Whate happened to the Jobsworth caps?

17 January

Do you remember Esther Rantzen and her Jobsworth Caps? A case has come to light 2015 when two enforcement officers gave a fixed penalty to a 65 year old woman because she poured her coffee down the drain. She paid up but Ealing Council have apologised and refunded the fine. Fine; but why was the fine issued anyway? I mean, come on; cops tip booze down the drain whenever they find some kid under 18 drinking in a public place. Would they be issued with a fixed penalty ticket? I doubt it very much! No, this case was two council employees behaving like school yard bullies by picking and what they thought was an elderly lady who would pay up without question. I would hope that they are no longer employed by any council, let alone Ealing.

There are quite a few such jobs within councils where these ‘officers’ can raise fines against the public. Dog control officers are another one, but who would object to them issuing a ticket for leaving doggie doo on the pavement? Litter tickers I’ve already mentioned but the largest group are the traffic wardens of course. Where does the council get the authority for these people to fine people without the case going to court? What has happened to our right to fair trial by our peers?

Even so, can you imagine the state of our towns and cities without these people giving out those tickets? I live in Germany for around 18 months, Cyprus for 15 months, and even in Kenya for eight weeks, I don’t remember seeing any litter lying around. My three holidays in Mallorca I didn’t see all that much litter, and certainly no dog mess. So why is it that these places are so clean and yet some areas of our own country is such a mess most of the time. It could be that it’s the minority of yobs that cause it, but why are they so lax in their personal discipline? Is it that they have never heard to the word ‘No’ in a meaningful manner? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Challenge anyone over an illegal act and all you get is the mouthful of abuse. The last time it happened to me was when I saw a woman driving through town while using her phone. She turned really nasty over it. Why? It was only days after that trucker was jailed for killing those people in a car when he was messing with his iPod. Another time I challenged a guy when he drove through a no entry in town, parked up in a blue badge space. He told me to mind my own business. So I did, and called the cops. Some of these people just don’t like being told ‘no’. Tough luck on them.

Here I sat happily thinking Jan would be out until sometime this afternoon, and then the doorbell does its normal dingdong twice in quick succession. I always lock the door when I’m here on my own, but I forgot to take the key out, and Jan wasn’t happy about it … opps. She had gone up to spend some time with Sam, one of her church friends, but she isn’t too well right now, so she is due to go back to bed for a few hours before the kids come home from school. So Jan is now going to the hairdressers this afternoon from here, not after she had been to Bed’th for a few hours.

Today’s photo …

This is an old photo I got when we lived in Atherton. I sue it for the cover of my novel  Web of Hate.

Today’s funny …

Waiter, waiter, do they ever change the tablecloths in thls restaurant?
I don't know, sir. I've only been here a year.             

Wealth, poverty and cheating the system

16 January

I don’t suppose we will ever really know if Russia did hack the US election, however, France seems to be taking the idea seriously because it taking extra measures to prevent it happening there. Either way, none of those elections will have much of an effect on us here directly. The thought came to me though that perhaps the ‘remainers’ might well claim the same has already happened here with the BREXIT vote. That may well have an impact on us. Even now the losing side is fighting a vicious rear-guard battle to stop what the people of the UK have voted for. I shall leave you to make up your own mind on this one, just remember where you heard this one.

We have another run over to Selly Oak to do later this month, this time for Jan to have a CT scan done. That’s two of those and a MRI scan she’s had done in the last 12 months. We are hoping the operation gets done more quickly than 12 months though. We are also hoping my licence arrives back in time for the scan to be done, then I can drive for that one. As for me and my back, I’m still taking the same pain killers but not as often now, and then because of hip pain, not back pain.

As if the NHS hasn’t got enough to deal with, BBC Inside Out show on at 7.30 this evening, is showing a patient selling his NHS prescriptions for cash. The reporter paid £250 for a drug that costs £10,000 a year to issue. If the guy is selling them, then he doesn’t really need them does he, and £1 to pinch of brown mucky stuff, he’s not alone in this one. I’d like to bet that he is cheating the DWP and local council as well, in which case, it’s time he was caught and dealt with.

