Moments of vanity

I had a moment spare this evening, my “Baptism and Membership” group (held in our dining room) finished before Louise’s “Exploring Church Group” (held in our living room). I have to confess that in a moment of vanity I searched for myself (Graham Doel) in google. What surprised me was that the number one spot was Chris Luby’s web site and the number two Matt Fletcher’s. My own blog (graham.doel.org) was to be found near the bottom. I obviously don’t mention myself (Graham Doel) enough in my posts!

Aliceisms

There are a number of little sayings that Alice has:

gogglers = binoculars
don’t go out with me = don’t go without me
mountain = fountain
sloddering = slobbering
the lights are blowing = the lights are glowing

Driving on the right

We hired a car on our holiday. This morning we were driving to a supermarket. I took a right out of the hotel (left turns are a bit to scary). We travelled for about half and hour in the wrong direction, finally worked ot that we were no where near the spermarket and then decided that I was going o have to take a left turn. I turned left like a tre local, appart from the moment when I didn’t know which side of the road I shold have been on and swerved a little.

We drove for annother 10 minutes and decided we were going the have to retrace our route. After we had driven for another 40 mintes and had another couple of scary moments we had a conversation that went like this:

Lou: Your a good driver Gray, I’d ever dare do this.
Isaac: No your not!
Gray and Lou: (helpless laughter)
L: Why, don’t you like Daddys driving?
I: No, weve been driving for hours and were still not there (which was true, the supermaket was a five minute drive from the hotel). I’ll tell you what your good at.
L: Whats that then.
I: Laughing, you’ve done nothing but lagh since we set off.

Regeneration in the West End of Morecambe. A phone call from Geraldine.

I had a surprise phone call yesterday evening. Geraldine Smith MP rang. It was the usual chaos, Isaac playing the recorder in the background, and Libby shouting with glee. I took the phone off to another room and shut the door.

I wrote to Geraldine in December 2004 to thank her for championing regeneration in the West End of Morecambe and expressed my personal view that on the whole the regeneration plan is a positive. I do have some concerns and in my letter I suggested that moving people on who do not conform to accepted social norms without offering them the opportunity to change their lifestyles is short sighted. I said that although the regeneration plan “will improve this area and many will benefit, it merely moves the problem, rather than solving it.”

I have to be fair and say that I thought that Geraldine was either ignoring my mail, or it had got lost in the system. It is nice to know that someone who is very busy took the time ring me in reply. She was keen to tell me how she has been involved in getting English Partnerships involved and stressed that nothing had been finalised and that it was down to the city council. Apparently the City Council Cabinet are meeting to consider the plan in March.

We talked about the style of housing in the West End and she explained that she was an advocate of “Shared Ownership” housing. A view which I share, Louise and I have considered it ourselves in the past, and with the never ending rise in the property market it helps people get a foot on the housing ladder. She expressed her concern over the state of some of the housing in the West End, even referring to it as “slum” accommodation. I am often in and out of houses in the West End, how some of the landlords get away with providing such diabolical housing is beyond me. I understand why they might not want to invest in housing that is quite likely to get trashed, however because of that, people have to live in the most disgusting of conditions. The condition of some of the housing is diabolical and it is outrageous that society should expect people to live in them. Geraldine stressed how the proposed plan would improve slum accommodation. She expressed her incredulity that some people talk as though some of the roads that contain the most run down houses are lovely areas.

There is no doubt that Geraldine is working hard for the area and I would not want to imply that she does not. I raised the issue of anti-social behaviour and was surprised to hear her say “Every area should have its fair share”. It is true that the West End of Morecambe does have more than its fair share and for Geraldine the regeneration plan redresses the balance. It makes the West End less attractive as a social “dumping ground”. I agree with this but for me the issue of rehabilitation should run parallel with regeneration. There is no point just moving people on, or making the area less attractive because the problems will be there.

What the country needs is an effective social policy that prevents they cycle of poverty. I meet people time and time again who see no point to trying to drag themselves out of the circle benefits and drugs because as they are, they can live. Any job that they may get would not pay more than they receive for loafing all day. What the West End needs is opportunities for education, for rehabilitation and for respectable accommodation. I don’t think I made these points well with Geraldine

Isaac’s Questions: "Why do chickens print lions on their eggs", and "How do they tell the difference between eggs that are chickens and eggs that are eggs"

“Why do chickens put lions on their eggs?”
Answer:
The eggs come out of the chicken without a lion on them (this is news to Isaac). They are cleaned and sorted using a machine that puts them into the same size. Then a special printer puts the mark on. Domino sell them.

“How do they tell the difference between eggs that are chickens and eggs that are eggs?”
Answer:
I don’t really know. I suspect that they get to the eggs before they have time to develop. I have had a look for the answer but haven’t found it. Oh well.