A Surprise For Alfie

 Today is our 5th wedding anniversary. As money is somewhat tight at present, we have decided to wait until next week to celebrate properly, and as it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Weekend next week, as well as being Half Term, it makes sense to do things in style then.

It has been exceptionally warm today. After the past month or so of rain and overcast weather, it certainly has made a change to have some sunshine. Carol did her usual tutoring and came back at around 10.15. We went to Aldi in Bradwell to do some shopping, and  were surprised to find the place heaving with people. It took some time to find a parking space in the car-park, and once inside the store we discovered that it wasn't very well stocked, even though the staff were busy shelf-stacking. The aisles were blocked by folk-lift trolleys and boxes of stock and then when we got to the check-out we had to queue for quite a long time. Quite unsual, as we can generally get in and out of the store in a fairly short time. 

We would have gone out but the heat was too much. 

Around 5 o'clock we decided to take the dogs to one of the lakes for a walk. They haven't been out for some time, due to the weather. As soon as Carol picked up the leads, Alfie turned into the growling, yapping little character he suddenly becomes, catching hold of the lead and making so much noise. Rather like Jeckyll and Hyde, in fact, he turns from a calm little dog into a sort of monster. Carol had put his cage into the back of the car before-hand.

On arriving at the carpark at Loughton Valley Park, we let the dogs out of the car. Alfie making a lot of noise, Poppy, as usual, was quiet. Just pleased to be out for a walk. We couldn't walk towards the lakes, (known at the Teardrop Lakes, due to their shape.) as there were swans about so we decided to walk in the opposite direction along the Redway.  Poppy pottered back to us, without any fuss, but Alfie, however, had different ideas. He  should have ran across a small bridge over a stream, and I called him to come back, but he didn't run over the bridge, and went straight into the stream, which was around a foot deep. He managed to pull himself out of the water, dripping wet, amidst our loud laughter. I have to admit it was extremely amusing and I only wish we'd had a video camera to record the incident! This is the second time he's had a surprise dunking. The other one was when we walked along the Grand Union Canal and he jumped a low wall and we had to fish him out! That time I did worry that he wouldn't be able to get out of the canal, as it was deep and there was nowhere for him to clamber out on the bank.

We walked along beside the  National Bowl, where rock and pop concerts are put on, turned round in the gateway and then walked back to the car and home. Poppy decided she's have a swim and went in the lake on the way back to the car.

Sun Rots People's Brains

Well, the headline could refer, after second thoughts, to a well-known tabloid, but it doesn't actually have any connection, but after second thoughts . . . Better be careful, or I could get sued.

I had to nip to the shops to buy one or two things. On the way this man shot out of a side-road on a bicycle, with earphones stuck into each ear, so I wonder he could hear what was going on around him, or the cord didn't get caught in the bicycle's mechanism. Further along a young girl was dawdling along the road, almost in the gutter, at the same time she was texting on her mobile. You hear of people getting knocked over by cars whilst in the process of texting. There was a video shown on television the other day, no doubt it is on YouTube, or someone walking through a shopping centre somewhere or other, and not exactly paying attention to the world around her, and ending up in a fountain, or did she fall down an open manhole? I can't remember which. All I am saying is, the warm weather seems to make people's brains turn to mush. Not only that, but people's sense of style goes out of the window- and it's mostly men who dress in the most awful clothes, shorts and sandals, with horrible socks and even worse T-shirts. Then a woman, pushing a child in a buggy walked out into the road without looking where she was going, and almost got knocked over. How that child survives beyond it's 5th birthday I'll never know.

The Annoying Neighbour

Our immediate neighbour to the left is currently mowing his lawn. The mower is producing clouds of really acrid smoke, but he keeps on mowing. The machine would appear to be cutting out as it stops frequently, but he insists on continuing. I reckon there must be something wrong with the thing, most likely it needs oil or something, to produce such clouds of blue smoke. It has been drifting across our garden and into the next door garden the opposite side and onto the Redway. Enough to choke you. AND THEN he has to get his Strimmer out and start hacking around with the confounded thing. Well, at least it gives me something to write on here and keep me endlessly amused. At this rate he will have smoked out everyone in the vicinity, unless we all die of exhaust fumes.

