23 March 2012
We had a very early morning start yesterday with Jan booked in for 8.30am at the Walsgrave hospital. That meant getting up at 7 o’clock so we could at least have a cuppa before we left home. No matter where you are in the UK, at that time in the morning there is going to be traffic problems. We left home at 7.45 and arrived at the hospital main entrance at 8.20, which wasn’t all that bad really. Jan called me at around 11 o’clock to say she was ready to be picked up. It was a trip back home, another cuppa or two, an early lunch and then we were both out on our scooters to get some photos. I shall post some of the results later – probably tomorrow.
Last summer Warwickshire County Council decided in its wisdom that they would close the care home where my mother was happily living. It was supposed to be an exercise in cost cutting. So it is quite a surprise to read in the News this morning that those same councillors along with a private company applied to build a new care facility not 100 yards away from where the now empty care home is sitting unused. Dorktown planners have refused them planning permission, rightly in my mind; but I wonder; am I the only person who thinks there is a funny stench to this proposal?
Game, the High street entertainment company have called in administrators. That puts two more shops in Dorktown in danger of closing. Two more empty shops in the high street is not going to do the town much good at all. The leader of the council Dennis Harvey is trying to encourage Dorktowners to be proud of the town. That could be hard act to pull off. In 1966 Nikolaus Pevsner and Alexander Wedgwood are scathing about the town. They said, “Nuneaton is a mystifying town … the market place has no redeeming feature … the whole has not become a coherent centre yet …”
I wonder what they would say the town now? At least in 1966 there were a lot of older buildings, all open and doing good business. But now from the corner of Coventry Street and Market Place and up along Queens Road, apart from the original Woolworth’s building on that corner and the one next door, it has all been rebuilt. Likewise from the opposite corner where Barclays Bank still stands, over Bridge Street to Bond Gate around as far as the old Pen and Wig pub, has also been rebuild. Our public library is still the same building that Pevsner and Wedgewood dislike intensely, still stands. Alongside the library is an even bigger traffic island that keeps the town’s parish church separated from the rest of the town centre.
So what is there to be proud of Mr Harvey? There are few jobs with at least one of the larger employers threatening to leave town; a growing number of empty shops in the town centre itself; a lack of understanding in the town’s heritage – hence the demise of the Coop Hall and Courtaulds Mill; a ring road that goes through the middle of the town. Asking Mary wots-er-name won’t help! Ask the town’s people what they want – and then break the tradition and set a new one, listen to them properly and actually do what they suggest!
To keep the theme going, here’s a shot of large truck trundling along the ring road, less than 100 yards from the town centre …
This doesn’t fit the theme but it is good …
A woman asks her husband if he'd like some breakfast. "Would you like bacon and eggs, perhaps? A slice of toast and maybe some grapefruit and coffee?" she asks.
He declines. "Thanks for asking, but I'm not hungry right now. It's this Viagra," he says. "It's really taken the edge off my appetite."
At lunchtime, she asks if he would like something. "A bowl of soup, homemade muffins, or a cheese sandwich?" she inquires.
He declines. "The Viagra," he says, "really trashes my desire for food."
Come dinnertime, she asks if he wants anything to eat. "Would you like maybe a juicy porterhouse steak and scrumptious apple pie? Or maybe a rotisserie chicken or tasty stir fry?"
He declines again. "Naw, still not hungry."
Well," she says, "would you mind letting me up? I'm starving."
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