Friday, June 18, 2004

Another week over.

Mutterings continued.

My first full working week for a while.

I spent an interesting half hour this morning watching the new male orang, Dinar, being introduced to Puspa, one of the breeding females. A bit of teeth baring and swiping at each other (think four year olds lashing out but not connecting) but all went ok in the end.

Lots of junk mail and a lovely postcard from Malta (thanks Fiona) in the box today.

It's been an expensive couple of days - $45 for the doctor, $60 for my haircut (I'm rather pleased with it - just wish I could wield a dryer and a brush the way the hairdressers do) and $170 for an ultrasound this morning. $170 for them to say, "We can't see anything." I have a slightly swollen lymph node on my neck apparently; it took two radiologists and a lot of gel to give me the good/no news.

The haircut experience was lovely - they sit you down in a vibrating chair while they wash your hair and give you a scalp massage. I've had about half my hair cut off - the bottom half fortunately.

Amusing story from The Guardian's The Northerner:

" >>> HUMBER COASTGUARD WARNS OF DANGERS OF INFLATION


The Hull Daily Mail, meanwhile, reports a traditional seasonal rise in another transport problem: the number of holidaymakers
unintentionally setting out to cross the North Sea on inflatable
dolphins, children's dinghies and rubber rings.


This week's delightful sunshine has seen three of these amateur
mariners rescued by lifeboats or passing ships as they helplessly
tried to paddle back to Brid or Scarborough against the wind.


The Humber Coastguard takes the Mail painstaking through advice to
inflatable users, which is much more complicated than simply saying: stay inshore. Amateur sailors should check the wind direction with lifeguards (no Boy Scout wetting of your finger these days) and children in inflatables should apparently be tethered to the beach - or slumbering parents' toes - with a line.


If you are blown out to sea, you should "remain seated so as not to
tip the inflatable up.' Meanwhile, wave above the waves, shout as
loud as you can and stay calm in the knowledge that the Humber
Coastguard has apparently "never not seen anyone who has been blown
out to sea; help will soon be on its way" according to the reassuring spokesman."

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