Screwing the world down

It's safe to say this because only me and MI5 will ever read it but this world has gone beyond.

The bankers screwed up so the poor must pay for their mistakes.

Greece got itself into a corner with the total collusion of a bunch of private banks, who have now had their debt taken into public ownership so tax payers everywhere will have to fund the cock up while the banks carry on and pay next to no tax.

I am sure there is a logic in this.

The logic was Iceland, the banks screwed up so they were allowed to fail, people who did criminal things went to jail.

Thats what happened in the states in 1926.

Am i just being a bit simplistic?

R 
     
 

the ghosts come back to haunt you...

I suppose it started when I was in my late 30's. My children  were under 3 and having a great time in the garden playing in the summer sun. Suddenly I was hit by a huge wave of jealousy, I was jealous of my own children, envying them their childhood.

My childhood was very different to theirs, we were materially far better off, money was not really ever an issue and we would regularly go on very expensive holidays.

But there was another side, I regularly stand in front of rooms of people, calm, confident, erudite. 6 foot tall and quite solid build. Does anyone think they are looking at a survivor, someone who was  constantly criticised, sometimes beaten, I think not .

There is a hidden corner in my memory, a place I keep the really dark stuff, a place i don't go too often, a bit like that stuffy old box room where all the junk you don't use but can't throw away goes.   

I got into door work for reasons i don't think i really understood at the time. People who employed me saw someone who would rather talk than fight. Someone also who did not panic if it went pear shaped but  worked well under fire after all I was quite used to violence.

So anyway this weekend I went on a personal safety trainers course, with  my eldest daughter.

It was a striking course, astonishing how skills were layered, one on one.

Then came the cathartic moment. I was paired with a guy who really was  man mountain, ex competitor in Britain's strongest man, about 5 inches taller and at least a foot wider than me. This counted for nothing, suddenly I was not 56 I was 6. In the presence of someone far bigger and stronger, this was the mother of all flash backs.  But I wasn''t that 6 year old kid, or 7 or 8 or all the other years I got beaten, I was strong I had the tools to protect myself.

A lot of things slotted into place, why I became a bouncer; I had things to prove to myself, I didn't want anyone else to be where I had been, so I became the strange sort of bouncer who would step in to help people but really tried every way to avoid a fight. Something about myself became crystallised in those moments. 

Next came an item that really crowned things for me, someone was talking about resilience. Those who have been reading this from the start will know I really go for Resilience theory. I thought whether this Functional Edge system could be used to promote resilience in young people. The answer was a very guarded yes. Yes so long as you had trained the young people out of using conflict, teaching this to kids who are being bullied would be great, teaching it to young people who routinely use violence to achieve their aims would be the daftest idea ever.    

The next speaker was an inspiration, a woman who had lived through some horror. She was testimony to the poverty of therapeutic systems which pretend to be more expert than the individual who has lived their life. You are the expert on you, said Milt Erickson and as usual he was right. When people have been in situations where they have been totally powerless the first thing to give them  back is control. Functional Edge was a key part in her solution to her problems something in which she was  really the expert. The person most impressed by all this was Bethan, my daughter, she was so inspired that she talked about nothing else nearly all the way home. 

Things often happen for a purpose. this whole train of events started when, in a moment of daftness I applied to good 4 shit to become a security worker at the big sports day. That's how I met the instructor who lives just down the road. We stayed in touch Bethan and Branwen both did their door supervisor course. I looked at the FES trainers course and nearly applied last year. That little bit of nagging doubt and uncertainty stopped me. But i got chatting to some of the people involved and thought a phrase that rhymes with bucket, the worst that could happen is that I could fail. I  recruited Bethan as back up, turned up and  entered the  training room with trepidation, within two seconds I discovered we had a bunch of great people together. We had a fantastic time, I feel good about myself even today the voice of criticism stops me doing that sometimes, not now though.   

being an academic for a day

Today has been a day for being a bit clever, not that I am but it's nice to pretend.


Off to uni and the place was in meltdown lots of people due to interview had not turned up and all the candidates were there.

So instead of 3 panels interviewing 3/4 each, we usually have some no shows, we had two with 6 each.

And our panel had some really good people who answered every question in full. In fact, they were such nice, good quality candidates you could not shut them down.

So, normally it  would be done and dusted and off to lunch by one, instead we were still locked in the room at three.

No breaks no coffee and by three I wanted to be at home, except tomorrow I am off to Brittany, but just for half a day and it's going to be full on.

But noticing the front tyres were a spot low on tread this morning meant a stop off on the way home to have them changed.
 
Just what I need after the day I had today.

Thankfully I wont have to drive tomorrow, Bruce is coming with me so she can drive while i snooze,

She will need the GPS though, was there any need to change the language to Korean, probably not....

R          

It's not nice to be prooved wrong

Many years ago,  we spent  bit of time with someone who worked for Child and Adolescent Mental Health services, someone for whom I have huge respect. Someone who has had more than enough of the lack of service and cleared off to work somewhere else. 

So anyway this chap made a dire prediction about one of our foslings, he prophesied that he was unsaveable and not reachable. There was nothing anyone would be able to do to prevent him going down one life course.

