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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

None of the phone numbers for the oil supplier - either on the Island or on the mainland, seem to be working now. I have an e-mail address and have contacted that to try to find out what is going on. I can only think they have some business problem and are no longer able, or willing, to supply the Islands. Bit of a problem for rural households if that is the case.
 
Fbg 6.8

I had some stuff to deal with this morning, but my morning did not go as planned, including being unable to pick up my medicines. Their medicine dispensing robot has broken down, and the pharmacy are unable to dispense any medication. They are unable either to log any medical supplies coming in because the robot takes over all the medicines on a conveyor belt to upstairs and catalogues everything itself, as well as dispensing them. All the pharmacist has to do is to stick a label on the medicine and hand it to the happy customer...
So, as a consequence with the robot lying sick and perfectly still, the whole pharmacy is at a standstill, and medicines are piled up in boxes to the ceiling. This was an innovative system 20 years ago, but robots break down...

So, I came home absolutely shattered.
I hadn't quite finished my lighthouse painting, nor my editing of the video, and I keep falling asleep.


Anyway here they are now.

Nighttime Wildlife cameras...

Badger & Fox & Cats

Cats in the same shots as foxes...
Fox steals cat biscuits off the swing...
The badger, KissyKissy, is in a I'm going to wreck Midnight's bedding mood. And steal his favourite little teddy bear.
Midnight came back to his wrecked bedding and missing teddy.
Midnight lashed out at the badger.
Then cat Marmalade came along and to add insult to injury, left his scent/wee on poor Midnight's bedding on the ground.
Midnight sits on the swing stone faced (plotting his revenge...)

Some of the bedding has been tied to the swing, but I ran out of rope...
There are another two soft toys on the swing, both tied with rope to the back of it, so the badger cannot take them. But this was Midnight's teddy bear for in the bungalow, and I am not sure how it ended up on the swing that night. But it has never been seen again...



Creative is Lighthouse #30
Painted in Procreate...

And I have become over sensitive to the sun again. This has happened before. I bought some fresh sunscreen lotion today, factor 50. I wore a very wide brimmed hat. I wore gloves...

And I am going to sleep until tomorrow...

Midnight is asleep on me...

Be good. Don't upset the robots, or they won't give you your medicines...

30CB0FA3-98AE-434B-B2DB-21C6FC00F92F.jpeg
 
Found another oil supplier - actually the old supplier which has gone through some sort of upheaval - something to do with takeovers that weren't allowed to go ahead under monopoly laws. They are now a mainland company and are not on the Islands, but they will deliver, apparently. The've confirmed the order anyway. Delivery is by 27th April so we'll still have to be careful (have to turn off the hot water so we don't run out completely and have to prime the whole system again). Wasn't as expensive as I was expecting either (70p/litre) Now I can relax.

Just a pity they didn't let customers know what was going on.
 
gennepher said:
Fbg 6.8

I had some stuff to deal with this morning, but my morning did not go as planned, including being unable to pick up my medicines. Their medicine dispensing robot has broken down, and the pharmacy are unable to dispense any medication. They are unable either to log any medical supplies coming in because the robot takes over all the medicines on a conveyor belt to upstairs and catalogues everything itself, as well as dispensing them. All the pharmacist has to do is to stick a label on the medicine and hand it to the happy customer...
So, as a consequence with the robot lying sick and perfectly still, the whole pharmacy is at a standstill, and medicines are piled up in boxes to the ceiling. This was an innovative system 20 years ago, but robots break down...

So, I came home absolutely shattered.
I hadn't quite finished my lighthouse painting, nor my editing of the video, and I keep falling asleep.


Anyway here they are now.

Nighttime Wildlife cameras...

Badger & Fox & Cats

Cats in the same shots as foxes...
Fox steals cat biscuits off the swing...
The badger, KissyKissy, is in a I'm going to wreck Midnight's bedding mood. And steal his favourite little teddy bear.
Midnight came back to his wrecked bedding and missing teddy.
Midnight lashed out at the badger.
Then cat Marmalade came along and to add insult to injury, left his scent/wee on poor Midnight's bedding on the ground.
Midnight sits on the swing stone faced (plotting his revenge...)

