The UK has the worst statutory paternity leave in Europe, and it’s putting parents off having more children, a survey shared with ITV News has found.
Oh dear! The poor things.
Who’s choice is it to have children? Obviously not the government.
So why should they, and ultimately, us have to bear the costs.
https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/story/full_page_image/14th-october-2025-page-17_4f4607e0/content.html
A councillor has said more needs to be done by police to tackle speeding and anti-social driving behaviour across Fareham.
It’s not just Fareham that needs the additional focus. Here, in Waterlooville, we are also plagued by antisocial driving and speeding.
Councillor Pal Hayre is right to be asking for more measures to be put in place, but they need to be county-wide. Thats just me being parochial, this is a countrywide problem.
It’s all very well expecting the police to do more but they need the resources. They need more feet on the ground, more wheels in the street.
Aka The Pink Lake, near Port Gregory, WA. Hutt Lagoon is Australia’s Most Unique Lake
Hutt Lagoon, or the “Pink Lake,” is a marine salt lake in Western Australia, famous for its vibrant pink color caused by the Dunaliella salina algae and high salt content
When we arrived the lake was a beautiful pink colour. Then the wind got up and the colour disappeared. Thankfully, the wind dropped away.
Today, Thursday 28th, we are heading up to Sunset Beach, WA, to visit our rellies, my grandson and his family. And we are looking forward to seeing our three great granddaughters, for the very first time.
We have just pulled in to the roadhouse at Cataby, making a pee stop, where these beautiful flowers are enjoying the sunshine.
It is almost as if they are cheering us along our way.
The WA weather is also behaving itself. The sky is blue and clouds white and fluffy. Not the dark and brooding ones that have filled the skies around Perth for the last few days.
Earlier this year my daughter lost her husband. Anyone who has lost a partner will know what a difficult time this can be.
Over and above the funeral arrangements there are many administrative and bureaucratic tasks to be fulfilled. For the most part, banks and insurance companies, local councils and utility companies, know what has to be done and execute the processes efficiently.
And then there is Exetel and, subsequently, Superloop.
These companies have displayed a singular level of ineptitude that defies belief.
Over the last four weeks my daughter has contacted Exetel to explain that her husband has died and that his credit card, to which her broadband account is tied, has been cancelled. She has explained that she wishes to keep the account, just transfer it to her name so that she can take over the payments.
She has contacted Exetel via telephone and email. Has provided proof of identity as well as other supporting documents.
She has been handed off from Exetel employee to Exetel employee over three weeks. Despite their promises, not one of these people has taken ownership of this issue, neither responding to emails or returning phone calls as promised.
On Friday there was a light bulb moment. Albeit a dim one. One of the Exetel employees explained that my daughter had to make a new account application via Superloop.
Superloop are the parent company of Exetel. And, if you go to their website, it tells you that they cannot supply broadband services to my daughters address. Which is strange, as they have been supplying this service for several years.
To continue, on Friday my daughter fired up a new account with Superloop. She had requested the same services and also confirmed that her (VOIP) telephone number would be transferred
Imagine her surprise when later that evening her landline (VOIP) stopped working.
So, yet more phone calls to find out that her phone number had stayed with Exetel even though the broadband had transferred.
By then, at the end of the Friday fiasco, Superloop had created a separate, dummy acount, in my daughters name. Supposedly, this was to allow Superloop to capture the phone number.
My daughter was promised that Superloop would call her on Monday, during which they would merge my daughters new account, with the dummy account, to return things to normal.
And so, here we are on Monday afternoon and, surprise surprise, no phone call from Superloop. My daughter has called them to find out what is going on. More confusion as they seem unable to find any record of the dummy account. My daughter is now back to waiting for Superloop to sort things out.
Meanwhile, my daughter was just checking her husbands email account.
Exetel have sent an email stating that his account has been closed and how sorry they are to lose him as a customer. But they just wanted to let him know that he is now liable to a charge for the early closure of the account.
Needless to say, this has triggered another phone call to point out that he didn’t leave Exetel, rather, they booted him out, that they would not be getting paid. In order for them to forgo this payment, my daughter has now been requested to send a copy of his death certificate. This she has done.
By the way, the clown at Exetel, despite moments earlier, having been told of his death, asked to speak to to account holder.
We are now awaiting the next episode of this unnecessary saga.
My daughter cannot be the first person to have gone through this process.
Did they go through the same degrees of stress and upset that such a simple request has caused?
Like I said, Incompetence? or Stupidity?
We have been in WA for nearly a month now. Having travelled out from the UK to support our daughter following the passing of Steve, her husband.
Up until now, our time has been filled with preparations for the funeral and general mundane household shopping trips and, most recently, collecting Steves ashes from the funeral home.
To be honest the weather hasn’t been the best but yesterday we managed to get out of the house for a couple of hours. This is the first time that a trip out hasn’t had a purpose. By that, I mean it was, just to get some fresh air, for a change of scenery.
We opted to drive down to Rockingham, forty odd kilometres south of Perth, to walk along the foreshore. After a forty-five minute drive, we found ourselves on the prom.
