OneGuyFromBarlick

Wendyf wrote:No vehicle tax discs from the 1st October. I knew it was coming but it still seems weird to pay your money and not get anything in return!

Now you know why I left England...

Nolic, do you read it as meaning that the care workers were employed directly by SCC and that the home was directly managed by SCC? We've found it difficult to understand how my father's care is organised in his Extra Care House because it involves Homes in Sedgemoor (the district council housing department), a private care company, SCC Adult Social Care, an independent carer and various ancillaries such as Mental Health professionals. At a public meeting of all parties recently I pointed out this difficulty and was told "We find it confusing too". He's had an independent lady coming in to clean his flat and wash clothes; when Dad first entered the House she was doing it for the man in the opposite flat, she got on well with Dad so we asked her to `do' for him too. Yesterday she rang and told me she can't do it any more, said it was because of personal reasons and rung off. But I know trouble has brewed up between her and the private carers (who give his care throughout the day), with her saying they aren't doing it properly and their boss telling me the lady has been annoying the carers and they've lost staff because of her. We've also had problems between SCC mental health workers and the private carers. It all seems to be a case of `too many cooks spoil the broth'. It's bad for the residents and not helpful for the relatives.

Just thought I would share. The other day I was withdrawing some money at my local supermarket, the young checkout guy counted the money (to himself) as he took it out of the till then turned to me and gave it to me all at once without counting it to me. I said to him that he is meant to count it to me, 10 20 50 etc. The reply he gave me was "Dunno". Not happy Jan. I had another experience recently where unbeknown to me there was 'something' extra on the weighing scales and I got charged 3 times the price for everything. I had to go back the next day and explain, explain, explain and got a full refund back, but it's not right. What happened to common sense? Where is the training, what are these employees taught??

Marilyn was buying tea from her local fish n chip shop on the weekend, she asked for a dozen prawns, and got the reply - wait for it - "How many is that?"

At work they were saying that these days the interviewing/training procedure for supermarkets and sometimes hardware stores consists of getting the new employee to do puzzles to see if they are up to being placed at the counter/checkout. What about customer service? What is going on??

I seems to me that the only ones who know what to do and how to treat people are the ones who have had some 'life experience'. Aargh!

Sadly Cathy, life experience now depends on the ability to use a smart phone at all times and under all conditions, the day of the "Dalek" cometh fast.

Tiz, the way I read the article SCC ran the children's home and had full control. The only other way would be for SCC to set up an arms length company to run the place as Lancashire did with their adult care homes. I think the whole of social and health care now is riddled with examples that you give and that the who caboodle is too complicated.
My personal concern is in relation to child protection. When I was area manager for LCC in Pendle , my staff and I were on first name terms with the police child protection unit, the consultant pediatricians, health visitors, head teachers and etc. If anyone had concerns about a child they would speak to relevant colleagues, if those concerns were urgent then we could meet the same day and decide what action was needed. In the same organisations now no-one barely speaks and it takes days to organise even the most rudimentary of child protection strategy meetings. The old adage of Keep It Simple Stupid is still relevant but unfortunately has been lost to the demands of local and central government bureaucracy. Nolic

Cath, you have my sympathy. I think one reason for the problem is that companies don't want to handle cash now, they prefer electronic methods - the credit card still being OK but it'll soon be by pointing a gadget at the machine. I'm not against technology but I don't believe the banks are yet fully up to speed with such things, at least not as far as the management are concerned. In banks and other financial and similar companies there are, on one side, the directors who have little knowledge about computer and software matters, and on the other the techies who can craft web sites and handle gadgets but have no idea about the business of finance. A formula for disaster, hence all the glitches with security and failure of ATMs etc.

Nolic wrote:..I think the whole of social and health care now is riddled with examples that you give and that the whole caboodle is too complicated...

Too complicated is exactly the impression that I've got from our experiences with my Dad's care and that of Mrs Tiz's parents. We have to keep repeating ourselves to different people. When we were with him yesterday another new carer appeared, her first time at his Extra Care House. Fortunately she's had 5 years of care and seems a robust and resourceful lass but she still has to learn my dad's needs and foibles.

How satisfying a few hours in the shed can be. Tiring too because I've been doing too much sitting down! Another thing I have learned from my foray into the world of online videos is the number of times a search term takes you to some very explicit porn sites. And yes, before you ask, I dipped into a few of them, I'm only human! Just think, all those visits are logged somewhere in the Cloud...... (try putting shaft or screw into Youtube..... It's a minefield!)

No shafts or screwing in this promotional video for Barnoldswick, which we premièred at the Rainhall Centre with the judges for the Great British High Street Initiative.

Visit Barnoldswick film

Makes you proud to be a Barlicker!

Magic

David Whipp wrote:No shafts or screwing in this promotional video for Barnoldswick, which we premièred at the Rainhall Centre with the judges for the Great British High Street Initiative.

Visit Barnoldswick film

Makes you proud to be a Barlicker!

A very good video.

Loved the video, very well done too. Aaaw... bit teary now.

Brilliant, now lets keep the ball rolling. Being a Barlicker is now becoming like being a part of a vibrant team, and not just one of a collection of assorted individuals. Most Barlickers can see both sides of a coin, and its nice to see this one minted.

