More N.H.S. Waiting Rooms-2

Carol had another appointment at Milton Keynes Hospital on Thursday at the endoscopy department. The time we had to be there was 8.30 a.m. We left in the car, preferring not to walk, and got there in good time. Difficult at times to judge how long it would take, especially if the traffic is going to be heavy as well as finding the department within the hospital. We parked in the multi-storey car park and then walked across to the main entrance. Carol saw a couple of her pupils from the Academy and she had to explain why she wasn't at work. We entered the hospital through the main entrance but then discovered that the endoscopy department was actually reached without that long haul along that (seemingly)endless corridor. You could get to it from the outside without going through the main entrance. We reported to the reception desk and Carol had to fill in a form to give details of any medications she was on and other health-related details. A fairly long wait in the waiting area then followed.

People were being called through to be ready for their treatments/therapies or whatever you want to call them. Carol was eventually called in and got ready by being processed (for want of a better word) by one of the nurses, going through a list to make sure she had no allergic reactions to mediations as well as having a blood-sugar test as she's diabetic.

I waited with her until she went through for the endoscopy. I then went back to sit in the waiting room. Oh dear. So depressing. Well, I suppose it would be. Lots of people making sure they didn't make eye-contact with anyone else. People coming and going. The place decorated to a sort of bland N.H.S. standard. Too many posters all over the place. Far too much information and most of it likely to be forgotten as soon as you walked out of the place. 'Information over-load' I think you could say. A baby making odd gurgling noises. The young woman sitting next to me seemed more interested in her mobile phone than making any sort of conversation or even living in the 'real world.' A woman came into the reception area in a wheelchair and she began a very loud conversation with the woman behind the counter. She said she was deaf so she couldn't hear everything and then proceeded to regail the entire waiting room about how she'd had such-and-such procedure and how was it that she'd put up with some pain for 20-odd years and the doctors could find nothing wrong, so why did they do the procedure three times and then she repeated it several more times, at the top of her voice. It was a bit like one of Alan Bennett's characters, or one of his monologues, the one's done on television, called 'Talking Heads.' She could be played by either Thora Hird or Maggie Smith.

Then Carol reappeared. There were two ladies she knew, from another church in Milton Keynes, Loughton Baptist Church or somewhere. I didn't know who they were. They chatted for a while and then we left. The procedure Carol had had only took a few minutes and we walked out of the unit and back towards the entrance of the hospital and bought some pastries in Costa and then went back to the car and home.

This 'n' That

Well, for a start-off I can't think of a title for this post. I usually attempt to find something alliterative. Well, if you don't know what it means (and shame on you.) it's words with the same initial letter that sound similar. 

The Police have packed up and left the 'crime scene' in Osprey Close. Although they left the peculiar blue box, shades of Doctor Who's 'Tardis' time machine. It's obvious what it is. A portable toilet. They had to make sure the Boys In Blue had somewhere to go, didn't they? Every possible 'convenience' at hand. We'll know sooner or later the outcome of this incident, although someone has been charged and was before the Magistrate's Court last week. I forget the person's name but it's bound to be in the local media.

The grass at the rear of the house has been growing steadily over the past couple of weeks. It's had plenty of sun and more recently rain, which might explain why it's got so long. I have been putting off mowing it, and this morning I got the mower out and attempted around half. The rest can be done tomorrow. It's mild weather-wise and I was hot when I finished. 

We have a good crop of blackberries on the brambles that overhang the fence at the end of the garden and there are quite a few along the Redway. I will get out tomorrow and pick some. 

I have been watching the film of "The Lady In The Van." This is a film based on Alan Bennet's stage play of the same name and starring the brilliant actress Maggie Smith. She who was the Dowager Duchess in "Downton Abbey." A very different character to the character she portrays in "The Lady In The Van." I have been an admirer of hers since I was around 16. I think I must have first seen her in the film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." I studied "Othello" by William Shakespeare as part of my 'A' Level English course and saw her opposite Laurence Olivier in the film of "Othello" when she played Desdemona. And then in a very amusing film with another actor, I always liked, Peter Ustinov, called "Hot Millions." He plays her boss in an office and she is the cleaning lady who comes in to clean his office and they set up a scam to trick money out of the company when she bangs down her mop bucket near the company computer. She couldn't have been much more than in her late twenties or early thirties when she made that. As for Peter Ustinov. What a talented man he was. Not only a great actor but also a playwright of some renown. He wrote "Romanov and Juliet" and I saw him in  a wonderful play called "Beethoven's Tenth" where he plays Ludwig Van Beethoven, who is made to appear as (possibly) a ghost by a music critic played by Robin  Bailey. (best known probably for playing Uncle Mort in the Peter Tinniswood sit-com called "I Didn't Know You Cared.") I might be right in thinking that Beethoven is given a hearing aid and is able to hear recordings of his symphonies for the first time. Ustinov stole the show, and it was extremely clever and funny.

I saw Maggie Smith in the Noel Coward play "Private Lives" when she played Amanda to her then-husband Robert Stephens, who played Eliot (originally played by Noel Coward himself and Gertrude Lawrence in the 1930's original production.)  This production was at the Phoenix Theatre in London, and, I believe, was directed by Sir John Gielgud. When I was an A.S.M. in Colchester in the early 1970's we did our own production of this play and I have been a Coward fan ever since. His plays never seem to be out of fashion, unlike a lot of other playwrights of that period. Just as amusing as when they were written and in some cases more relevant today than when  they were first produced. Such plays of his, as "Hay Fever" and "Blithe Spirit" are constantly being revived.

As for Alan Bennet, I have also enjoyed his work. He did a lot of plays for the BBC and a number with Dame Thora Hurd. He wrote a series of monologues for the likes of Thora Hird, Maggie Smith, and Patricia Routledge and called "Talking Heads." The first play of his I remember was a black-and-white television film about a gang of Edwardian cyclists. Very little plot and, being set in that idyllic realm immediately before the First World War, had a very poignant ending. A definite 'must see' if you get a chance. He's since done most of his writing work for the National Theatre, such as 'The History Boys' which was made into a film in the early 2000's.