Hospital cleanliness

Looking at this it seems that the powers that be have finally caught up with what anyone with half a brain has known for the past several years. Contracting out the cleaning of our hospitals has led to a drop in hygiene standards which is unacceptable. Of course, it is a pity they did not realise that these standards are unacceptably low before the MRSA superbug had killed an average of 5000 people each year, but there you are.
It has been obvious for years that withdrawing responsibility for cleaning from hospitals themselves was a big mistake. In the era of 'Matron' when she and ward sisters had direct responsibility over the cleaners, who were appointed and employed by the hospital, there was an incentive to keep cleaning standards high - woe betide those cleaners who didn't measure up! Now, cleaning companies bid for contracts, with the lowest priced winning the contract, the cleaners are given inadequate levels of training and supervision with unrealistic timescales.
I watched the same thing happening in school, although, obviously with far less damaging consequences. Once cleaning was contracted out, the caretakers (site managers as they are known as these days) no longer had responsibility for the cleaners as they had previously, supervisors were conspicuous by their absence and cleaning standards plummeted. In addition, what had formerly apparently needed 3 weeks to do in the summer break, can, it appears, now be done in 3 or 4 days.
In hospitals, the drop from 90,000 to 55,000 hospital cleaners over the last 15 years could only have added to the drop in standards.
Health Secretary John Reid, is quoted as saying that he has made it plain to hospital executives that 'cleanliness is not an optional extra.' Try telling that to the families who have lost a relative from MRSA or to those whose lives and health have been ruined by it.

Welsh sheep

Although it is not obvious in the photo, these sheep are on quite a steep hill near Llangollen. It is not generally known that, in common with Yorkshire sheep, Welsh sheep who live in hilly countryside have, over many generations, evolved a means of coping with standing on sloping ground by having two legs on one side of the body shorter than those on the other. As a general rule the legs on the left side are the shorter ones, although there is a small number of so-called right-sided sheep, whose right legs are shorter. As there are so few of these, they are held to be extremely valuable and are often kidnapped and sold to collectors for hugely inflated sums of money. Not a lot of people know that! ;)

More rubbish

I arrived home this evening from my course to find that the green recycle box had been emptied but not the bin and, because it is still very windy, next door's box and blown into the road, so,Keith, doing his Sir Galahad act, had rescued it and put it back in their garden. They had put their green sack for recycling papers out too and the empty one was in their box. Keith, assuming that I would have put our bag out and that it had gone missing, decided to appropriate theirs as he was sure I would be crying if ours was lost. He didn't seem to see the problem when I explained that I hadn't put ours out as it wasn't in need of emptying and that I now had two whereas next door have none.
Guess who is going to have to take theirs back to them with some suitably convincing explanation!!!
(Two posts on rubbish - don't I know how to live it up!!!)

P.S.

Elvis's birthday today. Just thought you'd like to be reminded of that.

The wind

Compared with other parts of Wales and the rest of the U.K. we haven't fared badly in the storms of the last 24 or so hours. There are areas, not far from us which have been flooded, suffering road and rail closures and structural damage, whereas all we have lost up to now is another patch of the weather-proofing off the shed roof and the lid off the recycle box. This is one of three receptacles we now have for our rubbish. We have a green bin for garden refuse, which, I know you'll be surprised to hear, remains steadfastly empty, a black bin for general rubbish and a green plastic box for glass, cans and plastic - only certain types of plastic, mind you but in any case it soon gets filled up with Lucy's dog food tins and wine bottles. Don't ask me where they come from! I suspect that neighbours are surreptitiously dumping theirs in our box! Well, they can't be ours........
Anyway, to get back to the point, this morning saw the road festooned with plastic bottles, the odd tin can, reclining bins and our box lid, which I duly rescued from about 80 yards up the road when I took Lucy for her morning walk. No, of course I didn't feel a complete idiot walking back home with a plastic lid under my arm - it all adds to life's rich tapestry! :)

Being nice

Keith has been being very nice to me these last few days - not, I hasten to add, that he is ever not nice - don't get the wrong impression. Maybe 'thoughtful' is a better word; those extra little touches that make one say, "Ah, isn't that nice!"
To start with, he is downloading James Joyce's 'Ulysses' for me to listen to on my MP3 player - of his own accord, without being asked! Now that has got to come into the 'thoughtful' category, hasn't it?
Then, last night, he decided to make a trifle (don't ask!). Yes we did have one at Christmas but he decided he'd like another one, so he made an express one, without jelly, as he couldn't find any, and as a finishing touch, he traced my name on it in hundreds and thousands! More than 'thoughtful' - verging towards 'sweet' I would have thought.
My problem is, I am wondering what's behind it all. What is the catch? The only thing I can think of is that, some time in the near future, he is going to be seeking my agreement on covering the dining table with bits of Camaro engine. Well, I can't think of anything else. But I can anticipate what my answer will be - the second word is 'off'!!!

Printer sir?

Today's 'clever' customer came in to ask about printing films from his digital camera. While I was trying to think of a polite way to tell him that digital cameras don't actually have films, it transpired that he was referring to a particular photo printer and wanted to know more about it so I showed him that model and then another, more versatile one. I talked for several minutes about the printer and the ink cartridges needed for it and then, interrupting me in mid-sentence, he suddenly said,
"Oh, I'll have to go and get the paper. My wife will think I've got lost."
With that, he turned tail and charged out of the shop.
Something I said................???