bloomingyeovil

What a difference a day makes, yesterday. Was thunder, lightning & hail stones today sunshine. Yesterday I was at home today at work typical, I hope the bank holiday weekend gets it right my garden needs some TLC.

I went for training on Monday, it was very interesting and informative, I bet they don’t do that again. “That’s enough about that”. Move on.

On Wednesday My wife and I went to Newquay for a VIP reception and the South West in Bloom presentations followed on Thursday, it has been a while since we visited Newquay, it hasn’t changes much, it’s still by the sea and it has seagulls. The town was smarter and the flowers were very good as you imagine, as they were hosting this prestigious event, the whole place had a better atmosphere somehow, it was a very pleasant short visit. The hotel was www.greatwesternnewquay.co.uk/ (The Great Western Hotel) our room only cost me £39.00 and breakfast was only £4.99 for a “Full Cornish” and, yes, “I enjoyed it”.

Two Awards for our neighbourhoods presented by Toby Buckland

The presentations were held in the www.atlantichotelnewquay.co.uk/ (Atlantic Hotel Newquay), a very nice venue, I must say, the whole day was very good, only spoilt once by one schoolboy tantrum. The event was, a morning session, where the neighbourhood awards were given out, Yeovil collected eight neighbourhood awards, (See Below), to all who got one a “VERY WELL DONE” your efforts make Yeovil a better place to live. The afternoon session was all about South West in Bloom, the Towns and Cities that improve their lot, using the “In Bloom” banner. It is worth saying that these awards are made for more than just flower displays, they include, Community Involvement, Neighbourhood Involvement, Re-cycling, Schools, Sponsorship, as well as flowers. “Our horticultural team do flowers very we indeed”. In our group we were up against places like, Newquay, Exmouth with their tourism budgets and Portishead with their regeneration money, the groups are determined by population not location, we always know winning the group may not be in our reach, but we have done well in the past and we did well again, Steve, said “we would get a Silver Gilt award this year” and he was spot on the money, that’s what we got. When we get the judging sheets we will find out how our points were decided and how we can improve next year, but it is always an improving playing field and we have to always be top of our game to do well. I would like to extend my thanks to all the hard working people who make our town and neighbourhoods such nice places to live and visit, “WELL DONE – TO YOU ALL”. I thought, we were, good enough for Gold but the judges did not share that view, and they are the judges, so what they say, goes.

On a closing note, Saturday the 24^th September 2011 the Annual “Yeovil Flower and Gardeners Market” will be in the Town Centre, the Farmers Market will also be there, “PLEASE” come and join us, there is lots to do for both adults and children, and most of it is FREE.

Below are the eight neighbourhoods that won awards in Newquay. Again. “Well done All of You”

• Grovelands Care Home
• Huish Primary School
• Kenmore Drive Residents’ Association
• RustywellPark
• St Mark’s Church Community Allotment
• Vanessa Allotment Project
• West Abbey Barchester Healthcare
• Westfield Community Association

Link to: – South West in Bloom: – www.southwestinbloom.org.uk/

Who could have thought that this last week could have ended on such a high??

The council scene played a large role in my week with activities or meetings most days, except one, that one I will come to later. The Town Council required a report from me about the NALC Conference I attended back in May, good job I made notes and got the overheads that were handed out, my memory is not what it once was, I am getting older you know, now what was I saying, I have forgotten already. Oh yes that’s right the conference, the report was received well on the whole one or two questions, which is to be expected, some people just like to hear themselves talk, and we have our share of them. One councillor ask why a topic like the localism bill would have been discussed as it was going through parliament now and to discuss it so early on was a waste of everyone’s time, but I pointed out if we are to influence how the bill will look in its final state now IS the time to talk about it, once it is on the statute books it is too late to input the views of the common people, and yes I am dead common.

The Area South Council Meeting was presided but an Area Workshop that gave members an opportunity to have their say about how the council goes forward into the future, it was a very informative event and I will await the follow up workshop to see if the officers have listened to what was said. The Meeting proper was dominated by three planning applications, how you can discuss for nearly an hour the merits of allowing a stable and ménage in the country beats me, you cannot exactly put it in town can you. These meetings are an eye opener to those who have never attended, it is worth a Wednesday afternoon just to see how the democratic decisions are made, come alone and see for yourselves.

Now then the end of week I spoke of; well my friend Tim and I left work and drove to Winchester, this was the closest we could get a hotel with a reasonable rate so we could be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the Friday’s event. We went Fly Fishing, “Hooray”. There were three of us fishing under the Wincanton banner, it was a team event, there was Me, Tim and Mark. The Avington Trout Fishery was our destination, one of the best Trout fisheries in the country, what a day we had, it started with a full English Breakfast, we fished from around 9:30 until 1pm when we were forced to stop for lunch, a very nice buffet, oh yes and BEER. We started fishing again about 2pm and fished through to 5pm. The weather was fair, dry and not to bright, short sleeved polo shirts were the order of the day for Tim and I, and there was no need for sun cream. I have to congratulate TIM as he had his bag of 4 fish before lunch, By lunch I had one and sadly Mark had none, never mind the beer helped as did the nice lunch, fortified we set of in the afternoon to try and catch some more fish, we had a professional fly fisherman there to give some tuition, his name was Peter Cottrell, he’s good, he helped my casting, I can do it properly now, I had two more fish, but sadly they both got the better of me, one thought it was a flying fish and got off in the air while jumping and the other was too big for my net, and I lost that one as a result of the small net, it had to be a double figure fish, but, we will never know, even though I caught one and lost two, it was a great day’s fishing for me as have only been fly fishing for a year. Mark our third team member had caught two in the afternoon session and he was well pleased with himself, Mark is an experienced fisherman and knows his way around a fishing rod, he has been fly fishing for years as has Tim.

