Blogland

I'm always delighted when all of you faithful reader(s?) come here and spend a few moments at this Teapot, which I'm rather fond of really, even if it was just because your Google search for "medieval teapot spouts with chipped handles" decided to divert you to the random thoughts of me. But now you're here, please STOP! And before you click NEXT or BACK have you considered clicking one of the links on the right to some excellent, excellent blogs... have you looked... they're great... Neil (exeter life - you may have thought you wanted to visit the Grand Canyon or Paris or Africa, but what about Exeter then?) and er, Neil (random stuff and quite a lot about films and poker) and DG (London, er it's hard to summarise the wonders of the Diamond Geezer blog - but we do get an annual update on smug marrieds verses singledom too!) and Geoff (USA from London and tube trains - and he's a Spurs supporter) and Kathryn (adventures of a vicar) and Annie (London underground's finest) and Russell (where to get a decent plate of egg, bacon, chips and beans) AND JAG'S ROUTE 79 LONDON BLOG (I nearly missed that one!) and the others, and then there's more of ME (you'll have to visit to see what that one's all about)! Yes I have another blog - one that's part of the wonderful world of Wib. I'm not quite sure how I came to have another blog when it's already a challenge to say anything worth reading on this one. I think it was to be part of the online wib community started by Dave Walker of Cartoon Church fame? They're a lovely lot over there too - perhaps you'd like to drop in for a little visit. I'm sure if you ask nicely they'll put the kettle on.
And, well, that's all I have to say at the moment - there's really no other purpose to this post than to blatantly* point at my other blog in the hope that you might go there and then be vaguely interested and make insightful comments. And to encourage clicking of links so that when I check my stats there's something to look at. Oh, and so I could use the "It looked like a profound thought was brewing... but it didn't" label - that's quite a tough one you know.


*I can never spell blatent... blatant.... (there's a dictionary behind me, but if I look it up then this comment will be rather pointless won't it!)

Just as I said I would...

Have Times (yesterday's), have tea (today's), have Aero (won't last 'til tomorrow) and as promised I will now endeavour to find something less random about which I can speak of here.

I only got as far as the first few pages yesterday but what struck me was the brave 13 year old girl, Hannah, who has had to defend, and fight to protect, her decision to reject a heart transplant for the heart problems she has as a result of Leukaemia treatment she's undergone from the age of 5.

She has been made aware that the drugs she would need so her body would not reject the new heart could bring about a recurrence of the Leukaemia; so an already risky operation could prove even more uncertain in this case.
But the situation took an even more appalling turn when child protection officers got involved, as the Times article says:
"In an interview with Sky News she described how she had made her case to a child protection officer after Herefordshire Primary Care Trust tried to have her removed from her parents’ care on the ground that they were “preventing treatment”."
Is it not horrific enough to watch your daughter go through years of treatment for a life-threatening illness, to then find that this treatment has so damaged her heart that a heart transplant is the only course of treatment for that condition, but that operation could result in a return of the Leukaemia; and THEN to have officials threaten to take your daughter into care because their opinion on the way forward differs to that of your daughter? I find it hard to imagine how a care order under those circumstances would be of any benefit to a girl who would then be forced into having a heart transplant. Perhaps it wouldn't have gone that far?

Now, I'm not so naive to believe that every family with children who are being treated for serious illnesses are perfect specimens of togetherness, or that child protection issues don't occur in families with sick children. I know that they do, having had a friend who worked as chaplain in a children's hospital, but there's no indication of those kind of issues being present here, just a difference of opinion between officials and parents. And that's what makes me angry. Not only is our society so pointed towards medical intervention at all costs that the suggestion of choosing to reject that intervention at some stage is seen as foolishness; but our society is also so driven by 'child protection' that it allows so-called experts and strangers to take huge decisions away from parents. This I find an alarming development, and a development that still doesn't seem to be able to protect the most vulnerable children. There is surely a difference between families who need the help and intervention of social services (and I know some wonderful social workers) to protect children obviously at risk and families for whom suffering and circumstances require such difficult decisions to be made.

Perhaps I am oversimplifying what perhaps boils down to where those social services draw the line of appropriate intervention? I'm sure they see families that can't be bothered to get treatment for their children, or families whose religious sensibilities seem completely innappropriate (rejection of blood transfusions for example). Perhaps I'm just outraged because my 'line of intervention' accepts that sometimes we need to be able to live the life we've got left as best we can and with our loved ones - even if we're only 13 years old.

Whatever my opinion, or anyone else's for that matter, my thoughts and my prayers are with Hannah and her family.

Nonsense

Before I say what I am about to say... I would just like to remind you that in the header of this blog are the words: "random thoughts posted in a tea break". I thought it would be timely to remind you of this statement before I proceed to post what I'm about to post.

I should probably also admit at this pre-posting point that I don't actually, currently have a cup of tea, so it cannot technically be said that I'm on a tea break, but as I'm on a week's holiday, perhaps that could count?

So, now that's all out in the open, I thought I'd just mention that I'm cooking chips and that when they're ready I'm going to pour sweet and sour sauce (the good stuff from the Chinese take-away) all over them.
Yes, that's all I have to say, but I promise that when I've eaten them I'll go and read The Times, that I bought in the Co-op this morning, and therefore try and have something a bit more profound or enlightened to say tomorrow.