Similar to the European Union Stability and Growth Pact, I have an agreement with Mrs Z that when the deficit in my hair supply exceeds 3% of a full Barnet, it’s time to change my hairstyle to avoid comb over.

At the weekend, I suggested two possible actions:

1. To wear a badly made, shaggy, obviously false orange wig
2. To cut my hair short

Mrs Z considers only one of these options a possibility – otherwise my rating could be downgraded from ZZZ stable to considerably unstable.

In the meantime, I will luxuriate in what hair I still have.

. . . especially in the following activities:

COMBEbusiness

After standing up and speaking at a public meeting, I was elected to the committee and then voted chairman of a new business group in North Devon. Thanks to my fellow directors and support from members, COMBEbusiness has established itself to promote business around the Ilfracombe, Woolacombe and Combe Martin area of North Devon.

This has been an inspiring year and the turnout and participation at our monthly meetings has been phenomenal. In 2012 COMBEbusiness plans to provide tailored support and training for businesses in the area.

Ilfracombe courteous town initiative

Again, the response from business and residents of Ilfracombe has been tremendous. This pilot initiative, run by pleaseandthanks.co.uk and the National Campaign for Courtesy, has trialled a campaign to recognise courteous businesses in the town and focus on the positive aspects of business and work.

During the course of the initiative, I have met hundreds of people in business in the town and have been amazed by the response when people realise that someone has nominated them for an award to recognise their courtesy: it means so much to them.

North Devon 101 Apprentices campaign

In my role as business writer for the North Devon Journal, I had no idea how the North Devon Employment and Skills Board’s campaign to sign up 101 apprentices in 101 days would succeed. As it turned out, the commitment from North Devon’s employers, jobseekers, schools, colleges and residents was impressive. We beat the target and will be repeating the campaign in 2012. Watch out in the North Devon Journal.

North Devon Journal Business Awards

This was the first time that the North Devon Journal had run its business awards and again the response was enthusiastic. We met some great businesses and judging the winners was very difficult. The awards evening was a contrast to many other events in this time of economic uncertainty in that it focused entirely on genuine achievement and success.

North Devon Business Alliance

As a founding member of the NDBA, I’ve always enjoyed its friendly, professional lunches and events. Blogging, discussion on LinkedIn and interaction on twitter help to bring this vibrant business community together and in 2011 I’ve got to know even more business people across North Devon through the NDBA. In 2012 I look forward to getting to know even more.

Studio Theatre car boot sales

I also organised six fund-raising car boot sales for Studio Theatre on the seafront at Ilfracombe. I know many people love these and come from Bideford, Barnstaple and elsewhere because the atmosphere is so enjoyable. I was considering giving these up, but this week bumped into a car booter who thanked me and pleaded with me to run them again in 2012. I shall have to think seriously about this.

So thank you to all who have supported these organisations and activities and have made all the hard work in organising them worthwhile.

I plan to do some more gardening, DIY and things for myself in 2012, but already there are many projects and events in the pipeline for some of the above organisations above.

Let’s hope 2012 is even more successful!

The latest guide to Ilfracombe in North Devon is out now. You can view it online or download a PDF.

Whatever the weather, whatever the season, it’s always a beautiful part of South West England.

We hope to see you soon.

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See visitilfracombe.co.uk for even more details.

The general election. We knew it was coming. I’m sure many people don’t want it, even though we need it. We needed it last year, but we have had to wait.

It’s a noisy election and on a national scale seems more unpleasant than other elections. It will be interesting to see how accurate the media and chatterers are about the outcome. I don’t think anyone can be sure.

What do I think? From a national perspective I believe we need a strong government that will have the guts to tackle some of the country’s problems as fairly as possible. Some of the decisions it will need to take will not be popular and there will be pain: we are in a mess and getting out of it will be hard work.

From a local point of view, I believe North Devon needs an MP who will represent everyone in the constituency and fight for the area. A desperate lack of investment in towns and infrastructure over decades needs correcting. Who will battle with their party, with Whitehall, with any of the establishment to achieve this?

That’s what I’ll ask any candidate who knocks on my door.

