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.
Sunday 13 April 2008
Monday 7 April 2008
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!
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!
Thursday 3 April 2008
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!
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!
Thursday 27 March 2008
Counting out the folding stuff
No it's not money I'm talking about but campaign leaflets. About 4000 have turned up from the printers today so it was my job to go and collect them from the office, together with canvass stuffers and stakeboard posters ready for distribution to all my delivery teams tomorrow.
I spent most of the morning trying to sort out glitches (that's the polite word!) on the electoral roll so we could have canvass cards printed correctly. At the last District elections whole streets had been put into the wrong ward and I had hoped that all the errors had been corrected. Not so I'm afraid.
And talking of glitches - having sorted out my PC my s*****g printer started to play up today and wouldn't print anything. So a quick trip into Bath to PC World where I bought it and wonder of wonders the chap on the help desk was actually helpful. As an ex personnel manager I'm convinced that most 'help' desks should acually be named 'unhelpful' desks - it more accurately describes the role most of them provide. Anyway all sorted now and its only been 90 minutes lost on unproductive work
The good news today is that I've had three more offers of help for deliveries and canvassing so I'm feeling a lot more comfortable about being able to get round the whole division. And the bad news is................I'm just beginning to realise that my 2 weeks of leave from the Emergency Department in the hospital where I work is shortly coming to an end. Just how I am going to do all this election stuff next week?
But back to campaign matters. Tonight there was an interesting meeting to attend in the next parish which would certainly involve me if elected. A small village school is considering how best to preserve it's future. Federation with other schools is in the air. The village hall was filled to overflowing from locals who not surprisingly feel strongly about the school - which seems to have a very good reputation. A good open discussion followed after speeches from the Chair of Governors, Head Teacher and local MP with everyone seemingly in favour of a novel 'hard' federation across county boundaries.
Now we just have to find out if this can be a workable solution.
I spent most of the morning trying to sort out glitches (that's the polite word!) on the electoral roll so we could have canvass cards printed correctly. At the last District elections whole streets had been put into the wrong ward and I had hoped that all the errors had been corrected. Not so I'm afraid.
And talking of glitches - having sorted out my PC my s*****g printer started to play up today and wouldn't print anything. So a quick trip into Bath to PC World where I bought it and wonder of wonders the chap on the help desk was actually helpful. As an ex personnel manager I'm convinced that most 'help' desks should acually be named 'unhelpful' desks - it more accurately describes the role most of them provide. Anyway all sorted now and its only been 90 minutes lost on unproductive work
The good news today is that I've had three more offers of help for deliveries and canvassing so I'm feeling a lot more comfortable about being able to get round the whole division. And the bad news is................I'm just beginning to realise that my 2 weeks of leave from the Emergency Department in the hospital where I work is shortly coming to an end. Just how I am going to do all this election stuff next week?
But back to campaign matters. Tonight there was an interesting meeting to attend in the next parish which would certainly involve me if elected. A small village school is considering how best to preserve it's future. Federation with other schools is in the air. The village hall was filled to overflowing from locals who not surprisingly feel strongly about the school - which seems to have a very good reputation. A good open discussion followed after speeches from the Chair of Governors, Head Teacher and local MP with everyone seemingly in favour of a novel 'hard' federation across county boundaries.
Now we just have to find out if this can be a workable solution.
Canvassing begins
I've now done 2 early evening canvasses in 2 separate villages. And the first thoughts are roll on warmer weather and summertime.
The first evening we canvassed from 6 -8 pm, later than the others would have wished (but I had to fit in my granddaughters swimming lesson first!). By the time we finished I was freezing cold, it was dark, you couldn't see to write and anyway it was almost too cold to hold the pencil. Straight after the canvass we went round to a local Councillor's home to have our first formal meeting of the campaign committee.
And this was where the evening really came unstuck. In my haste to park up my new car I failed to see a low stone wall in the darkness. Result - one scraped bumper which will need the attentions of our local paint shop. I don't know if the others noticed during the meeting but I'm sure my concentration wasn't at it's normal level as at that stage I didn't know how bad the damage might be.
Anyway the team seemed to think that everything was more or less on track so - so far so good. But by the time I got home it was past ten and I didn't really feel like food at this time so another missed meal.
The next day (Wed) started with me getting quotes for the repair to the car (oh and sorting out my annual house and contents renewal) which wasn't as damaging to my credit card as I thought it might be. Then I had to pop into the campaign office to see the draft of my 1st campaign leaflet which is now at the printers. The canvass cards are delivered about 450 and then its a quick dash to the village where we are canvassing from 5 - 7 - which is a much better time as although its still very cold we finish in the light and I can get home at a civilized hour to have dinner with my wife.
The first evening we canvassed from 6 -8 pm, later than the others would have wished (but I had to fit in my granddaughters swimming lesson first!). By the time we finished I was freezing cold, it was dark, you couldn't see to write and anyway it was almost too cold to hold the pencil. Straight after the canvass we went round to a local Councillor's home to have our first formal meeting of the campaign committee.
