In My Own Time: Thoughts from Fort Buggeration - Introduction

In My Own Time: Thoughts from Fort Buggeration - Introduction

by Paul Bridle

Personal Journals

Season 1

Getting My Throat Cut — A Calm Thyroidectomy Tale: My experience with thyroid removal on the NHS

In this episode, I recount my surprisingly serene experience of having both thyroid glands removed on the NHS — from diagnosis and hospital gown, to anaesthetic bliss and a quick recovery. A gentle reflection on healthcare, goitres, and gratitude.

Bums and Benefits: My Colonoscopy via the NHS (National Health Service UK)

In this episode, Paul shares a very personal tale from the far end of the body. At 73, he's no stranger to medical prodding—and in this frank, gently humorous account, he recalls his two NHS colonoscopies with curiosity, gratitude, and not a hint of embarrassment. With a nod to his father's experience with bowel cancer, Paul explains why this intimate procedure is worth facing head-on (or rather, bottom-up). Expect brown paper pants, some inner housekeeping, and a reminder of why the National Health Service remains one of Britain’s finest ideas.

We Are Never Fully Known; Do we know one another or even ourselves?

The mystery we are to ourselves and others.1

Here's not looking at you: The Gen-Z stare

The Gen-Z stare The cover art is an AI generated image

Bugs and me: Large insects and small

My encounters with a few noteworthy bugs

Bugs and me

My encounters with a few bugs

Bugs and me.

A short podcast about a few bugs I've encountered.

Season 1

George: My mentor and friend.

This podcast is about someone very special to me, whom I met on my first day working at a Children's Home during my period as a Trainee Residential Social Worker in Hertfordshire in the mid 1970s.

First placement of my Social Work course

My first placement on my Oxford Polytechnic social work course was in the Probation Department in Gloucester, where I was living at the time. This is a brief podcast concerning my placement supervisor and an offender pulling the wool over my eyes. In future podcasts, I aim to describe various experiences I had over a period of almost 40 years.

My journey to social work

This is, hopefully, the first of an intermittent series on my life as a social worker. This episode is not as polished as I would have liked. There are parts of this podcast which I may expand upon in future podcasts. Thank you for your time and interest.

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