…is not to be recommended as a regular leisure activity.

I had to go to the local hospital today to get my eyes checked out and was told not to drive to the appointment.  I did, of course, but with a backup plan involving the Wife if required.

I duly arrived and was taken to a wee room (only an hour after I arrived!) where the nurse put some drops into my eyes and told me this was to “numb” my eyes.  OK, now I’m getting concerned…what the fuck were they going to do to my eyes that needed them to be numb?

So then she drips some other stuff in my eyes apparently to dilate my pupils.  Back to the waiting room for the call to see the doctor.

As I sat there, with this very weird sensation building in my eyes, I looked around and saw a room full of old, sad, tired and thoroughly fed up people, in some cases, obviously succumbing to dementia.  It got me thinking again about lifestyle and why my live now, fuck tomorrow attitude is so frowned on.  The saddest for me were the old men.

Maybe we’ve got used to seeing old women but I just found the situation the old men found themselves in particularly sad.  Most couldn’t see and many were deaf and all looked weary and ready for going.  What is the point in living to the point that it’s just a series of miserable events?  Handfuls of drugs every day, clinic visits all too often and terminal ennui in front of increasingly pointless TV.

Turning food into shit doesn’t appeal to me as a full time occupation, particularly when the machine that does the processing is on its last legs.

Fucking smoking bans and health natzis everywhere yet if we all took their advice we’d simply live long enough to be one more of these poor, sad old souls filling up the outpatient clinics all over the country.  Fuck it, I’d rather live how I want now and if I die 5 years earlier then so what.

So half-an-hour later the doc calls me through and does all kinds of stuff to my eyes.  Didn’t feel a thing and the diagnoses was good.  No problems…false alarm.

Out in the waiting room I assessed the situation and was told that the anaesthetic affected people differently and it would probably be OK to drive if my vision wasn’t blurred.  It wasn’t - I just felt like my eyes were twice their normal size.

I decided to go for it.  The plan was that the Wife would come and get me if I couldn’t drive but I felt confident that I could see OK.

Out into the car-park…

…Jesus H Christ it’s fucking bright out here!

It was like staring into a huge spotlight and it didn’t help that today was a glorious bright and sunny autumn afternoon!  I’d forgotten about the second set of drops - to dilate my pupils!

I got to the car, squinting like a…well you decide for yourself, and sat there in a complete whiteout.  I must have looked like the wee chap in the picture.  Anyway, it felt like that.

So I sat like a twat for a couple of hours until the worst of it wore off.  I was, of course, too fucking stubborn to call the Wife as I’d told her I’d be fine and to stop making a fuss.   On with the shades and home in one piece.

Anyway, interesting experience but not really one I want to repeat if at all possible.

It’s taken me a couple of days to calm down after the result in the Glenrothes by-election!

What were you thinking of people of Glenrothes?  Not only have you voted for the most disreputable, lying, cheating and dangerous party to have taken power in this country, you voted for the most useless, idiotic candidate I’ve ever seen standing in an election - nothing more than lobby-fodder for the New Labour project.  After Margaret Curran in Glasgow East that takes some doing.

Of course, the stinking pile of shite that purports to be the “Scottish” press didn’t help by issuing Labour propaganda as “news” on a daily basis with video headers to boot.  The Glasgow Herald is probably the worst for this but the Scotsman and the BBC are little better.  As for the red-tops in Scotland they just are not interested unless there’s a football angle to the story!

The Labour candidate, Lindsay Roy, spend the whole campaign wittering on about reserved issues that he will NEVER have any influence over and I sincerely hope he lives to regret it - even now his website has a banner declaring “Stop SNP charges & cuts”.  FFS the only reason for charges was because the Labour Party brought them in and the SNP/LibDem council had no alternative as the previous Labour council had left things in a desperate state.

I also heard nothing about the Labour councils that have also had to levy charges or the fact that they applied to a tiny minority who can well afford to pay them or that 1000 more of the poorest benefit from free services as a result.

If Mr Roy is the best that Scottish education has to offer then God help us all.  Inarticulate, lying, bumbling and by his own admission “not a politician” - why the fuck was he standing for election then?

I feel very sorry for the population of this constituency who have suffered under Labour councils since the Second World War.  They fell for the lies, deceit and scaremongering fed them by the scum that pretends to be the party of the working man aided and abetted by the corrupt press and media in Scotland.

Roll on the next General Election.  With any luck Labour will be deep in the shite by then as their idiotic, self-interested “policies” finally collapse around them.  England will vote Tory in their millions and Scotland will suffer once again…

…UNLESS we take the initiative ourselves and vote for the only party that has the interests of Scotland at heart, the SNP.

I will concede that Alex Salmond should have kept his council before the election.  His pronouncements that the election was won probably did appear to be arrogant by some - I’m sure he will learn from this as he is obviously the only competent party leader in the whole Scottish Parliament.

SAOR ALBA

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Scots ‘higher’ on happiness scale.

You know, a lot of people have been noticing a change in Scotland over the last wee while.

I can’t put my finger on it but there is definitely a feeling of optimism around.

Unlike the rest of the UK house prices are rising, if only slightly, and employment is growing.

We’ve seen the SNP make a pretty good job of things so far given their very slender 1 seat lead.

I was impressed by the sharp contrast between the professional SNP campaign in Glasgow East and the hapless pish that emanated from the Labour camp.

They deserved to lose just on their performance in the campaign let alone for the graft and thievery they’ve all indulged in.

So yes, although I wasn’t asked!, I think I am a little happier for being in Scotland these days than I have been for a while.

I’ve often said that I’d like to live to see an Independent Scotland and I’m beginning to think it might just happen

This says it all!