The changing world (146) Aug 87- Jul 88

11 Aug Enid Crane to dinner.
Around this time Jonathan had an experimental scan at the Hammersmith where raj Abraham was consultant neurologist.Thr NMR machine was so innovative at the time we had to sign a consent. I watched the monitor. He was told there was some noise, He had to come out and take of his jeans which gad a big metal front button. I said it was,'Take of your trousers to see inside your head'. Raju promised a copy of the scan but when he was how much brain tissue was not as it should be he declined. Agenesis of corpus callosum (ACC) is a rare disorder that is present at birth (congenital). It is characterized by a partial or complete absence (agenesis) of an area of the brain that connects the two cerebral hemispheres. For such a lack of brain development Jonathan has little disability beyond a mild hemiplegia.
Christmas 1977 Our first HOST student. Hospitality for Overseas Students organised by the British Council. Zhang Yingbiao, Charlie, was a delight. Post doctoral scientists at University College. We gave him a Chinese Bible but he preferred reading Debbies cartoon Bible. Over the holiday I relayed the story from creation to Exodus. He lapped it up saying this was what China needed, the way of forgiveness. He was a brilliant original scientist working on a unified field of knowledge for alternative medicine. We recommended the Chinese church in London but he went to All Souls and the next year was baptised. He is father had opposed the communists and been imprisoned. He was not released while his wife lived. Charlie was brought up in a rural area away from the cultural revolution. He was so well self taught he skipped a first degree and entered a masters course after the end of the cultural revolution.
6 Sep       Sproules to dinner.
8 Sep       John and Marie Scott visited.
19th Dec  Patterson family to dinner.
24th Jan 88 Leonard Day to dinner.
Mar 20th     Six Barnes to dinner.
Apr 26th    My eldest cousin, Roger Weeks visited from New Zealand. An orthopaedic surgeon he had emigrated the nearly twenty years before. He said his entry into society was through the Freemasons. he acme Grand Master in the northern island. I told him the only new society was the church. He did not like my critique of the society with secrets which could easily serve as a template for corruption. Roger Harman Weeks was born in Worcester on 24 April 1934. He married Hilary on 27 February 1960 in Falmouth and they had two children, Sara (born 1961, who also became medically qualified) and Robert (born 1966). He practised as a general surgeon in New Zealand and died there, while living in the Bay of Islands, on 5 March 2005.
3 may          Yasmin Ahmed stayed.
30th                Julia Pollinauu from Munich stayed under the HOST scheme.
14 Jun            David Landess and Kirk Lynn visited, both from Wheaton College.
18th                Mary and Seamus Vahey to dinner. She was my pharmacy assistant, one of the best. The only problem was the usual Irish one, wanting holiday to go home at Christmas. That was a good reason not to employ the Irish. I also did not want male assistants but the stupid job centre said equalities policy meant I could not advertise for females only. I needed a female for with only one assistant she had to be fame in a pharmacy.
26th                 Diane Preston to dinner.
23 July 1986. Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey . That day I presented ealing Parents Action Group petition to Cllr Hilary Benn on the town hall steps. Press coverage nationally was at the royal wedding so we got little coverage.