Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Blue Bell Hotel: I’m not Alex Polizzi but …

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Let me say right off that the staff of the Blue Bell Hotel in Burton Agnes are as warm, friendly and accommodating as anyone could wish, and the rooms are very well appointed. For family reasons, I’ve had cause to stay there on several occasions over the last couple of years and so comparative standards have been easy to generate. The last time, earlier this month, we hit a drop in the usual quality of service, and all of it due to lack of attention to detail. The big things were right, as always, but the little things – not so much. I’m going to list … Continue reading Blue Bell Hotel: I’m not Alex Polizzi but …

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christmas, fact & fiction, flash fiction, short story5 Comments

‘Time Like the Present’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Time like the present Arthur inspected himself: shirt, pullover, trousers (with belt), and sock. Just the one sock. The other was stranded on the end of his foot like a piece of flotsam at high tide, a pixie hat of ruched wool with a holly pattern woven into it. Bugger! Arthur took a deep breath, coughed rousingly, and geared up for another assault. Rocking himself forwards in his seat, he rode the impetus towards his target, now illuminated by a sliver of sunlight angling in between the still closed bedroom curtains. Aha – a bomber’s moon! In my sights now, … Continue reading ‘Time Like the Present’

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Spirit of Enquiry conference, 2011

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I am very sorry to report that this conference has been cancelled. This is due to low levels of registration which, in turn, seem likely to be due to our lack of publicity at a key time (I was away and unable to expedite this – see link), and current pressures on clinical staff to meet necessary targets. The Trust is working hard to deliver complex services to a population of around 1.5 million people, and the present climate is not an easy one within which to operate flexibly. Front-line staff probably feel this more than any of us. Hopefully, we will be back next year. Two guaranteed invitations to present will … Continue reading Spirit of Enquiry conference, 2011

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academic, Brighton University, capacity to consent, high impact journal, Imperial College, learning disabilities, virtual world1 Comment

Using Virtual Reality to Provide Health Care Information to People With Intellectual Disabilities

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

It can take a long time to translate the uphill trek of the funding application into the enervating research you set out to do And afterwards, there seems to be an even longer trail towards placing an academic report of that work in a suitable publication.  The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) is about as appropriate a positioning as we could have hoped for, with its focus on best use of technology in the interests of health. As you might expect, JMIR does not confine its publication to dry text, and so there are images drawn from the study, and even a video tour of the virtual environment. We are … Continue reading Using Virtual Reality to Provide Health Care Information to People With Intellectual Disabilities

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Donald Sunderland Hill: a very fitting send-off

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

October 26th was a remarkable day. It was the day we hand-delivered our dad to life’s engine of renewal on his first step back to the stuff of stars. We held our ceremony at the residential home where he had lived the last year with Mum. She grasping less and less of the substance of life, and he falling foul of a need to take care of her at the expense of his own health, despite having no need to do so. The people we invited: a small group of family who had laughed with him through most of our lives; and friends who … Continue reading Donald Sunderland Hill: a very fitting send-off

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indie author, Linda MacDonald, Meeting Lydia12 Comments

‘Meeting Lydia’ by Linda MacDonald

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

To read ‘Meeting Lydia‘ is to sit in a comfy front room with the author, and listen while she tells you the story. Linda MacDonald is a raconteur, an ‘under-the-banyan-tree’, book-at-bedtime story teller, who conjures up complex images through a stream-of-consciousness narrative. Some might say there is more telling than showing, but they would be mistaken in judging this to be a fault. The telling is not exposition, not info-dumping, not tedious scene-setting. The telling is Bridget Jones; it is the internal curiosities, private debates, and mental machinations of the main character, Marianne, as she negotiates a mid-life crisis, the menopause, and a re-emergence of past horrors. If you are intrigued by relationships, by the seismic shifts … Continue reading ‘Meeting Lydia’ by Linda MacDonald

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‘….As You Wave Me Goodbye’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I don’t like being miserable. For a start, it peels at least 20 points off my IQ, and at my age, that’s too significant to ignore. Second, it makes creative thinking well nigh impossible. It closes up the essential gaps between those bubbling, spontaneous irregularities that sit in my unconscious, and the conveyor belt of conscious delivery. Third, it makes my face look like a smacked arse, and frankly, I prefer it less baggy and more crinkled, when the crinkles are herded into place by an irrepressible urge to giggle. But today I am royally stuffed. My father died last week. One of my cats died this morning. His brother is on the blink (same … Continue reading ‘….As You Wave Me Goodbye’

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