Self flagellation

Admittedly this weeks blogs have had a rather depressing tone to them and although I had planned on a light-hearted blog for today, something more important has come up. You may have heard in the news this week, about a man convicted for child cruelty. The case was about a Shia muslim in Manchester who forced two boys to perform zanjeer matam against their will during Ashura.

Before I discuss the case, you may remember I blogged about the importance of Ashura a while back here and also talked about the importance of Muharram and the events of Karbala here. During the month of Muharrum, Shia muslims attend events (or Majlises) commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husain (a.s.), the grandson of the Holy Prophet. During this time a learned scholar discusses various important topics in Islam and also recounts the events of Karbala when the tragedy took place. Before and after the lecture, Shias remember the events more emotionally through recitals and readings of the events. During this process Shias perform matam - this is the act of - for want of a better description - hitting our chests. Shias stand and hit their chests as a symbol of grief, a sign of respect towards Imam Husain (a.s.) and his family and friends who made the greatest sacrifice. It is a tradition which began after the events of Karbala by the women and children of the camp of Imam Husain (a.s.). Overcome with emotion and grief from such a tragic loss, the survivors of Karbala would hit themselves as they tried to deal with their loss.

Over the years this act of matam has become a symbol both of good and harm for Shia muslims. For Shias, it allows us to remember the emotion and grief of the occasion and display it according to tradition. For outsiders - mainly Wahabi muslims - it allows them to condemn Shias and belittle them as "the people who hit themselves" - not for one second attempting to understand the reasons behind it.

The tradition of matam has lasted for over 1400 years. Zanjeer matam is the act of hitting yourself with blades and knifes. Some Shia muslims are so overcome with grief and emotion that they feel they need to bleed to express their faith. They hits themselves repeatedly, causing numerous cuts to their backs, all in the name of Imam Husain (a.s.). For Shias throughout the world, the concept of Zanjeer matam is very sensitive. While some condemn the act, others defend it wholeheartedly.

Speaking from a purely personal point of view, I disagree with it completely. The act of harming yourself in the name of Imam Husain (a.s.) is wrong. Imam Husain (a.s.) made the greatest sacrifice to save Islam. Islam today does not need saving by performing zanjeer matam. Imam Husain (a.s.) did not make that sacrifice because he wanted us to remember it by harming ourselves. Hitting yourself with knives and causing serious harm was not the message of Karbala.

Three important points to consider; on the Day of Judgement, will God bless those who have harmed themselves in the name of Imam Husain (a.s.) and overlook any wrongdoings in their life? God will judge each individual based on his deeds as a muslim - and will performing Zanjeer matam receive any benefit? Secondly, when the 12th Imam makes his long-awaited return, will he stand quietly while people perform zanjeer matam in front of him? Will he not stop them from doing so and advise them about the importance of Imam Husain's (a.s) sacrifice, and that it was not made in order for Shias to harm themselves? Lastly, no Imam after the events of Karbala ever performed zanjeer matam when mourning the sacrifice of Imam Husain (a.s.), isn't that a sign that it should not be performed? You may accuse me of being too simplistic, but often for such sensitive issues, being simplistic is the best way.

Having explained my viewpoint, coming back to the case, I found it extremely upsetting that such an event took place. It's one thing to perform zanjeer matam on yourself, but to actually attempt to force others - and in this case children - to do the same thing is horrible. Instead of explaining the importance of Imam Husain's (a.s.) sacrifice, this man tried to force two children to harm themselves. Totally inexcusable.

Fortunately according to reports, the Shia community in Manchester helped the police with their investigations and rightly condemned the act. Unfortunately, its given the Shia faith a bad name. No matter what justification, people will rightly or wrongly remember the stand out features of this case - a man forced two children to hurt themselves in a religious ritual - it's difficult to put a positive spin on that.

Nadeem Kazmi (director of international affairs at Al-Khoei Foundation in London and New York) has also blogged about the subject on the Guardian website - which will attract many more readers than here! He rightly condemns the act of the man in question, but also attempts to justify the act of zanjeer matam. Although I disagree with him, he is entitled to his opinion. However, certain points he states leave him open to a lot of criticism. He states that:

"Those adults who engage in self-flagellation with knives, chains or blades, do so with a consciousness of the ceremonial nature of the act, keenly watched by onlookers, children and adults alike, who, though they have seen it all before, continue to be mesmerised by the sheer spectacle of it – the display."

