Louise, Prof/Dr

🤣 My husband has never let me forget that I fell asleep in Act 2 of Tristan and Isolde. Wittering on and on about day and night, light and dark....

I thought he was fine. I'll put it down as just a stupid thing to say

Go Italy!

Good to hear! I was lucky enough to spend a year in Vienna during my modern languages degree, and I used the Staatsoper cheap standing tickets to learn about opera. For a few quid I got to see Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Puccini, Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss....a great way to learn to love opera.

Totally! Last year they made a decision to reduce ticket prices for everyone, to encourage people to go more than once. So we went three times last summer and we've booked twice for this summer. Last year les Indes Galantes with French street dance group Structure Rualité was especially exciting.

Wishing you a speedy recovery

And no, no-one has to wear black tie. It's an unstuffy venue, people dress up but in any way they like.

These are Olena Udovychenko and her 9-year-old son Hordii.

She was an elementary school teacher in Kharkiv. He was in the second grade.

A russian missile struck their apartment building last night and killed them in their home.

Our favourite summer opera festival, the Grange Festival near Winchester, has reduced tickets for those aged 18-35, with some costing just £5 for 18-25 year olds. It's lovely to see so many young people in the audience. Booking opens Monday.
thegrangefestival.co.uk/under-36/

Forza Azzurri!
(Apologies, but I really want to see Italy do well)
#ITAvENG

I see that the 19 year old Reform UK Council Leader was on "Week in Westminster" this morning, saying 17 year olds did not have the maturity or life experience to vote

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

Such talented parents

Is a general arts degree still fit for purpose? Leaked University of Galway report said there was a ‘sustained decline’ in undergraduate enrolment for degree but what is the value of one?

I'm interviewed in the Irish Times today, pontificating on the virtues of a BA Arts Degree. We need the humanities more than ever. www.irishtimes.com/ireland/educ...

Now you've made me think of a spaniel on wheels

"Not capable of graduating?" A ton of students here and across the post-92 sector come to university through access courses, take foundation years, etc.

They graduate just fine, thanks. Tickell should confine himself to plans for a rowing lake on campus or something, if the edge needs taking off.

Article from BMJ. Excerpt here: I recently spotted a LinkedIn post titled, “Dress how you want to be addressed.” The accompanying image showed someone power dressed to perfection. It made me reflect on my own work attire as a GP. My default is more casual than smart. I know a generation of older doctors who would disapprove: I often hear GP trainers complaining about how casually trainees dress nowadays. But a recent consultation made me realise that my choice, although subconscious, is in fact deliberate. A patient and her husband described a hospital appointment they attended where they felt talked at, unable to voice their worries. They contrasted this with seeing me, saying that they could talk to me “like you are our friend or family.” That comment stopped me in my tracks. It reminded me that the way we present ourselves—our words, our body language, and yes, even our clothes—shapes the kind of relationship patients feel able to have with us. General practice, at its best, is defined by the absence of hierarchy. Yet doctors hold immense power: to label, to reassure, to prescribe, to withhold. Divesting ourselves of that power takes conscious effort. Listening more than talking is one way to do it. Choosing words that frame us as partners is another. And for me, part of that effort is dressing in a way that doesn’t command authority but instead signals approachability. I try not to look too different from the average patient who walks through my door. My clothes are one signal that I’m accessible. Some of my colleagues use their first names with patients, which works in the same way. I don’t do that—largely because mine is harder to pronounce—but I admire how it helps to level the playing field. These gestures may seem small, but they can be transformative. Patients need to feel able to bring their deepest fears to the GP, however minor, without fear of judgment.

As someone who has been a patient recently, and who has written blogs on this topic in the past, I strongly concur with Dr Rammya Matthew that we need to do everything we can to redress the power imbalances in healthcare.

From the @bmj.com.

Link:
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

#MedSky

Can Chickens Fly? The Surprisingly Complicated Truth Can chickens fly? Yes—just not far. Learn how, why, and which breeds are best at flying in this fun, science-backed guide to chicken flight.

Hens can fly. Admittedly not very far or very high, but they can.
mannapro.com/blogs/news/c...

Absolutely insupportable. Labour have a massive majority. It’s a hugely popular issue. To fail to act would be a dereliction of historic proportions, and utterly inexplicable.

bsky.app/profile/loui...

If we survive this, I really hope parents take a long look at how they are teaching empathy to their children. It's so obvious that that is the missing ingredient in huge chunks of the population, amplified by social media algorithms and cultural rewards for reactions rather than thoughtfulness.

'A Labour source said: “A slow handclap for those self-appointed strategic geniuses who ridicule Labour values and think we can afford to sacrifice our core vote by mimicking the performative cruelty of Suella Braverman.

“The dead end of McSweeneyism must be abandoned before it’s too late."'

What stick? 🙈

IG: corgis_of_happiness

I'm a vicar in a small rural village. I could never say this to my flock because of the outcry, but Reform are blatantly opposed to genuine Christian values and it's clear that anyone considering voting for them has not been listening to a single word I say each week

Nothing they talk about more in "left behind communities" than reinstalling the Shah.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

M.L. King

Oh, just the business vehicle of Nigel Farage masquerading as a political party breaching its obligations at Companies House.

But also more profiteering?

So much for cosying up to Putin

There is a place that does great veggie food in Venice near the Rialto - Osteria Zucca - and also a good vegan one rather off the beaten track, La Tecia Vegana. We went to the latter on my birthday in 2024 on an evening of acqua alta - got drenched in ankle high flooding on the way home! Happy days