Sunny and Warm

Well, the weather has made a change for the better. It's now bright sunshine and I can hear the merry sound of someone using a Strimmer somewhere near at hand. Possibly in a near-by garden or a Council workman along the Redway behind the house. Our garden is in desperate need of having the grass cut. This is basically because it has been so wet recently, the lawn mower wouldn't work on the grass, apart from it being somewhat dangerous owing to the fact that it is electric. I think the machine would have real problems cutting it as it is so dense and long. The dogs go out in the garden and they get lost, it's so long. We may need to resort to alternative methods of keeping the grass down, for example, hiring some sheep or even geese to trim it!

The Rainy Month Of May

 Well, May is very nearly over. It doesn't seem possible that in just a few days we'll be into June. The weather has been really awful. Today it's still overcast and really quite gloomy. Shakespeare put it perfectly when he said, in Sonnet 18:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

Plenty of May in bloom around here, and also plenty of rough winds to shake it! We've had such a mixture of weather, from really sunny and warm, to windy and wet. 

 

There again, the saying: 'N'er cast a clout til May be out' also comes to mind  . . .

 

Too true . . . 

Six Years On . . .

Well, it's six years ago today that I had my heart attack, and I'm still here. I'm feeling fit and well, although there are one or two aches and pains, not necessarily connected with the original heart attack, but I can say I feel pretty O.K.

Over-50's should take statins, report recommends

The following article is posted on the Daily Telegraph website this morning, and the  report was mentioned on BBC Breakfast this morning.

 

 ' Everyone over the age of 50 should be given statins because they reduce the risk of a heart attack even in healthy people, a study has found.

Statins can reduce the chances of a heart attack or stroke even in people who are already at a low risk, Oxford University researchers find. '

 

'The risk of a heart attack or stroke is cut by a fifth in those who have no sign of heart disease, shows research by scientists at Oxford University'

'Treatment guidelines should be reviewed in light of the findings, the experts said, and the NHS should impose a blanket policy of prescribing up to 20  million people statins at a potential cost of £240 million a year.'

'Currently, the only people considered at high risk, those with a one-in-five chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years, are given the cholesterol-lowering drugs.'

'Half of men aged 50 or over and almost a third of women qualify for statin treatment. About five million people are thought to take them.'

'National guidelines should be amended to lower the threshold for treatment to those with a one-in-10 risk over a decade, the experts said.'

'As the majority of people in their fifties would qualify for statins under this criteria, it would be cheaper and easier to implement a blanket policy to save money on screening tests — which cost up to £700 per patient — to identify them, it was argued.'

'The cost of statins, £1 for a month’s course, would also be offset by the savings they would bring to the NHS in preventing costly operations, medical procedures, rehabilitation and by freeing ward space and places in care homes. A total of £1.3 billion is spent annually on cardiovascular drugs alone.'

'The proposed statins programme would be controversial, as many believe it is unnecessary to medicate otherwise healthy people, and it is not clear how many would take the tablets if they were not experiencing symptoms.'

'Prof Colin Baigent, co-author of the study, said: “If we want to prevent heart attacks and strokes that come out of the blue in people with no previous evidence of problems — and about half of such events happen in the absence of any prior history of disease — then we have to identify and treat people who are currently healthy but are known to be at increased risk of developing heart disease. Such treatment should, of course, be in addition to obvious things like encouraging better diet, more exercise and avoidance of cigarette smoking.” '

'A National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence spokesman said the study findings will be included in the ongoing review of the clinical guidelines on cardiovascular risk assessment and treatment.'

'The study analysed data from 175,000 people in 27 random trials which compared people on statins with those on a dummy pill.'

