Advertise here from only 40 baht per week
to hull
and back
Mags Meanderings:
From Som Tam
To Mushy Peas
last of the summer wine?
Like Hua Hin, Hull is a pretty flat place. Unlike Hua
Hin the flat terrain continues as far as the eye can see
beyond the city boundaries. Nevertheless both places
are well suited to cycling, or at least they would be if
their respective roads were free from other traffic and
potholes.
So when the Tour de France cycle race started last
weekend it was not without some rumbles of discontent
here in Hull, with our city elders bemoaning the fact that
the race didn’t come anywhere near us.
On the plus side Gods’ Own County of Yorkshire did get
the publicity, with the race starting near Leeds, covering
some beautiful countryside dotted with yellow sprayed
sheep, and along roads festooned with old yellow
painted bikes. And despite the misgivings of Hulls’ city
elders there was still an abundance of lycra and drop
handlebars hurtling around all weekend, as scores of
wannabe Bradley Wiggins’ took to the streets.
Meanwhile the big post Glastonbury Festival clean up
of the 900 acre site had yielded 5,000 abandoned tents,
11 tons of discarded clothing and camping gear, plus
one lost dog. We have become a throw away nation on
an epic scale, and I can only hope that Glastonburys’
cleaners get to hold the mother of all car boot sales as a
nice little perk of the job. Because even at Asda prices
that’s at least £100,000 worth of tents alone. About 5 and
a half million Baht in real money.
I have mentioned UK food waste before, and it is an
ongoing problem which is far bigger than tent waste.
Even some National Health Service gurus have realised
that it is maybe better to give hospital patients the kind
of food they are used to and will eat, even if it doesn’t
quite conform to the healthy ideal, rather than throw
away mountains of vegetables and couscous. Any
nutrition is better than none. And if the government is to
be believed our NHS certainly does need to make some
economies. So why do we also hear that the amount of
cosmetic surgery - operations such as facelifts, nose and
boob jobs, - carried out by the NHS has doubled in the
last 10 years?
Cheap room for rent
from just 350 baht
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Soi 94 (1st left after 7-11)
Granted, some of that surgery can be considered
essential to the patients’ wellbeing. Reconstructive
work especially. But (again if reports are to be believed)
much of it should have been carried out privately rather
than waste NHS resources.
None of this may seem very relevant to expats, who
are resigned to funding all of their health care costs
regardless of urgency or need. And of course as a paying
customer there are some benefits to be had, just as there
are for private patients in the UK. Not least minimal
waiting times for treatment.
But imagine how you would feel if you had to return to the
UK for some urgent medical need, only to find yourself
in a hospital bed next to a severe case of liposuction?
On a happier note - news coming through while writing
this weeks page that Dolly Parton has offered to adopt
the dog abandoned at Glastonbury. Which proves that
every dog can have it’s day.
In an ideal world our word of the week should really
be something to do with wastage or cosmetic surgery
overspends. But I can’t find anything suitable so
‘autochthonous’ will have to do. An adjective meaning
inhabiting a place from the earliest times, or indigenous,
it is a word which is easier to explain than to pronounce.
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