Expensive and of low quality

Though there are many things I like about England and our life here, I think it is a fair comment to say that most things are expensive, and of an insufficient quality to justify the expense: Housing is slipshod; plumbing is atrocious; restaurants a gamble that is often not worth the money; car repairs legalised theft; and the list goes on. Today people are talking about cancer survival rates. The UK spends an average of £1,500 (around $3,000) per person per year on NHS (National Health Service) costs, roughly three times that of Poland, and yet the survival rates are about the same. I don't know what the U.S. spends, but it's survival rates are the best in the world. I am not so surprised at that: I have often said that if I ever had a really serious disease, there is nowhere I would rather get treatment than the U.S., though also there is nowhere I would rather NOT have to pay the resultant medical bill.
It is funny--I always rated Japan's medical system as extremely poor: I consistently had very poor experiences with mis-diagnoses, extreme arrogance, high cost (the equivalent of around $1,800 per person per year), and very poor education of doctors, who are selected directly out of high school based solely on grades and test scores into medical schools. However, the NHS has surpassed some of the problems I saw in Japan. Getting treatment, even on private health insurance, for even fairly acute conditions like a broken finger, took me six weeks. Cancer can progress fairly quickly, so this waiting time is likely one of the major factors in the poor showing. Doctors don't seem to have the mentality of following up, and really 'owning' a patient like a doctor in the U.S. would, making sure that 'their' patient got the treatment they need, in a reasonable amount of time, even if it wasn't themselves giving the treatment. Japan suffers this as well, but it is much more surprising in the UK, where you must always see a GP before getting any type of specialist treatment. The difference is that in the US GPs seem to see part of their job as not only medically examining and giving an opinion, but of insuring that the patient gets the right medicine, sees a specialist that can help them, and does whatever is needed to get WELL. UK GPs do not seem to see their jobs in the same way. They don't really seem to care if someone has a cold for four weeks, has a high fever, and is really miserable. Sorry, but you have a cold. No medicine to lessen the misery, no real kind words of encouragement, and an attitude of 'whaddya want anyway, you have a damned cold fer Chrissakes!' Ditto my experience with severe knee pains after running a half marathon. My US GP would have talked to me about how to avoid aggravating it, might have referred me to a coach that she knew of, if it had gone on too long would have spoken to me about surgical options, and so on. My Japanese doctor gave me a cortisone shot in the knee and told me not to run anymore, which I wasn't really happy about, but at least it was something!
The NHS is often held up in the U.S. as an example, along with the Canadian system, of the perils of socialised medicine. And it should be. It is easily one of the most expensive and lowest values for money of any in Europe! No, it is not just the pub meal that makes you question what exactly it was that you are paying for!

Lazy Summer

I had high hopes for this summer: A nice holiday in some beautiful European holiday spot, lovely sunny weather at home in England, a bit of camping and fishing with my son, perhaps a garden party in our back garden...
Hah!
The holiday was judged (by me) to be unwise at the moment, because the dread tax man will be along any day to take a big wad of my hard earned, the result of a screw up by my employer in how much PAYE (pained as you earn) tax I paid last year.
The lovely sunny weather has not materialised, with 90 mm of rain falling in a mere 6 hours last month and creating some rather severe problems. (see YouTube for some cool footage).
Camping was rather out, as the result of miserable conditions, as was fishing.
The weather, I will put it down to, has caused a certain malaise in my motivation to do anything whatsoever in my back garden, which now resembles a weed patch. An example of the sort of effort having a garden party in the rain involves can be seen by my colleague Darren's party photos, below.

The summer, what there was of it, is now nearly over, and not a lot has happened.
I am, however, going to Lisbon the day after tomorrow for some 'team building.' The sun, luckily, does know how to shine there, apparently, with 33°C temperatures. Bon dia Portugal!
The Frengle-Izawa household is somewhat upset by this summer in general, and the Izawa contingent rather upset that I alone get a sort of whatchamacalit...HOLIDAY! Ok, ok, it is work...that is certainly what I will be telling myself while we are yachting and drinking Vino Verde. I did actually try to get tickets for son and wife, but this is high season, the upcoming weekend a 3-day weekend, and tickets were not to be had for less than £250 each.
Ah, well, I will try not to feel guilty, though my Catholic-Jewish early education seems to have effectively ruled out EVER not feeling guilty...
One knows that payment will likely be extracted in autumn, quite possibly in the form of a trip to Euro-Disney...

