Dale Farm

Today will be remembered for the shambolic eviction of travellers from the Dale Farm site in Essex. I use the word 'shambolic' as I believe this to be an apt word to describe Basildon Council's handling of this whole matter.
Now I'm on the fence as it were when it comes to whether it is right or wrong to evict them. It is clear that they are flouting the law and as such action should be taken. But I do think the council have made a complete hash of the whole thing and that 10 years is simply a ridiculous amount of time to elapse before anything is done.
I find myself blaming both sides. On the one hand, there is the 'true' traveller way of life and culture which is certainly persecuted not just in the UK but all over Europe. There are members of this community who have scant regard for others or the law and this minority give the traveller community a bad name. The council are 'saving face'. It's all about image. I find the £22 million cost of the exercise obscene and it will be up to the electorate at the next local election to decide whether it has been money well spent. The council should have acted sooner and a solution should have come about many years ago. They have been incompetent, inept and frankly stupid in their handling of this matter and heads should roll.
Enough said.

Saving My Tomatoes & Providing Support

I decided to remove the remaining tomatoes from my outdoor plant. Apparently the temperature is set to drop to just above freezing by the end of the week and it's unlikely they will survive in the open. I managed to collect a punnet's worth, so not bad at all.

While I was picking, I was joined by a large Red Admiral butterfly. It looked stunningly beautiful and was a welcome late visitor to the garden and a sign that we're not yet fully in the grip of winter. It lingered long enough for me to take a snap as it sat in the sunshine.

I have mentioned in previous posts my fondness for a You Tube channel, 'Glen1040'. I really enjoyed his videos and I was fascinated by his efforts at self-sufficiency. I notice that his channel has now been closed and I have been unable to discover where he has gone. It's really quite sad and I worry whether something has befallen him.
My watermelons are now the size of small lemons and growing fast. I've had to provide some support for them and being quite high on the plant, I have decided to use tights as suggested previously. For one, I've created a hammock of sorts and for the other, I've supported in from the roof of the conservatory. All very Heath Robinson but it seems to be doing the job.

There will be a degree of despondency from me over the coming weeks as things begin to get difficult. We are lucky to have an insurance policy which protects our mortgage payments, but this claim period will end in February next year. By that time, I need to have found suitable employment and be able to cover the payments. If this doesn't happen then, frankly, the worst will happen. I must admit to trying not to think about it too much. Depression is one of those things that can be triggered very easily and I really don't want to suffer another bout. But as the weeks pass, I (we) will need to start thinking seriously about what we're going to do. I've always said that I never want to return to an IT career, but it is what I know and as I am still unable to complete and achieve my full PCV license due to lack of funds, it may be my only option.
That is the stark reality at the moment...

Dark Mornings, Dark Evenings

Winter is well and truly on its way. The mornings are darker and the sun disappears beneath the horizon earlier by the day. There's a chill in the air. I wore my winter coat today. It made me look huge, well bigger than I already am.
It won't be long before we begin buying wood for the fire. We need to have the chimney swept first. We use a local chap, Peter Warrick who is well known in the area. He kindly attended our wedding with his son, dressed in classic Victorian chimney sweeps' attire. They looked great. I'll never forget them.

My son sang a song this evening. As he sang, it felt familiar to me and I realised it was a song I used to sing at primary school many years ago. I remembered the chorus and sang with him 'So we musn't forget, no we mustn't forget to say a great big thank you, we mustn't forget'. How marvellous that my son was able to jog my memory this way.

It was Mum's Birthday today. She is 69. We visited this afternoon after we'd collected our son from school. She had prepared a small buffet which was nice and the lounge was warm and cosy. The log burner was lit and glowed in the hearth. Mum never makes a fuss of her Birthdays but she always makes sure everyone is looked after and has plenty to eat and drink. My Nan was very much like that, always giving. We stayed for a couple of hours.

We have some new curtains. I know this isn't front page news, but it's significant as the previous set had been up for 9 years. It's strange how you get used to things and never give them a second thought. But when they are gone, you really notice it. The new curtains are very nice. My wife has impecable taste when it somes to home furnishings. They match the furniture perfectly and I actually find myself admiring them.

In the news today there is criticism of the government who have met today with energy industry leaders to discuss ways of helping consumers in the current economic climate who are struggling to afford crippling bills. Apparently they have managed to achieve absolutely nothing except to remind us (as if we're idiots) to make sure we compare prices and switch suppliers(!) Are these people really in charge of the country?
I fear for us all...

Happy Birthday Mum, love from us all xxx

Living in Poverty

Apparently we are living in poverty. Our income is below that needed to support a family. So why aren't we starvng, dressed in rags and shivering in makedo carboard shelters? Have the government got it wrong? We live quite a comfortable life. We don't go hungry, we're well dressed and our home is warm and comfortable. OK, we don't have heaps of spare cash to spend on things we would like rather than need. We do hunt out the best bargains at the shops and settle for second best at the supermarket. So what is poverty? I often think of images from Victorian Britain when the word is mentioned. Children in rags playing on cobbled streets. Parents heading to and from smokey factories. Perhaps it's because those using the word 'poverty' have the life of a millionaire so anything less than a huge house and country estate, five cars and eating out every night is considered a pauper's lifestyle. Something has to be wrong. We need to re-evaluate just what it means to have and to have not. Not having a car doesn't make someone destitute. Not eating the finest of food doesn't make someone needy. People manage. We all have to manage by making the pound in our pocket go further. By making things last longer. To live in poverty must surely mean having very little or nothing. Let's think again before using this word...

