Miles and Dacombe

Yesterday was interesting. It was interesting for a few reasons.
Firstly, it was my first trip out of the area for many months.
Secondly, some of the events that occurred whilst out on my little jaunt were...different.
The train journey to Mansfield, which is, as a rule, fairly non-descript, was made peculiarly stimulating by the appearance of a duo by the name Miles and Dacombe http://undiscoverednetworks.blogspot.com/ who were very interesting. How to describe them-go and look at the information contained at the link.
Got to Mansfield to find that the Co-op store on Queen Street is now a Beales store on Queen Street.
I don't know what to make of the situation.
In a state of bemusement I wandered back up to the railway station and caught the next train to Nottingham and wandered around in a discontented manner for a couple of hours.
No Co-op on Queen Street?
What is the world coming to?
There has always been a Co-op on Queen Street in my lifetime-Beales isn't the same-even though the same people staff the store...it just doesn't seem the same-maybe I'm getting old.

Food!

I guess I'm quite lucky really. Living, as I do, in the English countryside.

Less 1 mile away from where I am presently sitting there is a shallow gorge

in a low ridge. This gorge has a number of caves running down either side and

in them have been found many interesting bones and more especially interesting, items 

that provide evidence of occupation by Neanderthals.

This is something that has caused great excitement, not just locally, but throughout the world.

 Learned persons from around the world have flocked to the site studying what is to be found there.

 Some have even written scholarly books about what has been found there. I have read a couple of these

 and they make for interesting reading, even if your enthusiasm for the subject of archaeology is mild.

 The place is well worth a visit. The visitors centre is actually interesting in itself...and the cafe is half-decent. (which helps)

However, as with all such things there is a "blot on the landscape" in the shape of an ugly great quarry not a half a mile from the site.

Apparently the stone they extract is special ( especially valuable ) in that is dolomitic limestone.

A bit of a Rant

Today, for the sake of something to do I've decided to have a bit of a rant-a whinge about life in general and life in particular.

Today, for the sake of something to do I've decided to have a bit of a rant-a whine about life in general and life in particular.

It has always interested me as to why people possessed of a certain personality type always seem to gravitate to a particular profession. One 'particular profession' that interests me is social work, especially psychiatric social work. Now, as a rule, I have a lot of respect for this particular profession; not necessarily the individuals employed in it, just the ethos.

Perhaps a bit of background information would be useful. As the result of a head injury that was gained from my being knocked over by a car being driven at an excessive speed, I received a very serious injury to my head. I was left with a depression along the right side of my skull. This blow also rendered me comatose.

After rushing me to two different hospitals for emergency operations to remove the bone from my brain and some time in intensive care, I regained consciousness. It turns out that the injury to the brain was severe, for I was paralyzed down the wrong side of my body.


Apparently, when a brain injury occurs any paralysis that might result usually manifests itself upon the side opposite to where the injury occurred. Injury to the right side, paralysis on the left side.

I was paralyzed down my right-hand side. Oh dear! This was seen as an indication that BOTH side of the brain had been traumatized. BUGGER!


Further tests suggested that there had also been a degree of torsion ( twisting ) applied to the organ. Of course this was something that I was unaware of by my being comatose.

For a period of time that is too long to adequately quantify I was 'classified' as being someone who had 'conditions' such as an " Epileptic Personality " (!??!!) and "mental illness".

The former was really nothing more an attempt to describe a definition of how to nail jelly to the ceiling. Which, when couched in the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that is spouted by the practitioners and adherents of psychiatry was given the air of being somehow tangible, definite. However, there is just one little problem...the condition doesn't exist.

But what the heck, psychiatrists know what they were talking about don't they?

Pretty much the same can be said about the second condition, mental illness. The only party capable of providing a legally binding definition that someone is suffering from such a condition is a psychiatrist.

It is interesting that, as far as I am aware, there is a clause somewhere in the UK Government's " Mental Health Act " ( The law governing the administration of treatment of persons deemed to have a "psychiatric condition" of some description ) that, in so many words, states that the diagnosis of any condition that can be described as signifying the existence of a 'mental illness' cannot be defined in any manner that satisfies the criteria for it to be a legally binding definition. It was therefore decided that it was necessary for the individual psychiatrist to provide such a definition. That's handy. Anyone whose behaviour is deemed to deviate from the norm is thus rendered liable to be classified as 'mentally ill'

Nice.

All of which really amounts to a hill of nothing. Except that people don't like the existence of nothing-to them nothing doesn't exist. To the persons who have been "treated" for whatever disorder the shrink has managed to concoct. All this meandering leads me back to the subject of psychiatric social work. Or rather psychiatric social workers.

From my experience, I have been forced to the conclusion that most of the ones that I have had dealings with haven't got a ******** clue what they are dealing with. Especially when it comes to meeting the needs of their 'clients'. ( or service user, depending on the level of bullshit that they feel the need to use)

Broadly speaking these workers fall into one of two camps.

The first of these camps have a need that seems almost pathological to refer the client to the psychiatrist so that investigations can be made into the need to adjust whatever medication the client is taking.

This can get to be quite interesting when the client isn't taking any medication.

Any sensible person might have taken this piddling little detail into account when making a decision about the proper course of action to pursue. But hey we're dealing with a special kind of person when it comes to psychiatric social workers.

Whilst my experience with having to deal with them is limited, it is extensive enough for me to want to exercise extreme caution when in their company.

I suppose that I should have noticed something was amiss with these creatures when I first came across them making use of terms such as " non-judgmental " and " objective " in a manner that can only be described as " subjective".

The second type of Social Worker belongs to the school of thought that is best described as the "Shit Happens". This type doesn't worry or bellyache about about what might have been. They have an attitude that involves helping clients to devise strategies that work around whatever limitations that are present.