Lovely phone call today.
One of the kids sw phoning, all embarased.
She had heard about our complaint and she could find no one to tell her the outcome.
Now, in reality he should have been told but no he hadn't been.
So in desperation she phoned us.
Mind you we could tell her nothing officially, because we still don't know.
Of course on another matter we raised something else a safety matter for another child.
It only took 9 months to get a meeting organized at which a plan a formulated but not of course written up.
Turns out the plan was not implemented something happened and a child was placed at risk.
I am neither shocked nor surprised.
I could call child protection I suppose....
R
R
Thursday, 30 April 2009
sniffle sniffle what a swine......
Now I am no conspiracy theorist but.....
It seems to me very convienient that when the world is in financial meltdown banks are in deep do do (all of their own making), politicians are pretty clueless as to what to do about it.
Things generally look bad
and along comes a flu, now I am not denying it could be serious.
But it's sure as hell convienient.
The financial institutions have made a pig's ear of the world economy and along comes swine flu to fill the newspapers with stories about something else.
R
It seems to me very convienient that when the world is in financial meltdown banks are in deep do do (all of their own making), politicians are pretty clueless as to what to do about it.
Things generally look bad
and along comes a flu, now I am not denying it could be serious.
But it's sure as hell convienient.
The financial institutions have made a pig's ear of the world economy and along comes swine flu to fill the newspapers with stories about something else.
R
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
management in the media....
Now with things semi showing signs of returning to normal I have today gotten don to work. Sweating blood over a deadlined document that I should have been able to take my time writing last week.
This endevour has been made none the easier by a dying laptop keyboard which I have to watch like a hawk as it insists on recording eek every time I want to say week.
OR by da man the crazed three legged cat who likes beef and has several times had to be recovered from the field next door here he has been trying to take down cows by hanging on their tails.
Management of course has gone off to play in the trees, they have the telly in this week, something about it being national pole eek or some such thing and countryfile are doing a piece about it.
Naturally the telly has not phased her, she was her normal self, except for taking a bath and washing her hair before he left wearing her cleanest dungarees and was that a dab of make up I detected...
Coming soon to a telly near you - the management.
Be afraid - be very afraid....
R
This endevour has been made none the easier by a dying laptop keyboard which I have to watch like a hawk as it insists on recording eek every time I want to say week.
OR by da man the crazed three legged cat who likes beef and has several times had to be recovered from the field next door here he has been trying to take down cows by hanging on their tails.
Management of course has gone off to play in the trees, they have the telly in this week, something about it being national pole eek or some such thing and countryfile are doing a piece about it.
Naturally the telly has not phased her, she was her normal self, except for taking a bath and washing her hair before he left wearing her cleanest dungarees and was that a dab of make up I detected...
Coming soon to a telly near you - the management.
Be afraid - be very afraid....
R
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
still waiting
As a foster carer under investigation you learn to work within the system.
Now you might be more versed in normal life, where people might be accused of thing and then they are either charged or told they are in the clear.
Child protection, or career protection as many of us call it does not work like that.
The investigation gets done and you are cleared. No way you did what you are accused of.
Not guilty that's what they say in law.
In social care it's not that.
It's a letter that says; we didn't nail you. But we are still watching you.
Honestly, those are not the exact words but they mean that.
The letter is not here yet so we cannot take it forwards.
Today though was an OK day.
Lots done,
Me off interviewing.
Complete contrast to our link worker, treated like an equal. Or at least as someone with a brain.
Management off with no one son at an interview.
All got there in the end though.
It's a funny bit of life though.
The twins, my little children, finish school in a few weeks.
I am old - or at least getting there.
R
Now you might be more versed in normal life, where people might be accused of thing and then they are either charged or told they are in the clear.
Child protection, or career protection as many of us call it does not work like that.
The investigation gets done and you are cleared. No way you did what you are accused of.
Not guilty that's what they say in law.
In social care it's not that.
It's a letter that says; we didn't nail you. But we are still watching you.
Honestly, those are not the exact words but they mean that.
The letter is not here yet so we cannot take it forwards.
Today though was an OK day.
Lots done,
Me off interviewing.
Complete contrast to our link worker, treated like an equal. Or at least as someone with a brain.
Management off with no one son at an interview.
All got there in the end though.
It's a funny bit of life though.
The twins, my little children, finish school in a few weeks.
I am old - or at least getting there.
R
Monday, 27 April 2009
Thank goodness for a quiet day.
There was not a lot to do today.
both of us are feeling a bit down and a bit fraught - so of course a chill day planned and missed....
Shopping is us and off we went.
On the way home we came across this car in the middle of the road - just sat there.
Odd I thought, stopped and had a look, the driver was totally confused and disorientated.
It turned out he had been sat there for an hour with people driving past.
Excuse me? Could this really be a civilised country.
Of course we 999'd it and it seems that the guy might have had a diabetic moment or maybe a stroke.
Then with a quiet night in store the parent evening forgotten about came forth.
All this and there is still this child protection thing to sort out.
Rhys
both of us are feeling a bit down and a bit fraught - so of course a chill day planned and missed....
Shopping is us and off we went.
On the way home we came across this car in the middle of the road - just sat there.
Odd I thought, stopped and had a look, the driver was totally confused and disorientated.
It turned out he had been sat there for an hour with people driving past.
Excuse me? Could this really be a civilised country.
Of course we 999'd it and it seems that the guy might have had a diabetic moment or maybe a stroke.
Then with a quiet night in store the parent evening forgotten about came forth.
All this and there is still this child protection thing to sort out.
Rhys
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Gardens of my mind....
To save the sanity today off we went to do something completely different.
Tallie and i dug another bed and today we planted;
5 raspberry plants a loganberry plant a blackcurrant plant and 8 strawberry plants.
Something called earthing up happened with the potatoes too.
I am not at all sure what any of this means but I think it is progress.
I know it involved a fair amount of picking, a deal of shoveling and the barrow got used a lot too.
Tallie and i dug another bed and today we planted;
5 raspberry plants a loganberry plant a blackcurrant plant and 8 strawberry plants.
Something called earthing up happened with the potatoes too.
