Five Stitches

Over the last week I have started to write something here several times, and never actually completed anything. It's the beginning of the month. This means that wasting time on these pages in the office is not easy.

The most significant thing to happen in my life over the last week is probably my knee surgery. That deserves at least some mention here. I went under the knife on Friday to remove a "bursa". I didn't know what one was either. It's a fluid filled sack found in joints apparently. If you missed the stunning picture that I previously posted, here it is...



I had a "light general anaesthetic" for the procedure and was kicked out of hospital the same day. I've been put under general anaesthetic a couple of times before in my life, and it has never been a great experience. I've always woken up feeling as though I'd slept in a ditch after a night of copious alcohol. This time however, I woke up feeling all ready to go.

The anaesthetist was clearly mad and spoke so fast it was difficult to understand him. He was chatting away as he administered the anaesthetic and I decided to try and have an intelligent conversation with him for as long as I could before it kicked in. He told me that some people dream under anaesthetic, and I asked him if anyone ever talked. He told me they didn't. After that I remember nothing until I woke up in the same place one hour later. I was actually wondering if anything had happened, only the large bandage on my knee was confirmation that it had.



I now have a 5cm scar and 5 stitches. The stitches come out next week. I had to wear the huge bandage for 72 hours. Now I'm just wearing a tube-sock thingy. I can walk properly again and I have almost no pain. I'll maybe post pictures of the wound in coming days.

In other news, the government continues to dig itself into the most ridiculous hole over the release of convicted Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset Mohmed al Megrahi. The British government has attempted to distance itself from the affair, but every day sees new evidence that suggests the PM was keen to see the guy released in exchange for trade deals with Libya. It now looks for all the world as though the Scottish parliament was merely doing Mr Brown's dirty work. I can't see how any trade deal with Libya could possibly be worth the fallout. The government is now trailing the Tories by 14% in the opinion polls with an election only months away. What are they playing at?

I love the Anthony Gormley "One and Other" project in Trafalgar Square. In case you don't know, a plinth exists in Trafalgar Square upon which anyone can stand for one hour and do whatever they want as long as it isn't dangerous or illegal. The project has been going for several weeks now. People have played instruments, sung, thrown hundreds of paper aeroplanes, read poetry, and just stood there doing nothing. I think everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before someone took their clothes off. To my knowledge, three people have now done so. The first was a woman who took her top off. A few weeks ago a man appeared totally naked until police asked him to put his underpants back on, and on Sunday another man was allowed to complete his hour totally naked. That link is probably on the edge of safe for work by the way. There is a video, but it is censored.

In the case of the Sunday nudist, it would seem that a passer-by asked police to intervene. But after contacting superiors, the police claimed they couldn't do anything because nudity is not illegal in Britain. Ironically, the gentleman who made the complaint, Mr Williams-Thomas, is a former policeman himself. He claimed that his three children between eight and 13 years old were "very shocked and embarrassed".

Mr Williams-Thomas is also quoted as saying, "I fully expected that the surrounding police or organisers would stop this man. To my total surprise they stood by and did nothing."

He added: "This was a public place and therefore I should be able to take my children without the fear of them having a man naked exposing himself."

He went on to claim that the man on the plinth had comitted an offence under common law by exposing himself.

I had to look up what "common law" meant. It seems common law is "law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (called case law), rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law." Thanks to Wikipedia for that quote. If you read the rest of the article it turns into something very complex indeed. In essence however it would seem to confirm that the police were right when they said that no specific legislation exists forbidding nudity.

I think the interesting thing here is the fact that Mr Williams-Thomas claims that his kids were "shocked and embarrassed". I wonder whether in fact their father was more embarrassed. I cannot see how someone else being naked can possibly be embarrassing. It occurred to me that foul language is like nudity in that it can be anti-social, yet there is no legislation that bans the use of specific words in public. However, if I walk my three year old through my town centre I generally don't have to wait long for high volume foul language. No one cares, but I would far rather walk my son through a crowd of naked people than a crowd of swearing people. Indeed, I have taken my son to naturist events and I can confirm he was neither shocked nor emabrrassed. Would Mr Williams-Thomas have alerted police to a swearing person in Trafalgar Square? I doubt it.