'Researchers found that for every one-point reduction in levels of bad cholesterol in the blood, there was a 21 per cent reduction in the risk of serious events, including heart attacks, strokes or surgery for blocked arteries among those with no symptoms of heart disease.'

'The risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke among those at lowest risk was cut by 15 per cent.'

'For every 1,000 people in the low-risk group treated with statins for five years there would be 11 fewer major heart attacks or strokes. “A benefit that greatly exceeds any known hazards of statin therapy,” the authors wrote.'

'Side effects of statins can include muscle aches, stomach disturbances, and altered liver function. Patients have also reported sleep and memory problems, depression and headaches.'

'There was no evidence of a rise in deaths from cancer, the authors said, and although there was a small increased risk of a “bleeding stroke” (a burst blood vessel in the brain) and more people were diagnosed with diabetes in the statin group, these were outweighed by the benefits of the treatment.

In an accompanying commentary article, Prof Shah Ebrahim from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The benefits of giving statins to everyone over the age of 50 would probably save the NHS money in the long run, owing to the savings in health care costs from the heart attacks and strokes prevented.”'

The findings were published online in The Lancet.

Asda Automation and Advertising Gimmickry

I had to go to Asda. The usual things for this evening's meal. It was extremely over-cast and miserable, weather-wise. Almost pushed off the road on the way by a driver in a large flashy car, going through a roundabout. Cut me up, because I wasn't going fast enough, and then caught up with him on a long queue on the roundabout on Watling Street, so all his speed and agression didn't pay off.

Managed to park in Asda's carpark and then walked into the store. A large display in the entrance for Shredded Wheat, a young lady handing out leaflets with '50p-off' voucher inside, and an enormous bowl of mocked-up shredded wheat nearby, with huge spoon in it. Reminded me of having to make props and puppets for various shows I've worked on. Actually don't know whether seeing such a large Shredded Wheat, which looked more like a thatched roof, would have put me off eating them. I remember having these for breakfast at my grandmother's house as a child and thinking they were rather like bed-springs. As for Weetabix, they made me think of bales of straw. Funny how you associate one thing with another. I just wonder what a psychologist would have to say on the matter.

The store was surprisingly busy for 9.30 on a windy and wet May morning. The place is filling up with items for sale aimed at the London Olympics, Euro 2012 or whatever it's called and most of all the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Anyone for a P.G. Tips tin with Union Jacks all over it? Or teatowels, teapots, tin trays and rather horrible looking mugs?

I got all the things on my list, and then went to pay. None of the conventional check-outs were being used, or if they were, there were queues, so I decided to use the automated check-outs. From experience not always such a good idea. I put my Sainsbury's 'bag-for-life' on the shelf area and the machine immediately said something like, 'item in bagging area! Identify!' before I had managed to scan anything. An assistant came and re-set the checkout and I was able to continue, until I came to a packet of paracetemol. So, do they honestly think I am going to stand there and over-dose on pain-relieft medication? Well, no, but I suppose there are those who might, so it is a good measure to prevent such things from happening. Then it wouldn't recognise the Radio Times when I scanned it. I don't think they make the bar codes on some items large enough, or printed in such a way that the scanning mechanism can read it. This often happens if it's under cellophane, or on a pre-printed surface with some logo or pattern on it. At last I completed my transaction and the machine told me to put my cash in the relevant slot. Change given, taken and so on, and the machine graciously thanks me, and reminds me to take my items, and I leave.

On the way back to the car and going through the covered area where the display of Shredded Wheat was, I saw something that made me laugh. Some poor soul, dressed up in the large bowl of Shredded Wheat (with the enormous spoon in it) doing a song and dance with another innocent employee, for the entertainment of a group of school children, who seemed totally overwhelmed by the experience, no doubt. Is this some form of torture, or is it blatant manipulation by the makers of this breakfast cereal, so the children immediately berate their parents or guardians, for not buying them the aforementioned breakfast cereal? Brainwashing of the most outrageous type, I kid you not.

