David Brice

What a few days I have had ! I have visited 3 different hospitals in 4 days because I was struck down with kidney stones. I have to say, however, that I have nothing but admiration for the NHS staff I encountered and whilst sometimes I had to wait several hours without anything happening the overall service I had I can’t fault.

It all started on a Thursday morning and I was driving down the M1 motorway. I had stopped at Wooley Edge Services near Wakefield when suddenly I was hit with really bad pains around my kidneys and stomach. After 10 minutes the pain had got even worse so after taking advice from my wife, who is is in the medical profession, I agreed that she would call an ambulance. I did attempt to put on the brave manly face but deep down I knew that I couldn’t drive and I needed help. If you ever have the misfortune to have kidney stones then you will probably need medical attention quickly and you will need pain relief urgently.

Anyway, the first response paramedic arrived and hooked me up to lots of equipment and carried out some basic tests. At this point the pain was so bad that I was throwing up in the car park but I was oblivious to anything going on around me !

Five minutes later an ambulance arrived and I didn’t take much persuasion to get into the ambulance. On the way to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield I was given gas and air as pain relief but it barely took the edge off the pain. I arrived in the A & E department and there was no hanging around I was given some pain relief and after about 30 minutes I was pain free and felt ok. The doctor said I needed an x-ray so off I went for that. Later on I was told I needed an IVU (Intravenus Urogram). This I was told is where  a dye is injected into you and then x-rays are taken at various times throughout the process and it is possible to see any blockages with might be caused by a stone. This took about an hour but when the results were checked there was no sign of any problems.

Later that day I was discharged but after two more bouts of pain I admitted myself to the A & E department of Leeds General Infirmary and again I was given pain relief. LGI is a teaching hospital and I can tell you that it pays to live near to a good hospital because LGI has a CT Scanner and I was put on the list for a CT Scan. This is a futuristic looking machine that only takes about 2 minutes to scan the affected area. The results of the CT Scan showed that I had a 3mm kidney stone, so I can say that the CT Scan is far more powerful and accurate than an IVU x-ray !

I was then taken to the specialist urology department of St Jame’s Hospital in Leeds and stayed there overnight. After more pain and pain relief I managed to get rid of the stone naturally which is great because I did not fancy any surgery !

All in all it was a painful experience but I have to say that all the staff I encountered from paramedics, A & E staff, doctors, nurses and even the tea ladies were great. I can’t fault them at all. They were thoughtful, caring and they made me feel special. So, well done and thanks to the NHS.

In the UK we do have an excellent health service …. I can vouch for that as I saw 3 different hospitals in 4 days !

DavidB Personal Stuff kidney stones

Spring is in the air and it’s a bright cool day so I decided I needed a walk. Horsforth is a nice suburb of Leeds but it’s not all houses. You can, as any Horsforth resident will tell you, find some nice rural views and at the same time take in a bit of local history. For those that know the area here is the route I took.

I headed down Newlay Lane and towards the River Aire.  When you reach the river there is a footbridge called Pollard Bridge. I took this photograph and you will see it’s very old. The plaque says it was built in 1819 by John Pollard. I can remember driving across this bridge which was a short cut between Horsforth and Bramley, but it was closed to traffic many years ago.

After you cross the river you head up the hill towards the Leeds/Liverpool canal and then I walked along the canal towpath towards Calverley. There are plenty of interesting sights. I took a photograph of some canal boats moored up. The route along this part of the Leeds/Liverpool canal is quite rural and you are actually walking between the canal and the River Aire. The canal towpath winds past old industrial buildings and several canal side houses. You also walk past a nature reserve.

As the crow flies Liverpool is about 60 miles from Leeds, however, if you were to go by canal boat, cycle it or even walk it using the canal or the towpath you would end up travelling 122 miles ! I haven’t personally measured it but to prove it I took a photograph of the mile marker which is on this part of the Leeds/Liverpool canal.

Eventually the canal towpath reaches the Leeds outer ring road. Steps lead up to the road and then the traffic noise hits you and it’s a constant stream of cars. You go from relative calm to one of the busiest roads in Leeds. When you walk up the Leeds ring road towards the roundabout at the A65 you realise how fast cars are travelling, especially going up the hill.

This is a photo I took of the River Aire from the bridge on the Leeds outer ring. It is one of the busiest roads in Leeds but this picture makes it look quite rural.

You also cross the Leeds to Ilkley railway line at this point. It’s good to get out and walk around your local urban area. You notice things that you don’t see whilst driving. One of the things that struck me was the amount of litter. Plastic bags, cans, plastic bottles and even carrier bags full of rubbish that lazy people have just dumped. It’s appalling. All this rubbish looks like it has been there years which begs the question as to who is responsible for cleaning it up.

This is the Leeds outer ring road. It is one of the busiest roads in Leeds with a constant stream of traffic, although this photograph that I took doesn’t really show the amount of traffic that this road has.

I took  photos of some of the litter and rubbish that I saw, but they don’t show the full extent of the problem.

