HIGH MANTINANCE - 'Moi'!!!!

(pre pampering)

The hospital I'm attending for my operation was plastered all over the TV screen, and newspapers the other night!!!! 'Vermin in operating theatre's , maggots found in patients slipper', I could go on. I rang Chris an ex-colleague of mine who works as a recovery nurse, (he has fixed his shift to be my recovery nurse) at the said hospital. He told me to ignore the media, that it was just political, also that there are rats 10feet away from all of us, hidden in drains and the like.....

I can't say this reassured me any, guess my options are pretty limited. A letter from the hospital arrived this morning, confirming my new theatre date, and a pamphlet giving brief details about the hospital and items I need to take. How out of touch are these places?

(relaxed and pampered)

WHAT YOU NEED TO BRING TO THE HOSPITAL?

Toiletries-hairbrush and comb, toothbrush and toothpaste or denture cream and pot, talcum powder (what), soap with container (double what), face cloth and shaving kit.

CLOTHES- nightwear, dressing gown and slippers, day clothes, books and magazines, a small amount of money for newspapers and incidentals (how much does an incidental cost?).

I'm sure to some this will seem perfectly OK, I cannot remember the last time I used soap let alone talcum powder. Now I don't think I'm a high maintenance sort of woman, yet will admit I may have got into the habit of certain rituals concerning my cleansing.

It maybe myth that any of it holds back the wrinkles, but if it makes you feel better about yourself why not! I'm still taking all my lotions and potions into hospital with me, pampering can be healing. Maybe the boredom I've endured over the last two and a half years have made me slightly O.C.D about massaging the creams and tonics twice daily, so the stay in hospital will be no deterrent.... Also I noticed it didn't say to bring towels, there is no way on this earth I'm using theirs...

I've nowhere near finished, packing all the products I will need, they are in a flight holdall (and its nearly full). I can hear the nurses comments now........

Now in fairness it did state nightwear, no restrictions on how many. Yet it said dressing gown there was no 's,' I really do need to take three.

1- White fluffy toweling robe, for after showers.

2- Black and gold Chinese robe, to match the three black nightgowns.

3- Peach satin gown, to wear with peach nightgown and PJ's (Math bought me these from The House of Frazer sale, so I have to take them).

Must haves, MP3 player, Brain Tester (heard how anaesthetic can wipe out grey cells), mobile, do you think they will allow my laptop?????

A few of the newspaper headlines (the hospital I'm attending in red), comforting don't you think???????
Plague ... bugs and rats found in wards
It's Rottingham
THE map below shows how hospitals all over the country have been hit by repeated infestations of rodents, bugs and creepy crawlies.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in the Midlands tops the league of shame. In just over two years it had to call in pest exterminators a staggering 1,070 times.
Director of facilities John Simpson said they used two vermin control teams. He added: “As the fourth largest trust in the country, our hospitals are bigger than most others and therefore our figures should be compared with trusts with similar-sized estates rather than smaller acute trusts.”
The Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust was second with 898 reported outbreaks.
It was followed by the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which used pest control teams 857 times.

Roaches roaming children's casualty
THE shocking catalogue of cases that has come to light includes:
MAGGOTS found in patients’ slippers at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
COCKROACHES roaming the sick kids unit and a labour ward at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Kent;
RATS in the maternity unit at Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust;

It may be getting worse because of problems with rubbish collection and the general fall in hygiene standards.
It is more serious than ever because today’s greater throughput of patients means more people are at risk. Decrepit buildings aren’t to blame. New ones, if not kept clean, are liable to infestations.
Rats and mice spread diseases like salmonella, carry bacteria and increase the risk of cross-infections between wards. Cockroaches spread MRSA.
Getting staff to wash hands is pointless if hospitals are infested with vermin.

FILTHY hospital wards are crawling with rats, cockroaches, flies and maggots, it has been revealed.
Shock new figures show there were 20,000 separate infestations in just over two years.
Virtually every NHS trust in the country has been hit by the stomach-churning crisis.

Infestations ... map
And experts fear the legions of pests help spread infections in our hospitals — which are already battling superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C-diff).
Cases exposed in a bombshell dossier published today by the Conservatives include:
RATS in maternity units;
COCKROACHES found on sick kids’ wards and a urology unit;
MAGGOTS in patients’ slippers and mortuaries;
WARDS “over-run” by mice and ants.
The crisis is so bad that 70 per cent of trusts had to call in pest exterminators 50 OR MORE times between January 2006 and March 2008.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust alone recorded the most incidents.
Concerns
The sickening figures reveal two-thirds of trusts in England had problems with rats, biting insects and fleas.
Six out of 10 had suffered cockroach infestations.

Rat plague ...
Four out of five had reported mice and ants on the wards.
One in 20 had problems with maggots.
Drain flies infested operating theatres at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Fruit flies were found in a “sterile” room at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
And unidentified insects were discovered in operating theatres at Trafford NHS Trust, Greater Manchester.
The scale of the crisis — exposed by Freedom of Information requests — will raise fresh concerns about the state of our hospitals.
The Tories said the revelations would appal patients and their families.
Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Labour have said over and over again that they will improve cleanliness in our hospitals but these figures clearly show that they are failing.
“It is difficult for health service estates to maintain a completely pest-free environment but the level and variety of these infestations is concerning.
Hygiene
“We need greater transparency in NHS infection control, and publishing data like this is one way we can drive up overall hygiene standards.”
Hospital bosses last night insisted that they were doing everything they could to control rats, cockroaches and maggots.