Some of the bedding has been tied to the swing, but I ran out of rope...
There are another two soft toys on the swing, both tied with rope to the back of it, so the badger cannot take them. But this was Midnight's teddy bear for in the bungalow, and I am not sure how it ended up on the swing that night. But it has never been seen again...



Creative is Lighthouse #30
Painted in Procreate...

And I have become over sensitive to the sun again. This has happened before. I bought some fresh sunscreen lotion today, factor 50. I wore a very wide brimmed hat. I wore gloves...

And I am going to sleep until tomorrow...

Midnight is asleep on me...

Be good. Don't upset the robots, or they won't give you your medicines...

View attachment 60426
Click to expand...
I know I'm old fashioned but I can't understand why any organisation allows themselves to be totally dependent on any automated system. C an't understand it, but I know they do. Machines break down. The older they get, the less reliable they become. The situation you describe is deplorable!
 
By
Annb said:
None of the phone numbers for the oil supplier - either on the Island or on the mainland, seem to be working now. I have an e-mail address and have contacted that to try to find out what is going on. I can only think they have some business problem and are no longer able, or willing, to supply the Islands. Bit of a problem for rural households if that is the case.
Click to expand...
One gets the impression that the system is breaking, every body locally cannot understand what's happening to the local surgery there are seldom any doctors on duty. We saw a guy from the hamlet on our walk today he has Parkinson's but his wife needed to see a doctor and it is virtually impossible to get one at the surgery and the nurses have been left to organise the work.and receception is doing the triage.
An appointment has been arranged for her at the local cottage hospital on saturday so it must be with a locum.
It looks like patients will have to go privately like the dental service.

Its sad when doctors seem to be losing the motivation to work when Helen qualified she worked in hospital initially and did a 100 hours a week.
 
gennepher said:
Fbg 6.8

I had some stuff to deal with this morning, but my morning did not go as planned, including being unable to pick up my medicines. Their medicine dispensing robot has broken down, and the pharmacy are unable to dispense any medication. They are unable either to log any medical supplies coming in because the robot takes over all the medicines on a conveyor belt to upstairs and catalogues everything itself, as well as dispensing them. All the pharmacist has to do is to stick a label on the medicine and hand it to the happy customer...
So, as a consequence with the robot lying sick and perfectly still, the whole pharmacy is at a standstill, and medicines are piled up in boxes to the ceiling. This was an innovative system 20 years ago, but robots break down...

So, I came home absolutely shattered.
I hadn't quite finished my lighthouse painting, nor my editing of the video, and I keep falling asleep.


Anyway here they are now.

Nighttime Wildlife cameras...

Badger & Fox & Cats

Cats in the same shots as foxes...
Fox steals cat biscuits off the swing...
The badger, KissyKissy, is in a I'm going to wreck Midnight's bedding mood. And steal his favourite little teddy bear.
Midnight came back to his wrecked bedding and missing teddy.
Midnight lashed out at the badger.
Then cat Marmalade came along and to add insult to injury, left his scent/wee on poor Midnight's bedding on the ground.
Midnight sits on the swing stone faced (plotting his revenge...)

Some of the bedding has been tied to the swing, but I ran out of rope...
There are another two soft toys on the swing, both tied with rope to the back of it, so the badger cannot take them. But this was Midnight's teddy bear for in the bungalow, and I am not sure how it ended up on the swing that night. But it has never been seen again...



Creative is Lighthouse #30
Painted in Procreate...

And I have become over sensitive to the sun again. This has happened before. I bought some fresh sunscreen lotion today, factor 50. I wore a very wide brimmed hat. I wore gloves...

And I am going to sleep until tomorrow...

Midnight is asleep on me...

Be good. Don't upset the robots, or they won't give you your medicines...

View attachment 60426
Click to expand...
Hug for the prescription problem and loss of Midnight's teddy. Bearing in mind all the stress, bravo on the humour about upsetting robots and the wonderfully calming creative - unless, of course, that was the whole point. As @Annb says, one would think there would be a manual override.
 
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ianpspurs said:
Hug for the prescription problem and loss of Midnight's teddy. Bearing in mind all the stress, bravo on the humour about upsetting robots and the wonderfully calming creative - unless, of course, that was the whole point. As @Annb says, one would think there would be a manual override.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
I didn't think that Lighthouse was any good, I just couldn't do it.
I am not calm yet from this morning...
I am still overtired, I just want to go to sleep against the world.
Because this saga of the repeat medicines started over a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't even get my repeat prescription. It's an online site with no contact with any human again and usually it's approved of within a couple of hours of me sending in the request.
But not this time there was four whole days when it said request pending. Then we had the Easter weekend and it was still pending. I went down to the doctorless surgery, and the receptionist said they couldn't do anything about it.

