Moving Home

Well Blog home that it is ;-)

I have been toying with the idea of hosting my blog on my web space for some time. I have finally taken the plunge. Hopefully it will be easy for everyone to use and I hope you like the new design it is called Amazing Grace. I am still playing around with one or two features, so you may see a few subtle differences over time.

My New home can be found here, I hope you will visit. A welcome message and a new blog post can be found there.

PS: Let me know if you experience any problems with the site.

Slumdog & MoD Pay

Earlier this evening I watched the film Slumdog Millionaire which I found to be excellent, although I found the emphasis to be quite different from the book on which it is based. I am not going to give you a review on the film but you can find a a good one here.

I read the book when it first came out in paperback. I really enjoyed it and loved the premise, which certainly did come across in the film. The ending though is quite different from the book, which incidentally was originally called Q&A and written by Vikas Swarup. I might do a review of the book for you when I can find my copy...

I came back to some good news in my mail box - the MoD pay ballot results. PCS members have voted against accepting the divisive pay offer. The offer means that some of the lowest paid members would receive a cut in their earning potential whilst other members would receive as much as a 17% pay rise.

Preparing for Conference

The voting papers and agendas for the PCS main and group conferences all landed up in my mail this week. I am happy to say I have completed my voting papers and they are ready for posting tomorrow. Obviously I knew what agenda items were tabled for the group conference (I am on the standing orders committee after all ;-) ). But today for the first time I saw the National Conference agenda. The agenda is always very busy but reading between the lines I noticed some very interesting motions up for debate...

One of my tasks whilst at the conferences is to report on the key motions and debates, sharing information with PCS members who were unable to attend.

I am toying with the idea of doing 'Conference Live Tweeting' - live updates via twitter which will automatically update on my blog and also the local PCS site...

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

The friendship that can cease has never been real.

Saint Jerome

PhotoHunt - Protect(ion)

I did wonder if I was going to be able to post my PhotoHunt on time this week. Last night my computer decided to throw another wobbly and rebooted itself twice and then turned itself off, refusing to be switched back on again... I tried again this morning and still nothing. So I tried different sockets and checked inside to see if the light blue light on the motherboard was still glowing, which was much to my relief.

I was beginning to think that yet another PSU had blown up. On the off chance I changed the power cable over and it started working again... I think it was having little joke at my expense.

But anyway onto the PhotoHunt pictures. I spotted this lovely scene on my recent trip to Little Moreton Hall.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Firmin by Sam Savage

...Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

The book is set in 1960's Boston in an urban area that is scheduled for regeneration. The novel is narrated by Fermin, a rat who lives in the basement of a run down bookstore. Fermin was the runt of the litter and always last in line to get food. In order to stay alive he start nibbling on the books in the shop. After a while he gains the ability to read. He thinks and sounds more like a human than a rat. At the begining of the novel if I hadn't already know in advance that I wouldn't have realised he was a rat.

Firmin is a gallant soul who is gifted and wise. He is shunned by his fellow rats and makes plans to befriend the bookseller. In addition to reading books Firmin has a fondness of the local picture house where he views what he calls his lovelies on the big screen.

The book is very philosophical and has well drawn characters, and Fermin is quite charming. The book is interspersed with pictures of characters and events that Fermin encounters along the way, I found these quite charming. Before each chapter there were also pictures of book covers these didn't really add a lot for me.

I really enjoyed the book and found it quite a page turner.

Public Services and the Budget

With my TU hat on I thought it would be a good idea to check the budget out and see what the future held for public services.

The BBC website very helpfully has a collection of links to the budget report. So I clicked on the link for the complete budget report entitled 'Budget 2009: Building Britain's Future'. I didn't get the budget but a custom error message, the link had been blocked by my place of work. It gave two possible reasons...

It might link to a site that allows unauthenticated access too email such as Yahoo or Hotmail. Well I know that wasn't the problem it was a PDF document. The other possible reason was that the site may contain offensive content such as hate, sex or violence. I knew the budget wasn't going to be pleasant, but that is taking it a bit too far!!!

It made me laugh anyway ;-)

At least I could access the link 'Chapter 6: Improving Public Services'.

It says quite a lot about what they have spent on Public Services but not how they have wasted the money. Far too much to summarise so I will leave you with a couple of quotes that relate to previous posts of mine.

The Government remains strongly supportive of the value that private finance can bring to infrastructure procurement. In March 2009, the Government announced a public sector infrastructure debt-financing unit to provide temporary support for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects until market conditions improve, ensuring that vital projects in areas such as schools, waste and housing can proceed as planned. Projects in procurement with a total capital value of around £13 billion will be the immediate beneficiaries. The unit has recently reached financial close on its first project lending £120 million alongside the European Investment Bank and commercial lenders to the Greater Manchester Waste Development Authority's PFI project, ensuring that the £635 million construction programme can still go ahead.

Public Sector workers are at the heart of delivering world-class public services and supporting long term economic growth, prosperity and fairness. Public sector pay policy needs to be set in context of wider developments across the economy, where it is clear that the weaker private sector labour market has increased the reletive attractiveness of the public sector as an employer. In setting public sector pay the Government will continue to balance a number of objectives: recruiting and retaining a high quality workforce; affordability and value for money for tax payers; and consistency with acheiving the Bank of England's inflation target. In this context, continued public sector pay restraint will be important to support front-line service delivery.