This is one item that has come to light, but I do wonder how many other such cases there are. The NHS costs us billions every year, and with that kind of money floating around there will always be those with an eye on where to divert some of it into their own pockets. We occasionally hear about cases where NHS employees have managed to find ways to cheat the system, sometimes these people are in senior management positions. They know how stretched the service and keep pushing for more savings, ‘to meet budget cuts’, but also to make the lining of their pockets thicker. Such people should be given serious jail-time when they are caught, not wrist-lapping jail-time.

I do like Who Do You Think You Are? the BEEB show on family history. The last one saw was Ricky Tomlinson. He knows Liverpool, of course he does, he was born there and still lives there. His back ground is as a strong union man and did a two year stretch one time because of it. As he traced his family line back he found out that due to accident he lost two of his distant family. Their widows were then plunged into poverty and that really angered him. Liverpool was a prosperous city in the mid to late 19^th Century, yet the rich lorded it over the people the people who were creating that wealth, the men on docks.

My thoughts were pretty much the same as his, at least to begin with. Then I realised that things are not so different these days, are they? Liverpool is no different to the rest of the UK, with thousands of people being fed from food banks, and with numbers due to rise too. Then I began to think a wee bit more; Tomlinson is no longer living in poverty, is he? So I began to wonder just what he was doing personally to help out those less fortunate than he and his family is. It’s all well and good bleating about how unfair a system is, but those bleats need to matched by deeds on the street, or they are just hot air.

The same question can be asked of me too. What do I do to help? That’s a hard question to reply to, isn’t it? Let’s face it, if I was listed what Jan and I do, it look like boasting, but please rest assured that we do help as and when we can. However, there is one we never do, and that is to give money to beggars on the street. Some are in genuine need, a lot aren’t, but how can we tell? We can’t. Perhaps if we want to help them, take them to a pub or chippy and buy them a meal, don’t give them cash.        

What happened to yesterday’s blog? Simple, I just didn’t feel up to it, very tired when I got up and I remained tired for most of the day. In fact, I was in bed just after 9 pm but didn’t settle until just on midnight, and I must have dropped off pretty quickly too.

Today’s photo …

A dog rose.

Today’s funny …

 What is green, has four legs and two trunks?
Two seasick tourists.    

BREXIT delays, unreliable weather but loads-a-reading matter

14 January

Yet again a minority group may delay the triggering of Article 50. First, we had that silly woman going to court over it, now we have the prats in Stormont causing waves over long held hatred of each other, and of Britain as a whole. When will Scotland try it on again as their first minister is threatening. Not sure about Wales though. I said at the time that it should have been triggered as soon as the result was known. Another item on MSN newsfeed is that Farter Trump wants Europe to pull apart; I’m almost temped to change sides and become a remainer over that one just to spoil his fun – almost, but not quite.

It seems that the weather fears over the weekend were unfounded. That’s the problem with weather forecasting I suppose; damned if they do, damned if they don’t get it right. And yes, I’m well aware of my dislike of their less than accurate predictions. I was hoping we could get into town today but it was raining when I got up, so that one is out now; pity really, I was looking forward to an all-day breakfast in Whetherspoons too. Something to look forward to for next Saturday. Even so, our weather is not as extremes as other parts of the world, for which I am grateful.

Last night I finished Robert Southworth’s third Spartacus novel, The Pharaoh’s Blade. It’s an excellent series of three novels that ultimately leads to the downfall of the arch baddie – although I’m saying no more on that one other his greed finally catches up with him. This series I’ve read on my kindle app on my tablet, and after ending that one I began the last novel in a series of four sci-fi, The Synchronicity War. Again, it’s another great series, space opera at its very best. One that one is finished I have others in a similar vein to start, more space operas too. They always seem to be in series, probably because of the size of the story line is just too large to fit into just one volume.

