Trolley 631

Another trolley from the Kokoro passage, this one from Waitrose. A one pound coin was present in the lock, but it seemed a bit mean to recover it on return to its stack by chaining it to another. Speaking for myself, I usually carry no coin about with at all these days - having got out of the habit when payment by card took over during the plague - and having to provide one to release a trolley would be an inconvenience. Indeed, I carry coin so rarely, that I had forgotten that one pound coins are faceted these days, rather in the way of the old three penny piece, until I had occasion to handle one the other day.

Learning this morning, that faceting comes and goes. It was not always thus.

Having returned my trolley, continued around the Ewell village anti-clockwise, picking up a small, aluminium washer on the way to add to my collection, slightly saucer'd by use.

Just by the turning into Ewell Village, I ran into the author of reference 2, also out for her constitutional.

And then a bit further down, the foody-fest operation which has morphed into a bar was open, offering both craft beer and wine. No takers when I went past and while I was tempted, I decided that I had had enough the day before and abstained. Plus it was a bit early these days for that sort of thing. We have used them on at least one occasion in the past, taking tea and coffee for consumption on the premises and some kind of cured pork - not, I think, saucisson sec - for consumption off.

PS 1: on present showing, I should have no trouble making 700 trolleys this year. I may yet make the 1,000 before I retire.

PS 2: on checking my email this morning, I find one from Medscape covering references 4 and 5. With the depressing answer to their question being yes. Leading Tories do not like the NHS, which is bleeding profits away from private enterprise, but do not think it electorally prudent to say as much. However, starving it, in this case the primary care sector, of money will steadily push people into private care, a lot of it of US origin, a place where health care is both very patchy and notoriously expensive, eventually leaving the public service as the last refuge of the poor and needy. And, lest we forget, those same Tories fought hard, along with large chunks of the medical profession, to block the creation of the NHS back in 1947. Luckily for the rest of us, they failed.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-630.html.

Reference 2: Great lords of the sky: Burma's Shan aristocracy - Sao Sanda Simms - 2017.

Reference 3: http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journals/ahp/. Reference 2 can be found here. Asian Highlands Perspectives - with the highlands in question being mostly those of Tibet.

Reference 4: Is the British Government Eroding Primary Care on Purpose? - Andrew R. Scott, Medscape - 2024.

Reference 5: Why Can't I See My GP: The past, present and future of general practice - Ellen Welch - 2024.