Unplanned holiday, jokes and Inglorious Basterds

It is unplanned holiday. It just happens. That means no flight and hotel booking. I feel staying at home quietly is sometime the best holiday option after working non-stop, seeing sick people and dealing with anxious family members.

I popped in to local Waterstone book store, where I picked up some books and DVDs.



This is from the book I took to intend to read at bed time. More than half of the jokes from the book, compiled by Ivor Baddiel and Ian Stone, made me laugh. The title is “The best pub joke book”.

A surgeon came to see his patient on the morning after her operation. The young woman asked him, somewhat hesitantly, how long it would be before she could resume her sex life.

"I really haven’t thought about it", gulped the stunned surgeon, “You’re the first patient who’s asked me that question after a tonsillectomy!”

This is about a lawyer.

I man calls his lawyer and asked: “How much would you charge me to answer three questions”
“£400”, the lawyer replies.
“Jesus”, says the man, “that’s a lot of money, isn’t it?”
“I guess so” replies the lawyer, “What’s your third questions?”

Here is husband and wife.

A man rushes in to his house and yells to his wife, “Debbie, pack your things, darling. I just won the lottery!”

“Shall I pack for warm weather or cold?” asks Debbie.
“I don’t care,” the man responds. “Just so long as you’re out of the house by noon!”

Another husband and wife.

John’s wife was not so good with money and , determined to economise, he’d decided to have a chat with her about it. The following days he met up with his mate.
“So” asked his mate, “do you think your little chat worked?”
“Yes, I think so” said John. “I’m going to give up beer and fag.”

“The ultimate book of rude and politically incorrect jokes” is a top-listed when we browsed joke books in online stores. This is something adult jokes.

An old couple went into the chemist’s and the old man asked for a packet of condoms. “We’re having a dirty weekend,” he said.
The chemist said “But you’re both pensioners aren’t you?
He explained that a woman over 60 could not become pregnant.
“It’s not that", said the old man. “She just loves the smell of burning rubber”

Last night, I watched Inglorious Basterds which is one of the Oscar nominees. Brad Pitt was talking in a funny accent. Christoph Waltz appeared as sick Nazi colonel. It can be said that the film is an outstanding performance of Vienna born actor, whose action dominated the American A class star as a whole. At the end of the film, it seemed to me that it was a sort of comedy.

Someone recommended that it was worth watching it. It was Avatar. The News paper claimed that Avatar sinks Titanic record. I noticed that the director was James Cameron who was the director of Titanic, Aliens, Rambo and Terminator series. Perhaps, I will watch it before going back to work.

Update: 18:34hrs (4th Feb 2010)
I did check what's wrong with people to spell "Basterd" , in stead of Bastard. The Urban Dictionary describes the meaning of Baterd. A couple of interesting meanings are as follow.

Basterd
1. A clever misspelling of the word BASTARD used to ensure your movie title stands out when Googled.

1. When someone is too stupid to spell bastard, basterd is often the result.

:)

More on Urban Dictionary here

Enjoying an old song

Yes, it is an old song. But it will renew itself. It will restore its position after sometime. It will revitalize. It will revivify. It is the song called "Words"

Yesterday, I put Boyzone's Album "Back Again...No matter what" into my trolley in ASDA. One of the songs is Words which I did enjoy in my teenage days. Now I enjoy again. Personally, I prefer Bee Gees's original version. I feel it was powerful and strong. But it is a different taste with Boyzone's . I would say it is sensational.

Bee Gees, first released in the beginning of 1968.



Boyzone version, released in 1996.


Lyrics.....

smile an ever lasting smile
a smile can bring you near to me
don't ever let me find you gone
'cause that would bring a tear to me
this world has lost its glory
let's start a brand new story
now my love
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

talk in ever lasting words
and dedicate them all to me
and I will give you all my life
i'm here if you should call to me
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da

this world has lost its glory
let's start a brand new story
now my love
you think that I don't even mean
a single word I say

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

it's only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away

I am a hobbyist

Having a dSLR won't stop investing in the hobby. That means that I have been collecting and reading photo magazines more or less on a regular basis, while thinking high to participate in local or on-line competition. Obviously, it is not ready yet. Apparently, there is an evening photography class in nearby college. It is a good idea to join it. I could gain new camera skill and new friends. Just thinking.



The gas station is at a convenient distance. Whenever I went down there to grab a bunch of lager, I checked the book shelves filled with a variety of usual stuffs , such as auto magazines, women and adult magazines. What I normally took was photo magazine. I read and tried to take the photos as advised. Unfortunately, weather was not favourable for a amateur photographer these days. Of course, I can get snow photos. But sub zero temperature stopped me going out. Again, my busy life style has a little chance to spend on photography. Hopefully, there will be more opportunity to enjoy out door photos in next a few months.