It's unfortunate that he mentions children in this statement. When condemning the act of the man, how can we justify allowing children to watch adults "engage in self-flagellation," is that not an act of cruelty itself?

Further on, in his attempt to justify zanjeer matam, he compares the act to Jesus's crucifixtion:

"But it would be unjust if the Zaidi case were to poison the wider public's view of a ritual that commemorates a death that, like the Christian concept of the crucifixion of Christ, is seen as the epitome of sacrifice for humanity, and the triumph of good over evil."

Again, an unfortunate comparison. Whereas Christians remember and mourn the crucifixion of Christ, to my recollection, I don't think they do so by harming themselves and re-enact the crucifixion. That's the point - we do commemorate the death and sacrifice of Imam Husain (a.s.) but zanjeer matam is an inappropriate from of commemoration, hence it is wrong to compare it to the crucifixion of Christ. Christians believe that the crucifixion took place and mourn it accordingly, zanjeer matam never took place at the time of Karbala, so why is it practiced?

The debate about zanjeer matam can go on and on. There is much more to discuss about the topic. I've attempted to give my views on this particular case and also provide some information about the ritual. Hopefully this case will not cause much lasting damage to Shias across the country and hopefully the sacrifice of Imam Husain (a.s.) can be remembered and treasured more appropriately.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Stabbing society

Yet another disappointing performance by Liverpool that saw them scrap through into the Champions League last night. The start to the new season has not been good, but still produced 3 wins out of 3. However, looking at the headlines this morning, you would think Liverpool were the worst team in England. All the criticism, and yet the main fact is that Liverpool won. If Manchester United had shown similar form, the critics would have lauded the performances as a mark of champions - to win when not playing well. I guess until Liverpool win the Premier League the critics won't stop criticising.

Whilst I was away from the blogging world for the past 18 months, one recurrent news story has been about the dramatic increase in knife crime. It seems not a week goes by without at least one death from a knife crime, especially in London. At last count, so far this year, there have been 24 teenagers killed in the streets of London. Just stop to think about that number. Almost one teenager a week is killed by a knife attack in London.

Politicians harp on about the cases of violent crime actually decreasing, but one cannot ignore the numbers. Twenty-four teenagers. Are we still living in the UK? How has society degraded so far that people can stab someone over the smallest of issues and show no restraint? What is the cause behind this spate of violence? What can be done about it?

Obviously the answers are not easy. Reports often point to extremely dire family backgrounds for both the perpetrator and the victim. Single parenting, lack of schooling, lack of discipline, poverty and too much free time are amongst the reasons for the cause. Although the statistics may show a decline in crime levels, like I explained yesterday, for the victims family and friends, the statistics mean nothing. I find it difficult to comprehend what has happened to society that makes knife crime so prevalent.

The act of stabbing someone to death - how is that possible? What must be the circumstances surrounding the development of that individual to cause such an event? How can someone be able to do that without regret or remorse? All these questions and no real answers. That's what the blog is for.

When I think about the people that carry out such vicious acts, I think of their circumstances - it must boil down to how they have been raised. That directly leads on to the kind of society we live in. A society that allows people to stab one another death. There will always be evil people, that is unavoidable, but for society as a whole, to allow such events is a great tragedy. Despite Gordon Brown's claims, our society is breaking.

Currently, a lot of reports speaking about how to deal with the knife crimes point towards how to deal with the perpetrators. One particular method receiving quite a bit of criticism is 'stop & search' carried out by the Met Police. Youths are being randomly stopped and searched for any knives or guns. Talk about marginalisation. These youths already come from brittle backgrounds and attempting to victimise them could potentially send them to the very place we are trying to avoid. Aside from that, it's not even certain whether such techniques are successful.

Another method is the often derided 'knife amnesty', allowing people to hand in their knives (or guns) to a local police station no questions asked. However, people need to first realise that possessing such weapons is wrong, otherwise why hand in the weapon? Of course, once the guilty party is found then surely they should serve time in prison. However, even this is not successful with only one in five people charged and found guilty actually going to prison. These methods and others deal with the problem, but not the cause of the problem - that appears to be much more difficult.

The cause of the problem lies in the background of these youths. Clearly, more needs to be done identifying areas that are vulnerable to 'poorly raised youths' (for want of a better phrase) and then acting upon it. Starting from the grassroots and working up. Educating people on the importance of family - not to have multiple teenage pregnancies, which lead to a multitude of single mums. When that happens, to then ensure the mums are supported in the raising of their children. Providing a decent school, decent leisure facilities to occupy free time and reward the efforts of people involved in making a difference - to the teachers, social workers, etc.