I am not at all sure what any of this means but I think it is progress.
I know it involved a fair amount of picking, a deal of shoveling and the barrow got used a lot too.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
feminine guile
So anyway off we set for the horse fair this weekend arriving jut after it had been washed out.
Trudging back to the car and of course just having raided the bank so we could go out tonight, she thought it might be a good idea to call in at the garden centre on the way home.
Thats another 30 pounds on plants - more fruit bushes, more trees, more holes to dig.
Groan...
Trudging back to the car and of course just having raided the bank so we could go out tonight, she thought it might be a good idea to call in at the garden centre on the way home.
Thats another 30 pounds on plants - more fruit bushes, more trees, more holes to dig.
Groan...
Friday, 24 April 2009
Child protection investigation - how not to do it.....
The first thing to say is that none of the following should be taken as strictly factual.
The realization that they were dealing with someone who had spent hours reading the procedure, printed it off, taken copious notes and had some notion of how things should be done was not one greeted with enthusiasm.
It may well be that the facts as originally relayed to us are even as I write being rewritten to protect the guilty and incompetent oh sorry I mean the innocent and capable.
I am still waiting for a proper time line, so cannot really say when the inspectorate opened their mail and first read the form. Either way it was Monday morning when the inspectors for reasons yet determined seem to have referred not to the correct child protection team, rather they chose the intake and assessment team of daycastle.
Despite this being all wrong the intake and assessment team seem to have taken it in and started an investigation.
There were problems finding managers, both in I&A and the district. The district social worker is very good; young, keen and from Europe so has not been trained in CPP. There is a tradition in Daycatle of not doing anything till a manager Ok's it, so for now nothing definitive seems to have been done.
Fostering seem to have become involved quite early on. Deciding to share with us on Tuesday lunchtime that there was an investigation arising from the review but declining to tell us anything. Maximum stress minimum information.
One of the things I did was to point out that the investigation was the local authority here's to lead and not theirs.
Sometime about then someone decided to tell the local CP team who decided they needed to investigate. Now refer to the timescales in my previous post then please note they picked up the case on Tuesday in the afternoon.
Having been told that something was being investigated we tried to work out for ourselves what something was. Since the word review had been mentioned we could rule out several possibilities. It could have been something from the recent statutory review but that was unlikely as management had been there through all of them and the reviewing officer had spoken to neither child alone. That of course is one of the roles of a reviewing officer but hey, this is Daycastle, not best practice...
Anyway, it did not take an Einstein to work out that something odd must have been written on the consultation form.
The man in question was suprised that anyone thought he had complained After a bit he remembered he had written something a bit jokey, but no one could possibly believe that could they? The answer of course was yes.
Wednesday was a day of all sorts happening. Seemed the process had acquired a bit of momentum from somewhere and a meeting was scheduled for the following day. One of the children's sw had dropped everything and come to make sure his child as OK. As of course a good social worker would. It meant when asked if he thought we ran a torture camp he could answer from a level of knowledge. They call that best practice....
Fostering, full of information came on the phone in the afternoon, they were coming down on Thursday for a meeting and would call in in the afternoon. Meeting? Yes, a meeting, yes, did we need to know about it - no.
The meeting of course, if they were following procedure would be a strategy meeting and unless completely stupid we would work that out - but of course we must be stupid....
Thursday morning the social workers came out and interviewed young man, decided not to interview us (saved me a couple of pounds on a solicitor)then went on to a strategy meeting which of course ended it all.
No actually it didn't, the fostering worker came to see us in the afternoon.
An allegation is a pretty stressful time and this one had been difficult.
They say the brain sometimes wipes the worst experiences and I think mine has wiped a fair bit of what followed.
Our worker was very pleased that everything had been finished so quickly. Everyone had done really well, her in particular and we were to be really pleased and grateful she was here to talk at us and tell us.
The service had been fantastic and done everything it should.
She carefully avoided telling us the exact nature of what we were accused - so from her position, officially, we still don't know.
Glaring failures to follow the all wales cpp and stick within it's
timescales were just minor points.
Published procedures are just for guidance; there to guide the professionals in what they do, if at all possible, best practice is for a world which is ideal.
The whole affair had arisen through our own doing and there were lessons
for us to learn.
Things we had done were glaring breaches of procedure, bad practice and
quite unforgivable.
Because procedure was something set in stone by social workers, to be followed to the letter and only the very best practice would do.
This was pick and mix social work, chose which bits to do properly. Usually the bits that others have to do.
Having a warm joking relationship with a foster child, was a problem.
My decision to discuss what was on this cursed form with the young man should really have been discussed with her.
Hmmmm did she discuss their decision not to follow the CPP with me first I almost asked...
Again, we were really lucky to have such a competent and diligent support worker, we only had to ask her and she would tell us...
I am not sure where it really started to go downhill but that way it went.
It was genuinely dreadful.
Our link worker did not take too well to having cards put on the table
and being told it like it is.
we did not enjoy being talked at.
Our worker had done a fantastic job and it was not her job either, getting the whole thing done and dusted so quickly.
It was simply an irrelevance that from referral to the local cp team to resolution had been bang inside the deadlines set in procedure.
Things like this often dragged on for months she said, not around me they didn't I ventured.
I think this was where I realized the true discourse.
This was about social workers as holders of power and arbitrators of what as important.
There was a sub context where their prejudgment of a situation allowed for a triage. If a situation as deemed grave it became urgent, if not it could occupy a back burner for months.
As foster carers we are supposed to be subjects of their work, partners but only in so far a they decide we can be.
The notion that we could look at how they work and decide whether it was good enough, exercise judgment in our own right, was odious.
The fact that I could and would have made everyone act to a lawful procedure without her was an unspeakable affront.
Thank goodness I work with decent social workers too...
R
The realization that they were dealing with someone who had spent hours reading the procedure, printed it off, taken copious notes and had some notion of how things should be done was not one greeted with enthusiasm.
It may well be that the facts as originally relayed to us are even as I write being rewritten to protect the guilty and incompetent oh sorry I mean the innocent and capable.
