September means the Great River Race

Conveniently timed for my ride up to the supermarket this morning, the crews were beginning to launch and line up for the start of the race, all the way from Greenwich to Richmond under their own power (by oar or paddle, I think - no sign of a pedalo class yet).

As ever, the launch site looked like a colourful confusion of boats, flags and costumes whose practicability for 20-odd miles of effort looked rather doubtful.

And what better excuse justification for lunch at the Grapes than to get a grandstand view of the procession of Santas, Smurfs, sailor costumes, Dutch Marines - and someone catching a crab?

 

 

Papers, please!

Never mind what we tend to think about the way the US organises (or not) its medical care, something there seems to encourage a different sort of patient empowerment.

On one US-based forum I dip in and out of, a discussion on whether certain sorts of treatment should be hospital-only included someone's claim that:

I've never gone into an OR for a procedure (major or minor) unless I have everyone who will be working on me in the pre-op room for proper introductions, review again of complete details of procedure and documents of their backgrounds.

Imagine trying that here.