Normal Service Interrupted....

We had the big cleaning day today, and Avie did an experimental Chinese Stir-Fry that turned out fantastic...but all of this has worn her out, and she has turned in for a well-earned rest. Normal service to be resumed tomorrow.

AUTUMN EVENING

Having spent a merry morning cleaning the bathroom, making sausages and preparing a large pan of colcannon for dinner I was more than ready for a breath of air,so as soon as Pa returned from his hospital appointment I trundled off in to the glowing autumn afternoon.

With little more than an hour before dark I headed for the parkland opposite my home. The long drive bordered by Lime trees looked as if they had been gilded and the ancient oaks had a toffee colour about them.

Every where I looked the beautiful colours of the season,enhanced by the light of a setting sun showered the ground with beauty to the delight of a group of small children who ran about trying to catch the leaves before they joined the other fallen. Around each tree a circle of gold,crimson or copper swirled like a gypsy dancers skirt as she sinks to the ground at the end of her dance.

The light was fading fast as I made my way in to a little plantation of young trees,, Birch,Hazel,

Chestnut,Alder and Sloe Among many others. Sweetbrier. So fragrant during the summer months now sported thousands of brilliant red shiny hips,waiting for the Fieldfares and Redwings who will soon be hear,and hungry!

Now as I turned homewards I noticed the first pink tinge in the evening sky and before I had travelled far the tint became a stain .blood red which spread across the sky setting the tree tops in the shelter belt alight . From the lake great skeins of wild geese headed for the river and as I watched the sky changed again to a deep rose red,I stopped to watch and could not bear to move on until the last flame of red had gone .

I have always love being outside at dusk,and in the dark,though these days it is unusual for my to be out and about in the evenings. Halfway down the long drive I could see the light from our cottage

windows,it always looks so cosy and so safe snuggled beneath the ancient church tower,and sheltered by tall trees.

For me ever since childhood the happiness of coming home, has always been wrapped up in memories of fire light and the smell of cooking,the cherry greeting from those already within and the promise of a cosy evening with the ones I love best. Time changes the faces of those who wait at home,but the welcome and the warmth remain.  

MAIN COURSE TOMATO SOUP

Now that the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder it is a good time to be thinking about the multitude of soups which cam be made in minutes and which are,with the addition of crusty bread a main meal in themselves.

Tonight's meal was a favourite of ours,roasted vegetable and tomato soup,this this rich ,heart warming bowl full served with crusty bread and some cheese ensures that no one leaves the table hungry.

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 tube tomato purree

1 large parsnip

half a pound of squash,peeled and cut in to chunks

2 red peppers seeded and halved

1 large parsnip peeled and quartered

1-1.5 pts chicken or vegetable stock depending upon how thick you like your soup.

Salt

1 dessert spoon of sugar

a good handful of basil chopped

black pepper

olive oil

a good splash of balsamic vinegar

Set the oven to 200oC . Place all the vegetables in a roasting tin and drizzle with the olive oil,place in the oven and roast for at least 30 minutes until the vegetables are beginning to char.

Put half the vegetables in to a blender with one tin of tomatoes ,half the basil and some of the stock and blend thoroughly. Repeat with the remaining ingredients the add salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and if you want a thinner soup add the rest of the stock.

Heat the soup without boiling and serve at once with fresh crusty granary bread and a selection of cheeses, Stilton, Brie , a good red Leicester or some Ossau Irate complement the soup very well.

If you make more than you need the soup freezes well and will keep for several weeks. Oh ,I almost forgot. Sausage rolls also go well with this soup.

CARILLION, THE JUGGERNAUT ROLLS ON.

Quite unexpectedly on October the 18^th John Laings, the contractors who have been decimating several boroughs in Greater London and whom a number of conservation groups including mine have been fighting were bought out be Carillion.

Apparently, according to their press release they wished to return to their core business of construction, and were no longer interested in managing(or miss managing,depending upon your point of view) parks, cemeteries and other green spaces and several libraries in a number of boroughs.