So the UK government is proposing more legislation and regulations affecting dog owners. This time to stop irresponsible owners and those who keep dogs ‘as a weapon’ or for fighting.

I don’t argue with the intentions, but once again we see government aiming to introduce poorly drafted, heavy handed measures that will impact on all dog owners. I have no concerns with micro-chipping: both our dogs are micro-chipped. I have no concerns with the concept of insurance, as both our dogs are insured, although it presents another opportunity for the insurance industry to raise premiums for existing policyholders.

What does concern me is that the people most likely to keep dogs as weapons or for fighting are unlikely to micro-chip their dogs or pay for insurance. If the dogs are kept for illegal purposes, do they ever get taken to a vet unless seriously ill? And who will police this, checking dogs are micro-chipped and insured? There are not enough services provided for dogs at the moment: most dog warden provision is purely an exercise in collecting revenue for councils from dog fouling with no real concern for the state of dog poo bin collection or anything else.

Presumably, using a dog as a weapon involves intimidating people or committing other crimes. Are there not existing laws to prevent this? Why aren’t the police taking action?

Unless human beings want to eradicate every form of life that creates any inconvenience, which includes every living thing that’s not human, we should recognise that dogs are living creatures needing exercise, stimulation and the chance to lead a life free from cruelty. At the moment, government and councils are anti-dog, seeing them as a source of cash from fines.

Most problems with dogs are caused by people: people who let their dogs foul pavements, who probably also drop litter which can harm both wildlife and young children who pick it up. I am sick of picking up dangerous litter dropped by humans. Last week a dog walker told me he had extracted a blunt Stanley knife blade from his puppy’s mouth dropped by kids. Problems are also caused by people who use dogs as weapons to back-up their own aggressive, malicious or illegal activities. They are a bigger problem than the their dogs.

These proposals seem to be yet another excuse to push the bigger, more fundamental problems aside, and appease the tabloids by doing something which sounds tough. If the people concerned knew they couldn’t get away with it, they wouldn’t keep aggressive dogs or use them the way they do. But they do know that they can get away with it. They know the police won’t stop them. They know that they can do anything they want.

So instead of dealing with the real problems, police and council officials will be fining ordinary dog owners for any reason they can think of.

My recommendation: focus on people and apply existing measures so that the perpetrators know they cannot break the law, ignore police and, what’s more, cannot abuse the dogs, which suffer most.

]]> http://www.robzlog.co.uk/amusing/will-government-unleash-another-pitbull/feed 0 http://www.robzlog.co.uk/amusing/shhhhhhhhh-i-want-peace-and-quiet http://www.robzlog.co.uk/amusing/shhhhhhhhh-i-want-peace-and-quiet#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:28:31 +0000 robz http://www.robzlog.co.uk/?p=2367

What is it about unceasing noise and activity that is so exciting? I don’t know. I’ve lived and worked in London, was born under the Heathrow Airport flight path, have been jostled by crowds at big events and on city streets, have listened to the unending rumble of distant traffic, so I’m well acquainted with hustle and bustle, but I’ve always sought peace and quiet.

I can remember as a child not being able to sleep on occasion and going downstairs and listening to the quiet in between the ticks and the tocks of our cuckoo clock. When I was lucky enough to attend lectures and seminars at St John’s Lodge in Regent’s Park, I loved walking around the pond and fountain in the Inner Circle in the winter when it was deserted. Who could have believed that Baker Street was so near? And so now I revel in the peace and tranquility of North Devon, 50 miles from the nearest motorway and even further from the nearest airport.

Exciting? A meaningless, empty word used by announcers on television and radio when they want to attract a younger audience. Usually it’s an empty promise. A lot of running around and making a noise does not guarantee excitement and sometime it can be just tiresome.

Exciting is seeing the first pussy willow unfurl, cooking a recipe successfully the first time or anything that means something to you. Noise and activity are not obligatory.

Perhaps some people like peace and quiet more as they get older, but I’ve always appreciated it. And I need it to enjoy the excitement of life.

Oh, What a Lovely War! Hm.

