Jamie Olivers 15

I have time to spare lately and I have entered a few competitions. And I have won things! I won a meal for two in 15 in London. Being on crutches London worried me, and I have not been allowed to drive, so with limited walking-of sorts-was daunting. I won the prize in January, but held it off until last weekend, until I had some strength.

I won it from a competition in the Inside Kent magazine, which I read as I was waiting in Benenden Hospital.

insideKENT Magazine

@insideKENT Kent, England

Kent's premier luxury lifestyle magazine. Published bi-monthly and free to read online.

http://www.insidekentmagazine.co.uk

Anyway it was a great thrill to win. So off we went to 15!


http://www.fifteen.net/Pages/default.aspx

After a Prosecco wine as an appertif we enjoyed three courses and a lovely bottle of wine. It was superb. I loved watching the kitchen at work too.

I really can say it was a wonderful lunch. I would happily pay for the meal, as not only was it good to eat, it was great value for money, but I did not have to pay! The service was good too. There was super attention to detail.

So 5 gold stars to 15 and Inside Kent! But be warned-anything that is chocolate based is VERY VERY chocolatey! I know some would love that, but it was just too much for me! 

Feels like a long time

It is a long time since my last entry-had enormous problems with connectivity and other PC issues. Gosh how you miss the PC when it is a problem. I am doing this on an old laptop PC, as the other one has gone to the Computer Hospital! And this old one did not like my demands-when I set up some new software and various applications/programmes. The worse problem was it did not like my modem/routers, and I tried THREE!  Then even after using System Restore several times nothing seemed to work. I finished up wiping the hard drives and resetting my Windows from a recovery disk. I am depending on my THREE mobile dongle now!

So much to say now! And I cannot decide what to write first.

I am contemplating redundancy-don't think I have much choice; I had a "briefing" note that said  my job is not just at risk and under review, but my specific duties have been given to someone else. Thats what you get for being off work with a genuine problem-that was exacerbated by the environment in which I worked! I applied for early retirement and when seen by a doc was advised that one day I would recover from all my surgery and that I would be able to work...one day!

UCU, my union, are on strike-I support the stance. It is not a political thing or anti government policy and/or a fight against austerity measures, its a genuine grievance against the employers. Pensions have not be honoured,   and quite frankly College and Uni managements seem to think they can do as they please-because of austerity measures. They keep themselves in work and reinvent job titles and massage job descriptions  to suit their friends and sack many many others-the real workers who do the work at the coalface.

Enough said for now!

Too many distressing stories from Afghanistan

I am always affected by the sad stories that come out of our attempts to give order to Afghanistan. I have always been saddened by deaths from combat in the many countries where our forces are usually trying to protect civilians-and fighting back-in a place where tyrants dictate by oppressive actions. We have seen too many deaths and too many people maimed, disabled and distressed by these battles. Families around them carry too many emotional scars as a result. War is never nice, casualties are inevitable, but it still hurts. One death is one too many. But we have lost hundreds in the Afghan. Not just in the last few years, but over a long time. The country has always been the place of rebels and malcontents. My father would always say-he served in that part of the world during the 2nd World War and for some time afterwards trying to restore order-that he could never trust an Afghan. When ever there were any of them about, friend or foe, he would sleep with a dagger under his pillow. Even the friends would turn allegiance, or be forced to do so.

I am one of those that thinks Wootten Bassett should be honoured for its respect of the returning troops. Their sentiments and actions probably represent many of us, WE MUST PAY TRIBUTE to all of them. It is thus a saddening action that Wootten Bassett should lose this chance to pay that tribute, as these heroes will not be brought back to the nearby airbase RAF Lyneham in future. Perhaps the town does deserve a rest, it is just not normal to have so many hearses so often in a rural town, or anywhere. I know others think differently. But people do need to grieve. The decision is more to do with austerity measures though-and therein lies more emotions and arguments.

I am also touched by the resilience of the ones that have lost their loved ones, and the way in which they respond. There will be different emotions handled in different ways at different times; hurt, sadness, pain, anger, hopelessness, even bitterness, and that is to be expected, but there is also pride and that "stiff upper lip" of Britishness.

I tend to weep a few tears whenever I hear about yet another death on the radio or TV. The scenes of Wootten Bassett are guaranteed to get me going. But yesterday I completely lost control. The dog died of a soldier who was shot. A working dog, a dog that searches for bombs and the partner of a soldier that does such valuable work. The dog died of stress. I have to admit I am crying as I write this. The tragedy of the human life lost is a shocking loss of life, but for the dog to die too, not from the same shot or injuries sustained, but from the loyal camaraderie the dog shared with its keeper is a statement of the greatness of that soldier and the bond shared with the dog. They were a team, they were a great and honourable team, doing great and useful work, and they die virtually together. The dog must have been grieving so much and was so shocked. Its truly shattering.

