Peterborough Bus Rally

Last Sunday the 14th saw us at the Peterborough Bus Rally held at Sacrewell Farm. The weather was perfect unlike last year when the field was flooded due to the incessant rain. There were a good mix of vehicles on display this year though notable by their absence were Leyland Nationals though there was one Olympian in the form of Stagecoach's MegaDecker stretched wheelbase vehicle which ran the shuttle to and from Peterborough Queensgate. Stagecoach also had their Bristol Lodekka's running trips to and from Wandsford Station and these were a real joy to ride. From their modern stock, Stagecoach had two of their ADL Trident Enviro 400's on show with Lincolnshire Roadcar livery. One ran the trip to and from Wandsford and I have to say it was the most uncomfortable ride that day. Despite its relatively young age, there was no air conditioning and the bus was a greenhouse on wheels - literally - given its panorama top deck windscreen!

I'm already looking forward to next year when I hope to enter our own E213 WBG NC Leyland Olympian, assuming we get her roadworthy.

A few photos from the event...

Thoughts on Last Week

Last week was for me pretty amazing. At the beginning of the week, during one of our group sessions, a member of the group asked if I could spare ten minutes and drove me off to a remote part of Spalding. I had absolutely no idea where I was being taken or for what purpose other than the fact that I was going to be shown something incredible. We pulled into a yard which consisted of a couple of barns, a stable and some stacks of farm pallets. I was led between the pallets and there looking rather sorry for itself and a little weather beaten was a double decker bus - a Leyland Olympian to be exact - as I know my buses. I was shown around the bus and I was told that the bus belonged to our group member and friend and that he wanted to donate it to the group and he wanted me to look after it and get it back on the road. Well, it has been some time since I was really shocked and lost for words but on this occasion, I was absolutely dumbfounded. When I think of how long I have wanted a bus to work on, to restore and to get back on the road, and a person we have helped through our support group has in effect given us a bus - just like that - to be honest I must have experienced some of the feelings and emotions that occur when the lottery jackpot is won. Just looking round the bus, I could see its potential straight away. OK it needs some TLC and the paintwork (adhesive vinyl) needs to be removed. I was told the inside has been completed to a very high standard and was used as an exhibition and training vehicle. I was keen to see the inside, but our friend hadn't brought the keys with him but promised he would do so on Thursday when we would next meet.
I couldn't wait, and the bus was on my mind constantly until Thursday afternoon, when after our group meeting, he took myself and our group treasurer to see the bus again - and this time he had brought the keys.

Stepping inside was like entering the Tardis. In fact, once inside you wouldn't know you were in a bus for the quality of the fittings and workmanship is nothing short of excellent. Everything has been thought of and provided right down to a kitchen area complete with fridge, sink, storage, toilet and numerous power points all round. Upstairs is fitted to a class room standard complete with work benches all round and power points for multiple laptops. There is air conditioning upstairs and down and an emergency hatch built in to the floor, ideal for getting equipment to the upper deck. In the front of the bus on the top deck, there is a small office big enough to seat two people with desk space and room for filing and storage.

Every section of the bus is separated by a fire door with a round window and roller blind - for they've thought of everything.
The bus is equipped with its own fresh water supply courtesy of an on-board water tank expertly hidden under the staircase and it has its own diesel generator hidden in the front of the bus where the entrance would normally be - capable of running two average sized homes. There is even a disabled lift to bring wheelchair users on to the bus and an awning for those hot summer days.
Again, I was dumbstruck but this time I became quite emotional as I found it impossible to express my feelings in words. Our treasurer who had accompanied me was also quite emotional and knowing how much I have longed for my own bus, she too had a sense of how I was feeling. I really was thinking that I would wake at any moment from one of my Utopian dreams and that it would all have been a fantasy.
As reality began to sink in, it was obvious that the bus could be used for a variety of different projects and could even earn us some money if we were able to get it to a state whereby it could be hired out.
We left the bus feeling a little numb, the sort of feeling you get when you step off a fast fairground ride. Before we left, I was given the key to the bus. I was told that I should make a copy and that from this day forward, I would be responsible for the bus, all works undertaken and its primary driver.
We bid a more than grateful farewell to our friend and drove home, still in shock and unable to fully comprehend what we had just seen and heard.
Since Thursday, the bus has been on my mind and the enormity of the project has me wondering just how on earth we will do everything that's needed to get her on the road again. I did yesterday take my wife and son to see the bus. My son now has a real bus to play with in the Summer Holiday and my wife has just been very quiet. Today we attended the Peterborough Bus Rally and seeing all the buses there, each of them an individual restoration project, has made me all the more determined to see our bus on the road, repainted and looking like new. I have set myself a goal of getting the bus ready for next year's rally when I will be entering it. I have longed for the day when I would be able to drive my own bus to a rally and exhibit it and events have always got in the way or made it simply impossible. Perhaps now, it can be a reality.
I have set up a new blog for everything bus-related. Here you can follow my progress in getting the bus fully restored and back on the road. You can find it at http://ourbusproject.blogspot.com

Last week was also significant due to a visit to our group by Charles Cooke of Lincolnshire CDA, and fellow Shine Ambassador. Charles was interested in finding out all he could about the group and we discussed a variety of different topics including funding, a possible gardening project and potential sponsors for our bus project. We were grateful to Charles for his time.

