Nurses, Excuses, and a Dying Machine's Last Gasp

Hi folks, I'm sorry it hasn't been any posts for a while but all being well I'll make up for it in the very near future. I don't ordinarily plan to post at the weekends in any case but this last weekend was mostly taken up with dealing with my mother who has been taken poorly. Monday I spent working on volume 2, sitting here at my desk and writing de novo straight to the screen which is something I that don't usually do; as those of you who are regular visitors will know, I usually work with pen and paper outdoors and then dictate to the computer by voice of recognition at a later date. Anyway, new ideas were coming thick and fast and so I kept putting off going out and eventually I realised that it was the wee small hours, and that my laser augmented eyesight (for which I am still paying in terms of occasionally dry eyes) was fast blurring and my speech stumbling (no I wasn't drinking - honest). My intention was to be up bright and early yesterday morning and hit the blog running before going out with an old schoolmate; the restrictions on life caused by my Barnet (Barnet fair, get it? hair) transplant having been lifted as of yesterday, I had decided to celebrate in a pleasant old alehouse in Camden Town. I can imagine what you're thinking; lazy old bastard. But I did actually get a bit of writing done and another couple of small steps closer to the publication of volume 2. This morning as is typical for the after a hard day's boozing I was indeed up bright and early am raring to set to work - unfortunately my computer had other ideas. It greeted me with a reluctant graunching and grinding on startup, the screen flickered momentarily into life and then went blank as the whole thing went ‘tits up’ and shut down. Several more start-up attempts were greeted with the same response before finally it relented and booted up. I'm sitting here now presiding over a piece of junk that quite honestly is sounding like an old arthritic farmyard tractor. I expect it to pack at any moment - especially now that I've slagged it off! Typicaly, today I have received several very interesting e-mails so I think to be on the safe side I'll turn my attention to answering those, dictate in a bit of the stuff that I wrote yesterday and then return to the blog entry if, and it's a big if, the machine is still running by then. It would seem to be a power supply fan fault and it will take some time for me to acquire a new power supply and change it over. My backup machine, my laptop, lives over at my fiancee's place and I expect to be seen her until Thursday night so if this machine does finally give up the ghost then my next post probably won't be until sometime Friday but if so I will make up for it by adding some stuff over the weekend. I'm going to risk loading up one picture though, that might be of interest to some of you: after weeks of searching through an enormous database of vintage glamour pics (for my own collection and inspiration purposes) I was just thinking how odd it was that although schoolgirl uniforms seem to feature quite a lot and there are even one or two maid’s uniform to be found I hadn't come across much from the 1950s to 1970s featuring a nurse's uniform or even something that could possibly be taken as one. Then today, some kind soul who must remain anonymous posted me the picture that now graces the top of this entry. All right, so it may or may not be a nurse’s dress but it's close enough and it's nice nevertheless so my thanks go out to anonymous-3 as I shall call him (or her - I do have some female correspondents). Your pictorial contributions are always welcome and right at this moment I am particularly looking for illustrations featuring nurses carrying or wielding a cane or tawse or similar. Yes I know there are a few out there on the net but I'm talking about authentic nurse’s uniforms here - true I have attempted one or two photo manipulations that I have featured here in the past but I'm not that good at it and also you can't beat the real thing I don't think. I am I'm going to go now as I am pushing my luck with this machine as it is -it is groaning and complaining even as I write this.

Incredibly I've just returned to my e-mail only to find that someone, who for now I shall call anonymous-4, has been reading my mind and has sent the three pics above.

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Okay, so they don't feature the above mentioned implements of discipline but taken in sequence they do seem to be telling a story... don't you think? I'm not sure what it is (you fill in the gaps, it's more fun that way) but there's definitely something going on there but its a shame it is not in a more institutional setting - perhaps it's a waiting room and full admission to the institution awaits behind an innocent looking wood panelled door.

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Why not write up your version and I'll post it prominently here next time. I really am going to have to go now this thing is going to pop it clogs any moment, I'm sure!!!