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| Dr. Hugh Tildesley |
We
are now into our second week of unrelenting sunshine and record temperatures. I
am surprised that LA man Hamish cocoons himself in our cool basement waiting
for the sun to go down and temperatures to drop. As he goes for his usual nighttime
walk I look carefully that his dental work is intact and that he is not wearing
a cape.
These
temperatures are not good for chemo man, I need to keep up with fluids and so
far it has been incredibly challenging. Like Hamish I stay out of the sun and
keep cool. Golf is ill advised under these conditions. I have to admit the
temperatures and the chemo have sapped me somewhat. I met with Dr. Wong today
and we have come up with a few strategies to mitigate against side effects,
which include fatigue and early satiety.
The
past few weeks have seen many cards and letters arrive. I am touched. I
apologize that I cannot answer them, but that should not be considered a lack
of appreciation.
I
love reasons to celebrate. Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, special
memories. Canada falls into that category. It was a busy day.
I
was to have played golf in the morning but demurred due to the heat. I did go
to the club, as we were to celebrate George Seslija’s birthday.
A
little background. George moved back to Vancouver from Toronto about 8 years
ago. He had been a longtime friend of Kurt Aydin, and joined our group on a
regular basis. George is a very good player but a better dresser. After a few
games with him I introduced a new $5.00 reward (those who play with me know I
will offer $5.00 rewards for difficult shots etc., they are not bets, the
recipient keeps the bill if he executes a called shot). The new reward was
called the “ Georgie”, awarded to the best dressed on the first tee. He won the
first 8. As this process progressed, the group changed. Russell bought some new
hats, abandoning the salt stained, faded caps he usually wore. Butler began
wearing the latest samples given to him by high end manufacturers, Slugger got
his treasured Scottish sweaters out of mothballs, unfortunately Aydin insisted
his tacky red belt and red shoes was some how fashionable (needless to say he
never won a Georgie). Now on the first tee there is in fact some preening as
lobbying occurs for the reward.
George
is serious about many things but clothes are near the top. He is a Harry Rosen
customer, he does not shop there, he has his clothes tailor made by Harry.
The
group gathered and awaited George’s arrival. As he made his way to the table,
dressed in a red shirt, red belt and white shorts he was in full Canada dress
code as were all at the table. George does not walk, he saunters, he will often
stop to greet and shake hands with his fellow members. At times it is as if he
was on a modeling gangway. As he sat down, staff presented the table with a
bottle of Veuve Clicquot and his birthday was toasted. This formality
completed, AJ Papp played “Dedicated Follower of Fashion “by the Kinks from his
iPhone.
Simultaneously
he and I sang aloud a particularly colorful verse:
Round the boutiques of London Town,
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and trends,
His gift from the group was a
rare bottle of Gin and designer martini glasses to honour his favourite drink.
He did not need to say a word, the smile said it all.
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| Donovan entering Bird's Nest Stadium Beijing 2008 |
Canada remains very important, especially having had the honour to attend 3 Paralympic Games as a team member and accompanying Donovan as the 2008 flag bearer.
That evening we had a Canada
Day dinner. Catherine decorated the garden, and the whole family pitched in for
a meal of flank steak and lobster tails. We had Bruce and Christine Arroll join
us along with Drew and Alice Thompson. The Arrolls are from New Zealand but
spent a number of years in Canada as Bruce pursued studies complimenting his
MD. He is a highly successful researcher and well published.Our children played
together frequently and still remain in touch. The Thompsons are of course long
time family friends and in fact their daughter Emily graduated from medicine in
Auckland and the Arrolls were incredibly helpful in both her and her husbands
career. Emily and her husband, both MDs, and now in residency programs are
doing well in their adopted country. Why they are not welcomed back to Canada will
be the subject of a future rant.
Round 3 of chemo starts on
Monday, there are few advantages to the poisons but I have noticed that
mosquitos that bite me quickly nose dive , succumbing to acute chemo toxcicity.
What follows is not required
reading:
I have time on my hands. The Internet
diabetes management takes less than an hour per day and frankly is a lovely
distraction. I have more time to follow the news and current events.
The Vancouver Plebiscite:
Time for a rant!
In collective bargaining
there is a strategy known as “triangulation”. This happened to our Residents
and Interns Association in 1980 when we were bargaining for improved working
conditions in Alberta. I sat on the negotiations committee trying to get a
contract for the group. At the time I had returned from being a GP to pursue postgraduate
training, I worked 60 + hours per week for $14,200.00 per annum. As a GP I had
netted 70K and worked less. Residents were defacto employees of the hospital;
we had individual contracts with them and were paid directly from their
payroll. When we tried to bargain, the hospital would posture and say” Oh no we
can’t decide on your wage, you bargain with the Alberta Hospital Association”,
when we approached the AHA, they said,” love to give you raise but it comes out
of the hospital budget.” Beautiful.
When
a strike was called magically a bargaining committee with both AHA and Hospital
representation was struck and a long lasting mechanism of negotiations was set
in place.
In
Vancouver we have an entity called Translink. It spends $1.5 billion dollars a
year. An unelected board appointed by the Provincial Government supervises it. It
has a reputation of bloated, overpaid management, arrogance and inefficiencies.
More importantly the public has lost faith in the organization and it’s
governance.
It’s
funding sources look like a Pac man game:
Fuel
tax-24%, (17 cents per litre)
Property
tax 21%, (increase 3% per year to keep with inflation)
Fares
32%
Parking
tax 4%
Bridge
tolls 3%,
aircare
6%
Power
levy $2.00 per month per household.
Of
course all of this comes from the same place, the citizen but who has the time
to question this paper trail.
Recently
a plebiscite asking for .5% increase in sales tax to fund capital improvements
for the system. The total would be $8 billion over a decade. Our local mayors
spent approximately $7 million to convince the citizens to vote yes. In spite
of elections last fall none of these candidates ran on a “yes” platform or gave
any hint of spending these funds in this manner. The taxpayers association paid
$40,000. of donated money to support a “no” vote.
The
result was a resounding NO
Now
the triangulation game.
Mayors:
we never wanted the plebiscite anyway, the Province made us do it!
So
why the hell did you spend $7 million of our money to try to manipulate the
outcome!
The
Province: The mayors could not be trusted with the process, the public has
spoken! After all 2/3 of the funding was already guaranteed by Federal and
Provincial governments (mmm where does that money come from? You and me the
taxpayer)
Translink:
It’s plethoric, self important windbag of a CEO had the gall to say the vote
had nothing to do with translink!
If
this guy actually had to get elected he would quickly understand how out of
touch he is.
In
fact our citizens went on strike. We want a separate elected board that has to
face the public, not hide in in camera meetings. It is called responsible
government. The harsh reality is that Translink is irresponsible, tax payers
are demanding better.
Here
endeth the rant.
