5 favourite quotations

I have been tagged by Mikayla Starstuff to give my 5 favourite quotations. Here's her list.

Here's mine:

"Never again will a single story be told as though it's the only one" - John Berger

"Had she thought there was no meaning in life, no purpose, when God had gone?...'Well there is now,' she said aloud, and again, louder: 'There is now...We have to be all those difficult things, like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us...and then we'll build...the Republic of Heaven." Lyra, In 'The Amber Spyglass', Philip Pullman

"I'm not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special
except to dare to think, and to dare to go with the truth, and to dare
to really love completely." - R. Buckminster Fuller

"Truth is my authority, not some authority my truth." - Mary Dyer

"If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever." - Woody Allen

(I was hard pressed to find a Woody Allen quotation - because I love his stuff! Partner dude and I are getting really into him - totally hilarious! Just what I need after a heavy work day.)

Now, I have to tag some people...so I'll tag Claire, Peterson, Ash, Tim and Rachie.


PS. Oh sod it, here's my 5 favourite Woody Allen quotes (6 if you include the one above):

"Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in the bath and she'd come in and sink my boats."

"I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me."

"I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick. Not wounded. Dead."

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."

"Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right."

Oops, I did it again

Patricia Hewitt says that closing beds in the NHS is a sign of success

Sack this woman now!.

If you want to know what's really going on in the NHS, find out from its frontline staff - here's my favourite round up of NHS blogs.

The one, the only, Dr. Crippen, a GP
Trick cycling for beginners - a SHO psychiatrist with a heart
Nip Fuct, summing up NHS life
Dr Rant - a collection of NHS docs telling it like it is
Hospital phoenix

Find out more about 'The Sound of Bullshit' - set to be a modern day musical classic at Dr Informed

Knit a boob for the NHS

Such is the funding crisis, that some NHS services cannot afford to buy fake boobs to teach new mothers, particularly mothers of premature babies who have difficulties feeding, how to breast feed.

So - now they're knitting their own. I kid you not - read the full story here!

Anyway, speaking of boobs in the NHS, if you're not impressed with the current Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt then you can sign the petition to have her sacked here. I wouldn't normally sign something so negative - I try to see the good in people and recognise that people have hard jobs to do and have to make tough decisions (nothing could be more true of current NHS staff, might I add, working in the face of government targets and beaurocracy, job cuts, recruitment freezes etc. One service I know of had 2 senior OTs leave, one through ill-health, and one because she sadly died from cancer, leaving one experienced, but relatively junior, OT to manage a very busy service single-handedly. Did they recruit anyone else? NO - recruitment freeze. Did they reduce the service's workload - NO - government targets must be met, and more importantly a lot of people needed OT input.)

But, Patricia Hewitt's grip on the NHS has led to the lowest morale ever amongst NHS staff, I have never heard such anxiety or angry frustration amongst people who are usually pretty robust in the face of challenges and change. Never before have large numbers of newly qualifed staff, particularly newly qualifed nurses faced the possibility of unemployement after graduation. Although it doesn't make headline news - newly qualified clinical psychologists have faced similar difficulties - incidentally, after the government (i.e. tax payers) have spent £100,000 each on our training! Never before has a health secretary been booed by nurses or pushed nursing unions so far that they threaten strike action. And still, this woman has the unbelievable audacity to say "2006 was the best year ever for the NHS". She is either lying or living on another planet - perhaps both.

This is an official petition, and you must be a UK citizen to sign it...so have a think about whether you think Patricia Hewitt's record with the NHS just isn't good enough for our national health service and sign your name here if you think enough is enough.

My only worry is who might replace her...

Ukrainian student fun

Ukrainian students' practical joke

Go on, click, you know you want to! Its very very very funny!