think it is fair to say that after 2019 an already-embattled NHS became less available than before. To book an appointment with a GP became hard. It had already been hard for years, but not this hard.

To be clear, I don’t need a GP or specialist or anything, I merely speak for a friend here.

It increasingly seems like people need “connections” or an emergency (or faking an emergency) to secure appointments due to burden on the system and financial stress (privatisation contributes to waste of NHS budget, I covered this before).

As if stands at the moment, the best way to keep healthy is to avoid getting ill (or becoming unwell), in other words prevention, not cures.

For senior people this advice is largely meaningless, even somewhat offensive and potentially a case a of victim-blaming.

AM old enough to remember Mars bars being a lot bigger (there’s some online debate about shrinkflation in relation to candy bars this week), chicken not being injected with water (to artificially increase the weight), and drinks – not limited to milk – being sold in glass bottles that could be reused, recycled etc. (Some plastic can be recycled, but glass is vastly easier to recycle).

People’s diets will continue to worsen as long as nutritious meals aren’t a priority. Rather, it’s all about maximising profits by lowering costs.

A lot of the same can be said about the effect on people’s mental health.

Instead of tackling root causes they try to sedate those impacted with “antidepressants”. That too has become a giant for-profit industry, set aside the opioids.

oday the heatwave has begun, so we plan to go to the nearby park and feed the birds. It is not a good day to stay indoors and it’s also a chance to meet the birds we’ve not seen in 2-3 months (we focus on Mayfield these days).

Sleepy has begun moulting, as it is late summer. She is sitting next to me at the door right now.

If only I realise how fan birding can be… decades ago. At least I didn’t wait ’til 70.

N the summers of 2024 and 2025 we spent every week going out to take advantage of food and unlimited drink offers at one of 5 (or 6 if one counts Trafford Centre) “Spoons” in central Manchester. We enjoyed those every time, except maybe in Piccadilly because there’s almost always some drunkard there who ruins the atmosphere for everyone around him (yes, it’s always a him). The place has extra security staff because the Piccadilly “Spoons” attract some unpleasant people. It’s about the location.

As part of the inevitable changes we decided to spend more time chatting in other settings. All the “Spoons” were phasing out mocha and chocolate anyway (new government regulations came into effect) and we were approaching winter.

Looking back at 2.5 years of weekly “Spoons”, I have fond memories. The sunny days meant sitting outside with lots of coffee and hours of constructive chats. The weather is good this August, but we no longer go out for drinks. We make better use of our time.

Ruben Schade regularly writes about coffee shops he fancy, so why can’t I?

am seeing sharp increases in food prices and this news headline from yesterday helps explain a key factor: Britain could face food shortages as drought continues, farmers warn

My dad asked me about this yesterday. Everyone can see the increases, but many politicians focus on something else.

Yesterday we purchased a great deal of fruit. It’s considered vital to organs’ function and it has gotten exceptionally expensive until or unless one knows where to find a good deal (either in bulk or as standard).

For people who are poor, a healthy diet is priced out of reach.

For more and more people food banks have become a necessity. If we have homeless people and many empty homes, our society is failing. If we have billionaires and people who are hungry, our resources and not distributed properly…

T was nearly a decade ago that we bought the above percolator, which must have prepared thousands of litres of coffee, maybe 1,500-2,000 litres. It still works. We bought it about 80% off RRP in a closing down sale of Clas Olson in Manchester.

Today, for the first time in perhaps a year, I purchased some instant coffee. The price was right and I sort of miss the hassle-free way of making coffee.

Doing it the “instant” has many downsides, especially quantities. Growing up, I felt like “instant” was the only way. Nobody was brewing coffee except “old people”.

I used to write a great deal about the lack of proper clinical trials and I was sceptical of the manic rush to skip proper, prolonged testing of stuff which was not just overpriced but oftentimes mandatory.

The shells will soon mark 8 weeks in their dedicated water tank. So far I’ve found no dead shells, so it probably went well.

Earlier today I did partial water change of the shells and they seem happy with that so far. It’s hard to interpret their “feelings” about this, harder than it is to assess the emotion of fish
e.g. stress.

Years ago I kept track of excess deaths in the UK. Maybe that has improved, maybe not. I no longer keep track of it; it has been years since I last checked. I moved on. I do other things.

The gym shut down in 2020 and a year later we altogether stopped going there (after 20 years in that gym, for me at least) despite it still being open. Life has changed so much not due to the pandemic per se but factors that changed at that time.

New ONS data came out this morning (in Microsoft’s proprietary format, as usual). 9,867 England and Wales deaths in Week 13 of 2019 compared to 11,241 in the same week this year.

It’s like this almost every week, including the prior week (12). I check this every Wednesday (for years already).

Is it OK to ask my government what has caused this very sharp increase?

Does it make one a “crank” for asking?