51 and counting

Today is my birthday, i am 51. 

Trouble is i only feel about 20 in my head, but my body is slowly starting to rebel and act its age, which i strongly object to.  I am doing nothing this evening but after the Burmantofts & Richmond Hill Farce (aka community leadership team)  tomorrow I shall, with friends slope off to my favourite watering hole The Spring Close , get comfy by the fire and sink a few gins before sloping off home slightly merry. 

The past few  days have been strange, Monday  I had lunch with David Williams of the Fire Brigades Union to talk about  WYFRS stuff and instead it ended up as a celebration of the fact Maggie Thatcher had died. We were just tucking into our nosh when it flashed up on the screen in the pub and unfortunately all talk of fire stations and blogs  went hurtling out of the window.  I retreated to facebook to see what was being said and Dave’s phone exploded with a flurry of congratulatory texts. We did do one useful thing though, the FBU has very generously donated £100 to Friends of East End Park as a kind of thank you for FCCL and COVEN helping them out. It will be used to help fund Lark In the Park 2013 our annual  young peoples shin dig which is always held the first Saturday of the Summer Holidays.   The Fire service usually send a fire engine down to the event and small children get to have a go, try on uniforms etc  (giving head lice to a fire fighter every now and again I am led to believe). Such a shame most of those kids will never fulfil their dream as by the time they grow up there will be hardly any jobs in WYFRS – but no doubt the Chief Fire Officer will be getting a mighty fine salary!

Simon Pilling gets over £160k a year  which is just ridiculous

Is he worth it – no he isn’t! 

And i can say that with some confidence, having started to investigate and research how other Fire & Rescue Services engage with the public that WYFRS are way way  behind  in regard to the use of social media.
For WYFRS = THE KGB with its network of back stabbing and retaliation for holding the wrong opinion to the ones prescribed by the top table .Information  is to be shared not hidden ( i am with Eric Pickles on this)  

For example -  they seem very keen on using hearsay evidence to beat people with rather than facts. For several months i have been waiting to be called as a witness in an investigation - i am even named in the papers, but haven't heard a word from them and then hey ho the investigation is said to be unnecessary, my arse it is. I hope the person concerned takes it much further - to the ombudsman if necessary!

I am seriously considering writing a blog titled 

FRAUD 

Fire & Rescue, About Undisclosed Documents !!!

Other brigades tweet, blog and boast - not WYFRS they seem very keen not to promote the work they do -  that is assuming they do it, i am not surprised their staff morale is rock bottom. 

Anyway - rattling through the week, on Wednesday  after taking the afternoon off, i attended an industrial tribunal hearing. Not as a witness but just out of curiosity. Not a lot happened but i have to say the room was an absolute greenhouse, if it was in EEP it would have made a brilliant cannabis farm!

Thursday was my sons birthday - Joshua was 26. As our birthdays are only 4 days apart i always remember him coming up and saying "i was your birthday present wasn't i Mummy" and me snarling back at him " Yes darling you were" whilst trying to rearrange my face into a motherly doting smile. Josh has been bought a juicer as his present and  i suspect he will shortly be more oompa lumpa  coloured when the excess of fresh carrot juice consumption kicks in. 

As i can see it,  the only advantage to adult children is that you can take them  to the pub for lunch and buy them a pint, instead of a coke, packet of crisps and a colouring book!

The weekend was quiet, probably too quiet for my darling bunny Sascha who was looking a bit grubby round his nether regions so was subjected to his first ever botty bath.  Let me make it clear, bathing a bun is a two person job, but there is only one of me. 

RECIPE  - first take one rabbit,,,,,,,,,,, and you will also need. 

1. A sink of nice warm water was run, with a small amount of pet shampoo squirted in 

2. Three towels, one for the floor, one for wrapping the bun in and one to wipe the soap off my face

3. Pet conditioner - because he is worth it

4. A brush so my darling boy could be tangle free 

5. Bedroom nice and warm so he wont catch a chill afterwards

6. Hair dryer (or should that be hare dryer plugged in and good to go

7. A reward for being a good bun (aka A BRIBE  to stand still) 

THE TECHNIQUE

a) First catch your rabbit - easy peasy 

b) Transport rabbit to sink - not so easy as by now its rumbled somethings happening and it goes into Vet aversion mode

c) Dunk buns bum into sink, actually this bit went quite well, massage fur gently to ensure shampoo is well distributed 

d) Pull out plug whilst gripping  bun firmly by scruff of neck, use towel and other hand  to wipe soap from your  face, arms, body etc. 

e) Refill sink with warm water and swoosh buns bum around to ensure he is soap free, 

f) Repeat twice............. by now you will be soaked to the skin btw.

g) Pick up bun and wrap in towel  (ok that should read pick up bun, get kicked to bits, and nipped whilst attempting to wrap said lagomorph in a towel) 

h) Transport bun to heated bedroom and attempt to rub dry with a towel

i) whilst pinning bun down gently  brush fur to ensure its tangle free

J) Sit  very annoyed rabbit on knee and blow  dry with hair dryer (he sat quite still for this bit) 

k) reward bun with bribe, whilst bun is  eating bribe wipe poo and wee off your knee as rabbit has objected in the most physical way to being dried that he knows how,  which is why he was sat still in the first place

l)  finally spend  hours persuading rabbit to come out from under bed where he has gone into the furthest corner to SULK. 

