Posted: Fri 12 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: General |
The A11, one of the main Norfolk roads near us, was closed for about four hours today. Fortunately neither of us were affected by it this time.
The accident was noteworthy for the sheer gobsmacking stupidity of it – a police car had stopped on the A11 to warn other drivers about a broken-down car a bit further on. Another car carrying five people ploughed into the police car, injuring the policeman as well as the five people in the second car.
Now seriously, how the hell do you manage to not see a police car – with, one assumes, lights flashing to warn other drivers – at that kind of speed? That sounds like they weren’t even braking at the time – or at least not with enough effort/time. After all, if they’d had time, they’d have been slowing down even if the outside lane were solid traffic, and would be at a stop before they get to the police car.
Really the mind boggles about how an accident like this can happen. It certainly sounds like a case of “driving without due care and attention”, rather than just a run-of-the-mill accident.
Scary stuff, knowing there’s twerds like that on the roads.
Posted: Thu 11 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Cynicism, Education, People, Thoughts, Work-related |
According to the BBC today, a school in Somerset has banned Valentine’s Day cards. Not because they’re an over-priced over-commercialised bit of tat that means fuck-all except bigger profits for Clinton Fuckbag Cards (to give them their full stock-exchange title) and their ilk. Oh no, it’s so the little darlings the “emotional trauma” of being rejected if they don’t get a card.
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have become so paranoid about how children deal with failure, they now have no idea at all what to do when failure does happen.
I think it started with the introduction of GCSE exams, where all the grades were a “pass”. (glossing slightly over the “X” and “U” grades – they were still a grade, even if it was one that marked you as having not completed the course) Then there was all the rubbish about not having sports day in some schools, because it was ‘harmful’ to the little bastards if they lost a race.
Where I work we’re beginning to see the results of this generation’s inability to deal with failure. We’ve recently been interviewing people for jobs, and it’s really surprising how many of them just walk in expecting to get the job – no preparation, not dressing for the interview, no experience in the area, and still expecting to just walk in and get the job simply for being able to walk in through the door.
This vogue for not letting children fail is incredibly damaging – part of life is about dealing with failure, of how to handle not being perfect. I don’t know why or how it came about that failure was a bad thing – but I do hope that it’s a trend that gets reversed before too much longer.
Posted: Wed 10 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Norfolk, Politics, Thoughts, Work-related |
Regular readers will know that one of the reasons I left my job last year with [Council that shall not be named] was because they had called a halt to all development work while a big legal battle was fought about a reorganisation of councils in Norfolk. As a result of that decision, there was no new work being done by the council, and I was sat on my arse doing fuck all. Admittedly, while being paid for it, but still, I was a bum on a seat.
At the time I’d suggested that it was better to work on new development stuff, make it really good, and end up with a product that the other councils wanted to use. That way it meant that [Council]’s IT department would keep their job, rather than being rationalised/redundant. But no, that would’ve been ‘a waste of resources’, and I didn’t understand the politics of it all.
It’s been announced today that Norwich city council will become a unitary authority, and all the other Norfolk councils will remain as they were. So after a year’s waiting and fucking about, all the decisions have been left as “Oh well, it was worth a try”, and things are back to where they were a year ago.
What a total waste of time and money.
Posted: Tue 9 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Work-related |
For the first time in far too long, I’m taking a day off from work. It’s paid holiday – I’ve still got what I accrued between October and December last year, as well as my four weeks for this year – and I did have some other plans for the day.
However, with the way I’ve bruised up my foot I’m putting a pause on those plans, and taking a quiet day at home instead. It’ll still give me plenty of stuff to do here, and I’ve still got bits of shopping and the like to do, but it’s going to be a real day off.
Believe me, it’s actually much needed – and in a way it’s no bad thing to have an enforced quiet time.
Posted: Mon 8 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, People, Thoughts |
I’ve been watching the new Channel 4 series “Tower Block of Commons“, where politicians leave their homes and move into council estates across the country, to see the reality of the resident’s lives.
It’s not bad, as these things go, although obviously there’s some aspects that are pretty “Made for TV”. Personally I think that MPs should live in among their constituents – not necessarily in council houses, but certainly in “standard” accommodation for each ward/district/whatever. After all, how can you represent the people of your district if you don’t know what their living standards are truly like?
I also find that the priorities of the families the politicians live with are fascinating – in some cases they’ve got no carpets, live on the absolute cheapest food and so on, but still have what looks to be Sky+ boxes and widescreen TVs. There’s also the families where they’ve got the kids and so on, living on benefits, but somehow still manage to get methadone and the like.
It’s interesting to watch, in a similar way to Secret Millionaire and other programmes of a similar ilk, but still leaves you with that “made for TV” cynicism…
Posted: Sun 7 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Media, People, Stupidity, Thoughts |
So John Terry did end up getting sacked as captain of the England Football Team and replaced with Rio Ferdinand.
Purportedly the sacking is because of Terry’s shagging around with the ex-girlfriend of a team-mate, which somehow makes it impossible to be a captain, as it’s a bad influence on the players, and the perception of the England team. Or something.
And then you get to this part of the BBC story…
Ferdinand, 31, is currently serving a four-match ban for violent conduct after only just returning to action following a three-month lay-off because of a back injury.
So, replacing a “bad influence” with someone currently serving a four-match ban for violent conduct. And that is the message we want to send out to the impressionable people who follow football and (apparently) model themselves on the behaviour of footballers.
Shagging’s a terrible thing, but violence? Oh, that‘s OK.
I really don’t understand sport/media, obviously.
Posted: Sat 6 February, 2010 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Health, Own Business, Travel, Work-related |
One of our plans this weekend was to go over to the NEC and visit the International Spring Fair, a massive trade fair held every year.
However, somehow I’ve managed to stuff my foot (again) which means that walking is currently pretty painful. No idea quite what I’ve done to the damn thing, but it’s becoming a more regular occurrence round these parts, which isn’t a good sign. Thing is, it’s not damage in the same location as before, so it’s not like one weak spot or anything.
We could still go, but I think it’d be pretty silly to do a two-hour-plus drive each way and walk/limp round the NEC while on a dodgy foot.
For the rest, I can hold off ’til the Autumn version, so it’s not a massive loss- just a delay to a couple of things.
All told it’s a bit of a bummer, but for once I’m trying to let common-sense take over from ‘Well we’ve planned it so that’s what we’re going to do.”