HOLIDAY TIME

So off to the Costa again to animal sit.......no not these guys two doggies. In fact my favourite diving dog. Just hoping there are plenty of oranges on the trees for him to chase in the pool.

There and Back Again

So just back from Mijas on the Costa Del Sol. Looking after this chap and visited by lots of friends and family (sorry about the mosquitoes Angie!) Good to see my brother Neal and spend the last few days with Marlow's owners Gill & Tony.

Was that a bad curry?

OK so I have been away but I have an excuse. Obviously that last Panto was one Panto too many on the excitement front as I had the men around in the green jump suits (Gok would be horrified) with the flashing blue lights etc. So I have spent the last 18 months trying to get healthier which included staying away from the computer I guess. Well not really I just didn't feel in the mood for writing. All of this came while I was unemployed and to their great credit my current employers took me on to the staff despite me working for them at the time of the attack. Contrary to popular myth there was no crushing pain just a general ache and feeling not quite right. I knew I had trouble with chest pain when walking a few days before when I was in Spain but decided to ignore it through fear I guess both of the reality and Spanish hospitals caused by my friend Gill's description of the treatment her son received.But, and it's a big but, if you get any signs or even suspect you do don't hesitate to call the doctor or even an ambulance because there is so much more they can do if you catch this thing early.

Anyway 6 stone later and with one stent fitted (Thanks Dr Gribben and the NHS) plus regular visits to the gym (Thanks Torbay Cardiac Rehab team) and eating less I feel much better thanks for asking.

And Before I Forget

It was very remiss of me not to mention the parents who fed us over the weekends rehearsals thank you the quiche was excellent. Of course it seems to have become a panto tradition that Verity bakes a cake and this year was no exception, icing as well Verity we will miss her when she goes off to college.
As an aside it was noted that our Santa is a tad on the well skinny size for the great man so any more cake that can be poured down Nigel's throat between now and performance may add a touch of reality to his physical presence......

Oh no it isn't

Well actually it is panto time in Harberton again. Everyone is always surprised we have our Panto in February there must be a reason but it is lost in the mists of time. As usual I am surprised at the talent on hand in our small community. Of special note this year are Null & Void our comedy duo played by Charlie and Trigger. Comedy inside a panto is difficult lets face it as the whole thing has potential comic potential so to be the deliberate comics is hard. However their timing is excellent Charlie's trumpet playing only matched by Triggers incompetence on the triangle (that is deliberate in the Les Dawson  mould isn't it Trigg?). Of course our director and Nigel who although a seasoned performer stepped in only during January when we mislaid our Santa, who lets face it tends to be a central character in a play called Santa In Space!!

Unemployment comes to and end tomorrow with the start of my new job, hurrah with thanks to Helen for pointing me in the direction of the Kids Cooking Company. Although being on benefit has not been great the experience has shed a new light on all these benefit cheat stories the Daily Mail loves to publish.The system could really do with an overhaul the most interesting thing i found out was that in testing you suitability you have to be employed for two whole tax years to qualify for Contribution based payments. This sounds OK until you realise the arbitery nature of this date means if you are employed at the right time of year you may get away with this 2 year rule. However if not you may need at least 2 years and 11 months of contributions to qualify. As this pays the same as the other version of Job Seekers Allowance then why worry? Well this is the really crazy bit this version means they take any savings into account whereas Contribution based does not. When assessing your savings though no account is taken of any debts you may have so like me you may have 5-6k of credit card or overdraft but this is ignored. If you use your savings to pay down your debt I was informed this is benefit fraud for which you can be prosecuted......no way to run a country is it? The workers at the JCP are not really to blame as the system is huge and unwieldy, allows for no discretion and is I am sure filled with as many idiocies as the one i found. The upshot was they reduced to payment from £65 to £40 (just the size of my weekly utility bill). The morale is don't save it's bad for your future life on benefits!!! Rant over.........

What a New Year

Well it has been an interesting time this new year. I had a wonderful time over Christmas in Spain thank you Tony & Gill even better when i got home I was expecting a speed camera fine as I was flashed as I came off the M5 to Bristol airport, so thank you Somerset & Avon, perhaps there was a Christmas amnesty ( it was at about 3 in the morning, clear road, no other cars for miles). As our funding at work had been withdrawn a couple of weeks before Christmas I spent a portion of my time in Spain applying for jobs. This is not as bad as it may sound there is something about sunshine that makes you more optimistic. I had thought of going to the local restaurant for Christmas day dinner, an all you can drink 6 course extravaganza complete with opera singing Elvis impersonator but in the spirit of these austere times I made my own dinner and sang along to Elvis on the MP3 player, very satisfying. Marta the more sensitive of the dogs hid under table.

