Al's Blog from the Bog

11:46 AM Mar 10th from Tweetie
Went to bed with wind, woke 3am in pain which was excruciating by 7am. Got lift to dr; given morphine. On way to A&E with poss. pancreas…

11:47 AM Mar 10th from Tweetie
…or gallbladder problem. Feel a bit high but still some pain.

11:52 AM Mar 10th from web
@filce: My God. Hope you get a speed diagnosis, resolution and recovery. My best wishes to you.

11:55 AM Mar 10th from web
@ray888: all the best – get well soon

12:11 PM Mar 10th from Tweetie
@filce @ray888 thanks very much, means a lot. Just about to arrive at A&E. More later…

1:44 PM Mar 10th from Tweetie
Blood & urine taken. Am on trolley in A&E waiting for test results. Excellent service so far, no complaints.

4:24 PM Mar 10th from Tweetie
Just arrived Ward B, my home for tonight. ECG ok, blood & urine ok, blood pressure a bit high. Currently gallbladder and stomach suspected.

4:26 PM Mar 10th from twhirl
@cbkerndter: what happened?

4:32 PM Mar 10th from Tweetie
@cbkerndter woke up last night with bad stomach pain – I mean really bad. Dr this morning, morphine & straight to A&E. More tests tomorrow.

4:33 PM Mar 10th from twhirl
@cbkerndter: outch wish you well

4:44 PM Mar 10th from web
@filce: Well your day has sure changed. I think, given events, you are in the best place. Hopefully they’ll be news soon.

4:45 PM Mar 10th from web
@filce: ‘blood pressure a bit high’ – lol – why would that be?

6:29 PM Mar 10th from TweetDeck
@finkeegan: Sorry to hear you had such a painful experience!

7:49 PM Mar 10th from Tweetie
V. excited, just had another shot of morphine: I relish the blissful release heading my way. Thanks, all, for your messages.

8:08 PM Mar 10th from web
@Andiepowpow: Sorry to hear you’re ill Al. Hope you feel better soon. Hope that Morphine doesnt make your nose too itchy x

11:30 AM Mar 11th from Tweetie
Still in hospital awaiting ultrasound scan. Better night last night, thanks to intravenous drugs, but still plenty of pain.

11:57 AM Mar 11th from twhirl
@jellyjumper: hopefully you will be better soon. greetings from Achill

4:08 PM Mar 11th from Tweetie
Ultrasound says…twins! But seriously, I have gallstones. Don’t know what happens now – hopefully it involves food & water.

4:10 PM Mar 11th from web
@sineadailillhi: my dad had gallstones last year, got them out with simple keyhole surgery, was home the next day and is great now

4:28 PM Mar 11th from web
@filce: Glad it’s gallstones and nothing more sinister. Been thinking about how you’re doing on and off all day. Must of been scary.

4:45 PM Mar 11th from TweetDeck
@finkeegan: Well, pain aside, at least they are benign and removable. So that is good news, right? *googles “how avoid gallstones”*

4:57 PM Mar 11th from web
@ray888: hopefully the passing of gallstones, will be a lot less painfull than a man giving birth to twins

11:52 AM Mar 12th from Tweetie
Still in hosp, awaiting ‘official’ diagnosis. Thanks for all your kind and supportive messages. Will reply individually when I get home.

4:43 PM Mar 12th from TwitterBerry
@Yuyis: hope you get well soon……. Take good care…. )

2:34 PM Mar 13th from web
@filce: How are you doing today? Did you get a proper diagnosis in the end? Hope you’re comfortable and all that.

4:43 PM Mar 13th from Tweetie
Diagnosis official (gallstones). Am allowed to eat now – w00t! Might be released Sunday. Feeling much better, and promise to eat my 5-a-day!

10:54 AM Mar 14th from Tweetie
“I’m coming home, I’ve done my time…” paroled early for good behaviour! Feeling so much better. Will miss the hospital food, of course.

11:35 AM Mar 14th from TweetDeck
@Lifelists: Alistair Steger-Lewis……You have been evicted, I’m coming to get you!!!!!!!!!!!

miscellaneous illness, life, twitter

This week saw the official announcement of something or other to do with broadband in Ireland. If that sounds a bit vague, well I’m sorry. I’m never quite clear about these ‘official’ events/launches/occasions: there is no new information – we all knew that 3 had got the job of supposedly providing broadband for all the places in Ireland that don’t already have it – just lots of smiling and congratulating and posing and repeating of tired mantras and ignoring difficult questions. Political posturing at its finest.

Now that it’s all ‘official’ (rather than just decided?) I suppose we can all comment on it. The newspapers are, briefly, full of smiley, posey pictures; all the politicians and aspiring politicians crawl out of the slime to either congratulate the government on another brilliant scheme or berate them for wasting money on another half-baked idea.

As far as the national picture is concerned, looking at the positives, it’s great that the government is prepared to step in and fund the provision of broadband for everybody. On the negative side, the government have surely set the bar too low, in that: less than 2MB cannot really be considered broadband in the 21st century (forget the moans about bandwidth reducing when there are lots of users – all broadband is contended); the target of ‘covering the whole country’ is imprecise – in the UK they are specifying the supply of broadband ‘to every household’, which is quite different.

To illustrate the second criticism, consider Achill. The island, as far as the NBS is concerned, is split into two parts: one is on the ‘planned’ list, the other is on the ‘not included’ list. Why does one part of the island miss out? Well, there is already a 3 mast which, notionally, covers this part of the island. The reality, as anyone with the slightest experience of cellphone signals will realise, is that in some spots there is a great signal but move around the corner and there is none. Achill is not flat; hills get in the way, leaving ’shadows’ where there is no signal. Then there are walls: most broadband users do not want to sit in the garden surfing the net, at least not in Ireland. So again, some houses and offices are fine, others get nothing. There is no reason to believe that the ‘planned’ part of Achill will fare any better.

Achill is not a special case: this picture will be repeated all over the country. Hence to say that the whole country will be covered by broadband, one way or another, is meaningless. You’ll find the usual ‘haves and have-nots’ thing between wired and wireless areas, and between good and bad signal areas. Let’s not pretend, either, that the proposed satellite coverage for areas where a cellular signal is impractical is the answer. As a satellite ‘broadband’ user for several years, I can attest to the deeply unsatisfactory nature of this ’solution’.

I have no doubt that, if I am one of the lucky ones, I will appreciate the improvements of cellular broadband over satellite broadband, but I will continue to look with envy at those a few miles up the road with their DSL lines.

Life in Currane, national politics, politics, technology achill, Broadband, Currane, Ireland, life, politics, technology

Having just finished unblocking a sewer pipe in front of my house (and scrubbed myself raw), I started wondering if this is the worst job the average person will have to do around the home. I know there are some pretty bad jobs out there, in abattoirs perhaps, but generally there is some reason for a person to have chosen that job. I’m talking about things that are outside our regular day-to-day activities but that we may have to face occasionally. What do you think?

 Loading ...

Life in Currane diy, life, lifestyle