HOSPITALS

I have just come back from visiting my Mum in hospital in the U.K. Fortunately for me, I have only rarely been in hospital during my life. Once, when I had my tonsils and adenoids out as a child; and once, in 2004, when I broke my arm in a cycling accident. I remember the latter, since it happened during the Barcelona Olympics, and I could watch sport all day on the TV.

What struck me this time was how complex an organisation a modern hospital is. The main hospital in Derby, where she was being treated, is new and vast, the size of a modern airport. There are endless corridors and lifts and stairs and parking areas and shops; and so on and so forth.

The ward she was in had 28 beds. Those 28 people were looked after by at least that number. Not just doctors and nurses, but physiotherapists, occupational therapists, cleaners, caterers, quality control executives, porters, psychologists and volunteers. And others whose job I couldn't work out. All seemed to spend vast amounts of time writing things down in files, meaning, in turn, that they actually spent very little time talking to my Mum.

They say that there is a very strong correlation between the amount of care and attention you get in hospital and the speed with which you get out of it. Given that, the trend in modern public life, whereby you have to write down and justify everything you have done, seems a bit self-defeating.

Walter Blotscher

DOC MARTENS

Doctor ("Doc") Martens are a particular type of shoe. The key thing that makes them different is the rubbery/plastic'y sole, which I presume is (or, at least, was) patented. Back in the 1970's when I was a lad, they mainly made boots (bovver boots in the jargon). Originally intended for dockworkers, construction workers and others who had a heavy manual job, they became appropriated by skinheads, who wore them to football matches and used them to beat the crap out of the opposing team's supporters if they got the chance.

Skinheads and bovver boots went out with punk and non-seater football stadiums, and Doc Martens changed too, making shoes as well. I liked them, since I have flat feet, and the sole is very good in that regard. I started off with the ox-blood ones, which I wore during the 1980's (and unfortunately got stolen), and then bought a pair of black ones, which I have had ever since.

Now, belatedly, Doc Martens have arrived in Denmark, and have become a bit of a fashion item amongst the young, particularly teenage girls. My trusty pair were beginning to look a bit shabby, so I bought a new black pair when I was in England this week. The only real difference from the shoes of 30 years ago is some yellow stitching around the top of the sole, otherwise they are just the same as they were back then. Needless to say, my street cred with my young mathematics students has just gone up a notch or two.

Walter Blotscher

SWAN LAKE

Classical ballet, like opera, is a bit ridiculous. It's either very thin women with huge feet and a tutu, or very muscular men in tights and small jackets. And idiotic plots. But the combination of the dancing and the music can be fantastic.

If you were going to watch a ballet for the first time, then you'd be hard pressed to beat Swan Lake. Tchaikovsky's music is simply wonderful. And although the plot is all about spells and swans, it doesn't really matter.

The Danish Royal Theatre has done a deal with cinemas out in the sticks, whereby we can show three live performances a year for three years; an opera, a play and a ballet from each season. They are transmitted via our satellite dish, and we split the revenues. We showed Rosenkavalier and Romeo and Juliet in the autumn, tonight it was the turn of Swan Lake.

I thought we might get a full house, but was still surprised by how many people wanted to come. In the end, we had to turn some away, and we three "employees" had to sit on the steps. The technology, both sound and vision, was excellent; the customers loved it (plus the free champagne in the interval). And all for kr.165 a head.

Walter Blotscher

MY MUM (3)

My Mum is not very well, and is in hospital in England with broken bones. I am going to visit her tomorrow, and will not be back until next week. So no blogging for a while.

Walter Blotscher

PANDAS

Pandas are an old species. Old in this sense means more than 5 million years old, and pandas are reckoned to be around 8 million years old. However, they have changed markedly during that time. They used to be carnivorous, but are now almost wholly herbivorous, eating just bamboo.

They are also pretty useless. There are lots of different types of bamboo, but pandas are picky, eating just one of them. Their digestive systems mean that they can only extract about 20% of the bamboo's nutrition, making it imperative that they don't exert themselves too much (one reason why they sleep so much). They are hopeless at reproducing, being not very interested in mating and giving birth to babies, which are essentially premature. Many panda mothers lack a maternal instinct, meaning that they reject their offspring. And so on.

The one thing that pandas have going for them is that they look really cute, appealing to human emotions and leading us to protect them. Indeed, if it weren't for humans, pandas would probably be extinct by now.

When in Chengdu, I visited the national panda research and breeding institute. It was morning, so the pandas were fairly active, meaning that they were eating their fresh bamboo, specially brought in from the mountains. Then they rolled onto their backs or climbed into a tree and went to sleep. As I say, cute but useless.

Walter Blotscher

CYCLING (3)

Today I went for my first cycle ride of 2015. Not very far, a mere 15 km or so. I felt terrible at the end of it, though happy that I had finally broken my duck.

Walter Blotscher

SPRING

When is spring going to arrive? On Tuesday it snowed, and it is still freezing at night. I am getting bored of winter.

Walter Blotscher