Visit To Woburn Abbey

 Deer at Woburn Abbey Park 

Well, it was sunny and warm yesterday morning (Saturday) so we decided to go out. It was a necessity to just get out of Milton Keynes, after the dismal Bank Holiday. We didn't want to drive far, as petrol is such a price, so we went to Woburn Abbey as there is currently a display of sculpture on in the gardens. It's just pleasant driving through the park in the sunshine and seeing all the deer. We drove round towards the Abbey, paying at the gate and saw herds of deer under the trees, and stopped to take some photographs from the car.

Parked the car at the carpark. There is to be a charity run for the British Heart Foundation, so there are preparations for this in and around the carpark, for example tents being erected and other things going on, but that is tomorrow. We walked into the grounds, and found that you now have to enter through the gift shop. A very clever ploy, this, which means you are going to spend money in the shop. It doesn't really bother us as there is some nice stuff in there, compared to some other places we've visited. The last time we came here was several years ago, when we were members of the H.H.A. (The Historic Houses Association.) This is similar to the National Trust, whereby if you become a member you gain free access to houses and other properties in their protection or management. We were able to go to quite a few other properties when we were members, such as Blenheim Palace and Newby Hall in Yorkshire. Blenheim has been used for quite a few films, such as the Kenneth Branagh version of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' whilst Newby was used in an I.T.V. adaptation of a Jane Austen novel which starred Billie Piper.

In the gardens at Worburn Abbey there was a sculpture exhibition,  called Artbeat, which was just suited to the location, and it was pleasant to walk round and admire the works on display (or otherwise, as some of the more abstract work doesn't appeal to either of us, although some of it is interesting, nevertheless.)

These giant glasses are somewhat amusing, to say the least, although to be honest, I don't see them as 'art.' They are quite large, and you don't unfortunately, get much of an idea of scale in this photograph. This sculpture was created by Grande Disco, a collaborative project created by the artist Joel Grey in conjunction with Solubema, the largest quarry in Portugal.

I rather like these sculptures, entitled Paladins, created by Kate Denton. Further down is a close-up shot of one of the sculptures.

Love this sculpture of a dog,  by Kate Denton, complete with a stick in it's mouth. You get a sense of it enjoying it's owner throwing the stick and then going to fetch it. Quite beautifully portrayed and very realisitic.

The above dog is displayed in this grouping, with the woman sitting and relaxing on the bench and the dog in front of her waiting to play a game with her, perhaps going to fetch a stick she has thrown for him.

This I love. A pig sculpted by Kate Denton.

Not so keen on this. Interesting all the same. Just doesn't resonate for me I'm afraid.

These figures have a real sense of movement and are real fun. I rather like them.

Having walked around the garden looking at the sculpture we went to the tearoom and had something to eat. No visit to one of these places is complete without a bite to eat and drink. We were surprised at how empty the place was. On arrival there were very few cars, or, indeed, people around the place, but by the time we left it was beginning to get quite busy. No doubt it will be full of tourist around the time of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend in a month or so's time as it will no doubt be the sort of place that tourists will flock to.

Fine And Sunny

Well, wouldn't you believe it? Well, perhaps you would, there again, perhaps you wouldn't. After yesterday's washed-out Bank Holiday Monday, today is fine and sunny! It had to rain, as it was a Bank Holiday. The classic sort of day, stuck in a traffic jam somewhere, miles from anywhere, over-priced food, sandwiches, petrol prices increasing JUST as the holiday approaches, nowhere to park, and when you get there, nowhere to get a decent cup of tea, everywhere runs out of icecream, screaming kids, miserable weather, queues a mile long to get into tourist attractions, for example Alton Towers, Warwick Castle, Keswick, Southwold, or any other seaside resort. Think of the classic episode of 'One Foot In The Grave' with Victor Meldrew and his wife Elizabeth and their friend Mrs Warboys, stuck in a traffic jam and Victor moaning on, going nowhere, stuck in the car, on a Bank Holiday. One of the best episodes of the sitcom.

