it back if they want... I'm sticking with the new version - and just to ensure there're no more upsets, I've disabled all the BT software from the main system! Don't want updates and such messing up a configuration that works! I reckon the old hub was just faulty but I don't want to take the risk of software settings being a root cause!

Let's see how happy we stay this time...!?

So, would I recommend the BT Home Hub? Well, it looks good, allows easy file / printer sharing, has a broadband phone with it (may cost more but we got it free!) and it's simple to set up... But if they're gonna go pop at the slightest moment of software upgrades, I may have to re-consider our internet supplier when the contract comes up for review...! BT don't have the fastest speeds on the market (though we get fast-enough!) and despite great customer service in the past, I do want (and expect) a fully functioning, hassle-free service! Jxx

Snarl!

Some wazzock decided with an hour to got hat they couldn't buy the camera bag they'd bid on any more... Whilst I could've held them to their commitment to buy (as per ebay rules) I kinda wanted to make sure I had some chance of getting the money so I cancelled their bid and reported them to ebay.

Meanwhile, the next highest bidder then wins the auction but is unwilling to pay as they'd previously been outbid and bought from elsewhere (can't say that's unreasonable) so I end up offering the bag to the next person as a second chance offer and they don't respond so the bag ends up re-listed at extra cost to myself!

Am not very happy!

Ebay did respond to my complaint about the original high bidder but it's a generic response that doesn't answer my complaint!

It was all going so well...

Anyone want a really cool camera bag? BNWT! Jxx

The power of advertising?

Clause 2.7 of the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) of the UK states:

"You must ensure your registration status is not used in the promotion of commercial products or services."

How is it then, that in the last quarterly magazine, produced by the NMC and sent out to all nurses, midwives & health visitors on the register included an article, promoting the benefits of beauty products to night staff. Not only was it blatantly advertising each products elements, but the regulatory body themselves endorsed the nurses who were singing the praises, or otherwise, of each cream, lotion or potion.

I did notice this at the time and was considering writing to the NMC to complain at a blatant breach of their own rules, imposed on us, but it seems the cause has been taken on by others as I read a brief but damning snippet in the Nursing Standard magazine on this.

I'm glad it's not gone unnoticed and just wish I'd said something myself sooner...

Alternate Reality?

Some years ago, reality TV was unheard of... The docu-soap was perhaps all the rage but this was a compilation of 'best bits' rather than the full on, gritty serialisation of every waking move made by the fanciful folk who put themselves forward for public scrutiny we see today.

The first (that I recal) 'reality' show was Channel 4's Shipwrecked. A bunch of youthfull guys & gals living together on a desert island, forraging for food, building shelters and generally struggling to survive. This held some interest in social workings and group dynamics...

Then along came Castaway! BBC's brand spanking new concept - stuff a load of willing (or unwilling as it turned out for a while) folk onto a Scottish island for a year with the very basics and let them struggle to survive in the harshest of condtions. Yes, they sent a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker (well, a doctor & teacher amongst others) with skills varied enough to make a go of things and enthusiasm enough from others (Ben Fogle) to generate a living. But it was still all so fascinating and new...

Shipwrecked & Castaway are both running new series currently... And oh how it all changes!

Those shipwrecked seem to have hardly been washed up from a sea-faring wreck, more from an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue! The lithe young bodies are filmed either sexily dripping with sea-water or glistening with suncream! The idea now, not one of survival but simply building a 'tribe' to win the money at the end of the game... More about tactics that social inclusion and with many folk knowing the game so well that the truth of human nature can be hidden... Or is that just in the filming?

The latest Castaways have also seriously disapointed! With a fond remembrance of the original series, we expected far more from the BBC than the Big Brother-esque production they're placing before us... New arrivals every few days. Voting people into seclusion. Public votes on whether the castaways receive fish nets or fish net stockings... It makes a farce of the original concept of survival and community.

It seems a shame that some great concepts in human behaviour studies have become so convoluted and warped so quickly, as has Big Brother and other reality offspring but perhaps I'm being naive in thinking that this isn't what the viewing public really want? Perhaps the enforced drama, controlled interactions and almost scripted adventures make for better vieing than general human behaviour nowadays? But then, isn't that what soap operas are for? Jxx

I now pronounce you...

In the first year of legalised Civil Partnerships for same sex couples, around 15,500 lesbian and gay partners have 'tied the knot', far in excess of the governments original expectation of just 20,000 couples by the year 2010.

So, why am I pissed off?

Well, mainly due to the reactive reporting of the first 'Gay divorce'. How many divorces have there been amongst a random sample of 15,500 straight couples who married in 2006? Heck, we don't know because it's not been considered as newsworthy! Why should they report straight divorces, It's simply not news - divorce amongst heterosexuals is normal. Amongst gays it's obviously a headline grabbing media circus!

We still don't seem to have grasped this equaliity thing do we?

But hell, it's Xmas... Maybe I should let it go and just be pleased that they've remembered to report on the 15,499 who're still 'married'.

Lift Me Up?

