WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

The main event for me was finishing my shaft.
The outside world was notable because my daughter's migraine subsided. It must be hell living with that.
Apart from that, the sight of the pigs rearranging the troughs at Westminster.Yes you're right, I am ashamed to have this lot for a government· In my defence, I didn't vote for them!

[Tripps]

Continuing from previous page- on the topic of memory and reminders.

I've found that my email (fastmail) has a good calendar function which I hadn't noticed. I can quickly and easily set it to send me a reminder email for a future event. That's nearly as good as an alarm as I get a audible signal on my phone when I get an email.

Wow - just had an email reminder that I'm due at the dentist in an hour's time. It works - onwards to the 21st century.

[Stanley]

I'm trying to stay in the 20th David.....

[Wendyf]

Avian flu is back, poultry lockdown across the country again!

[Stanley]

I thought I heard that yesterday Wendy but wasn't sure. Hope it doesn't affect you too badly.
What grabbed my attention this morning was a schoolgirl in the Co-op getting what we thought could be her breakfast. A £1 pack of giant dairy milk buttons.... (We being Dot, the lady on the till and yours truly.)

[Stanley]

See THIS for an interesting view of the Commons Standards Committee from one of the lay members. I didn't realise there were seven lay members and seven serving MPs. Worth looking at I think.
Later at 05:30. A lady who was with drink taken in the back street looking for Richard. I couldn't help her.
We may be poor but we do see life!

[Big Kev]

Reports of a stabbing near Slipper Hill, lots of Facebook speculation but there were lots of emergency services attending. I'm sure the facts will emerge eventually.

[MickBrett]

This tree which is on my neighbours property, close to the border with ours.
It always looks nice at this time of the year.

[Stanley]

I saw one almost the same colour at Colne on Friday Mick. I think it will be one of the many types of Maple.
Later.... Have a look at THIS Mirror article on emerging news that the Tory Party is offering a peerage to anyone who will donate £3million to the party. What next?

[PanBiker]

With the help of Sally this afternoon we completed the remembrance cross distribution down at Gill. Just had the family plots in the Churchyard to finish. Can't find some of course but on the other side of the coin we have discovered four new ones that I didn't have on my list. There are a lot of stones that have been laid down and I do wish that they could be done with the details face up but many are not.

I have ten in the Cemetery and five in the churchyard that I haven't found this year plus the two lads who are down in the lower part of the Churchyard that I will write crosses up for. I will then just have to nip down once more to set them up in the correct areas.

[Stanley]

Well done Ian.... I can't believe they lay stones face down. Have they a reason for doing that?

[Tizer]

I too encountered the problem of gravestones being laid down because they were falling over and some were face down. Perhaps hoping to minimise erosion of the faces until such time as they got around to putting back vertical again? In some graveyards the fallen stones have been perched facing outwards and up against the church wall or a boundary wall which seems more sensible.

[PanBiker]

Well done Ian.... I can't believe they lay stones face down. Have they a reason for doing that?

We had a chat with June Barker at the coach house when we finished as she gave us a brew and a piece of cake each to warm us up despite us not having any money to pay for it.

Apparently church regulations do no allow interfering with headstones other than to render them safe for other visitors to the site. If they fall face down or have to be laid that way that's it, you cant go back and turn it over. All headstones and other donated artefacts such as benches with dedications etc are private property and cannot be interfered with.

Seems daft to me, as I pointed out that effectively you are rendering the former commemorated person(s) interred therein to an unmarked grave! Surely it is of no detriment to anyone even if the stone falls face down for it to be turned face up if it is managed responsibly by the warden.

This rule is very restrictive for the volunteers who are doing a sterling job tidying up the site. Many of whom have skills that can be very useful. A case in point, June said that there is a simple wooden bench on the site which has seen better days and needs attention. One of the volunteers is a skilled joiner and has said he would repair it but cant because it falls foul of the private property rule, makes no senses at all.

I wonder if strictly speaking my interference of putting a cross on nearly 80 such bits of private property could actually fall foul of this daft rule?

[PanBiker]

Sorry for the double post but what attracted my attention today was a demand for £50.00 from "Park With Ease Ltd" for to pay for illegal and unpaid parking at Pendle Heritage Centre!

