Alt.Mustardland

I declare this month's thread well and truly open (Actually, it's more slightly ajar than open. It's raining outside.) I'm sat in the Edwardian Tearooms within Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery having a lunch paid for by Birmingham City Council. The very least the City can is buy my lunch as, my wife and I have spent the morning listening to Admission Appeals in the Council House just around the corner. Sadly, she has not been as fortunate as I because, she is still listening to an appeal whilst, I have had a couple of parents who have withdrawn their appeals in the last couple of working days and, two others who have failed to turn up on time. The latter appeals have been heard 'in absentia'. As such we have gained a little time this morning and, taken an early lunch prior to restarting around 1:30. I have another three days of appeals in the rest of the working week.

There has been a 50 % increase in admission appeals in the city this year, coupled with a number of previous panel members resigning. There are a number of reasons for both of these problems. However, I won't go into those now.

It's raining the proverbial felines and canines outside with many rumbles of thunder.

However, I see my lunch approaching on a tray so, I'll wish you all a happy, safe and, healthy August. Take care people.

Hello all

After a stroke of luck resulting from letting a company find my PPI misselling plus interest, I am having a proper shower put in to avoid breaking my neck getting in and out of the bath. I have also invested in a viola. Brand new, I've never had a new musical instrument before. My violin was given in bits to my lutenist to rebuild in a Tesco carrier bag , and still has a dent or two, but plays well all the same. The viola is bigger and has a good sound, though it will need playing daily to keep it in tune. Once it has been played a bit it will stabilise. The same skills will be needed so I'll be able to play either as required. I shan't tell the orchestra until I've got the hang of it.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying the rain. It rained on St Swithin's day, July 15. The Church leaders wanted to dig him up to give him a posh tomb in a cathedral but every time they tried, it was rained off so after a few weeks they gave up on the idea. I'm not sure if July 15 was the day they began to try, the day they gave up or his birthday. Anyway, it will be 24 August before the weather improves. We had a dry spring, so it doesn't matter much.

Oh dear .... We seem to have two Augusts in this Board.. I Suppose we are a Very August Association.
Afraid I cannot scrounge a Lunch from either County or Borough. With the loss of (one of) our former Archery Home, I have been to round up our "lost" souls. I note that Abel, (aka Willy Wonty) is attending a wedding this month - his own.

We have TWO August threads.
I seem to be submerged by PPI company's. One sent me back saying that the bank I'm claining from "Was not on one they deal with". A second attempt was the response "They say They didn't sell you PPI" . I allowed myself to let a Claims outfit because I anticipated a somewhat slippery outfit. One is inclined to let it slip, as I'm not in the mood for an postal punch-up. Needs must. so I see a dispute acoming up?

Sorry about that. I didn't think there was one when I started this.

I didn't expect anything of it, but thought it was worth trying. It turned out that it was. I banked with Lloyds at University and for several years afterwards. I believe that Barclays have set money aside to repay people too, but probably between 1988 and 2010 ish. I think it's worth doing in case it is worth it, but along the lines of placing a bet you can afford to lose. One of the claims came back with only minimal repayment due and they said it wasn't worth their while. That was fair enough. In the end they got their money's worth out of chasing things up for me.

No, Don't be sorry.

Re the PPI. Part of my rummage through years of work.. I needs to examine all this paper before I shred it.. seven bags of shredded last week.
I keep finding "distractions"...

Where did you find Abel? Not in the graveyard I hope! Wasn't that where Pip found him?

Brian, you pipped me to the post, but maybe I was writing my opus while you were finishing yours.

Abel changed his board name over the years, but now posts little and mostly in Facebook.

Two Augusts! I'm not going to insist that the other one be taken down nor, get miffed that some one has posted on the other thread and, not mine! We happen to be a little more mature than that here.

Long day in Birmingham today, not leaving the Council House until 5:20 pm. Another panel member asked me what I thought of the organisation surrounding the whole process that we're engaged in. I toned down what I was thinking of saying to, "Not much!" She then said that she was going to write and complain, would I do likewise? The simple answer is no. If I become unhappy with it, I shall walk away. After all, I don't get paid for this. It's a bit of public service that I undertake, 'to do my bit'. When it's no longer fun, I stop.

Still, I have three more days of it this week and, one day next week. I'll see out what I'm committed to and, then consider the future.

Enjoy your evenings.

