Socksed Up

I am obsessed. Obsessed with socks. But not just any socks. M&S socks. But not just any M&S socks. The plain ones. In their lovely colour coded packs of 7. I probably already have 40 pairs and I noticed new lots in this week. 6 sets. That's another 42 pairs. Including a limeish green one. and some rather fine purple ones. Actually, there's only 5 lots to get because I bought the ones with the green in them.

I just can't get enough socks! (fnarr fnarr)

Un petit coin de paradis

We rarely head up into town. It all seems too much trouble with the crowds, the travel, be it by tube train or road. We sometimes go to the Southbank which is easy to get to for us and we usually go if there are any free concerts. We sometimes do a quick dash to Chappels to buy music, early on a Saturday, when there is little traffic. But now we have another destination.

Thursday was the Magnificent M's birthday. A friend had bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera so we headed in after work and looked for somewhere to eat. Everywhere seemed to be full with a waiting time for tables and we only had just over half an hour. Just as we thought it might have to be McD on the hoof I turned and saw a small french restaurant. The menu in the window looked good and a reasonable price. They asked if we'd booked but the manager gave the girl a table number and I explained we wouldn't be long.

O! M! G! as those younger than me by a generation might say. If they had picked the place up from Bedarieux and dropped it there it couldn't have been more French. The dishes on the menu are properly French and are executed in a French style. Or at least the ones we had were. M & I had the Warm Chicken Liver Salad and our friend has Duck with Peach. The only problem was we couldn't do it justice because we had to rush.

The only thing that stops it being completely authentic is that although they bring you water as you want it you don't get bread automatically. And the wine is a bit expensive compared to France but the food and wine is good value for Central London.

The restaurant in question is Le Troisiemeon Panton Street off Haymarket.

If you like French food, cooked in a French style in a typical French Restaurant then get yourself down there. But make sure you do the meal justice by allowing plenty of dining time!

Life, Death and The Wild West

It lives, Igor!

So, contrary to public rumour I haven't won the euromillions and swanned off to sunnier climes, much as I wish it were true. I have been swanning. Sort of. In the way that they look serene above the water and are going hell for leather beneath.

As we all know, I am doing the two jobs which are both going apace and would keep me busy at the best of times. However, for the last few months, and culminating in the second week of March, I was directing and performing in, having previously written and devised, a Wild West Revue show. This had the effect of making sure I had to fit in about 20 hours of work on it a week into the two hours I seemed to have left when not working. Now it's all over I have to say it went damned well, though I say so who shouldn't, and I'll probably start on next years shortly so it isn't such a rush come next year.

So then, having got more commitments than a bishop at Easter, my father decided to pop his clogs mid-Feb. My step-sisters came flying in from The States, which was nice cos I haven't seen them for ages, if not aeons, but meant, with a three week window, we had to get him cremated, sort out the house and then scatter his ashes. So in 20 days I had two trips to Norfolk and one to Yorkshire. Which took up three weekends and quite a few midweek days, just in front of the show.

At the end of all that I was suffering from a medical condition known as "knackered". However, I'm now back to just doing the two jobs and seem to have all the time in the world. Don't know why I wasn't coping with it before!

Missing In Action

Hello.

I've been missing but for a reason, not just cos I was being lazy. More when I get the chance.

But in the meantime, look at this property and the price. There isn't a 3 bed house anywhere near here that doesn't cover the cost of buying this place in the South of France. It's in a damn good location as well.

Click Here

Abandoned

The Magnificent M has gone on a school trip leaving me to fend for myself. I am doing well, I have not starved, set the flat on fire, run amok with the hoover or had any other mishap. The only thing I have to remember is to make sure the flat is tidy when she gets back.

But I don't half miss her. It's rare for me to be here on my own and there is some enjoyment in being able to do whatever I want when I want (Who was that sniggering at the back?!) but the place seems very empty.

I think I've got the better half of the deal though. M is trying to keep twenty seven 10 year olds entertained. Not on her own obviously but it won't exactly be a relaxing break.

