Phone call from the doctors surgery today (I was expecting it) for my annual medication review.

It was established I need to have an up to date blood test and have a blood pressure tester strapped to me for a day.

Ok, book me in then.

Oh no, I can't do that, you'll need to ring the surgery to make the appointments. But you are the surgery......

Tomorrow I will join the phone queue.

Well, I don't know which referral it was (via the GP or the optician trying direct) but I called SpaMedica this morning and they confirmed that they had a referral for me.

They offered me a cancellation slot tomorrow morning for the pre-op assessment. Luckily my transport can do it, otherwise the next available appointment would have been a month away.

So, thankfully, the process has started - because at the speed the PCO is developing I reckon in a month's time I'd be close to being as blind as a bat in unfavourable lighting. Reading the computer screen is getting very hard and the evenings are starting to draw in - I came home at dusk the other night and when a car came the other way, granted with a badly adjusted headlight, I could hardly see a thing until they'd gone past 

Good job I was able to get to the eye appointment today, since they only do the YAG laser work sessions 1 or 2 days a month so there's that long a gap between sessions.

I'm booked in for the first eye to be zapped on September 24th so I guess the second won't be until late October.

Had I not been able to go today, I'd have been looking at the first eye not being done until late October and the second not until late November.

I live in France. This has repercussions for any (e-) mail order purchases I make in UK. Recently I managed to convince eBay.uk to accept my brother-in-law's address as he delivery address and I have been trying to do the same with other e-shops! Big trouble with Bachmann Collectors Club, who have my french address listed against my membership number (of course, for the magazines, etc.) and refuse point blank to send items to the UK address ... to the point of my having to pay "La Poste" tax and handling fees exceeding the amount of VAT they remove, as well as their minimum 15£ overseas postal charge. The set of four recent post office coaches should have been post free in UK but cost me the equivalent total of £190 instead of the £175 they could have been.
Not happy.
Also, I was charged extra by la Poste on the calendar and catalogue Mail Drop last Autumn .... I'm hoping they don't do it again this year. Not supposed to charge it on printed paper, even if overweight!

I've just had a call from the NHS about my telephone appointment next week with the spinal consultant who was to tell me the results of a much needed MRI scan I haven't had yet. The lady told me that those who have a pacemaker or defibrillator* have been waiting for over a year now for their scans, so it's pretty obvious I'll not see a scan this side of 2025.
To be honest, I'm past the point of being angry about it. All it does is raise my blood pressure which is not good for me at all. I've left it that he'll call me anyway. Who knows, I might get a 'Disabled' blue badge out of him. There has to be some benefit to all this

*Means a cardiac team have to be on standby for the scan

Quote from: thebrighton on August 19, 2025, 06:40:32 PMPhone call from the doctors surgery today (I was expecting it) for my annual medication review.

It was established I need to have an up to date blood test and have a blood pressure tester strapped to me for a day.

Ok, book me in then.

Oh no, I can't do that, you'll need to ring the surgery to make the appointments. But you are the surgery......

Tomorrow I will join the phone queue.

Rather than hang on the phone for hours I popped in earlier to book my blood test in and pick up the blood pressure monitor.
We don't lend blood pressure monitors, you need to buy your own. But you told me to come in and collect one 

After my triple bypass some 9 or 10 years ago, I have had one I bought from Lloyd's pharmacy. It certainly brings some reassurance to get results within minutes, and I can compile a spreadsheet of results to present to my GP when needed. I recommend one, Gareth, for the sake of £20 or so.

Something didn't sound right about this, so I had a quick goggle. A 24 hour, or ambulatory machine is completely different to a home monitor that you can buy down the chemist. Like NPN I have the latter, but I strongly suspect that the 24 hour one has to be fitted by someone trained for it, and it will have to be taken back for the data to be downloaded & analysed. I expect an appointment is mandatory for this.

Quote from: Yet_Another on August 29, 2025, 05:49:24 PMSomething didn't sound right about this, so I had a quick goggle. A 24 hour, or ambulatory machine is completely different to a home monitor that you can buy down the chemist. Like NPN I have the latter, but I strongly suspect that the 24 hour one has to be fitted by someone trained for it, and it will have to be taken back for the data to be downloaded & analysed. I expect an appointment is mandatory for this.

You're quite correct. After my original post they had rung back to say they didn't need a 24 hour  test but 2 readings a day over 4 days.
Overall they haven't inspired confidence!

there ought to be a "slightly miffed" thread, cause whilst I am unhappy, there is nothing I can do about it at the moment.
2 weeks ago I received my notification from @revoltion that one of my class 66 orders had shipped. Woo Hoo. Click on the link for Royal Mail only to be informed it has been handed over to the partner carrier. Great, go onto the Australia Post website, to be told, great we have it at the Langly international mail centre, its cleared customs and just awaiting a flight.
This was 2nd Sept.
In the meantime I get an email from Royal Mail telling me they have tried to deliver and no one was home.
However Australia Posta were still telling me the same message.
Today on checking, Royal Mail is telling me they have passed it to their partner.
And Australia Post are now saying they have received it from Royal Mail on 15th Oct.
What is going on.

Just reread this and that should have read 15th Sept. of course they finally managed to deliver it on the 24th Sept. when we were away. Still it was a nice pressie to come home to.

I get the impression that steam era models seem to be fading away, the forum header has a line of diseasels, why not the occasional steamer?
As a matter of interest what is the steam to diesel and electric ratio among forum members? I don't have any contact with other gauges, do they all have this bias?
Admittedly we old 'uns that knew steam as an everyday thing may be getting few and far between but steam has a much longer history and probably more locos over the years, and there is obviously interest in preserved steam lines.
I'm also disappointed in the lack of Southern steam models, no 4-6-0s RTR with only 2  4-6-0 kits, and with the demise of Union Mills we lost a 4-4-0 and two 0-6-0s, and apart from a few tanks like  M7, & Terrier I can only think of 2 steamers, Schools and N class in current production.
How many members here have SR layouts, and of those how many - if any are steam only or mainly steam?

Mike, There is a new Farish LNER class V2 on the way. British Railways black livery locos are in the shops.
I know that your preferred era is big 4 but let your self be tempted by rule one.
Apparently some of these locos were diverted to SR metals due to problems with Bulleid pacifics ?

I do transition era so have almost equal amounts of steam and diseasels

Personally I stick to mostly steam and LNER, of which I have gradually acquired a decent wide variety of types ( I would like to see more pre-grouping, esepcially NER liveried    ) - however I have allowed a selection of diesel and electric over the threshold, mostly non-British types that I have like dth look of in my travels...
Colin.