DavidB Personal Stuff Horsforth, walk along leeds/liverpool canal

I started working from home over three years ago. I have a little office with two phones and a desktop PC. My office is a bit smaller than I would like but it’s good enough. I can remember when I had to do the daily commute into Leeds city centre. It is only about 5 miles from my house. Outside the rush hour period it takes about 12 to 15 minutes to drive to the centre of Leeds. Driving that same distance in the rush hour  takes at least 30 minutes. All it takes is a minor accident or an obstruction and the whole area can grind to a halt. The problem is that there is too much traffic and the roads are not good enough to cope with the amount of traffic, so it does not take much to reach crisis point.

When you add snow to the equation it makes matters even worse. I can remember driving home from work about 15 years ago and it took me about 3 hours to go 5 miles ! Luckily we have not had much snow over the last few years, but this Monday especially was fairly bad, but I have seen much worse. There seems to be this mentality as well that when it snows more people use their cars rather than use public transport. I can see their logic to an extent. It is better to be sitting in your own warm car listening to the radio rather than sitting on a smelly bus with nothing to do. This, of course, adds to the problem as there are then more cars on the road.

So, it is times like this that I feel smug sitting in my little office at home. I look out of the window and I can see drivers struggling to get grip in the icy conditions. They rev their cars up thinking that the faster their wheels go the more chance they will have of keeping going. I don’t have any worries about getting to work, so I actually have started to like snow now. Yesterday, I even walked out to the shops. I put on my thick socks and walking boots, scarf, hat and gloves and off I went. I didn’t have to worry about not making it to my destination. The shops are only about 400 yards away. I didn’t slip in the snow and I had no trouble getting out of my driveway !

So I say bring on more snow. We don’t see it very often. I think it is great. I do feel sorry for you Londoners who yesterday couldn’t get to work because the bus drivers decided they didn’t like snow, but when you look back on it you will be able to laugh about it and that is just what we all need at the moment !

DavidB Personal Stuff working from home

It’s at least 15 years since I last went ice skating but when I was asked if I wanted to support the Woodhouse Grove Ice Skating event I said “Yes”! The nearest ice skating rink to me is in Bradford. It’s a throwback to the 60’s and hasn’t changed at all since the day it was built. I have only been ice skating about six times in my life so I am not an expert but I can get round!

So, I managed to get my boots on and stumbled onto the ice and was nearly bowled over by a 10 year old wiz kid going at 30MPH. Hanging onto the side I plucked up the courage to push myself off and glided a few yards, arms flailing everywhere as I tried to keep my balance. I thought to myself Yea, this is good, I’m a natural, so I set off again in a straight line. It was soon time to turn a corner and this is where it started to get a bit trickier as I don’t know how to turn but somehow I managed it and I was off. After a couple of laps I was getting more confident and would have been ready for the TV show Dancing On Ice if I had been asked.

But the inevitable soon happened. I had only been thinking to myself that I had never fallen whilst ice skating and before I knew it I had lost my balance and had landed heavily on my right arm. The most difficult thing though is getting back up. I must have looked as though I was struggling because another 10 year old wiz kid skated up to me to ask if I was ok. I said I was ok but in actual fact my arm was throbbing but the worst thing was that my confidence was shattered. I knew that if I fell on that same arm again I would not be happy, so I decided that I would call it a day. My time on the ice was done and if I did get asked to do the Dancing On Ice show I would be saying NO!

Here I am on the ice. It’s a bit blurry..sorry

DavidB Personal Stuff ice skating

With news everyday of shops and businesses closing and a prediction that unemployment may rise to 3 million I thought that I would share my experience of redundancy with you.

For many, redundancy can be unexpected but I suppose that I was lucky in that I knew several months before that my office was going to close. I worked for a large insurance company and as often happens someone decided to amalgamate two offices into one. I had the choice of moving to Birmingham or London or taking redundancy. After 23 years working for the same company since leaving school I took the brave decision to take redundancy and take a chance working for myself. I’m not quite sure why but I decided that I would do something completly different so I started a travel agency. I knew a bit about travel (I had been to Spain a few times !) and before long I found myself sitting in front of a computer taking phone calls from people wanting cheap holidays and flights. It was a very fast learning curve, but the one thing I knew was that I needed to give the very best customer service. That’s what I had learnt in my previous job and I figured that if my travel knowledge was lacking I could make it up with excellent customer service.

In most jobs you pick up skills that can be used in other businesses so you don’t have to stay in the same line of business as you were in before. Although it is difficult, you have to stay positive and regard the situation as an opportunity to do something different. For most people the loss of income is the main problem when losing their job. The mortgage has to be paid, so the first priority is to get some income coming in. My advice would be to take whatever comes your way as you can always leave, but during that time start to think about what it is that you really want to do.

It’s amazing what can be done just working from home with a computer. I was only reading today that a woman started writing horoscopes for magazines after her husband lost his job. She had always been interested in horoscopes so she started writing and also she knocked on some magazine doors and to her suprise several magazines were interested. She now earns a living writing horoscopes. There is an endless number of opportunities for home workers and if you have an interest in computers and the internet it is relatively easy to set yourself up with a small online business.