She's back Friday, I don't know who'll be more relieved. Her to be rid of the kids, or me to get her back.

New Year-Same Old Me

I didn't bother doing much reflection on the year past and the year to come last week but we were with M's sister and partner over New Year and he asked the question - What do you want to do more of and what do you want to do less of this coming year. The obvious answer aside, work less, earn more, I discovered I don't actually know. I don't appear to have any goals. Not ones I've set myself. It may be because basically I'm too tired to think much beyond the next five minutes. But I always used to have a one year, five year and ten year plan. Maybe as you get older, and as I hurtle in towards 60, the plan is just to keep breathing. I don't know.

I want to go to France again on holiday this year. I want to live in France at some point in the future. I'd like to think I won't have to work for evermore until I drop. But these seem more like hopes than plans.

There is one thing I need to do and must apply myself to and that is losing weight again. I had lost about 24 pounds from my heaviest but I seem to have regained 14 of them, two in the last week. So I need to lose 15lb to get back into gear and feel a bit healthier. I'm glad I kept the weight loss widget in the side bar. I feel better knowing I am 10lbs lighter than this time last year rather than thinking I am 14lb heavier than I was at my recent lightest. I just feel I need to get back on track rather than see it as some sort of failure. Although I am not sure the five boxes of chocolates sat on the sitting room table are going to help in the endeavour.

I am reminded of one of my ex managers who often quoted the maxim - If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Then again, a lot of what he said was bollocks so I'm not sure it is right. I think it's more about if you don't have a map of where you are going you are likely to end up somewhere else. Maybe I have lost the art of map reading and started to rely too heavily on a life sat nav which just leads me somewhere using other people's voices.

They Think It's All Over...

So, that's another Christmas Day over. Off to brothers tomorrow and then away for the New Year. The rest from work has been nice. One of the reasons for so little posting, i.e. none, is that I am doing two jobs. It's been a bit manic but not as bad as January will be when the Everest Sale starts.

Don't expect much news!

Seven Year Itch

They always say that your life runs in seven year cycles. My present one runs out in just under a month.

This last seven years could be categorised as "upheaval". At the beginning I was still living at the flat I had moved into when I was a teenager, with Linda, knew M socially and had my own business. By the end I have lost the flat, lost the business, split from Linda, live with M and I'm back with Everest. During the interim I hate to think how many anti-depressants I have taken, although not more than the prescribed dose and actually somewhat less. Much of the problems have been caused really via Linda who has had all the problems with being classed as homeless and then having to fight the Council and I feel duty bound to give her my support as without me she has no-one although it's a situation that cannot go on for ever.

I'm hoping for a more settled next section. And in the last 48 hours various pointers have popped up to show the way. Not the move to France which I think in all reality will happen in the section after this. Firstly, on Friday, there were the first indications that Linda will have a permanent home offer this week. She'll no doubt find every excuse not to want it but in the end she might not have a choice. And then last night I was offered some part time work for three days a week which would guarantee some income whilst still allow me to carry on working for Everest if I want. It's in the property world which I've fancied a move into and I'm quite excited by the thought. If Linda is settled in a place it makes it a lot easier. M will also be pleased knowing there is a set income about and if that takes pressure off of her it's worth it as she deserves something in return for having me in her life and the stress I've undoubtedly brought her.

It doesn't feel quite like there is a door to walk through as things will happen outside my control but hopefully it will be less like a runaway train than normal.

I'm hoping this next seven years is "progress".

Pluses and Minuses

I've been meaning to post about the teachers strike for a bit as, and this will come as no surprise, the Government are being disingenuous about the way teachers are "fighting against performance related pay".

Most teachers would be quite happy to have performance related pay. If for no other reason than it would show how the standard of teacher training has dropped in the Governments rush to get more teachers and also to be fair the general standard of education of people in their 20s and early 30s, who were "experimented" on with the idea that grammar wasn't important and now, as they qualify as teachers don't know the grammar they have to teach. Anyway, I'm already digressing.

