@bullstuff2
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
You have my sympathy VFM, I was not aware of the extent of your missus’ problems. Whilst last year my SWMBO had a new hip, shortly after I had the cancers and chemo and we were propping each other up, still do. She also has several problems, but nothing like your wife’s. Although the way her other hip and knees are going, she may need one of those mobility scooters soon. At least I can walk, well sort of, but I can just keep going atm, if slow and steady, I can manage a couple of miles.
I do the same with all our conditions and meds: I wrote a long history of it all and find myself having to update it all every year (last year every month, seemed like) We have one big kitchen drawer full of meds – “His & Hers”. When I go to hospital appointments and they ask for prescriptions, I hand over the surgery scrip printout and I give a ‘new’ medico a sheet with all my conditions written down: it’s quicker that way!
I hesitate to ask, it can be personal, but do you have Motability? That is one thing I could not manage without: in this rural village with poor bus services, we need a car. If I could not drive, we would have to move into town and I love this beautiful village.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.I have written to my local District Council Environment officer about this. The DC hates our landlord, which is now a massive Housing Association that began as a local Housing Trust, based just down the road in Louth and all services were efficient then. My missus and I came to this bungalow in 2003 and the scheme was run by the DC then. Within 2 months the DC was forced to hand over all housing that they ran in Lincolnshire, to the Trust. We attended the handover meeting; DC people on one side of the room, Housing Trust on the other side, public in the centre. You could cut the atmosphere, but only with the sharpest of knives. The DC received £57 million for the properties and promptly invested the lot in Icelandic banks…. you can guess the rest, it was only last year that they managed to get the last of the investment back. Then the amalgamations and mergers began: one every 2 years or so until our homes are now administered from Birmingham and our ‘pull cord’ security connects to Chubb Security in Leeds. As the “Supporting People” funds were cut by the first Tory government, so the repairs, maintenance and support began to die. Now we are told that my broken fence is my responsibility, whereas they have carried out 3 previous repairs to it in the past. What they have forgotten about is the Tenancy Agreement charter: not updated since 2007 and still stating that exterior fencing is their responsibility. I have every letter and email they ever sent me and there are no amendments. The DC Environmental Services are keen to chase them using this. They chose the wrong tenant to upset!
Returning to the Gas fitting work: my Sparky gson has today looked at fitting a new shower for a neighbour widow, one of our oldest friends here. He was appalled by the fuses used in several fittings: 2A? I was not aware that a 2A fuse was possible. And the previous shower had no fuse at all, which explains why it burned out. The Association landlord have told her that she was responsible for another shower to be fitted. The original shower was operated from the old Electric Night Storage boiler and had a cold and hot pipe supply: cold from the tank, hot from the electric boiler. My gson has examined the system and can fit a new electric shower. Further horrors were that there are two old consumer units which are absolutely dead. Outside the newer consumer unit is connected to a 3 phase meter, which is what we had for almost a year until EDF threatened Northern Power Grid with legal action unless they changed it to single phase. We received £250 in refunded energy payments and £500 compensation for that, thank you EDF! I was informed that all the bungalows with new GCH replacing the NS Economy 7 heaters, would be changed to single phase. Now I am going to tour my neighbours and see if they have had this done. If not, there will be a Seniors Crusade organised. The lady in question has received a monthly gas bill for £79 and an electric bill for £114. For a one-bed bungalow! I pay £95 for both gas and electric and that has just increased by a fiver or so. I have directed her to Age Concern, as I am not allowed to fight her corner, according to British Gas.
The landlord situation for social housing is now worse than for private lettings, IMO. I am going to thrash my fellow Oldpharts into joining my crusade…
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Travel insurance I always use, they specialise in insurance for those with existing conditions and/or disabilities:
I am currently waiting for Lincoln hospital to give me the next Urology appointment, so that I know what to say in my quote. It can be done online, but I recommend a phone call; clear English voices!
VFM: I had two neighbours who used to tour the world. He had Polio as a child, walked with a stick. She was wheelchair bound. They had separate holidays in South Africa, Kenya, Australia, NZ and in one memorable holiday they travelled across Canada via the TransCanada railway. Flew to Vancouver, traveled across the country and flew back from Toronto:
Their names were Terry and June (really!) and they were older than us. They passed away a few years ago, but what a life they had before they went! try a disabled Canal Cruise in the UK mate:
Ed thanks for that link, a very good idea for disabled people who like sea cruises, we don’t, much prefer river cruising. I am passing it to my SIL though.
