Friday !!!!

Gawd help me ....it's International day !!!

I normally have a simple rule on these days....sod the rules...

But, No, wait it's a Friday, there are things to do, places to go, bathrooms and kitchens to be finished. Bills to pay, banks to snarled at, housework & shopping to be done, tea to prepare for herself and daughter...... argghhh

For those who thought 8 O' [feckin']Clock on a Friday was a good time to play Rugby..... take a hint.....

IT'S FECKIN' ... ....FRIDAY !!!!!!!

Balances in life

When I set out to do this blog I was uncertain what I was going to put in it. I was determined not to make it a 'ranting' piece or a platform to berate those who had no opportunity of comeback. However there are those in life who deserve to be ranted at.... Let's try .......HBOS..

This company must rank amongst the most inept I have ever dealt with. The Branch staff are brilliant and must be equally fed up of the system that they battle every day.

I have three accounts and a credit card, which I manage online, with no problems until some 'system proceedure' decides to stop the direct debit payment from one account another... result ?? Chaos, and charges. My access to my online account is denied leaving me unable to see what if anything has gone wrong and Worse, a phone call to imply that I may have 'debt collection proceedures' initiated. Now I don't know about other people but my laconic easy going nature deserts my somewhat when threatened and I become a very sarcastic hard arse!! The fact this is all administered by a bank who posted a multi billion loss and is asking for my taxes to prop it up... the suggestion that I may have 'missmanaged' my direct debit got the bloke on the other side of the phone a 30 second precise of my thoughts about bankers... So I did what I should have done in the first place...went to the branch who sighed, smiled and apologised [unlike the prat on the phone].... 20 minutes later '..it should be fine now Mr Roberts..' and fine it was... now to get the charges back from the credit card ....yeah right !!

On the other hand, proving that the chinese notion of 'Yin/Yang balance' is perfectly true. The Cental heating borked last week, and initial estimates was for lots of disruption and big bill. No my mate sent round his workers and the guy went 'Hmm I wonder if this will work??' and it did. No fuss, no bother, no threats and voila, downstairs bathroom is now warming nicely for herself to use again..

I think this microcosm of service life encapsulates the wider feeling around now that big is definately not better. The personal touch and local knowledge [allied with a modicum of pleasantness] will furnish firms with much more repeat service than the giant conglomerates impersonal approaches. This lesson will be learned I believe at great cost to our economy.

I may well move my accounts to another bank, but my mates plumbing firm remain on my speed dial list.

Muscles....

As in aching and 'I had forgotten I had those...'

I have for the past 3 days been decanting 90% of the cupboard contents [and removing cupboard doors] in the kitchen to elsewhere in the house so the joiner could replace the units and put new doors/trim etc on. This naturally involved lots of step climbing, carrying/lifting and general moving things until our dining room table and bath [don't ask] were full. Of course what came out had to back in via dishwasher.... Ever tried to put something back in it's package once it's been opened? If so you will have some empathy with where my head is now.. and the Muscles? I have rediscovered that my anatomical knowledge was not lost, I had just forgotten where these muscle groups were. They are now leaving me in little doubt as to their location every time I move.

In my next move of self flagellation it will be bathroom painting....

NHS

The NHS has been a significant part of my life for all of my 50 yrs. I was born, prematurely with a low birth weight [how the hell I ended up this size...well another post].

In my first few years I was identified to have deafness in my right ear. That started the fun [not] in the ensuing years I had my adenoids scraped, my tonsils removed, my eardrum pierced and my sinuses washed out [leaving me with a lifetime sinus problems which can't be cured]. After all that it was declared I had congenital deafness. These traumatic toddler/primary school years left me a scarred and neurotic child. my teens were filled with Psychological problems emanating from my brothers death, my mothers descent into depression and my fathers inability to cope with it all. My escape ?? The NHS, I became a nurse, a Psychiatric nurse to be precise and I found I had a natural proclivity to be a listener and a friend, a curious ability to retain copious amounts of unrelated facts & figures helped me Qualify. 30 years later and I was still there now working in commissioning care at a fairly senior level.

I met my ex through the NHS. My daughter is now looking to work in the NHS [My son thankfully escaped this madhouse and opted to do an Mchem]. My present partner works in the NHS.

AT the age of 42 and a bit I discovered that I had developed a fairly rare form of a life threatening disease, the NHS discovered it, diagnosed and have been treating me for it since [with varying degrees of success...another post].

So I have seen most of the NHS from whichever side you think there could be. Yes, it is flawed, what isn't. However the overwhelming majority of people who work in the NHS do so with poor pay, poor prospects, poor management systems and terrible political interference in what should be a non-politicised service. The level of service is as good as you can expect from a publicly funded body.

Rant if you must and be outraged about some media inspired shock headline, but if you want alternatives look abroad and see the other systems..... YOU WILL PAY MORE ....

My solution? Take the politics out of health care, ring fence the National Insurance so it actually goes to the Heath care system [and doesn't prop up a failing bank or 10] and let the people who are trained to do what they are good at, do it....