A committee meeting for the Ivo Centre, where we hold our group meetings, was held Wednesday evening and this was an excellent opportunity to network and to discuss a broad range of issues with other committee members. There are some exciting plans for the building, which if they materialise, could turn the place from a 'day centre' to a training and resource centre.
It was also very nice to be thanked by the Chairman and other committee members for the AV system we have installed for the use of everyone. I felt really proud for having set out to achieve something, achieving it and for being able to give something back.

It was certainly a week I won't forget...

It'll Never Catch on

How extraordinary it is to think that one person invented the computer mouse. Something that is so commonplace in work, schools and homes and something we take so much for granted. Yet the computer mouse hasn't been around for that long. I remember with fondness joining Churchill Insurance in 1989 and working my way into the IT department. There were certainly computers then and Churchill pioneered the use of IT back then which drives much of UK industry today. The computers back then were all text based, running UNIX and what we now refer to as 'green screen' terminals.
I recall one particular day when we were all asked to attend an IT department meeting. We were told that some people from a company called 'Microsoft' were visiting to showcase a new computer system they were calling 'Windows'. I think we saw it as yet another company trying to jump on the Churchill bandwagon, given that Churchill was at that time the UK's fastest growing company.

I remember a projector and a computer set up in a meeting room and the now familiar Windows desktop. On the desk was a standard looking keyboard and another device attached to the computer by a long thin cable. We were shown by the very excited representatives of Microsoft how the pointer on the screen responded to movements of the device on the desk. They called it a 'mouse' and it became clear why given its appearance. They demonstrated how programs were executed by double clicking an icon on the desktop and how it was possible to grab an item and move it to a desired location. Dropping an item in the recycle bin caused the computer to make a paper scrunching sound. The people demonstrating the system were clearly very excited by it, but were we? Well the answer is no. In fact our head of IT at the time stated to his assembled team that 'it'll never catch on'. We all agreed and so things remained the same for a couple more months.

Then slowly, things began to change. Managers began to have their computers replaced. One by one, computers running the Windows 3.1 operating system by Microsoft began appearing all over the company. Someone had clearly been impressed by what they had seen, though it is more likely that our biggest rival Direct Line, just down the road in Croydon, had begun installing them. The preference throughout my time there was to wait for Direct Line to do something, give it a few months to make sure it didn't flop, then do it ourselves, only ten times better.
Excel seemed to be the favorite application at the time though it didn't take long before staff had found Solitaire. The star field screensaver was also popular as was the Marquee screensaver which allowed staff to type their own message to scroll across the screen whenever they left their desks, messages such as 'Mel's Computer', 'Back in 5 minutes' and 'Don't even think about it'. For those witnessing the coming of Windows, these were exciting times.
So I find myself giving thanks to Doug Englebart. For his invention changed forever the way we interact with computers. If Windows hadn't been invented by Microsoft, maybe we would never have known about the mouse, for it was really Windows that exploited its full potential and made it an essential aid to using Windows 3.1 way back then. Long may we continue to point and click.

Poorly Polly

This is my dog Polly and today she had an operation to remove a lump that had formed down below. She's still pretty sedated and has refused to eat anything since returning home. She has a small drain tube which you can just see but it isn't bothering her at the moment.
I didn't think I'd get that emotional, but saying goodbye to her as we left her with the vet was possibly one of the most painful things I have done and boy did I cry, as did my wife. I've been clock watching all day willing it to get to 3pm when we could call to find out how she was. I'm just so glad to have her home fit and well, if still a little groggy...

A Disjointed Trust

I'm a huge supporter of the NHS but I am reminded from time to time of just how disjointed the organisation really is. Working for the Trust here in Lincolnshire as a volunteer practically full time unpaid does have a tiny benefit of being able to claim expenses for travel. This doesn't amount to very much - roughly £100-150 a month. The procedure for claiming is quite straightforward and I have further refined the process by choosing to email my expenses reports. When it comes to paying however, they operate to their own timetable so reimbursement is something that cannot be relied on.
An event earlier in the month showcasing the work of the various projects fortunate enough to have been awarded funding from the Mental Illness Prevention Fund, incurred the expense of driving from here to Sutton Bridge to collect a colleague and on to Sleaford where the event was being held. We were told that instead of claiming our expenses in the usual way, we should claim from a separate fund set up to reimburse everyone who took the time and effort to attend the event.
We were all sent an expenses claim form, somewhat different in appearance to the one I am used to. I duly completed the form and posted it off to Trust HQ as requested incurring the 60p first class fee. A couple of days passed and I was called today querying the fact that the mileage total worked out by their people was different to the total I was claiming for. Also, the fact that I had carried a passenger for 70% of the journey had no bearing on the total whereas I had claimed for 20p per mile rather than the 40p per mile standard rate. This is normal for my volunteering role and something I've never had a problem with. I was told that there is no provision for reimbursing passenger mileage. I explained that as a volunteer for the Trust, this is standard policy and that they should perhaps talk to volunteer services who clearly have their own set of rules and procedures.
It strikes me as ridiculous that within one trust there is more than one method for reimbursing personal expense. I don't however find it surprising but it does lead me to question why I bother sometimes. If only they knew of the amount of time, effort and personal expense that goes into running a group like ours, they wouldn't quibble over a couple of miles or the fact that I went out of my way to drive a passenger to THEIR event.
The NHS as a whole, despite the newspaper headlines, can do a pretty good job. Where it falls down is on things where any level of organisation is required. It is so fragmented that even departments within one trust have their own procedures and ways of doing things. This applies even to finance departments as I have found where you can be paid for doing something by one department and refused by another. Pull yourselves together or these volunteers will go somewhere else.

