This evening I went to SICA on one of my (approximately) thrice-yearly blood donation sessions. I've been giving blood for about 20 years now after my wife persuaded me to start.
At the beginning I suppose I was like many people who don't register as blood donors because they think it will hurt (hardly at all really), or it will take too much time (it doesn't), or whatever. Having got over my initial reticence (helped by going with my wife the first time) I have to say I have never regretted it.
The actual process of giving the blood, from the time the needle goes in to them taking it out again, takes very little time (typically about four minutes for me). Add in the pre-donation screening checks, and the drink and biscuit afterwards and it shouldn't take more than about 30-40 minutes overall. These days it is even more streamlined as you can pre-book an appointment for a time that suits you. They're pretty good at seeing you within about 5 minutes of your booked time, so the days of waiting an hour or more seem to be long gone.
Blood donation is one of those examples of society doing what it can do so well: people getting together for a common good with no regard for reward or remuneration. Knowing that my blood will help an operation go smoothly, or that it might even save a life during an emergency transfusion, is all the motivation needed to keep going. Sometimes the biscuits are pretty good too!
If you haven't given blood before, or you used to but let it lapse, let me encourage you to start. If you simply want someone to go with you for moral support the first time then let me know. To find out more about the excellent work of the National Blood Service or to enquire about becoming a donor, have a look at their web site here. With the expected increase in demand due to this month's olympic games, they're looking to boost blood stocks, so now is an excellent time to begin.
Oh, and now they're at least one further pint short: owing to some EU regulation I was asked to wait another four months before donating. You see, last week an ENT consultant at the Freeman used a layringoscope to have a look at my vocal cords (hoarse voice, occupational hazard apparently). And because some EU countries don't sterilise their laryngoscopes properly, even though the UK does do it properly, I am still not allowed to give blood until any risk of infection has passed.
So, get down there and start giving. I'll be popping down again some time in November or December.
Friday, 6 July 2012
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Masters Old and New
Last Sunday we went with our two youngest children to St Peters and St Andrews churches in Bywell to view the 2012 Bywell Arts Festival. I should first declare an interest: both children had put an entry into the olympic-themed competition for their respective age groups. Our youngest was chuffed to find he had won and proudly carried home his prize of a watercolour set. We were really impressed with the range of artwork on display and felt there was something to suit most tastes.
What with the jubilee celebrations and the olympic torch relay our local communities have been finding all sorts of opportunities to bring everyone together. Mickley's scarecrow competition even made the national news (including a shout-out from Steve Wright on his BBC Radio 2 programme).
It has been really great seeing people of all ages joining in and contributing to all of the festivities.
What with the jubilee celebrations and the olympic torch relay our local communities have been finding all sorts of opportunities to bring everyone together. Mickley's scarecrow competition even made the national news (including a shout-out from Steve Wright on his BBC Radio 2 programme).
It has been really great seeing people of all ages joining in and contributing to all of the festivities.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Balsam Bashing
At the weekend I spent a really enjoyable couple of hours with my youngest son when we attended the "Balsam Bash" down at Guessburn in Stocksfield. The event was organised for local children by two local people (Rachel Rees and Ruth Forster) in conjunction with the Tyne Rivers Trust. Around fifteen children showed up on a suprisingly warm and sunny day and they were treated to a morning of mini beast hunting, bark rubbing, 'kick sampling' in the burn and finished with the grande finale, a balsam bash.
Himalayan Balsam, according to the leaflet provided on the day, is "an invasive non-native species which has colonised our river banks suppressing our native flora". The idea of the 'bash' is to locate the balsam growing around the river, uproot it, and stamp on it (the bash) to ensure its demise.
What the event managed to do was combine entertainment with education. My son loved kicking over stones in the burn to dislodge river fauna which were collected in nets and emptied into water-filled boxes for analysis (and later returned to the river, of course).
The children had great fun learning about the variety of wildlife living in our local river system. The balsam bash itself was not just fun and educational (for the adults too!) but was also a service to our local environment. In addition, the event allowed me to walk along a part of the burn I had not seen before and confirmed to me just how lovely our locality is.