I asked to see the practice manager but he was unavailable. I came home. I tried to make another request for the repeat medicines. The automated message came back to me saying you have already requested this. You cannot make another request.

Cue total frustration from me.

It was the following day when finally it said request approved.

So I did not expect when I went in this morning that the stupid dispensing robot had broken down and I cannot get hold of my medicines at all.

I am now out of a couple of medicines and I have no way of getting them, I am running out of a couple of others. All this should not have taken so long. You're not allowed to make a request for a medicine before the date they allocated you. If you do, it says request denied so I have to make the request on the exact date... the fact that Easter came in the way, doesn't cut any ice with stupid automated robotic software. In the old days, you could write something on your prescription saying I am ordering this a couple of days early or a few days early because of Easter or because of Christmas, but now there is absolutely no leeway whatsoever...

I have been without my asthma preventative inhaler for nearly a month. What happened was the asthma nurse gave me a new inhaler, but it was out of sequence to when you could order the medicines so when I ordered my medicines I put the asthma inhaler on. But the software said it was a few days too soon to order.

So a few days later, I tried ordering my asthma preventative inhaler. But then I got the message from this stupid software that I had to order it at the same time as all my other medicines. So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

Yes, I went to reception to make a complaint about that and asked if they could do something about, but again they cannot do something about it, there's no doctor in the surgery to be able to see me to do anything about this.

I am going back to sleep...
 
Last edited:
gennepher said:
Thank you.
I didn't think that Lighthouse was any good, I just couldn't do it.
I am not calm yet from this morning...
I am still overtired, I just want to go to sleep against the world.
Because this saga of the repeat medicines started over a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't even get my repeat prescription. It's an online site with no contact with any human again and usually it's approved of within a couple of hours of me sending in the request.
But not this time there was four whole days when it said request pending. Then we had the Easter weekend and it was still pending. I went down to the doctorless surgery, and the receptionist said they couldn't do anything about it.

I asked to see the practice manager but he was unavailable. I came home. I tried to make another request for the repeat medicines. The automated message came back to me saying you have already requested this. You cannot make another request.

Cute total frustration for me.

It was the following day when finally it said request approved.

So I did not expect when I went in this morning that the stupid dispensing robot had broken down and I cannot get hold of my medicines at all.

I am now out of a couple of medicines and I have no way of getting them, I am running out of a couple of others. All this should not have taken so long. You're not allowed to make a request for a medicine before the date they allocated you. If you do, it says request denied so I have to make the request on the exact date... the fact that Easter came in the way, doesn't cut any ice with stupid automated robotic software. In the old days, you could write something on your prescription saying I am ordering this a couple of days early or a few days early because of Easter or because of Christmas, but now there is absolutely no leeway whatsoever...

I have been without my asthma preventative inhaler for nearly a month. What happened was the asthma nurse gave me a new inhaler, but it was out of sequence to when you could order the medicines so when I ordered my medicines I put the asthma inhaler on. But the software said it was a few days too soon to order.

So a few days later, I tried ordering my asthma preventative inhaler. But then I got the message from this stupid software that I had to order it at the same time as all my other medicines. So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

Yes, I went to reception to make a complaint about that and asked if they could do something about, but again they cannot do something about it, there's no doctor in the surgery to be able to see me to do anything about this.

I am going back to sleep...
Click to expand...
What a carry-on. I can't understand why there is no human contact at all and no way of actually speaking to someone who can do something about it. I feel so frustrated and angry for you. NHS is all very well when there is understanding of the role of doctors and nurses can in relation to the population. I wouldn't want to go back to the days before the NHS but I do think that the organisation has taken a wrong turn and has forgotten that it is about people, not the organisation itself. Surely a lot of the doctors and nurses are as frustrated as the rest of us. I don't know what the answer is and I'm not sure anyone else does. However, I do know that the answer is not to rely on technology which is only as good as the person designing or operating the software as well as the hardware.
 
