Author Archives: James - Page 17
To the Brink of Death (part 2 – into hospital)
I spent a chunk of last week in hospital, part 1 was about becoming unwell, this is about my experience as a patient going into hospital. As a caveat I was deeply unwell and don't have total recall. I'm doing this from memory a week out aided by various pictures and messages on my phone. I tried to get my observations (obs) and share them with my wife as we went along. Into Hospital We went the back route to the hospital, avoiding the roadworks and also giving Tracy a chance to drop me off in front of the Emergency Department before parking. I went in on my own, as I approached the reception a large board informed me that there were three patients waiting to be seen in ED and that the average wait time was 48 minutes. That…
To the Brink of Death (part 1 – becoming unwell)
I am back from the brink of death thanks to the heroes of the NHS who pumped me full of industrial quantities of antibiotics and other drugs when I felt unwell last week. This time last week I was in hospital, overnight on Wednesday I was so ill that if it hadn't been for the medical intervention there is a high chance that I could have died. My temperature was over 40C and my heart rate was over 120. My blood pressure was really low. I got IV fluids, oxygen and antibiotics injected into me. However that's not where the story starts, and we should start at the beginning. Demolition Job The old shed in the aftermath of demolition and its contents (photo: James Kemp) On Monday afternoon my wife and I set to demolishing our old hut. This was…
The Last Hundred Days a Hundred Years On
Wednesday 8th August 2018 marks the hundredth anniversary of the start of the last hundred days of the first world war. Although the Hundred Days Campaign didn't actually last 100 days, it was five days short! The last hundred days are a little studied period of the war, and that's a shame because they represent the high point of the transformation of the British Army. In 1914 there were 100,000 regulars organised as an Imperial expeditionary force. By August 1918 there were millions of men under arms operating in a recognisably modern fashion in large scale operations. Mobile combined arms, not mud and blood Canadian vehicles preparing to move forwards during the Battle of Amiens 1918 (photo: Yukon Archives, Canada) There is a totally different narrative, Britain was the main participant in the allied campaign. Three British Armies (which included…
Real Family Holidays – Slapton [Review]
The back garden in the real family holidays centre in Slapton, Devon (photo: James Kemp) The Field Studies Council (FSC) run what they call Real Family Holidays in their centres across Britain. The idea behind real family holidays is to get back to enjoying nature and being outdoors. It certainly works for our family. There are several FSC centres that offer real family holidays around Britain. We went to Slapton in Devon, where they have two locations in close proximity. There are some in Wales, the Lake District and in Scotland. Real Family Holidays Real Family Holidays have a back to nature, organic recycling feel to it, although no hand knitted cardigans or sandals. The idea is very much around sustainability and people interacting with each other and with nature. Real Family Activities Low ropes at the Real Family Holidays…
Sticky End [Flash Fiction] [WW2 SOE]
Sticky End is my flash fiction for the first round of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge this year. The first round was last weekend and the group I'm in were assigned a spy genre story to be set in a prison cell and featuring glue. The story had to be under one thousand words and written within 48 hours. (Last year I wrote Down the Harbour and Burning to Leave for the 2017 flash fiction challenge). I spent a bit of Saturday thinking about it, the hard bit for me was trying to work in the glue naturally and believably. Some help from Google showed me that the WW2 Special Operations Executive (SOE) used to include tubes of bostik adhesive in the containers that they dropped to the Jedburgh teams. The bostik was used to camouflage improved explosive devices…