The natural history of the elderly in Britian

First of all, I would say this is not a research paper. Moreover, I won't guarantee it is 100% true facts covering all social classes in Britain. But I write this blog post based on my knowledge and work experience.

We do enjoy the life by studying and working , going holidays and being off sick, arguing and agreeing, marrying and divorcing, attending weddings and funerals, and so on. When we reach 65 and above, we will be in the group of old age in the countries like UK and USA. The alternative nomenclature of the elderly is senior or senior citizen. The definition of old age varies from society to society, from department to department.

At work, I mean, at hospital where I work , we consider those with 75 and above (some hospital 78, some 79) as the elderly people. They are put in the list of the elderly care consultant, who will lead the team for his patient's medical and social issues to be sorted out. Once patient is medically fit or nearly fit, we start the discharge plan. That means we decide to where patient is going. To his own home? to rehab hospital, to residential home or nursing home.

The majority of elderly people lives alone or with their spouse if they are still alive. It is common that their children live nearby, helping with shopping and cleaning. Some elderly people have no own children, but they have been looking after well by step-daughter or son as next of kin. I still remember one old man was admitted to hospital for some reason. His son had been in Australia for many years. Almost everyday, the anxious son rang us, asking about his father's updates, saying "thank you" during most of the calls. He also had threatened to make complaint against us for a couple of times. Yes, that is our life. Anyway, that old man got better and he went home after sometime.

Basically we cannot discharge our patients without making sure that they will be safe at home. During the discharge plan, the phyisotherapist does mobility assessment, providing walking assistance if required while the occupational therapist's function is to assess if patient can do his or her daily activities safely, such as kitchen, stairs and bathroom. Some needs stair lift to go to upstairs bathroom. Other need wheel chair for shopping.

Some people require rehabilitation before going home. So they go to a local community hospital to build up their mobility.

While they are in acute hospital or rehab hospital, we consider if patient will need care package at home. For example, some people needs once a day carer in the morning for cleaning, dressing and making breakfast, etc. Some need twice a day. At this point, social worker plays a role to organize carer package, including funding issue. Maximum home carer is 4 times a day in my area. Generally "more help" means "less independent and more frail".

What will happen if someone needs more than 4 times a day? Commonly, such people are with advancing dementia or with multiple health problems and no longer able to cope at home alone. Answer is residential home. Next question is who will pay. Patient himself or local authority?

What would be the next step after Residential home (RH)? From RH, they might come back to hospital with water infection, chest infection or fall and collapse. Some died at hospital due to current illness or new problems. Other died of natural cause at RH.

A small percentage of people need 24 hours nursing care due to some conditions, such as dense stroke, advanced Parkinson's disease. They are transferred to nursing home as RH usually has no nursing support. (Apparently, 24 hour care at own home is around £2400 a month)

I am thinking myself what would be my final place before death if I have a chance to live long.

BMW to Mercedes

In December 2009, my old BMW was written off after an accident. That meant I needed to buy a car. A friend of mine told me why not try a brand new car, pointing out that it did not need MOT in first 3 years and the manufacturer's warranty would be a peace of mind. Of course, I want to. But i feel an extra bill for finance would be a great burden in next 3-4 yeas. Moreover, the market price of a new car will drop by £3000-4000 in the first year, according to the reports. So I decided to go for a used car.


I'm still missing this BMW 316. It was a good runner.

Buying a car is not an easy business if you have more and more knowledge about it. I meant when I bought my first car, I did not know anything behind the sale of a car and I did not check anything. I did a test drive and I purchased straight away. Fortunately, there was no problem.

This time, first of all, I did research on Autotraders and Gumtree. After sometime, I had got an idea about current price. Once I was interested in a car, I rang first. If still available, I made an appointment to view. At this point, in terms of documents, I needed to check if VIN (Vehicle Identification number ) on car body matched with the one on log book (Vehicle registration book). If not matched, it is likely a clone car. The owner should be the same address as shown on the log book of the car. A regular service history meant that this car was likely to be well maintained . I can also get a rough idea about mileage. Yes, mileage fraud is relatively common here. I also made sure any annoying things inside and outside of the car. MOT certificate is also an important document.

Next step was checking the car history on HPI or DVLA's Car data. This small investment is worth doing so. Yes, basically, I would avoid the car with bad history, such is outstanding finance, previous damage and stolen vehicles. I also do not the car with history of plate transfer for some reason.

After those were satisfactory, I made an offer to reduce the price by 100 or 200£.

Basically, private sellers want cash. I was told before someone was beaten and money was taken when he was buying car. So for a safety measure, I needed to get my friends when I went to purchase this Mercedes.