I am still waiting for a proper time line, so cannot really say when the inspectorate opened their mail and first read the form. Either way it was Monday morning when the inspectors for reasons yet determined seem to have referred not to the correct child protection team, rather they chose the intake and assessment team of daycastle.
Despite this being all wrong the intake and assessment team seem to have taken it in and started an investigation.
There were problems finding managers, both in I&A and the district. The district social worker is very good; young, keen and from Europe so has not been trained in CPP. There is a tradition in Daycatle of not doing anything till a manager Ok's it, so for now nothing definitive seems to have been done.
Fostering seem to have become involved quite early on. Deciding to share with us on Tuesday lunchtime that there was an investigation arising from the review but declining to tell us anything. Maximum stress minimum information.
One of the things I did was to point out that the investigation was the local authority here's to lead and not theirs.
Sometime about then someone decided to tell the local CP team who decided they needed to investigate. Now refer to the timescales in my previous post then please note they picked up the case on Tuesday in the afternoon.
Having been told that something was being investigated we tried to work out for ourselves what something was. Since the word review had been mentioned we could rule out several possibilities. It could have been something from the recent statutory review but that was unlikely as management had been there through all of them and the reviewing officer had spoken to neither child alone. That of course is one of the roles of a reviewing officer but hey, this is Daycastle, not best practice...
Anyway, it did not take an Einstein to work out that something odd must have been written on the consultation form.
The man in question was suprised that anyone thought he had complained After a bit he remembered he had written something a bit jokey, but no one could possibly believe that could they? The answer of course was yes.
Wednesday was a day of all sorts happening. Seemed the process had acquired a bit of momentum from somewhere and a meeting was scheduled for the following day. One of the children's sw had dropped everything and come to make sure his child as OK. As of course a good social worker would. It meant when asked if he thought we ran a torture camp he could answer from a level of knowledge. They call that best practice....
Fostering, full of information came on the phone in the afternoon, they were coming down on Thursday for a meeting and would call in in the afternoon. Meeting? Yes, a meeting, yes, did we need to know about it - no.
The meeting of course, if they were following procedure would be a strategy meeting and unless completely stupid we would work that out - but of course we must be stupid....
Thursday morning the social workers came out and interviewed young man, decided not to interview us (saved me a couple of pounds on a solicitor)then went on to a strategy meeting which of course ended it all.
No actually it didn't, the fostering worker came to see us in the afternoon.
An allegation is a pretty stressful time and this one had been difficult.
They say the brain sometimes wipes the worst experiences and I think mine has wiped a fair bit of what followed.
Our worker was very pleased that everything had been finished so quickly. Everyone had done really well, her in particular and we were to be really pleased and grateful she was here to talk at us and tell us.
The service had been fantastic and done everything it should.
She carefully avoided telling us the exact nature of what we were accused - so from her position, officially, we still don't know.
Glaring failures to follow the all wales cpp and stick within it's
timescales were just minor points.
Published procedures are just for guidance; there to guide the professionals in what they do, if at all possible, best practice is for a world which is ideal.
The whole affair had arisen through our own doing and there were lessons
for us to learn.
Things we had done were glaring breaches of procedure, bad practice and
quite unforgivable.
Because procedure was something set in stone by social workers, to be followed to the letter and only the very best practice would do.
This was pick and mix social work, chose which bits to do properly. Usually the bits that others have to do.
Having a warm joking relationship with a foster child, was a problem.
My decision to discuss what was on this cursed form with the young man should really have been discussed with her.
Hmmmm did she discuss their decision not to follow the CPP with me first I almost asked...
Again, we were really lucky to have such a competent and diligent support worker, we only had to ask her and she would tell us...
I am not sure where it really started to go downhill but that way it went.
It was genuinely dreadful.
Our link worker did not take too well to having cards put on the table
and being told it like it is.
we did not enjoy being talked at.
Our worker had done a fantastic job and it was not her job either, getting the whole thing done and dusted so quickly.
It was simply an irrelevance that from referral to the local cp team to resolution had been bang inside the deadlines set in procedure.
Things like this often dragged on for months she said, not around me they didn't I ventured.
I think this was where I realized the true discourse.
This was about social workers as holders of power and arbitrators of what as important.
There was a sub context where their prejudgment of a situation allowed for a triage. If a situation as deemed grave it became urgent, if not it could occupy a back burner for months.
As foster carers we are supposed to be subjects of their work, partners but only in so far a they decide we can be.
The notion that we could look at how they work and decide whether it was good enough, exercise judgment in our own right, was odious.
The fact that I could and would have made everyone act to a lawful procedure without her was an unspeakable affront.
Thank goodness I work with decent social workers too...
R
Allegations and other cock ups...
Every so often in social care the inspectors come to town. This means files get pulled, people get spoken to, questions are asked and eventually a weighty tome is published dealing with the magnificence or miserable mess that is the service being inspected.
It was clear that the file of one of the children here had been elected for scrutiny when he got a letter from the inspectors asking how he felt about life. His social worker, young and naive did not make the connection, how suddenly her manager allocated her sufficient time to bring his file bang up to date i's dotted and t's crossed. She thought it was a recognition of what as best practice, not realizing it was a set of buttocks being covered.
The young man concerned as absolutely made up to be asked his views by a very august sounding body and he as very keen to fill in the form. Of course since it a meant to be filled in by children the inspectors had designed a form that as full of long words and social work jargon. Young man recruited Branwen as duty form filling in helper and she helped him understand the questions and draught answers.
I think it is fair to say that this is a house where wit and wind up have been elevated to art form. So at the end of what had turned into a tedious form, he was asked what happens when he breaks the house rules, he thought it might be a laugh to tell the inspectors that he is locked in a cupboard.
Now this is where it gets complex. Information that a child might be at risk has to be investigated and investigated in a certain way. These investigations happen within a frameork, in wales we are lucky enough to have the procedure set out at national level in the All wales Child Protection Procedure.
I am going to assume a level of ignorance here, take you on a little trip through what should happen in a case like this.
On reading what had been written, the person in the inspectorate should have stopped whatever they were doing and taken the document to their manager. They in turn should have decided that this was a matter for investigation and immediately share what they know with the child protection team in the area where the child is living. They should confirm what they say in writing in two working days.
