I Got Sole....

 

Or at least I aint got sole.  As my feet ached as I walked it came to my attention the problem might have something to do with the soles no longer being of any use to anyone! This is annoying as these shows now fit my feet, or is it the other way around? Comfortable, waterproof unless it rains, and clearly fashionable, oh yes they are.  I suppose I will have to use the 'Sunday Best' shoes from now on, once I have wiped the dust from them. Things under the bed get very dusty I find.   

Only three more World Cup games to go.  One more week I reckon before normality returns.  I sat in front of the TV at five today and was somewhat shocked to find there was no more games!  Only the semi-finals and final to come. I began to see spiders after a while, then realised there were spiders on the telly!  I really must dust more. The 'Tour de France' which is running about Yorkshire at the moment is a nice alternative.  Watching the knees bending is very tiring to me but the scenery, without rain at that, is magnificent!
Tomorrow the 'Tour' comes past our way.  Two overcrowded miles up the road the race will flash past, except when crossing the humpback bridge with a sharp right turn, and ignore the crowds stuffing themselves with hamburger from the stalls ll over the fields in the village.  I should have gathered all the England flags thrown out by loyal fans after the World Cup games and taken them up there to sell!   I will watch on TV, I will see more this way.

Three weeks till our Great War exhibition opens.  We still have five weeks work in hand!!!  Lummy, as they used to say....

OK, Explain This!

Wandering home from the museum after a very quiet day I passed this in one of the centuries old rights of way.  Today this is merely a path between houses but it has been in use since time immemorial, which means a long time ago.  Plastic bags, crisp packets, tin cans and the like can often be found lying about the streets of this litter mad society, but in this town sights like this are rare, indeed never seen before.  Who and why has someone dumped all these old boots here I wonder?  Did someone rob a bag from a charity shop and get the wrong stuff?  Is it a foot fetishist who has changed his mind?  
While enduring 20 odd years on London such sights were not unusual, indeed round our way they were common before gentrification took hold.  In this wasteland the tipping is usually done in a farmers field well away from homes and usually of trade waste, not second hand footwear.  I must keep a look out for a family with no shoes.  Then I will know the culprit.  What did I do about it did you ask?  Nothing........ 

I found this also, a picture of a Glasgow shop!

Service

After careful scrutiny of the financial situation, and the fact my feet were protruding through my trainers, I took myself off to the 'Shoe Zone' today.  Now I am not keen on buying shoes as they never have the ones I want in my size (12), and no matter what I do I am never happy with the brutes.  Strangely enough I also find I do not wish to lose the hole riddled ones I have been wearing as they are now comfortable, so how that works out I know not.  In this town I find service in the shops comes in two shades.  One is friendly and almost like dealing with family, almost, the other is surly, disinterested and often teenaged.  Today I met both.  The girl in the shop kind of smiled at me, the kind of smile she uses on her uncle when he repeats the story she has heard countless times before, and was busy shelf filling when I dumped the cheapest I could find on the counter.  Her boss arrived, devoid of smile, but this time the strained "I've had enough" kind of non smile, indicated me beginning a  queue.  Smile less service followed and I departed wondering.  

Now long ago I dealt with customers in a Cash & Carry and can appreciate what people go through.  The great British public is an ignorant pain in the neck at times, the job is boring, the future bleak, however it is work!  My great nephew obtained a shop in a 'cheap end of the market' sports clothes shop and came home on his first day grumbling about the customers, "They are so rude!"  I can imagine the young who are employed in such shops, their life stretching out ahead of them, excitement calling at every dawn and instead it's enduring fussy women, grumbling children, men with no idea or indeed too much idea as to what they want, and a company pressure to make sales.  It is not what you wish to wake up to is it?   I suspect these folk are being paid the minimum wage, and that reluctantly.  If the boss and you, and possibly others have little time for one another life can be hard.

I was left wondering if using older folks as staff, especially part time, might be an idea here.  Few wish to employ folks over fifty and I think shops especially suffer because of this.  If unemployed they could do the legal 15 hours work while on the dole, give some meaning to their day, and this might bring about a better atmosphere in such shops.  Older staff know they only way to make such employment work is to have fun.  This is not easy, but boring jobs are lightened by laughter, even dark humour.  I think such shops should consider this idea, although they probably only ever consider the pennies.

On the other hand I had to contact the Pensions people the other day.  A question arose regarding Pensions I knew nothing about.  I know I will benefit from around £1000 p.a. from my time at Selfridges in the 80's, but I discovered the NHS has automatically enrolled me in their pension also. Whether this was during the seven years at the hospital or the two years of angst in the health authority I do not know.  I did not realise I had been enrolled automatically and nothing was ever said re this.  The NHS authority folk spent most of their time fighting for position, the care for patients never crossed their minds!  I was not popular whenever I mentioned this, and I did! 

The nice young lady at the pensions encouraged me to contact the NHS folk quickly, mostly on the basis I may have a large lump sum coming!  I think she may want some.  However when I called today they had no note of my existence.  Typical!  I now have to dig out addresses long since forgotten and try to discover where I was living when enrolled.  This is difficult as a quick look at Google maps shows some places have been redeveloped.   Mind one one or two were indeed slums!  However the point is both persons contacted were highly efficient, patient and helpful.  (I wonder how much they earn?)  

Management often has no consideration regarding staff contentment.  If staff are treated right, given proper support, and the work has some degree of enjoyment they will respond.  It always appears to me far too many shops work on the cheapest basis.  'Young staff are cheap, people need shoes, customers will come.'   It may give you a number of shops up and down the land, but this does not lead to a better world. 

The new trainers?  They are OK, so far.

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I Don't Know Either.

The brats at the skatepark, being male, do have a habit doing strange and needless things.  For reasons beyond my comprehension the tree towering over the skatepark has been festooned with trainers.  Whether any individual was contained within them when they made their way onto the tree branches is not known.  This is not the first time such decoration has been used to 'brighten' the area, a while back one tree was furbished with what appeared to be a pack of yellow toilet tissue.  Large streamers hung delicately from the tree, much to the annoyance of the council workmen who had to remove them.  No adolescent was hurt in this operation, also to the annoyance of the council workmen!  

 On the other hand there is little reason to expect youths to behave in a reasonable manner when planning permission, controlled by the council, leads to half demolished buildings such as the one behind. Depending on whom you read planning permission has been agreed for either a dozen houses or a hotel containing eighty bedrooms!  Considering the space will struggle to contain a dozen houses, even at the size they build them today, an eighty bedroom hotel is pushing it!  To make matters worse there will be parking space for about six cars!  However owing to some planning regulations that I fail to comprehend to avoid the planning permission running out a start has to be made on demolishing the old clinic. As the observer not wearing dark glasses and looking the other way will note the building is half demolished. Quite how the brats have not yet managed to set fire to the place is a wonder as they have frequently set many items around here on fire, litter bins, post boxes, old huts, even the skatepark itself had the covering material burnt off!  Yet there the mess that is this building stands, unburnt.  I may do it myself if this goes on much longer.  How much for the land, Price on application, which means too much!  I reckon this may lie derelict until the recession is over.  
 


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