This phase of lectures is over and what a relief. it's off on holiday tomorrow, to Gran Canaria, to the World Medical games. I'm going with my team 'Stepping Hill FC, although we are known a Stockport FC in this tournament. We are representing England in the 'Seniors' tournament, so give us a cheer. There are normally several people I like to hang out with, but these days there are fewer and fewer as they get older, injured, and generally decrepit. Still I'm looking forward to it, and who knows Strangy may fill the gap.
I'll let you know.
It will be a short respite. Since I gave the London talk on commissioning I've had several invites to do similar . The thing is, it's not that one knows more than anybody else, just that one gets to be known as the speaker on such and such, so word gets round and fame spreads. So there you are, I'm now the one who speaks about commissioning especially in the Cardiology fraternity. I must be saying what they want to hear, except for the MRI where I've been quite open about saying that their department needs to reduce in size. It hasn't gone down well, but then they could have been more accomodating and less arrogant.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Sunday, 26 June 2011
The last day in Prague, time for home
It's time to go home and I'm tired of being away. I think I might call a moratorium on long weekends. I feel strangely alone today and not looking forward to the long trip back. 
Yesterday I did some more sight seeing and a little at the conference. There was an interesting debate on the association of Phosphate and coronary risk. I bet you wish you were there. It turns out it is associated but we're not sure what to do about it.
In the evening we ate at the Hotel Imperial which is a restaurant run by the Czech equivalent of Gordon Ramsey. The food was very average but it has an amazing tiled interior which you simply must see.
16.15 and in Prague airport 3 hours before I need to. Managed to get free Wi-Fi but it is slow. Still I'm outside and it's sunny. I wanted to get here early to book a seat away from the returning stag party. Anyway, they wont let me check-in until 2 hours before departure. At least there's something that hasn't changed since stopping being communist. Apparently it is 'not possible'. I think I'll have a beer.
Yesterday I did some more sight seeing and a little at the conference. There was an interesting debate on the association of Phosphate and coronary risk. I bet you wish you were there. It turns out it is associated but we're not sure what to do about it.
In the evening we ate at the Hotel Imperial which is a restaurant run by the Czech equivalent of Gordon Ramsey. The food was very average but it has an amazing tiled interior which you simply must see.
16.15 and in Prague airport 3 hours before I need to. Managed to get free Wi-Fi but it is slow. Still I'm outside and it's sunny. I wanted to get here early to book a seat away from the returning stag party. Anyway, they wont let me check-in until 2 hours before departure. At least there's something that hasn't changed since stopping being communist. Apparently it is 'not possible'. I think I'll have a beer.
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Prague 2011
This is strange, the spell check is in Czech. Of course. I'm in the Czech Republic, Prague in fact, at the European Renal Association meeting. The conference itself is so focused on end stage renal disease that I'm wondering why I've come. There is nothing for Primary Care here. Still, Prague in the summer, fabulous.
We have been given a travel pass and so off I went yesterday to explore the city and find Wenceslas square.
Last time I was here I enjoyed just lazing about in the bars around what I then thought, was Wenceslas square. So imagine my surprise and amazement to find no mention of the square on the city map. So confused was I that I thought I must have mis-remembered my last stay and actually wondered if Wenceslas square was in a different city altogether. It was not until the evening when I presented my problem to the accompanied crowd, and to some merriment from th
em, that I discovered that Wenceslas Square is not a square at all, and definitely not the place I thought it was. It is in fact a long and wide street, somewhere else in the town. The place I thought was Wenceslas square is actually the Old Town centre. 
The Old Town centre is the gathering place for tourists, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets the name wrong. There is the famous Tyn cathedral and the Town Hall clock, whose figures chime every hour. Yesterday, though the weather was bright, there was a sudden downpour just as the clock struck three.
Prague is a city with many memories of the communist era, reflected not least is some of the architecture on the way from the airport to the city centre. The austere tower blocks have done their best to modernise, but there's no mistaking their origins. The taxi radio, stuck in the past too, was playing White Snake, Judas Priest and other heavy metal. They may be proud of their velvet revolution, but please time to move on in musical taste too. It was during the velvet revolution that a Russian tank, standing in Wensceslas square one night was painted pink, much to the annoyance of the would-be occupiers. It was later floated on a pontoon in the river. 
The underground in Prague is easy to use, and the people, like many users the world over, look grim and in a hurry. One scene, though, that cheered me up. It was in another carriage and so witnessed as silent. Two girls were having a right old giggle, about what I have no idea, but they were laughing uncontrollably at something. It made me smile. May be they are more relaxed with themselves than I thought.
After my initial attempts to find the tourist places I went back to the hotel for a nap. It had been an early start to get to the airport for an early flight. I hadn't bargained on being stuck in the middle of a 'stag do', dressed in shell suits, some a worrying pink, and already pissed. They carried on drinking all flight, and became noisier and noisier. Fortunately they didn't engage me in conversation, but some poor American girl did. Their 'conversation' went pretty close to the mark, but luckily I didn't have to stand up for her honour.