I intended to buy a Mercedes C class 3 doors coupe' (C200 or C180) previously because it is affordable with a nice looking to me. But once I tried to buy, those cars had been sold quickly while I was working week days and some weekends. As a result, I did not have a car in last 3 weeks. Fortunately, after the new year night, I found out new advert about this car while I was in London for the New year celebration at riverside and we reached a deal quickly. But it is a family car.


I bought this yesterday

Update (03/01/2010 23:00hr)

Some experience and knowledge obtained while trying to buy a car.

1. The registration number of a car advertised by a small trade was not found in the HPI. When I rang about that, they gave me another number which was also not found in the database system. I have not idea what they were trying to do.

2 A couple of sellers advertised the mileage much less than actual one.

3. One Mercedes with cheap price was written off in the record. That means ?a major accident in the past.

4. If the number plate was transferred, it is said that the full history of car is unable to be traced.

5. Mileage history is important. we can check it on old MOT certificates and service history.

6. 3 door coupé cars are on demand.

7. One dealer advertised a car, saying owner was a doctor. Weird!

8. VIN (Vehicle Identification number/ chassis number ) has 17 digits. There are no alphabet O and I. but O is Zero and I is one.

9. If the MOT certificate is lost, you can get a duplicate copy, costing you £10.

Lonely New Year Night

This is the third time I have been in river side firework of New Year celebration in London. The first time was in 2005 with my parents. I left my car near the Lambert Bridge, one of the several bridges crossing River Thames. We did a long walk to reach Westminster and London Eyes where firework took place. And the year 2007 saw an amazing celebration when I was with a friend from Japan and a bottle of champagne on Westminster Bridge.

This time, I was on my own. Most of my friends celebrated at home. Despite getting on train once I finished work in the evening, it was 10:30 PM when I reached the river side where hundreds of thousands of people had already occupied the good view points. BBC later reported that there were a quarter million people participated in the New Year party. When I got back to my London place, it was 3AM. I will stay here over the weekend and I will go back to my work place on Sunday.

Here are some photos I took as much as I had a chance.

Before mid night











Just after mid night

2009 and me

Basically, I do like evidence based practice which is a very scientific approach to solve the problems. . At the same time I am rather superstitious on numbers, days and some words. It happened after I experienced the same thing repeatedly. For example, I am likely to deal with death body at around 1PM at work in many occasions. Number one alone was not very good to me. But numbers such as 11, 29, 38, 47 were my lucky ones,. For instance, I was granted a settlement in Britain on the 11th of a month. Number 29 and 38 were good ones in my life as well.

When year 2009 was approached, I expected too much that it would be my golden year. In reality, the reverse is true.

During the first quarter of the year, I was so tired and very difficult to cope with enormous work loads due to an unexpected shortage of man power at work. I had to work at least extra 2 hours everyday for nothing. In the second quarter, it was getting worse. There was something went wrong in communication between human resource department and the deanery. It was learnt that my name disappeared from the list. The deanery had already employed someone for my place. It was a pain. I had to sort out that issue. I was nearly jobless. In the third quarter of this unlucky year, my family issue made me a misery. I encountered unnecessary expenses.

It can be said that the worst quarter is the last quarter. My BMW’s rear tyre blown out while driving at 70 mph (which is legal limit) on a notorious high way. I had my car serviced 2 months earlier. Car was swinging at first. After that, it spun off the road. Fortunately, nobody hurt. But the whole right side of car body was damaged. Now it has been written off and the insurance company sent me a cheque. Anyway, I am still alive.

This is my experience in 2009.

Awards Ceremony and Education in Britain

Ceremony starting

A few weeks ago, my sister attended the graduation ceremony of the university of East London held at the Barbican Centre for her BSC (Honour) in IT. In fact , it was a sort of celebration of the achievement of university students after 3 years of extensive reading, doing research works in given time frame, writing academic essays with thousands of words and attending seminars. I was proud of her. But that school event was little or nothing exciting to me as she is the 4th person among our relatives who took the UK degree. Yes, of course, I brought my camera and took some random photos.


queueing for a hand shake with chancellor. The degree certificate had been sent off by post in advance.

The following is some information about attending the university I was told.

Enrolment:

For International student : To join the UEL, student must achieve IELTS score 6.0 for undergraduate degree and 6.5 for post graduate. In some cases, they may accept score 5.5 or 5.0 for some subjects, such as history or geography. The university gives more chance to international students than home students in entry as it can earn oversea fees, which is around £7500 to £10000 per annum for foreign students while home rate is about £2000-3000.

For Home student: Entering university as home student could be challenging. The students aged under 25 must follow their UCAS (University college administration service) system. They have to apply 4 to 5 universities after finishing A level. Some Uni reject and some give offer to them, depending on the situation.

