THINKING ABOUT WAYS OF SAYING GOODBYE

I haven't felt much like writing this last week, though I have been reading a bit.  On two consecutive days, I have heard of the untimely death of a 41 year old I knew, a lovely man; and now, there is news of a younger man we know, who has been posted missing while walking last weekend in the Scottish hills.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a funeral of a 41 year old woman. I first met her about the time she left school.  She had cancer of the liver.  Her son is about the age she was when she gave me her first bright smile, and, when I was almost a new person on the block.  Her very long awaited second child, is nearly four years old.  the Humanist service the woman chose, was personal, inclusive, and it comforted me a great deal.  The family mourners commented on how it was helping them too.

It got me thinking about other farewell services and rituals I had participated in locally in recent years.  Of the many Christian funeral services I have been to, only three of them, I am sad to say, were non-divisive.

One minister could have started  a religious world war with his words.  He was offensive.  There was a lot of embarrassment, and people personally apologised for what had been said to  a couple of mourners who were not Christians. That minister seemed to have a habit of upsetting people with his style of funeral sermons. My neighbours commented after their mother's funeral service, with screwed up faces,  how 'strange' the minister was.

Another minister always bluntly told all assembled that they could not expect salvation [of any kind?] if they did not believe in the way he believed, if they did not attend his church, notwithstanding, there were, and are, other churches in the community.

One Easter we paid our respects to a work colleague on the other side of town.  I had never heard of the presiding minister; there were some mumbles about him being new, and the mumblers hoped he would be alright.  The man of the cloth had been in situ about five years! How long do you have to serve in a place not to be 'new,' I wondered.  I settled down to wait for the expected uncomfortable fire and brimstone, but it never came.  The minister spoke of the departed man, then, thoughtfully and kindly addressed the family and the assembled mourners. 

Another gentle service was given by a locum minister from the Antipodes, who was so unprepared, he stumbled all the way through the 'words' devised for him, at his request, by the family.  'Crochet' (which the departed lady was good at) brought the man to a stuttered halt. With a stage whisper I put him out of his misery, and he successfully verbally stumbled on to the end.

The third memorable and welcoming service, was given by a young American Church minister to a packed house. He warmly greeted everyone. His sermon linked into readings from the Old and New Testaments, but, somehow he seemed to  loose the threads between the two readings.  I have never worked out what he was trying to convey.

MAKING ME DEMENTED ...AND IT'S ONLY FEBRUARY!

What has made me demented so far in 2013... and, it's only the 8th February:

It has taken two and a half weeks to sort out the issues with the email service.  Fingers crossed it keeps working.

An online application for a bank account - it would have been easier to apply by post.  One last letter sent to give the bank a chance to redeem themselves, (or else) yielded appropriate and satisfactory results. 

I discovered a) we have an opthalmic clinic in the county; b) the regional hospital 120 miles away, receives all medical requests and manipulates appointments to by-pass our local unit. That is what happpend to me. There is a maximum waiting time limit of twelve weeks from the time of received referral, to actually seeing a patient; if not achieved, the hospital trust is fined. A refused appointment is recorded. The refusal means you wait longer for initial triage.  I could have been saved masses of inconvenience and extra costs with a local appointment.

Government departments are known for their designed-in incompetence.  Guess what, we've just been given a foretaste of it.  This will be another path of nonsensical obstacles to overcome.   

To save energy...mine, on the Arctic cold day of the week, for our main meal, I made a salad.

MORE FOR LESS, OR, MORE-OR-LESS

Councils and us the plebeians, are being told by Central Government that the swingeing cuts to local authority grants are to be absorbed by the local authority councils and not passed on in local tax increases. The councils are told, they are expected to do more for less.

Our council have told us that due to popular demand from people to do more recycling, domestic refuse collections will reduce to fortnightly collections. I do not recollect demanding anything of the kind. What I do demand is a proportionate reduction in my community charge for a reduction in services. I think that would be quite equitable and progressive.

CO-OPERATIVE STORE, POST DRIPS, BUCKETS AND CHAOS

Our main post office is, unfortunately, franchised to the Co-operative chain of grocery stores (The Co-op). What used to be a well run office, based elsewhere, with efficient and knowledgeable staff under Post Office management, is now nearly a pathetic shadow of its former self.  Customer service is dire. This is true to long running form for the Co-op in my experience. Customer and staff care are not too high on their agenda. Many good full and part time, long-serving, experienced post office counter staff have left the Co-op in the last six months, in ire, at the way they have been treated and neglected. 

Early October, I waited in a queue snaking to the door, it was late afternoon, well after the time the day's post would have been collected.  Why was I there so long? There were two counter staff working, one of whom was inexperienced and had an obvious arm injury. The remaining four service points were unstaffed.

The Co-op, have decided that the way to deal with the under-staffing of the main post office, is to reduce the number of service points, so that the lack of staff will not be so obvious!!!

In the middle of all the chaos, an open ended booth has been erected in line with counter service point four. The booth allows driving licence applications to be made and photos to be taken for the licences. If anyone has any difficulties, the post office staff are expected to assist from the counter side of the booth. Therein lies the rub; what staff? 

My guess is, the proposed physical reduction in size of the post office counter will work down from the booth that has been installed. The booth effectively blocks out your view of the counter and its staffing.

I could go on to describe the permanent gap in the ceiling tiles, allowing drips of water to fall into the long term fixture of the bucket at ground level; the queue barrier has now been diverted (at last) around the bucket, instead of, as it was, going 'through' it. (Never mind all the electrics).

KIDS OR FINES?

Oxfordshire County, have made it clear that they intend to take every measure they can to live within their deeply cut budgets, soon to be cut even further, like every authority in the UK. The sharpness of cuts has not yet been felt. Oxfordshire's current contribution to living within their budget is to dispose of the responsibility for the speed cameras in the county. 

While local authorities have had the responsibility to service and maintain the speed cameras in their zones, it seems that there has been little or no local benefit from the fines raised.   That money has been diverted to Central Government.   Swindon, in the county of Wiltshire has already abandoned the maintenance of speed cameras.  

Oxfordshire has stated clearly, that their choice is between speed cameras and supporting their children's services and children's safety. There was clearly no competition.

I can hardly believe the reduction in the Exchequer's money grab, (a large one) through fines, was intended.  Once the level of reduction in fines income is felt, and clearly the reduction is starting to roll, what then?