Attention shoppers!

I’ve just eaten some grapes and they’ve made me feel a bit sick, which is troubling because you don’t expect that with grapes. Grapes are one of life’s ‘not supposed to make you feel queasy’ food stuffs, unless of course they’ve been turned into wine in which case they can and often do make you ill – I’ve lost days of my life to vino hangovers…

Anyway, traffic was predictably hideous this morning because of the tube. I set off 45 minutes earlier and got in slightly later! And everyone was getting impatient – horns beeping, people accelerating hard, braking late, using bus lanes etc. I just sat listening to country music with such classic lines as “Attention late night shoppers, two for one on broken chains!” Brilliant…

I wouldn’t like to be working on the tubes, because right now tube workers are about as welcome as bird flu. Tube drivers earn more than some fire-fighters and police officers and the impression the RMT give is that they’ll stop working at a drop of a hat. There was a story about a driver who had been drinking on duty and was sacked because of it. The union threatened a strike because he they said he had been unfairly dismissed! Another driver who took huge amounts of sick leave because of a problem with his ankle, he was photographed playing squash – he got the push and they threatened to strike again!

RMT members may say I’m being very unfair, that there are valid reasons for calling a strike but your average Jo/anna don’t know or see that. They see the union trying to act like American Teamsters from the 60s and 70s, and strikers making their lives a misery! This time it’s over pay and conditions – both may be lousy, although as I said, drivers earn a lot of money, far more than people that do a harder and more demanding job, but people don’t care – they are just cursing everyone that’s made them late this morning!

It's only to fair to point out that not all tube workers are represented by the RMT, there are other unions and of course, some people don't belong to a union at all.

We had dinner last night and went straight to bed to read. My partner was feeling under the weather and I was just a bit tired. The new edition of Country Smallholder arrived so I sat in bed reading that with a cup of tea! (I'm so rock and roll!)

My partner has actually had to take today off because she’s really rough this morning – sore throat, headache etc. My first thought was I hope she gets better soon; my second thought was I hope I don’t catch it!

Tomorrow is my alpaca training day, I’m really, really looking forward to it. Will blog all about it on Thursday!

TV licences, chickens and photography

I had a lie-in this morning and it made all the difference. So much so that after a healthy breakfast I started work and have achieved more this morning than I have all week!

So today I have to drop off the statement and documents to the court that’s handling the trial of the century – my ‘30 days out of date TV licence that as soon as we realised was out of date was replaced immediately’. My partner and I are both a little nervous about being hit with a massive fine. We’re hoping the case is seen for what it is, an accidental oversight, but I guess it depends on all manner of things. I’ll let you know. But to be honest, once I’ve hand-delivered the stuff I’m going try and put it all out of my mind.

College tonight but I have no photos. I haven’t had the time and / or inclination which is a shame. I’m really struggling with this new term. I joined to become a better photographer and just as that happened, we were told we had to use other cameras which we weren’t familiar with, and often, due to the age of the cameras, have significant operating differences. Ah well, it's a small problem in the big scheme of things.

Country smallholding magazine arrived this morning! I was very excited but haven’t had the time to read it yet. I wanted to check it out before I subscribed and you can buy each new issue individually. If it’s well written and helpful, then I may just indulge… even if I never get a small holding, I’ll always know how to care for rare-breed chickens!!