Have you noticed that fantasy novels are in series too? Game of Thrones, in seven volumes, as are the Parry Hotters, Lensmen books. Michael Moorcock and Anne McCaffery seemed to produce stand alone and series of books. Moorcock’s Count Brass and McCaffery’s Dragonriders are both worth looking out for. Moving away for sci-fi, crime writers also produce series don’t they. Rebus, Roy Grace, Peter Diamond, Tony Hill, Alan Banks … … … and oh so many more, all series but each novel a stand-alone story. I’ll sneak in another one here, Ron G Clark’s Fred Cooper series, House of Pain and Web of Hate. His third in the series is stuck at the moment and needs an extensive re-write. OK, the last two are my own novels, but just a mention them in passing.

On Facebook yesterday there was a post from one group I follow, ForReadingAddicts, which I heartily recommend my friends by the way, in which one of the admin team said her TBR (to be read), pile is at around 35 books. That got me think and I went off to the bedroom to snap my TBR pile, or at least part of it, and that is today’s photo …

When I said ‘part of it,’ I really do mean just a tiny part of it, only 40 in that pile. We were out the day shopping and in the Coop they have a charity book stall now, so I added two more which are not in that pile. In addition I have well over a hundred on my kindle app too, plus even more books on my book shelves. Sitting here I can see a Lynda la Plante waiting to be read.

Today’s funny …

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear perfectly.
He went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing’s perfect. Your family must be pleased you can hear again."
To which he said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've already changed my will 3 times!"           

Cold, wet and the NHS in a mess

13 January

While so much of the UK is under snow or fearing floods, our little town has got away with it again with only a slight dusting of snow. That seems about par for the course for us. If we do get a good covering, then the rest of the country is really badly affected by it. Flooding can be a problem though, but even so, not to the extent of other areas. There are photos around from when Bond Gate was flooded to around three feet, all for the River Anker that runs through that part of the town. There’s a slight dip on the road at the junction of Queens Road (formally Wash Brook Lane) and Edward Street, which tends to flood every so often. The former name or Wash Brook Lane is the clue there where a Wash Brook used to run down the middle of the road. It was covered over at some point and is still runs through there coming out by Mill Street/Mill Walk. Just to add a few more gallons to the flow, there’s a small stream that runs down the rear of Duke Street and joins Wash Brook at some point. I also have a feel a feeling there’s another one that joins it from the other side of Queens Road that comes down for the Coventry Canal, but that isn’t a certainly.

The town’s name comes from a Saxon word, Eaton, which means water town, or town by water. Most of the waterways in the town are small streams or brooks which all tend to run into the Anker at some point. The largest of these is Wem Brook, which begins its journey in Bed’th and joins the Anker in the Pingles Fields. Taking in to account all of these water courses that all join the Anker at some point, you can perhaps see where the name comes from. The Nun part of the name comes from the nuns who were resident at St Mary’s Abbey on what is now Manor Court Road. Like so many other places of worship the abbey became to Henry VIII’s greed for money and power. The remains of the old Abbey can still be seen in the grounds of what is now known at St Mary’s Abbey parish church.

Coming up to date then … This morning is bright any sunny but bitterly cold. We were due to Kile again this weekend but we have had a text come in to say he is off to Brum tomorrow for a shopping trip, he’ll love that – NOT! I suppose it will be all down to what they are planning to shop for. What it means is that we can now look at what we can do now, but it won’t be much really. I really could do with getting some writing done with none done since the 35 words I did late week end. Ah well …

Did you by any chance watch that BBC2 show Hospital? Talk about waste – it’s crazy the way they are being forced to work right now, and there’s more cuts on the way too. For those who missed it, it featured two patients who needed ITU post-operative care. The problem was there were no beds in ITU to put them. Eventually one man got his surgery done, the second man was cancelled for the second time when an emergency came in by ambulance from Norwich. That second patient had his op the following day but died five weeks later due a problem from the operation. What we don’t know is whether he would have lived longer if he had been done instead of being cancelled twice.

There is little doubt in my mind that our NHS is in dire straits right now, any yet there is so much waste within the service, waste that staff have little or no room to control when patients are waiting, when OR staff are on hold waiting for the word to begin surgery. There really is only so much wiggle room and even that is becoming even tighter. All the slack has been taken up and many hospital are working at 100% capacity. I had a look at MSN home news feed this morning and there’s a story about a 22 month old child with a suspected case of meningitis forced to wait five hours in A&E, simply because there wasn’t a bed for him and the crush of patients turning up at A&E. All the Prime Muppet could say was nothing she could do about it. Oh, really? She is now in charge and there is plenty she can do about it! For starters she could order any cuts to funding to stopped, she could order more beds for hospitals and staff to run them.