My son returned home very happy and very wet and will jump at the chance to do something like this again. My thanks to Rachel, Ruth and the Tyne Rivers Trust for giving us something so fun to do last Saturday.
If you want to learn more about the excellent work of the Tyne Rivers Trust, please do check out their web site and find out how you can get involved.
Himalayan Balsam, according to the leaflet provided on the day, is "an invasive non-native species which has colonised our river banks suppressing our native flora". The idea of the 'bash' is to locate the balsam growing around the river, uproot it, and stamp on it (the bash) to ensure its demise.
What the event managed to do was combine entertainment with education. My son loved kicking over stones in the burn to dislodge river fauna which were collected in nets and emptied into water-filled boxes for analysis (and later returned to the river, of course).
The children had great fun learning about the variety of wildlife living in our local river system. The balsam bash itself was not just fun and educational (for the adults too!) but was also a service to our local environment. In addition, the event allowed me to walk along a part of the burn I had not seen before and confirmed to me just how lovely our locality is.
My son returned home very happy and very wet and will jump at the chance to do something like this again. My thanks to Rachel, Ruth and the Tyne Rivers Trust for giving us something so fun to do last Saturday.
If you want to learn more about the excellent work of the Tyne Rivers Trust, please do check out their web site and find out how you can get involved.
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Even your critics can be a blessing
I spent a large part of yesterday and today working on revisions to a research journal article I am writing with two colleagues. This activity was in response to comments made by the three anonymous reviewers. You see, before you can get an article published in a respectable journal it has to go through a fairly involved process of scrutiny called peer review, and this usually involves making some alterations to the text.
Of course it's always nice when people comment favourably on your work and, indeed, two of the reviewers were very supportive and were just requesting minor changes that would make the article clearer. However, the third reviewer didn't see the article in the same way as the others. In layman's terms he (or she) just "didn't get it", they did not seem to get the hang of what we were trying to say. That was, in part, understandable as the article is concerned with the application to a computing problem of a branch of conceptual mathematics that is not widely known in community that reads the journal in question. Consequently, the reviewer was raising questions that made us question the quality of our work. In short, we were quite despondent about our work's reception. Despite two very positive sets of feedback it was the third negative one that spoke the loudest to us.
We sat down yesterday to plan our strategy for responding to the reviews and, after quite a bit of discussion, we realised that even the negative verdict turned out to be a blessing. For in thinking about why the reviewer said what they did we began to see what their misconceptions were about our work and how we had still failed to make our point clearly enough. We were subsequently able to drop a portion of the text that did not contribute significantly to the main narrative thus freeing up room to provide a fuller explanation of our main points. Today I wrote up the new sections and emailed the revised article to my colleagues for their feedback. Overall, I think the new version is much better, punchier, and stronger than the original. So, whilst our first submission met with a, frankly, very disappointing reception, we were able to take the negative feedback and use it to make the article even better than it might otherwise have been. Here's hoping the journal editor agrees with us and accepts the article for publication.
 |
| Cartoon by Nick D Kim, strange-matter.net. Used by permission |
Of course it's always nice when people comment favourably on your work and, indeed, two of the reviewers were very supportive and were just requesting minor changes that would make the article clearer. However, the third reviewer didn't see the article in the same way as the others. In layman's terms he (or she) just "didn't get it", they did not seem to get the hang of what we were trying to say. That was, in part, understandable as the article is concerned with the application to a computing problem of a branch of conceptual mathematics that is not widely known in community that reads the journal in question. Consequently, the reviewer was raising questions that made us question the quality of our work. In short, we were quite despondent about our work's reception. Despite two very positive sets of feedback it was the third negative one that spoke the loudest to us.
