DropBy

I wandered onto a "common" several times this week and began to wonder whether many people have thought about how commons are made: should I really say were made? Anyway I supposed that they came about when a prehistoric woman got the menfolk to settle down and start making a shelter in a cave or by using timber, furs, mammoth rib cages, and other stuff.  

Once they had done that he was "instructed" to get farming : rather than going off to hunt. Farming and animal husbandary requires lots of boundaries to delineate fields for crops and animals - so the first job was to create fences and walls. If they had animals these had to wander off on to the wild unenclosed lands until the fields had been created.

To cut a long story short the wild lands became prehistoric commons.  Much later other families settled nearby and also allowed their animals on to the "un-owned" commonly held lands. At that time there was no ownership of land just possession. No doubt family tribes came about and the head of the head family might have thought she or he owned all and could distribute it to others. In fact consensus prevailed until the head family was deposed or one or more of the others went off far away and "posssessed" some wild land and started their own tribal place. Again the wild land became a common around the new settlement.

To be continued....[Now I'll go off to another common] 

I have been accused of blubbing (or words to that effect) but never blubber-ing! It is quite heart wrenching!

The long running saga of the lorried trays of kitchen (from romantic dinners) fat also involves the government (but more of that aspect of the saga of the lorried trays etc. later).

We know that the trays of kitchen fat will be collected from all over London in lorries....we do know don't we? Well you will have to take my word.  Anyway once a lorry is full the fat-lorry driver will will trundle it (Do lorries still trundle?) towards their destination hub. I will not reveal the destination for fear of ...? The hub will be a .....?  I will not reveal the hub for fear of.....?

However, my immediate concern is to suggest that we need to know the "smell indexation" of any fat-lorry bearing its load across London. Will they waft a fragrance as has never been experienced by Londoners? If so should they not be sprayed with a West End perfumery's wares when in the West End, a Vauxhall perfumery's product when in Vauxhall....an so on. [Those of you who lived or worked or travelled through in or near Vauxhall will know of its former reputation. Here I am not referring to Vauxhall's wonderful 19th Century Gardens, but the lovely fragrance of Marmite which day and night (and night and day) floated about the area - particularly when trapped under the famous railway bridges from Waterloo etc.]

My own view is that the lorries should not be sprayed with a different perfume for each and every "village" (as they like to say in London) but that each lorry should be sealed so that the smell of the trays of kitchen fat are not released onto the streets but wafted into the machinery of the hub.

To be continues.... 


 

Eartlings and I have been involved in creating earth for as long as I can rememeber. Millions and millions and millions of little tiny Eartlings have me workng at supplying them with food. Yes, I am always feeding these lovely millions with food and they do the rest. Once in awhile I remove freshly made earth from the bin where they procreate and create the new earth. They are wonderous but I have n'ere seen one of them.

They are not finicky about what I put on their plates but they would take their time to digest bones and the like. They love meat but it gets stolen from the darlings by rats and foxes and other baddies.

They would demonstrate a love of paper and cardboard but take their time to digest. In fact slugs love card and would be in the compost recycling it more quickly. Composteers like me  dislike slugs because they use the new earth as a storage and transportation hub.

The store is for laying and keeping eggs; the transportation hub is to let the dormant eggs and newly hatched Eartling babies and slugs travel to the wilds of other places in the allotment plot and garden! Ughrrr!  

Once in these places the baby slugs gorge themselves on ............need I go on?

I only compost white paper - tissues and kitchen sheet - the latter with kitchen vegetable oil from wiped frying pans etc. Other papers are more than not covered in priters inks and other tackies which may contain heavy metals - so that stuff goes to recycling facilities: not the compost bin. 

With good project management we might hope that London's sewers will be bereft of geat boulders of fat within three or four years. Thames Water have a plan! Wow!

The idea is that London's restaurants will be given trays....NO! NO"! Probably stainless steel trays .... to fit under the sinks where they do the washing up. Errr.... the washing up is actually done above the underneath the sink  ....but you know what I mean. [If you don't pay for your dinner you might learn what the job is like.]

The purpose of the trays is to catch the fats used in cooking those romantic and other than romantic dindins we would love to be able to afford.  When they are full nice men will come along with a big lorry and take each tray, replacing it with a bright clean tray.

Why would nice Thames Water men want trays of fat when they have boulders of fat in the sewers beneath the feet of the nice TW men. The reason is that they want to fill a nice TW lorry full of trays full of gooyee, gungee fat - this will create slabs of fat on the surface of London - thus preventing the dindins fat forming great  balls (boulders) of subterranean fat.  

Of course all the nice men who go below ground to break up the fat boulders - kinda fat miners - will become unemployed, but  no, no, they are quite slim with all the hot work they do down there breaking up the fat boulders. But, no doubt, with good reason we might reasonably expect that they will become fat-tray lorry drivers or fat-tray carriers (out of restaurants) or empty fat-tray carriers (into restaurants).  

To be continued....

 

If you go beneath the suface of London but not in the Tube, but yes in one of the tubes  - those owned by Thames Water plc - sewers. You will be drawn eventually to see great boulders of fat, dripping, etc, etc.