I personally don't think the above targets are too difficult for this government. Providing decent education in the first place is the key. Why should there be sub-standard schools? Why should the 'poorly raised youths' not have the same opportunities as others? Why should single mums or broken families not be supported? If these families have children who can potentially cause such damage, who can they turn to for help? Is the support system there? Clearly not.

Say for example, a single mum living in Brixton had a child who was involved with a gang who possessed knives. Who does she turn to? Her GP? He or she will refer her to the local psychiatry team for assessment of that child - how long will that take? 4-6 months. Imagine what could go wrong in that time. Ok, if she's not happy with that, she can contact her council and speak to a social worker who can refer the child to the social support team, but again, how long would that take? Assuming nothing happens while the mum and child wait to be seen, the child gets assessed - a lot of factors are identified - poor schooling, poor role models, poor attitudes. What next? Mum and child are sent for family counselling in another 4-6 months time. And so on and so forth. The time it takes to identify the problems and start dealing with them appropriately is too long.

I can continue this rambling for much longer, but I think I should stop. Much of what I say is idealistic, I readily admit that, but that doesn't make it unachievable. The death of one teenager per week in London alone, is a scary thought and interventions need to be made, changes enforced and better support systems provided to those involved. Of course punishments need to be guaranteed for the perpetrators beyond help but a lot needs to be done to treat the cause of the problem.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Safe to fly

The quest for the ultimate pushchair continues. Spent more time researching and came up with more possibilities. The choices are too much. Came across a really cool looking pushchair, the 3Tec by ABC Design, but I can't find any reviews about it. My wife is particularly interested in the Phil & Teds Sport buggy which again looks very cool, but is very expensive - starting from £294.95, for the buggy only. The ideal pushchair is one that allows the carseat to sit on the frame without having to remove the pushchair, is easy to fold, lightweight, affordable and not a Graco. The search continues...

Having entertained you enough about my pushchair needs, time for something more interesting I hope. I'm sure you all remember the upsetting news last week of an aeroplane crash in Madrid, claiming upto 153 lives. I can't imagine how it must feel for the family and friends of the victims, but needless to say, it was a great tragedy.

Having recently flown to India and Pakistan, I took the flights for granted, nothing was going to go wrong and thankfully nothing did. However, unfortunately accidents happen. I think of the passengers in the Madrid flight. They, like most of us, would have checked in their baggage as normal, waited in the departure lounge and then boarded the flight as scheduled. On the plane they would've jostled for the overhead storage and then settle into their allocated seat, putting on the flimsy waist seat-belt. As the plane prepared for take-off, they would've sat in their seats reading/chatting/sleeping, not paying attention to the safety advice from the air hostesses. As the plane accelerated down the runway, people would brace themselves for take off and then... crash... nothing...

When I think about the whole process that you and I go through as a routine, even though we perhaps don't fly very often, flying is exactly that - a routine. Unfortunately, the routine was tragically ruined on that flight in Madrid.

However, as I think about the accident, I feel reassured when I look at the statistics. Flying remains, by far, the safest mode of travel. Flying carries a 1 in 2.5million chance of being killed. Travelling on a train carries a 1 in 50,000 chance and in a car, the chance increases further to 1 in 200. On top of that, in the last year there have been no accidents involving large passenger air crafts that caused loss of life in Britain. I know there was a recent mid-air collision in Coventry, but that involved two microlight planes and "only" 5 people died. Traumatic for the family of the victims, but last year almost 3,000 people died on the road (a record low by the way), what about their family and friends?

Aeroplane flights have to follow rigorous safety procedures. Each aircraft is kept at least a mile apart, pilots and crew get trained every six months and we the passengers are informed where the life jackets are, where the exits are and how to use the oxygen masks, even though we hardly listen. On the road however, there is no rigorous safety procedures - could you pass your driving test if you had to re-take it tomorrow? I probably couldn't.

As the number of people flying has increased over the past few decades, the number of accidents have decreased. Its become safer as time as gone on. In 1976 there were 3 accidents per million flights worldwide, in 2007 that was down to 0.65 per million. Flying is five times more safer than in 1976. The decrease is down to improving aircraft technology. The aeroplane is the safest element when it comes to considering causes of the accidents. Nowadays the accidents are mostly caused by pilot error. Almost always there is no single cause of a crash, often it is an accumulation of factors.