So home just after Christmas and arrived to find a nice fire laid by Gilly & Nigel my favourite cat sitters. It seems I had missed the worst of the cold (despite it still being below zero). As there was no food in the house the Indian provided supper. I decided to apply for job seekers and get my council tax paid as this is the first time in 40 years i have been unemployed. I had seen a long succession of clients on my training workshops who had been made redundant and so know the chances of finding something quickly are low, mind you so is winning the lottery and as they say " It could be You". I was frustrated in this claiming thing by the long British holiday. I had got used to Spain where they do not go over the top everyone is back to work on the 26th. I couldn't claim until the 30th. What transpired was an interview on the phone full of odd questions such as do you rent or own your home? Own. Do you live in sheltered accommodation? Do you receive any benefits? Err no that's why we are talking. I know it is not the interviewers fault they are just following the rules and regulations but you start to see the idea of simplifying the system of benefits is a really good idea. Especially as some of the questions are so obscure it is very easy to give a wrong answer and you then may be accused of making a false claim!!! However I have to say within the constraints they have the staff at the Job Centre are very nice and deal with you efficiently.

So now the good news I have an interview tomorrow. It came from a small company that got back to me before the New Year was here which bodes well. Had an interesting chat with the owner so fingers crossed.

There is one other job I have applied for that tickles my fancy which is with the Princes Trust but have not heard back from that one, strange I have many of the types of experience they are looking for, we will see.

The other option is to look at re-training to add in a skill needed by businesses such as bookkeeping that would provide the bread and butter to a business advice service. This may be more practical now that many of the services such as Business Link are being withdrawn and as yet the replacements are not clear. Perhaps this is a good window of opportunity.

PayBox

PayBox

http://www.paybox.me/r/sundance

A new payment system under development may make an interesting alternative to PayPal

The £1.50 Curry Theft

I decided today to go and see what goes on in a Crown court I guess because of all the reports you read in the paper that talks about them and I wanted to see the actual workings.
The first thing that I discovered that if you want to see a trial then Friday may not be the best day as all there was seemed to be bail hearings, pretrial hearings oh and one decision from a jury.

So what did go on? What was obvious was that a lot of cases were dealt with, I actually lost count, but they varied from the serious to the sublime. There was one case of kidnap and rape where the accused was remanded, one of armed robbery (I overheard one of the barristers say he expected to go down as he came in with a huge suitcase) where the accused was found guilty by a majority of 10-2, one where there were 4 accused of burglary that saw the public gallery fill up with one supposes were family who proceeded to swore under their breath at the pleas as they were entered. One pleaded guilty whilst the others not guilty. We had a couple of drug cases with one woman being found in possession of 2000 tablets of class c drugs not surprisingly that was a plea of guilty or you got me banged to rights guv! There was the chap of 64 (the only person to turn up in a suit) who looked like he wouldn't say boo to a goose but turned out to be accused of GBH on his wife. This was as an odd case as she had since died from causes not related to this charge.

However the best was the case of the £1.50 curry. It seems two lads had helped themselves to some curry made by someone in a shared flat that they had been invited to, the case seemed to be about the amount of meat taken in the plate of curry. Much suppressed giggles amongst the court staff was followed by some common sense from the judge who suggested the prosecution and the defence get to together and find a way of not having this come to trial and waste even more money. Also at this end of the day was the case of a guy who stole a TV and digibox from a hotel. It seems he was, as they say in drink, at the time and thought he could have this TV which was in the lobby of the hotel. So he got the receptionist to call him a taxi and then when it arrived proceeded to take of in what was now a get away taxi. The next day he then phoned the hotel to ask if he could have the remote control as he had forgotten it. Ah a criminal mastermind at work.

My impression was that the court worked very efficiently through it's list and that you also get some idea of the timescales involved for cases to come to court (I would say 6 months to 2 years). The latter seems long but also shows that efforts are made to ensure both the accused and victims get the chance for some level of justice, although not all decisions seem just that is also a function of how a system such as this has to develop.
Do I believe in judgement? Well from this limited view I would say you need rules and controls in society as there are some people who are not as nice as we would hope in a civilised society but there in lies an even bigger debate.

Nice to see old singers

Don't disappear they just let their hair grow very long and well very gray. I especially admire the very long bit which some of us are just not genetically capable of.....Check out for example Arlo Guthrie still knocking on about Alice's restaurant after 40 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7C0QGkiVo if you have never heard it before it's an amusing way to spend 20 mins !!!

Of course some of them don't make it (on the hair front I mean) check out James Taylor boy is that head shiny!!! OK I know some of you may not actually remember the hair so there is first of all a 70's song then an up to date one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaeXCXfmu8    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OSwc1przU one thing that doesn't chain really is the voice and the performance of course becomes much more polished.

Some grow into their voice this is a good example Marianne now sounds as if she can really look back on times past when it first was released in the 60's it was, well insipid at best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXfvOq7NGPM oh and just because I like it have a little of the Ballad of Lucy Jordon http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Jupz1wLOgCU&feature=related

Well that's the end of catching up with old idols oh OK just one more U2 make a poor replacement for the Stones but Mick is well still Mick voice, hair, attitude http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=FzgJ6Mkkd-w&feature=related