Cogitated & Digested

adjective:
Springing or rising again into being; showing renewed vigor.

Renascent comes from Latin renascens, present participle of renasci, "to be born again," from re-, "again" + nasci, "to be born."

---

Mmm. Rising again. New vigour. Reborn.

Not quite, in fact far from it. The tussle in your mind between hopes & aspirations and reality & reason. Which all sounds like this is going to turn into a downbeat post. It is not.

This Friday is the day Sand and I spend the day together. A nice wee range of activities I've arranged - spa followed by dinner and a night at the theatre. All things that are right up his street and should have a great day I think.

There are two things that I must remember. At the moment number one is the nagging doubt that the day may not actually happen for whatever reason. Which will be annoying not only because of what I've organised (it is a surprise, the whole day) but the whole general let down. I'm sure that won't happen though.

The second is to remember that it is just one day and nothing is going to come out of it. It is for fairplay to show himself as a credible option in all his decency. And allow things to happen naturally.

The challenge is to be warm and supportive and not the cool/cold person I can be when I'm trying to protect myself.

Here's hoping.

I saw this and seemed apt to the definition. Beautiful live version of the song from two outstanding vocalists.

Dementia is in the news again.

I for one am very pleased about this, although a bit dubious about the way it is going at the moment. The current focus appears to be on anti-psychotics and their use:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2157729/Doctors-giving-anti-psychotics-to-dementia-sufferers-'should-be-prosecuted'.html

However, is that really the issue when the following has happened?
http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/GP/LatestNews/821058/Experts-criticise-DoH-lack-dementia-research/

And it's not particular to the United Kingdom either:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/18/2278403.htm

Meanwhile this is happening in my old back-yard:
http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/3171204.Ulverston_dementia_unit_could_be_scrapped/
And other parts of the country:
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=20896997

As I've mentioned before (http://fairplay.blog.co.uk/2008/04/30/treating-your-elders-4112472) this is a complex problem. It is not just about sedatives, it's not just about lack of homes for people with dementia, it's not just about the appalling lack of funding given to dementia when more glamorous problems (heart, cancer and children) get the lionshare. It's about all these things. And it needs more than a government dying in the eyes of healthcare workers to focus on single issues and bland-ities to improve the situation.

This goes to the crux about what we want from society, about how we care for our elders and the changing nature of families in Britain today.

For some discourse on this see the to-ing and fro-ing at: http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/.

An uptempo song. Three versions of the same Gamble/Huff/Gilbert song, in chronological order. In one of those twists of fate, this song will now always remind me of Bacup, Lancashire. Not bad for a group from Philadephia, PH.

The last one is great just to see the old ToTP set!

Ah, the pleasures of YouTube. I'm in a particularly musical mood at the moment, feeling a little bit listless and the music is driving my emotion rather than the other way round. It'll pass, like.

Anyway, one of the best produced songs of the last decade (Salaam Remi), only time will tell if it dates. The video is a radio edit - the album version is about 90 seconds longer and is great.

And nice to see her as I first saw her, rather than the blue mice addled lass she can be now.

Portishead "Glory Box" and Isaac Hayes "Ike's Rap II"

I've managed to negotiate the changeover without too much difficulty. The change in question is from a week of night shifts to evening shifts the next day.

I managed to stay awake till about half four then put my head down for a two hour nap which, as always, turned into a 10 hour sleep. I managed to turn over and sleep for a bit more fortunately.

Things plodding along. The usual tussle with bureaucracy, mixed messages from Sand and fight with revision. This week Sand was being nice and "missing me". Certainly got a funny way of showing it. To my shame I was a bit terse and abrupt (we were conversing on the internet, the only way we actually do communicate) but I was still a bit sleepy.

On a positive note:

I've got my tickets to see him. Birmingham and Manchester (couldn't quite stretch to London as well). No matter what happens between now and September, this will make me smile!

1. What's the name of your favourite pub?
Bear and Billet is quite nice from a proper pub point of view.

2. What celebrity do you most read about right now?
Nil, not into that tittle-tattle.

3. Have you ever slid down a stair case railing, or climb a tree?
Of course when I was younger. Haven't slid down a staircase for a good six months though.

4. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up, and did you ever get to do that?
Later on it was between being a doctor and a weatherman. And yep, I got to do it. Earlier on i think i wanted to be an astronaut - but not with my vision!

5. If you could only drink and eat five things for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Tea, chocolate, brussel sprouts, crusty bread & cheese.

6. Three favourite music groups at the moment?
Crowded House, Brand New Heavies, Portishead

7. Three favouirte books at the moment?
They are all post-graduate exam books at the moment .

8. If you were going to spend an evening with one person, who would that be?
Non-famous - Sand, famous - Haile Gebreselaisse

9. Sartre said that "Hell is other people." Who would be your hell?
A world where you could not enjoy the little pleasures of life, only the big ones.

10. What section of the newspaper do you traditionally read first, and what section do you read last?
Front, then front of sport, then back page, then the middle and work outwards. After reading a paper I look like a baby vs spaghetti bolognese.

I tag
Kibbitz
Northern angel

Boy, were they good!

Hell hath no fury etc. Canadian TV are to run a series on the trials and tribulations of a Canadian ex-patriate living in London. The men in Blighty were apparently "too polite, too repressed and too misogynist."

English men are useless – and here's the TV series to prove it

I wonder what a polite misogynist is like?

Somehow I can't see a similar programme about Canadian men being commissioned over here.

I was a young lad when the Seoul Olympics were on and remember seeing Ben Johnson and Flo-Jo storm down the home strait. Then being taught about drugs and what they were.

Why athletics can only keep believing

Ben Johnson was always a bit of a decent drug cheat; arrogant, a bit menacing. It was, I guess, obvious, as with the old Eastern Bloc athletes who still hold the middle distance records.

Drug cheats these days seem far more media savvy; I was genuinely disappointed with Justin Gatlin and to an extent Marion Jones. They seemed decent, hard-working athletes and "nice people".

And so there'll be hints and allegations and no doubt people caught this year as we come up to the Olympics.

I love this sport; to be honest I get more out of a decent competition than seeing the highest, fastest, longest.  So I'll keep believing no matter what.

noun:
A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

Schadenfreude comes from the German, from Schaden, "damage" + Freude, "joy." It is often capitalized, as it is in German.

---

No, I'm not going to engage in any of that but this is one of my favourite words. Not often that a modern German word is used in English parlance, despite the history of our language.

Anyway, much better than in my previous post; I just needed to get that off my chest. No real explanation from the offender, but we'll deal with that when they return from Turkey.

Otherwise, some much needed recuperationthis week and quality time with the family. Watched a bit of the French Open tennis and really pleased now the outdoors athletics season is in full swing.

I even have a fantasy athletics team: http://game.fantasyathletics.iaaf.org/ifa/ !

A few things have caught my eye over the last week and I'll share them over the next few days.

Care to you all.