While I do not presume to suppose that the constant harrying of Laings by groups such as ours it must, I am certain have gone some way to convincing them that their acute lack of expertise and total absence of customer relations was coming to a head and that some serious law suits were heading their way.

So who and what are Carillion? Well big is what they are,as to who they are if you believe their web site and their publicity releases they are, among many other wonderful things ,very interested in preserving the green spaces in our inner cities. Perhaps I am just a hardened old cynic but after Continental Landscapes, not so much who care as “Who cares?” and John Laings who patently did not care at all,I cannot wholeheartedly welcome Richard Howson C.E.O ,and his Juggernaut of a company.

My problem is quite simply this. When the care of parks,playing fields,and green spaces in general were in the care of our elected local authorities own employees there was far more notice taken of how these places worked. Now, like everything else,these jobs are put out to tender, and quite often the companies who are given the contract tender parts of the work to other companies...are you beginning to see the problem?

Everyone wants to make a profit...well of course they do, but when this is done by destroying the environment to make it easier to manage we must call a halt.

Tree surgery becomes reactive rather than pro active and so trees are lost. Hacking out all the undergrowth makes a green space easier to manage i.e. two men with strimmers instead of four with hand tools. Result,no birds as their habitat is destroyed, no butterflies and moths, no bats,in fact no anything. This is the true cost of making a profit!

The directors of these companies are not local and so it signifies nothing to them that our green spaces are trashed,there huge salaries pay for mansions in places like Esher or Alderly Edge,to put it bluntly, they don't care either !

I hope with all my heart that I am wrong, but in case I am not I would like to send a message to Mr Howson.

We saw off Continental and we saw off Laings, we are ready for you, and remember “the bigger they are the harder they fall.”

Normal Service To Be Resumed

Avie has worked very hard today, and we had people around until fairly late...so she has retreated to her bed with a cup of cocoa. Normal service to be resumed tomorrow...

TESCO FIASCO

Today I visited the above mentioned store ,not something I enjoy at the best of times but recently things have become much worse.

A few months ago our local branch ,and I suspect many other branches was graced with a visit from the”Time and Motion” people,cuts were needed as profits were down ever so slightly.

The study at my local branch took place while the branch manager was on holiday and so he had absolutely no say in the matter. After the usual poncing about with clip boards the geniuses from Time and motion recommended certain cuts which would,.they said, enable the store to run more efficiently and for less money.

Many experienced members of staff were sacrificed in favour of younger and probably less well paid members. In areas where three people had been needed to do the job the workforce was cut to two. This method was used across the board,the result,at my branch at least has been catastrophic!

So devastating have the measures been that I doubt very much it the people who made these absurd recommendations actually understood how the store works.

Seeing staff sitting at checkouts when the store was quiet gave them the idea of cutting the number of checkout staff and using other members of the store personnel to stand in at busy times,a good idea ….... no.

The personnel who fill in at busy times are having to leave their own jobs to man the checkouts,obviously this means that the work they were supposed to be doing does not get done.

These days one is constantly hearing “Will green card holders please report to the checkouts.” this is code for things are hotting up. Then one hears “Will amber card holder please come to the checkout.” This is code for the queues are getting longer and we can't cope. Finally one hears “Will red card holders please report to the checkout,” this is code for ,if we don't shift these bloody queues there’s is going to be a riot!!!

Now the colour coding denotes the staff who, according to the Time and Motion wizards can be most easily spared from their own employment, and this is where the whole bang shoot falls flat on it's backside.

You see the green card holders are the shelf stacker,s and price ticket changers and since this system came into use there are more gaps on the shelves than I have ever seen in a supermarket. Whole sections empty. Today Muffins, crumpets,bread rolls and many other bakery items were no where to be seen at one thirty in the afternoon. Grapes,none potato varieties,few, fresh milk,none,speciality cheeses scanty. Through out the store this was the case.

Here and there large trolleys filled with merchandise to fill these gaps stood,(in everyone’s way ,I must add) all around the store,several in most aisles,and where were the staff who were supposed to be shelf stacking.......manning the checkouts that’s where!

In retail the first rule of business is quite simple “ You cannot sell empty spaces” Tesco take note.