At what point will they come to realise that they need to act now, not later. Earlier this week the same Prime Muppet was making promises about mental health care provision. But when will that happen, and will the funds for that be ring-fenced so it gets spent where it should be spent, not being merged in with the general health care budget. Does she have means to start kicking the arses of those who run the service or is she just like all the others, nowt but piss and wind in twisted knickers!

Today’s photo …

A primrose methinks.

Today’s funny …

 Did you hear about the cannibal that arrived late for a dinner party? He said, 'Am I late?'
They said, 'Yes, everybody's eaten.'                

What would be just?

12 January

By heck it’s cold this morning! I’ve not been this cold first thing for a long time now. Thing is though, it’s likely to get even colder with snow forecast for later today – if the BEEB has got it correct for a change.

The licence forms are now with a GP for completing ready for sending off and we’ve put the right postage on the envelop too. Now it’s just a case of sitting back and waiting for the next load of forms to come back. At least we are not in such a rush to get it all sorted out now. At the speed they work at these days, it’s a good job we’re not in a rush I suppose.

What on earth caused that 15 year old girl to kill a seven year girl? If it wasn’t for her age we still wouldn’t be told who the older girl is, but I think at some time a judge will order her name released. It happened with Mary Bell and again with the Jamie Bulger killers. Later she will get new ID and will be set up well away from York in an attempt to try to protect her. It’s her family that I feel sorry for. I can’t see they would have any inclining that their girl was capable of such a crime. They must be worried sick now about what comes next.

As for the victim’s family, well, words could never express the horror of what they are going through right now. How could not have sympathy for them, along with the disgust that she has been taken from them so cruelly. I just hope that the killer is not from a friend’s family, that would be doubly cruel. For the wider community who know the little girl, school friends and so on, they too will be affected to some degree. Such a tragedy all round. What we need to see happening now, is the judge hearing the case will not treat it lightly. These days however, I don’t think that will happen. There’s been so many child killings over the years, public feeling has hardened quite a lot, even when the killer is a child too.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I do rage a good bit at the legal system for being too weak. I had hoped that the UK was on the only modern country where that is so, until I read this … https://www.facebook.com/Fyrare/photos/a.10150234396345394.480702.324870550393/10156970948460394/?type=3&theater   It was posted to Facebook by one of my many distant cousins over the pond there. Six months for Rape? Do come on now! That is pitiful. Even so, I have a feeling that he will know by now just how devastating rape can be, for both sexes.

Today’s photo …

An unusual clock.

Today’s funny …

 A youngster was looking at the family photo album and asked his mother, ''Who's the slim young man on the beach with you with lots of muscles and curly hair?''
''That's your father.''
''Then who's the old bald-headed fat man that lives with us now?           

12 month wait ...

11 January

Hospitals; none of us really like them but where would we be without them? Jan had an appointment at Selly Oak in Brum at 9.30 yesterday morning. We set off around 7.30 to get there in time, and we did. That was where their IT system kicked in and cocked it all up. There are two ways to book in over there, in person at the reception, or using a terminal on the wall. A volunteer showed her how to use the terminal, which show her as having booked in. BUT … it was at a different clinic and at 1030 she queried at reception. Then they found out why she hadn’t been seen to time.

When we did get to see the consultant Jan said he was a different one to who she saw the last time. Whatever, that guy yesterday is the one who will actually do Jan’s back when the time comes – in 12 months! That’s a horrendous waiting list, and it could end up as being the first of many such operations of the coming years. He showed us scans of another lady, no names obviously, who had what Jan is due to have done. She later two more operations to fully correct the problem. He explained that there is a 30-50% chance of Jan having to go the same route. By those figures he’s got himself a job for life I think.