Londoners probably don't realise how much green energy they have kinda wasted down in their wonderful system of sewers. The balls (of boulder size) of fat, dripping, etc, etc could be said to represent all those candlelit dinners, (or at least the washing up after such romantic episodes).

You may wish to note that such romantic episodes are not represented by fish and chip dinnereering since, would you believe, such cooking oils as are used in making fish and chips do not form boulders in London's sewers.

By now non-capitalists (those who live outside of Londoner) will be feeling smug, perhaps. No,....take back that smirk your dinners - romantic or otherwise - will create boulders of fat in you settlement's sewers - so there!    

To be continued...... 

A few years ago we had an overflowing drain in the garden outside of the kitchen. Investigation showed it was the drain into which three sinks discharged washing up, household chores and handwashing waters respectively. Water-fed appliances, namely a dishwasher and washing machine also dishcharged to the same drain. What was the problem?

The investiagtion proceeded. Down went my fingers, connected to my palm; down went my palm, connected to my wrist; down went my wrist connected to my forearm. I could go on but it would not be true.

At that point bodily limitations set in. My elbow was in the way at a second bend in the pipes or channel. My forearm connected to my shoulder remained above the water level.

I should add that, the perfume I had sprayed down was beginning to wear off. My dearest would be wanting a new bottle if I used another ounce of her beloved "Dune"!

However, just as I was about to wretch, my fingers touched a "solid" ball - hahaaa - Grandchildren!!! [During my toddlerhood my Grandfather George always found their doorkeys in the kitchen drain!]

Using devices from the shed and garage the "ball" was eventually recovered; I should say extracted. It was ball of fat, lard, dripping - you name it! 

The nature of dementia-friendly wards in hospitals has been revealed to me. The concept includes, perhaps, some or all of the following:

• adaptations of wards into places where there is appropriate ambience of layout, surfaces, security, signage, decoration, and room-furniture;
• doctors, nurses, support staff and others who are professional trained to deal with those with dementia;
•  diagnosis and treatment, and restamd recreational activities which reflects the latest standards of good practice;
• carers, friends, relatives, and volunteer buddies who are briefed in these approaches.

Of course, some of these attributes are capable of being replicated into care homes, nursing homes, and even houses and flats. 

Hear Ye, The northern part of Sevenoaks District is covered by a second CCG and hence a different batch of PPGs. PPGs in Swanley and the Northern Parishes will be heartened by their CCG's published detail on priorities and policies for those with dementia.
Briefly, the CCG has a three pronged approach.

1. Diagnosing of dementia will be increased.
2. Supporting each patient with an integrated team using a case management approach.
3. Ensuring that we have dementia-friendly hospitals. 

If we can also get our communities more dementia-friendly by following the concepts underpinning the CCG's priorities and policies, those with dementia will have a more reassuring future.

 

Hear ye PPG members in Sevenoaks District covered by  one of their two clinical Commissioning Groups, ie the bits and pieces of the District in the southern part. [Its name seems to take up a line but includes "Sevenoaks".]

One of the CCG's  priorities will be "Diagnosis and care of people with dementia". 

Also, the Kent Health and Wellbing Board says that "Those with dementia are assessed and treated earlier." 

What does this all mean for dementia and sufferers? 

Sitting at the cafe table as a job club facilitator can be tedious if no job hunters come along. Fortunately the job club is in the Library building so there is plenty to do.

However, I think we are meeting government targets in some kind of way. You know the kind of thing which has been on TV lately. Anyway, this week I went into a  charity shop to promote dementia-friendly activities, to buy a few books, and generally browse. All were rewarding but the browsing gave me pleasure somewhat later.

I spied a tiny notice saying "Vacany" - so I asked for details. Anyway to cut a long story short ...
....a drop-in job club means a job hunter comes in, has a chat, hopefully heeds advice, and is off. Some come back but a higher proportion don't - "Do I give the wrong impression?" "Do I depress them with a rather realistic approach?" "Do I need a new kind of mouth wash?" Anyway to cut a long story shorter...
... I went home and armed with a telephone, I forwenting the TV and the laptop, I rang about a dozen or so members who had dropped in and hopped out. At least three of them had found jobs! Two had come in in the last few weeks!
Spurred to new enthusiasms I have been so busy this morning:

• sorted out my job club litereature
• plan to update the unpublished member's handbook;
• counted members and their results.

I estimate that sitting/lounging  around  for 1.5 to 2 hours a week waiting and chatting has resulted in about a 25% to 35% (known) success ratefor job hunter. Admittedly, the unsuccess rate is at about 75% to 65% (unknown). I have persoannaly spent £2.00 and bourne a very very modest consumables - bit of petrol because I'm lazy and some pages of printing a pence per sheet, etc.  Bear in mind what I do is easy-peasy; it is about 60 years ago when I was unemployed - as many of you will concur it is no picnic. Who was the radion character who said frequently "Have a go!" - create your own job club or volunteer to help one near you.

Afterthought: maybe I should refer to a drop-in job club as a dropby job club!