Before you dash off a letter to your MP or scream on social media please read:

”Friends, remainers, leavers, countrymen, lend me some years..

I come to praise the NHS, not bury it.”

It has been a stressful twenty four hours. It started last evening with a telephone call from an elderly neighbour, “can you come over, I have collapsed on the floor, the back door is open”

My initial response was soon thwarted, as a short arse, I couldn’t reach over his back gate to undo the bolt, so back home to collect Jun, so I could lift her up to gain access. His knee had given out in the back garden and he had crawled back in, tried to pull himself up, but his leg let him down and back on the floor he went. We made him comfortable, but he didn’t want an ambulance. After some persuasion he allowed me to call 111, who as you might expect put me through to the ambulance service. Who, for some unknown reason in Somerset, were receiving an unprecedented number of calls. A discussion came to the result we would sit tight and they would get to us as soon as they could, as he wasn’t in danger and no apparent serious injury.

Two hours after our call, the fast response paramedic arrived, lots of checks and tests and an ECG, by now our neighbour was sitting in an arm chair, which was good. His state, coupled by the priority meant we would have to wait, which was fair enough, he was in no imminent danger. I was given advice, incident numbers and instructions what to do if…..

Jun went home as it was now after ten pm and there was little two of us could do, I stayed. At 0200, I had a chat with the 999 ambulance operator, there were tens of calls with a higher priority than us, but we were not forgotten.  The same at 0540.

At 0715 we had a call from a paramedic who said that an ambulance would be available to come to us shortly…..and it did. What a great crew, apologetic, reassuring, the young paramedic was as chatty as Barbara Windsor on gin and steroids. More checks, but the realistic observation, that the need to go to an A&E at a  distant hospital had passed. Our local cottage hospital has a minor injuries unit and X-Ray department which would negate the twenty two mile journey to Yeovil and it would be easier to collect later etc.

So strapped to chair our neighbour left gently in an ambulance, the paramedic still staccato like a machine gun. She was great.

A couple of hours later, X-rayed, checked, tested, relaxed he was released and we could bring him home.

Our NHS is under great pressure, but by God it is good when you see it working.

Is my neighbour upset by a twelve hour wait for an ambulance, not at all. Ninety three year old ex Royal Marines are made of sterner stuff, and we hope that there are a lot of people across the Somerset area, who found themselves ringing 999 last night and whose loved ones are in a safer state because we had to wait.

So growls Dave Grohl as the opening line of the Foo Fighters classic ‘Best of you’. For some reason the tune was looping through my mind as I sped through the English countryside in the middle of the past week.

On a spur of the moment decision I travelled to London to see Japanese singer/songwriter Rie Fu as she will soon depart these shores and return to Japan. She has the most beautiful voice and I enjoy listening to her music. So Islington bound, I enjoyed the best of GWR on their train to Paddington, an excellent egg and cress sandwich and even more enjoyable coffee, the system is now to drink from a single use cafetière which is great coffee.

Islington proved a joy, a diverse community that seems happy with itself. I sat in the community Culpepper Garden, a little oasis of quiet calm and beauty.

Rie Fu didn’t disappoint, although the venue fitting another act in before her did. Having made the journey just to see her half hour slot, it was put back and I left during her fourth song to ensure I was back at Paddington for the train home.

It marked the centre of a strange week, spending money that I am sure could have been better spent elsewhere. It was two days after a trip to the supermarket to buy goods for the local food bank that had run out of some, and was dangerously low in other, vital foodstuffs. It is a dilemma, and I chose to spend money on myself, but you do need to have some pleasure yourself, so I hope my donation was well received. I did enjoy myself too, I saw a performer I might otherwise have missed and never see again.

Although in today’s very unequal society “I’ve got another confession to make”…..

It is, very much, the flavour of the month. We have just witnessed an ascendency of the Green Party at local elections, hot on the heels of the Extinction Rebellion protests across UK and elsewhere. There are arguments ‘it is my generation’ that is causing the harm of climate change. No doubt readers will have seen the counter argument doing the rounds that lists all the things that we did whilst we were children or how things were packaged in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I would, however, support Greta Thunberg, who is eloquent and speaks so well for the youth of the world.

Perhaps, also a threat to the sustainability of humans as a species is the return of childhood diseases that have been all but eradicated, but are returning due to the increasing numbers of ‘anti vaxxers’.

My wife and I try hard to recycle as much as we can, including clothes and unwanted items through charity shops. We sterilise our milk containers and buy our milk from a local farm that has a milk point. Our vegetables are delivered in reusable boxes without packaging, except for potatoes in a brown paper bag.

We have been working hard on using less water and this has paid off dramatically. Today’s mail had our six monthly water account which is a third of the previous six months. So it is possible to make noticeable changes.

Where we are guilty is travel, back to the Far East twice a year, so twelve hour flights and all that entails, we pay to offset carbon, but still make the flights. My guilt is assuaged by the fact the Dame Emma Thompson flew to the extinction rebellion rally from the US.

Here is the dichotomy of our situation. The Air Miles I earn from my travels have been converted into vaccinations for the poor in Asia, helping to prevent the spread of those childhood diseases. It has been my small altruistic action, as I can afford it and never end enough to even get a plastic pen, let alone upgrades; so I feel good with myself at the end of family visits. Sadly now my chosen airline is only taking the donations in blocks of 10,000 air miles and I only earn hundreds per trip.

Saving the world and humans has become more of a challenge, but we could fly more!