At this stage the child protection team should take the referral and start to work on it within 1 working day and make arrangements to see the child within two.
In this case they should have contacted the child's social worker, the fostering team and the social workers of the other children in placement. At this stage a discussion should take place to determine what to do next and decide what immediate measures need to be taken to keep the children safe.
It should be determined whether the person(s) under investigation come into contact with young people in any other capacity or work and steps taken to ensure that everyone who uses the person is aware of an ongoing investigation.
In this case it would probably have gone no further than a series of phone calls to various social workers, a chat with the child and that would have been it.
Now lets see what really happened.
It was clear that the file of one of the children here had been elected for scrutiny when he got a letter from the inspectors asking how he felt about life. His social worker, young and naive did not make the connection, how suddenly her manager allocated her sufficient time to bring his file bang up to date i's dotted and t's crossed. She thought it was a recognition of what as best practice, not realizing it was a set of buttocks being covered.
The young man concerned as absolutely made up to be asked his views by a very august sounding body and he as very keen to fill in the form. Of course since it a meant to be filled in by children the inspectors had designed a form that as full of long words and social work jargon. Young man recruited Branwen as duty form filling in helper and she helped him understand the questions and draught answers.
I think it is fair to say that this is a house where wit and wind up have been elevated to art form. So at the end of what had turned into a tedious form, he was asked what happens when he breaks the house rules, he thought it might be a laugh to tell the inspectors that he is locked in a cupboard.
Now this is where it gets complex. Information that a child might be at risk has to be investigated and investigated in a certain way. These investigations happen within a frameork, in wales we are lucky enough to have the procedure set out at national level in the All wales Child Protection Procedure.
I am going to assume a level of ignorance here, take you on a little trip through what should happen in a case like this.
On reading what had been written, the person in the inspectorate should have stopped whatever they were doing and taken the document to their manager. They in turn should have decided that this was a matter for investigation and immediately share what they know with the child protection team in the area where the child is living. They should confirm what they say in writing in two working days.
At this stage the child protection team should take the referral and start to work on it within 1 working day and make arrangements to see the child within two.
In this case they should have contacted the child's social worker, the fostering team and the social workers of the other children in placement. At this stage a discussion should take place to determine what to do next and decide what immediate measures need to be taken to keep the children safe.
It should be determined whether the person(s) under investigation come into contact with young people in any other capacity or work and steps taken to ensure that everyone who uses the person is aware of an ongoing investigation.
In this case it would probably have gone no further than a series of phone calls to various social workers, a chat with the child and that would have been it.
Now lets see what really happened.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Just sitting here
There is a time to go and do things, there are times hen all you can do is wait.
The meeting I don't know about is in about an hour.
A social worker here at about 14.00 and another at about 16.00
One is welcome to call the other is not.
But at this time powerless sitting round is all I can do.
Inhumane and degrading treatment is covered in the Human Rights Act.....
R
The meeting I don't know about is in about an hour.
A social worker here at about 14.00 and another at about 16.00
One is welcome to call the other is not.
But at this time powerless sitting round is all I can do.
Inhumane and degrading treatment is covered in the Human Rights Act.....
R
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Allegation.
Yesterday my phone rang, this would be about 1 pm.
I was told there had been a complaint about someone in our family by a looked after child.
Now I was not told what the complaint was or who was complaining.
A child might be saying they were 50 p short in their pocket money or that we were running a child prostitution ring.
Neither is true I hasten to add but basically they are looking into something but we were not to know what.
Those who lead normal lives might be thinking goodness me....
Those in the know will know it is not uncommon.
A foster carer can expect a complaint every 6 years or so. It is usually made against the best skilled carers and most will not be working 3 years later despite around 98% of complaints being groundless or even malicious.
Fortunately none of the children have been removed (that happens too including birth children) but one or some of our household are accused of something but we are not entitled to know what.
They cannot investigate you for pinching cars without you knowing or being allowed a defence but even the trivial with child care is like investigating Al Qaida all smoke mirrors and inference. Admittedly there is no torture or Guantanamo bay but that's not something to say too loud as you might give them ideas...
You might also think that if you have done nothing this is just a minor irritation but I have witnessed time after time cases thrown out by the police pursued beyond the point here it is clear there is no case and on into the end of a career with no recourse or redress.
Three times yesterday management just wanted to throw in the towel, bear in mind this is three children who have called here home for up to half of their lives. How good would that be in terms of meeting their needs, to have run an investigation that ended up not protecting them but leaving them facing an overnight and unplanned move?
Now as it happens I am pretty sure I know what is being investigated and I am pretty confident I can predict the outcome.
I think the casual reader will be alarmed, after all the noise about Climbie and Baby P, the talk of improvements to services to read how well even regulatory bodies follow procedure...
R
I was told there had been a complaint about someone in our family by a looked after child.
Now I was not told what the complaint was or who was complaining.
A child might be saying they were 50 p short in their pocket money or that we were running a child prostitution ring.
Neither is true I hasten to add but basically they are looking into something but we were not to know what.
Those who lead normal lives might be thinking goodness me....
Those in the know will know it is not uncommon.
A foster carer can expect a complaint every 6 years or so. It is usually made against the best skilled carers and most will not be working 3 years later despite around 98% of complaints being groundless or even malicious.
Fortunately none of the children have been removed (that happens too including birth children) but one or some of our household are accused of something but we are not entitled to know what.
They cannot investigate you for pinching cars without you knowing or being allowed a defence but even the trivial with child care is like investigating Al Qaida all smoke mirrors and inference. Admittedly there is no torture or Guantanamo bay but that's not something to say too loud as you might give them ideas...
You might also think that if you have done nothing this is just a minor irritation but I have witnessed time after time cases thrown out by the police pursued beyond the point here it is clear there is no case and on into the end of a career with no recourse or redress.
Three times yesterday management just wanted to throw in the towel, bear in mind this is three children who have called here home for up to half of their lives. How good would that be in terms of meeting their needs, to have run an investigation that ended up not protecting them but leaving them facing an overnight and unplanned move?
