What a Payne!

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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

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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.

Nanny McPhee - the Big Bang

I have been out this evening to the cinema to see Nanny McPhee - little c big P, and had a most enjoyable evening.

Nanny McPhee was again played by Emma Thompson and came across as the antithesis of Mary Poppins yet again. Maggie Smith and Sam Kelly played two quite eccentric characters with Maggie's shopkeeper putting treacle in draws in her shop (Not in jars or tins) and Sam's character trying to disarm an unexploded bomb.

Some quite delightful moments involving a baby elephant and a crow that had severe wind and a synchronised swimming routine with the most unlikely swimmers made this an excellent treat for families of all ages.

if I were awarding stars for good family entertainment it would get 5.

Water, Water nowhere.

Wow two posts in one day I will have to be careful!

I was tempted to quote the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge and say that there was "water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!" but it would be very far from the truth having just read an article in the paper from a couple of days ago.

It appears from the article that Wolverhampton have a fountain that is not working and that there are a number of safety issues that need to be addressed - the latest being the need for a hand rail to prevent people slipping on wet ground around the fountain!

It started me thinking about the wonderful fountain in Walsall Town Centre which I think I have only seen working twice in the whole time it has been there - on the first occasion I made the comment that I could pee faster and on the second there was foam everywhere because someone had emptied a bottle of bubble bath into the water and it was what the bear in the Cresta pop advert would have called 'Frothy Man'.

I am not sure why this fountain doesn't work but have some recollection of health and safety being in there somewhere - did I hear Legionnaires disease mentioned at some point.

Now here's a question for the burghers of Walsall Council - Will the fountain ever work again or will it end up like the horse that stood for a very short time by the baths and go off into storage never to be seen again? Answers on a post card perhaps??

What is going on?

I can't believe the latest incident to occur over at Barr Beacon where some low life has nicked part of the roof off the memorial.

As the place is not accessible to traffic at night you either have to think this happened in broad daylight or there must have been a lot of comings and goings under cover of darkness to get the stuff away.

I don't suppose the thieves will very get caught or that they will feel any remorse over what they have done but we can always hope that they might and that they will get more than a slap on the wrist. Mind you I won't hold my breathe.