Annb said:
What a carry-on. I can't understand why there is no human contact at all and no way of actually speaking to someone who can do something about it. I feel so frustrated and angry for you. NHS is all very well when there is understanding of the role of doctors and nurses can in relation to the population. I wouldn't want to go back to the days before the NHS but I do think that the organisation has taken a wrong turn and has forgotten that it is about people, not the organisation itself. Surely a lot of the doctors and nurses are as frustrated as the rest of us. I don't know what the answer is and I'm not sure anyone else does. However, I do know that the answer is not to rely on technology which is only as good as the person designing or operating the software as well as the hardware.
Click to expand...
It is the way things are going for everything. No human contact.
There is not even a chat bot with this.
Some chat bots are very clever AI. But as you say, any system or technology is only as good as the person who designed it, or who is operating the software.
A lot more of our personal time (than ever before), is taken up by/wasted by this 'automation' of things. It doesn't make it easier for us the human/patient/consumer/etc. When it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong. And it is incredibly frustrating, and gives one a sense of powerlessness.
When it got to the point it got to yesterday, that sense of powerlessness sends me to sleep. Until I get to the point where I can deal with it again.

You had a similar kind of problem with your oil supply, where there was no information, the telephone numbers didn't work/respond. But you did eventually find out that something had gone on and that they were now trading from the mainland, and not the island. But the information on that was not easily forthcoming.

I tried contacting my local CAB, but you cannot go in person any more since Covid and lockdowns. You are directed to a type of Frequently Asked Questions page, and then it proceeds from there...

All taking so much time again to navigate a system...and not talking/chatting/responding with a human.

And then the bot says 'How did I do?', and 'Rate me'.

I couldn't possibly hurt the bot's feelings could I?
 
Fbg 6.8

Yesterday, I had a problem at the petrol station.
I went to put petrol in my car.
But the petrol pump screen didn't reset to zero.
I waited a few seconds (the cashier usually resets it from the till).
The cashier was too busy having a conversation with someone.
So, I lifted it out of the holder. It still didn't reset to zero.
So, I placed it into my car, but didn't touch the fuel lever.
It still didn't reset to zero. It still had the previous purchase on it.
So, I placed it back into the pump, and went to the cashier.
He responded as if I were a batty old lady who had lost my marbles.
He told me to do all the things I had already done.
Finally, he came out to the pump. I went through the lot again with him there.
It wouldn't reset to zero. It still had the previous purchase on it.
Finally he said, put the pump in the car and press the lever. That should reset it to zero.
I have never seen this cashier man at my regular garage before.
I replied, "And add that sum of money to my purchase? No, I wasn't born yesterday".
He looked at me, then went back to his till, and reset the pump to zero from there.

Was this a scam, was the reset broken on the pump, what was it?

Any advice please.

I am now nervous of filling my car again.



Wildlife nighttime camera

Badger & Fox & Cats

A busy night.
The badger, KissyKissy, stands on hind legs and sniffs air several times.
It makes him look nearly 5 feet tall (about a metre and a half)...



Creative is Lighthouse #31


I am going to have a peaceful day today.
So, have your best day.
A cuppa is called for now.


6D8FD4B6-870D-409E-B3AE-15541259A833.jpeg
 
gennepher said:
I couldn't possibly hurt the bot's feelings could I?
Click to expand...
I could, and have done in the past, probably in the hope that someone might actually read the responses and do something about it. A forlorn hope, of course but it eases the frustration a bit.

I also have problems with those "I'm not a robot" quizzes. The images are so small on the screen that I can't see whether there is a bus, or traffic lights, or a "crossway" (that was what the last one asked for. I assumed zebra crossings). I did hear that the responses to these quizzes has nothing to do with security but some kind of algorithm can work out what your interests are and so how to market things to tempt you. Wouldn't surprise me if that were correct. Makes me feel a little resentful.

BG at 5 am was 12.4 and now 13.9. I've done most of my urgent chores, so that the floors can be done today, but still have the dishwasher to empty and refill and have breakfast before my cleaner comes at about 10 am. Better get a move on.
 
gennepher said:
Thank you.
I didn't think that Lighthouse was any good, I just couldn't do it.
I am not calm yet from this morning...
I am still overtired, I just want to go to sleep against the world.
Because this saga of the repeat medicines started over a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't even get my repeat prescription. It's an online site with no contact with any human again and usually it's approved of within a couple of hours of me sending in the request.
But not this time there was four whole days when it said request pending. Then we had the Easter weekend and it was still pending. I went down to the doctorless surgery, and the receptionist said they couldn't do anything about it.