Of course for those unfortunate victims and their families it's not going to make a difference - they've just become a statistic themselves. My words can never be a consolation for them, but hopefully for the readers who haven't suffered such a tragic bereavement, the figures reflect the safety of flying and perhaps make us feel better before our next holiday abroad.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Pramming along

How depressing to return to work after the 3-day break. Even the weather agreed, after a sunny weekend, drove in to work and it was grey and overcast - matching my mood. Attended my friends wedding over the weekend in Birmingham. After being together for almost 9 years, they finally tied the knot. The wedding was an all day affair encompassing the civil registry, Hindu ceremony and finally the reception in the evening. It was held at the stately Ragley Hall, and all in all it was a lot of fun. The Best Man's speech was extremely funny and wildly inappropriate, with the closing line the highlight: "Congratulations to the couple, and we hope the only ups and downs are those that occur between the sheets!"

My wife and I are expecting our first child in October, inshallah and as the day approaches we've been spending a lot of time on deciding what we need to buy before the baby arrives. One of the most important purchases is the pushchair and car seat. There appears to be two main options. Either have a separate car seat and pushchair, which means having to transfer the baby to and from both or have a travel system that enables one to transfer the car seat directly onto the frame of the pushchair.

By all accounts, having the travel system is the better (and more expensive) option. The convenience of transferring the car seat onto the pushchair frame saves a lot of hassle when it comes to transferring the baby and risk waking him/her up. So, having agreed on the need for the travel system the weekend was spent trying to decide which one to buy. Although my parents have very kindly offered to finance the purchase of our new travel system, I still thought it prudent to do some research to decide which is the most suitable travel system for us. The choices are seemingly endless.

Starting with the most expensive and working downwards, the king of the travel systems appear to be the Bugaboo, and with prices starting from over £550 and that's just for the pushchair - it doesn't include the carrycot or the car seat - it deserves the title. It is the designer pushchair - the Armani of the pushchair world - too exclusive and too expensive. To be fair it does do everything a travel system could probably do, but the price is extremely prohibitive.

Next is the Micralite Toro, which you must agree does look really cool, and at a price of £349 you would expect it too as well! It looks like a Golf-Kart, all that's missing is an engine and remote control. However, there is also the Micralite Fastfold, which looks almost as cool and can be had for £139.99. The added bonus of the Micralite is that it allows for 'off-road' travel on grass and sand because of the large rear wheels. The downside appears to be that it is not a shoppers buggy and that won't suit my wife.

Further down the list comes the highly recommended Quinny Buzz, which is used by a few people we know. Having used it myself, I thought the design was very good, with the all important height adjustable bar for tall people like myself. However, at almost £300, it definitely doesn't come cheap. It has the added advantage of allowing the pushchair to face either towards you or away from you which is quite rare. It is however, quite heavy, making it difficult to transfer from car boot to the road for my wife.

Last but not least are the Graco travel systems, which appear to be extremely good value for money at £149.99, for the Mosaic travel system, and £159.95, for the Tour travel system (both include the car seat and various other accessories). The Graco's get good reviews, are easy to fold and relatively lightweight. However, they do look a bit cumbersome to say the least and tend to suffer for being too common.

For the first three travel systems I've discussed, the very popular Maxi Cosi CabrioFix is compatible with the pushchair frames, which needs to be purchased separately. The Graco comes with it's own car seat, included in the price. In addition to the car seat, for ease of use, a car seat base is essential for locking the car seat safely and securely. For the Maxi Cosi, an Isofix Base or Easy Base is required at an additional cost. For the Graco, again, the car seat base is included in the price.

So, there are our options. The Maxi Cosi CabrioFix is a very good car seat, but the pushchairs compatible with it are very expensive. The Graco travel systems are very affordable and good value for money, but don't look as good. It should be an easy choice, but then if it was I wouldn't have blogged about it. I'm probably going to settle for a Graco travel system, but the other pushchair are just too cool to rule out. I welcome any recommendations and suggestions that people may have.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Week of the Toe

Friday at last. An extra bonus this week, with a bank holiday - meaning a 3-day weekend. Here in the UK we have only 8 bank holidays, easily the lowest in Europe. France has 10, Germany 12 and Slovenia a whopping 17. In actual fact, although that sounds a lot more, the bank holidays across Europe are fixed dates, regardless of whether they fall on a weekend or not. Therefore, I'm told, on average, the number of weekdays off is the same. Still, wouldn't mind a few more!

