Give me a break

X-ray showing broken bone

X-ray showing broken bone

This blog post is written using Dragon Dictate voice recognition software for Mac. On Sunday I broke my right arm just below the shoulder. Although I have insurance, it made more sense to try dictation software to see if I could continue working.

I’m sure with practice get faster, but it goes at this speed the whole time, I’m going to be unable to be productive. For example that last sentence I dictated with only one mistake–the software thought I said reductive instead of productive. Continue reading

Commuter chaos

zebra-painted motorcycle on the Abbey Road zebra crossing

Whealie's zebra at Abbey Road

Commuting into central London for work creates contempt. I hate pedestrians, I hate cyclists, I hate motorcyclists, bus drivers, lorry drivers, taxis and white van man. I hate packed commuter trains, ticket inspectors, Oyster machines that don’t work and I hate Transport for London (TfL).

To really hate all these would cause me to explode. So I have realised that we all need to rub along a bit better. Pedestrians walk in the road, cyclists cross pavements, bikers block cycling lanes, car drivers target bikers, lorry drivers cannot see (or don’t care about) other road users. Get used to it. Continue reading

Different strokes

On 6 November 2010 I had a stroke – a mini stroke, a lacuna (or lacunar) stroke to be exact. I’m fine. I had no paralysis, no loss of strength, no loss of balance and I did not black out. I could hold a pen and write. In fact, I got back on my motorbike and rode for an hour.

I was in France, in Normandy, with some xrv.org.uk pals. We stopped for a coffee and, as I swung my right leg off the bike to stand up, something just didn’t feel right. It was as if I had a dead leg. My right hand then felt like it had pins and needle. I just thought I’d got cold and needed to warm up.

Rode back

After riding back to our farmhouse (La Basse Cour) – I had total control of the bike but could not feel the heated grips working on my right hand – I jumped in a hot bath to thaw out.

But the symptoms remained. And when I went to dry myself I realised the right side of my face was similarly tingly and lacking in sensation.

Travel insurance

The travel insurance company SOS International (on behalf of Chartis Insurance) organised for me to go to the university hospital at Caen, when I ended up for five days while they did a range of tests, including a CT scan, an MRI, a vascular scan of my main arteries and a heart check-up.

They then insisted on driving me in an ambulance all the way home, through the tunnel, delaying my departure by an extra night.

NHS resources

British doctors are repeating all the tests again, which will be great if they find something missed in France but seem a waste of scarce NHS resources if they don’t.

Imagine a little garlic-breathed French man in stripy shirt and black beret with onions round his neck telling an NHS doctor that all his work would been to be redone properly in France later. The NHS doctor would be furious.

I don’t have overly high blood pressure so I am not being treated for that (mine at worst appears to be about 140/92 and often more like 128/86). I am on aspirin to thin the blood. The hospital has sent blood samples for special tests in case there is some impurity that caused the stroke.

But they never know the cause of 25%.

I have been working very hard, so I intend to cut down on that. And the death of my nephew in July led to a lot of stress. Who knows if these things had an impact?

Ill abroad

The French hospital was great – very much like an NHS hospital with fantastic, committed, cheerful and helpful staff, and the occasional cock-up where you are left in a waiting room for hours on end with no information.

But being vegetarian was too much for them. Even a dietician seemed not to understanding of the concept or how to provide a balanced diet – Google it, for crying out loud.

Oh, and my travel insurance repatriated me but said it was not responsible for repatriating my vehicle. My breakdown insurance would have brought it back had it broken down. But a working vehicle with a broken driver falls between two policies. I believe my broker has been negligent.

New Media

Facebook and Twitter were a Godsend. Many work colleagues kept informed about me and kept me up to speed using Twitter, while Facebook enabled me to have conversations with many friends, all at once.

My rugby club, Charlton Park, picked up on my stroke via Facebook and put a notice on its website, which led to contact from old colleagues via LinkedIn and email.

Vodafone charged me about £10 a day for the data charges in France run up on my Blackberry. Oh, and French hospitals have none of those silly UK bans on using mobile phones. I had mine with me the whole time.

Links (new windows)

New era dawns

Insurance Times websiteToday is the first day for nearly two years that I have not had to get up at 6am to write early morning web news for Insurance Times. I woke up at 6 anyway (but I lay there until 6.20). My ambition is to be woken with a cup of tea in bed at 7am. For now at least, that is just a dream.

Since 10 November 2008 I have missed six working days in 100 weeks – once in hospital after my knee operation and one week off travelling this year. I have written about 3,000 stories, sometimes writing nine a day. Insurance Times paid about £12.50 per story.

I have worked from holiday homes and hotels. I have stayed in B&B’s with broadband purely to be able me to fulfil my contract. I have even worked from my laptop and dongle on campsites.

Ullapool campsite

Supermarket giant Tesco announced to the stock market at 7am in September last year that Fortis (now Ageas) was to be its insurance provider.

I called Fortis and got a quote for my story while sitting outside my tent just metres from the sea at Ullapool in Scotland on the xrv.org.uk national meet motorcycling weekend. Fortis told me that morning that Insurance Times was the first to run the story, with it live before 8am.

A lot of what I wrote was news from that morning’s papers and other sources – often one or two pars and pointers to where readers could get the story. But I had plenty of other exclusives too, either given to me because my contacts knew I was up at that time or through my industry knowledge.

New Year honours

When Simon Bolam was given an MBE for services to the Insurance Industry in the New Year honours 2008 even the Scottish papers missed him because they did not know who he was. I remembered him as the former leader of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA).

I knew the name of the broker he ran and tracked him down, first speaking to his daughter, who by then ran the firm, and eventually – at about 9am – Bolam himself.

I was in the Lake District, booted and waterproofed, about to leave for a hike, when he called and I added his quote to my story. The rival Post Magazine ran that story six days later when they got back to work.

In-house reporters

Insurance Times has taken the work in-house. Two new reporters will take turns to get up early and get into the office to start work at 6am. I have worked for Insurance Times for so long – I am a former editor – I was trusted with remote access. One will be getting up at 4am to travel in.

The early morning news made a huge different to the site’s traffic. When CEO’s get in at 8am, if the site is the same as it was the night before they won’t look again. If a CEO tells the next level of management to look at a story, traffic really picks up. That is what happened.

I think I offered great value for money. I did a good job. I wrote more stories than I was asked to write and more than most thought possible – I had to process them all to the website, including links, photos and categories, not just write the words.

I think I gave Insurance Times more as a freelance than they will get from staff.

Links (new windows)

Tech no no

This morning a power cut brought down the servers, preventing me from posting my early morning news to the content management system (CMS) of the websites for which I write.

But that is nothing compared with the technical no-no yesterday.

A woman sent an explicit and personal email meant for her boyfriend to me by mistake. Continue reading