I half expected to see them all in the square that isn't Wenceslas square. I think they were probably sleeping it off, and will miss Prague altogether in a drunken haze.
In the evening we had dinner at the Lion restaurant, near Prague castle, and took in the view of Prague from the citadel. Prague Castle isn't a castle, like Wenceslas square
e isn't a square, but it is next to a fabulous cathedral. The history of Prague is the history of Europe in microcosm, OK that might be over stating it, but it seems to have been at the centre of much of the great struggles of the last four centuries. Our tour guide talked us through the Hapsburg reign, the Protestant uprising and later 'defenestration', and the martyrdom of Jan Hus, burnt at the stake as a heretic.
I offered my own heresy at the dinner table of kidney specialists. That the modern staging of kidney disease has entirely distracted attention from identifying rapidly declining renal disease (now stage 1&2) and those leaking protein. Instead we are mis-staging and over treating little old ladies, who would be better left alone. I'm not sure how well that went done. Slightly better than telling a room full of cardiologists that there are too many of them, I guess.
We have been given a travel pass and so off I went yesterday to explore the city and find Wenceslas square.
Last time I was here I enjoyed just lazing about in the bars around what I then thought, was Wenceslas square. So imagine my surprise and amazement to find no mention of the square on the city map. So confused was I that I thought I must have mis-remembered my last stay and actually wondered if Wenceslas square was in a different city altogether. It was not until the evening when I presented my problem to the accompanied crowd, and to some merriment from th
em, that I discovered that Wenceslas Square is not a square at all, and definitely not the place I thought it was. It is in fact a long and wide street, somewhere else in the town. The place I thought was Wenceslas square is actually the Old Town centre. 
The Old Town centre is the gathering place for tourists, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets the name wrong. There is the famous Tyn cathedral and the Town Hall clock, whose figures chime every hour. Yesterday, though the weather was bright, there was a sudden downpour just as the clock struck three.
Prague is a city with many memories of the communist era, reflected not least is some of the architecture on the way from the airport to the city centre. The austere tower blocks have done their best to modernise, but there's no mistaking their origins. The taxi radio, stuck in the past too, was playing White Snake, Judas Priest and other heavy metal. They may be proud of their velvet revolution, but please time to move on in musical taste too. It was during the velvet revolution that a Russian tank, standing in Wensceslas square one night was painted pink, much to the annoyance of the would-be occupiers. It was later floated on a pontoon in the river. 
The underground in Prague is easy to use, and the people, like many users the world over, look grim and in a hurry. One scene, though, that cheered me up. It was in another carriage and so witnessed as silent. Two girls were having a right old giggle, about what I have no idea, but they were laughing uncontrollably at something. It made me smile. May be they are more relaxed with themselves than I thought.
After my initial attempts to find the tourist places I went back to the hotel for a nap. It had been an early start to get to the airport for an early flight. I hadn't bargained on being stuck in the middle of a 'stag do', dressed in shell suits, some a worrying pink, and already pissed. They carried on drinking all flight, and became noisier and noisier. Fortunately they didn't engage me in conversation, but some poor American girl did. Their 'conversation' went pretty close to the mark, but luckily I didn't have to stand up for her honour.
I half expected to see them all in the square that isn't Wenceslas square. I think they were probably sleeping it off, and will miss Prague altogether in a drunken haze.
In the evening we had dinner at the Lion restaurant, near Prague castle, and took in the view of Prague from the citadel. Prague Castle isn't a castle, like Wenceslas square
e isn't a square, but it is next to a fabulous cathedral. The history of Prague is the history of Europe in microcosm, OK that might be over stating it, but it seems to have been at the centre of much of the great struggles of the last four centuries. Our tour guide talked us through the Hapsburg reign, the Protestant uprising and later 'defenestration', and the martyrdom of Jan Hus, burnt at the stake as a heretic.I offered my own heresy at the dinner table of kidney specialists. That the modern staging of kidney disease has entirely distracted attention from identifying rapidly declining renal disease (now stage 1&2) and those leaking protein. Instead we are mis-staging and over treating little old ladies, who would be better left alone. I'm not sure how well that went done. Slightly better than telling a room full of cardiologists that there are too many of them, I guess.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Afghanistan in Reality evening
I needn't have worried. In the end there must have been two hundred or more, and only just enough food and chairs to go round. The venie was the 'Welcome Centre in Cheetham Hill, where regugees are dumped by the state when they arrive seeking asylum form death squads back home. Hamid, my latest lodger had been one of them.