Now as it happens I am pretty sure I know what is being investigated and I am pretty confident I can predict the outcome.
I think the casual reader will be alarmed, after all the noise about Climbie and Baby P, the talk of improvements to services to read how well even regulatory bodies follow procedure...
R
Friday, 17 April 2009
Auction in action
Another day another auction.
A frenzy of morning action with tallie off to the optician, Bethan to school, and of course management off to the auction. This all to be achieved in a 1 hour slot, everything as achieved and i set off in pursuit of management. ith a brief detour to the greasy garage to repair the xantia and remind myself hat the 806 looked like.
A day of nodding waving and winking and management had a lot of things added to her pile. i had a few extras myself, lots of tools for not much money.
This didn't miss management; she observed that e seemed to have spent rather more than normal.
The fact that nearly half of everything e spent was one item for her to go and play amongst the trees seemed to have passed her by...
My birthday being tomorrow she had of course scoured the place for something and again she found it. A stopper affair which she claims Will prevent me from spilling wine into my laptop again..
I am sure she meant it nicely.
That as not the days worst though.
i had spotted some very old carpentry tools going for sale. 5 pounds - that's cheap, someone got a bargain - i thought. Then the auctioneer ask for the bidders number, Bethan calmly gave him mine. It is bad enough that her mother is buying things, now Bethan is at it too......
Oh dear.....
A frenzy of morning action with tallie off to the optician, Bethan to school, and of course management off to the auction. This all to be achieved in a 1 hour slot, everything as achieved and i set off in pursuit of management. ith a brief detour to the greasy garage to repair the xantia and remind myself hat the 806 looked like.
A day of nodding waving and winking and management had a lot of things added to her pile. i had a few extras myself, lots of tools for not much money.
This didn't miss management; she observed that e seemed to have spent rather more than normal.
The fact that nearly half of everything e spent was one item for her to go and play amongst the trees seemed to have passed her by...
My birthday being tomorrow she had of course scoured the place for something and again she found it. A stopper affair which she claims Will prevent me from spilling wine into my laptop again..
I am sure she meant it nicely.
That as not the days worst though.
i had spotted some very old carpentry tools going for sale. 5 pounds - that's cheap, someone got a bargain - i thought. Then the auctioneer ask for the bidders number, Bethan calmly gave him mine. It is bad enough that her mother is buying things, now Bethan is at it too......
Oh dear.....
Thursday, 16 April 2009
digging for victory.
No one son i nothing if not a grafter...
Soo this morning have tried desperately to get the digger running and failed e started digging.
Me Tallie and Bethan
It comes to something, fifty coff coff tomorrow and they said slow dovn dad.
I try to be a good a father so it qas all i could do......
Soo this morning have tried desperately to get the digger running and failed e started digging.
Me Tallie and Bethan
It comes to something, fifty coff coff tomorrow and they said slow dovn dad.
I try to be a good a father so it qas all i could do......
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
pleaure in store.
literally no time to blog these last fevv days.
Should have been in Brittany but instead here vvorking steadily into the spares pile ready to take things to market.
huge amounts of stuff moved.
then today a break - yes she decided vve vvere back on the garden.
Desperate attempt failed to get the digger running so e settled to dig a 30 foot long 3 foot vvide foot deep trench by hand.
made a good start on it too!
My muscles are assuring me that vve did.
Thankfully it rained this afternoon.
hope it rains tomorrow too.
R
Should have been in Brittany but instead here vvorking steadily into the spares pile ready to take things to market.
huge amounts of stuff moved.
then today a break - yes she decided vve vvere back on the garden.
Desperate attempt failed to get the digger running so e settled to dig a 30 foot long 3 foot vvide foot deep trench by hand.
made a good start on it too!
My muscles are assuring me that vve did.
Thankfully it rained this afternoon.
hope it rains tomorrow too.
R
Monday, 13 April 2009
Friday, 10 April 2009
Bank holiday blast
Bank Holiday weekends are not good times to be out on the motorway system.
With the credit crunched everyone who would be off abroad seems to be staying home and a fair number of them seemed to be charging down the M4 towards West Wales.
Naturally management decided this might be a good day to go and see her mum and I was volunteered as duty driver.
Now, motorways are normally a pleasant environment in which to drive. A mass of people driving large trucks and cars who are used to being there and just get on with the job in hand.
Then it becomes a bank holiday weekend. Suddenly all these people who drive a whole ten miles a day decided they need to be somewheres on the other side of the country involving hundreds of miles of driving on motorways they rarely normally use.
Of course hundreds of miles of motorway driving would wear them out so to deter slumber they pack the car with their partners (who will definitely have a "view" on their driving) and children who will begin to brawl about 5 miles from home and keep up a continuous war all the way t their destination. That is of course if they are not being amused by iphones or nintendos which will almost certainly lead to a serious "my turn"ing war.
Sitting in this mobile combat zone will mean that the hapless driver will be oblivious to all around him and the fact that you are driving something humungous festooned with flashing lights will be no guarantee of being seen.
Put yourself in a car and you might as well be wearing your cloak of invisibility.
So management and I made our way fairly easily up the M4 then far more cautiously back home.
We have a series of bank holiday diversions meaning we missed the biggest of the cues and got home in not too impossible a time.
The object of our visit, Managements mum seems to be back on fine form and remarkably well for someone well into their 90's.
But of course this was us and the car decided to replace Citroens famous hydraulic suspension with bricks. This was exactly what I needed on a bank holiday weekend. Our last car off the road.
Just as I was resigning myself to an interesting last 20 miles home the fault cured itself as quickly as it came.
Another drama missed....
The weather tomorrow looks distressing, promising sunny and dry, ideal for the garden - sigh...
R
With the credit crunched everyone who would be off abroad seems to be staying home and a fair number of them seemed to be charging down the M4 towards West Wales.
Naturally management decided this might be a good day to go and see her mum and I was volunteered as duty driver.
Now, motorways are normally a pleasant environment in which to drive. A mass of people driving large trucks and cars who are used to being there and just get on with the job in hand.
Then it becomes a bank holiday weekend. Suddenly all these people who drive a whole ten miles a day decided they need to be somewheres on the other side of the country involving hundreds of miles of driving on motorways they rarely normally use.