Personally I think they are going to fail and waste even more money.

In Need of a Laugh

I am still having problems with technology and gaining access to my Webspace, which is holding me up on all sorts of projects. At least I have figured out that they are not ignoring me now and their email messages to me are disappearing into some sort of void!!! That is a relief even though it means that I have to keep checking online for a response access the details on line! Oh well, time for some fun :-)

I am sure this will be controversial but it made me laugh ;-)

You might not have known this, but a lot of inanimate objects are actually either male or female.

Here are some examples:-

FREEZER BAGS:
They are male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.

PHOTOCOPIERS:
These are female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. They are an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can also wreak havoc if you push the wrong buttons.

TYRES:
Tyres are male, because they go bald easily and are often over inflated.

HOT AIR BALLOONS:
Also a male object, because to get them to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under their arse.

SPONGES:
These are female, because they are soft, squeezable and retain water.

WEB PAGES:
Female, because they're constantly being looked at and frequently getting hit on.

TRAINS:
Definitely male, because they always use the same old lines for picking up people.

EGG TIMERS:
Egg timers are female because, over time, all the weight shifts to the bottom.

HAMMERS:
Male, because in the last 5000 years, they've hardly changed at all, and are occasionally handy to have around.

THE REMOTE CONTROL:
Female. Ha! You probably thought it would be male, but consider this: It easily gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know which buttons to push, he just keeps trying.

H/T to Pupazz for the mischievousness ;-)

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place.

Ice T

PhotoHunt - Purple

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Wow!!!

a direct path, originally uploaded by eyesplash Mikul.Such a fantasic photo from my friend Mikul, what else can I say?

The Easter Cross

James pointed out to us today that it is Orthodox Easter Friday, which reminded me that I had forgotten to post my other versions of the Easter Cross from my local parish church.

I still like the original version that I posted although the Gothic versions runs a very close second. Which one do you like?

Time for a Break

I haven't had a proper holiday since 2007 so I thought it might be nice to plan a weekend away. Unfortunately my first thought, Stanton Manor is fully booked on the date I picked. They did however helpfully suggest two alternatives that they thought might be suitable.

The first suggestion didn't really float my boat but their second suggestion looks just my cup of tea. It offers gardens, what more could I ask for?

It is also reputed to be the oldest purpose built hotel in England dating back to 1220.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Synopsis:

The nameless and beautiful narrator of "The Gargoyle" is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over - he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just beginning. One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life - and, finally, to love.

Review:

The version of the book that I read had a red cover adorned with golden arrows and a flaming heart. The outer edges to the pages were coloured with black signifying burning, which fits with the theme of the book.

The book graphically describes the effect of the burns and their treatment, but despite this I found the book very compelling. The story slips between the present day and the 14th century as Marianne tells the tale of their previous life together. The telling of the tale makes you believe the unbelievable, making you reassess what is fact and what is fiction.

Many subjects are covered in the book; such as burns, mental illness, Christianity, history and medieval Europe.

In some ways the book describes a tragedy as a beauty is transformed into a beast. But that is only the physical aspect, mentally I think the journey is reversed.

I really loved the book and think it is an impressive first for the author. However I do think it is one of those books you will love or hate.

So That Was Easter

The weather was so beautiful yesterday it called for a day out which meant arriving at Little Morton Hall just in time for coffee cake ;-) The hall is quite quaint and is so higgledy piggledy it surprises me that it is still standing in tact. There is a little chapel attached to it and every time I visit I can feel a presence in there.

Next port of call was Jodrell Bank, home of the Lovell Telescope.

Since the summer of 1957 it has been quietly probing the depths of space, a symbol of our wish to understand the universe in which we live. Even now, it remains one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world, spending most of its time investigating cosmic phenomena which were undreamed of when it was conceived.

It was a fun day out which is more than can be said for today, but enough said about that. At least I was able to get some photographs of the cross from yesterday's Easter celebrations at the local Parish Church. A wooden cross was erected and adorned with flowers, the way the petals have fallen beneath the cross is quite effective...

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too.

Henrik Ibsen

For You

PhotoHunt - Triangle

More from the museum...

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

The Berlin Wall

Some photographs from the Cold War Exhibition that I visited Yesterday. I don't really need to add any commentary because the photos speak for themselves. You will probably need to click on the photos to be able to read them.

An Afternoon at the Exhibition

This afternoon was supposed to involve a walk round a local park to get the first photos of spring, but the weather had other ideas. Not one to be deterred by the weather I hastily made a plan B, which as it turned out was even better than my original plan. This building housed my main reason for visiting the museum, but only because I have already visited the rest of the museum.

One of the exhibits in the RAF museum at Cosford is the Cold War Exhibition. It houses lots of artifacts from this period in history and explains the ideologies from both sides. It covers the social history and the technological achievements that came about due to the competition between the East and West. If you get the chance it is well worth a visit.

More pictures to follow soon...