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Wednesday 26 November 2014

The Royal Mail

Once upon a time, a letter posted locally in the morning would be delivered locally the very same afternoon. Not any more - just one delivery a day and most of that is JUNK delivered to help profits and promptly just binned. Such a WASTE. Collections are as bad. Things go backwards. Progress?

As far as I am concerned the post is like energy - an essential service that should not be run for profit. It seems odd to me that we have to have a postal service that is not cheap, is run to make profits and very dependent on JUNK mail. Stupidity.

BBC News and the FTSE 100 index

The main BBC News page seems to have given up on reporting the FTSE 100 stock index: for several days the BBC  reports have contained errors blamed on a  technical error. The BBC Business page seemsto be valiantly plodding on.

Now only 3 of the 4 stroke symptoms?

In the last couple of days I seem less tired.  This does vary though: 3 steps forward and 2 back etc.

Although my swallow of some (thin) liquids is not good and I still feel giddy when walking - although I do not fall - my level of fatigue seems (generally) lower. This is a good sign.

My speech is still hard to understand and I get very frustrated by this. To me, it sounds fine, but clearly others do not understand me. My wife says I need to sound first and last syllables more clearly and that I am very quiet.

My recovery is taking far longer than I expected.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

My brain

I am still puzzled by my brain. Most mental functions seem fine, but when I do an email or blog post I seem slow to spot errors like spelling mistakes or missing full stops. Usually I try to correct errors before sending, but looking back I still spot mistakes that I've missed.

If you see errors please let me know. I want to correct the errors and know when my brain is not doing its job right.

Driving again

After a ban on car driving of around 14 months because of my brain bleed,  I am now allowed to drive again.

In the car I do not get giddy and feel safe, although I drive slower than before, at least for now. In the last year,things seem to have got faster, although I am sure this is me!  My wife thinks I should be wearing a hat!

Up to now, I have driven fairly locally and my wife is usually in the car with me. The exception for the last few weeks has been a solo drive to the Newmarket Road, Cambridge,  Park and Ride site, where I catch the bus into the city for my U3AC course on Human Evolution, a course I am really enjoying. For several years I was too busy for U3AC, but this year is different.

Although I am usually suffering from at least 2 of the following, it is good to be doing "normal" things again and mixing with healthy people.  My remaining issues are (1) giddiness when walking. (2) poor liquid swallow, (3) tiredness following physical work of ANY kind.  Today, I don't feel tired whereas for several days previously I had been totally exhausted.

Monday 24 November 2014

Al Jazeera - news from the Middle East

Occasionally, it is good to get news from totally different sources. One example is to see how Middle Eastern broadcaster Al Jazeera has covered Ebola in recent weeks.

See http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/11/deadline-curb-ebola-will-not-be-fully-met-2014112418512630314.html .

Sometimes Al Jazeera has news that we never hear about on the BBC.  For example I had no idea that Tripoli airport in Libya was recently attacked by unidentified jets. If the BBC covered this then I must have missed it.

Nations spying

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30171614 .

It looks like some nation state is intent on stealing our data.   Regin is a newly discovered computer spyware program recently discovered by Symantic.