Anyway, as I was saying, it has to be sunny on the day AFTER  a Bank Holiday, and particularly one where it's been so wet and miserable. And, please, can someone explain why the banks should deserve a holiday, after the total mess they've caused the country with the so-called 'Credit Crunch.' Would it be better if they had a couple of days extra work where they put back some of the money they've taken off the innocent tax-payer since we've given them the money in the first place?

Telephone to Complain About Oxford Park and Ride

Further to the last post about yesterday's wasted trip to Oxford and the our experiences with the park-and-ride, I have since rung the number printed on the ticket we purchased to park the car, and been told we can't have a refund and that Oxford County Council, which controls and runs the park and ride system, don't operate the busses into and out of the city. I was given the number of the bus company and gave them my address and will pass on the complaint to the driver and presumably I will get a report of the incident. I will post here what happens, if and when I get a response from them.

Bank Holiday Blues

Yesterday day started out relatively dry and rain-free. As Carol was off work,  as it was May Bank Holiday we decided to go out in the car. We haven't been anywhere in particular in months. The cost of petrol and weather conditions have not made it possible, or at least, were the principal factor, so it was with trepidation that we left the house with the intention of going to Oxford. We had considered going to a National Trust house, but as the weather was so uncertain our minds turned towards Oxford. If it rains, at least we could go to the Ashmolean Museum of somewhere similar. We have been several times before, in particular visiting the Ashmolean Museum and to see productions staged by Creative Theatre and Propellor Theatre. We put petrol in the car at Asda and drove out of Milton Keynes along Standing Way towards Buckingham. On the outskirts of Oxford we were looking for the park-and-ride carpark, so we could leave the car and then catch a bus into the centre of Oxford. We went to one carpark which appeared to be closed up but there were no signs to suggest that busses weren't running into the city centre. We immediately got back in the car and drove to the Peartree carpark, where we've parked in the past. We got there to discover that you have to pay for a ticket to park the car (in a carpark, which, frankly, leaves a lot to be desired as regards it's surface. I don't mind paying to park if the cash is being used to maintain the carpark, but certainly not here.) There was a queue of people waiting to board a bus which turned up as we arrived, so we went to the back of the queue. We had been to a cashpoint and taken out a £10-note in order to pay for our bus tickets. On reaching the driver who was taking cash for tickets, he would not take our £10 note but had plenty of cash in his tray for change. To us this was annoying, as we had already paid for the carpark (this seems to be a new feature, that you have to pay for parking your car as well as for your ticket to ride on the bus. Just another way for local authorites to extract cash from hardup people. So we got back in the car and left, eventually arriving back in Milton Keynes and went to the local Weatherspoon's pub and had something to eat. Meanwhile, the rain was pouring down and we had spent a considerable amount just driving to Oxford for nothing. I think next time we will catch a bus there and avoid the wretched park and ride system, which is supposed to prevent people from driving into the centre of towns and cities in their cars.

Prominent cardiologist reveals some of the flaws in conventional cholesterol wisdom

 I found the following item in a link from the Heart UK messageboard of which I am a member:

Harlan Krumholz is a professor of medicine and cardiologist at the at Yale University School of Medicine. He recently co-authored an open letter which appeared in the journal circulation. The letter was written to the Adult Treatment Panel – a group of ‘experts’ charged with setting cholesterol guidelines for the American public. The panel is current considering this issue and is due to report later this year.

One suspects the panel, like a multitude of panels before it, will recommend that we keep strong downward pressure on our cholesterol numbers. But not all individuals in the medical and scientific community agree with this approach. One such dissenter is Professor Krumholz.

In this video below, Professor Krumholz does a good job, I think, of highlighting some of the major issues with current cholesterol policy. I advise you to watch the video but, for good measure, here’s a short summary of the salient points Professor Krumholz makes:

1. While targets are often based on levels of LDL-cholesterol, evidence shows that this is just one potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Many others exist, some of which are better predictors of cardiovascular disease than LDL-cholesterol.