Of course hundreds of miles of motorway driving would wear them out so to deter slumber they pack the car with their partners (who will definitely have a "view" on their driving) and children who will begin to brawl about 5 miles from home and keep up a continuous war all the way t their destination. That is of course if they are not being amused by iphones or nintendos which will almost certainly lead to a serious "my turn"ing war.
Sitting in this mobile combat zone will mean that the hapless driver will be oblivious to all around him and the fact that you are driving something humungous festooned with flashing lights will be no guarantee of being seen.
Put yourself in a car and you might as well be wearing your cloak of invisibility.
So management and I made our way fairly easily up the M4 then far more cautiously back home.
We have a series of bank holiday diversions meaning we missed the biggest of the cues and got home in not too impossible a time.
The object of our visit, Managements mum seems to be back on fine form and remarkably well for someone well into their 90's.
But of course this was us and the car decided to replace Citroens famous hydraulic suspension with bricks. This was exactly what I needed on a bank holiday weekend. Our last car off the road.
Just as I was resigning myself to an interesting last 20 miles home the fault cured itself as quickly as it came.
Another drama missed....
The weather tomorrow looks distressing, promising sunny and dry, ideal for the garden - sigh...
R
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Been a short day...
Been quite a short day really
We were very late getting up and a long time getting ourselves organised.
Then off for a bit of a shop.
Anyone would think a war about to start.
Bookers car park was full of cars - very unusual.
A real rush around the place with a lot of stuff bought.
Bread was fortunately available on a very short date so we ended up with more 20p a loaf bread, to put in the freezer.
Then more bulk stuff bought and we moved on to Morrisons.
The management has taken against Tesco with a vengance.
We bought what we needed then home.
The place was in mayhem, really odd, this does not feel like recession at all.
Gwion has saved his money for a while and decided that he wanted a new Nintendo DSi,
now if there was a real recession no one would have been buying but we took the last in the shop from Comet.
Considering we are in recession there seemed to be a lot of money flying about.
R
We were very late getting up and a long time getting ourselves organised.
Then off for a bit of a shop.
Anyone would think a war about to start.
Bookers car park was full of cars - very unusual.
A real rush around the place with a lot of stuff bought.
Bread was fortunately available on a very short date so we ended up with more 20p a loaf bread, to put in the freezer.
Then more bulk stuff bought and we moved on to Morrisons.
The management has taken against Tesco with a vengance.
We bought what we needed then home.
The place was in mayhem, really odd, this does not feel like recession at all.
Gwion has saved his money for a while and decided that he wanted a new Nintendo DSi,
now if there was a real recession no one would have been buying but we took the last in the shop from Comet.
Considering we are in recession there seemed to be a lot of money flying about.
R
A fine weekend in store....
I think management has not realised it is easter weekend.
She has decided that as it is raining we are going shoping today.
Much has been made of the rain and wind which are wonderful weather, well if you ask me anyway.
But it would be nice to have some slightly better weather, then I can get the digger running. If she thinks I am digging a 30 foot long 2 foot deep trench with a pick and shovel she has another thing coming.
R
She has decided that as it is raining we are going shoping today.
Much has been made of the rain and wind which are wonderful weather, well if you ask me anyway.
But it would be nice to have some slightly better weather, then I can get the digger running. If she thinks I am digging a 30 foot long 2 foot deep trench with a pick and shovel she has another thing coming.
R
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Home at last
So a lovely 5 mile trek.
A joyfull bus ride several hours of wandering round town then a lift into uni and a long meeting.
Finally dropped at the top of the drive and walk 1/2 mile in the rain.
BUT not a shovel looked at, not a pick waved, bliss.
I am still knackered mind.
Rhys.
A joyfull bus ride several hours of wandering round town then a lift into uni and a long meeting.
Finally dropped at the top of the drive and walk 1/2 mile in the rain.
BUT not a shovel looked at, not a pick waved, bliss.
I am still knackered mind.
Rhys.
Rambling on....
Soo today I am off to be all important.
Trouble is management went also for meetings in Daycastle.
This leaves me with a bit of a walk into town to catch the bus to cadge a lift into Uni.
Still I suppose a couple of miles walk will do me good.
After all it does not involve a pick or shovel and maybe someone I know will pass and take pity on me.
R
Trouble is management went also for meetings in Daycastle.
This leaves me with a bit of a walk into town to catch the bus to cadge a lift into Uni.
Still I suppose a couple of miles walk will do me good.
After all it does not involve a pick or shovel and maybe someone I know will pass and take pity on me.
R
Monday, 6 April 2009
A fatal thing to write
A little while back I wrote about cheap cars.
We have bought a cheap car it's still cheap but it was someone dumping a problem.
This was a modern car with all sorts of leccytronics which were in meltdown.
Now, it turns out this was a very simple problem, but of course the computer is only as good as the nerd who programmed it.
So, when the catalytic converter jammed with carbon, most likely because the owner was being "green" and running the thing on chip shop fat, it started dumping lots of unburnt carbon loaded gas into the inlet side of the engine which sent the computer into meltdown.
This we took, based on what the computer said, as our cue to throw all the electronics out and re configure the engine with old fashioned mechanical injection.
Of course the puter had some virtues and at least with the fault the engine would sort of run.
With all that replaced by old fashioned mechanical devices; we ended up with an engine that barely would.
The grease being a bright engineer worked out that the inlet side of the engine was choked.
He has been dealing with a very blocked pipe.
The way this was dealt with is simple, you fill the pipe with paraffin let it soak into the grime and then torch it out.
This means sticking the blowtorch into the pipe to set it alight and then following up with the airline. 5 foot jets of flame are us!!!
This all went down well with young Taliesin, management was less sure.
Now it all goes back together and we see where we go from there.
R
We have bought a cheap car it's still cheap but it was someone dumping a problem.
This was a modern car with all sorts of leccytronics which were in meltdown.
Now, it turns out this was a very simple problem, but of course the computer is only as good as the nerd who programmed it.
