Visit by son and granddaughter

Today our son and granddaughter visited us from London. It was good to see them both. She is very good at 24 piece jigsaws on the iPad. She did about 6 or 7 without any help whilst sitting on my lap. Seeing them always cheers me up. She is 4 in May.

FTSE 100

Amazingly, the FTSE 100 share index ended the day slightly higher than it started, despite the turbulence of the Greek's voting into power a government that is mostly composed of the far-left Syriza party that wants to renegotiate its bailout terms.

NHS poor communications

I have concluded (yet again) that NHS communications is very bad. My speech therapy sessions were cancelled out of the blue (no reasons given). When I tried to email the address given it bounced ("not recognised"). So I tried another email address given on their website and again this bounced ("not recognised").

Also, I found out today of someone awaiting a rearranged chemo session for cancer who was asked to phone first but for a whole hour the phone was not answered! The appointment the previous day was cancelled as "everyone has gone home".  Sorry but NHS communications is unbelievably poor. Nobody takes ownership. Frankly it is CRAP.

The NHS needs to smarten up its communications. If this was the private sector, there would be ownership (individual responsibility) and someone would be sacked if things did not improve.

Every day, the NHS probably throws away millions of unnecessary pounds. The sheer waste is staggering.

I believe in the NHS but get very frustrated by the evident inefficiency.

Currencies

Against all currencies, apart from the Euro, the pound is stronger. I was expecting the pound to strengthen against the Euro today following the Greek vote yesterday. Markets are fickle! Even the FTSE 100 share index has hardly changed. It has bounced around all day but, at the moment, is little changed all day.

Greece (more)

So the left wing Syriza party was just short of an overall governing majority and has formed a coelition with a far right anti-austerity party. The next few months will be critical for the Euro - will Greece pay its debts and will it leave the Euro? - and how will Greece cope? Will the coelition of far right and left work? The calm before the storm?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30981950 .

Greece

I am not sure what to make of Greece. Life currently is very hard for the Greeks with great austerity and very high unemployment. On the other hand they say "you reap what you sow". For years tax avoidance had become a way of life. Their future will become even more uncertain with a very left wing Syriza government.

RSPB bird count - again

I am repeating my 1 hour bird count today, this time at the front of our bungalow overlooking the grass patch, hedges and windmill near our local village museum. I expect to see fewer birds, but it will make an interesting comparison. 

This morning, there was a crow actually on the birdtable and a red-legged partridge underneath.   Both were missing from my count yesterday!

UPDATE 1725z:  Although there were fewer species spotted at the front (4 rather than 6) the number of starlings was much higher as there is a roost on the windmill sails. I saw 26 unique starlings but had this been an hour later it would probably been 100+.