The CAB

It's comforting to know that when life throws up problems, there are people out there to help. I'm referring of course to the Citizen's Advice Bureau. I am in a good position to praise them - I've called upon their help, more than once in fact and I was there earlier today with my wife. We needed help with a debt plan. Of course, it isn't a completely stress free experience. You have to lay yourself bare and be honest about everything. Your income and outgoings are scrutinised so there can be no hiding anything. But it's all worth it. They are helpful, they listen, they are sympathetic and they do not judge. They see thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty, many worse than us. We were told this, of a client who has a mortage three times the size of ours. Ours is £111,000... Of course it's not over, it won't be for a long time. We have a lot to pay back but we have to justify what we can afford to pay our creditors and that's the purpose of the CAB in helping to draft a new financial statement.
So, to anyone out there needing help, I say turn to your local CAB. You're not alone and they really help.

Baby Melons

Not done much today. I helped my wife prepare the paperwork we need for our meeting at Spalding CAB. I hope the advisor we're seeing is nice. They can sometimes be rather scary.
I'm really please to see that my self-pollination appears to have worked and is bearing fruit, literally. I have four developing embryo melons.

 I will need to research how one goes about supporting the melons as they continue to grow. My wife suggested using tights which would contain the fruit and could be fastened to provide support. I laughed at first but having given it some thought, it does sound a rather good idea.

Peterborough was my destination yesterday. I travelled there with my close friends and we visited Trains 4 U. We had a couple of locos to collect and I wanted to look for something I could use as a bridge to carry the new line I'm constructing. It had been at least three months since our last visit and it was nice to get out for a few hours.

It's Sunday evening and it's already dark at just beofre 7pm. Winter is certainly on its way and it won't be long until it's dark at 5pm... I must confess to enjoying the dark evenings. For someone like me, dark evenings could be a problem but they don't really affect me. It's actually been rather mild today but depressingly grey and cloudy. The Daily Express has been headlining dire warnings about freezing weather and snow to come in a few weeks. Local councils have been stockpiling grit and salt and spreaders are being prepared to hit the roads at the first sign of frost. I'll actually be pretty arsed if the weather doesn't turn out the way it's been predicted. I love snow and I don't mind the cold provided we have enough fuel for the fire.

Brushing-up my French

I have been brushing up my French over the last few days. It's actually a language I like very much and studied it at school many years ago. I do with I paid more attention though. It was one of the few subjects I really enjoyed and to this day, I have retained a few words and phrases. The course I am learning with is from Michel Thomas. It is different to other courses as you are actually the third student - there are two others on the CD and they are learning also, making mistakes so you don't feel you're the only one failing. The system actually works and very well. I have already learnt quite a lot and more importantly, I've retained what I've learnt. One day, I'd really like to visit France again (last time was in 1989) and spend some proper time there. I have suggetsed to my wife that we move there when we retire...

I've heard absolutely nothing from Stagecoach despite two letters, one of them to their head office. I'm convinced now that they don't care and my respect for them has all but disappeared.
I haven't completely given up on my wish to have a PCV career but I am being forced to look for IT-related jobs. I was turned down for the job at the local schoool though I notice they haven't found anyone as their vacancy has been extended. I did though find a vacancy at a components company at Wisbech. I had no idea they existed but a little research threw up the fact that they are one of the UK's largest component suppliers. Quite how I hadn't heard of them I don't know. It just goes to show what's on your doorstep sometimes.
So I've applied for the position of IT Technician looking after the computers and network at their offices. I hope to hear something in the enxt few days. Even if it's a polite 'no thank you' then I still have what's needed for my mortgage insurers to pay out.

I've been able to harvest a few tomatoes which I'm quite pleased about. They taste wonderful - sweet and juicy. There are many more still attached waiting to ripen and I hope that they weather allows for them to turn red before the frosts set in. We are forecast cold temperatures, ice and snow in the coming weeks.

I have been self-pollinating my watermelon plant. The female flowers have a round ovary just beneath the flower and I have been pollinating them by removing the male flowers and bringing the stamen into contact with them. If successful then the ovaries should begin to elongate after a week or so and develop into a water melon. Again I'm hoping the weather doesn't turn too cold as this may affect their growth.





My parents are decorating at the moment. They're currently working on the kitchen and have chosen a greeny-blue colour which frankly I think resembles that of a public convenience. But hey ho I don't have to live there. I visited this morning and was relocated to the front dining room, comfortable and with nice views.
They have a friend coming to visit on the 20th from London, a good friend of the family hence the panic to get everything redecorated in time. I know my father would rather be tinkering in his garden. At 72, he's really too old to be painting ceilings and walls. Well that's my view.
While I sat there with my breakfast, I recorded these images for posterity and it made me realise how we take for granted our location and what's around us.

It struck me that I hadn't really noticed how eleborate the fireplace is...

The view as I sat eating my breakfast and the garden still full of colour...

The view from the front looking out on an almost unspoilt view across the fields toward the Wash...

Besides my French language course, I've been listening to a range of different music types. Music for me is very much like sunshine and has similar effects. It is food for the mind and soul and can alter the way I feel or the way I think. So, I've been feeding my ears with the likes of Rick Wakeman's Myths and Legends of King Arthur how I ever missed this I don't know), Eurovision winning ditties, Gheorghe Zamfir, music from the Soong Sisters and anything else that pushes the right button. I've also added to my already immense MP3 audio book collection - lots of new mysteries and ghost stories, perfect as we approach Hallowe'en.
 Which reminds me, I must ask my father to provide a pumpkin for my little man. I've convinced him we need one so we can scarte away the witches...