Good morning Mick and all GN's on a dark still morning, here in North Yorkshire with street lamps still on. Oh dear must admit I cant pretend it is still high summer any more!!
Well, I am hoping for a much better day today, as I am furious and annoyed about my spoilt day yesterday! I had arranged to meet my friend in quite a smart hotel in Darlington for coffee and a chance for a catch up chat in comfort, rather than in a coffee shop. The weather promised sunshine in the morning but with showers and getting worse in the afternoon. He had things to do too in the afternoon, and we decided it was worth a quick change in plans. We are both early risers so hoped to be there about 10 -=10.30 and enjoy a catching up as he lives about 50 miles away, so not a quick five minutes to meet up. Having agreed this I then began to potter about and suddenly thought when is the surgeon contacting me on a phone check up about the operation. ? I couldnt find my appointments diary in the present shambles so to double check rang the hospital to enquire and of course , sods law , it was on the 1st at 1pm.
Well this was going to cut short the coffee meeting as I wanted to be back at home for the phone call, although I of course had my mobile phone. But as I am not sure that all is well and progressing normally with my eye, wanted to have calendars and info at the ready , in case I needed to have an appointment , and be on my own to discuss it with her. However decided to go ahead with the meet up , just have to cut it short a bit.
So set off to Darlington , but a very slow journey because there is no duel carrriageway along the A167 and was very held up by lorries but more a tractor and trailer travelling very slowly and no safe way to pass if for some time. However got there and was first to arrive, so at last settled with some much needed coffee and waited. He was a few minutes later and then we were able to enjoy catching up and having coffee , but I was being conscious of the time, and the slow journey there and so rather cut it short and went straight home. As luck would have it the road was much clearer and was in my flat by about 1230. It was still sunny here and would have liked to go out into the garden, but stayed in and started doing various jobs, and then carrying on with the sorting out of the mess. 1.15pm arrived and still no phone call. 1.30pm and I decided to phone the hospital in case she had phoned my old number etc. The receptionist was very pleasant and I explained and she checked and told me that I was on the list to be phoned and on the correct number, but she was a bit delayed. I thanked her and carried on with things. So keeping the phone free I spent all afternoon organising my routine by being available for the phone and no one rang, not even to apologize or explain. I was fed up and furious at the assumption that I could wait around and screw up my day , and that my time and life could just be messed about with no thought or courtesy from them. I hate waiting for calls or anything anyway as you cannot settle to a serious job needing concentration when you are listening out for a phone call or whatever. So a most irritating day all round.
Today is definitely going to be different!! I shall of course answer the phone if it rings, but will not be spoiling my day on their behalf. I have too much to do, as now I need to catch up from yesterday, but more importantly, I need to reorganise the car and get it all set up for tomorrows Muker show. So I will clear out all unnecessary things and then it will be getting the pile of things needed for the day. So fold up chairs to go in, whole range of clothes to cover the weather , from sundress and glasses to mac, coat jumpers and everything in between, with boots sandals to add to the pile. Then a careful check of the box with all plates cutlery etc , so I will be sure to have everything to hand. I am going to ring up and check where this new parking place is as there are different routes to the various parking places, and if you get in the wrong queue you can be ages finding somewhere to turn around etc. After that it will be a trip down the town for picnic things especially Kitsons pork pies. They are quite famous around here for being an excellent butcher but also they make their own pork pies on the premises, which are very good and an essential for any picnic!
I am looking forward to the show on lots of levels. It is my favourite show to begin with, small enough to be able to get round to see everything easily, and knowing many people there I enjoy it all. Looking round the tents to see who has won what. Sadly I shall not be entering anything this year. I used to do all sorts, baking, entering flowers in various classes, pot plants, photos that my husband used to take and I would add captions etc. Couldnt lug pot plants these days, but will enjoy seeing everyone elses. Think the dahlias this year should be very good, but dont think there will be a lot of sweet peas or even roses as the plants have flowered so early. Well that makes the show interesting every year, you win some and lose some so there is always something interesting to see. Think the tomatoes and courgettes should be good in the veg section.
Hope you have a successful shopping trip and enjoy your cycling this afternoon Mick. GrandMattie, I think you need to get a plan of campaign against your wretched Teflon manager. So you could try an overkill method, where you organise between yourselves to have someone ring and complain every day, on the drip drip method, so that at least you annoy him and make him aware that you do not intend to stop doing this until something is done. Keep a log of unanswered phone calls, promises not kept etc. Then get as many local papers and groups involved. Write letters every week about the ongoing situation to the paper, get in touch with the council, the environemental group, and I would also contact groups like the mental health, any group which your members might belong to , such as parkinsons or heart problems group, who again can add their weight to the campaign, noting how these problems bring more distress and unnecessary worry to their members. The more publicity you can raise, and keeping up the pressure, should have some effect, especially as this bad publicity will detract from anyone wanting to rent any property from this person or group. Another thing that is good is to comment on the time of year or occasion to show the passing of time and how you are not going to give up. So you might say how concerned you are that bonfire night makes you more worried about the safety of the building, or that you hope that your christmas present will be jobs done or a new year should mean a new resolution to sort things out etc. If the local paper doesnt help much then I would look to involve your local tv news and keep them up to date with your doings and protests, and telling them how long it has been since anything was done will definitely give your Teflon manager a shock and show him you mean business. Could you all orchestrate a mass email attack by your families and friends who could deluge him with emails on a specific day, and show him that you have backing and that this is not going to go away.? When you have done a few of these things, then I would get onto your mp. Both the fact that you have done all these different things to no avail , and the fact that there are many of you involved in this ongoing, should hopefully galvanise your mp to get involved if they want to keep your votes! I wish you good luck in all your efforts and we are all keen to know how things go for you.
We are promised a decent morning with rain coming in later, tomorrow, but the dales weather never listens to the forecast, so we shall see. I will get myself set up , hopefully in my usual area, between the ring and the craft tent, with a good view of the surrounding hills to have a grandstand view of the fell runners.I plan to look at the various stalls whilst the weather is decent so that I can dive into the tents if the rain starts.
There will be many friends and acquaintances I shall be able to see, as Muker silver band will be playing all day and a lot of local people are members of the Swale singers, which I sang with for 20 years , so it will be lovely to see everyone, and we shant notice how much slower we are all getting or how grey the hair is becoming, but will enjoy catching up and of course at the end of the show we will all be there joining in the singing especially of Swaledale beautiful Swaledale at the end of the day. It will be so lovely to be there, and I always take time at the end of the show to just go on up to our special place and sit and think of my husband and our many times at the show. A marvellous antidote to yesterday, even thinking of it is calming to my soul.
So my day is quite planned out, with hopefully a bit more sorting out this afternoon and a bit of ironing to give me a bit more choice of things to wear. At this time of year you can only be sure that whatever you go out in in the morning it will be the wrong outfit by the afternoon!! I shant be able to read your posts tomorrow or send anything myself as there is no signal up the dale, but will come home and catch up later on.
So hope that today is a better day for everyone and I will send you good luck for a lovely day raising my fresh coffee cup to you as a bit early for anything alcoholic! Here it is now daylight, with a little breeze and some sunshine coming through so fingers crossed it stays like this.