The way the Government think related pay should work is that a teacher should get 93% of their pupils to a certain standard by a certain age or they can be deemed to be "failing". Whilst an admirable ideal, and probably very relevant in the Shires, for many class teachers this will prove impossible, and not because they are poor teachers. It has been policy for some time that children with learning difficulties should be kept in mainstream education. This is a good idea and helps a child develop to their full potential when they are borderline. M's school for instance has a number of children with learning difficulties and also a couple of children with Downs Syndrome. With the extra 1 on 1 tuition and support they receive they are coming along very well and will probably reach their full potential, which is surely a success. Except for performance related pay. A Downs Syndrome child will never hit the levels required by the relevant age. It's not possible. Not for the child, it's parents or the teacher. Allowing for a class of 30 children, you only need three children who have special needs and, no matter how well a teacher does at bringing them forward, and in getting the rest of the class to the right level, they can only hit 90% success. And the Government will not accept that a class with special needs children in it is an exception.

So what do we do?

Do we go back to a time when special needs children all have to go to special schools and be marginalised or do we do what the teachers want which is to rate teachers performance on how much improvement a child makes from their base start line to assessment time.

It's just lucky for politicians they don't have performance related pay but instead have an independent body that always manages to work out how MP's are a special case that should receive higher than average pay rises. Every year.

Planning the Future

Last Sunday we went to the French Property Exhibition. It did nothing to make us think we were on the wrong track. We had a chat with some estate agents, solicitors and mortgage companies. It was a good start to finding out a little about the logistics of moving and getting set up.

We are considering a number of choices;

Buy a holiday home which we can use and rent out when we aren't.
Buy somewhere to live and move out lock, stock and barrel, possibly renting out a couple of rooms on a B&B basis.
Buy somewhere to live and move out lock, stock and barrel with attached gite(s) to provide rental income
Buy an up and running business and start a new life.

The first three have been on the cards for a time but the latter has popped up because the place we stay at in Thezan Les Bezier is likely to be up for sale next year. It's tempting. Very tempting. We don't know yet what they will be looking for and it might just be outside what we can manage but we'll see.

One other thing that the exhibition threw up was that we are now also considering a different area of France if we go with the first three options. Languedoc Roussilon has been our first choice because we know it pretty well and like it there, but as we have been looking at French property prices, there are some excellent bargains in the Charente Maritime area, that's towards La Rochelle, Poitiers, Sevres. We weren't really interested in the area as it is the Atlantic Coast by the Bay of Biscay so thought the weather wouldn't be anything special. It is. Exactly the same temperatures as the South. To give you an idea what we are talking about in terms of value....

This costs about the same as our two bedroom flat in Isleworth. (This is a different Department but is comparable)

For those who fancy a slightly grander property, for the equivalent of a three bedroom flat in Richmond, or three bedroom house by us, you might fancy this.

If you are on a budget and want to do a bit of sprucing up this might appeal.

None of these are particularly atypical, each day brings 30 or 40 similar properties across France, these are just some of the properties that went online yesterday.

But which way to go? I think another holiday soon might help clarify things. Or maybe two or three. But whichever option we go with I think that's the way things are heading sooner or later, the timing's partly up to the the Gods of Chance and Camelot.

Faster than the speed of light..

Well, faster than in yesteryear anyway....

Whilst we sat on a beach in Sete, South France, M received a text from her daughter who was on a beach in Barbados. This text was to tell her that the school M teaches in was presently on fire. M was able to inform some of the people in Brentford, less than half a mile from the fire, what was going on.

That in a nutshell is the power of modern communication.


As a footnote, the school is pretty much burnt out but, despite her request to remain in the S of F, she is back in next Monday for start of term. The kids won't go back till the 16th. We went and had a look today and the place was crawling with contractors trying to get it ready. Not bad for a Bank Holiday weekend.

Back on the Treadmill

I have returned. Relaxed, although I don't expect that to last long, and tanned. Expect updates soon. Ish.

Je suis en vacances maintenant!

