For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
#1605390
Not really a lot to add on this other than noting every newspaper on the rack in the (recently ram-raided) village store has a photograph of a haggard bloke with headline being some variation on "I have let you down"

Did anyone here have any expectations of the man that he has failed to meet as he appears to think is the case?

Rob P
karlbown liked this
#1605427
Rob P wrote: a haggard bloke with headline being some variation on "I have let you down"


He probably looks into his mirror every morning and sees a very important person looking back .
And the media junkie generation who follow his every move , for whom , Britain's got Talent is their Newsnight , probably do feel "let down" by this giant of the entertainment world's "moment of madness".

Of course , for us gentle folk of FF , who actually CAN remember the days of good quality entertainment , this minnow and his life-changing misfortune is just a tiny and inconsequential little blip .
Entertainers come and entertainers go and there are entertainers far more talented than our Mr McPartlin , who have been consigned to oblivion .

Oh well,,, :D Funny old game , showbiz .
What's the difference between 'topping the bill' and being the back end of the panto-horse ?

About 86 thousand quid in his case.... :clown:
#1605437
I actually feel a little sympathetic towards the chap. Some will say "he's got it made" but,

- him and his wife can't have kids
- above probably being a major contributor to their upcoming divorce
- he can't go anywhere without having a camera stuffed in his face
- his Tramadol addiction is as a result of a buggered knee (who'd want either?)
- constant pressure to perform and not let your performing partner down
- his alcohol problem probably stems from all of the above

Not being able to walk down a street undisturbed and not being able to tell someone who is disturbing you, to 'eff off, can't be fun even when you don't have other problems..

Obviously he wasn't right to drink and drive but its probably done him a favor in it has sent him back to the rehab he left too early in the first place.
I think no less of him.

I will add my personal experience of Tramadol is, it is interesting stuff to come off!
#1605455
Sooty25 wrote:I actually feel a little sympathetic towards the chap.


It rather depends if you view your personal supply of sympathy as a finite or infinite resource.

If finite, there are several billions of others who are in the queue to receive mine ahead of him.

If infinite, then he can have some, but I don't intend going out of my way to offer it to him, he can make his way to Norfolk.

Rob P
karlbown liked this
#1605479
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Nasty side-effects as well as its addictive propensities.

Tramadol is a nasty drug I actively avoid prescribing. Especially to people who may have addiction issues.


More than 25 since I started to study this subject (psychopharmacology/physiology along with quantitative analysis were my “happy to stay awake for days” subjects) we are still in the same state.

People generally don’t have addiction problems. They have a genetic landscape (genotype is technically wrong) that predisposes them to addiction.

It’s almost like saying tall people have a predisposition for hitting their head on low doorframes.

However hard they try emotionally or intellectually, it’ll keep happening.

Unless you do a full genome analysis (which will cost you at least 5k, but now at least it exists, and can only give probability), then you have no clue if you have an “addictive personality “ or not.

If you read Ben Goldwotiz over on the Gruaniad or similar you will know that Big Pharma is quite happy to provide addictive pills, but almost never really “cures” as they don’t provide shareholder value.

*edited to say, imagine you were born and grew to 6ft 10. All your family were max 5ft3, and you lived in a Miner’s cottage. High prob that you would end up with a sore back and plenty of bruises from constantly banging into things.

The vendors of prescription pain killers etc are reprehensibly aware that their products are unsuitable for a percentage of the population.

I’m waiting patiently for individuality tailored pharmacology. There is no excuse for it not to exist...now
#1605499
So are you saying that I am not simply greedy but have a genetic predisposition towards calorific over-achievement?

Well, that's good news.

as for this young chap, I reckon if you have a health or relationship problem then £130,000 a week won't ease the pain. What's the old saying? "It can only buy you a better class of misery."
#1605526
Dutch - the evidence has been there for decades. As the years roll by, the meta-analyses just add to the volume.

Pharma companies have been caught out time after time for being selective in their publications.

For me the saddest fact is that it is 100 percent clear that *the markets* cannot provide 100 percent of the time. Way back in the good old days - we used to have Govt funded labs for things like road traffic, aerospace, health matters that the pharma bods wouldn't touch cos they weren't in shareholder interest.

No matter how often and how hard these lessons keep coming back to bite, our Glorious Leaders refuse to re-instate systems that counter/compliment *market led* science.

Bit of a sweeping statement that can be qualified by a bunch of points - but simple fact is that we in the West have given up ownership of so many hard science subjects to private enterprise, and even when after several years of clearly anti-competitive or anti-social activity - our Govts do next to nothing.
#1605543
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:Nasty side-effects as well as its addictive propensities.

Tramadol is a nasty drug I actively avoid prescribing. Especially to people who may have addiction issues.


If it any help to any other person who has the misfortune of ending up needing it, the way in which I came of it was a bit unorthodox but ultimately worked.

The day after surgery, I asked my consultant what pain relief I should use. He casually advised me, "you won't need those any more (the tramadol), just paracetamol as the scar heals".

Nobody mentioned it was addictive and naturally, I'd not read the instructions, so just stopped taking it. After about a week of nightmares, paranoia attacks, talking to the animals walking about in my house and generally freaking out the family, the haze cleared sufficiently for me to think to google tramadol. It was then I discovered what a horrendous reputation it has and that I'd got through the worst half of cold turkey. I carried on. It took about another week to really get clear.

I think that not knowing it was addictive, helped stop craving for it, I've also read lots of reports of failed attempts of people trying to wean off. Cold turkey method worked for me, but I didn't know what was happening.
#1605545
Rob P wrote:
Sooty25 wrote:I actually feel a little sympathetic towards the chap.


It rather depends if you view your personal supply of sympathy as a finite or infinite resource.

If finite, there are several billions of others who are in the queue to receive mine ahead of him.

If infinite, then he can have some, but I don't intend going out of my way to offer it to him, he can make his way to Norfolk.

Rob P


Well lets put it this way, if I ended up sat next to him on a long haul flight, I wouldn't give him a hard time over the accident. Nobody got hurt and he's paid a higher penalty, financially, personally and publicly for it.

Maybe he needs some escapism, maybe he needs a warbird in his life!