So, when the catalytic converter jammed with carbon, most likely because the owner was being "green" and running the thing on chip shop fat, it started dumping lots of unburnt carbon loaded gas into the inlet side of the engine which sent the computer into meltdown.
This we took, based on what the computer said, as our cue to throw all the electronics out and re configure the engine with old fashioned mechanical injection.
Of course the puter had some virtues and at least with the fault the engine would sort of run.
With all that replaced by old fashioned mechanical devices; we ended up with an engine that barely would.
The grease being a bright engineer worked out that the inlet side of the engine was choked.
He has been dealing with a very blocked pipe.
The way this was dealt with is simple, you fill the pipe with paraffin let it soak into the grime and then torch it out.
This means sticking the blowtorch into the pipe to set it alight and then following up with the airline. 5 foot jets of flame are us!!!
This all went down well with young Taliesin, management was less sure.
Now it all goes back together and we see where we go from there.
R
Different perspectives.
Hers: One 30 foot bean trench will produce about 40 lbs of beans.
His: A 30 foot bean trench dug out to 2 foot depth then filled with soil manure and compost is a hell of a lot of digging....
R
His: A 30 foot bean trench dug out to 2 foot depth then filled with soil manure and compost is a hell of a lot of digging....
R
Weather lovely weather.....
I woke this morning to the patter of rain on the window.
No weather to be outside waving a pick axe at the soil and tearing off the top layers. Singind a happy tune I headed off for breakfast looking forwards to having an easy day.
So of course management singing a happy tune likewise confirmed the lack of digging and said instead we could go over to the stables and get some manure.
Hitching the big trailer to the Xantia off we went to the stables. Yes of course we could have manure said the cheery horsey person, help ourselves she told us, she hoped we had bought shovels because her husband who normally drives the digger was away.
So much for not digging.....
About an hour singing our favourite song:
"I'm digging in the rain just digging in the rain,
What a glorious felling I'm shoveling again.
How joyus our wit
To be shoveling mud
Just digging and digging in the raaaaaiiiiinnnn.."
We had a trailer pretty much full of very good well rotted manure. Which is where the fun really started.
Of course I am very used to towing that trailer loaded, a little jaunt to the woodland barely a mile away. This was several miles and on top of another mountain as well.
So coming home was down a mile at about 10% up a mile at 10% - so far so good.
Then down a few miles at 5 % down a kilometer at 25% with the trailer most definately urging us on......
What fun, I thought, but better was to come. Up the hill to the house, about 2 km of steady grinding first gear pull. Till approaching the top of the hill the tyres were definately scrabbling for grip. With visions of us screaching backwards out of control like the guys with the renault 5 and caravan on you tube, we finally made the brow.
This was about as much excitement as a man needs for a day.
If she wants any more of that stuff she can damn well get it herself.....
R
No weather to be outside waving a pick axe at the soil and tearing off the top layers. Singind a happy tune I headed off for breakfast looking forwards to having an easy day.
So of course management singing a happy tune likewise confirmed the lack of digging and said instead we could go over to the stables and get some manure.
Hitching the big trailer to the Xantia off we went to the stables. Yes of course we could have manure said the cheery horsey person, help ourselves she told us, she hoped we had bought shovels because her husband who normally drives the digger was away.
So much for not digging.....
About an hour singing our favourite song:
"I'm digging in the rain just digging in the rain,
What a glorious felling I'm shoveling again.
How joyus our wit
To be shoveling mud
Just digging and digging in the raaaaaiiiiinnnn.."
We had a trailer pretty much full of very good well rotted manure. Which is where the fun really started.
Of course I am very used to towing that trailer loaded, a little jaunt to the woodland barely a mile away. This was several miles and on top of another mountain as well.
So coming home was down a mile at about 10% up a mile at 10% - so far so good.
Then down a few miles at 5 % down a kilometer at 25% with the trailer most definately urging us on......
What fun, I thought, but better was to come. Up the hill to the house, about 2 km of steady grinding first gear pull. Till approaching the top of the hill the tyres were definately scrabbling for grip. With visions of us screaching backwards out of control like the guys with the renault 5 and caravan on you tube, we finally made the brow.
This was about as much excitement as a man needs for a day.
If she wants any more of that stuff she can damn well get it herself.....
R
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Death by garden.....
Now things are really starting to move on the garden front.
Management has marked out a series of beds up the field she nuked earlier. This has required stripping off of the top layers of dead grass carting that off to compost and then turning the field over ready to plant.
This has translated into rather a lot of work for Green Goddess tools and lots of stuff being carted round.
Management has been busy with the rotivator I bought her for her birthday some years back and I have been allowed to use the pick.
I think this is some sort of attempt to cash in my life assurance. If I never post again it will be because I am dead......
Still she has mentioned a need to water stuff in. I had better get Gloria out and head off down to the hydrant.
R
Management has marked out a series of beds up the field she nuked earlier. This has required stripping off of the top layers of dead grass carting that off to compost and then turning the field over ready to plant.
This has translated into rather a lot of work for Green Goddess tools and lots of stuff being carted round.
Management has been busy with the rotivator I bought her for her birthday some years back and I have been allowed to use the pick.
I think this is some sort of attempt to cash in my life assurance. If I never post again it will be because I am dead......
Still she has mentioned a need to water stuff in. I had better get Gloria out and head off down to the hydrant.
R
Friday, 3 April 2009
The inspectors are coming......
Now, when you work in social care, every so often there is an inspection.
This means that you get descended on from on high, people come with questionnaire's with loads of tick boxes and depending on how many boxes they tick you get told how well you deliver for children.
Our poor naive imported social worker has been soo relieved she has been given the extra work hours to make sure that Big D's file is all up to date.
She has not realised that her manager noted that the Care Standards questionnaire landed on her desk asking about a named child.
Then suddenly she gets the time to put his file in order.
Last week it was another social worker who suddenly remembered so many things that needed doing for another child.
Monday - good lord we have a social worker landing to complete some detail about child three.
This will of course have nothing to do with the questionnaire that landed on our mat last week.....
Festering, god bless them have felt no need to be so well engaged.
Because of course if the service they give to out of county carers gets slated, well they can simply dump those carers.