2. Although it’s generally accepted that improvement in cardiac risk factors is beneficial, there is plenty of evidence that does not bear this out. He cites, for example, the example of the drug torcetrapib which lowered (supposedly unhealthy) LDL-cholesterol and raised (supposedly healthy) HDL-cholesterol. Torcetrapib, however, significantly increased overall risk of death in those who took it.

Professor Krumholz in his letter cites hormone replacement therapy as another example of a drug therapy that can ‘improve’ cholesterol numbers but that actually increases risk.

Other notable failures in terms of brining broad benefits to health include the drugs ezetimibe and fibrates.

3. Professor Krumholz speculates on why cholesterol ‘improvement’ may not actually improve health. One theory is that drugs which reduce cholesterol and have benefits (such as statins) do so through one or more mechanisms that are distinct from their cholesterol-lowering effects. Another is that even if cholesterol reduction is beneficial, this may be offset by the hazardous effects of a drug.

4. Professor Krumholz goes on to make the point that while doctors are encouraged to treat peoples’ cholesterol down to a target level, not a single study has actually tested this approach.

5. He recommends an approach not based on cholesterol levels, but risk. He quite rightly points out that those at low risk of cardiovascular disease are unlikely to benefit much, but are still at risk of suffering from side-effects from treatment. He also points out the large ‘numbers needed to treat’ for relatively healthy people. Basically, about 50-100 people would need to be treated with a statin for 5 years to prevent on heart attack. This means, by the way, that 98-99 per cent of people treated will not benefit. People at higher risk stand to benefit more. However, it’s still true that the great majority who take statins will not benefit at all.

So there you have it, a neat summing up of the flaws in the conventional thinking regarding cholesterol lowering. And from a professor of medicine and cardiologist to boot. It’s a shame that the Professor Krumholz’s objectivity and ability to break out of the cholesterol ‘group-think’ is so rare in medicine. Many, many doctors would do well to follow his example.

Remembering Louis Fussell- Part 1

I lived at 35 Rutland Road, Bedford for around four years, between around 1998 to 2002. I'm not going to write about the reason for my living there, as it doesn't have any bearing on my life in this house. It belonged to Louis Fussell, a somewhat eccentric character, aged in his late 70's I suppose when I first moved in. The whole house had been turned over to allow various people to live there, with Louis living in the downstairs living room.  It took me some time to discover that he slept in there, on a rather rudimentary chaise longue. I think there would have been three other people living there when I moved in, but looking back, I'm not entirely sure. Louis was not entirely bothered about his appearance and had a heart of gold. He would do absolutely anything for you, even lending you cash, giving things to people when he no longer needed them himself.  He wasn't bothered about such niceties as asking for references when you moved in, so it's not surprising that there were one or two incidents as a result. Amazing to think that he didn't ask for references when you consider that anyone, a mass-murderer drug addict or any other suspect individual could have been living there and he wouldn't have been any the wiser.

Portrait of Louis Fussell

Credit: Fotdmike/Flickr

One of his major eccentricities was going to Bedford Market when it was closing down, later on, Wednesdays and Saturdays and coming home on his bicycle (he didn't drive and had no car. I can't imagine him driving, which doesn't bear thinking about!) Anyway, he'd come back from his market trips with as much of the left-over fruit and vegetables as he could in the box which he had strapped to the back of his trusty Pashley bicycle. He would then spread it out all over the work-surfaces of the kitchen and sort out the best bits and throw away the really worst, moldiest, rotten fruit and vegetable (which wasn't much, as he would invariably cut out the worst bits.) and some was made into juice which was done using some sort of contraption which was set up on the ancient cooker and boiled and reduced the fruit into this juice. I still don't know exactly how this was achieved. Once he had bagged up the remaining fruit and veg he would get on his bicycle and then deliver these goods to various people he knew all around the Bedford area.

