Lumo

I've been asked to give someone a good 'general purpose' cookery book for Christmas. Not a speciality one or a themed one, just a general purpose book with good, but not too difficult or too easy, meals to cook. Preferably not a celebrity one as the recipient isn't t too keen on celebrities. Does anyone have any recommendations? I have an old copy of the "Readers Digest Cookery Year" sitting around at home and think a modern version of something like that would be good, but without recommendations it's hard to know what to chose.

Hi Julie, We do have a choice of which GP we go to (I think GPs are called family doctors in the US?), but there are geographical restrictions on this which pretty much means we have to go to one of the ones nearby our permanent address, if we live in a city there can be quite a lot of choice, but in a small town there will probably be be fewer doctors. If we then need to see a specialised consultant there is somewhat less choice, we can't go straight to a consultant without a referral from a GP, and the GP ultimately decides which one (if any) we see. However, I think things are changing and in many areas there is now the option of picking which one we want to go to. How does it work for you? One big criticism of the system here is the general attitude of some doctors, it seems to be the norm to treat people without actually explaining what the treatment is or giving them options, and the standard treatments seem to be prescribing medicines for everything. So one big part of the problem is people are being given medicines without being told why they might work and what they might do, and they are not being given the choice of treatments, it's more 'try this and see if it works, I'll give you something else if it doesn't' rather than explaining all the options and deciding with the patient which one is best. In some cases I have known people be given antidepressants for pain (as these particular ones had been shown to have some effect on that particular kind of pain) without being told anything about the medicine other than it might help pain. Luckily the patient was a psychologist and recognised the drug, but there will be many other people taking that thinking that it is a normal painkiller. I don't know if doctors here get paid to prescribe certain drugs. The drugs companies certainly bombard doctors with promotional items (pens, paper, many things in the doctors office have drug names on them) but I'm not sure if it goes further. I recently had a work meal at which some people who worked for drugs companies were also at. People from one company said their company is very strict about what they buy for people not involved in the company and that they are not allowed to buy anyone anything (not even a snack) and they are also not allowed to be bought anything by anyone else (again not even a snack), this was to stop any accusations of influencing people by buying them nice meals and trips, so they had to pick their food off the bill and submit that as individual expenses. However, someone from another drugs drugs company (at the same meal) said that was very unusual and immediately paid for everyone else's food and drink. I find it almost hard to believe there is a healthcare system where elderly people have to split pills in half because it is either that or not eating. I hope things change soon. EDIT: didn't see your reply Dr Bill, must have been writing mine at the time, but that's interesting that many people stick with the same doctor after moving, I didn't know that happened.

Wow I had no idea people still had to pay that much even with insurance, that seems quite shocking. Here we have no idea what the medicines actually cost, we pay a set price for everything to the national health service pay the rest (the money for which ultimately comes from our taxes, so we are all paying for it in one way or another). The downside of this is that if the health service deems a drug to be too expensive it is simply not available and people have to go without, but, as you say, for chronic illnesses there isn't really the option of going without so the health service probably pays a lot for these drugs and passes the bill to the government. Yes, I completely agree, I was just using that as an example as I had read an article about the Pfizer patent on Lipitor expiring. While perhaps not the best example, it doesn't change that when a new drug range becomes available typically one or two companies own patents for drugs in that range and can set whatever price they want until it expires or another company comes up with a similar but not quite the same drug.

Within the next few years, Pfizer's patent on the cholesterol lowering statin Lipitor will expire. This drug alone has in recent times earned Phizer over $12 BILLION in a year. I know that a lot of good has come from it, and that it is the incentive of huge profits like this which drives drug companies to spend the time and money on the costly procedure of researching new drugs. However, unlike with other industries, with drugs companies I don't feel that the same free market price levelling system exists. In most developed countries (which is where Lipitor is mainly used) there is some form of nationalised health system or large uptake of health insurance. Thus, when drugs companies set a price, they are not letting the individuals in the free market decide what they are willing to pay, but telling health services and insurance companies that this drug exists and works and (in many cases) there is no alternative, so it's either buy this medicine or give patients a more old fashioned and less effective treatment. This puts the drugs companies in a position where they can set high prices and everyone, through taxes or insurance payments, even if they don't use the drug, ends up paying for it. Does the patent system on drugs really work? I can see that there is no real alternative, linking the price of a drug to the cost of development would be highly complicated and stands again what happens in every other industry. But medicines are different...or are they not?

Yes - looks interesting!

I'm pretty sure the standard gift certificate http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-co-uk-Paper-Gift-Card-Delivery/dp/B004QGYU28/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top can be used for Kindle purchases :-)

If she has not already read it, then The Help might match her interests quite well :-)

Not eating it yet, but cooking a slow roast chicken with thyme, lemon, potatoes and vegetables.