The thing is, she does need to have the job done. She is in constant pain because of it and it’s starting to impact on her life a heck of a lot. I already knew she can’t look up because of the spinal curvature, but that means she is having to turn her head to the side when she fishes a drink. As she walks she always looking down at the ground and driving is OK for now, but it is slowly becoming an issue as she tries to keep her head up straight. The job needs doing, such a shame about the waiting times. We finally got home quite late yesterday afternoon and that is why there was no blog yesterday, I was just too tired.

We are going out again today for shopping and when we do I have to get the right postage to return those forms to DVLA. I spoke to the practice secretary yesterday afternoon about names and dates and so on and she suggested I drop them off and a doctor will go through them and fill in what’s required. I’ve filling my name, address and so on and signed them where needed and she assured me that they will sort out the time required for them. It’s certainly looking like I will need that licence back pretty soon.

When we were sorting through Dave’s bedroom in Bracebridge Street, we found a large bottle of Quink ink and looked like it hadn’t been opened. We couldn’t see any use for it at the time so we threw it out, along with so many other things too. We still have quite a bit of stationary that we found, among them a heck of a lot of pens and pencils, most of which we now keep in a large plastic box. I got the idea that I had some passport photos in there, so I looked for them, and found yet another Parker fountain pen. I already use a Sheaffer pen and I can’t use another Parker. Why he kept buying them I’ll never understand. Same with all the pencils he bought, no need for them, no need at all.

Today’s photo is another oldie I’m afraid …

Brums golden Pigeon pooping place.

Today’s funny …

Smile! It makes people wonder what you've been up to.            

Living in Spain ...

9 January

That W10 problem I mentioned yesterday was not the end of it, oh no … In an attempt to fix it I thought perhaps closing the lappy down and then restating it again after a short wait might fix it. First job was the close-down the programs I had open at the time and saving what needed to be saved first of course. Hmmm … strange, why won’t it close-down now? Problem two then. I tried again this morning and still now go, even worse, my documents opened in a format I’ve not seen before, problem three. Once I had things closed-down again I did a hard close-down by holding the power button down.

Around a minute later I started up again, it was very slow to get going, but I expected that. First job was to try Edge, and it worked – yeahhhh … Then I opened up word ready to write this, and it opened in the funny format again. This time it opened with s few drop-down menus so had a look, clicked on Edit and finally problem three was solved. As for problem two, well, that will have to wait until later today. Computers eh – who’d ‘ave ‘em …

A new TV show start and eight part series on Channel 5 last Friday so I set it to record just in case I forgot about it, and I did too. Anyway, we watched last night after Kile went home and it wasn’t at all bad, even if it did show some of the downsides of living in Benidorm. It majored on working out there  by concentrating on just four people, an estate agent, two entertainments guys working in different locations and finally a guy who set up an auction house.

One of the entertainment guys, I young bloke who runs fitness and dance classes was very motivated. As he said at one point, ‘If I don’t have any clients I don’t eat, simple as that.’ I was impressed with that stance, and to make it even more interesting is that he is a recovering alcoholic druggy who has got himself clean and intends to stay like that. Some of his clients were interviewed too, one of whom was recovering from cancer. Moving to Spain has really improved her life. She said that if she had remained in England she would have been stuck in a wheelchair. Our health is one of the reasons we are looking at maybe going out.

As for the other entertainments guy, I got fed up with his ‘Happy days’ comment nearly every sentence he uttered.  The estate agent was getting panicky after several months without any sales and finally made one and now has a £1million place to sell. It’s a lovely house, large and luxurious, so she will have to be selective in who she takes there for a viewing, me and Jan would certainly not be interested.  

The actuation house took in €9,000 on auction day, leaving the owner €3,000 clear for him after paying various people their cut. This auction house sells furniture and general household goods. Apparently, new furniture is expensive in Spain, so he has found a niche for himself, and he’s making more than enough to feed him and his wife and have fun when not at work. Looking forward for the next one now.

It looks like we’re stuck in here for the day now seeing as it’s raining quite hard out there. I’m happy about that seeing as I wasn’t fussed on going out today anyway. But no new photos though, so today’s  is another oldie …

A rather nice white flower.

Today’s funny …

Why did the baker stop making donuts?
Because he was tired of the hole business.