I asked to see the practice manager but he was unavailable. I came home. I tried to make another request for the repeat medicines. The automated message came back to me saying you have already requested this. You cannot make another request.

Cue total frustration from me.

It was the following day when finally it said request approved.

So I did not expect when I went in this morning that the stupid dispensing robot had broken down and I cannot get hold of my medicines at all.

I am now out of a couple of medicines and I have no way of getting them, I am running out of a couple of others. All this should not have taken so long. You're not allowed to make a request for a medicine before the date they allocated you. If you do, it says request denied so I have to make the request on the exact date... the fact that Easter came in the way, doesn't cut any ice with stupid automated robotic software. In the old days, you could write something on your prescription saying I am ordering this a couple of days early or a few days early because of Easter or because of Christmas, but now there is absolutely no leeway whatsoever...

I have been without my asthma preventative inhaler for nearly a month. What happened was the asthma nurse gave me a new inhaler, but it was out of sequence to when you could order the medicines so when I ordered my medicines I put the asthma inhaler on. But the software said it was a few days too soon to order.

So a few days later, I tried ordering my asthma preventative inhaler. But then I got the message from this stupid software that I had to order it at the same time as all my other medicines. So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

Yes, I went to reception to make a complaint about that and asked if they could do something about, but again they cannot do something about it, there's no doctor in the surgery to be able to see me to do anything about this.

I am going back to sleep...
Click to expand...
That is an absolute nightmare @gennepher. It is appalling that they cannot sort this out.
 
gennepher said:
Fbg 6.8

Yesterday, I had a problem at the petrol station.
I went to put petrol in my car.
But the petrol pump screen didn't reset to zero.
I waited a few seconds (the cashier usually resets it from the till).
The cashier was too busy having a conversation with someone.
So, I lifted it out of the holder. It still didn't reset to zero.
So, I placed it into my car, but didn't touch the fuel lever.
It still didn't reset to zero. It still had the previous purchase on it.
So, I placed it back into the pump, and went to the cashier.
He responded as if I were a batty old lady who had lost my marbles.
He told me to do all the things I had already done.
Finally, he came out to the pump. I went through the lot again with him there.
It wouldn't reset to zero. It still had the previous purchase on it.
Finally he said, put the pump in the car and press the lever. That should reset it to zero.
I have never seen this cashier man at my regular garage before.
I replied, "And add that sum of money to my purchase? No, I wasn't born yesterday".
He looked at me, then went back to his till, and reset the pump to zero from there.

Was this a scam, was the reset broken on the pump, what was it?

Any advice please.

I am now nervous of filling my car again.



Wildlife nighttime camera

Badger & Fox & Cats

A busy night.
The badger, KissyKissy, stands on hind legs and sniffs air several times.
It makes him look nearly 5 feet tall (about a metre and a half)...



Creative is Lighthouse #31


I am going to have a peaceful day today.
So, have your best day.
A cuppa is called for now.


View attachment 60442
Click to expand...
I think that were just unlucky to get a rather stupid cashier. You were right not to do what he advised you to do.

Am really loving the lighthouses.
 
Annb said:
I could, and have done in the past, probably in the hope that someone might actually read the responses and do something about it. A forlorn hope, of course but it eases the frustration a bit.

I also have problems with those "I'm not a robot" quizzes. The images are so small on the screen that I can't see whether there is a bus, or traffic lights, or a "crossway" (that was what the last one asked for. I assumed zebra crossings). I did hear that the responses to these quizzes has nothing to do with security but some kind of algorithm can work out what your interests are and so how to market things to tempt you. Wouldn't surprise me if that were correct. Makes me feel a little resentful.

BG at 5 am was 12.4 and now 13.9. I've done most of my urgent chores, so that the floors can be done today, but still have the dishwasher to empty and refill and have breakfast before my cleaner comes at about 10 am. Better get a move on.
Click to expand...
I hate those robot quizzes. They are American terms/phrases. And I have to think for a second what they are asking me to look for. On a phone screen, the size is impossible, might as well play 'pin the tail to the donkey' @Annb

You need a rest after all that effort x
 
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