The Vicar of Dibley, hm.

Christmas, hm.

And now a New Year.

Hm.

Life has been busy. Even Christmas has been busy . . . with family and friends, with sorting out all the accumulated things to sort out that have piled up because of work and theatre, work and theatre and life and everything else.

So it’s not been much of a rest, which I usually like at this time of year, but it feels great to be in control again. There is hectic and hectic and I prefer hectic to hectic, although control is even more preferable.

And I did relax a bit . . .

. . . on Woolacombe beach.

So now I aim to write more and add more to the novel.

I hope you had a good Christmas too and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

I’ve always enjoyed the simpler aspects of Christmas and find this more so as my hair diminishes.

Yesterday we lit our Advent calendar (thanks, Neil) for the first time, an event I find helps put everything into perspective.

Like many, I’ve had a hectic, challenging year and look forward to slowing down at Christmas and enjoying time with loved ones. It’s also a good time to reflect on all around, appreciating what I have, not what more I want for Christmas. More of this or that doesn’t necessarily improve life.

I also aim to resume publishing Candyfloss and Pickles, which has halted briefly, while Oh, What a Lovely War! and Vicar of Dibley productions have dominated life.

So here’s to simplicity, Christmas, Life and day two of the Advent candle!

I’ve had a bit of a autumnal spring clean of this blog and deleted all the daily instalments of my Candyfloss and Pickles novel as they were just cluttering up the pages. I’m still adding a daily instalment but on the chapter pages and also on twitter. It seems to make more sense.

As for keeping myself trim . . .

Why do they grow so fast? What’s the point? No sooner than you cut them, they grow again. And it’s not just finger-nails, it’s toe-nails and hair too. Just when you’ve got your hair comfortable after a good shearing, it starts flopping over your eyes. I’m surprised the Government hasn’t slapped a fix penalty on speeding finger-nails to refill its coffers and offset the billions it has wasted on buying collapsed banks – not much of a bargain if you ask me. But they probably wouldn’t stop there: soon they’d have speed cameras so they could issue fines for runny noses . . . hm, perhaps this idea is running away with itself. Stop here and now.

Apparently Visit Britain chairman Christopher Rodrigues fears foreign tourists could be put off by low standards in UK hotels and restaurants. What puts me off visiting hotels and restaurants is their plasticisation.

We used to live in Windsor, a charming place once, but now full of plastic bars and cafés with no feeling of authenticity. At least the castle has been there longer than five minutes.

I agree that bad service in terms of poor quality food, dirt and unhelpfulness is damaging, as I remember from many years ago when measuring airport customer service performance as a member of British Airways’ Quality Team. But I also think excessive standardisation and the simpering from staff with idiotic grins on their faces, which some mistake for good service, are just as damaging. 

Many of the best hotels, guest houses and restaurants I remember have been quirky. Some of them even had their own rules, like a gentlemen’s club. If the service, accommodation and food is superb, then what’s wrong with a few rules? Better than places which try to please everyone and end up getting everything wrong. Recently, in Oxford, we were asked if we had any special requirements as we requested a table in a lookalike restaurant we had mistaken for another one. “No, we’re just two normals,” I replied.

A little quirkiness added to an otherwise superb venue can add an element of exclusivity too.

So don’t worry about reasonable rules, as not every establishment can hope to deliver everything: better that it does what it can do superbly. I know guest houses with rules who get people coming back again and again, because the rules enable the owners and staff to achieve excellence in the defined service they offer.

I hope UK venues don’t standardise too much and throw away the characteristics that create the best possible experience.

Some people who know me wouldn’t necessarily describe me as the tidiest person in the world. Being tidy is not my first aim in life, but I do appreciate that a certain amount of organisation is necessary when trying to achieve a number of ambitious aims.

Apart from my commitment to publishing daily instalments of Candyfloss & Pickles here, I am also appearing in stage shows as well as writing sketches and material for performance. Then there’s family life, dogs, oh, and business.

The year ahead is going to be a challenge for everyone, so as the gales wail outside our house I have been tidying up, organising myself mentally, physically and electronically, and keeping an eye on my fitness.