It won't happen of course, but let's leave them in peace anyway.......

And we were singing.....

Wales 23 England 15 .....

And that is just about all I can remember about the match. I regressed several years and drank far too much. However the atmosphere in the pub was brilliant, people in fancy dress [see photo...way to go AJ],copious amounts of singing, light hearted banter between rival fans. Seven hours later [yes, seven hours]I was a shambling wreck, luckily I remained coherent long enough to organise taxi and burger before going home. Then amazingly I developed fluency in another language...gibberish..Much to the amusement of my other half who had gone home 2 hours earlier.

Today?? I have paid the penalty that is always due in theses circumstances....was it worth it ?? Absolutely. I am just grateful that we have a fortnight's break now and the game against France is an evening match which will limit my alcohol consumption naturally....

And just in case there is anybody wondering what we would sing? Here is an example:


HYMNS AND ARIAS
Max Boyce


We paid our weekly shilling for that January trip:
A long weekend in London, aye, without a bit of kip.
There's a seat reserved for beer by the boys from Abercarn:
There's beer, pontoon, crisps and fags and a croakin 'Calon Lan'.

And we were singing hymns and arias,
'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

Into Paddington we did roll with an empty crate of ale.
Will had lost at cards and now his Western Mail's for sale.
But Will is very happy though his money all has gone:
He swapped five photos of his wife for one of Barry John.

And we were....................

We got to Twickers early and were jostled in the crowd;
Planted leeks and dragons, looked for toilets all around.
So many there we couldn't budge -twisted legs and pale:
I'm ashamed we used a bottle that once held bitter ale.

And we were singing hymns and arias,
'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

Wales defeated England in a fast and open game.
We sang 'Cwm Rhondda' and 'Delilah',
damn, they sounded both the same.
We sympathised with an Englishman
whose team was doomed to fail
So we gave him that old bottle, that once held bitter ale!

He started singing hymns and arias,
'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

So it's down to Soho for the night,
to the girls with the shiny beads;
To the funny men with lipstick on,
with evil minds and deeds.
One said to Will from a doorway dark,
damn, she didn't have much on.
But Will knew what she wanted,
aye...his photo of Barry John!

'Cos she was singing hymns and arias,
'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.


Oh and we sang 'Calon Lan ' .....a lot !!

on with the recovery.

International Day

The BIG one.... whatever any rugby supporter, Welsh or otherwise, may say beating the English is what it is about. God only knows why, and the logical side of me says that it is only a step onto greater things [6 Nations, World cup... I can dream], but the passion that is the 'Hwyl' will not let me feel anything else.

In days of yore, this day would be
1, full breakfast in pub at bottom of town,
2, amble to clubhouse at top of town,
3, drink, debate selection,
4, watch match, shout at telly as if ref can hear you personally,
5, drink more
6, watch 2nd half having already forgotten most of first half
7. drink
8, celebrate great win or blame poor referreeing for loss.
9. did I mention drink??

Post match drinking then ensued around pubs in town until stomach thought it's throat had been cut...

I am glad to say I did this in a time of very little hooliganism and the main occupation after the match was to sing songs as recognisably as possible.

Nowadays it is much the same only the town location is changed and the drinking is much reduced... but the emotions are still there..

So replica playing shirt on my back and armed with statistics to annoy English pub Landlord I will once again tread a well worn traditional path....

CYMRU AM BYTH......

Newbie..

So, here I am after many years of thinking about this, I am actually going to put something online.... and it is a little scary.

I haven't thought about what I am going to say. I have dumped loads of ideas and 'formats' in my virtual bin and decided to 'go with the flow'.

I suppose the first thing you should know is I am a man [well, most of me is anyway...] of many facets. I hold some strong views and generally are not afraid to voice them....if you don't agree with me then you have the right to say so but I am civil and would like to remain that way in my conversations, virtual or otherwise.

Mostly though, I love humour and would gladly share a joke or look at the zanier side of life with people than rant and rave. Some of my musings and ramblings may seem odd and disjointed but then at times life is odd and disjointed. you would not think a link existed between Central Heating, New Car, Roomba hoovers, DVLA, Halfords, Pizza Hut, Flower shops, iPhones, car stereos, baked apples and Twitter, but those things have all played a significant part in my day today....disjointed yet oddly linked. more in further posts on these and other things.

One thing you will see on here is opinions on Rugby Union, especially Rugby in Wales. I love it and all the surrounding stuff and nonsense that goes with it. I have been known to stop outside a school playing fields to watch a game in play [took me ages to convince the police I was genuine :-)))]. I watch local teams, games on Tv etc. My partner is very understanding and I do not abuse this and a balance is struck which keeps us both happy. Anyway she likes Gav Henson's thighs !!

Music is another passion and I play the guitar [badly] and the Bohdran [Irish Drum]. There will be more on this in forthcoming posts.

So Welcome, anyone who strays by, and go look in on GEMMAK500 at the link... Nice lady with a nifty line in design.... hey I could do ad copy...