Jan's Chronicles

  Monsa, or Dame Isaac Monsa is another nurse at Barbaret Bobin. Her real name is anything but, and I call her Monsa because she looks like Mona Lisa (although she has more curls) and Monsa is short for Mona Lisa, plus with that many curls in her hair and the way she styles her hair, she also looks alarmingly like everybody’s favourite physicist who got smashed in the head by a Trinity apple. Yes, I’m talking about you, Sir Isaac Newton. Monsa was present at a few key moments during my entire stay at Barbaret Bobin. She happened to be on shift the few times restrictions ran rampant and I was anything but cheerful. Monsa, however, kept her cool throughout. When I attempted to force my way into the house of the dragons (a code we use with fellow ward mates referring to the nurse station) Monsa got a few security guards to stop me, and when I tried to be naughty and fight my way through and during the process almost fell over, Monsa asked the security guards to let go and let me f...

  Mod, Mother of Dragons Mod is a nurse at Barbaret Bobin and sometimes acts in a team leader role.  Mod’s real name, although starting also with M and in the same three-lettered form, is not Mod. Mod is just short for mother of dragons, because Mod is as fierce as the dragon mother from the most hyped TV series in the 2010s. Taking away the fierceness, Mod is still quite a character. In looks she bears a striking resemblance to one of my associates from church: same height, same tone of voice, similar features, and both wearing glasses of the same shape and size. Mod enjoys analysing French poetry and speaks several languages, same as my church associate, although I never got a chance to ask Mod about her faith. One night I was restless and bored (there are no books available in one of the Barbaret Bobin wards; there’s only three, and the one with no books nor anything is the acute unit) and Mod was on shift. She wasn’t assigned to me, but she was the only one availab...

  Rerry-Howan, or the most Royal and Reverent Rerry VIII Rerry-Howan has the same misfortune as me of being in possession of a hyphenated first name. Of course, this is not his real name. A name can be an alias, and as such can sometimes accentuate certain qualities of the person being discussed. Rerry VIII is my preferred alias for Rerry-Howan. I will be referring to Rerry-Howan as Rerry VIII or Rerry for short for his part at Barbaret Bobin. Rerry is a nurse. Rerry always appears in navy. Nurses at Barberet Bobin have access to uniforms in navy and maroon and sometimes special themed ones (eg Christmas tops,) Rerry, however, always wears navy. Physical characteristics: height-wise, Rerry is neither here nor there. Rerry is not well over 6 feet. Rerry is only just about 6 feet or so based on my casual observation. Rerry’s hair, both cranial and facial, is sadly not in abundance, although the facial segment trumps its cranial neighbour, and both are fiery red. Rerry is a pure...

  der Bauberzerg Preface No, I did not pinch Thomas Mann’s choice of name for one of his most famous novels. I adapted it by assigning to it a wee swap. In computer science terms, it’s a mini three-way swap, aka Trinity Swap (by the way, Alan Turing said no; so actually I made this bit up just to give Trinity another poke, hopefully neither in the eye or up the nostrils).  To complete a three-way swap, you need another bit of space just big enough to accommodate one letter. You then take the ‘Z’, de-capitalise it, put it in the little container (let’s call it Container C because why not), then you take and capitalise the letter ‘b’ (now ‘B’) and put it in the head of the queue where ‘Z’ (now ‘z’) has left, and lastly, you take ‘B’ from container C and put it in the midst of the queue where ‘z’ has left.  Congratulations, now you’ve managed to complete a three-way swap. Feel free to chuck container C down the bin, or re-initialise it aka return it to the database t...