It’s always a good idea to think ahead. If you think that there may be a chance of redundancy why not put your toe in the water and start that online business that you always wanted to do and run it in your spare time. If you do that you can guage what the chances of success are and also it gives you a head start in the game.

I didn’t know what to expect running a business, but I was confident that it would work. I booked family and friends and did some advertising and the phone started ringing. After 9 months of working from home, we opened a high street travel agency and then we moved into large spacious offices and employed at its peak about 12 people. Our business grew without really trying but then we hit a brick wall in that the market changed and sales started reducing. Like everything, travel is a very competitive industry and the market has been swamped with start up’s. The big players also sell sometimes below our net price.

Despite the problems I regard it as all part of learning about business and life and I am glad I did it.  There are ups and downs and as the saying goes – Crises happen to everyone, but it’s how you handle them that counts!

Running a business is certainly not boring. You have to live and breath the business and the first few years can mean long hours and family sacrifices. There is no guarantee of success but you won’t know unless you try.

For me redundancy worked out ok, although, of course, that can all change, but it can in any job. Sometimes I wish I had a ‘proper job’ where I didn’t have to worry about doing VAT returns and so on and I sometimes wish I was part of a bigger team, but I am glad I set up on my own and I would do the same if I had to relive that part of my life again.

DavidB Personal Stuff cheap holidays, online business, redundancy

Did I tell you that I know David Cameron? Ah, well I do, but so do about 50 million other people in the UK! He has just emailed me to wish me a happy christmas and to tell me how he will get the UK economy moving again. He doesn’t want to “save the world” like Gordon Brown but one of the things he wants to do is to get money to small businesses so that they can start investing in this country’s future. In the UK there is a huge number of small businesses and I agree that they should be supported. Anyway, I thought that you would like to see David Cameron’s email to me, so I have copied it word for word below.

“Dear David,

When the financial crisis happened, I made it clear that the Conservative Party was ready to put aside party differences to help bring stability. That’s why we supported the recapitalisation of our banks.

I also said that we would not suspend our critical faculties over this Government’s calamitous economic policy decisions – decisions that helped not only cause this crisis by encouraging government and personal debt to spiral out of control, but could also make the recession deeper and last longer.

That’s why we have set out a positive alternative, starting with immediate action to tackle the credit problems at the heart of the issue.

It’s clear the recapitalisation is failing to restart lending to the real economy, so we’ve proposed a National Loan Guarantee Scheme to underwrite loans to businesses.

It is vital that this £50bn proposal – which has been welcomed by the business community – is taken forward by the Government right now.

I can’t promise it will save the world, but the sooner the Government swallows its pride the sooner we can get credit flowing again, and help Britain’s struggling businesses.

Conservatives have always understood and supported businesses, we know what they need to prosper.

We also recognise that they make a difference not just by creating wealth, offering employment, and paying taxes to fund public services, but by making their money in a moral way, treating their employees right, strengthening communities, and playing a positive part in society.

So we don’t see the financial crisis as an excuse to bash capitalism, we see it as a challenge to make it work better in the future.

As well as better regulation we need to reinforce the values of trust, integrity and responsibility – with strong institutions, and incentives to do the right thing.

And just as importantly the Government should lead by being as prudent with the public finances as we expect banks to be with private finances, and by being as moral and responsible with the public purse as we expect business to be with consumers’ cash.

That’s what a Conservative Government would do. Let’s hope we get a chance to have one in the coming year.

Thank you for all your support, and have a very Merry Christmas”

DavidB Personal Stuff conservative party, david cameron

I have been driving a Nissan 350Z for the past 3 years. Prior to that I had an Audi TT and before that I had a Nissan 200SX. I generally lease my cars and last Friday the 3 year lease finished and the car had to go back. I had only done 11,200 miles in it in 3 years and I haven’t replaced it yet, so until I do I will have to cycle everywhere! The Nissan 350Z is a great car. Mine was the soft top version, with the GT pack, which included heated leather seats and a Bose sound system. I’m sad to see it go and would get another one if I could.

Here is a photogragh I took of my Nissan 350Z…I hope she goes to a good owner.

DavidB Personal Stuff Nissan 350z

1. Work at something you enjoy and that is worthy of your time and talents.
2. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Believe that anything is possible and be persistent, and you will achieve.
5. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
6. Try to constantly improve yourself.
7. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige but on relationships with people you love and respect.
8. Be decisive even if it means that sometimes you will be wrong.
9. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for your own life.
10. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life you will regret the things that you didn’t do more than the things you did do.
11. Save money even if you are on a modest salary.
12. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
13. Be generous.
14. Have a grateful heart.
15. Commit yourself to quality.
16. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
17. Be loyal
18. Be honest.
19. Take good care of those you love.
20. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your mum proud.

DavidB Personal Stuff secrets of happiness