We sat down yesterday to plan our strategy for responding to the reviews and, after quite a bit of discussion, we realised that even the negative verdict turned out to be a blessing. For in thinking about why the reviewer said what they did we began to see what their misconceptions were about our work and how we had still failed to make our point clearly enough. We were subsequently able to drop a portion of the text that did not contribute significantly to the main narrative thus freeing up room to provide a fuller explanation of our main points. Today I wrote up the new sections and emailed the revised article to my colleagues for their feedback. Overall, I think the new version is much better, punchier, and stronger than the original. So, whilst our first submission met with a, frankly, very disappointing reception, we were able to take the negative feedback and use it to make the article even better than it might otherwise have been. Here's hoping the journal editor agrees with us and accepts the article for publication.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Community and Celebration
These last few weeks have witnessed Mickley, Stocksfield, and Riding Mill coming together for some great events. There was the memorable Big Lunch picnic at Bywell Hall which, despite the chill weather, saw a great turn out of residents who all wanted to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee together. I was really impressed at both the turnout and the fact that it was a true community party. Nobody was fleeced by stalls charging over-the-odds prices for rubbish food (indeed, the catering was top notch and the prices were very reasonable), and the children got to wear themselves out on coconut shies, penalty shoot-outs, throwing wet sponges at victims in the stocks, and a fabulous climbing wall all free of charge. All in all a tremendous day.
Then at the weekend Stocksfield and Riding Mill got to line the streets and cheer as the olympic torch relay went by. Again, a great atmosphere (again despite the weather) and there was a real sense of community spirit.
However, a couple of good parties do not a vibrant and strong community make (though they are evidence of it). As Phil Butler (the Conservative candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioner) notes, every community needs people to do their part and for the legal justice system to do its part by supporting citizens to take a stand.
Whilst Mickley, Stocksfield, and Riding Mill are by many standards safe places to live, we still face our share of challenges. Some (such as the current debate over parking charges or littering) seem minor in the grand macro-economic scheme of things but contribute to affect our everyday experience (sometimes in the way that a slow drip of water will eventually erode away a large rock) whilst others sit right at the heart of how our community will grow or decay in the coming years (local jobs, affordable housing, etc.)
Some of these issues require the input of government, both national and local, but others can be addressed by people in the community taking action. We don't need a council to pick up that piece of litter we spy on the pavement. Anybody can call the council to report an overflowing bin.
What else would you like to see the community doing for itself?
Then at the weekend Stocksfield and Riding Mill got to line the streets and cheer as the olympic torch relay went by. Again, a great atmosphere (again despite the weather) and there was a real sense of community spirit.
However, a couple of good parties do not a vibrant and strong community make (though they are evidence of it). As Phil Butler (the Conservative candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioner) notes, every community needs people to do their part and for the legal justice system to do its part by supporting citizens to take a stand.
Whilst Mickley, Stocksfield, and Riding Mill are by many standards safe places to live, we still face our share of challenges. Some (such as the current debate over parking charges or littering) seem minor in the grand macro-economic scheme of things but contribute to affect our everyday experience (sometimes in the way that a slow drip of water will eventually erode away a large rock) whilst others sit right at the heart of how our community will grow or decay in the coming years (local jobs, affordable housing, etc.)
Some of these issues require the input of government, both national and local, but others can be addressed by people in the community taking action. We don't need a council to pick up that piece of litter we spy on the pavement. Anybody can call the council to report an overflowing bin.
What else would you like to see the community doing for itself?
Monday, 30 April 2012
"Ken Livingstone is right: it's him or Boris Johnson. That's why I'm voting Boris" – Telegraph Blogs
Ken Livingstone is right: it's him or Boris Johnson. That's why I'm voting Boris – Telegraph Blogs
I found this article by Dan Hodges on why, as a Labour supporter, he will be voting for Boris rather than Ken on Thursday a very interesting read indeed.
I found this article by Dan Hodges on why, as a Labour supporter, he will be voting for Boris rather than Ken on Thursday a very interesting read indeed.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Geocaching: 21st century treasure hunting
Recently I took our two youngest children out on our first geocaching adventure. Friends of ours have been doing it for a while on the other side of the country so I thought we'd give it a go. First of all, what is geocaching? Essentially, it's a treasure hunting game for the 21st century. The folks at geocaching.com describe it as:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)