Now I’m not a sports or fitness fanatic and consider going to the gym a waste of time that could be spent far more productively. As well as walking our dogs, I’ve just started the 5BX programme originally created for the Royal Canadian Air Force. This appeals to me because it needs no equipment and just requires 11 minutes of exercise each day at your own pace.

So with Clare Evans‘ Time Management for Dummies book organising my business and creative life, the 5BX programme keeping me fit and our dogs keeping me sane, I believe I’m prepared as I can be for what the near future can throw at me.

Scary, eh? I mean, being so prepared.

Last night I confess I watched television: I just wanted to be entertained without effort. After discovering there was nothing much on that appealed to me (I’m so picky), I settled on Hobly City (my spelling). Now, I’ve never managed to watch an entire episode of Hobly or Causality without having to turn off or over before my will to live ebbed entirely.

Last night was no exception. After seeing a patient with a tumour whisked into surgery without any reference to administrators, waiting lists or staff availability and laughing incredulously after a patient recovering from surgery asked when he was going into theatre – no pain, no discomfort, no memory of the checks they should make before jabbing you with a knife – I turned off and set to writing the next section of my novel.

So I made profitable use of my evening after discharging myself from Hobly. I won’t be going back.

I admit it’s not easy. You plan to do something, then something unplanned, like work, lands in your mailbox.

But my copy of Clare Evans‘ Time Management for Dummies remains on my desk and the pile of things to sort is reducing and the to do list is shrinking.

After all, it takes time.

The investor asked the economist, clutching his badly battered backside.

If you know Ilfracombe, you may know Bicclescombe Park, a delightfully peaceful haven hidden towards the Score Valley. With a mix of well-maintained lawns and flower beds, an old corn mill (now housing tea rooms) and millstreams, tennis courts, a boating lake, duck pond and children’s play area, it’s a lovely place for a relaxing walk in all weathers. The gardeners do a magnificent job keeping the park immaculate and there is a user group chaired by the council’s park department.

This morning as I walked through the park, I noticed that one of the wooden benches had been dumped in the boating lake. It’s half-term so not surprising if bored youngsters get up to mischief. But it’s not just harmless pranks: the damage is serious.

Up on the highest level of the park is a wooden shelter with a thatched roof. Youngsters often shelter in here at night when they have nowhere else to go (who minds this?), but why do they have to damage it by pulling wooden panels off it and sometimes burning them? At the moment it seems they have been damaging the thatch and, to stop this, an ugly fence with a steel grille is being erected at one side to prevent access to the roof.

In recent years a brand new concrete all-weather tennis table was wrecked by vandals within weeks of being installed, while young trees are often damaged.

I don’t think there’s any excuse for this behaviour. I didn’t understand mindless vandalism when I was a teenager and I don’t understand it now. I can understand people being bored, angry, frustrated and in need of stimulation and encouragement, but not wrecking the good things that are provided.

The authorities don’t seem to bothered, focusing instead on painting yellow lines on the lovely stone steps in case someone falls down them, erecting intrusive barriers to reduce the numbers of people drowning in the stream (I’m not aware of any), and putting up half a dozen maps of what is a very small park in which it would be quite a challenge to get lost.

The council uses cotton wool when the youngsters want challenge, excitement, adventure and stimulation.  

I feel angry at the damage and angry at those who do it, although I understand there are problems which cause this. I was lucky enough never to have to spend my time on the streets at night when a teenager and I believe no one should have to do this, but it’s not always the case. Providing facilities for bored youths is not necessarily an easy answer, having seen brand new, purpose-built play and sports areas in other towns wrecked by vandals with weeks of opening. No, the problems are more deep-rooted, which is a shame because it’s sad to think of these nocturnal battles during the daylight enjoyment of Bicclescombe Park when it is a delight for families, the elderly, children, dog-walkers, model boat enthusiasts, tennis players and others.

Should it put anyone off going there? Definitely not. It’s as safe as anywhere, especially in the daylight, and I’d recommend Bicclescombe Park to anyone, even bored youngsters, as long as they respect it.