The Relentless Schedule

Well here I am on a Sunday morning when I should be out delivering. But I'm taking the time out to reorganise the boot in my car which has been used as a dumping ground during the week for all sorts of canvassing paraphernalia - and anyway - I just want a rest!

So how has the week gone. Apart from the day job in the hospital which is always busy it's been busy,busy,busy - so no surprise there! Out every night all over the patch - Mells, Faulkland, Rode, Coleford and then Rode again canvassing on successive nights - and then out Friday morning and all day Saturday delivering - interspersed with going into the campaign office to agree the content for new leaflets, and have more photos taken as they've used all the last lot. Oh and also write a report on the housing component of a prospective development in my home village and present it to a village meeting.

In my spare time (ha ha) I've also managed to get my car repaired in Bristol, watch my granddaughter at her weekly swimming lesson, go to Modern Jive and a Pilates class (good for my bad back!), and out for dinner with some neighbours on Friday evening. It was good to catch up with all their news.

But I guess the big surprise was a telephone call from our youngest son about 10 o'clock Thursday morning. He was in a hotel in Las Vegas (2am in the morning there) bringing me up to date on the final part of a 2mth holiday he's having with his wife. Which reminds me of a discussion I had with him in London recently about his job. He's a Police Sergeant in the Met in one of the inner London Boroughs and he was telling me about how he works in close co-operation with the Councillors in his area as part of his responsibility for Community Policing. He has some good ideas which I would like to try out if I'm elected . Whether the ideas that work in central London can be applied in rural Somerset remains to be seen.

Refreshed!

Well after a weekend in London I've returned to the West Country full of beans (well not exactly but lots of Italian food!) London was the Beach Boys, Kew Gardens and a very good Italian restaurant in Richmond. But slightly spoilt by waking up to a blizzard on Sunday morning.

Monday was back into the day job in the Emergency Department. It was a routine day - whatever that is in A&E. Getting home was a trial because the A36 is shut for 3 months due to roadworks and my home village is badly affected. Over an hour to do 8 miles! - and I'm supposed to live in the country. I can recall one memorable early morning when I worked in Pimlico that it took me just 90 minutes to drive 110- miles - those were the days.

After work tonight its off to Mells to go canvassing then back to my home village for a meeting, followed by a quick dinner then ringing round the village because there all sorts of queries from locals about a new planning application that might encroach on undeveloped land and also there are Travellers supposedly setting up camp in the green belt.

I suppose I must have some uses as instead of going to the Parish or District Councillor many seem to come to me for advice. It's really just like the Archers!

A hard week's work

It's been a week since my last post so if you've been reading my first efforts you probably think I've lost interest now. Not so! It's just been an incredibly busy week. I was back to work on Tuesday after a couple of weeks leave. The day job is trying to keep an Emergency department running efficiently at the local general hospital. I'm the Operations Officer for Emergency Medicine which broadly means that administratively almost everything is up to me (al least that's how it seems to me) including all the buying of equipment and consummables. There's certainly never a dull moment. And into the day job I'm now fitting canvassing every night of the week , delivering + trying to keep up to date with my emails and agreeing all the campaign strategy and timetable with the campaign Team.

I couldn't do this without C and D beavering away in the office (quick thought - have I thanked them properly?) organising me and all the countless others who are turning up to support me, paste stakeboards, telephone canvass - the list just goes on and on.

Today was typical . Up at 6, in the hospital at 7, leave at 1 to go to the funeral of a neighbour's son (a tragic early death), on to canvassing between 6 and 8 then to a campaign meeting which finished at 10. Then home to write this blog and answer the rest of the emails.



I'm taking a break this weekend. We have had booked for many months tickets to see the Beach Boys at the Apollo Hammersmith and as luck would have it my youngest sons flat is only a few miles away between Richmond and Kingston. And he's in New Zealand at the moment so we get to use his flat (and his car). We'll have a nice weekend in London and hopefully come back refreshed to join the fray on Monday. This is when I find out who else is standing as nominations close this weekend.



Watch this space for more news early next for news of the competition!