News from the Grimsby shore

[LROBBINS]

I see that Grimsby is in the news this evening:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/oil-tanker-cargo-vessel-collide-north-sea-rcna195601

[Burgerman]

Yes. Probably had a small drink... Most captains seem to do that.

How else could you manage to accidentally hit a anchored up, stationary, oil tanker in a huge sea?

[Burgerman]

Small container ship - portugese.
US oil tanker, pretty big. Lots of smoke and fire from aviation fuel. Theres always around 20 to 50 at anchor there out at sea awaiting tidal access to the river humber estuary.


At least its not crude oil.




youtu.be/KOm4nBV5rDk

[Burgerman]

You can see the glow in the clouds at night. We are trying to make a little bit more global warming. We need it.

How do you explain to your boss that you just rammed and sank a US oil tanker? Which then blew up, and to finish off, that you also lost all your cyanide gas cargo, into air which is blowing onto the city of hull and lost all your containers into the north sea? Oh and the ship(s) are both sinking/destroyed. What a great day!

[LROBBINS]

Portugal flagged but German owned. Happily, turns out their was no cyanide on board. Still it's a big mess.

Seems like incompetence has become the norm and not just in the wheelchair business. On a smaller scale I'm having ongoing problems with Renault (our Kangoo is listed in their database as Belgian and a Captur rather than Kangoo, with warranty set to expire 15 months before it should) and with HP (supposed to pick up a dead, in guarantee, PC for repair. Courier supposed to come last Friday - no show. Rescheduled for Monday, but arrived without the box and label HP said he would provide. Showed up again today still without box and label, but took the PC and left no receipt.) Then there's the pain clinic at the Siena hospital where the Medtronic rep mis-programmed Rachi's baclofen pump at the last refill - after a month she was in a continual dystonic storm. Today Ellen was supposed to have a blood pressure Holter monitor read, but the nurse (at a different hospital) couldn't get it to connect to her computer. We have not been happy campers here lately.

[Burgerman]

Theres still one missing sadly. Search called off. Probably blown to bits and feeding the fish.


Trust me its not only in italy. Or anywhere in particular.

Never underestimate the sheer level of incompetance of the majority of people.

Especially those that are government employees. Or medical. Council. Big organisations that dont have to compete.
I try not to but it still catches me out.

[LROBBINS]

It may seem odd, but my experience is that our health service people, doctors, nurses, therapists etc. are generally actually pretty competent (not everyone of course) even if disorganized (Italians are not generally known for organizational skills, but are very good at finding ad hoc solutions). Of course, I'm not talking about the bureaucratic side of the health service - the way to describe that is "competent, but excruciatingly slow". It's been corporate entities that seem to be loaded with incompetence: Medtronic, Renault, HP are only the latest, two years ago it was Delta Airlines that "lost" Rachi's voice output computer, cancelled 2 out of 3 reservations and damaged her chair. It seems that everyone assumes that everything is "usa e getta", i.e. disposable, so why bother to actually offer customer service. I fight back, and eventually win, but it does wear me down.

[Burgerman]

I wish that was true here.

[LROBBINS]

I'll add one more thing then shut up on this. Our health service has a lot of regional autonomy. We live in Toscana which is one of the best, there are other regions where things are much more like what you describe for the NHS. There's even a lot of variation from place to place within a region.

[Burgerman]

Well I suspect that most of the WCS (and practically everyone I ever have to deal with from the socialist state) would make the captain of that freighter look competant.