A spokesman for pest experts Rentokil said: “Most buildings attract pests in some form or another and hospitals are no different.
“Large buildings, with many people coming and going, that can be good environments for pests. Hospitals do require ongoing pest prevention and not just pest control. People come in and out of schools and workers in offices go home at the end of the day, but hospitals look after people who can be immobile for a period of time.
“As such, pest prevention has been and will continue to be top of the mind for hospitals.”

FRIDAY FASH FICTION 55,Famous Women.

Bunnies and Prickly Backs, sweet as can be.
Rat and toad are likable too.........
Rivers and gardens, swamps and burrows:
Their homes, we're looking through.
Intrusion it's not, sharing is true.

Images we carry, from childhood and beyond.
Our children, will cherish our memories:
Of characters, brought through;
Creased pages, that refresh our memories too....

Helen Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

English author and illustrator of picture-books for very the young, creator of the characters Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and others.

Potter's popularity has shown no sign of diminishing since she created the timeless children's books.
"Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big tree" (from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1902)

Beatrix Potter was born in South Kensington, London, as the only daughter of Rupert Potter, a wealthy rentier. His father's property came from the Lancashire cotton industry.
Potter spent a sheltered childhood with her brother Bertram, who was five years younger. She amused herself by painting, using specimens from the Natural History Museum or sketching the nature in the Lake District, where the family spent summer holidays. Potter had many pets, including rabbits.
Her London home she lated described as "my unloved birthplace". Potter never went to school, but was taught at home by a governess. She learned to read from Sir Walter Scott's novels and Maria Edgeworth's works.
As a young woman she still lived at her parent's house. From the age of fifteen until she was past thirty, she recorded her everyday life in her own secret code-writing.

"Thank goodness, my education was neglected," Potter later wrote in an article, but actually she was very interested in science and spent much of her time in developing a theory of the germination of fungus spores.
As a writer and artist Potter made her debut in the 1890s when she sent to a sick child illustrated animal stories, which found their way to the publisher (Frederick Warne & Company) and this is what made her famous.
In 1890 she published under the signature H.B. P. a small book of animal drawings, A HAPPY PAIR, which was accompanied verses by Fredric Weatherley.
In 1893 Potter wrote a letter to a young friend, Noël Moore, the five-year-old son of a former governess.

The text was illustrated with drawings of animals and contained the first version of THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT, the high-spirited bunny.
Also some other characters, such as Squirrel Nutkin, first appeared in Potter's letters.

The book was privately printed in 1901, and then published by Frederick Warne and Co; the publishing company who had first rejected it.
Potter and one of the publishers, Norman Warne, engaged in 1905, but he died of leukemia only a month later. Potter turned back to her books as the one creative impulse left to her.
"If it were not impertinent to lecture one's publisher - you are a great deal too much afraid of the public, for whom I have never cared one tuppenny button. I am sure that it is that attitude of mind which has enabled me to keep up the series. Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work." (from The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane, 1978) .

From the 1905 she spent her time on a farm in Sawrey in the Lake District. Since 1905 she had owned Hill Top Farm in Sawrey, but never lived there. The following years until 1913 were Potter's most productive. She published a number of children's books with watercolor illustrations, and oversaw the production and design.

Later her works created an entire industry around them: pottery, tea-towels, soft toys, cartoon films. Her illustrations usually showed animal characters wearing human clothes, but otherwise Potter treated her characters, human and animal, without too much sentimentality.
Betsy, the fisherman's wife from THE TALE OF LITTLE PIG ROBINSON (1930), has rheumatics, and Peter Rabbit is nearly caught by Mr. McGregor, who chases the frightened rabbit determinedly.

It was important for her to write the stories both simple and direct.
When an attempt to issue THE PIE AND THE PATTY PAN (1905) and THE ROLY-POLY PUDDING (1908) in a larger format did not gain success, the original small format of the book was found best and suitable for small hands.

LITTLE Benjamin said, "It spoils people's clothes to squeeze under a gate; the proper way to get in, is to climb down a pear tree." (from 'The Tale of Benjamin Bunny')

At the age of 47 Potter married the solicitor William Heelis and gradually stopped writing. They met when she bought Castle Farm, the purchase being made through W. Heelis and Sons, an old-established family business.

She bought while engaged a larger farmhouse in Sawrey.
On her father's death, she received a substantial inheritance and in 1923 she bought a sheep farm, where she spent her last 30 years raising Herdwick sheep. Potter's marriage was happy.
She continued the life she loved best - as a conservationist, landowner, solicitor's wife, and farmer.

Her literary work deteriorated with her eyesight after 1918, diminishing gradually by 1930s. Tale of Little Pig Robinson was the only story of note to appear in her declining years.

Potter told her husband little about her life before her marriage. In a letter to a friend a few years before she died, Potter wrote that "I am exceedingly sorry for my husband. You may have noticed I am the stronger half of the pair..."

Potter died in Sawrey, Lancashire on December 22, 1943. Her home in the Lake District is open to the public. She left several thousand acres of land, including Hill Top Farm, the setting of several of her books, to the National Trust.
Potter's journal, which she kept from the age of fifteen and which was written in an elaborated code, was deciphered and published in 1964. From 1992 to 1995 an animated series based on Potter's characters, was broadcasted every Christmas and Easter around the world.

A fascinating woman, we must surly agree, not greedy, neither on any ego trip. A bloggy friend of mine as been feeling under the weather of late, so Libby this is for you and I hope it brings back some happy memories.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and remember - today is the luckiest day - 08/08/08, well at least by some folks beliefs.

Before I go I must tell you mum rang me today, I'm one happy BUNNY..........

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