Richard I can recommend Vienna airport, the best I have used for treating disabled people. I am hoping Budapest is as good! Munich is awful: so modern, so efficient but so Teutonic in their treatment of the disabled. A “one box” approach!
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.” My handwriting has always been awful. I’ve got to struggle to slow my thoughts down enough for my hand to be able to get it on paper, if that makes sense. Once I got used to typing, I could type at a much closer speed to the words forming in my head, and everything was suddenly clearer. ”
Ryan, this matches the explanations of both my gsons, who are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Senior gson said his thought processes were so much faster than he could write: junior gson said that he could not write down what he wanted to express, because the words floated away and jumbled up. Both of them now mange to type words, meaning and sense keeping pace and both type with amazing speed. Junior, being severely dyslexic, has benefited most from this I believe, but both lives have been enormously improved, in the first instance by simply being able to communicate accurately and clearly. They make an interesting pair of cousins: one is slim, neat, tidy and prides himself on his accuracy. T’other is a big lad, doesn’t give a damn how he is dressed, but also values accuracy and exactness in everything he does. They always wind up together at family ‘do’s’.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.You have her blood VFM, a little of her MDNA in your body. A small part of both of us, is Romany. In my case, also Welsh. What a mixture!
Maybe why I like traveling, I have always had what Germans call Wanderlust. When I was very young, I lived with a Staffordshire aunt and my 5 cousins for over 2 years. I was traveling over there from Notts every year from 8 years old, alone, via 5 or 6 buses. I left home at 13 and joined a traveling fair, eventually spotted and brought back by the police. At 16 I went to sea, at 19 I was in the Army. I have traveled all over the world and carried on holidaying where and when I could. This year we are flying to Budapest for a Danube river cruise: never been to Budapest and I am as excited as a kid waiting for Christmas, at 74 years old. As long as I can, I will travel.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Dave I have signed biographies from most Nottingham Forest players, but the most interesting (often alarming!) was by Larry Lloyd, born and bred in Bristol, first played for the club he supported as a kid, Bristol Rovers. Went on to play for Liverpool, then restarted his career at Forest, where he won so much including the European Cup. Twice.
One of the really interesting parts of his life is that his dad was born blind, and was Larry’s hero. His dad met his mum at a blind person’s club in Bristol. His mum wasn’t blind, but her parents both were, which meant that Larry had a blind father and two blind maternal grandparents.
I actually met him first in Ilfracombe on holiday: I was going back to my guest house from the beach at dusk when this big bloke loomed out of the gloom, with a child on each shoulder. I had a long conversation with him. Years later, I met him several times at Forest Supporters Club functions. He always had time for us fans and he never lost his accent. He is still a fans’ hero in Nottingham and has a show on local radio. A very nice, polite guy, who became a monster on a football pitch!
“Larry Lloyd – Hard Man, Hard Game” is much more interesting than the title suggests. Meeting the man reinforces that, he is intelligent and very, very funny.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.VFM I had a Romany grandmother, born 1878 in a real Romany van in the West country, Devon she believed. How she met my granddad is a mystery we never discovered: he was very well educated in Stoke on Trent, until his father had a fraud conviction and the family fortune went TU.
Gran was a genuine Romany, not one of those itinerant wasters called ‘Travelers’ who do not appear to want to ‘travel’ until they have completely messed up any environment they have tricked, sneaked, intimidated and thieved and their way into. Please do not call Roms “Travellers” – that is not who they are. Gran had so much knowledge of her people: she always said that they came from the East “a long, long time ago”. I discovered this was absolutely correct: they were originally a people in mainly Northwest India, called the Dravidians. They were forced out by Moghuls from the North and never stopped traveling, becoming poorer over the centuries as they lost or sold what they had. It is a truism that even poor people come to hate those worse off than themselves, which is why Romanies were hated, feared for no reason, abused, intimidated and sent packing wherever they went. I talked to gran a lot, she lived to 1967 whereas granddad died in 1954. Her meals were something else, she would go out early morning to collect mushrooms, herbs and all kinds of edible stuff. She was the last of my grandparents and I really loved my tiny, strong old grandma. Mother of 13 children, 8 actually lived through childhood, infancy or birth. I managed to get home from Aden for two weeks as she lay in a Staffordshire sanatorium. I sat at one side of the bed, my dad at the other. Dad made a little joke to try to cheer her up, a bit near the knuckle. Gran gave him a baleful look, reared up in bed and WHACK! Upside the head: “I told ‘e afore – you’m never too old fer a smack!” Dad’s ear was red and I was hysterical. It still makes me smile now.