And this was where the evening really came unstuck. In my haste to park up my new car I failed to see a low stone wall in the darkness. Result - one scraped bumper which will need the attentions of our local paint shop. I don't know if the others noticed during the meeting but I'm sure my concentration wasn't at it's normal level as at that stage I didn't know how bad the damage might be.
Anyway the team seemed to think that everything was more or less on track so - so far so good. But by the time I got home it was past ten and I didn't really feel like food at this time so another missed meal.
The next day (Wed) started with me getting quotes for the repair to the car (oh and sorting out my annual house and contents renewal) which wasn't as damaging to my credit card as I thought it might be. Then I had to pop into the campaign office to see the draft of my 1st campaign leaflet which is now at the printers. The canvass cards are delivered about 450 and then its a quick dash to the village where we are canvassing from 5 - 7 - which is a much better time as although its still very cold we finish in the light and I can get home at a civilized hour to have dinner with my wife.
Tuesday 25 March 2008
I've had a 3 day rest from blogging but not from the campaign. Saturday morning was spent researching affordable housing issues while in the afternoon my wife volunteered to go out delivering in the village while I went to Coleford to meet our local councillors, members and deliverers in that area. There's something very civilised about starting a meeting with scones, jam and clotted cream in a lovely old farmhouse. By the time I got home about 630 we decided to finish the day by walking all of 20 metres to our local pub to have a meal there.
On Sunday I managed to deliver leaflets to the parts of the village my wife hadn't got to and the weather stayed dry which was a bonus - but she must have done at least two thirds of the village.
Easter Monday started early with our re-arranged visit to the Thermae Bath Spa. We decided to start off in the rooftop open air pool just after 9am. Its unbelievably warm - almost hot - which together with all the bubbles from the jacuzzi nozzles created a quite surreal effect on what was a cold rainy day. By the time our session finished about 1130 we certainly felt completely relaxed and it was an effort to do anything else at all for the rest of the day. To shake off our lethargy we took a bundle of leaflets and went delivering round some of the more isolated hamlets and single dwellings around the more remote areas of the division.
As my wife was using her (green) car it's now what I would call army camouflage colour from all the wet, muddy lanes- so that's another cleaning job for me sometime.
On Sunday I managed to deliver leaflets to the parts of the village my wife hadn't got to and the weather stayed dry which was a bonus - but she must have done at least two thirds of the village.
Easter Monday started early with our re-arranged visit to the Thermae Bath Spa. We decided to start off in the rooftop open air pool just after 9am. Its unbelievably warm - almost hot - which together with all the bubbles from the jacuzzi nozzles created a quite surreal effect on what was a cold rainy day. By the time our session finished about 1130 we certainly felt completely relaxed and it was an effort to do anything else at all for the rest of the day. To shake off our lethargy we took a bundle of leaflets and went delivering round some of the more isolated hamlets and single dwellings around the more remote areas of the division.
As my wife was using her (green) car it's now what I would call army camouflage colour from all the wet, muddy lanes- so that's another cleaning job for me sometime.
Friday 21 March 2008
Good Friday didn't start too good. We were sitting in the kitchen having an early breakfast as we were planning to go to the new Bath Spa this morning when my wife said 'There's something funny on the shed roof'. It turned out that the overnight storm had ripped off most of the centre section of felt from the roof and from a distance it looked just like a curled up furry animal. So no Bath Spa and off to the DIY shop to get some felt and repair the roof before we get more rain and wind.
Having taken all morning to repair the shed I thought I would attack my emails this afternoon. But now the PC is misbehaving and won't let me open any attachments - one of which I can see is the campaign timetable which I need urgently. Does anyone else ever feel like throwing their PC out the window? So I've put in a call to my local IT expert who is out fixing someone else's PC and I'm hoping that once he gets my message he will appear like a knight on a white charger and sort out all my PC problems.
When my PC is working life's fine but when it isn't life is incredibly frustrating.
One more call to make today to get another signature on my nomination paper and this is an important one. The widow of a former County Councillor for this Division has agreed to sign my nomination form. Her husband was a highly respected Councillor and held the education portfolio but most importantly was just a very nice man. I feel privileged to be trying to follow in his footsteps - but I'll be happy just to get elected and be a good Councillor for my Division
Having taken all morning to repair the shed I thought I would attack my emails this afternoon. But now the PC is misbehaving and won't let me open any attachments - one of which I can see is the campaign timetable which I need urgently. Does anyone else ever feel like throwing their PC out the window? So I've put in a call to my local IT expert who is out fixing someone else's PC and I'm hoping that once he gets my message he will appear like a knight on a white charger and sort out all my PC problems.
When my PC is working life's fine but when it isn't life is incredibly frustrating.
One more call to make today to get another signature on my nomination paper and this is an important one. The widow of a former County Councillor for this Division has agreed to sign my nomination form. Her husband was a highly respected Councillor and held the education portfolio but most importantly was just a very nice man. I feel privileged to be trying to follow in his footsteps - but I'll be happy just to get elected and be a good Councillor for my Division
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