Jonny, 'my son of whom I am well pleased', had organised an evening to 'celebrate and raise awareness' of Afghan history and culture. He was doing this on behalf of RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research group), a Greater Manchester voluntary sector organisation working for local people who have had their human rights denied. They are often refugees or asylum seekers, and many are from Afghanistan. As this is the biggest thing he's done I was sharing his anxiety that people wouldn't turn up.
In the end it was an interesting, stimulating and enjoyable evening. No one really minded the pink tinged projector slides, the slightly over long speeches, and queue for food. It was a good old lefty meeting reminiscent of the early days of CND meetings, and we were showing solidarity with the oppressed and destitute.
Well done Jonny
Jonny, 'my son of whom I am well pleased', had organised an evening to 'celebrate and raise awareness' of Afghan history and culture. He was doing this on behalf of RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research group), a Greater Manchester voluntary sector organisation working for local people who have had their human rights denied. They are often refugees or asylum seekers, and many are from Afghanistan. As this is the biggest thing he's done I was sharing his anxiety that people wouldn't turn up.
In the end it was an interesting, stimulating and enjoyable evening. No one really minded the pink tinged projector slides, the slightly over long speeches, and queue for food. It was a good old lefty meeting reminiscent of the early days of CND meetings, and we were showing solidarity with the oppressed and destitute.
Well done Jonny
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Commissioning 2011
Its not quite the red eye train, its 10 o'clock at night, but after a couple of glasses of wine I'm feeling relaxed and distinctly sleepy. I'm on the 21.40 form Euston to Manchester Piccadilly and travelling in first class. Cost - £35 and all the wine you can drink. Ben Jones happens to be on the train too and has sat opposite to me. He's a good guy from church and I'm pleased to be journeying with him.
We've both got up early for a meeting in London and obviously both book the cheap first class ticket back. I've been here on one of my talks at the 'Commissioning 2011' conference at Kensington Olympia. Pretty cool and on the day the government have made major announcements on the future of the NHS, the place was buzzing with excitement.
The last event was a 'panel discussion' by the good and the great, A knight and a dame of the realm, a professor, and a retired senior nurse. None of them have done a single day's commissioning, but there they were pontificating and trotting out the government line.
Anyway, I was there talking too, rather earlier, on increasing capacity and capability of primary care. They were queueing up to get into the room and I got some good questions. Several people came up afterwards and asked further questions, so they must have been interested.
Perhaps I'm quite good at this, do you think?
We've both got up early for a meeting in London and obviously both book the cheap first class ticket back. I've been here on one of my talks at the 'Commissioning 2011' conference at Kensington Olympia. Pretty cool and on the day the government have made major announcements on the future of the NHS, the place was buzzing with excitement.
The last event was a 'panel discussion' by the good and the great, A knight and a dame of the realm, a professor, and a retired senior nurse. None of them have done a single day's commissioning, but there they were pontificating and trotting out the government line.
Anyway, I was there talking too, rather earlier, on increasing capacity and capability of primary care. They were queueing up to get into the room and I got some good questions. Several people came up afterwards and asked further questions, so they must have been interested.
Perhaps I'm quite good at this, do you think?
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Summer is here
'Will you hold my stick while I have a wee?' I asked Alison after an hour and a half. 'I will not' she hit me playfully on the arm, 'oh, alright then' and took my walking stick while I disappeared behind a tree.
We were on a walk in Ingleton along the Twiss and Doe rivers. Through the Swilla Glen there is first one and then two or three coin encrusted logs. They look like ancient dragon limbs. People are encouraged to hammer coins vertically into these fallen tree trunks. One of them has an extra 10p in it now. 
The weekend had promised to be glorious and so I wanted to head out a bit. I'd never been to Ingleton before and Alison knew the way, so off we set at 9.30am. I thought it would be busier but no. There were plenty people, but not too many for a gentle morning stroll. The four and half mile walk took about two hours, and back to Ingleton just in time for a late pub lunch in the sunshine. The waterfall trial 
has been designated a site of special scientific interest, and is definitely worth the trip. The views are great. I can't believe I've never been before. The two main waterfalls are Thornton Force and Beezly falls, pictured here.
has been designated a site of special scientific interest, and is definitely worth the trip. The views are great. I can't believe I've never been before. The two main waterfalls are Thornton Force and Beezly falls, pictured here.On our way back we passed the Snow falls and massively steep gorges that are at once scary and make you want to dive in. It is as if a hot watery knife has been sliced across the limestone butter. I love limestone geology and studied it for my 'o' level, somewhere round here there'll be pot holes and hidden stalagmite and stalactite caves.
Limestone is sedimentary rock, made up of compressed exoskeletons of sea creature many millions of years old. It is amazing to think of all this below the sea, and rising up, only to be eroded flat again. The slippery, shiny limestone looks in parts like those tarnished metal statues of the saints in old cathedrals where their shoes or hand shine brightly from where people have touched them over the years.
By the time we got home I was exhausted, and so an early night. I got my first football game back today after nearly a two year lay off.
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