No one runs down Roms in my hearing and gets away with it. RIP Elizabeth Mary Williams, you earned your rest gran.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.There is no coverage at my location and for about 9 miles down the A157, by any company. If JCD had not kindly given me the EE Brightbox, I would have not even 2g here: as it is, it actually gives me 4g. Apparently a new mast was applied for several years ago and no one seems to know what happened afterwards.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Handwriting from the age of 5 was taught in my pit village school to classes of 45 or more. It was pure copperplate and I got the hang of it quickly due to my big brother having attended the same school with the same female psycho dwarf teacher. He did not want to see me suffer the continual rain of head slaps that he endured, because he knew my temper would result in trouble. So he taught me to read and write at home from the age of 3 and I was off to a running start. However, he also shared my weakness with numbers, which led to me having trouble with Maths until I met a teacher at Secondary Tech school who gave me extra lessons. Until about 20 years ago, when my hands and arms became affected by the spinal nerve damage, my handwriting was still good. It has progressively deteriorated, to the point of illegibility and severe hand cramps. Computing, mice and keyboards saved my communication skills.
Dave, I know my Aspergers gson has this problem of ‘brain working so quickly that hand cannot keep pace.‘ He told me that a long time ago. His few handwriting examples are really, really tiny and I had to actually read the birthday card he sent, with a magnifying glass. He worked out that Tiny Writing = Less Effort and Economy of space! Having watched his hands fly over a keyboard and hardly pause to use the mouse in a blur of movement, I often give silent thanks to the brainwave that had me building his first computer, trying to solve his communication, spelling and writing. As he is now No.2 to the boss of a successful IT company, I must have done something right!
I taught our dyslexic son to write in uppercase letters, with spaces between letters and bigger spaces between words, which has progressively improved his ability to send and leave messages. He is teaching our No.2 gson to do the same. It works for us, but it takes a lot of time and patience. On both sides!
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Interesting “Debt link” Ed, thanks for that. Forest are now in the best financial position for years, thanks to new owner Marinakis setting the club’s debts. But he also had to carry out legal action against the former owner:
This is what happens when the financial, sports and business worlds decide to battle over a facility that thousands of ordinary folk have loved and supported all their lives. Most of those corporate a-holes do not give a toss about ordinary fans.
I would hate to see the City Ground’s location change to a new, soulless stadium miles outside the City. That is what former owner Al-Hasawi wanted to do: take the club to the location of a former water sports facility along the A52. There is so much history behind a club that is England’s 3rd oldest, formed in 1865. That history has a lot to do with the atmosphere at any stadium which has entertained the public for a long time: in Forest’s case, for 154 years as I write this. For example, I liked the old Boleyn Ground BL and Steve I also liked Anfield (when airborne Scouse saliva was not happening, anyway!) There is also a bit more history across the Trent at Meadow Lane (Notts County 1862, oldest English club). However, you have to know the old Forest joke: “Why is Meadow Lane like the Moon?” Answer – “No atmosphere.”
Fortunately, Marinakis wants us to stay on the banks of the Trent in our present location. I get the feeling that he understands football supporters, having been an Olympiacos fan from childhood, and then owner of that club.
History of NFFC, I know, you may not be interested:
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Well this is The Daily Mash’s take on Grayling:
Must be accurate, I read it on t’internet thingy.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Thanks BL and VFM.
Les, I stand corrected. I should have known this, because on my first day at Bradwell school, I fell into a marl hole, playing where I shouldn’t be, and was covered in the orange/yellow stuff. My aunt had to clean me up and was not best pleased! Mention of Etruria recalls my other cousin , dearly-missed Alan Peach and myself, skimming biscuit* across the canal and into windows on the other side of the Works. We had to run to escape the “Pot Bobby!”