I finished the obedience book and managed to stick to the plan of giving it to the person at the conference, who is reading it now (will probably not right now at this exact moment). I also went for a short holiday after the conference and now I'm back home to the rain. However, as a result of this I haven't had too much time to read the Wartime Britain book. While being on holiday sounds like the perfect time to read, I actually hardly read anything, I did walk for miles and miles and miles each day and saw lots of new things, which was fantastic. I should have more time soon and plan to get back into it, it's already sitting out ready to read. I listened to an audio book on the planes, I find I can't read for hours on end on an aeroplane but quite enjoy listening to a book. I used to hate plane rides, not a fear of flying, just not liking sitting there simply killing time until the plane lands, so the discovery of audio books was great and now I start listening and don't really mind how long the trip is. My PhD is on Psychology related themes - looking at ways in which learning occurs (or does not occur). How we Lived Then is on my wish list ;-) and I'll check out the other Julia Gardiner ones, I don't think I have seen them. Did you ever finish Billy Brown?

Yes. I also studied psychology, but we never did anything about paranormal psychology, sounds interesting.

Hello Lana and welcome to the forum. What kinds of psychology do you like?

I'm not certain how it works with the Dr but I think if you are in a high risk category you can just make a normal appointment and ask for it then. Not being high risk I went to Boots, paid around £10 and left 15 minutes later with a tiny hole in my arm. A surprisingly good service from them. Nice signature BTW. I read that book earlier this year - I found it excellent.

William Thackeray comes to mind - a slightly more satirical and middle class setting than Dickens.

I see the augment that it's just the flu, but there's a pregnancy, illness and quite a bit of travelling in my immediate family, plus I'm quite busy in the next six months, the possibility of being able to reduce the risks of adding an illness to the mix seems good. The same with the common cold, generally these don't knock me out too much and aren't a big deal, but I'd still try, wherever possible, to avoid getting one or giving one to someone else.

I'd second The Selfish Gene - whatever one thinks about Richard Dawkins the book is excellently written and a persuasive idea.

I got one today. While I am relatively young and probably at low risk, these in themselves won't stop me developing the flu if exposed to it, so I got the vaccine. I did weigh up the possibilities of the vaccine itself in some way making me ill and the (quite likely) probability that without it I wouldn't get the flu anyway, but I decided it was still better to get the vaccine. I suppose in time I will see if that was a good decision or not...

I've wondered about reading this for a while. If anyone is interested,Forever Today: A Memoir Of Love And Amnesia by Deborah Wearing is the true story (told by the wife) of a man who developed amnesia similar to the one this book is about. Very rare, but devastating. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-Today-Memoir-Love-Amnesia/dp/0552771694/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1S3NEPVO32B48&colid=CPNFSA81COIZ

I'm thinking of getting the winter flu vaccine. I'm not in one of the eligible groups would get it free, but it can be bought for £10 or so on some pharmacies. So, is it a good idea? Have you had it? Would you? If not, why not?

That is sad. I think I remember reading about this tree. Strange to think it was growing hundreds of years before the start point of the calendar system we use. At least it seems to have fallen naturally, rather than being vandalised or cut down for a road or something.

That's a really good point chesilbeach, I hadn't thought of that. I'm now even tempted to get the non touch one.

Well the authority book arrived, and so did the original lost astronaut book...

I'm not a big fan of them, but that is mainly because I'm not too keen on that genre rather than because I think he is a bad writer. The ones I have read have seemed quite well thought out and written crime stories. I'll read one every now and then for a change, they are just not my type of book.

I'm only about 90 pages or so into the Wartime book, but so far I am enjoying it. It's very readable and certainly eye opening as to what life was like in the 1930s/40s (even without the war aspect, which is also interesting). Last year I read Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain which describes a slightly later period, I found that book a bit tougher going, I was reading it mainly for enjoyment and some of the passages full of specific references to people and dates (which while probably necessary for that kind of) made it a bit heavy going at times. Yes, the astronaut book arrived today, but I think that will have to sit on my shelf for a while. I watched Apollo 13 on an aeroplane recently (limited choice of film), I have mixed feelings about spaceflight, generally seeing it as such an expense and extravagance that I find reading or talking about it off-putting, but nonetheless when I actually see some of the pictures or films about the flights I am continually impressed with what people managed to achieve. Even watching the last shuttle mission take off, I thought I would just see it as a whole lot of money getting burnt up in a big rocket, but when I actually watched it online I did think it was pretty darn impressive that such a machine works (well worked). So I thought I would read a book about spaceflight, and this one got good reviews. I do however, have very little time. I should be writing my PhD thesis but somehow I convince myself I have time for many other things too. Today I kind of agreed to do some consultancy/report writing work (my supervisor suggested it and started the conversation with 'you probably don't have time for this, but...') and other non work related things keep accumulating. I think the more I have to do, the more efficient I become. If I have one thing to do all day then I might spend all day doing it, but if I have 5 things to do I do them all much more efficiently and enjoy all of them more. However, I am concerned that I am now pushing this a bit too far, at least for the next few months I need to watch what extra things I take on.

Hello and welcome to the forum dex. Have you tried any Ian Rankin books?

I read this earlier in the year. I did enjoy it, compared to modern stories it was relatively gentle in pace yet still managed to have a lot going on, which is a writing style I quite enjoy. However, while I would rate this book as good, I did not find it nearly as enjoyable or as good a work as Travels with my Aunt, which is a shame as despite being a good book it was a little bit of a disappointment.