Age ...

...or maybe the title should be "Can't see the wood for the trees" - go to my last paragraph to see the reason!
I was sitting happily on the allotment with a cup of tea made by my Fellow Allotmentor when I got a message fro Friends daughter - the hospice had a bed free so could I take them in. Oh what a relief for everyone. I've visited the two children  hospices used by my pupils so know how excellent they are - havens of peace and love and gentle caring. When I was looking to leave my job I always looked at their job vacancies as thought the experience of working there would be so rewarding. 
The hospice in Plymouth is just as wonderful as the childrens ones and near to the first school I worked in when I moved down here from London, so in my old stomping ground. Friend was no sooner in her bed than observations were done, interview with the nurse and then the Dr. Could not believe my ears when the Dr said morphine would not touch the pain from bowel cancer - all these months and only now someone is saying this? What the hell have her consultant, GP and community nurse been playing at?  However, letting that go because Friend is now being held, as is her daughter. We knew the tumor was telling her brain she needed the toilet, and now she is on meds to stop that message being sent/received and it's working already! 
I left them once she was settled, her daughter is staying overnight with her. Took me ages to get home as 4 car crash on the bridge going from Devon into Cornwall - no casualties just rear ending! There was time for me to get indulgent food from Waitrose for my tea and tubing for my new fish light, then boots on and up to allotment. Gave felicity her Antibiotics - getting quite good at injecting the girls! Then stopped at friends to give her cat some food, had a cuddle too - she is getting used to being held by me - they don't pick her up as they say she doesn't like it - Pah! In my book animals need to get used to being handled as who knows when you have to do so to give them meds!!! Well she lay against me comfortably for ages and even purred! That could be because I had just given her wet food which she doesn't often get. Cats are so easily won over! Finally home to eat and watch mindless TV! 
It wasn't quite the stress free evening i had in mind - I had lit a fire in my front room and suddenly noticed my kitchen and hallway were filling with smoke - but it was not coming from the front room! I rushed outside to check the chimney was not on fire, nope, not mine or either of my neighbours. Yes I have new neighbours! Noticed the Sold sign when I got home and they started doing things to the house that very night! I checked the 2 blocked off fireplaces upstairs and the brickwork in the attic where the chimney is. Middle floor smelt of smoke but no sign of smoke. I have no idea where it came from or what caused it - maybe they had lit a fire next door and it was seeping in through the brickwork? I will call the chimney sweep next week just incase it is something to do with my chimney - see what happens tomorrow night when I light the fire! 
I intend to have a thoroughly relaxing weekend now Friend is being given  the best of care - the relief for her, her daughters and everyone else is immeasurable :-D  

I am now going to have a rant and you may not agree with me! 

My blip is from the hospice - felt like a good counterpoint to yesterdays title of "Youth" and also was reminded by another blipper wondering why there seemed to be so many people suffering with cancer. I had looked up the answer to this myself - cancer research UK says it's due to old age - well the way they phrase it " our risk is increasing ...as most of us are living longer." I'm sorry but Friend is not old and neither are and in many cases , were the people I have known. I know for a fact that Devonport in Plymouth where the Nuclear subs are,  have daily leaks, and that the rates of certain cancers are higher than the national average, as they were in the two places I used to work as they were next to Gatwick and Heathrow airport. Also the number of children with asthma was phenomenal - every primary class had asthma policies and boxes in which the children put their inhalers and were taken to whatever area they were in. Our land, sea, air - our environments both natural and physical are polluted, nuclear leaks and explosions beyond count - yet this has no effect on the incidence of cancer? How stupid / gullible  do they think we are? Cancer Research UK notes how Lifestyle can impact on our risk - but mention those things we do to ourselves by eating too much red meat, smoking, drinking, being overweight and sunbathing. The reasons  are  laid at our own feet. I know our detection is better so of course more people are diagnosed in consequence, but for me all this is far too simplistic and easy to explain away and ignores the fact that industry, companies and governments are also responsible. I don't see cancer rates falling until that fact is recognised and addressed.