Just to save clutter, I have merged the two August threads ... based strictly on timestamps, so Brian's title appears first. Hope no-one objects

At the Wells/Bull residence, the transition into August was notable only by loss of power - but since it was scheduled, at least I had a chance to prepare a flask of hot water to keep us in tea and coffee for the duration.

Long week-end coming up (our August bank holiday is at the beginning of August); time for the annual village "Festival of Fun" . Usually some good crack; a lot of activities are based at a local small lake and involve getting wet deliberately, so the inevitable rain doesn't really have much impact. Things finish up on Monday with some traditional pig racing at the local GAA grounds followed by fireworks, then stagger to the pubs. I'm sure we'll get down for some of the fun!

I hope you all have a great time. A good soak and a lot of laughing is a lovely way to spend a summer weekend. I'm off to the Midlands tomorrow to catch up with friends. I have to get the replacement latch fitted to my tailgate so can't leave until that's done.

I had my hair cut today and took it for a test drive on the North Hill facing the Bristol Channel. As I feared, the back stayed boringly in place but the front blew straight over my face and into my eyes. Why is it so hard to tell someone that you don't want your hair in your eyes? I certainly don't want a fringe.

Good Morrow.
Have a Good weekend everybody.
Will phone my Kid Sister (sort of "Horse Mad") to see if she wasnts a visit over to Barleylands - Heavy Horse show on tomorrow. Oh, you wont know Barleylands ... My Ol' grandad lived in an adjacent cottage, so it was a weekend visit - till He was too ill to see visitors when I was an Infant, and I was allowed out in those 1940's days - Dont walk the roads now... No 100 bus goes right over where his house was.
Oh, I'm meandering again: Barleylands is no longer a Farm - "Set aside" I think it was called. Bootsale, County Show, Craft workshops, Museum, Clubs, Kids meeting cattle, Niff-noff Restaurant for the deep-pocketed, Lessons in Glass blowing and potterying.

... or I might go to the Cat Show in Chelmsford. (Hope the driver of the "100" bus drives carefully through Grandads home, and Barleyland).

Might be AWOL: Pooter needs a return to Mr Pootermender.

Good afternoon. I don't usually post at weekends but having opened this thread, I haven't been on it.

It's been a tough week. As people know, I've been serving on Education Appeal Panels in Birmingham. In truth, I made a mistake in agreeing to do three days on the bounce. In hindsight, I should have missed the middle day. I feel thoroughly tired. It may seem odd to say that I'm tired when all that I've done is sit in a meeting room for about six hours and listen to parents trying to encourage us to change the school that their child has been allocated to. However, I've had the commute to and from Birmingham on each day, then experience what the parents do turn into a very emotional half an hour.

So I'm shattered.

I think that's why I didn't call you up Brian. I went to Blackheath yesterday morning to see if the market was up to scratch. Not quite the same, but enough like it to buy a couple of handbags in leather for £7.99 each. Lots of pockets to hide credit cards, handkerchiefs, pens, a tripod for the camera, etc.

I'd been caught in the traffic on the M5 for an hour or so on Friday afternoon, then tried the A38 to Weston Super Mare to see if it was quicker. It wasn't. My friends' son and daughter work for the company that monitors traffic on motorways and issue warnings to the local radio stations. They said it was the worst traffic jam ever on the M5. In a funny kind of way I feel proud to have been part of it . It was an adventure and there was no other way I could have got there because all the delays were in the early stages of my journey. At Gloucester services, I met a youngish man walking the dog and toddler who had started from Weymouth at 1pm and had been trying to get to Manchester. He had his wife, two small children, (1 a baby) and a French bulldog in the car. It was 8.45pm. "I'm supposed to be working tomorrow" he said, and I felt much more sorry for him than for me. I got to Brum at 10pm and had a great weekend after that.

Good morning everyone.

Rwth, I must confess that I haven't been to Blackheath Market. That said, I'm not the keenest shopper on the planet. My idea of shopping is; decide what it is I want, identify the outlet that I need to visit for my purchase, obtain transport that will take me as near as possible to the outlet, enter the shop and buy the item(s) in question and, return home p.d.q. Job's a good un!