Mid-Year Resolutions

Today, finally, I did my Barclaycard and personal expense reports. I had nowhere near the number of months piled up as the last time I got around to doing them (11 months), and like that time, I have received no notices telling me to hurry up and do them (which I am supposed to receive, and which, without, I can't be cautioned for not following rules), but I nonetheless feel like I want to get these kind of things under control. August is holiday month in the U.K., so half the office seems to be away. That, combined with the fact that our office flooded two weeks ago, and the part of our job has always been to support conferences and meetings, but that we no longer have any available meeting facilities (they were under about two feet of water for a couple of days, which ruined the floors and all of the network and electrical wiring under them). Actually, I will post some pictures, which is more informative.

Anyway, I got all my receipts in order, labeled the file folders, cleaned my desk, and...promptly dumped this on the desk of our team assistant, Anita, to deal with. Still, it is definitely dealt with.
I also signed up for a Pose Method workshop in September. I had been practising this method, and doing training sessions with a personal coach a few times. However, the gym was drowned, so I haven't had a place to do training for a bit. My tummy is expanding, and I need to get into shape, so I signed up for the London workshop. That is one thing: Pose is meant to help you run better, and injure yourself a lot less, but it is not easy to just pick up and do, and training is essential. Dr. Nicholas Romanov, the inventor, is doing the session, so it should be good.
I next need to clean my room (which resembles some of the pictures above), do something about our disgusting back garden, and figure out a holiday for my somewhat complaining wife. Complaining because we don't have a holiday planned for the summer. The HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, formerly known as the Inland Revenue) apparently believe that I owe them some money, as a result of incorrect PAYE codes being used by my employer. Until I am sure how much that is, and have it paid, I don't want to drop the minimum of £1,000 it seems to take whenever we go on holiday. Getting this taken care of, too, should be near the list of priorities...
Ah, the lazy days of summer...

S.E.X.

Tonight I watched Die Another Day with Christopher. I didn't get home until fairly late, and we hadn't done his Kumon homework by 9, and before turning the TV off before doing his homework, we had seen it on. He wanted to see it, so I used that as the motivation for him to hurry up and finish his homework. You know--Hurry up and finish your homework so you can see it. Meiko has become quite the geek, and was busy doing e-mails and reading Japanese news online, in the kitchen, where we have the computer, and didn't, apparently, notice the time.
Anyway, there was a scene in the movie with James and Miranda Frost (played by Rosamund Pike) getting it on, though nothing graphic at all, just the usual suggestive kissing followed by both characters sinking down in to the bed, and then a cut to James getting out of bed.
As we lay down to bed, Christopher asked me
"Dad, is it true that men and women do S-E-X (spelled out rather than said) to make children?"
He is nine years old! Japanese and innocent! I told him that it was true. Well, of course his next question was expected.
"S-E-X is gross! Did you and mom do it to make me?"
"Yes," I told him, "we did. "
"Ooh, but you are hairy! Did you really do THAT!?"
"Yes. "
"Dad, that girl in the movie died, right?"
"Yes, because she was a baddy, and Jinx killed her with the knife," I recalled.
"Yeah. Why did James do S-E-X with her?"
"Uhmm...he is quite well known for doing it with lots of women, at least one in each movie."
"So he must have a lot of children, like 5 sons and 7 daughters or something."
"Well, it is a movie..."
"But I guess if the woman dies first she won't have any children."
"It doesn't always result in children. Maybe only one in 20 times or so."
"Oh..."
"Christopher, where did you hear about this stuff?"
"Zach, of course. He is my BEST friend!"
"Uh huh."
"And he taught me some bad words, as well."
"Like what?"
"Well, like F-U-K-E-N."
"Hmm..."
This conversation was entirely in English, quite an accomplishment for Christopher, who has only been speaking it for a little more than a year. However pleased I am with his command of the language, however, it has proved a bit of a shock in terms of subject matter, and raised a few questions: How likely is it that Christopher's spelling will continue to fail him in such words? How likely is it he will continue to think it is gross? Where did he get the idea that fat, hairy gits like me wouldn't be getting any? So many questions...

Balloons over Basingstoke

Here is a slideshow of the Balloons over Basingstoke event that Christopher, Meiko, and I went to last weekend. On Friday night, was the 'night glow' event, which are what you can see in the first bunch of pictures (sorry they are grainy--I was using my phone's camera, and it was on night shot). Christopher and Meiko and I went back the next day to see all of the balloons fly, but it was too windy for them to fly, so they just inflated, but didn't fly. It was still really cool.