Incredible blog!

Thanks to Brownhills Bob for posting about a brave young man who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
I read this and was amazed by the story and look forward to reading further updates in the next few days.
You can read the story here.

New site for Hill Top School

I was checking out the old West Bromwich photo's site and came across a comment from Hill Top Kid about a new site for pupils and teachers of Hill Top Secondary Modern School and Hill Top High School in West Bromwich.
As a former pupil I thought it would be good to check this out and have put a link to it on my site. I have also added a link to the West Bromwich photo's site as people reading this blog might be interested in checking them both out.

Bad Weather or Bad Drivers?

I have been appalled the past couple of days at the absolutely abysmal level of driving ability I have witnessed on out roads. I suppose too I would have to say there has been a great deal of stupidity.
Here are some of the things I have seen:-

People who have only cleared a small area on their front windscreen - how can you see to drive if your side windows are covered in snow and ice? Isn't this dangerous driving or at the very least driving without due care?

People who do not clear the snow from their lights - what is the point of having them on if no one can see them because they are covered with snow?

People who are frightened of driving in the snow and as a consequence drive at around two miles an hour - this is partly responsible for some of the hold ups, especially on roads that have been well gritted and are reasonably normal, and  could lead other drivers to take risks overtaking them out of sheer frustration.

People who get stuck and then stick the car in first gear and hit the accelerator pedal causing their wheels to spin - second gear and low revs is far better, remember the tortoise and the hare (slow and steady wins the race).

People walking in the road to avoid falling on footpaths - what happens if a car hits a patch of ice and loses control? I would rather risk falling on the footpath than being hit by a car!!

People walking in the road and pushing babies in buggies - words fail me.

What a Payne!

Image via Wikipedia

I have just been out looking for Fagin and Bill Sykes and Bullseye after reading the latest letter in the Express and Star from Ian Payne. I do wonder does he live in  a different world to me?
While it may be that Walsall is not perfect it is not the terrible place that Ian Payne would have us believe in his latest letter to the local press. He writes almost as if Walsall matched the London of Oliver Twist with all it warts and associated bad things.
If he thinks the place is so bad he could always depart for that wonderful place called Lichfield that he seems to think is far better or he could of course go even further where he would be out of range of our local papers.

Rag and bone men

Image via Wikipedia

I was quite pleased to read in last nights Express and Star that there have been calls for action against what must surely be a modern day plague - yes you have it the local scrap man. I think that some day we either get the same on four times or four different ones and they also come round on a Sunday.

I have to be honest I did say to someone the other day that I would like to go outside and stick the rag man's trumpet somewhere so that it couldn't be played.

I do wonder sometimes where all the scrap comes from - I've never seen an empty scrap lorry!

Bloody weather

Well here we are another bank holiday with lots of rain - we had planned to go to Bala today and have a ride on the Bala Lake Railway. We still went and as we drove we kept hoping the weather would brighten up but it rained and rained - we did have a ride on the train and then went on to Llangollen where the sun came out.

I don't know if you realise but in the old days the bank holiday would have been last weekend when the sun was shining gloriously. Pity the flaming government altered the way it worked.

A month of boredom

Well the inevitable is happening - the country is going to the polls on 6th May as very widely predicted and expected by most of us.

I have noticed in conversation at work that already people are fed up with the blanket coverage being given to the election and of course we will have to suffer a month of this. I had thought of writing to my local evening newspaper and asking them if they could declare one day a week election free to give us a little respite. I suspect the proverbial snowball in hell would have a better chance of success thought.

I have no doubt there will be much said again about the apathy of the voters but perhaps if there was a way to register a non vote because we were unhappy with all the mainstream parties we might get a bigger turn out. As it stands the only was to do this is vote for a fringe party or ruin the ballot paper - perhaps a party proposing this idea would get my vote and lots of other peoples and who knows the turnout might soar.