Snow and its side effects

Well the weekend has now been cancelled due to another wave of snow in sunny Huddersfield. I have now been living here for nearly 18 years and this is the first proper winter we have ever had. Yes there has been snow before but this is the first time that we have had a time when the town has ground to a halt at times. The council have not coped with it desperately well. The potholes in the road that were bad before the cold weather, and weren't being fixed, are now significantly worse. There is one road in Slaithwaite which has what I would describe as a car-killer of a pothole. The road has just totally subsided so it now resembles something from Journey to the Centre of the Earth rather than a pothole.

My concern here is that with all the potholes what unseen damage has been done to my car literally days away from its MOT. So since I am somewhat sidelined since we are not at the rugby club today I thought I would inflict some more film opinions on you. This week, as you will see from the little list on the right of your screen, I have highlighted three films for your delight and delectation. These are not necessarily the best films on those days in terms of critical acclaim but are my favourites and on some days there are other films which are well worth a look.

Today, after Gerry Adams investigates the story of Christ, Channel 4 has two films which are both worthy of attention. At about 8 there is 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which is the sequel to the Fantastic Four. I am a comic book fan but I always felt that the FF were Marvel's equivalent to Stepford and a bit too stereotypical. This film is better than the first film, which isn't actually saying a lot, and is diverting entertainment. It is followed by one of the best action films you will see. The current governor of California goes around the jungle deforesting it and having his crack team wiped out one at a time in Predator. There is no deep pathos here, no real moral message it is just really good fun if you like violent action thrillers. This is why I have nominated it as my film for the day. Other offerings available on some of the smaller channels are Top Gun and Romancing the Stone and Black Widow all on Film 4.

On Monday, my film of the day is Highlander. It is one of my favourite films of all time and has one of the largest franchise operations in existence with 4 'sequels', 2 spin off TV series and a number of animated series as well as books. Highlander, like Predator, is no Citizen Kane but is just enjoyable fun which is what the critics, the real ones, never really seem to appreciate. There are other better films on today but few will be as original in concept as this or will be as loyally supported by the fanbase that exists. There are rumours of a remake of the film in the pipeline and fans of the original are waiting with dread at this prospect. Other offerings of note today would be The Sixth Sense, Ladyhawke (set aside the really bad soundtrack) and Working Girl.

On Tuesday, I don't have a favourite film as such. Crocodile Dundee is alright but has begun to show it's age somewhat. I strongly suggest that you avoid The War of the Roses. I went to the cinema to see it on the back of the previous collaborations of Messrs Douglas, Turner and De Vito. That is two and a half hours I will never get back. On Wednesday if you liked Highlander on Monday you can watch it again. On Thursday you will find the quirky Local Hero and the deeper Once Upon A Time in America. I lost patience with the latter and never really took too it as I am not a big fan of american gangster films.

On Friday, there are repeats of T2 and Top Gun and the very British comedy, Time Bandits which hasn't aged very well largely because of the effects. I will probably check out Seraphim Falls on BBC1 at 11.45.

Just for the information of my international readership, which I have apparently acquired. Since you don't have British TV much of the scheduling information is irrelevant but the recommendations still stand. In the UK until the 1960s we only had one TV channel and a few radio channels - all BBC. The Beeb added another in the 1960s and we got ITV. In the 1980s Channel 4 arrived and in the 1990s Channel 5( if you could get the signal). This was about the time of the cable and satellite TV boom. There are now hundreds of channels showing next to nothing that anybody wants to see. The ones that people watch are showing programs that were, in many cases, made 20 years ago. Most of my recommendations will be for terrestrial channels or on freeview (the free to air digital channels)

With films, almost all will probably be available at your local DVD rental outlet by now since it generally takes a couple of years to get on to terrestrial TV here unless your film has been backed by one of the channels (usually the BBC or Channel 4). Any TV programs I may mention probably won't be available in overseas markets but keep an eye out as you never know. Books and music recommendations are almost certainly available at Amazon or Itunes etc.

Outnumbered

On my previous post I mentioned Outnumbered. This is a BBC comedy series which I have come to enjoy about a young family. The family watched the Christmas episode and howled with laughter. They have now seen the first two series and Tom & Jenni think it is wonderful.

Jenni is definitely like Karen in many ways.

If you get a chance to see it do. Also if you can find it watch Supernova starring Rob Brydon.

Casualty & Outnumbered

Yesterday my son was visited by his best friend who was staying over for the night whilst his parents went to an opera. Only the best sort of person is allowed to visit chez nous. Alison had been watching the boys playing rugby and was concerned that the visitor nearly injured himself. I was working away at something elsewhere in the house on the laptop and Alison came up to see what I was doing.

A few minutes later Jenni appeared calmly saying that Tom had cut his fingers. I was summoned down to examine the injury as I am designated health care operative in the house on the basis that I don't faint at the first sight of blood (not even my own). Tom had cut his head on a stone and hadn't in fact damaged his fingers at all. I sent Alison off to ring the doctor to see if this was a casualty trip or a surgery trip.

The surgery said go to A&E. Tom was complaining about how useless he was and that he had ruined his friends stay. This was late afternoon so it only took 5 - 10 minutes to get to somewhere near the hospital that wasn't restricted parking or which charged for the privilege. We went in and underwent interrogation by the desk nurse who then told us to sit down. The waiting area had two televisions on both on different channels and one on so loud that it was difficult to hear the nurse call you in. At the time there were a couple of Asian ladies, two Asian gentlemen with head injuries who were being questioned at length by the police an elderly gentleman with two female companions, a young couple who came in after everybody with no apparently visible injuries but who seemed to go right to the head of the queue. An elderly lady with an injured arm was also waiting. A few moments later three young lads came in. Two clearly younger than the actual injured party who had blood streaming down his face. He had apparently fallen against a car.

After about 20 minutes of mindless tedium we got to the next circle of Casualty hell, the triage room. The nurse examined the wound and shined her pen torch on it and also into Tom's eyes. I asked what the current waiting time was so that I could estimate whether a dash for some food was possible. I was told about an hour. We then proceeded into the next circle of this hell the treatment waiting area with its childrens play area. This area was full most of the people who we had seen in the previous area were either already waiting or joined in fairly short order afterwards. In addition there were two Asian girls who had been to xray, a young girl with a Ted Baker bag whose mother eventually turned up. They may actually have been clones because the hairstyles were identical. A mother with her son who had clearly injured his foot who did a crossword from Closer magazine ( obviously intellectuals!!). A mother with her young daughter, a little later dad came to join the fun.

Periodically a dad came walking in with various children from the direction of the play area and also a fairly badly injured Asian youth whose entire posse appeared to have come with him. Doctors and nurses appeared from time to time but the queue never diminished for an hour. all of a sudden the queue rapidly started to go down.

Tom was eventually seen by a Greek doctor who smiled was pleasant and very helpful but for some reason didn't know how to use skin glue and so got a nurse to come and do it for him all the while smiling.

My concern is the lack of information. I haven't made a habit of going to A&E departments for some time now but I am almost certain that I remember there being an indicator of the current waiting time. Perhaps things could be improved if there was some kind of board indicating where you were in the queue or you were given a ticket so you could have an idea. Also there used to be comfy seats and now there are wooden monstrosities.

I hope that I don't ever have to visit again any time soon but the patient experience needs to be improved.