AnneMarriott

The telephone cleaning wasn't too bad, except for the poor crash team who used to burst through the doors of the unit, panting and full of adrenaline. The contractors tried to solve the problem with a cylindrical weight shoved on the telephone as the receiver was removed - but it had to be done with lightening speed and there were occasional mishaps. The contract was eventually amended to exclude ICU. The unplugged ventilator was a serious matter and took a while to fathom. It was always the same ventilator and I can't remember who first twigged what the problem was. I can't imagine anything like that happening these days when everything is electronically controlled.

I'm sorry to say that a similar situation led to a long-unexplained increase in the sudden deterioration of ventilated patients in an intensive care unit - some time ago before everything was fitted with automatic alarms. And in the same unit there was a red emegency telephone. In the event of a cardiac arrest we simply had to knock the phone off the hook - no need to ring switchboard to summon the crash team. The hospital management employed a firm of contract telephone cleaners. You can imagine the rest ...

Wow - no core time. It sounds fantastic for those who are able to manage their time effectively, but how many hours were spent by members of staff trying to contact each other during "normal office hours", not to mention anyone from outside wishing to speak to staff by telephone.

Makes me wonder what it does to the stomach!

Crumbs - that's technology for you. I imagined all sorts of complicated electronic wizardry having to be wired in and out before and after the performance. Somehow the fact that it's pre-prepared and then simply hung from the ceiling makes it seem rather humdrum!

It ran pretty much to time. I suppose it takes a while to set up and dismantle the Julian Opie installation for Infra so that could explain the two 30 minute intervals, but there was more interval than dancing, which can be a bit frustrating.

Ecover do both powder and liquid fragrance-free (non-bio) detergents. They also do a liquid detergent for wools and silks which I have found very good.

2 hours and 35 minutes (approx) including two intervals, according to the box office recorded information announcement. For a first night I'm thinking two and three-quarter hours is probably nearer the mark.

I'm going to add two additional sources of irritation at supermarket shopping, both of which seem recent innovations: taking up position in the checkout queue while various family members scuttle about doing the actual shopping and slamming a divider down on the checkout conveyor belt and unloading the trolley without letting the person in front finish unloading, being careful not to leave enough space or checking if it's OK.

Re flea treatment for cats and dogs - go online and save a fortune!

Agreed about misleading local council signs - and this also applies to national highway maintenance, too. Hairdressers: too many sub-categories to list but sometimes culminating in the client slinking out, having cravenly left an unjustified tip, praying for rain so she can hide the unflattering result of her visit under an umbrella. Doctors - or more specifically their appointment systems

I really enjoy museums that are family homes "preserved in aspic" i.e. are kept decorated and furnished as they were when the owners lived there. Two which stand out in my memory are Castle Drogo in Cornwall amd The Frick Collection in New York, the latter more remarkable for a glimpse into a past luxurious lifestyle than for its impressive art collection. There's also one in Dunedin, New Zealand but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.

Oh dear, I feel bad now, but I grit my teeth and have never resorted to four-letter words. Heaven forbid! I know the industrial-size trollies are unwieldy but it's when they gather in flocks for a chat or park alongside one of those multi-storey goods wagons full of products waiting to be put on the shelves that I get irritated - but then little gaggles of what are clearly "management", in suits, also block the aisles whilst apparently holding a board meeting, oblivious to the punter with her small shopping trolley saying "excuse me" several times, and that also gets my goat. Just back from the supermarket, so feeling a bit raw ...

So the moral of this story is that in order to get cheap tickets you have to fork out £1600 + (or something like that) to be a "higher friend". Strange system!

I'd vaguely assumed it's Nutcracker on the somewhat tenuous grounds that "Princess Purlipat (?sp) appears in some productions.

As we've long suspected, the ROH releases these SCS tickets over a period of time after Friends' booking opens - but the timing is rather random, it would seem! Incidentally, Onegin was the one programme I managed to book SCS tickets for on the day - there was nothing for the other programmes.

Period 2 tickets arrived this morning. Hope everyone else has got theirs too.

TalkTalk! Supermarket shopping - sub-categories include aisles blocked by staff doing other people's shopping, goods rearranged so you can't find anything, not enough checkouts, self-service checkouts - instant apoplexy - shoppers ahead of you at the checkout taking ages to pack before realising that, yes, it necessary to pay and then fumbling through handbag, pockets, wallet etc. for the elusive payment card. Inconsiderate parking Dustmen who leave the wheeliebins miles from the house People who think that the entrance/exit or the bottom of the stairs or escalator (theatre, department store, underground all apply)are just the place for a nice long chat Doctors' appointment systems

Ah, dear TalkTalk - this brings back memories of a traumatic saga of my own which I won't bore everyone with. Suffice it to say that I have recently thrown out a huge file of correspondence, copies of emails and notes of abortive telephone conversations with TalkTalk about their appalling service, including making it almost impossible to pay the bills let alone get the bills right in the first place. I wouldn't have minded so much if I had signed up with them voluntarily - caveat emptor and all that - but I was bequeathed to them through a labyrinthine series of take-overs and mergers via British Gas. Sympathies to you, Fiz - and if you've severed all links with TalkTalk, congratulations!

Thanks, Lynette - it's nice not to fee alone!

What rotten luck! We always suspect they release these precious SCS tickets in dribs and drabs over a few days, but unless you can sit at your computer 24 hours a day you probably won't be lucky enough to spot them when they appear. I didn't have much luck with SCS this time either - nor on the phone, which is unusual - so I've spent far more than I can afford just to get *something*. But thanks for reassuring me I'm not alone in still waiting for tickets to arrive.

Have any ordinary Friends received Period 2 tickets yet? I don't remember waiting this long before!

A sprinkling of the most expensive ones - but even those were going fast ...

Very quick and straightforward except for the dearth of Stalls Circle Standing for pretty much all programmes!

Thanks for the link, Alison - I've seen this in the garden occasionally for the last two or three years without knowing what it was.