Alt.Mustardland

Moribund

Sorry to read that the Ebony Bull has recently been hospitalised. I trust that all is well now.

Calcilarious

Gregarious

GLO, I have a feeling that your NCD may be viable for up to three years when you don't have insurance. Your old insurer will have your record.

Just drifting away from our fascinating and enlightening discussion about the Public Sector, could I warn you about an incidence of telephone marketing that I'm less than happy with? A while ago now, I ordered something from a catalogue produced by an organisation called Easy Life. I began receiving...

GLO, I've always considered the NHS to be a special case within the public sector. Let's ignore the fact that behaviour similar to that within Local Authorities would result in dead patients. The critical point here is that the service deals directly with the end user(s), the patient. Local governme...

I have a number of further views of the way in which local government works having worked for most of my career within the commercial sector and, then spent the last five years working for a local authority. These are in no particular order of importance. 1. The process of Annuation . This involves ...

The truth is that, local government employees are only answerable to their immediate managers. Unlike councillors, they do not have to stand for election every four years. In the commercial sector, everything relates to improving the business: pleasing the customer, obtaining further business, enhan...

The fact that your local council ran out of money before project was complete has a certain resonance. The aforementioned Wolverhampton City Council decided that an area of the City Centre called Queen's Square required some embellishment. It began by installing a number of large raised flower beds....

Fermentation.

The manner in which, at a time when they supposed to be saving money, local councils seem to come up with yet more elaborate ways of wasting financial resources hand over fist never ceases to amaze me. For instance, nearby Wolverhampton City Council have recently rebranded all leisure centres, swimm...

Kinver, Barrow Hill (Including Fens Pool) and Saltwells are all regular routes for the Action Heart walks. We also have starting points at the Red House Cone, The Bratch in Wombourne, Withymoor, Ashwood Nurseries and two quite close to Cravat Towers, Baggeridge Park and Himley Hall. We're really so ...

Medium

GLO, thank you for your pre-birthday wishes and, I hope that your Kid/Sis/Doc/Hospital problems are resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned. Just spent a jolly hour doing some garden tidying. Looks OK for the Winter. Our tubs and hanging basket full of winter flowering plants have been out som...

Good evening to all and, "White Rabbits" (Unless it"s too late in the day to say that. As usual, I've seem to have been busy of late. Lots of varied stuff going on not, my usual clubs and societies. A significant birthday for me in a few days. Party and several other celebratory event...

Good morning everyone. Spent yesterday in Birmingham, sitting on an Admission Appeals Panel. Yes, they are still going on even though we have reached the first half term break of the academic year! In fact, we're being asked to commit to further hearings up to mid-December. Many of the appeals that ...

Thoughts with those of you in Ireland, powerless with, battened hatches. Storm well to the West of Castle Cravat. It is windy but, I guess that's the norm for this time of year. We had the 'red Sun' this morning as a result of the Saharan dust cloud. Mind you, I thought that the camel was a bit much...

Like Rwth, my GP is on Emis. Getting an appointment, ordering a prescription, etc, can all be done on line. I nominated a pharmacy at the outset. Choice of two local pharmacies and, my choice was simple. I loathe and detest the one pharmacy because, they spend too much time gossiping. Relatively qui...

My cake has been out of the oven for around two and a half hours, having spent four hours in the oven. Over two kilos of ingredients in it and, whilst it was only in the oven at 140C, the mass holds on to the heat quite well. Hopefully, by early evening it will be cool enough to add a few more table...