Excellent video, congratulations to all who were involved. A model of what promotion is all about. I've sent the link winging off round the world.
What grabbed me yesterday was hearing our defence minister Fallon announcing the results of the two Tornado strikes in NW Iraq. A machine gun and a pick up truck destroyed. Good show chaps, that'll teach 'em!
The Met have found a body in the River Brent, it could be the missing young woman Alice Gross. Terrible.... Pity the family.

Excellent video. Well done to all those involved in the promotion. Nolic

The Visit Barnoldswick video is pretty popular; there's been over 2,000 views on Youtube and the Visit Barnoldswick Facebook post has been seen by over 12,500 people.

Haweswater is down at a lower level than in 1976. Funny there's been no mention of water shortage after the recent dry spell. Watch this space?
My legs are doing better stood up in the shed!

An EU commissioner is being criticised for saying that celebrities were being stupid for putting nude pictures of themselves online and then complaining when they got hacked and made public. But I think he's right! This from the BBC web page:

"Mr Oettinger was speaking during a meeting in Brussels on Monday. He was referring to the leak of intimate pictures featuring more than 80 famous women, including actress Jennifer Lawrence and pop star Rihanna. Members of the 4Chan message board first posted the images, which appeared to have been obtained by accessing private cloud storage accounts. Before making the comments Mr Oettinger said he was being "semi-serious". After hesitating, he went on to say: "The fact that recently there have been an increasing number of public lamentations about nude photos of celebrities who took selfies - I just can't believe it. "If someone is dumb enough as a celebrity to take a nude photo of themselves and put it online, they surely can't expect us to protect them. "I mean, stupidity is something you can not - or only partly - save people from."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29443022

I think this is an age thing again Tiz. I think stupidity is large factor with this nude selfie thing, Oh yeah, I'll take a picture of myself with no clothes on and put it on the internet. Setting the password to password seems like I good idea so I'll remember it......

Dohhhhhhhh.......

I think people would pay good money NOT to see naked pictures of me.

Tesco in trouble? I did a modest online shop yesterday, and spent just over £30. That included delivery charge of just £1. I live about 5 miles from the shop so that's less than the price of the diesel. I might continue to do it even when I'm mobile again.

I read that the true cost of home delivery is about £20 per order. This sound right when you consider the order picking work, the delivery cost, and the cost of the van and the IT infrastructure. I would guess they would only make money if the order was for well over £100.

Today I got an email telling me that after analysing my shop - I could have bought it elsewhere for £2.36 less - so they gave me a voucher to print out, for that amount. How kind.

Pluggy wrote:I think people would pay good money NOT to see naked pictures of me.

Haha, me too! Let's make some money by threatening people with our naked selfies if they don't hand over cash pronto! The celebs would probably fall for it.

Tripps, out here in the Somerset outback we see vans from various supermarkets whizzing up and down the country lanes. Tesco, then five minutes later Sainsbury's. A ridiculous waste of fuel with all these vans replicating trips into the countryside. They're all basically carrying the same stuff, just with different names on the labels.

Sainsbury's have used their covert monitoring to analyse my shopping and they have that system where once they know your regular purchases the checkout lady gives you a coupon offering you 10p off the next time you buy it. I know they've got me sussed - the lady gave me a coupon for jelly babies!

I can remember the day when you knew the price of a loaf of bread before you went in the shop. My pet hate about the discounting war is the '£5 off if you spend £50' coupon and they don't count pipe tobacco! My butcher is old fashioned, always knocks something off the total.
Susan picks me up today and takes me on a trip to Embsay Mill where they sell good backlit magnifiers for fine embroidery....

Tizer wrote:
Tripps, out here in the Somerset outback we see vans from various supermarkets whizzing up and down the country lanes. Tesco, then five minutes later Sainsbury's. A ridiculous waste of fuel with all these vans replicating trips into the countryside. They're all basically carrying the same stuff, just with different names on the labels.

Probably no more waste of fuel than even more cars whizzing up and down on their way to various supermarkets. The only difference is they don't have the supermarkets name on the side.

Edward Lee, the editor of the Leader/times Series has kept his promise. The article on Stanislaw is printed in full covering two pages. Very pleased and I suspect the Polish community will be as well. Good!

After discussing the daft celebs and their naked selfies spare a thought for the fools who were taken in by the `bomb detectors'. Yet another seller of these scam devices has been prosecuted.
`Fake bomb detector husband jailed for three years'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29477894
Go to the bottom of the web page and you find this. As Victor Meldrew would say, "I just don't believe it!". Empty boxes with an antenna on top! The world has gone mad.

The fraudsters and their devices:
The ADE-651 (supposedly shorthand for Advanced Detection Equipment) was sold to Iraq, Niger and other Middle Eastern countries by Somerset-based businessman, James McCormick, who is now serving 10 years in jail. The Iraqis spent £53m ($85m) on the devices at around £5,000 ($8,034) a time. Some sold for as much as £25,000 ($40,178).

The GT200 "remote substance detector", sold by Gary Bolton mainly in Mexico, Thailand, the Middle East and Africa. The device retailed at £5,000 ($8,034) but the highest price it achieved was £500,000 ($803,000). Bolton was sentenced to seven years.

The Alpha 6 manufactured by Samuel and Joan Tree and sold to Egypt, Thailand and Mexico, usually at £2,000 ($3,213) per device. The highest sale price was £15,500 ($24,906) Tree was given three and a half years behind bars while his wife was ordered to do 300 hours unpaid community work.