Millhouse - North Ronaldsay…….’In a Pig’s Arse’……. From ‘War On Want’…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:46 on 06 February 2025
Millhouse - North Ronaldsay…..
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/02/04/millhouse-north-ronaldsay/
I remember when we visited North Ronaldsay and wondered what the building with a tower was for - now we know!
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/09/11/bernie-bell-a-visit-to-north-ronaldsay/
’In a Pig’s Arse’…….
“I felt terrible on Friday night; again on Saturday. On Sunday, I called the chemotherapy helpline, told them my symptoms, and they summoned me into hospital.
Mid-Wales doesn’t have a large general hospital - we get sent to Hereford. Hereford is home to the excellent MacMillan Renton Unit, (MRU) where I have chemo, (and radio-therapy in the past.) But actually, the MRU is an outlier of the big oncology centre in Cheltenham, a two hour drive away. Hilary drove me there.
It’s not like being in A&E. They were expecting us; I sat in a chemo chair, and heard the guy opposite air his views on PIC lines - he was largely in favour, but I still don’t fancy one. They ran the obs (blood pressure, oxygen uptake, temp etc.) and listened to my woes. They cannulated me, took my bloods and samples from the delightful nephrostomy bags. An oncologist came a’calling. She said some stuff, which puzzled me a bit, but which amounted to the fact that I had an infection, and that they were going to send me home with anti-biotics. Except for one slight problem…
‘Oh yes?,’ I said. ‘What’s that?’
‘Your heart rate is really high. And you are fibrillating.’
I gave my insouciant laugh.
‘Oh, that old thing. Yes, it does that. Is this a problem for you?’
‘Well we can’t send you home with it in this state…’
I have twice been blue-lighted into hospital with atrial fibrillation by panicking GP’s. On both occasions, weary cardiologists have sent me home, saying, ‘this is just AF, man. Here’s some pills.’ I’m under Hereford Cardiology Department, and they keep an eye. I take a proper drug called Flecanide for this. I do have the odd episode still, but the lasses in Cheltenham oncology weren’t having it. So I was admitted, without a washbag, change of clothes, meds or night bags - may you never find out what these are. Or what any of this shit means.
I was unamused. ‘Fuck,’ I said, quietly to myself when lying in bed after Hilary had driven two hours home on her own. ‘Pig fuck, arse fuck, pig arse fuck, fuck pig, arse fuck pig’s arse…’
This tirade called to mind ‘Vers de Societe’, the memory of which cheered me greatly.
The only other thing that cheered me up was one of the nurses imitating her dog’s face whilst having a shit after having eaten a packet of rubber bands and a tub of margarine. Gaiety is in short supply on a cancer ward, as I was to discover, so this remarkable performance was most welcome.
In terms of inpatient life, my previous experiences had not prepared me for this. The Hereford respiratory ward where I spent six nights with pneumonia in early 2023 was a doddle compared to this, even though at least two people died while I was in. Maxilo-facial in Worcester was ok too, (and where I learned not to try the mussel linguine in the Gt. Malvern branch of ‘Ask’), but the easiest to bear was the orthopedic ward where I waited for my nephrostomies. I was ill as all fuck, and the orthopedic nurses didn’t exactly know what to do with me, but my fellow patients mostly just had broken legs and hips, and were relatively well otherwise.
In the Cheltenham cancer ward though, things were not good. Everyone in here was really proper sick. I mean… not good.
This has created a problem for me as I write my novel The Breaking Wave. The novel starts with the main protagonist being handed over from oncology to palliative care, and I’d hoped to avoid talking about the actual treatments, but now I’m not sure. We’ll see. Even a nurse imitating a dog shitting elastic bands probably won’t quite fit into a novel whose intent is mostly comic. This will take some thought.
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From ‘War On Want’…..
“Colombian President Gustavo Petro has publicly denounced the damaging effects of secretive ‘corporate courts’. Fossil fuel corporations use these courts to sue countries, like Colombia, for having policies that protect the environment – which corporations argue could affect their future profits.
At the same time, peers in the UK House of Lords have backed our demand to end the UK-Colombia investment deal – that gives companies access to these corporate courts. The deal “undermines sovereign democratic rights to legislate to protect Indigenous communities and environmental rights.”
Momentum is building to end the destructive UK-Colombia deal. Now is the time to act – will you join us to demand change?
Multinational corporations across the Global North – like UK-registered mining company Glencore – are currently suing the Colombian people in corporate courts for over £9 billion. That’s 13% of Colombia’s national budget.
The only way to stop this is to end unequal trade and investment deals, which prioritise the profits of multinational corporations over human rights, the climate and ecosystems.
Last year, thanks to campaigning from War on Want supporters like you, the UK recognised the dangers of corporate courts when it withdrew from the climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty, which had access to corporate courts built into it.
Now, we have another opportunity to end the use of shady corporate courts and protect people and the planet. Will you email your MP today to demand an end to the UK’s damaging treaty with Colombia?
https://secure.waronwant.org/page/159841/action/1
In solidarity,
Ahmed Hafezi
Economic Justice Campaigner
War on Want
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