Council meeting.

Last night the missus and I attended the full council meeting for Sandwell Metropolitan Council. I like to attend occasionally for two reasons. I like to keep in touch with what is going on and I like to make my councillors aware that some of their constituents are keeping tabs on their performance. So I always sit directly opposite them in the public gallery.
Acoustics in the gallery are never good but last night was an absolute farce. I know us oldies can have difficulties hearing but last night this was exaggerated to a large extent by the loud speakers in the gallery either being switched off or faulty. Usually there are just a couple of us listening to the debate but last night we had a full house well about a dozen if you discount the parents of the kids who had come along to present their film on climate change.
The security man who watches us was made aware of the problem but nothing was done to correct it. The experience was ruined for us and we left early very disappointed. One of my local councillors made a good contribution concerning our local academy and primary schools I think but couldn’t hear most of it.
I have this morning emailed the leader of the council and I include a copy here. I will publish the reply.
"Dear Cllr. Thomas.
I attended the full council meeting last night with my wife and sat in the public gallery. The loud speakers in the gallery were either turned of or faulty because although we could hear snippets of speech from some speakers others were totally illegible. The film from our young people contained so much background noise that it was irritating to my ears and hence spoiled their contribution. A least three requests were made to the security man but nothing was done. My wife and I left early because of this. Cllr Smith LD made a remark concerning the Cabinet member for community safety which I only heard bits of but it seemed to me to be offensive and rude. Could you please clarify her remark for me and can you in future ensure that the sound system in the building is working properly before the debate. Last nights performance was not good for local democracy.
BBCB"

Tick and Take

Or should it be take and tick? As my disease has worsened it has become more complicated to treat and hence the number of drugs required to keep me alive and well has grown. I have drugs to fight the disease and drugs to combat the symptoms and side effects of other drugs.
It can be a very complex situation. Some require to be taken in the morning some with food some at night. I have drugs that fight the disease but keep me awake. I have a drug should I need it to put me to sleep. One drug that is leading the fight at the moment makes me feel sick and of course a drug to counteract the sickness and so it goes on.
I have developed a monthly chart which I fill in daily when I take the pills and to some extent it works quite well. The wife has a weekly pill box which she tops up every Sunday evening and complains to me that I should do the same. I will admit that my system is not perfect; I miss a couple now and then but her pill box isn’t perfect either. When we were in the states a couple of years back I attended a Seniors Convention where of course all the local drug companies were present with a multitude of drug dispensers. I wasn’t taking any drugs then so not so bothered.
Would it be possible for a pharmacy to come up with a system that contained all the drugs needed and dispensed in such a way that only the drugs for that time and that day were available to take with a warning signal if missed?
Development costs would be high I suspect but sales would be enormous and I suggest safety in operation would be of untold benefit to the sick and save the NHS a lot of money. I like the idea of saving rather than what now seems to be the popular line from all political parties of savage cuts. Mustn’t go there or this post will turn into a rant but more on that later perhaps after Browns speech.

Full of Life Festival

October 1st is United Nations International Day for Older People. We celebrate this in Sandwell with an event at THE PUBLIC in West Brom called Full of Life Festival. This is a free event sponsored by Sandwell Council and our Primary Care Trust. Last years event attracted 800 visitors. Anyone over fifty is especially welcome but younger people also attend with a choirs from one of the local schools it is a truly cross generation event.
Bob the Black Country Brummie will be there along with my editor in chief. So if you happen to be around West Brom on Thursday look us up we’ll be delighted to see you.

Compo and some

A couple of my posts recently have raised some discussion from fellow bloggers in the form of comments and from my friends and family who although read the blog don’t often comment. The three items that created the most interest were Aunty Wainwright, Road Hogs and Mouth Wash.
One blogger commented that if tried to be more like Compo I wouldn’t have the problem with Aunty Wainwright. When the wife read this she insisted I did not need to try to look like Compo I was him on most days and then insisted I needed more new cloths. This as meant three shopping trips in one week. Anyone who knows me will realise that I must at least be running a temperature or I’m in a serious state and need to rest.
The Mouth Wash post received one of the funniest comments I’ve ever received when a mate of my wife’s said “she should have gone to Specsavers”. The other side to that story is that the misses left the offending bottle of mouth wash vertical on the built in seat in our corner bath/shower. Now I’m not going to explain my surprise when I came to sit to wash my feet but a few four letter expletives were uttered. I wonder just who had the last laugh.
The road rage post though tops them all and shows what a serious problem there is out there with these drivers. I loved the comment about the bloke who bought an old taxi “so that he could drive like Pratt and get away with it”. My car is silver (which is the preferred colour for Sandwell mini cabs) so I wonder if I stick a yellow badge on the back I can drive like a Pratt and get away with it. Umm now that’s asking for trouble I suspect. It isn’t just immigrant taxi drivers though that are a problem. There is nothing racial about what I’m going to say but I suspect that a lot of immigrant drivers do not speak good English and if they have drivers licences can’t read road signs. I experienced a couple of example of this this week with Asian drivers which made me wonder about their suitability to drive. With frightening figures out this week of the numbers of cars being driven without insurance and drivers who can’t speak English we have a potential major problem.
A fellow blogger who is also a Sandwell Cllr. claimed that a Cllr. who is definitely not on my Christmas card list wanted to introduce a dress code but my blogger friend suggested a f***ing Highway Code would be more appropriate. I definitely agree with the Highway Code bit although the ones I’ve used are generally a scruffy bunch so coming from Compo incarnate perhaps something should be done on that front.
A tightening up of driving skills and more frequent tests seems to me to be appropriate here.
Keep the comments coming folks on the blog on the blower or in person they keep me going especially on those days I’m not feeling 100%.