The sun was shining, and the sky was blue, and with a temperature of 20°C it really was very pleasant. We had already planned to have fish ‘n’ chips, and so it was we found ourselves sitting in the sunshine enjoying an al fresco lunch.
Freshwater Cobbler in crispy batter with crispy but fluffy chips. The Cobbler was a first for me. The lady who served me in Nae’s Seafood & Grill informed me that it was a kind catfish. It was very tasty, but it’s not Cod or Haddock. However, it did hit the spot.
Then, it was time to head back along the prom and back to the car. And, after a forty minute drive home, we were soon sitting in the lounge with a very welcome cuppa.
The brisk, but not unpleasant, sea-breeze definitely blew away the cobwebs we had accumulated.
Shame the weather forecast for the next few days shows a temperature drop and plenty of rain and thunderstorms.
Not far from my daughters house, there are these pretty lakes.
On previous visits, they have been all but dried up, muddy pools only suitable for hippos.
However, there have been days of wall to wall rainfall interspersed with beautiful sunny days. As a consequence, the lakes are perhaps a little over full.
I took these photos yesterday while out walking the dog.
It’s 19th May, 2025 and I have an appointment with an oncologist. This is to discuss potential precautionary chemotherapy following my hemicolonectomy at the end of March.
I am introduced to Dr Mutheramalingam, known as Dr Ram.
He seems to have done his homework, as he tells me all about the various conditions that I am receiving treatment or surveillance for, including Prostate Cancer, Type 2 Diabetes, and possible Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). And, of course, not to forget the main event, T3 N1b Colorectal adenocarcinoma, the reason I am in his office.
Dr Ram procedes to explain the situation i.e. the positive results of the surgery and that the scan prior to surgery had not shown any signs of cancer elsewhere.
Interestingly, he mentions that the lesion on my lung seems to have disappeared. This lesion was strongly suspected to be Prostate Cancer, and is the reason I have been on course of regular Prostap injections. We discussed the possibility of my no longer needing the injections but he wanted to defer that discussion to my Urology consultant.
Dr Ram then went on to describe my chemotherapy options, which appear to one of two.
It seemed to me that option 1 only giving an additional 2% and also introducing the risk of liver damage was not a good deal. Also, the regular visits to hospital for the chemo infusion was not very appealing, given the many medical appointments I have had since diagnosis of the tumour.
I have therefore opted for option 2, the self administed tablet only chemotherapy.
Bearing in mind the positive results from the surgery we, the medics and me, don’t know for sure if I have any cancer in my body. This chemo, being precautionary, may not actually buy me any more time.
Since that initial oncology meeting I have started the chemotherapy regime having been prescribed Capecitabine. I have just completed my third cycle.
Capecitabine comes with a whole range of potential side effects which include the following:
Appetite loss, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Nausea, Stomatitis, Abdominal pain, Fatigue, Weakness, Hand-foot syndrome, Oedema, Fever, Pain, Headache, Hair loss, Dermatitis, Indigestion, Shortness of breath, Eye irritation, and Myelosuppression.
So far, after nine weeks, I am only experiencing fatigue which manifests itself by me dropping off into a deep sleep with little or no warning, usually when sitting quietly reading of watching the TV. Thankfully, this does not happen while I am actively involved in something.
In the first week or so I did notice, thanks to my smart watch, that my heart rate was spiking quite high. That is I was hitting over 130 beats per minute with no apparent cause whereas prior to commencing the chemo it was rare for my heart rate to go over 80 bpm. I contacted the oncology department and they told me it was probably my body getting used to the chemo. Certainly, the spiking has reduced, both in frequency and magnitude.
So here I am, cycle three completed. What now?
Well, due to a family issue I have had to travel and will be away from the UK for three months. This means that continuing with the chemo is problematic. Because of the type of drug that Capecitabine is and the need for regular blood tests, they cannot prescribe sufficient doses in advance for me to continue the regime.
Apparently taking a short break from the chemo is OK but two to three months may be too long for me to restart when I am back in the UK.
So I am exploring getting access to the local medicare here in Australian so that I can then see a doctor and hopefully get prescriptions for Capecitabine and also the requisite blood tests. There is a reciprocal health insurance arrangement between the UK and Australia but this might just be too complicated to manage.
I have applied to join Medicare and I am hoping that having been previously been accepted it will be pretty much a rubber stamp exercise.
We shall see!
Finally, the big day has arrived. Today is the day I am to have my tumour removed.
I’m due at the hospital at 06:30. I have been told that I am the only patient on the list, so I am hoping that means first into theatre. No hanging around.
So my next post will be after my procedure when I am compos mentis again.
It’s funny how it seems to have taken a while to get to this point, but in reality, it has been just over three months, from diagnosis to surgery.
If all goes to plan, I’ll be in theatre for about three hours. Then, after time in recovery, I should be on the ward in time for tea. Although I doubt I’ll be in any fit state to eat and who knows what diet I’m going to be on.
I’ll see you on the other side.
WrAnTz 