My thanks go to the Daily Mail  and Reuters for their pictures. Sad pictures, sad moments and I wish they did not happen.

Politics, and the world of change

Whilst I was in Twitter yesterday a couple of stories trended-amazing how events, IT, TV and other media with specific English words affect our culture-one was about John Major our former PM and another story about Joanna Lumley struck me in a thoughtful way.
John Major said that what was going on in the world-principally the Arab world-was very significant and it would all have an effect on a changing world. He also spoke from a fair amount of knowledge on the subject and an even greater amount gained from hindsight and mistakes, as he was PM, or a senior minister, during previous military campaigns, some of which of course were in the Arab world. Apart from the puerile drivel that was served with character assassination that Twitter has sadly become, it was obvious that the story, or interview, on BBC Radio 4 Today programme had stirred up a lot of feelings. But he is right-3 Arab countries have seen major uprisings in the space of weeks. Not since the same happened in the Eastern Bloc, when former countries of the USSR alliance chose their own identity, and the Berlin Wall fell, have such major events had such an effect, like dominoes falling. There will be more issues, implications and possibly more countries that will be affected in some significant way. Who knows what the consequences will be?
I just wish Zimbabwe would have an uprising, but the people will be even more persecuted if they did. It would be worse than Libya.
The desperation of Libya can be seen on the Tunisian border where tens of thousands of people are fleeing to. They are fleeing one county with a tyrant of a leader only to go to a country that has just had its own revolution! I do wonder why they do not flee to other countries though. I guess its to do with it being such a massive country, yet so many live in Tripoli. Algeria and Egypt are on either side too and African nations like Sudan, Chad and Niger are to the south, but the bulk of Libya to the south is horrid terrain, and few live in these parts, and even fewer would want to go across it. The Med sea above the country would appeal to me-if I had a boat to get to Malta!
Then Joanna Lumley said that young people have no motivation. I think she used other words, but I know what she means. As a Tutor in a college I have seen it daily. Like John Major, she is right. The trouble is people take the opinion out of context, or they find fault, or re-interpret it and/or reflect it as an opinion about ALL young people. I can assure you she is right, but not about ALL young people. As Tutors I guess we notice the "bad-uns" more than the good ones, because they demand more of our attention. They ruin it for the good ones, they take up more time and energy. And as the result the good ones can get neglected, so Tutors and teachers are accused of being poor teachers.
There are some lovely and motivated youngsters about and usually well parented too, and I must say that it is a very high percentage of the them, but there are those that do let the system down.
Very often you can see it comes from the parents.They are let down by them. Parents feed them rubbish and don't give them time and attention and then they are neglected and feel uncared for.
Some of these children respond to this in different ways.
But motivation is lacking in many of them. They want to be spoon fed in some ways. They want just a yes or no answer. Yes keeps them happy and no determines a revolt. It's the mobile phone and text culture that contributes to it. Short sharp answers! And then there is more MIS interpretation.
It was a generalisation of the young-but of the bad ones that get seen. The trouble is they will influence the ones in the "middle" and the ones who may be and could be good sometimes. I see that too often.
The noticeable thing on Twitter was that whilst so many people wanted to condemn the lovely lady, a lot agreed with her-and young people too!
I have seen many "bad-uns" over the years and some admitted they needed control. Some felt the army would be good for them, some thought prison would be more pleasure than going home, some truly hated their parents-not just for the sake of it, but with a true vindictive vengeful hate. It's a sad world.
Then after a day of taking in the above, last night I went to a meeting as a local Politician and community activist.
There were arguments; insinuations, complaints, bitterness and hostile words were thrown about, but we made progress. Most of us were over 60 years of age, some over 70. I was one of few under that! And I was not a trouble maker! I cannot tell you what we discussed-maybe one day!
It made me realise though-that all government, however you do it and who ever you do it with is going to be tough and changing in the next few years. In the UK of GB it will be very hard, but in relativity, quite different to the Arab nations and even different from our friends over in Ireland, where at least it has been done through the ballot box. There are going to be a lot of unpopular decisions-and changes-to make throughout the world. How will the young cope?

I think the ballot box will also affect the UK in May 2011 too!

As a bit of a PS-post script, I will just share a bit of profanity with you, so if offended, do not read!

Whilst I was reading the tittle-tattle that is Twitter, I came across a tweet from young person, a female, that may have been genuine, cynical or rhetorical or just tongue-in-cheek humour, who knows? But it was simple: "Joanna Lumley, I fucking love you"! To which I was tempted to reply "Joanna Lumley, I'd love fucking you"! Maybe thats why I was in good spirit yesterday and tended to lighten the seriousness of our evening meeting with a few humourous quips. It also suggests that I am old! But then I do seriously like the lady, and not just sexually, she is a feisty lady and I tend to like her attitude.