They did however email out a statement of purpose for the service a few days back and of course a load of print it yourself cards so we know about their out of hours service - just to make sure the boxes are ticked.
In the midst and middle of this are young people placed here some years back because this was what they needed then and have come to expect. Now they are less than at the front of their "parents" thinking.
I wonder how this would all look if the corporate parent was subjected to the "good enough parent" filter.
R
This means that you get descended on from on high, people come with questionnaire's with loads of tick boxes and depending on how many boxes they tick you get told how well you deliver for children.
Our poor naive imported social worker has been soo relieved she has been given the extra work hours to make sure that Big D's file is all up to date.
She has not realised that her manager noted that the Care Standards questionnaire landed on her desk asking about a named child.
Then suddenly she gets the time to put his file in order.
Last week it was another social worker who suddenly remembered so many things that needed doing for another child.
Monday - good lord we have a social worker landing to complete some detail about child three.
This will of course have nothing to do with the questionnaire that landed on our mat last week.....
Festering, god bless them have felt no need to be so well engaged.
Because of course if the service they give to out of county carers gets slated, well they can simply dump those carers.
They did however email out a statement of purpose for the service a few days back and of course a load of print it yourself cards so we know about their out of hours service - just to make sure the boxes are ticked.
In the midst and middle of this are young people placed here some years back because this was what they needed then and have come to expect. Now they are less than at the front of their "parents" thinking.
I wonder how this would all look if the corporate parent was subjected to the "good enough parent" filter.
R
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Reply for Tina's comment.
Yes Tina you are right it seems T has to get permission to help P's mum.
Things took the turn even dafter today, P's SW phoned. Now it just so happens she is popping down to see P on Monday, so it had "just" occured to her that she could take him back to Daycastle and save T a trip out.
Wasn't that thoughtful?
T of course was grateful for the offer, unfortunately T has two stat review meetings on Tuesday so she might as well take him then. She added it was important she went and dropped P off because she promised to help his mum move.
Funny, the SW did not thank her for walking the extra mile......
Bless - she must have forgotten.
R
Things took the turn even dafter today, P's SW phoned. Now it just so happens she is popping down to see P on Monday, so it had "just" occured to her that she could take him back to Daycastle and save T a trip out.
Wasn't that thoughtful?
T of course was grateful for the offer, unfortunately T has two stat review meetings on Tuesday so she might as well take him then. She added it was important she went and dropped P off because she promised to help his mum move.
Funny, the SW did not thank her for walking the extra mile......
Bless - she must have forgotten.
R
The path of true love.
They says it's great to tb truly loved by someone and today management was in a particularly loving mood.
With someone barely having driven up the drive after a visit to the Green Goddess store I was sitting there musing what to do and as it happens counting money.
Filled with the joy of love my darling insisted it was too lovely a day to stay home and furthermore there was no one on the planet she would rather be out with than me.
So I dutifully got in the car and off we set.
I wondered where her love would take us;
A pleasant walk along the beach?
An idyllic valley ramble?
A country pub for lunch?
No, she showed her love by taking me to the garden centre where she lovingly took my money and spent it on plants and fertilizer.
She shows her love in funny ways sometimes.....
At least I get her "proper" loving gifts like the socket set I have on order...
R
With someone barely having driven up the drive after a visit to the Green Goddess store I was sitting there musing what to do and as it happens counting money.
Filled with the joy of love my darling insisted it was too lovely a day to stay home and furthermore there was no one on the planet she would rather be out with than me.
So I dutifully got in the car and off we set.
I wondered where her love would take us;
A pleasant walk along the beach?
An idyllic valley ramble?
A country pub for lunch?
No, she showed her love by taking me to the garden centre where she lovingly took my money and spent it on plants and fertilizer.
She shows her love in funny ways sometimes.....
At least I get her "proper" loving gifts like the socket set I have on order...
R
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Day in the life....
So of course today I was off to uni, in our one working vehicle so this morning was a blur of kids to school then hurling myself to uni.
Naturally, I came screaming over the brow of a hill and there was the nice man waiting to take my photo. By shear luck this was on a T junction and this guy had just pulled out so I was able to put him between me an David Bailey while some serious braking went on.
By the time I pulled out for the overtake I was doing quite a lot less. I just hope he didn't catch me first time...
But i digress into uni and I did a lot of professional work.
But with me off earning good money and the car off the run, management was at home.
So when the phone rang at 11.30.....
Oh yes, it was a Wednesday when we are not here so our link worker phoned.
Unfortunately for her the management was home and even less fortunately she picked up the phone.
I will not bore you with the content but here's a little snippet. P's mum is moving next week and management will be in Daycastle anyway so she is popping over to help her move the fridge and the larger items into her flat. This it would seem is a problem, management should contact P's SW to seek permission, make sure she is happy with this, there might be issues.
This from the same people who were breathtakingly blase when my daughters went with D so he could meet his father, the sex offender.
I am not sure, but is there not maybe some sort of lack of logic here.
There is a plus to everything though, by the time the red mist had cleared she has not half planted some spuds...
R
Naturally, I came screaming over the brow of a hill and there was the nice man waiting to take my photo. By shear luck this was on a T junction and this guy had just pulled out so I was able to put him between me an David Bailey while some serious braking went on.
By the time I pulled out for the overtake I was doing quite a lot less. I just hope he didn't catch me first time...
But i digress into uni and I did a lot of professional work.
But with me off earning good money and the car off the run, management was at home.
So when the phone rang at 11.30.....
Oh yes, it was a Wednesday when we are not here so our link worker phoned.
Unfortunately for her the management was home and even less fortunately she picked up the phone.
I will not bore you with the content but here's a little snippet. P's mum is moving next week and management will be in Daycastle anyway so she is popping over to help her move the fridge and the larger items into her flat. This it would seem is a problem, management should contact P's SW to seek permission, make sure she is happy with this, there might be issues.
This from the same people who were breathtakingly blase when my daughters went with D so he could meet his father, the sex offender.
I am not sure, but is there not maybe some sort of lack of logic here.
There is a plus to everything though, by the time the red mist had cleared she has not half planted some spuds...
R
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