Some of you may see this this evening. Some before 6am tomorrow morning. Some will see it post 6am tomorrow. If you fall into that last lot, by the time you read this, I will be heading south down various autoroutes, the A1, 10, 26, and 75 amongst them I think. Then a week on Friday we will retrace our steps. And then if you are lucky you will get a report on this years holiday, or maybe not.

Au revoir mes amis!

It Lives, Igor!

Hello. I'm still here. Not that you'd know it. 6+ weeks without a post. Must try harder as every teacher at school used to write on my reports. Except those with something worse to say.

Anyhow, the play went. I wasn't the best and at times I wasn't the worst. I have a dvd of it but I haven't watched it yet, something about not wanting to return to the scene of the crime. The playwright came and saw it and said nice things and didn't kill anyone so I'm taking that as a positive.

Holiday booked and car is having it's MOT and service as we speak. Expected it to be about £750 to get it through but it will be less than £500. Result! Millau Viaduct here we come, on way to Beziers and the south of France.

Not having kids the Royal birth made me feel something that I haven't experienced before. A sense of the future. I have seen the future King yet I will never see him ascend the throne, (except for a disaster), a sense that things will carry on after I have gone. Strange. In reality I may not even see William become King but when he was born I was pretty certain I would.

Just made a very big sale. That's why we are off on holiday and I can afford to throw money at the car. Lots of other things to buy so off to the shops now. Hurrah for money!

I'm a Thespian, Get Me Out of Here

So, the play has come around. Dress rehearsal tomorrow followed by four performances in three days.

To say it is disorganised would be an understatement. If I went into everything here that hasn't been right I would miss the performances. I know my lines when reciting them but whether they will come out when on stage is another matter and when other people are there to throw me off.

Normally I would go into a performing week rested but I'm not, which is worrying. Despite stereotypes, performing does take it out of you. I think it's the adrenaline kicking in and out.

Anyway. it's unlikely I'll post again before next week. Not that I probably would have anyway.

Voice Recognition or Hoist Reconditioned

If you ever watch the BBC News on News 24 and you need cheering up, and for all I know it is the same on the main BBC channels, then just switch on the sub-titles.

Once upon a time there would have been a stenographer typing away I guess and accuracy would have been paramount. Now, with the move to BBC Outer Space in Salford they appear to be using a voice recognition programme and apparently it's not a very good one. Within a few minutes watching over a few days it managed to "hear" the following.

house rye scone (Should have been horizon)
the prison tays (The Brontes)
James Die Son (James Dyson - sort of understandable but even so...)
anyone they maisie (anyone they may see)
every baton (every battle)
drama Rigby (Drummer Rigby)
violent kanebo(violent tornado)

Once they realise there is a mistake either they reset it, or do something, because then it re-corrects the line. Unless it gets it wrong again. The record for the number of attempts to get one word right is 4 that I've seen. Occasionally they just seem to give up and hope no-one noticed.

It's probably all come about with the need to get news on to air as fast as possible. Images and stories beamed in and straight on to screen do not allow for someone to sit there manually typing, so accuracy gives way to speed. Luckily, with being able to hear, they are nothing but an amusing aberration, but if you rely on that written word to describe what you are seeing, it might not be quite so funny. And what if you know someone who was in that tornado, or a distant relative of Drummer Rigby, you might actually prefer if they got things right and showed some consideration.

In the end, do we actually need to have the news so fresh that an extra 10 seconds of delay would make a huge difference?

AbandonShip

I'm going to have to put Haiku month on hold. The changes at work are having a massive impact on available time. It's almost like I have a proper job! But without the income. And the next 4 days are going to be even worse as what is normally going to be a team of nine becomes a team of four.

We are probably the smallest team in the country with one of the biggest targets. The number of appointments coming through is larger than expected, or at least, with the new even distribution, the number I am getting has increased.

Anyway, I'm off to work now. Should be back by 10.00 this evening. Carry on.

Haiku Month - Day 13

Culpablility?
Irresponsibility.
Laid at your doorstep.

So we have another twist in the Tia Sharp murder trial with the accused pleading guilty. It is a dreadful case as all these types of murder are but you have to wonder what on earth was going on in the family.

