Making Good Use

Ineffectual

The other evening I went with Mum to a public meeting about the playing field which is across the road from my Mum's house.  The meeting was ostensibly about improvements to the sports and playground facilities on the site and was being held by the local council.  However, the playing field has long been a meeting place for all sorts of disaffected and badly-behaved 'yoof' who seem to converge on it from far and wide.  They congregate on the field in all winds and weathers and cause all sorts of trouble and grief to those particularly unfortunate residents who back directly on to the field.

Even in my day (many many years ago now) the playing field attracted all sorts of dubious sorts and bad behaviour, although nothing on the scale that occurs there nowadays.  Apparently the screaming and shouting that comes from there late at night is so bad that many local residents have feared someone is being murdered and indeed someone was badly stabbed there a year or two ago.  The graffiti on the childrens' play area is nothing short of obscene and most of the play equipment is very badly defaced or damaged as are the tennis courts - now sans net and surrounding chain-link wire, and strewn with broken bits of glass.  The perpetrators seem to be equipped with crowbars, bolt cutters, screwdrivers and knives judging by the serious damage they wreak on anything and everything that's situated on the playing field.

So, as expected by all in the neighbourhood, the council meeting on Monday evening ended up having very little to do with the proposed improvements as a whole lot of irate and fed-up local people mainly wanted to quiz the man from the council about what was being proposed to make the playing field a safer and less troublesome area.  The short answer was absolutely b*gger all!!  Despite the fact that the council will be spending £70,000 on updating the facilities they didn't want to hear anything about the likelihood that within a month or so the 'yoof' of the area will have ripped most of the improvements to shreds, stolen what isn't actually nailed down and destroyed or defaced what is left.  Apparently £2,000 per year on a security patrol (seems uber cheap to me) would be a cost too far for the council to try and ensure that the area was kept 'yoof'-free in the evenings!! 

Talk about ineffectual - the bloke from the council had as much personality as a wet dish rag and was about as much use as a chocolate tea pot.  And these sorts of people are running our local councils and spending our taxes - scary!!  Personally I think they should give the £70,000 back to central government and put it towards the billions of deficit we currently have in the UK rather than spend it on new facilities which will last no time at all once the charming local 'yoof' get their hands on it.

Slim Pickings

There hasn't been much opportunity for charity shop browsing during my stay in Bristol.  Mum is not up to going out at the moment and the weather has either been too hot or too wet for me to venture very far afield.  However, I have perused the charity shops on the couple of occasions I've been out to the local supermarket. 

The local shopping area here has quite a few charity shops but, dear oh dear, they are hideously expensive.  I think I've been very spoilt by the two charity shops in Wickford who tend to charge £2.00 or at most £2.50 for items of adult clothing and 50p or £1.00 for childrens clothes.  No way would I pay £3.00 or so for a well-worn child's T-shirt when it could probably be purchased new in Asda or Tesco for about the same price.  The adult clothing all seems to be priced from £4.00 upwards which, admittedly, is much cheaper than what you would pay for it new but still seems extortionate to me.

I've only bought one item of clothing from the charity shops here this time - a rather spiffy Ann Harvey black top with lovely beaded detail on the front. I took a bit of a chance on it looking good on and did balk a little at paying £4.30 for it but having washed it and tried it on I'm very pleased with it.  I'm thinking I may wear it on my upcoming birthday as it's quite smart without being too formal.  Possibly teamed with some white linen trousers that I bought last year and haven't had a chance to wear as yet.

If you look carefully at the photo you might see a white cat hair attached to my new top - that'll be Lily the Maine Coon who drops fur on a constant basis.  Whenever I go home from a visit to Bristol all my dark clothes have a subtle furry texture, especially the seats of my trousers as Lily likes to doze on the settee just in the place where I usually sit! 

Keeping Up Appearances

I was hanging out a pair of shorts on the washing line yesterday and I realised that I've had the same pair for the past 13 years (making this the 14th summer of continual use.)  If I remember correctly I bought them in the sale in Ann Harvey in Nottingham in the summer of 1996.  They're nothing fancy, just plain navy blue with an elasticated waist and are made from some type of man-made fabric - which is probably why they've lasted so darn well.  The amazing thing is that I can still fit into them after so many years as my waistband (and backside) have definitely grown a bit since the mid 90s.

Those shorts got me thinking about how differently I view the clothes I wear about the house and those I wear out and about.  Most of the items I wear around the house and garden are years old, often rather raggedy, and always uber comfy.  I don't really give a damn what I wear when I'm gardening, cleaning or cooking, and I'm always such a mucky pup anyway that it's best to be wearing old clothes when I'm doing housework.  It's the same with my night clothes - gawd help me if I ever end up in hospital as I only ever wear mismatched vest tops and old trackie-bottom type items in bed.  As you can imagine, those are tres alluring (not) and certainly not the sort of thing that would look good in a hospital bed.  If I ever get taken ill suddenly poor old P would have to be dispatched licekty spit to buy me some decent nightwear, failing that I'd have to wear a hospital gown for the whole time!!

But the clothes I wear when I'm out and about are always clean and tidy and most of them are pretty new - to me at least.  A lot of them are from charity shops or car boot sales but most of them have been acquired in the last couple of years.  I've never ever thought of myself as a Hyacinth Bucket type character but it does seem, with clothes anyway, that I'm keener on keeping up appearances than I thought I was.  Funny how just looking at a pair of shorts hanging on the line could make me realise that.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment regarding Mum's recent spell in hospital - we both really appreciated all your kind words and wishes.  I'm still with Mum in Bristol and she's doing fine although her confidence has been badly knocked by having had such a nasty atrial fibrilation attack out of the blue - and she's been feeling so well lately too.  She's taking things slowly and, fingers crossed, will soon be back to her usual good health.