Sunday in Dorktown

4 March 2012

A comedian once likened something or other to be like 'a wet Sunday in Dorktown' - but he used the town's real name.  Well, today is a very wet Sunday in Dorktown and it really is pretty dire.  I hadn't made any plans for going anywhere today, perhaps I should have, it might be dryer elsewhere.  Jan didn't even go to church today either.  Never mind eh ... ... ...

So it seems that our troops in Afghanistan prefer being there than at home when it comes to the feeding arrangements.  During my time in Army, and I was a chef in the Army too, we used to have food and accommodation charges taken from our pay at source.  Off hand it was about £40 a month but I'm not quite sure about that.  The catering staff had £1.67 per day per person to feed each soldiers.  We used a guide as to how much meat, veg and so on that each soldier was allowed on a daily basis and certainly in our battalion the lads ate very well from it.  That system worked very well until around 1996 according to the Sunday Express when the government decided that instead of the traditional method they would allow the soldiers to keep their food allowances so they could buy what food they wanted when the wanted it.   

Now, I don't know how the system works at the point of delivery but I can see that there could well be problems at that point.  How many should the chefs cook for being the most obvious one.  The result is that the troops like it in Afghanistan because the food is not only better out there, but free too.  At least that hasn't changed - yet.  Such posting and deployment were always classed as being 'field conditions' and no charges were made for either food or accommodation.  At the moment it all looks very bad and very poor way to treat our armed forces.

For as long as I have been aware of them I have a mistrust of Social Services (SS).  There have always been a lot of hidden agendas to my way of thinking.  But to some extent it's a case of they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.  A point in case is when my mother had to go into a care home because we could not look after her properly.  Trying to do so gave Jan a heart attack.  And it was at that point that we had to give up and ask for help.  But they fought tooth and nail to keep her out of a care home telling us the effects on us didn't count, on her needs were taken into account.  Top and bottom of it all was the fact that we were living in mother's house which had a value of around £100K.  But because I was over 60 and registered disabled they couldn't claim for the house to sold to pay for her fees if she did go into a home.  We did eventually get mother into a care home where she was looked after very well, and still is.  Now then ...

While all this was going on there was a case in Coventry where a woman refused to keep her mother in care home and wanted her to live with her so she could look after her.  SS went to court and got a court order to remove the elderly lady and place her in a care home.  The daughter appeal and won and she got her mother back home.  I have nothing but respect for the actions of that lady who fought hard to look after her mother.  But should she have had to fight like that?  I don't think so.  It's cases like these that cause the double damming of SS.  What is needed it actually some common sense on their part, the ability to work with the rules and not be bound by them.  So bring this up to date somewhat ...

The Sunday Express has a story of an adoption that went tragically wrong and the fault is squarely laid at the doors of SS.  A couple wanted to adopt a young girl.  They already had two young girls of their own so they said that didn't want a child who had been sexually abused.  The SS not only ignored that request but actually lied when they said that girl involved had not been subject to any sort of sexual abuse.  Now 15 years old, her adopted family tragically damaged the girl is now back with SS and it is feared that she is not being cared for properly.  The reason SS lied is simply that the family involved were a middle class family, just the sort of family they were looking for as potential adopters. Now we have a traumatised family, a traumatised 15 year old and all because SS see themselves as being high and mighty and unable to apply common sense to a problem.  How many other prospective adopters will be put off by the story?  all in all, it makes my distrust of SS all the more entrenched!

Weigh day today and I've lost another 2lbs ... of goody goody!  Hopefully I shall get down to what I hope to get down to.  The no booze, well, very little booze policy is working well.  Only 4 pints since the New Year, not bad at all ;-)))

So then, photo time ...

This was taken at Shell Island in North Wales.  It's a view looking over the bay towards Harlech Castle in the distance.

Nothing from the Sage for today but I have a book here called, "The Book of Senior Jokes."  This is one of the ...

A dying man, who has no surviving family members, summoned his accountant to his deathbed.  He said, "When I die, I want you to have my remains cremated."

"And what do you want me to with your ashes?" asked the accountant.

The old man replied, "Put them in an envelope and mail them to the inland revenue with note saying, 'Now you have everything!'"