Praise for the NHS and thank you

It was wonderful to get out through the doors of The John Radcliffe Hospital at 4pm yesterday and hear our lurcher Pasha start backing at me from the car!

This reminds me of this little tale. That can be a dangerous but informative game to play, but I’m sure you’d like to try!
Q. How do you find out whether your wife or your dog loves you more?
A. Lock them both in the boot of the car for three hours, then when you open it up, see who is the more pleased to see you!

I would truly like to thank all you kind people who have phoned, sent a text, written and enquired about my pelvis fracture; that part of my body has never received such interest and a VERY BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.

The BBC is focusing this week on the trouble and strife within The NHS. There have been appalling photos of hospital corridors grid-locked with beds unable to get treatment, waiting up to eleven hours for attention. I have to praise The John Radcliffe and say that I could not have been better looked after. There seemed to be a massive staff, all trying to do their best and look after every body as well as possible. Sometimes you had to wait for attention, but for that there was always an apology and you just got the feeling that the workload could not be coped with any quicker. My two observations are that there was massive duplication in form-filling and if we do not continue to let foreign workers in to join the N.H.S., it will collapse in a week. Again THANK YOU to all you at THE JOHN RADCLIFFE.

With the invaluable aid of my wife Ku, all the dogs and our faithful truck, I was able to watch four lots this morning and was pleased
with how the horses looked. They and all the team here looked to have benefitted from a week off from The Guv’nor!

I thought our runners for Kempton on Friday looked especially well. Rhapando goes back to the track where he was unfortunately ‘brought-down’ a month ago and I think the step up to three miles should suit him well. The Hiking Viking makes his debut in an obviously competitive bumper but I do hide our excitement at his racecourse debut. “Tommy” is his stable-name and no horse was ever given a more fitting one, as this horse would be the ‘first over the top’ for you, never glancing left or right despite all danger.

He is a trier, learns things after doing them only once and loves his work. He has the same stature and maturity as Time For Rupert at the same stages of their lives. “Rupert” won on his debut at the end of April as a 4.y.o. at Ludlow, but it was a much weaker affair, so if “Tommy” can finish in the first four, we’ll know we have a fair weapon to go to war with in the future.