Clinic campaign supplemental

The political debate that now surrounds the provision of our clinic is an interesting development over here in little old Newton. I can’t remember a time in the last thirty years when people have got angry over something and someone led a protest campaign in the way the clinic campaign has galvanised public opinion. Over the last maybe 15yrs our ward has declined in many ways. The provision of health facilities being only one. Newton is normally a quiet little backwater.
The old miners estate or Durham estate as it is known locally is being revitalised by the work of a few local residents lead by our local labour Cllr. When complete this new estate will be a major improvement to our area. I mention this because we have elected Lib dem Cllrs over the last thirty years and only recently elected a labour Cllr. Against the odds. I wonder out loud if we did not have a labour Cllr. as part of the Newton team whether the labour controlled council would be giving the same kind of support we are now getting for our clinic.
The behaviour of the Lib Dems in our adjoining ward of Great Barr with Yew Tree over the provision of this facility is in my view unacceptable and I cannot understand why the party whip was not applied. The issue is far too important to our area including their ward to be scuppered in the way I feel they are attempting to do. Looking back at the last “protest” at our MP’s surgery the Tories who normally can’t be trusted with the NHS were present to support us but none of the Cllrs from Great Barr with Yew Tree attended. I should have spotted it then.
I will continue to monitor this situation but somebody needs to be telling the electorate. There is a precedent of independent candidates standing on “save our hospital” ticket so perhaps a similar thing might occur over here with Clinics being the major issue. Ummmmmmmmmm?
What really gets me annoyed though is that they have sat on their hands for almost two years accepting what the PCT told them and it wasn’t until the protests became vocal and local political opinion (Newton ward) was galvanised that we managed to start things moving forward. In my opinion they now wish to sabotage this work.
I wonder what the next Focus on Great Barr with Yew Tree newsletter will be claiming. If anyone gets a copy perhaps they’d send it to me please.

Mouth wash

“BOB, BOB” the wife is yelling at me from the bathroom upstairs. After being married for the time we have I can tell from the urgency in her voice that something may be wrong. I don’t do rush upstairs anymore in fact I have one pace for getting upstairs which is very slow. I’m huffing and puffing to get there when the yells are repeated. I’m beginning to think this might perhaps be something serious. The ceilings collapsed (I’d have heard that) the worlds ending (unlikely) a spider in the bath (more likely). I’m an out of breath but concerned hubby when I finally get to the bathroom. After the usual formalities of a concerned husband I discover she has taken a mouthful of muscle soak instead of Listerine. I quickly establish she hasn’t swallowed any and fighting back the laughter I suggest she “wash her mouth out”. No harm was done but it could have been a very serious accident. On the labels of a lot of products it says keep out of the reach of children. Perhaps they should add and pensioners.
After this event I was reminded of a friend of mine who a couple of years ago had Haemorrhoids (piles to you and me) he had been using toilet wet wipes to do the clean up job. Unknown to him his wife had left a packet of the larger stronger version in the spot where the toilet wipes were. He unwittingly used one. These things are great for cleaning the loo and associated area but not for those tender parts of the human anatomy. I know it’s cruel but when he was explaining his discomfort we had to force back our smiles.
I read a report recently that claimed that swearing helped you cope with pain. I’ve had plenty of experience with pain and as such I’ve taken the reports findings into account and am known these days to cuss occasionally. So it is usually the wife who is telling me to “wash your mouth out” “Oh b******s”.

Road hogs

I wonder what the female version of one of these is called a road sow? Recently I seemed to have been accosted by a series of road traffic offences. My regular readers will know my feelings on using a hand held mobile phone. I find this offence very irritating because hands free devises are so cheap and easy to fit. This offence seems to be growing over here in Newton I noticed a big increase recently. I wonder if the public could have a telephone number to call so that reg number and time of offence could be recorded.
In Sandwell we have a lot of mini cabs that are licensed by the local authority. Many of these are silver coloured of one shade or another. I think at one time the Council wanted them all silver. These vehicles seem to have a set of rules all of their own. They are not fitted with signal mechanisms or if they are they never use them and they seem to ignore all other road users. I notice a lot of them seem to be immigrant drivers but surely they should and must follow the same road rules as the rest of us. A couple of days ago I was about to overtake one of these mini cabs who was looking at his satnav when suddenly he turned right with no signals. You all know I’m a quiet modest man not known for outbursts of rage but after a long blast on the horn this nutter still did not recognise that he had almost caused a serious accident. Throwing out of fag ends is another activity that annoys me along with folks who empty their ash trays in the road.
The worst offender this week though has to be the young lady who was combing her hair with one hand looking in her driving mirror which was moved so that she could see what she looked like and puffing up her hair with the other hand whilst driving on a duel carriage way at 50mph.
To me there seems to be a campaign to get older drivers off the roads but I’d settle for the lot I described being banned forever.