Of course, this was red rag to a particularly opinionated bull  and we have I think given it our very best shot for a whole 13 years.

Sadly though, i think our mate was right and the 13 years was a bit of a waste of effort.

Well no it wasn't, he knows right from wrong and when he chose wrong he really could not imagine anything else.

So, anyway, next week we get to find out what the Police actually have on him.

If the first interview is anything to go by, I think it might be showtime.

Leaving Care (and was a team ever more aptly named) have been looking for an excuse to dump him, i think he's just handed them one on a plate.

R  

  

Sky's the limit......

With Branwen and i both defrosted it was time to try and get the satelite located. Call in an expert, down the drive came my mate Dai. simple solution says he, we were 180 degrees out looking for the Sattelite. Ok then, off came the dish out came the chainsaw. Cut a mounting plate on the other side screw everything on and connect the meter.

Mass swearing the level of signal seemed to go up and down at random. No sense no signal, well not at the decoder box anyway. Several hours of struggling in the rain - getting nowhere, at least we were getting there fast.

Darkness fell, this was not funny and it was cold.

Soo off we went, beer o clock.

Some days later back on the scene, new compass, the old compass was 180 degrees out. Dismantle the whole set up again more chain saw and back up it goes. Same thing, the signal strength goes up and down at random.  Nothing in the house.

Maybe time to use another signal meter, as luck would have it we have one. In  a matter of moments we have signal that is blowing the doors off. Impressed or what?

Into the house and - nothing at the set box. no signal.

How could that be?

Lets measure signal strength at the set box, blowing the doors off, and that before the dish was connected - two meters both defective.

Oh the joys!!

Look on the bright side, were we that bothered that there was no telly for Xmas - not really.   

Is there telly now?

Nope

Time to say bucket and move on I think


R

    

Lets get ready for Xmas

Things are quite civilised here at Penole, Xmas is coming and eBay has come to our aid as a flurry of sales boosted my pay pal account which the management was able to find various ways of emptying. All in all though we are ready for Xmas.

One last thing remained Television, now, this house has been TV free for quite a few years. We gave up on it a little while back. Reception out here has always been poor, we ended up putting in a satellite, obviously not a subscription to SKY Mr Murdoch can clear off, we had the channels that were free.

When the dish broke, we simply did not bother. We can watch anything we want online and in fact, when laptop is combined with projector we can have a whole wall of TV for anything important (like international rugby).

But of course mine is not to reason why and if truth were told recent watchathons have been eating into our broadband allowance, so, one day, the management announced we were going to have telly for Xmas.

This was, of course not going to be simple The old dish being long gone we had to get a new one, over to eBay, then a sat box, from a mate, then some cards - we were in business.

First of all put up a post serious amounts of digging by  myself and the management and we had a hole, dug in the biting cold wind.

Next the post, that was simple, we had a bit of telegraph pole which could be fine in the hole with a concrete plug. Taliesin and I worked away batching concrete and soon despite the rain the pole as in.

A quick session with the chainsaw created a flat surface to which the mounting bracket was bolted, I was surprised at how quickly I managed to  get the bracket attached the dish mounted and cable run into the living room. The cable supplied was exactly the right length - how good was that!!!

So this afternoon,  began the serious technical stuff. Equipped with an Ipad and an app we soon worked out where the satellite was located. Connected up the meter and  the box - nothing.

Several hours of increasing frustration  and rain, oh yes did I mention the rain.  A steady cold drizzling precipitation Made even worse by the signal meters reluctance to recognise anything. No matter how many twists turns or other things were tried.

When, eventually, hypothermia called a halt to proceedings, Branwen and I staggered back inside in a soaking sogg of wet clothes

I should have said that the main beneficiary of this project would have been big D who is a great fan of television and live sport. So of course he felt now would be a good time to contribute to the project. He came out of his room to see if it was working, saw it wasn't then went back in again.

 Could not have done it without  him. 

R


  
     
       

Da man and the dog

From the point of view of this blog, da man has not been around too much recently, then again, neither have I. Live has been a bit full on.

Da man though has stopped being a kitten and he is now an fully adult master of his human hutch. We have sort of tried to make allowances for his missing leg which is a hell of a lot more than he has, being seen up trees and on one memorable occasion hunting cows in the field next door.

There has however been a fly in the ointment in the form of a new addition to the house called Kennie. Now Kennie is a rescue dog about 2 years old a bundle of energy a collie and labrador cross - a colliedoor.

None of the cats have taken to Kennie, da man in particular. Da man is probably about a fifth of his size. The first time they met Da Man didn't like the look of him so he was very still hoping he would not be seen. Kennie didn't go for that and ran at him barking and snarling. Da Man decided this was an "out of here" moment and legged it out of the kitchen into the living room. Sadly the door at the end of the living room was closed and Da Man was cornered. "Dinner"  thought Kennie "Really? You think so?" thought Da Man.

I had been upstairs for the few moments this took to happen so by the time I got downstairs, the dog was running round  into the kitchen closely pursued by a black and white three legged ball of evil and fury. I think what was really annoying Da Man was the fact that this dog had started a fight and then refused to have one.

You have to admire him a bit.

R