Posts

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Blackpool Again

We went to Blackpool yesterday with Carol's Mum, Dad, sister and her husband.

Blackpool Tram

After last year it's nice to see the prom is greatly improved, but sadly not yet finished. Once it is, however, it will be nice. Although it's a shame that the shops, hotels etc on the front all look pretty awful from the Tower south. It's a pity they didn't take a leaf out of Llandudno's book. 

One interesting thing is, once you go north of the Tower up to Bispham, the illuminations get a lot better! I guess this is considered the 'posh' end of Blackpool!

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In Rainbows

Just downloaded Radiohead's new album 'In Rainbows'. I did try to buy it the other day (I thought £5 was a fair amount), but something failed and it didn't work. So, today I've 'bought' it for the grand sum of £0.00!

And listening to it for the first time,  I'm glad I didn't pay anything. It's a bit, well, dull! Time will tell if it grows on me, but my current thoughts are that it won't. I much preferred 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer'.

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No Autumn General Election

The PM has said no to an autumn general election . Lightweight!

He said – 

"Over the summer months we've had to deal with crises, we've had to deal with foot-and-mouth, with terrorism, with floods, we had financial crises.

"Yes, we could have had an election on competence and I hope people would have understood we have acted competently, but what I want to do is show people the vision we have for the future of this country in housing, health and education.

"And I want the chance in the next phase of my premiership to develop and show people the policies that are going to make a huge difference and make a change in the whole country itself,"

Which translated means 'I've got the job I've waited 10 years for and no one is going to take it from me. No election until I absolutely must'. 

Frown

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The Post Office

Seems as if the Post Office / Royal Mail is now set to self destruct.

The Communication Workers Union have called strikes, which means that, in all probability, we won't get any post now for a week!

Royal Mail themselves seem to want to self destruct and annoy as many people as possible at the moment.

They're closing Post Offices, stopped the majority of mail going by train (despite the increase in road congestion , pollution etc), closed their own dedicated underground railway in London, stopped second deliveries and started to deliver mail later and later in the day.

The union seems to be just as bloody minded and awkward. This is the union that goes on strike for having its members suspended. Now, if the rules are followed and fair hearing occur, that is fair enough, so why a strike?

Admittedly, the Government haven't helped by moving services out of the Post Offices, but it does seem that there is some massively bad management going on and some very rigid uncompromising staff within the business.
Will the Post Office survive? Who knows, but I bet my Great Great Grandfather, William Wood who was a postman, is spinning away merrily!

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Train Driver!

Today I’ve been to the Churnet Valley Railway’s scenic railcar weekend and rode up and down on a class 104 DMU and a Derby Lightweight single car DMU (Iris). It’s quite interesting to actually be able to see out of the front!
It was also nice to travel on older trains which sounded ‘proper’ and had a bit of character.
I always find it interesting when on a preserved railway, how quiet the carriages generally are (DMUs and hordes of screaming kids excepted). The thing is there is no air conditioning or engines under the floor. At least with a first generation DMU the engines chug along and rattle a bit!
Iris
But best of all, I got to finally drive a locomotive!! The owner of 37075 was letting people drive up and down the station yard at Cheddleton. Apparently, I was quite good at it!
37075
Must get myself on a full driving day sometime! Smile
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Doh!

That'll teach me! After writing about not using the internet yesterday, I came into work today to find there was no net! Seems that County had a major problem with its proxy servers.

I'll keep me gob shut next time!!!! 😉

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No interweb for 3 days!

I've read this article by a BBC reporter about not using the internet for 3 days. Really makes you think how much we rely on it these days.
I must admit I can go without. In fact I did while we were away on holiday, except for a couple of days when I used my mobile phone to connect my lappy to the internet – for which Orange charged me an arm and a leg!
But, at home we do tend to rely on it. We check how much is in the bank, do the shopping etc. etc. It's amazing how far things have come in a relatively short space of time. In fact I only bought my first PC in 1999!
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Talk Talk

Well we thought that TalkTalk would be good to go to for our phone and broadband. After all the bad press they've had since they launched their broadband service, we thought everything would have calmed down and things would go easily.
Wrong!!!
After placing the order with them on 31/08/07, we were told we'd go live on 25/09/07 (today), and we'd get the welcome pack and broadband stuff soon. So I was a bit concerned when we'd not heard a peep from them by yesterday.
So I rang them up. After being on hold for yonks (thank goodness for SayNoTo0870.com), I got through only to be told that the switch hadn't happened as there was an error. That was helpful I thought! I asked what was happening now and the buck was passed to another department! After waiting on hold again for 10 minutes I put the phone down as I wanted my tea!
So I've cancelled our order.
It says a lot when a company can't send out a welcome pack, broadband info or even tell you that there is a problem with your order! Can't trust TalkTalk to sit on the lavatory the right way round!

The moral is – TalkTalk NO!!!!!

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Llangollen

Been a bit lazy recently!

Went to the Llangollen Railway's steam gala weekend a couple of weeks ago with Mum & Dad.

100_1421-large.jpg

The weather behaved and we had a rather good day out! The railway put on a good selection of locomotives and we all took loads of photos! Mum has even asked to borrow my digital camera after using it all that day for when they go to China! Mum and digital photography is an interesting thought!!!

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Pay

Nice to see that the Prime Minister thinks that it is right and proper to award public sector workers an annual pay rise that is less than inflation.
That means, in effect, that I will be getting a pay cut!
You can be sure that when it comes to MP’s pay rises that they will be above inflation and they will get a huge amount of extras. Mr. Brown, I’m sure, will be pleased to accept his pay package.

The other thing about working for the County is that pay scales and details of pay rises are not exactly well publicised. When I worked for Asda, although the pay was poor and rises were poor, at least you knew what you were getting and when. There was no doubt about what and when you were getting.
I think the Council could learn a thing or two!

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Holidays are over!

Oh well, after a lovely fortnight off, it’s back to work. A teacher did come up to me yesterday and ask if I’d had a good holiday and then say that is ‘goes so quickly doesn’t it?’. Poor love, only 6 weeks off!

Our hols in Devon were great, even the day it rained so much that everywhere flooded. Funny thing was, the weather was glorious after that!
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A Second Century!

Just been reading more about Scouting’s centenary celebrations (see the Telegraph) and it’s just occurred to me that Scouting has now entered its second century!
1907 was a good year. Mum’s parents were born and Scouting started!
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Scouting is 100

Happy Birthday to us…..!!!!!Laughing Birthday Cake 
Just got back from our District's Sunrise Ceremony at Apedale. It was a nice sunny morning and quite a lot of Beavers, Cubs, Scouts etc. turned up, which was quite impressive as it's the school holidays. It was a good place to have it as you could look across the majority of North Staffordshire.  See some photos here.

The press coverage on Scouting is still positive – see here for example. It seems that the Centenary celebrations and the Jamboree are all having positive reactions!