Please note my bun and i know the measure of each other and i know how i can handle him without causing him distress   - for proper bunny advice read  this by my dear friend Karen Wren of Ross Rabbits. 

Monday - Wednesday (its been a busy week

Week commencing Monday 10^th September (mon - weds )

As i need to rant about Thursday  (big style) you would have died of boredom before i got to it so have made an executive decision to split this weeks rant into 2 parts.

Monday

Still feeling diabolical so crawl out of bed and email work to say I am stopping at home. Because I live alone and hence am unable to get sympathy from those around me I stick a note on my face book page saying I am poorly – virtual sympathy in these days of the internet will in emergencies have to do.

I rally a little in the afternoon but still have a temperature and feel clammy. Check my home email  and have emails from both firemen past and present and also from Friends of the Earth and the Green Party about  the No2 Incinerator Campaign. By the time you read this a press release complete with a “secret” set of        appendices will have been sent to every journalist in Leeds. Flash bang wallop what a blooming contract ............... we have had it read by professionals and its a joke (or license to print money if your name is by any chance Veolia).

Crawl back into bed and stay there – listening to my complete boxed set of Old Harrys Game CDs – which is the best comedy programme EVER. Andy Hamilton is simply a genius.

Tuesday

Crawl out of bed and email work I am still dying – I am pretty sure as my insides are giving me hell I have been contaminated with wheat gluten. 

Crawl back into bed and play on face book as I need more virtual sympathy.  Update Diary of Gin Fuelled as it’s a quick copy and paste job from word . After a quick message from a friend I discover that tragically an elderly gentleman died in a house fire last night in Chapeltown. Appliances from both Moortown and Gipton attended but even with fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus he could not be saved.

 And it re enforces why I am rolling up my sleeves and fighting the fire cuts – because a smoke alarm may (hopefully) mean you watch  a fire from the outside of your house  instead of screaming for help from the inside,  and  only a qualified fire fighter can get you out of a burning building safely. NOT ONCE EVER HAS A SMOKE ALARM CARRIED A PERSON FROM A BURNING BUILDING......... Simon Pilling and all the councillors on the fire authority hold that thought and Vote NO to the IRMP 2012/13.

Later in the afternoon I take a call from from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue. They are ringing regarding a blog post about the event listed above. Under normal circumstances I would of course tell you all about it but  I don’t think I can /should. They have breached every information governance and I suspect the data protection act rule in the book! And as I am not the press and therefore not covered by rules regarding embargoes in theory I could blog to high heaven about what they have told me, but I won’t. I couldn’t  - I can’t say any more I am absolutely appalled. I have however informed WYFRS and am considering making a formal complaint. The things WYFRS will do to change things round beggars belief.

This evening is the first of the Community Leadership Teams – a meeting to be held behind closed doors. I most certainly do not approve but will be going along so I can report the goings on in this blog. Only labour could in their wisdom choose to close the best attended forum in Inner east Leeds – I do not doubt for a minute because they don’t like what it says to them........ never mind my tune won’t change I shall still carry on.

Before I go to bed I sneak a peek at the hits we have had on the new site to oppose the fire cuts and I am pleased – so far so good.

Wednesday

Arrive at work to be confronted by the bag of tortilla chips. ........ we (the office) are down to about the half way mark.

Feel a million times better due in part to copious amounts of tummy calming drugs – three cheers for the NHS  (whilst we still have it)

Work is a disaster for an hour or two as our systems are playing up (again). But it gives me an opportunity to catch up on “stuff”. Take a peek at the new blog we have set up   FIRE CUTS COST LIVES (click to take a peek) and we have already got over a hundred hits which is amazing from a standing start.  And to say only yesterday 3 people knew of its existence. The  Fire Brigades Union have  indicated that they will only supply information for it if we ask for it (nicely of course)so decide to ask a very general question and see what floats back via email. I can make the requests more specific as we go along.  At lunchtime the hit rate had crept up and I am feeling a combination of smug and happy. (ok 75% smug 25% happy).

Sadly,  after much deliberation have had to formally complain about member of staff at WYFRS.  And then discover their compliments / complaints email address isn’t working. So in the end send it to Simon Pilling – chief fire officer and Cllr Khan of Kirklees – whose email sort of gives the impression he is rather too important for his own good............ the.leader@kirklees.gov.uk 

Which gets me thinking perhaps I should have a new email address

 that.woman @imrightyourwrong.co.uk     or 

sarah@youconsulted_noway.com

Anyway by the time I leave work my smug AND happiness ratings are sky high..........the new blog is going bananas.

In the early evening as my nails are looking distinctly tatty I take all the old polish off them, give them a bit of a file and spruce up then repaint them a dark red. But I do miss Scarlet doing my nails. Decide to make determined effort to find new manicurist, I may be a bad tempered old goat but even hooves need the occasional pamper session.

Thursday to Sunday to follow ................................... on monday !!!!

Enjoy your weekend

Sarah X X X