Dixon of Dock Green or The Bill?

We had what we thought was a good idea today. Our first school software fair is on Thursday and we decided it would be a good idea to take some leaflets about staying safe on the internet which the local police had left in the shop a few weeks ago. I rang the police to see if they had any other related leaflets or posters that we could also use. The officer who got returned my call was very pleasant but not particularly pro-active. "Well, there is a leaflet you can download from the internet, he suggested. In other words, if we want to use it, we will have to print copies ourselves, with the attendant costs.
It reminded me, for some reason, of a phone conversation I had with a police officer a few years ago when I was acting Head of my school and we had ongoing problems with local youths on the school roof every evening. The roof was gradually being more and more vandalised and was leaking in places. I must mention that the grounds were surrounded by a four and a half foot hedge and gates of the same height - so not exactly the Berlin wall. However, when I asked the policeman about the possibility of actually coming into the grounds to investigate when there were obviously intruders present, I was reminded that the gates were locked.
"Surely your officers could climb over the gates?" I boldly suggested.
There was a sharp intake of breath at the other end of the phone, followed by....
"Ooh no, they can't do that. They might have an accident."
I put the phone down with an increasing sense of disbelief, followed by regret that I had not thought to say,
"Well, that's not how they do things in 'The Bill.'"
Don't suppose it would have done any good though........

Anyone for conkers?

Do you remember playing conkers in your youth? Is there anyone who didn't? Do you have any recollection of anyone being carried off to hospital either because they had been blinded or were allergic to the things?
No, neither do I - either as a pupil or a teacher.
But looking here and here will show you two examples of health and safety gone mad. All a result, no doubt of the current 'claim culture' gone mad. It seems that nothing is allowed to be recognised and accepted as an accident any more. Someone must always be to blame and so someone must always be made to pay in one way or another - usually in the form of substantial amounts of money. And so, the range of activities accessible to our children today is being insidiously eroded.
A couple of weeks ago, OFSTED issued a report claiming to be concerned at the unwillingness of teachers to take their pupils on adventure activities or even the traditional days out. Look at Gemmak's blog for an excellent piece of writing on that.
Oh, and then talk to teachers to see if they believe the claim that if everything has been done correctly, the staff involved will not be answerable!

Wales doesn't exist! Official!

A few days ago, I commented on my temporary new blog here about the fact that those wonderful people in Brussels had somehow managed to 'lose' Wales from the map of Britain. If you read this, you will see how we have all been deluding outselves here in Wales.
And all you people in Yorkshire, please read it extra carefully! You are next!

Back home!

Sincere apologies to all those friends to whom I have sent details of my new blog over on Xanga. I'm back home again, a sadder and wiser woman! I decided to spread my wings because the template I had chosen seemed to be unstable on other people's computers and also because I was having such a problem uploading posts and template changes. However, although Xanga is good in many aspects, I found it rather controlling as to what you can and cannot put on the template. And then there was the tendency for things to appear only to disappear later - extremely frustrating! Also, there don't seem to be any adults with blogs on Xanga! They're all American teenagers!
So, on the swearing level, Xanga won hands down! Even Keith got a bit worried that I was getting 'naggy' (Who? Moi????)
So, sorry for the incovenience, folks, Jenny is back on Blogger!

P.S. The most important reason for returning is that it felt a bit lonely over there - I missed my Blogger friends! :)

Moving

Well, I have even taken myself by surprise today. I suddenly decided needed to change my template yet again as the one I have now doesn't seem to be very stable, although I do like it. So, during a quiet spell at work, I browsed through a few other providers and decided I liked Xanga. To cut a long story short, I have spent the evening setting up my new blog here.
For now, I'll keep both of them up till I've had time to customise the new one and get used to how it works. Now, I'm too tired to do any more, so I'm going to bed! Good night one and all!

A blog with a mind of its own

Although my blog is displaying perfectly normally on my computer, it has suddenly gone haywire on Keith's - the posts have disappeared and the whole screen is taken up with the sidebar. Also, one of my friends who reads it regularly has complained that, on his computer, the post overlaps the sidebar, which it never did when I had the old template. I am wondering if it is because of something I am doing or because it is not one of Blogger's own templates. If anyone else is having difficulty with it or can shed light on the problem, I'd be grateful if they would let me know.
I only hope I don't have to change it all again - another 6 hours or steep learning curve!!! :(

More fun and games

Today brought another dialogue with our favourite furniture shop. Once again, having been promised a phone call, I had to ring them, to be told that we were still no further forward, upon which I again mentioned the magic word "refund". The reaction to this was a promise that someone higher up would ring me shortly and Lesley, the lady I was speaking to, ensured that she had my mobile and work phone numbers. A little later, I did indeed get another phone call - from the warehouse, informing me that our furniture could be delivered on October 14th. This person had no knowledge of, and less interest in, all that had gone before. (A mental picture of her sitting there yawning and filing her nails arose in my mind.) To cut a long story short, the choice was between 14th and 20th, on both of which we can only take delivery in the morning but not the afternoon. She promised a text message 2 days beforehand (again) to inform me of the time and said that, if it was not convenient, I could ring the warehouse and change it.
"And who shall I ask for?" I asked. "Oh, not me, I won't be here. I'm only temporary," was the reply.
Arriving home after work, there was a message on the answerphone. You've got it - Jenny, boss lady at the furniture shop, ringing to tell me that all the stops were being pulled out to find our furniture, they even had one of the directors on the case and she would ring me again tomorrow to let me know if any developments.
Two things sprang to mind:
a) The shop had my mobile and work number as I was not at home, but of course, they had to use our home number.

b) Where have all these emails gone that were supposedly flying between the shop and the warehouse and WHY does NOBODY seem to have read them????

So now we have the shop trying to track down some furniture which has disappeared and at the same time, a warehouse trying to deliver it!
Confused? You will be!!!