Big Al's Spot (& Annie too)

 

Berkswell has a few independent porsche garages in the locality:

Shirleys are based in Meriden and have a Gulf petrol station on site with the servicing seeming to be a major aspect of their business, the showroom tends to have Porsche as more accessible prices.

Autobahn, always seem to have a lot of late and new porsches and are situated on the A45 and can be accessed on the Coventry side going toward the airport.

On a more tenuous link a little trip to Birmingham International Airport and flight to Belfast will get you to Hollybrook Sportscars who another Independent Porsche based in Northern Ireland. I'm sure they would be more than happy to let you nominate me to drive your Porsche 993 or Porsche 996 on your behalf. Well if you don't ask you don't get, is a motto of mine.

Well I did once mention to my other half that I would be prepared to be a kept man and look after our children when they came along. In the big scheme of things, I didn't expect for it to be happening quite so soon.

It hasn't exactly worked out as envisaged in that I'm not a fully kept man as I'm still working (but for how much longer in the present climate) 33 odd hours a week, but I do have two free days to look after my daughter.

1st Week Honeymoon

Having scheduled myself for my first week, everything went swimmingly, my daughter managed to go for her afternoon nap both days, with the willing participation of myself (I was knackered just trying to get her asleep) We went out walking with the dog around the fields and to our special fallen tree in the woods, where we can sit on the tree and listen to Turbo chasing the odd rabbit, bird or prompted chase (whats that - whas 'at, was 'at, was 'at! normally does it for him). We went for her Ducklings swimming lesson where for the 1st time she had her lesson without her father. There was another 1st, an unwanted 1st at that - all I'll say is thank god for for swim nappies.

2nd Week

Being Easter holidays our normal Tuesday morning swimming lesson was not scheduled to happen. I rang the leisure centre as the holiday timetable was not up and showed that our normal toddlers session was running and the 1st swimming lesson we could attend was at 1:30pm. Not really what you want given a toddler insisting on "swim swim daddy". So a trawl around the various leisure centres with swimming pools was in order. I decided that the swimming pool in Kenilworth was worth a punt as we could get in for 10am.

The pool was okay if a little cold for a toddler, but free for under 4s and £3.15 for an adult was more than reasonable. The kids playground is probably the best one for toddlers I've visited with plenty of soft areas underfoot. Unfortunately the busted lip was not appreciated, but plucky wee thing that she is, she got up and dusted herself down.

Complacency leads to Comeuppance

On arrival home I got drinks ready and got our lunch out of the fridge (thoughtfully prepared by Anna - Okay I'm an amateur, but I need to get my eye in, before chancing the repercussions) while my daughter came into the living room and proceeded to empty about a pint of purple disinfectant all over the floor. NIGHTMARE.

One quick clean up later and the back window frames and windows got an impromptu clean, a wee sift through the recycling box to get a newspaper (a tip from my earlier life as a weekend valeter) and the windows were polished and cleaned to perfection.

Time for a nap, but no matter what, when you have an obsession with Higgledy House nothing will allow you to go to sleep. Now a toddler with no sleep is a bit of a nightmare for them and their parents, cause nothing is right and nothing is going to be right no matter what you try to do.

"It's Moyne", "moyne", "That's moyne" at first I thought it was an Irish brogue, but it then dawned on me it was brummie for "mine". Where it has come from I don't know, but I guess it is inevitable. That she also has taken to copying one of my sayings "Happy Days" is a bit of a consolation prize.

I don't want to create work and hassle for Public bodies for the sake of it, but having spent £176 odd on a training course that had a lot to say about how the Freedom of Information (FOI herein) Act 2000 works, I can't help but stick my oar in when I see what is to my mind a method of restricting questions via the FOI Act.

Went to my local NHS trust website and was once again trying to find what questions had already been asked under the FOI Act and all I could see was web form, however the web form was prepared to in such a way that it was asking way too much personal information from me which was mandatory in order to progress a question to them. i.e. more or less who, what, where and why. This is where my £176 comes in, apparently you don't actually have to give anything more than an email address according to FOI Section 8 where:

• 8 Request for information
  (1) In this Act any reference to a “request for information” is a reference to such a request which—
  (a) is in writing,
  (b) states the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence, and
  (c) describes the information requested.
  
• (2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), a request is to be treated as made in writing where the text of the request—
  (a) is transmitted by electronic means,
  (b) is received in legible form, and
  (c) is capable of being used for subsequent reference.

So I stated my name and gave my email address, which is fulling compliant with a valid request under Section 8 of the FOI Act 2000.

Playing Devil's Advocate I asked if they had a disclosure log of questions asked and then I asked a few searching questions about re-admissions after being discharged from A&E and whether or not a re-admission within a very short period of time was charged to the PCT at a reduced or higher tariff. i.e. only questions someone with a bit of knowledge would know.

It will be interesting to see if I actually get a comprehensive reply.

Well, I've been reading quite a few articles on the Freedom of Information Act recently and I've found some of the Freedom of Information Disclosure Logs completely fascinating. Not fascinating in the conventional sense like amazing scams being uncovered, news breaking disclosures of significant information, but quite to the contrary, the trivial, the mundane and sometimes the really rather interesting.

For instance on the FOI Disclosure log for HMRC formerly Customs & Excise, someone asked the number of Taxpayers in the UK with a total earned income in of £1 million or more


Number of individuals2 95% confidence interval3
1996/7 1,200 ± 300
1997/8 1,000 ± 300
1998/9 1,800 ± 350
1999/0 2,300 ± 300
2000/1 4,100 ± 450

2001/2 3,400
2002/3 2,800
2003/4 3,000
2004/5 3,600
2005/6 4,100

It is quite amazing just what the dot.com bubble really did for quite a number of people and how long it took to come to similar numbers in 2005/6.

Dangerous Thoughts

This got me to thinking and a tried to see if my local council had a disclosure log handy on their website. Google was certainly not my friend on this occasion and the council website did not have any indication that they publish the questions people ask. I did try my best to find it, but if they have published it I get the impression they are trying to hide it. Plenty of information about it, but is it really in keeping with the spirit of what the FOI Act 200o is all about.

So my first FOI request was of course to "request information about the FOI disclosure log" and to be fair to them my local council has replied very promptly and said they would "try to supply you with the information sought by no later than 23 May 2008." More ominously they said:

• "In some circumstances a request may be subject to a) the payment of a fee, or b) an exemption may apply preventing disclosure of the information. If this is the case with your request, I will let you know immediately.

Having had a bit of training about this in my job, I know they have to spend 20 hours on the request completely free of charge.

I wonder will they come up trumps and be open and true to the legislation or just pay lipservice and try to fob me off.

Watch this space.

Had the independent social worker around this evening, didn't seem a bad sort, easy to talk to. So at least 6 more meetings and a 4 day workshop before this adoption process goes through.

Been given a bit of homework to complete for the next session.

Well I'm not very religious, but some of our families are, on both mine and Anna's side, so I was thinking of what to do. I got thinking about a short and sweet grace which I've heard a few times.

So here goes:

"May God make us able for all on the table, one, two, three, go....!"

Hmmm.... I wonder.