Those aged over 25 do not need A level and do not need to apply in UCAS. They can apply directly to universities but they have to take aptitude test in English, mathematics and language interview.

Modules:

As a student, 6 modules have to be taken in every single year. BSc (honour) degree is a 3 years course. So it needs to clear 18 modules to achieve the degree, including the dissertation paper which must be done in the final year. The dissertation is essential to complete the degree, which includes research proposal for 3000 words and dissertation itself for 12000 words in the final year.

Semesters:

There are 2 semesters in a year. 3 modules have to be completed in one semester. Every module has at least 2 course works, some have 3, including exam. One semester lasts 4 months, during which the student has to submit 6 to 9 course works with or without exam. That means not much leisure time, contrary to uni life in Yangon.

Marking system:

First year’s marks doesn’t count for final grading while the scores of 12 modules of The 2nd year and final year are important.

• The average marks over 75 is first class honour,
• over 65 is upper second class honour,
• over 55 is lower second class honour,
• over 45 is third class honour grade and
• 40 is just pass mark with no honour but an ordinary degree.

Achieving the first class honour means that he or she can do the Ph.D. directly, without having MSC or MA and it is also easy to secure a job, but it is rare. The commonest one is second class honour among the UK students, according to the research.

Any question about study in the UK, welcome!

A bad habbit

When I was in Burma, I overheard my mother advised a young woman, who was nurse, how to save money from food. I was only 12. But it was still a clear memory. My mother said "if you saved some money each time when you go shopping, you could have an emergency money when you need it for something in the future"

To be honest, I never appreciate that statement. But when I got to the UK, I a bit changed. Every time when I went to Tesco each week, I had to purchase at least £50 for my 7-10 days food quota. What I got back was a receipt and 5p off voucher (5P off for each litre of petrol).

Which came to my mind was that if I had to pay Tesco, I did need to pay myself something. That idea was a bit crazy and logically it was not right. In fact, foods I bought from Tesco was for myself. But anyway, whenever I went to Tesco, I put £10 or 20 notes beneath my mattress in last few years, trying to convince myself I earned from shopping.

The following pictures were the end result. I decided not to do like that any more in the future. It is not worth doing so. Mathematically, the figures of my money won't change. At the same time, we must not keep money at home for the security purpose. Banks are around.




Between mattress and base of the bed.


Interestingly, most were £20 notes


Counted before banking

Emergency contraception

I am not a GP, but yesterday someone from Singapore rang me, asking for an advice. It was about emergency contraception. Of course, it is well known as "morning after pill". In fact, this term is misleading. The pill works for up to 72 hours (three days) after unprotected sex. But it is advised that the earlier you take it, the better as it works best if taken within 12 hours of sex.

In Britain, it is the pill that people can buy from chemists without needing prescription. But the pharmacist will do a quick chat before issuing it, making sure everything is OK. According to the data, if the pill is taken within 24 hours after unprotected sex, about 95 in 100 pregnancies are prevented.

Of course, all drugs have side effects. Some people experience feeling sick after taking it. But the majority has no problem at all. At this point, I'd like to talk about something. Some people from far east thought that conventional western drugs have loads of side effects while herbal preparations have no or little side effects. That is absolutely wrong, I think . In fact, many of conventional drugs come from the purified extracts of herbal preparations. Lack of extensive scientific research dose not necessarily mean that herbal drug from some parts of world, such as Burma and Thailand, has no unwanted effect.

Obviously, morning after pill is not ideal for a long term plan and own doctor or GP is the best person to discuss about other options. At the same time, people should bear in mind that unprotected sex is one of the main mode of transmissions of viral illnesses, such as HIV, hepatitis B and C.

For the further information of emergency medication, please visit the following sites.

www.patient.co.uk

www.netdoctor.co.uk

Here is a related news you may be interested in

A pilot scheme allowing pharmacists to give women the contraceptive pill without a prescription has been given the go-ahead for next year.

Women and girls aged over 16 will be able to get the pill at two London primary care trusts, Southwark and Lewisham, Pulse magazine says.

If the pilots are successful, the pill could become available over the counter like the morning after pill. Full article on BBC

Update (22/11/2009)

This article is what I came across on The times weekend.

A The morning-after pill is effective only up to 72 hours after intercourse but the level of protection declines dramatically during that time. In the first 24 hours it prevents 95 per cent of pregnancies, but that figure drops to 85 per cent within the next 24 hours and only 58 per cent if taken after that......

Ann Furedi, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), says that “for women who are not in a relationship, the morning-after pill is even safer than the contraceptive pill because it is only an occasional dose of hormones, although obviously it doesn’t protect against STIs”. The BPAS states that “there is no limit” to how many times you can use it.....

More....at The times Online