Early Winter Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

Hmm Colin you mentioned the dreaded 'strikes' & boy are they coming thick & fast! I do understand some of these like the post men & women, as their managers are planning on totally changing their working pattern & we will all get late afternoon deliveries.

Some of the others I am not comfortable about especially my own profession one. By striking & demanding more money in a time of depleted funds & unsafe staffing levels is not going to happen. Increase the wages & new staff will not be affordable so problem will remain. This huge increase demanded will break the bank & it is the next generations that will be paying it off so bang go their chances of them having the freedoms & fun we did as there will only be work & more work to just provide for their families.

This is just my personal opinion of course & I've had way too many debates from work friends, but I nursed in OZ as well & we did strike. Better organised with rota's & only on the picket line on your off time & not for something so excessive. The public fought back & flooded departments as it was their Medicare contributions that supported the health service so we had to work our off time just to meet demand & that was in the time when social could find placements for patients that required residential placement.

[tigerburnie]

This is not a poor country, workers seeking a fair share of the wealth is nothing new is it, something like 5 percent of the population has 90 percent of the wealth, in some countries there would be a revolution never mind a strike. The French seem to be able to pay their workers and they get better working hours and conditions, there are times when I think I should have stayed there these days.

[Colin2016]

My opinion is it "Greed" not on the worker but management upwards. Just check out what the CEO's are getting in bonus's
As for NHS bring back matron to run it as it seem the current lot are failing.
Going on peoples experiences lately I hope I never end up in hospital.
I cannot understand why people that work there are made to pay for parking, removing that burden would put money in workers pocket straight away.
When I worked my rule was not parking cant do the job.

[Stephen]

video works for me. I'm using Chrome on an Android tablet at the moment.

[Cider Boys]

Well at last my November sown broad beans have started to emerge, I always plant them deep and firm the soil down well in order to help protect them from the crows. The earlier sown ones are now laying flat on the ground due to this cold weather. Now the redwings have followed the fieldfares into my orchard along with a few jays and woodpeckers (pied and green). The fieldfares seem to spend most of their time harassing and chasing off the other thrushes especially the blackbirds. The local pheasants are also enjoying the fallen apples. Plenty of assorted birds in the garden, I'm glad I left the seed heads on many of the plants for the birds to enjoy.

Keep dry and warm

Barney

[Westi]

Colin unfortunately the Matrons are back in place. I've yet to see one with an apron on helping out (except the one in Oncology), but certainly whinging about the staffing levels at meetings. Our chief nurse & her deputy often work on wards doing all the chores not just selective ones & I never understood why they didn't demand the matron's do the same.

When I was ward sister we had full control of the budget, hiring staff, disciplinary things & were included in the ward staffing numbers & had allocated bays to care for etc - they have admin to help them with the paperwork, I did that during breaks although also had good deputies who took turns as well.

Our staff are supposed to pay but I have heard that the parking guys just leave the barrier open at usual shift start times. The visitors have to pay unless they're involved in the care of a patient or their relative is poorly, but the first time they do have to pay as the critical / dementia wards give out the passes. That could have been 12hrs or even 24hrs so a considerable deficit from the off but it is a private company that controls visitor parking.

[Westi]

It was way too cold today but I popped down with the dogs for an hour as the wood's walk was a right mess with mud & ice. Plot was at least not muddy; but we had rain, sleet & snow while down there so membrane paths soon became a lethal weapon. Tunnel had a good tidy up while we were trapped in but I don't hold much hope for some of the winter lettuce or the broad bean plants as temp did not hit 1C max in there & one lettuce was a slimy mess. I did not risk the walk down the back to check the outdoor thermometer but one of the guys said their outdoor one was -6.5C.

IMG_6799.JPG (1.72 MiB) Viewed 5615 times

[Geoff]

Global warming has kicked in PLUS 1.3°C!

[tigerburnie]

I managed to open the greenhouse door yesterday, minus 6.8 on the thermometer and not surprisingly the Nasturtium in the hanging basket has succumbed to the cold. Tried to get in this morning so I could do some prep for sowing Onion seeds and the door was frozen shut again.

[robo]

I go to my plot every day just to clean the chicken shed up and collect the eggs it’s fun chipping chicken *** up off the floor when it’s frozen solid ,I’m only getting around four eggs a day so Wednesday I left the eggs in a box closed the lid and as usual left them till Thursday to add another 2 Friday morning 2had cracked and were frozen solid so now unless the box is full I bury it in the chicken corn hoping they survive, Monday I’m having a pre op before I have my knee sorted the specialist said it would be around March then when I was leaving the nurse asked me could I come for a pre op seems a bit of a gap between the two

[Westi]

I got a bit excited with the anticipated increase in temp to near spring like next week, then I checked the forecast - is mostly raining & strong winds during this! Mother Nature has one wicked sense of humour!

[peter]

So I'm going to the office more often, started with our ISO27001 audit, then my new team member had already given notice before the formalities were completed.
On Monday we went from "Well I think we're looking at a 6th of Feb start date" to "Hi there HR can I start him on 19th Dec".
So in all next week, the real news bit is I thought -10C was pretty cold this morning, coming home after a grotty traffic snarl up that added almost two hours to my trip, the same area was -10.5C and had freezing fog about twenty yards visibility at it's worst.

[oldherbaceous]

Not the best of days then, Peter!

[tigerburnie]

Even colder this morning, no chance of me sowing my Onions yet as the compost is in the frozen greenhouse and the propagator is in the frozen shed, looks like it might be the traditional Boxing Day job then, I was going to sit in the greenhouse and do a video, blow that for a game of brass monkeys.

[oldherbaceous]

Everything in my glasshouse is still frozen too…looks like Sunday night will be when we get the big thaw….