No I didn’t know Newstead Staffs: knew of it of course, but that’s Blurton/Hem Heath way I think, just off the Trentham Road? The Newstead I know is in Notts, a few miles from the village where I grew up, Blidworth. Newstead and Blidworth collieries were owned and built by Lord Newstead before Nationalisation. According to my dad, those were the first pits to have pithead baths and the colliery estate houses were supplied with power and hot water from the pit. My dad said that the Lord was a real philanthropist and looked after his miners and their families. After nationalisation, all the hot water pipes were dug up ‘because other newly-NCB pits did not have them’. Wonder if there is a Lord Newstead connection at Staffs Newstead?
*Most will not know that ‘biscuit’ is the term for pots – plates and saucers, etc. that were fired in the kiln, but did not make it to be glazed and/or decorated. They make excellent water skimmers. I apply the skimming lessons from cousin Alan when I go to the beach: find a flat stone, count how many skips I can get across the incoming waves. Still doing it now. Well, we never grow up, do we? And it’s free! I got a “Sevener” yesterday at Chapel St. Leonards.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.I have a son and a grandson with dyslexia, so I know the issues being aired here and agree with many points raised by Steve and VFM. (Blimey that’s twice I have agreed with you VFM!)
Our son, now 50, was working for an electrician who took him on as a young lad under the old government-funded YTS scheme. He was also attending HND courses and got 4 Distinctions in his first year, due to his tutor recognising that he could carry out the work and had picked up the training quickly. When he reached 21, his employer lost YTS funding and threw him on the dole, refusing to pay him adult wages. There was a lot of this happening at the time: it prevented our lad becoming a qualified leccy and he was very down, but he took jobs wherever and whenever he could get them. I never forgave that employer, who I knew as a local. I gave him some grief over it and he made the mistake of swinging at me, whereupon I really enjoyed giving him a slap or two. Now our son is head caretaker at an academy complex of several schools, so the problem was not one of intelligence, was it? I never forgot one of his teachers telling my missus that our son ‘would never amount to anything’ after leaving school. I met that b**ch in a Tesco and told her that the problem lay with the incompetent educator and not the pupil.
History repeats: our grandson went through 3 years of training in Electrical Installations at a college. He passed all the qualifications in his last year, then some idiot in government decided that all Further Education students would have to pass English and Maths as well as the Trade Qual’s. He could not and cannot write: he passed the maths and failed 4 tries at the written English. His tutor was fuming, said that the lad knew his stuff and he would have no hesitation about employing him if he had a business. Now that lad is walking and bussing miles trying to get a job, any job. There are many more lads and lasses in that position and life is just s**t for them, it makes me so bloody angry. Why do we as a nation, so disrespect our young people? Not everyone gets to university, not everyone can. And even some of those who do, wind up shelf-stacking.
This is not a new problem: just like Steve, I left school with nothing to show for it. The Head of that school made a point of not shaking my hand when I left, although he knew all the ones who had GCE’s and he shook theirs – we numpty’s were ignored. I joined the Army and discovered that I was not thick! I became an aircraft technician and I passed what was then the Army Certificate of Education in several subjects including Maths and English, recognised as GCE equivalents.After leaving the Army I studied further, became a Motor Engineer and went from mechanic to workshop foreman.
The problem is rarely with the pupil, usually it’s with the educational system which puts kids in boxes: “one size fits all!” No, it does not. People have an annoying habit of becoming individuals, with individual talents. Now don’t let me get started on Benefits!?⛈
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Thanks guys!
Les, ” ‘ow at?” took me straight back to my favourite uncle, Joe Peach. That was always his greeting when I showed up at Inglewood Drive, Porthill, Wolstanton:
As a kid who spent over 2 years living in Wolstanton at my Aunt’s house and went over there every school holiday, I knew all the streets around that map and many others outside it. My dad was born and raised on Watlands View. Pit Green Lane was the site of the Royal British Legion social club, where Uncle Joe and his brother Uncle Bob were Treasurer and Secretary. I must have consumed gallons of pop and many bags of crisps there! Clare Avenue is where I used to be sent to buy Oatcakes and bring 4 dozen back for my parents and brothers. Uncle Joe and Aunt Ellen lived on the high point overlooking what is now Queensway, (then called “The D-Road”) most of which was a Marl Hole* and which is now the site of Overclockers. ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk) The Potters Wheel pub was where my cousin Bill and I used to drink before heading off to the Crystal Ballroom in Newcastle. Bill now lives on Templar Terrace: I have relatives everywhere in that area.