Every where to be seen are staff members with clip boards running around like headless turkeys or talking in anxious voices on the telephone. Ask one of them where a certain product might be found and the silence is deafening.

Ours is a superstore and upstairs in Aladdin's cave clothes household goods hardware and electricals are to be found. The clothes department is at the moment in such a state of disarray that women’s. Mens and childrens clothes are mixed up together instead of being in separate areas of the floor.

Today I watched in amusement while a burly six footer with the build of a rugby player tried on a parka to a backdrop of ladies nightclothes,he looked ridiculous and the poor man knew it.

Different departments are melding one in to another and attempting to find anything is difficult.

Last week I picked up a dressing gown for PA, it was a lovely deep purple and was surrounded by others exactly the same. Along side where men’s pyjamas and other men’s dressing gowns, all seemed well...until I got the blessed garment home and Pa pointed to a label declaring it to be for ladies!.

I was some what miffed at this turn of events,on my return to the store I discovered that these purple gowns had been deposited among the men’s dressing gowns by mistake. Now it has to be said that the gown looked pretty damn unisex to me but Pa would have none of it and since the receipt was lost we now have a spare dressing gown in a small size which is neither use nor ornament at anyone here.

Since the new way of working came in to operation a series of unpleasant smells have plagued the store, spills of things such as milk are not clean properly as no one has the time. Three days ago the entire milk section had to be gutted and scrubbed, the smell,in spite of the use of a great deal of disinfectant was dreadful and there was no fresh milk to be had.;

Today, the shelves were empty of fresh whole milk and so on two separate occasions have been unable to purchase Pa’s special Jersey ,non homogenised milk, or indeed any thing but skimmed and semi skimmed,where are the shelf stacker’s....you guessed it, manning the checkouts!

Most of the abandoned trolleys full of produce are wrapped in cling film and it is impossible to get in to them to help oneself to muffins,etc. It is my intention,on future visits to take with me a small blade in order to gain entry to the things I need.

Lastly I feel bound to point out that none of this mess is the fault of the staff, they are at the sharp end of a very bad set of decisions and with the approach of Christmas things can only get worse.

My message to Tesco is that the good will of both customers and staff is rapidly running out,oh and what happened to the “only one in front” boast, today there were three in front of me!

Can we have some decent service …...please!!

GETTING THINGS DONE

Now that Pa has a definite date for his surgery we are ramping up our Christmas preparations in the hope that by the time he goes in to hospital on December the 6^th we shall be able to concentrate all our efforts on him.

Hampers have been dispatched to relatives filled with Christmas goodies of a non perishable nature,those with December birthdays will also be receiving their gifts and cards rather early this year. This is early even for me but I would hate to forget someone in the stressful business of having dear old Pa in hospital and of course caring for him on his return home.

My son is being a great help this year and I must admit it is rather nice to have a strong man to lean on just now. He seems to revel in the responsibility of being the head of the house and certainly it is good practice for him when he has an establishment of his own to run, and it is much better for Pa not to have to worry about routine matters.

My sons new book is coming along and should be released within about three weeks and the five star reviews are still arriving.

My only regret at the moment is that I shall have to cancel some of the planned events in December. Of course we are hoping that Pa will return from his operation with no side effects of complications but the poor chap has so many health problems that I am afraid this may well be a vain hope.

Early in the New Year he must undergo an even more difficult operation on his spine so there will be no time to worry about anything else. Two months after that he is to have re constructive surgery on his hand and wrist,after which we hope for a little time to draw breath before the whole thing starts again.

In spite of all this there is the feeling of Christmas magic in the air,strange parcels arriving and being hastily squirrelled away,the rustle of wrapping paper and from the kitchen the scent of Christmas preserves, mince meat ,and a special Christmas Conserve made with many types of berry,apples and spices.

I am still rather tired and my problems with the new medication are still plaguing me,and yet I cannot help but feel fortunate. In the past year my son has achieved the dream of a lifetime, my darling mother has been spared the horror of cancer and Pa will,at last have the surgery he so badly needs. I call the great good fortune,don't you?