My first week back in General Practice and already I've seen an unusually high amount of toes! 5 patients have come in this week with issues about their toes. One had a persistantly swollen little toe, another had nail damage and one just didn't like the shape and wanted to discuss surgical options to correct it. Admittedly it was an ugly toe, but still - to consider surgery is pretty drastic.

These patients along with others prove how mundane GP-life can be. Three of the five toe patients came simply because they could. They clearly had nothing better to do - there wasn't a problem with their toe that I could help with and they all got the same advice. As part of the consultation process I'm supposed to enquire what the patient expected or hoped for from me. Each time the patient just wanted to check if the toe was ok and to do so needed confirmation from a doctor. When I confirmed that the toe was fine, they felt reassured and left.

Often in these consultations, it's simply an exercise in reassuarance. I'm here to just confim the patients thoughts. The patient has already formed an opinion, a reason for their symptoms/problems and just want to double-check with the doctor. If I confirm their ideas they go home happy, if I disagree, we discuss the alternatives and come up with a plan - working in partnership.

To the reader this may seem pretty straightforward, but I guess, when I try to look at this positively (difficult on a Friday), I possess the skill and knowledge to identify when the thoughts are wrong and also provide alternatives and options in dealing with different problems. My skill is as a diagnostician.

Everything else I do, could technically be done by someone else. Nurses are able to do blood tests and other investigations. Other healthcare professionals are able to prescribe certain medication, are able to examine certain patients. Only the doctor is able to diagnose the problem and then attempt to come up with a solution where possible.

So, after 4 years of hard labour, I finally stumble across my role. I diagnose problems and hopefully provide solutions. I guess it's a shame that doesn't endear me to my work as much as it should. As positive as I have made it all sound, when I put it into practice - diagnosing what's wrong with a patients toe is not exactly the most exciting thing in the world.

Apologies for how slowly this blog is developing, I'm just trying to get back into the typing groove and right now my thoughts are pretty boring. Thanks for persisting and hopefully things will start picking up soon. If not, I'll rope in the guest bloggers early, or type something about Bollywood - that seems to attract all the hits.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Professional socialisation?

Tuesday's are teaching days throughout my GP Registrar year. This means time spent in a small room with all my fellow GP Registrars being taught subjects relevant to General Practice. Yesterday started with a gentle introduction into Registrar life. A summary of what to expect in the upcoming year, how to prepare for exams and to round it off, a nice session spent on our 'hopes' and 'fears' for the next year (seriously, I'm not making this up!) And to think I could have actually been providing a service by seeing and treating patients instead.

In the afternoon we had a session titled "Professional Socialisation and Working in Partnership." No matter how many times I read that, it makes no sense and the teaching was even more confusing. The teacher we have is a lovely lady, but her teaching drives me to tears. And with a topic title like that it didn't take long before the tissues came out.

The teaching session focused on how various healthcare professionals interact and how - with examples - our egos get in the way of patient care. We went through some scenarios, which actually took place, where meetings with a range of healthcare professionals would turn into slanging matches about who holds authority over whom.

Often in these examples, the GP (or doctor) was relatively unscathed, and the people in the meetings (to discuss healthcare of a variety of patients) would place the doctor at the top i.e. the one with the most responsibility and then fight it out amongst themselves to decide who ranks where. If this all sounds confusing, it is!

Bottom line, doctors almost always have to take the most responsibility - the buck stops with them. Everyone else does their respective jobs but when things go wrong, ultimately they all turn to the doctor to sort it out. Interestingly, there were no examples of when things go right and the doctor is given credit - in those cases everyone wants a share of the praise.

There was an interesting scenario towards the end which woke me up a bit. Three seperate groups of psychiatrists and psychologists were made to watch a video of an interview with an actor who was displaying absolutely normal behaviour. The first group were told that the man "although appears neurotics, is perhaps psychotic," the second group were told that the man "is absolutely normal" and the third group were not told anything.

After watching the interview, 75% of the first group diagnosed the man with a psychotic condition, only 8 said he was normal. In the second group 90% said the man was normal and in the third group there was practially a 50-50 split between being diagnosed normal or being diagnosed with a psychiatric condition. How this is professional socialisation I don't know.

The last half hour was spent discussing working in partnership with patients, but I was so out of it, I can't remember what was said. Although I did get a good quote from a doctor to a patient "there are things about you I could never know and there are things about the human body that I know but you don't, so we must work together to come up with a solution for us both." That's deep!