Uncle Joe used to say “eyup wut, ow at?”. I could speak fluent Stokey when I was a kid, can still do it now. Bilingual: Notts and Stokey!
*Marl Hole – what is left after removing a couple of centuries of China Clay for the Pot Kilns.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Have to admit that the Plusnet Hub One is not at all bad, althought first thing I did was change the very weak password. I am going to install a better router eventually, still have the TP Link 9980 from 3 years ago and will probably use that, it is lying in a box doing nothing. The Hub One at least has a decent webpage which allows various changes to be made and shows all devices in the network. I always know when I am near my house when I drive home, as the Hub One has a decent range and my phone pings as I drive up the Close. I have sometimes let my neighbour use my password, which is OK as she is eminently trustworthy. Nothing to do with her being a gorgeous blonde though!??
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Thanks to all my mates here. I see you as “Cyberspace mates”, although I have never met any of you, I really enjoy your internet company. I have learned so much from all of you, not just about computing but about life in general. Long may this Forum prosper, big kudos to Lee for the organisation and hope you and gran are OK now.
Ed that was a perfect example of an Ed post! Some of it is actually applicable, lol…
Cheers guys, Bob.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.On another football note: I have just read Peter Crouch’s book “How To Be A Footballer.” This bloke will make a good living as a comedian after football, he is FAF. He also tells some very interesting and funny stories about the game and characters he has met, played with and against.
Steve may be pleased to know that Steven Gerrard is Crouchie’s favourite player, regards him as the best English player ever. They go back a long way before Crouchie played for Liverpool, as they are the same age and played against each other in junior sides. They played for England at the same time as well as in the same Liverpool team.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Thanks BL. I have watched the WHU problems with sadness at times: I really hope they turn the corner. Like Forest, you Hammers fans have a glorious past, which contrasts with the future. I loved the old Boleyn ground at away matches in the past, although the locals did their best to make us uncomfortable! I used to watch a certain Mr. Moore take the ball away from a Forest player without apparent effort and I wince at the memory.
This is exactly why we will not have extensive ‘entertainment’ suites, absolutely in line with my opinion: –
” Ed I know the lounges make money but they add nothing to football in fact they detract from it as uninterested corporate types spend most of the game drinking and eating, so the seats are either empty or full of people who don’t care tuppence. ”
It should all be about the people who pay in numbers to get in, not the corporates. It’s not widely known, but until a certain Mr. Clough came to Forest, NFFC was the last football club in England to be run by a Committee, (not a Board) 25% of which had to be grass roots supporters. That supporter involvement remained until BC left his perch, but was later compromised. That Marinakis wants supporters involved again, is encouraging.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Forest never have been big on the Leisure/entertainment* side Ed. The suites are large enough for the potential audience: Forest always go for quality as opposed to quantity. The facilities available now are almost full at every home game and they are quite comfortable, even a tad luxurious. Read the “Owner’s Message” and understand that the club has always been supporter-focussed. It is good to know that Mr. Marinakis is also following that path, which previous owners have not done. We Forest fans have had some miserable years since the Clough Glory Days, but even in League One (shudders) attendances were well above other teams in the same League. To attend a game at the City Ground, even when the team are losing, is to hear the fans still supporting the players. Although some previous owners and management have received a lot of stick! Mr. Marinakis, who has made his main home in the county, has spent money wisely and has not given up on the Academy, which other clubs have done to save money. The Youth teams are doing well and the future looks brighter. As a supporter ofalmost 67 years, I am hopeful. But then real supporters are always hopeful….
There will be a hotel and many other sports facilities besides the new stadium.
*Forest fans will tell you that the entertainment is all on the pitch anyway!
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Please see “Heads Up” started by Nolan (PM)
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out. -
AuthorPosts