Sally visited the Heritage Centre last month with a couple of friends for a birthday lunch. She was the driver and she took both of her friends. The site is fitted with a payment machine that uses ANPR to register your vehicle. She paid at the machine for two hours parking against the reg number of the car which it had already clocked when she drove onto the site. The machine does not issue a receipt. They exited the site within the two hours paid for.

I have emailed the appeals address provided on the letter and told them she has two witnesses to attest that she paid at the machine and where to get off.

[Tizer]

A couple of years ago there was a lot of trouble here in Taunton when supermarkets changed their parking charge regimes without making it obvious to customers. Then we had the `bus gate' fiasco - that's not a pun on Watergate, it's what the council called the areas that they declared to be for buses only. Drivers, including me, found themselves trapped, no way out without being photographed and fined. No excuses accepted.

We seem to live in an age of bungled projects, failing systems, incompetent people etc. We did our supermarket shopping this morning and Mrs Tiz bought herself a new wheelie basket in the in-store Argos shop. Got it home, unwrapped it and unfolded the bag - and found the bottom of the back coated in what looked like dried mud. Plus the rest of the bag had mould growing on it. We took it back and got our money returned. But how can a big store like Argos think it's OK to sell something like that?

[Wendyf]

I ordered 2 pairs of good quality walking socks from Millets Online back on the 25th October. On 27th October they were with Hermes and I eagerly awaited delivery ready for my walking challenge. This afternoon, after a couple of promised deliveries that didn't arrive, I finally got my parcel, whoopee!!
Guess what, only one pair of socks.
I got through very quickly to customer care but it was almost impossible to hear what the girl I spoke to was saying as she was obviously deep under water with a few hundred more customer care operators all shouting through the waves. Old cynic Colin tells me that the background sounds of a full and busy call centre are an illusion, just part of the homeworking set up......

[Stanley]

You're right Ian, it's bureaucracy gone mad. Particularly the joiner offering to repair the bench.
Pendle Heritage parking scam sounds as though they have outsourced their parking supervision to someone who has offered them a regular income. It sounds like a scam to me, tell PH staff about it, you might not be the only one.
What grabbed me yesterday was a long conversation with my mate John Ingoe. his health isn't so good but he's taking it easy and says that he will come over and visit. Nice to know you aren't forgotten!

[Tizer]

At least there are some good ideas out there...
`One smart idea to reduce wood waste in construction' LINK

[PanBiker]

Pendle Heritage parking scam sounds as though they have outsourced their parking supervision to someone who has offered them a regular income. It sounds like a scam to me, tell PH staff about it, you might not be the only one.

It's not a scam Stanley the firm that runs it is a perfectly legal UK registered limited company.

PH could do nowt about it as its nothing to do with them. However after a couple of emails and asking them to recheck their records they have found that Sally did indeed pay for two hours parking and so have cancelled the penalty notice.

The tech isn't all it's cracked up to be and what actually happened is the machine took money off her against an erroneous registration. She typed it in wrong! It was easy to spot that the reg she gave wasn't actually in the ANPR log because it didn't exist. Sally made the mistake but the machine should not have charged against a reg that was not logged as in the car park.

The letters will probably all be generated automatically each day against registrations that don't have payment flags, regardless of why. Just checked and the parking charge letter (notice to keeper) is not signed. It will be constructed automatically from the DVLA database (for the registered keeper) and the details from the ANPR machine for location, time and date.

Sally did note that there was only three cars in the car park and about twenty parked on Barrowford Road. The parking "solution" is causing a hazard elsewhwere.

[Stanley]

Yes, you see the same at Burnley General hospital as well.

[Wendyf]

The clock from St Mary's Church in Kelbrook has been away for restoration and yesterday the clock faces were being returned to the tower. Sally and I went to have a look while we were getting a soaking and though we didn't see any abseiling action I took this photo. The return of the mechanism has been delayed by woodworm in the tower!

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[Stanley]

Isn't it good that people care enough to refurbish the clock. That's quite cheered me up.....
(Can we have our clock back in Barlick please.....)

[Wendyf]

This is the company who have done the work. Ted Fort OBE has funded the restoration.

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[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

The War Memorial in Barlick was well attended this morning for the 11 o'clock maroon and two minutes silence, probably about 50 people or thereabouts. Our remembrance service is on Sunday afternoon on the Town Square and will be followed by the wreath laying at the memorial.