Tag Archives: Jack Beck

A Bumpy Ride – –

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This a picture of me in my hospital bed about six weeks ago taken by Wendy. She threatens to print it and post it on the fridge as a reminder to me!

My first thought on seeing it is how well everyone at Wytheville Community Hospital looked after me. I think the folk who looked after me, like people in those kinds of occupations all over the world, only have one motivation – –

Of course I compare the US health system and the Scottish NHS and the difference is pretty stark! Not the quality of care, but how it’s paid for – –

I live in a very rural part of America where there is still something of the ‘frontier spirit’ – I look after me and my family and don’t look after anyone else unless I choose to. Scotland is different – everything is free for everyone and paid for through taxation. Maybe some memory of the clan system, maybe the longstanding left wing attitude or maybe just a small country where almost everyone has a connection with someone else.

When Margaret Thatcher was at the height of her popularity in England, but much less so in Scotland, she famously said “There is no such thing as society, only the individual and the family”. Like the vast majority of Scots I believe she was wrong and the Scottish National Health Service is a fine example.

Different cultures – different attitudes – –

Lubricating the Works – –

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Jack has been ‘hors de combat’ the last week and a half but may be back in the saddle now – – there’s a joke in there – –

It’s been a rough time with stomach issues I thought were simply constipation and trapped gas (TMI?). So my first port of call involved childhood memories – the dreaded castor oil!

When I was just a wee boy my mother was encouraged by the British government to feed me castor oil to make me ‘regular’, so I came to hate it no matter how she tried to disguise it! One of her gambits was to try to mix it with orange juice but of course they didn’t, and to this day a whiff of orange zest can make me nauseous!

But ten or so years later I became deeply involved in building and flying model planes and most of them were powered with engines – diesel engines! The ‘must have’ was the Oliver Tiger, and I eventually could afford one! What does this have to do with castor oil I hear you ask? Have you guessed yet??

Small single cylinder diesel engines run on a mixture of air and fuel under compression – the fuel is a mixture of ether (yes –actual ether) and castor oil which came in cans from a company called – wait for it – Castrol! They don’t need a spark or glo plug – no battery needed.

So – as usual a mixture of good and not so good memories.

But it seems that the stomach issues are probably gastric flu – so gastro enteritis which I must have picked up somewhere!