Cake

Another of my Mum's creations...yes that is cream. I don't think she's remembered I'm Diabetic.

Working Full Time

I've been incredibly busy these three weeks with Blue Skies, the anxiety and depression support group I help run. In fact it's been almost like a full time job, the difference being I don't get paid a penny for my efforts. The role of Secretary has meant that I'm dealing with just about everything including publicity and keeping the website and Facebook page up to date. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind it. I like being busy and having things to keep my mind occupied.

I was in Sleaford on Wednesday this week at an NHS managed Care Network event showcasing groups who have successfully bid for money from the Mental Illness Prevention Fund. The event was very well attended and perhaps a little on the small size for the number of groups present. We didn't have a stand - our opportunity will come at the next event as we are a wave 2 group. I was able to leave some leaflets scattered about the place and some of the new business cards I've had printed. Many of the usual faces were there, such as our friends from SHINE and NHS Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust. There were also representatives of the many groups, similar to ours, dotted around the county, groups such as 'Beyond the Blues' at Sleaford and 'New Life Craft & Social Club' in Spilsby. These fine groups are all doing their bit, helping people with mental illness, providing support and friendship and providing opportunity to acquire new skills and hobbies.
To bring all these groups together and to provide a single voice for mental health in Lincolnshire, we have the SHINE network of which we (Blue Skies) are proud to be ambassadors promoting their good work from our Spalding site. Never before has the focus on and attention given to mental health in Lincolnshire been greater. I get a real sense that people are talking about it more and in so doing, more people are beginning to come forward to seek help and support.

We have already seen an increase in our membership and we are beginning to see more referrals from within our local NHS. This is all great and we are anxious for it to continue.
The money given to Blue Skies and other similar groups is testament to how much the NHS and local authorities value the work we are doing. We are in our small way preventing those in our membership from falling ill and and needing the services of health care professionals.

This last week has been devoted to getting our new website online. We now own the domain blueskieslincs.org.uk - this was the cheapest of the variations on Blue Skies that were on offer. The domain enables us to have a website and to have an unlimited number of mailboxes for our committee and group members. I now have the bare bones published and I am hoping to add more content in the coming weeks. As a group, we are planning to make our own cards and other craft items to sell through our eBay shop and via our website. Much of it will be made to order and I will be developing the means for people to buy online.

We've been told that we need to spend all of the money we receive and I'm pleased to say that as far as the first payment is concerned, we have done just that. £2,500 sounds like a lot of money, but in less than two months, we have managed to spend the lot.  We do have a lot to show for it - a huge amount of arts and crafts material and a projector, screen and sound system enabling us to run our own training sessions, watch films or play Wii games. This installation wopuld alone have cost around £2,000 to complete though through the good will and generosity of a number of people, this has been done for free. All of this is aimed at reducing mental illness and encouraging our members to take an interest in an activity and stay well.

We're not alone in what we are doing. There are groups such as ours all over Lincolnshire. Occasionally, we come together at various NHS run events and it's an opportunity for us to find out what the others are doing and to showcase our project. Success can be judged by the people we are helping, their eagerness to come to each session and their individual testament to how they have benefited from what we are doing. It is this information that will help to build a quarterly report showing how the funding has been used to benefit people who suffer with mental illness. I'm expecting to produce our first report in July and I am looking forward to the opportunity to document our own success stories.

There's only problem with this funding and I have to reflect the good as well as the bad- it's the fact that the money has to be spent on the proposed projects and only the proposed projects. Although the projects are there to prevent mental illness, should any of our members fall ill and are at risk through lack of personal funds, we cannot help them by giving them the money for a meal or to pay a bill. It would seem to me that there are limitations when it comes to preventing mental illness and I have been witness to a case recently whereby we could easily have helped someone from reaching crisis point (an NHS term) and being admitted to Boston's Pilgrim Hospital. We had the money, but we couldn't help. Nothing is ever all that it seems sadly and it is a shame that we cannot help those that this whole thing is designed to do.