So after complaining about how boring yesterday was, I've managed to come up with a good amount of information and in the process bore you guys to! These blogs better get interesting soon - I'm just warming up.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Night of Salvation

As promised I'm back and ready to re-enter the blogging world proper. Let's hope it doesn't take too long to get the readers back to the blog - because if I have free time, then I'm sure you do to! Even now, I've finished seeing my first patient and have 20 minutes until I see the next one.

Last week I was away in Pakistan attending the wedding of my sister-in-law. (New job and already taken annual leave - easy for some). The wedding functions were extremely enjoyable - grand and colourful affairs, with good food and plenty of photos of everyone dressed up. My wife's family were understandably moved to tears when we gave away the bride (the 'rukhsati' for those in the know), and emotional time for all. It must be said, that there was a lot more emotion than when my wife and I got married four years ago. Hardly anyone seemed upset then - apart from my wife!

Before I move on to today's topic, two further points from my holiday. First of all, we flew with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and were very impressed with the quality of service. We sat in a Boeing 777 plane with sufficient leg-room (just) and all in all it was a comfortable experience. I feel PIA is much-maligned but as a first time user I was pleasantly surprised. Also, Pakistan uses daylight saving time. India doesn't. This means that for half the year, Pakistan is half an hour behind India and for the other half, 30 minutes in front. How odd is that? OK, not very, but I still find that interesting!

Today, in the Islamic calendar, is the 15th of Shabaan. Last night was quite important for all muslims - Sunni and Shia. It was Lailat-ul-Barat or the Night of Salvation. It is the night when muslims believe that God grants forgiveness to all sins and resets everything for the following year. It is yet another opportunity from God for us to seek his forgiveness and blessing. A night spent in rememberance and prayer towards God.

In the Islamic calender, there are six great nights, repsected by both sects in the muslim world. Lailat-ul-Qadr, Lailat-ul-Miraj, the nights of the two Eids, night of Arafat and Lailat-ul-Baraat. Although each of these nights are important, Lailat-ul-Qadr and Lailat-ul-Baraat traditionally get the most coverage, simply because of the meaning behind them. So much coverage in fact, that even Amitabh Bachchan mentioned it in his blog.

With my cynical hat on, I've often dispelled these nights in the past. Why does God grant forgiveness only on special nights? Surely God is all-forgiving all the time. He is, but these nights carry extra importance because God has deemed it. In his mercy, he has placed emphasis on such nights so that we can take stock of ourselves. Reset.

I now feel that these nights offer me the chance to reflect on where I've been and where I can go. To re-align myself with God. Last night, I came to realise that for the past few months I have just been drifting along. Praying regularly, but apart from that nothing! Not reading the Quran, not seeking further knowledge, not getting close to God. It's disappointing that it took such a night to realise all this, but on the other hand, without Laital-ul-Baraat (and other great nights) would I have come to reflect on myself - probably not.

This time of year, islamically, is always more spiritual. It starts with last night and then leads into Ramadhan shortly, during which we have the Night of Power and then continues into Muharram in the New Year. Inshallah, with the help of these nights, I continue to develop as a muslim and continue to get closer to God.

Leading on from Lailat-ul-Baraat, today being the 15th of Shabaan carries an extra importance for Shias. Today we celebrate the birth of the 12th Imam, a person I attempted to blog about a while back. So, with the Night of Salvation and the birth of our living Imam, all in all a very important two days for us and a wonderful opportunity to remember God and seek his forgiveness - moreso than usual.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

Return of the Doc

The return of the prodigal doctor! Back in GP-land, back in the land of the free! My 18 month hiatus (hell) is finally over. I failed to blog at all whilst in hospital - apologies - but now I'm back.

Life, as expected, has changed in the last 18 months. However, being back at the same GP practice, it's easy to say that some things have not changed one bit. Still in the same room, same computer, same boredom as I wait for patients. The boredom that led me to blogging in the first place and once again led me back here - first day - it didn't take long!

So, for the next year, I hope to entertain you all with blogs on everything and anything. Working as a GP Registrar means I may be busy at times, but I will strive to blog on a daily basis, only this time keeping them conscise and precise. Gone are my days of incessant ramblings over nothing. I also hope to get the guest bloggers back over the course of the year, along with new guests as well.

All in all, there is hopefully much to look forward to from the blog and because I'm away next week (enjoying the benefits of GP-life from the start), this blog officially kicks-off from the 17th of August - hope to see you then.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?