Louis was a violin teacher, but he also made violins in a workshop at the rear of the house, entered through the kitchen and from the side-yard. He also did an amazing amount for charity, working tirelessly to raise funds for various local charities, in particular, the Primrose Appeal, to be run by Macmillan the cancer support charity to fund a  treatment unit at Bedford South Wing Hospital. He could be seen out in the centre of Bedford on many a busy shopping day, standing in Church Square in Bedford town centre, with his bicycle and bucket, and people readily put their change into it. Also, as a member of a local symphony orchestra, where he played viola, he put on concerts which helped raise money for not only the Primrose Appeal but other local charities. He also wrote orchestral works, many premiered in Bedford Corn Exchange. He helped found the Cycling Campaign for North Bedfordshire in 1992. He had a predilection for swimming in the River Ouse, which runs through Bedford. I'm not sure about the legality of doing this, but I don't think he would let that stop him doing that, even though I'm sure it was quite dangerous, particularly as you wouldn't be able to see what was below the water's surface, such things as rocks, shopping trolleys, sharp objects and so on, or even near the various weirs and out-flows that come out of the river.  He rode from Land's End  to John O'Groats several times as well as other long-distance bicycle rides, usually for charity, and in particular for the Primrose Appeal, the Poppy Appeal and other charities too numerous to mention. He sometimes rode around 70 miles a day and was making these journeys well into his 80's.

He was also an avid karate practitioner (do I mean player? I'm not sure of the correct term.) He used to go off somewhere in the town to partake in this and had his own outfit. I believe he got to quite a high standard (Dan? Black Belt? Or is that for Judo?) Anyway, I don't think you would argue with him as he could use his karate to deal with things. I don't think he would, as he was a gentle sort of man and wouldn't hurt a fly. I know he was a vegetarian, so perhaps that would explain quite a few things.

As I've already mentioned, Louis was extremely generous and would help anyone. On one occasion he took me to London to see a show. I wasn't working on this particular day and just happened to be reading a paper and looking at a review of a show at the National Theatre in London. It was for a production of  the Leonard Bernstein musical 'Candide' and mentioned to Louis that I'd like to see it. He said he'd like to go to London and see it, and that he'd try and book tickets. I was thinking, well, yes, but in a few weeks time, perhaps. But he rang up, and managed to book us two tickets for that evening! He was like that, he would act on the spur of the moment. He made himself some sandwiches to eat on the train, as there wasn't time for him to have a meal before we left and then got a train into London from the Midland Railway Station in Bedford. As we went to London on the train, he ate his sandwiches. He didn't make a lot of effort to change, as I had done, and wore his old grubby shorts and sandals. When we got off the train in London, it took me all my time and effort to keep up with him as he virtually ran all over the place, up and down steps on the Underground system, and when we got off the train at Waterloo and on the way to the National Theatre on the South Bank. I was around my late 40's at this time, and he must have been in his late 70's, and it took me all my time to keep up with him! Quite amazing for his age!

We got to the National Theatre and picked up our tickets. Our seats were at the very front of the stage. At one point during the action of the show, the leading actor, Simon Russell-Beale, came to the front of the stage for part of the action of the show, misjudged his footing and fell off the stage and landed on my foot, apologized to me, then got back on the stage! Just part of a live show, you never know what is likely to happen, and any decent actor worth his/her salt can get out of a mishap without too much effort. Not every day you get a world-class actor such as Mr Russell-Beale step on your foot!

It was a wonderful show, and I enjoyed it enormously. I'm not sure whether Louis enjoyed it, but it was the fact that the whole outing was so spontaneous and unexpected which made it so memorable. The incident with Simon Russell-Beale just added to the evening's entertainment, I suppose.

Louis died on Friday, January 25th, 2008, as a result of an accident with a car in Wentworth Drive, Bedford. He is, I am sure, sorely missed by everyone who knew him. It seems particularly sad to think that he rode his bicycle all that distance yet he died so close to his home in Bedford.