Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Cross-over blog: exciting but not as exciting as CSI…

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been away this week on a part business, part family trip such that the experiences, some of them quite unspeakable, straddle my two online identities in terms of blogworthiness. If you live in north America or Australia you won’t be impressed but for us Brits, a trip of 300 miles or more demands military grade attention to detail and personal fitness. This is because we don’t expect to spend more than an hour in our vehicles or encounter anything approaching inclement weather and so we are constantly outraged when that happens. Our outrage is justified because the builders of our roads don’t expect … Continue reading Cross-over blog: exciting but not as exciting as CSI…

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So why Newcastle?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

For a few months now, I’ve been conversing by phone and email with Dr Sanjeet Pakrasi who is a consultant psychiatrist in Newcastle. Sanjeet has put together a care service for people with dementia that I would like to see researched for adults with learning disabilities as it seems to have potential not just for improving care delivery but also reducing costs. At its root is a touchscreen and broadband connection between client, family (optional), and a care hub which gives people live and spontaneous access to recognisable others who are able to provide help and support. Increasingly, it is also offering entertainment … Continue reading So why Newcastle?

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Our most excellent road network

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Sussex to Newcastle – nine hours on foul, invisible roads with massive trucks and fogged up mirrors. Newcastle to Yorkshire – three hours, same performance. Yorkshire to Sussex – another nine hours, some of them in a blizzard and others idling away on the M25 in second gear. For entertainment, an unlit van stationary in lane 4 of several near Heathrow. Try pulling out round that when no one else can see it and they wouldn’t much care if they could! Extended tweet!  More to say about this trip. Back when I can say it without spitting! Continue reading Our most excellent road network

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Unexpected visitor

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

 As Basil Fawlty would say ‘Is not hamster – is rat!’ Lady rat in fact, and a fit looking one as well so I reckon she’ll be bringing the kids along soon. The birds seem unperturbed and so the inter species melee of feathered flutterings and furry scuttlings expands and contracts with reference only to some programmed circuit of visiting schedules rather than the sudden acquisition of a verminous mammal. I quite like rats. Kept a few in my time, mostly black hooded lever-savvy types, so this one’s appearance doesn’t freak me out. Can’t say the same for the neighbours … Continue reading Unexpected visitor

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Rehabilitating ‘Man Flu’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is it, take a look, a rhinovirus in all its bumpy, canyony, proliferatingly infective glory – nasty little blighter! It arrives by stealth; hanging about in the air after someone has sneezed, or lurking insidiously on door knobs, papers, tables and chairs, following the trail of unwashed hands. It gets into your nose, wrecks your cells, mucks about with their DNA, then expels itself in search of new victims. But that’s not all it does, oh no! To call it  ‘just a cold’ is to misunderstand and to minimise entirely the impact it has on every other aspect of … Continue reading Rehabilitating ‘Man Flu’

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Ah, now what…

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I was just about to post about an upcoming meeting with the innovator behind a telehealth service for people with dementia when I realised that Dem Tigerpaw will not be a part of this research if it comes off. She won’t have a lot to do with another project bubbling under either, involving digital cameras and positive psychology. There are more potential SL related projects in the pipeline so she’s hardly going to become redundant but should she be compartmentalised I wonder.  I’m for giving Dem the role of mediator or ‘front woman’  for all the tech-based research I would like to report … Continue reading Ah, now what…

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Getting the bird

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Last weekend, on the instructions of the RSPB and the BBC so who was going to dare decline, the nation counted its birds. For an hour of our own choosing on either the Saturday or the Sunday we were to sit peering into our  gardens cataloguing the wee wing-ed beasties as they dropped in for a visit. Robins – 2 of, Collared doves – 3 of, Sparrows – 4, no make that 5 of, Blue Tits – 2, 5, 3, DAMN keep still will ya! Starlings? Who’s here for Starlings? The instructions were to watch only for an hour and … Continue reading Getting the bird

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Migrating from MySpace

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Today I’m having a rationalising session and that has included coralling several of my disparate online presences (if there is such a word)  into one enclosure. WordPress has a nicely manicured lawn, tidy edgings, and neighbours with eclectic tastes so it makes sense to move in and put up the curtains. I came here on a visit from MySpace, hauling along a nascent blog offering views on the world that may or may not be shared by others. It liked what it saw and pitched its tent so I went back to fetch Dem and now I won’t get lost making my … Continue reading Migrating from MySpace

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