Have to say that few journies in the U.K. are simple and straight forward these days. On the major roads locally, we have restrictions on the M5 and M6 either side of Birmingham. I gather that a major London rail terminus (Waterloo?) is being refurbished and, likely to cause major delays. Even flying requires passengers to arrive two hours before take-off. When we were on our River Cruise a few weeks back, we travelled to Lyon by train and arrived 90 minutes late because the TGV line from Lille to Lyon was 'subject to delays due to overrunning maintenance works'. Mind you, some fellow-passengers who had flown from Manchester had been delayed three hours at Manchester and didn't arrive at the ship until 11:30 pm. Curiously, the faster that various forms transport become, the slower they are.

Returning to the appeals last week, I never cease to be amazed that people believe that, because they have chosen a particular school they will get it. The local authority provide figures regarding how many pupils a given school can take and how many applications there were. Most schools have a two form entry for Reception Infants classes. This is a total of 60 places. Legislation states that schools are not allowed to take more than 30 in Infant classes, other then in exceptional circumstances. Popular schools will often receive over 200 application for Infants classes. Even when told this parents still seem to believe that schools have elastic sides and an endless supply of resources to allow them to take every applicant.

Enjoy your days people.

Good Morning each...
I need Coffee before becoming sociable.. I was listening to the India/Pakistan Separation on Radio, so I'm running "A bit Late". Yesterday's computer repairs necessitated buying a new Printer, and spent ages last night returning computeration to normal. I wanted a trip over to The Heavy Horse Show, but afte coming out of Printer shop, found that the Sunday buses were one an hour, and the next one due did not materialise (Thinks: I wonder if the loss of one bus as "Evidence" in a collision last week - surely they have enough buses to run a Sunday Service). It wasn't worth a shortened visit, nor killing an hour waiting in n empty bus station, Perhaps I'll see next years Essex Clydesdale Assoc.
Rwth. I was associating Blackheath with the South London Area of that name, The South London's equivalent of Epping Forest. I guess theres a Blackheath in the Midlands.
Afraid M5 has brought about Memory of a former colleague (one of the Clients men) who bought a Garage soon after the opening of the M5. Since his wife died, He gave Managing of his (by then, a different and nearer the City Garage) to His son. Just heard that moving into a larger extended familly home wasn't working, so I expect him to be moving out soon.
Sad to see Waterloo's Demise. I was working at another client (180 mph trains, London to Paris.. and lots of other places that Mr Prescott, the working mans friend, put the kybosh on it) The Japanese built the new Depot in North London, so trains run from St Pancras. Just thinking of all that wasted work... Ho Hum.

After the weekend's excitement, it was nice to relax and have a good night's sleep in my own bed.

My gardener has shown his face and is very hard working and strong enough to pull out some deep rooted weeds. He looked pleased with the plants I bought, so it will be looking pretty good soon. Just getting out the sycamore seedlings is an achievement in itself. There is a fairly strong scent of turned earth at the moment, but I have some scented shrubs to go in, so it will be lovely when it's finished.

Wheatlands sounds lovely. I keep promising myself to come over to the East and look at the Olympic Park and Epping forest. Wheatlands too and Hyde Hall.

Olympic Park Destroyed E London (Yes it was me in the Facebook "Memories" page on Hackney). No idea where the locals get work now. BUT... I think the same comments were made after each European invasions - Found a map of my Pre-Grandads area (Watercress beds shown on 1910 map). Remember Mum telling me of the Sheeps in the pre-WW II field behind the house, and Allotments from my time.
I worked in Hackney in the 1970's in the car factory (More vehicles than any other Factory in the world - and all small enough to fit in matchboxes). 200 Football pitches for the local "Eton Manner" Boys club .. All gone now for Mamon.
Oh, I'm wandering again.

Yup, Epping forest still possible to find quiet places - They even made The M25 go under it . Hyde Hall Garden is Fine (but Hylands is more spacious) - but don't look at the places in between. I'm pondering of moving further afield... Nth essex is nicer.

There is indeed a Blackheath in the West Midlands:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhe ... t_Midlands

I meant to say that this morning, I attended a Steering Group meeting of the 'Friends' of our local library. Beginning on the 1st of September, all libraries in the Borough are handed over to a not for profit company who will receive a sum that is less than that laid out by the Council to run all of the libraries in the Borouh currently. The company, Greenwich Leisure Ltd have bid for the contract and reckon to be able to provide a better service with, no loss of staff. We'll wait and see!

While in the meeting I received an e-mail from Birmingham Education Appeals., explaining that a member of one of today's panels had cried off at short notice and, offering anyone who was willing to step in a taxi there and back. I live around fifteen mile one way trip from Birmingham City Hall where, the meetings take place.