Catching up with the Days 181 to 188

Day 181. Dr. Snow didn’t like Quoits, he is quite a serious man. Charlie and white lines keeps floating around my head, what can it mean? I bend down and stroke Charlie’s head and suddenly the world is speeding up and I am transported to another space. There are fields and I can see a magnificent palace in the distance but the building and land where I stand is equally impressive. Superb brickwork, imposing in the landscape and dwarfing all around. Then reservoirs of water freshly dug and made. What staggering inventiveness and ingenuity to create such a monolith in this rural area and all by a river that flows by.

Day 182. I entered the Marquee in time to hear a rather bucolic man in top hat make a presentation on behalf of the Lambeth Water Company celebrating their magnificent construction of these new water works. I have to say that listening to the task they had to undertake and knowing the physical and skill resources available it is quite staggering. I almost gasped when he introduced the engineer and architect of this remarkable edifice a one ‘James Simpson’. This is the man the Doctor had kept talking about. I fell slightly to one side and was propped up by a delightful chap. I glanced at his invitation card to find that I have gone back further in time to 30^th March 1852. Lovely canapés.

Day 183. I have made my way towards Mr James Simpson in the hope of trying to find out why he will be so important to Dr Snow. He is a rather engaging chap and I listened intently as he described his methods of filtering water which, I have to say, sound almost fantastical but I won’t tell him. Let him believe he has created something special for a while. I was rather amused when he described the issues he had had with the Aldermen and leaders of the neighbouring borough who had been unhelpful and at times downright obstructive as they attempted to milk as much money from the project as possible. It made me think that some things never change. Nice cake. Now where’s my Charlie?

Day 184. This really is an astonishing feat of ambition and engineering. They have built a massive complex of cathedral like buildings to purify water. I don’t think they realise the implication of what they have done. Here, in this strange little place by the River Thames, they have started the drive to clean water for all. Simpson is an astonishing chap. Some of the things Snow was saying about him begin to make sense. Snow’s need for a clean water supply for his Grand Experiment. Why am I always so slow to make sense of things? They have painted a white line on the coal supply. I remember from the film The Railway Children that is a way of preventing theft. More white lines and Charlie by me side. What does it mean?

Day 185. I suppose I have never really thought how lucky I have been to have access to a supply of fresh water whenever I needed it. In fact, as I stand here at the opening of this astonishing facility, I realise that I have, for too long, taken for granted my shelter, food and life. What progress has been made since this wonderful cathedral to Victorian vision, engineering and ‘dare do’ was built. Upon its foundations has so much of our progress been laid. I wonder if we pay enough respect to these giants who walked before us. In my life I have done nothing and now I’ve got bloody cramp. It’s all this standing about. I bend down to stretch my leg and stroke Charlie and the scene before my eyes begins to disappear.

 Day 186. The same slight nausea, the same dizziness and then the sense of terra firma and arrival. I nervously open my eyes and feel the overwhelming relief that Charlie is next to me. I am scared that I will pass through a Time Transition Vortex Junction and appear on the other side without my ‘familiar’ or Glendanvagher in dog form and be trapped but with Charlie by my side I feel strangely re-assured. Now to work out where I am. There is large crowd gathered in the distance on the brow of a hill.

Day 187. I have moved up towards the hill where the crowd is gathered. A man with an accent I cannot immediately understand is talking. This is a crowd made up of the poor, the sick and the lame and they are hanging on his every word. Many of them have tears in their eyes as they listen. Whatever this man is saying seems to be an answer to these poor wretches payers. I will make my way further forward in the hope I can understand him better.

Day 188. I have pushed my way nearer to the front and slowly I have begun to understand this man’s pattern of speech and with it begin to understand why this crowd feel such hope at his words. These are people whom this society has seen to cast aside. People without the resources to buy ‘choice’ or so in desperate need as to be pitiable. He uses a language I am unused to hearing with words such as fairness, justice and equality. The man’s accent is Welsh and his words resonate in my ears. “A health service that meets the needs of everyone. A health service is free at the point of delivery. A health service that is based on clinical need, not ability to pay.” His words are an answer to their prayers.