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Brief notes again
I’ve been a bit lax lately with keeping this blog updated. I know there are at least one or two of you out there who are keeping an eye out for new stuff, so I hope these few brief notes will keep you going until I get round to writing a proper entry.
1. I wasn’t going to make any comment on the current postal strike (even though it’s wreaking havoc for the company I work for), but with these wildcat, unofficial strikes going on at the moment I think enough is enough. Apparently, part of the dispute is over potential loss of pension benefits, which could see a 20 year veteran losing something like £60,000 in pension benefits. This is not good, but points to a larger problem with the Royal Mail’s pension scheme; as another commentator said, has someone being doing a Maxwell with the funds? On this one, I’m on the side of the postal workers.
Another part of the dispute is that Royal Mail appear to want their workers to actually work the hours they are paid for. This seems a radical, untried policy that is doomed to failure. Employees being required to work the hours that they get paid for? It’ll never catch on. Of course, the CWU will tell you that postal workers do more work than they are contracted to do, so this policy is draconian and shouldn’t be allowed. But then you hear stories like the one where a postal worker finished his workload well before the end of shift; as he was about to leave for home, he was asked if he could stay on and help shift the rest of the work. He agreed, but only if he was going to be paid overtime - even though he hadn’t finished his normal shift hours yet!
I’m sure that there are points on both sides that are valid and that both sides feel they have the moral high ground. At the end of the day, I don’t really care. The striking workers should realise that they don’t have the support of the majority of the public (certainly they don’t have the support of the hundreds - if not thousands - of small businesses that rely on the postal service to stay afloat) in the same way that the fireman did a couple of years ago, they’re well paid for what they do already and that if Royal Mail doesn’t modernise then they’ll ALL be out of a job.
2. You’ll know, if you’ve been following the Wolf’s Howl for any length of time, that my company is sponsoring Eastbourne Borough FC this year. Just to update you, we’re second in the table (tied on points, slightly behind on goal difference) and still unbeaten, we’re playing Welling United in the next round of the FA Cup this weekend and our manager, Garry Wilson, was named Manager of the Month for September. Keep it up, Borough!
3. Lewis Hamilton is now only one race away from winning the F1 championship in his rookie season. Four points ahead of nearest rival Alonso, and seven ahead of Raikkonen, all Lewis has to do is make sure he keeps his head, keeps the car on the track (didn’t quite manage that in China) and finish either in front of both his rivals, or make sure he gets third if they finish in front of him. It’s been a brilliant season from the rookie, marred by a couple of mistakes (in Germany in the rain when he went onto dry tyres too soon and in China when the team left him out too long on worn out tyres).
4. Lewis came through the spying row untouched, but even though that is supposedly over, McLaren are still in the FIA’s cross-hair. Despite making a statement earlier this week that both drivers would be treated equally, the FIA are apparently appointing a special scrutineer for the last race in Brazil to make sure that equality is given to both drivers. What is it about McLaren that has pissed the FIA off so much? Why not just hand both titles to Ferrari like you really want to Mr Moseley and shut down the championship, if it’s going to just lurch from one pantomime to another like this.
5. I hate shopping for shoes. Well, actually I hate shopping, period. But shoes are one of my pet hates; something about shoe shops and the atmosphere that pervades them just really puts me off. So the need to replace all of my worn out shoes is now rather pressing and filling me with dread. So I was overjoyed to find Alternative Soles - online shoe shopping with all vegan products. And at knock-down prices too. The shoes haven’t arrived yet, so I can’t report on the quality for a little while, but so far it’s all good.
6. You’ll have noticed that there haven’t been any updates on the whole healthy living, weight loss, non-alcoholic lifestyle for a while. There’s a good reason for that, namely my complete and utter lack of willpower. September contained several events (including my birthday) that were accompanied by much drinking of alcohol and eating of unhealthy food, and I’ve sort of carried on in that vein since (last Saturday was particularly bad). I’m trying to get back on track with it, but now that we’re heading into autumn I must admit that my enthusiasm for the endeavour has lessened. This may be one to pick up again sometime in the New Year.
7. I’ve just read a news item where Halle Berry is complaining that Hollywood, even in these enlightened times, is racially prejudiced and it makes it hard for her to win roles. All I can hear is Ali G: “Is it ‘cos I is black?”. No, it’s because you can’t act.
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