Jabs, teachers and a new book

29 September 2012

A letter arrived a week or two ago inviting us in for annual flu jab.  So dutifully I arrived at the GP surgery on time this morning.  Opps - I got the wrong week!  It's next week I need to be there.  Jan had hers done during the week when she had a GP appointment.  It leaves me to get mine next week.  My head will never save me legs ;-)))

So, I've just got back from town having had a couple of hours and two pints of Stella in the Willy White.  I might as well seeing as I'd got muxed ip over the flu jab.  A gut joined me at the table and he met up with an old friend of his.  They were both teachers but the guy had just retired.  For the next 15 minutes I regaled with stories about how badly their school was doing and the high staff turnover which had led to an Offsted inspection.  The result was that the schools report had dropped from Outstanding to Good.  No idea what levels there are between the two levels.  But I've noticed that with teachers before.  Get them away from school and in a social situation, all they seem to want to talk about is their school and work in general. 

I visit to Waterstones has led to buying three more paperbacks, two Peter James and a David Baldacci.  Now here's the thing ... can any of us remember what books we have back home on our shelves?  I certainly can't!  So what I have done it to open a document on my Blackberry and I'm listing my books on that in author lists.  It save keep buying books you have already at home.  While I was in Waterstones I had a look at the new J K Rowling.  They have it on offer for £12, £8 off the full price.  I'll wait until it come out in paperback.  It looks like a decent story line from the little I read.  Apparently the first Harry Potter was rejected by seven publishers before someone took the chance with it.  I tried it and gave up after 30 odd pages; so I would have rejected too.  I thought is wasn't worth the effort to read.  It won't be long before I can try her new one and see if it's improved.

There's a date that every school child learns - 1066.  But William the Conqueror actually landed in England on this day in 1066 ready for the battle that would make him king of England.  A lot of people say that it was the last time that England was invaded.  But the forget that another William, William of Orange invaded England many centuries later. 

Today's photo is of the Dorktown Market ...

The Rochdale Sage says ...

Police in Liverpool last night announced the discovery of an arms cache of 200 semi-automatic rifles with 25,000 rounds of ammunition, 20 tonnes of heroin, £5 million in forged UK banknotes and 25 trafficked Ukrainian prostitutes, all in a semi-detached house behind the Public Library in Toxteth.  Local residents were stunned and a community spokesman said: "We're all shocked, we never knew we had a library."