As I remember from when the story originally broke, Stuart Hazell had been the lover of Tia's mother before going on to live with the Grandmother. I might be confusing this case with another but I don't think so. Then, we have a list of his previous convictions today and apparently they weren't any secret. People on the estate were afraid of him and knew of him. It's not like he'd done something 40 years earlier in another part of the country.

Now, I am as appalled at the murder as the next person, but when you have the mother saying how "she gave him the ultimate trust" of looking after her daughter and now look what he did, you have to question the decision making of the mother? She isn't responsible for the death but really, you trust your daughter to the care of this man whom you know about, and then when he does something like this, however extreme it might be in comparison to his other violent crimes, you lament at how he has taken something from you? How can a parent really be so naive as to think 1)he was a safe choice to leave your daughter with, and 2) the lifestyle choices of the adults in the family were a template for good parenting. I know little about Tia's father,he could be as bad as the rest of them but I do have sympathy for him as he doesn't seem to be part of this sorry mess.

The person however that I have most sympathy for is Tia,who was subjected to a life within that family. What is worrying though is that she isn't a one off when it comes to being a child in such a dysfunctional family. There are children at M's school who could end up with the same result. Some of the stuff the teachers hear about their lives is awful. And it's not just the breakdown of the initial parents relationships. Some of the children discuss their "parents" with identifying numbers. One child was telling M that he has a new sister because his second mum is with his third dad and that dad's daughter is now his sister. (His second mum is his dads next wife after his parents split up, and she has now moved on to someone else who is his third dad as his mum has also got a new partner who became his second dad). I've said before how neglected some of the children are. I know there are those politically who will claim people just have kids to claim benefits and jump the housing queues, and whether it's right or not, it's difficult to see what other reason some of these parents ever had for having children.

Do some parents not understand, when you have a child you are responsible for it's safety , well-being, behaviour, socialisation, etc. It isn't a job you can do for a few years and then give up, nor just do it for office hours. And is spreads across all social groups so it isn't just the unemployed or "benefit scroungers". If I was run over by a bus, even at the age of 56, my mums first thoughts virtually would be to wonder if she had spent enough time teaching me to cross the road safely! Is it, as some would say, a problem of poor parenting leading to their kids having even less idea of parenting? Is it the idea that parents have to think of themselves too and should have "me" time?

Tia Sharp won't be the last child to be killed through dysfunctional family life, and to be honest I don't know what we can do about it, but we surely can't go on as is.

Haiku - Day 12

Knowledge is not just
what you know, but rather if
you can recall it.

I am addicted to SongPop on Facebook. There's nothing I like more than a quiz and particularly a music one. I'm involved in 20 concurrent head to head matches and am up in 19. I have 110 minutes to get ahead of that person for a clean sweep. I'm not going to bed until I manage it!

Haiku Month - Day 11

Reliving one's past
Can remind you why you are
who you are today



One of my favourite radio programmes is on Radio 2. Desmond Carrington's Sound of the 60s.

I actually don't remember many of the songs from the first half of the 60s, even I'm too young, but the latter half started to impinge on my young musical mind, and of course records get played for a number of years after they are released.

In the 60s my main radio listening would have been Junior Choice on a Saturday morning and then Sunday late morning as Mum made Sunday lunch and me and my brother played games with my Dad. And Sunday radio meant 2 Way Family Favourites, Round The Horne and The Clitheroe Kid. A few years later they were followed by Alan "Fluff" Freeman finishing the afternoon off with The Top 40!

Today on Desmonds show he played three tracks back to back which whilst released in the 60s impacted my life more in the early 70s at our youth club. The three were;

Guns of Navarone - The Skatalites
A Message to You Rudy - Dandy
The Israelites - Desmond Dekker & The Aces. (Or for those remember the old TDK advert, My Ears Are Alight.

Ska and Reggae were our staples at Youth Club along with a reasonable amount of Northern Soul.

Even today I like a bit of Reggae and Ska. It's one of the few bits of my musical past i'm happy to revisit.