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Neighbour cut her hand badly on Saturday morning (washing glass when it broke).  Her son came to ask for my help, she was doing her best to stop bleeding with kitchen roll.  Luckily my St John neighbour and her daughter in law were in the garden so asked for their assistance.   Stitches were needed so off to local hospital after cuts had been bandaged.

The standard of bandaging was so good that one of the nurses asked if she had been seen very quickly.  After 3 hours, x-ray and stitches,  neighbour returned home.   

This got me thinking.  I don't have a home first aid kit, just plasters and various pain relief products.   Neighbour would tell me off so now looking online for one best suited to my needs.  I'm probably not alone in overlooking something so important; maybe I should buy two and put one in car.

I know some of them need a lesson in customer service but others have my admiration for putting up with silly customers.

In supermarket earlier, checkout lady scanned a reduced item which came up as £541 (very expensive loaf, lol!).  When she tried to void it, it then doubled the amount.  After a minute, she managed to void both items but then needed someone more senior to reset the till so that I could pay.  Enter couple behind me.  There is a time when people should keep their mouths shut and this was it.  Checkout lady was already stressed but no, man had to then make stupid comment about walking out and leaving their shopping.  Woman then interrupted supervisor dealing with another customer to complain about time it was taking to resolve issue.  I made point very loudly to supervisor that I hadn't complained.  

I know that shop assistants are supposed to not react, but between us the complaining customers certainly knew they weren't being clever.  Rant over.......

Animals are treated better when they fly.

It transpires the flight was not over booked, just full.   Due to the vast size of the USA, it's not uncommon for pilots to commute long distances to start work, doing what's called "deadheading" on their employer's flights.  For example, a pilot who lives in Florida may have to fly to New York to begin his roster because his employer does not have a local base.  Here in the UK, airlines use chauffeur driven cars or minibuses, depending on how many crew are involved in a pick-up.  

There are a number of questions that have still not been answered.  Who overlooked the need to provide crew seats or didn't communicate it properly?  Why was this not dealt with at the gate, before boarding?  Did the captain sanction the involvement of security personnel?  How vehement was Dr Dao in his refusal to give up his seat?   Apparently, the four passengers were chosen from computer records of how much they paid, frequent flyer status, when they booked. 

Of course, the media has now started delving into Dr Dao's past.  Why?  His "personal habits" are no reason for him to be treated in this manner.  Apparently he has now engaged the services of a prominent law firm.  As for United, the CEO and some of the employees should be retrained, especially in remembering who pays their wages!

Takes the pressure off BA......

United Airlines has attracted a lot of criticism for denying boarding to 3 young female passengers dressed in leggings, a staple wardrobe item for girls/women of all ages.  Apparently they were travelling on discounted tickets as relatives of UA employees and one of the adults was wearing shorts.  When using such tickets, UA expects passengers to dress appropriately as they are considered to be representatives of the airline whilst enjoying this "perk".

Holiday airlines such as Thomson and Thomas Cook are more relaxed in terms of dress than ones such as Virgin Atlantic where there may be a mix of business and leisure passengers.  What they usually say is do not wear anything with offensive/ obscene slogans or logos.

Guys, whether your body remains a temple or is in ruins, it may be okay to walk around the pool or beach wearing a vest/singlet or unbuttoned shirt (I mean all buttons), but at the airport or onboard the flight it's not very respectful to your fellow passengers or staff.   Ladies, if you've lost the battle to retain a youthful figure, wear something suitable that fits instead of lycra crops that are two sizes too small.

Seriously, until pictures are posted of the offending leggings, we will not know if the airline staff were being pedantic or genuinely considered they did not meet their standards.   This was a flight within the USA but how many passengers actually consider the law and culture of their destination when deciding what to wear either on the flight or in the resort.

For me not sleeping well, having to get up early to go to church yesterday as well as losing the hour meant that I was in bed before 10 last night.  Was also playing ball with niece in her garden yesterday, so perhaps it was also all the fresh air......

Now it's emerged that the whole event took only 82 seconds.  

The LinkedIn post may have now been deleted as I can't find it this morning; this was requested by a few of the contributors who used a number of four letter words to describe him.  One person pointed out that not only had he made himself look silly, he had possibly ruined his employer's reputation.  With any luck he's had a very difficult meeting with his boss this morning.....

Interesting to ponder how someone like Churchill would have dealt with the modern day threats.

"Basically we will soon have to all start flying naked, get dressed in the arrivals and buy a new laptop "

Well observed Steve and you won't be able to wear your favourite leggings, especially if flying with United.........

When this news first broke, I thought it's another "Trump-ism".  He failed to get travel ban accepted so decided to introduce a gadget ban.  Also US airlines have long been complaining about how companies such as Emirates and Qatar have taken their market share, albeit with cheaper fares (possibly through government subsidies) and a far better product.  When the UK followed, but with variations to the countries, I thought this must be based on credible intelligence.

Emirates seems to be the first to publicise how they will deal with the ban by advising passengers that their laptop/gadget will be taken from them at the boarding gate, tagged then stowed in a locked security container with others and a receipt given to passengers for retrieval on arrival in the US.  There's also the issue around the stability of lithium batteries.  No doubt there's an entrepreneur somewhere who is hastily marketing a fireproof container to house the battery and intending to charge a premium price. 

Doesn't apply to flights to US originating in UK, at the moment......

Well said Steve!

I find BBC news coverage awful, similar standard of reporting to Daily Mail.  Prefer Sky News; don't seem to make as many gaffs.  Main problem is each one wants to be the first with the news.  As for Donald Trump Jr's comments, these were originally made last year.  Like father, like son comes to mind!

I won't name him, but on LinkedIn someone in the security business has suggested that the bus drivers should have done more to stop the terrorist as he drove along the pavement on Westminster Bridge and his company is able to offer them a course on how to handle such situations.  Okay, lessons will need to be learned but now is not the time to be advertising your company, as many contributors have responded.  As some have also pointed out, the risks were very high.  Bus speed required meant that it could have ended up in river, with more deaths/injuries or ploughed into innocent people trying to assist others.  

There's also the human factor to consider; processing what is going on in front of you and how to deal with it successfully.   We all react at different speeds, for a number of reasons.  Some people will say it all happened in slow motion, others will say it happened so quickly they weren't able to take in everything.   

I could go on......

Totally agree!

One journalist I heard said that The Chancellor wanted self-employed people to make a fair contribution through tax and NI for their use of NHS, schools, other public services, on a par with employed people.  Looks like another u-turn coming up......