Just arriving at work and spotted a perfectly able bodied member of staff from another ward using the lift to get to the first floor. This is one flight of stairs as this building only has ground and first floor. I also work on the first floor and only ever use the lift when I'm accompanying a patient or wheeling a trolley... This staff member was alone. I think this is wrong for the following reasons:

1. Selfishness - She was using a lift therefore depriving someone less able of doing so at that time.
2. Lazyness - She was perfectly capable of taking the stairs and does not need to conserve her strength.
3. Environmentally unsound - Use of the lifts when not required wastes electricity and the planets resources.
4. Thoughtless - The lifts in this building are mechanically dubious and prone to breakdown. Overuse causes excess wear and tear increasing risk of fault.
5. irritating - It just plain irritaes me!

Am I being over-critical? Quite possibly, it is after all still only just after 7am and I'd rather be in duvet-land still but even when I worked at another hospital, with many more floors, I rarely used the lift for more than the full ground to top floor run... It used to really bug me then when folk used it for single florr journeys up or down...

In other news: Managed to beg, plead and blackmail myself to a better Xmas Duty Rota. I was scheduled to work alternate days on and off from 23rd Dec to 4th January (which would've knackered me and pissed me off, ruining most of the festivities by knowing there was work the following day = no drink to excess!) but am now more comfortable with a four day off stretch Xmas Day to 28th Dec. Am still working Xmas Eve (boo) rather than Boxing Day which was the day I'd offered to work and also working New Years Day, scuppering plans to be away for the New year! I'll not get to see my own family in York until the first weekend in January either. D & I simply don't have enough time off together to get there beforehand! Shifts Suck! Jxx

Is it healthy to rant?

Just when you thought the government couldn't dig a deeper NHS hole for itself comes the announcement that hospitals will soon be able to 'advertise' themselves to patients to generate throughput and with this, the income as 'payment by results' is implemented. basically, the more patients a hospital treats, the more money it will be paid byt he community (GPs) referring the patients. Thsi is all well and good but in Leicestershire, this has already caused a huge problem as community services have run out of money to pay for these services and are not only being bailed out by the hospitals themselves but have also had to request an increase in waiting times to ensure they can afford all the future treatments and operations! Crazy!

With advertising, the hospitals who are cash straped from the start will now be in a position to waste even more financial resource and spend away from patient care once more. The current situation whereby hospital wards and departments have to hold fundraising events and rely on donations for essential equipment is diabolical and I cannot see how the government can justify allowing hospitals to spend money on advertising when units go without machinery and resources they need.

Seeing red... Again...

An update on my sad, sad traffic light obsession...

OK, it may be a little scary to think I'm obviously paying less attention to the road than I should at 06.45 - 07.00hrs on my journey to work but in my quest to make myself feel as hard done to by inanimate objects as possible I have counted every time I had to pray to the god of traffic lights travelling to work this morning... I'd done the same travelling home last week!

There is the potetntial to be stopped in my tracks 35 times on the way to work, although this falls to 33 on the return journey! That's still around 6 sets of lights per mile both ways though!

I think that's fairly ridiculous! Am i right to be obsessed? Jxx

Seeing Red...!

Thirteen, nine & ten...

The number of traffic lights that have stopped me in a five mile journey to or from work over the past few days... It bleedin' well gets me goat! Grrrr!

I can understand the need for traffic control during rush hour but we're talking 06.30hrs... There're maybe three cars on the road? No one else is stupid enough to be awake at this time and yet, the sign says stop and I have to dutifully stop! Piggin' ridiculous... It would be marginally better if the light sequence actually meant a smooth passage through them all but it's stop start stop start stop start with no apparent reasoning or meaning (well, they machines after all and having been programmed by the council they're hardly likely to be efficient or logical!)

Doesn't really set me up for a good day at work...

Of course, being the obsessive that I am, I've started actually using a clicker to count how many lights stop me... Want to gain evidence to complain to the council!

And you thought my excitement over DYSON parts was sad!!

In other news...

Back at work again today - came in early especially to write this entry for you all to read... Ain't I nice? Off for the weekend with no set plans other than to try and keep warm! Was car-scrape weather again this morning with a fine frost adding to the early start misery!

Broke my caffeine-free-ness yesterday by having my first Pepsi-Max in a week! Was up to four bottles a day when I figured I might be drinking too much of the stuff - that and the jitters / restless nights! Have slept better since stopping but am far more tired earlier! Drinking de-caf coffee again this morning and we'll have to see how the rest of the day goes!

Packages stared arriving yesterday from my Xmas-Shop-Athon the other day... Haven't been able to open any yet 'cos I can't remember which contain bits for D who was with me all last night... Will find some private time over the weekend. I see from my emails that several other items have despatched! Almost as much fun as Christmas getting to open all these treats - even if I have to give them away again in a month or so!!

Finally, as I haven't for a while I figured it high time to include a hunk-with-spunk... BBC's latest series of Spooks is going down a treat in our household, despite us being about two weeks behind and reliant on the digital hard drive (no video for us!!) for storage of past episodes! Actually watch the second part of the embassy siege a couple of days ago and I couldn't believe that the BBC allowed the 'F' word before 10pm!! That's the state of social decay in this country...! Anyway, Rupert Penry Jones (Adam in Spooks) who also stared in the amazing BBC Three adaptation of Casanova with David Tennant, is a key player in Spooks and certainly pleasant on the eye... Enjoy!! Jxx