Friday ended with the prize giving for the fishing, Tim picked up a third place pool prize (money) then we came to the Team trophy and guess what “WE WON IT” between us we had the heaviest team catch, it was the first time our team had won the trophy; the Wincanton staff will be chuffed to hear all about it on Monday at work, (or will they?).

The week ahead is going to be equally eventful as I will be travelling to Newquay to the South West In Bloom award ceremony, can win an award this year as we have in the past, and if we can what could it be ?? we will have to wait and see, again this is a team event, and some of the horticultural team members from SSDC will be coming as well, after all they do all the work, I think we can all agree that the Town looks great again this year and the roundabouts are something special. I will report back next weekend to let you know how we got on.

Well hello again, it has been a while, but, in my defence I have been on holiday for 3 weeks.

The car had its own holiday in the Holiday Inn car park where it lived for three week at a greatly cheaper price than the airport parking. Hotel parking rocks

If you have been following my Facebook page, you will know I have been to the USA, we, my wife and I, that is, started our holiday with a nice restful stay at the Holiday Inn before the arduous flight that took us from Heathrow to Atlanta Georgia, where we waited for two and a half hours for our connecting flight to Los Angeles. We took off at 13:05 and arrived at LAX at 22:32 local time, LAX is eight hours behind our time zone, that made that a very long day, by the time we had our shuttle to the Hollywood Hotel it was 23:30 we were knackered and slept like babies all night waking up at the correct LA time for a full days sightseeing.

While in California we attended the wedding of my nephew in Pasadena at the Langham Hotel, it was a most impressive location to have a wedding as the photo here will show. We stayed at the Pasadena Hilton as we could not afford the Langham’s rates, I like Pasadena it was like home, a green and pleasant place to be, the wedding was great, totally different to an English wedding but you would expect that in the USA.

After nearly a week in California we flew to Detroit, to spend time with my son and his family, this flight took off at 11:15 LA time and landed at 18:49 Detroit time, we crossed two time zone to get there so we had a five and a half hour flight to get there, surprisingly on the US internal flight we had to pay $25 each for our luggage just like you do here when flying to Europe.  

In Michigan it was mosquito biting season and my wife was on the menu, I got off lightly, I did not taste as good as her, the deterring spray worked for me, but as it had an aroma she was not so keen to put as much on, hence she got bitten and I was more fortunate. It was great to see my son and his family, we got up to allsorts of stuff while we were there, including two visits to the “Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village”, That puts our Museums to shame, everything under one roof and an old world village as well, well worth two visits as there is too much to see in one day. The museum was a walk through the history of all Engineering and American life, not just the cars, but steam engines and horse drawn stuff as well, there was American history and architecture, aircraft, and all, in fact if you can think of it, it was there, including people dressed in period costumes.

The flight home was at 21:45 Detroit time, and landed at 10:30 London time, going through five more time zones, giving a seven hour flight. We were able to sleep on the plane and as a result I was able to drive home safely, the airline we used was Delta and I will fly with them again as the service we received was first rate.

While away we missed the riots and all the poor summer weather, shame. The weather in the USA while we were there was wall to wall sunshine, any rain that did come was at night, just as the weather man said it would. We are starting to plan for our next trip already, giving us all something to work towards and save up for.

I would like to say “it’s good to be back” but I went back to work on Tuesday and now I wish I had stayed in the USA living the holiday life, it was a shock to the system having to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work. Jet-Lag was not an issue for us, we both shock that off quickly and returned to normal, I think staying up until the UK bed time was the key to our success with the jet-lag, as we both adjusted quickly to UK time.

Back to the cycle of Council Meeting this coming week with engagements with both Town and District councils come up. Already our holiday seems to be a long time ago. Sigh!

The weather doesn’t seem to be able to make it mind up today, sunny one minute and cloudy the next, never mind, I have good company and some nice coffee, I might even go and get a biscuit. “What diet” The milks gone off so I have had to use coffeemate, there’s a trip to the local shop to get some more milk before the wife gets home.

My sister came to visit yesterday, she stayed all afternoon and part of the evening, we ordered in  Chinese for tea, and it was lovely, she brought her new to for us to play with, that was fun to.

My eyes are starting to settle down now, I have finished with the drops and the opticians’ have signed me off as a done deal, I need only go for a check up after my holiday, on a nice note, my designer “Police” sunglasses arrive in the post this week, so I can look even cooler outdoors now. Soon I will be so cool I’ll be sub-zero.

It is reasonably quiet on the political front; we had an uneventful District Council meeting on Thursday and a photo call, to get a group photo of all Councillors on the wall, for this quadrennium, my second photo call in a week without my glasses.

My daughter and family is away in the South of Wales for a week’s holiday, my wife is house, dog and fish sitting, leaving me with a bed to myself and a free run of our house, no parties though, as I do not have any party friends, I’m a boring old fart when it comes to parties.

I have made some new friends on Facebook, this week, ones in Brazil, and she seem a very nice lady, it’s great that you can have friends all over the world, and you can chat and play together without ever meeting, although I am a Facebook novice I do have lots of friends, from all over. It is a good way of keeping in touch with family as well, we hardly ever see my son and his family but with email,  internet and Facebook we keep in touch, there is hardly a day goes by without some contact.

We have a family wedding on the 6^th of August, we are all looking forward to that, my wife has her new frock, the sunshine has been ordered and the batteries in the camera have been charged up, my nephew is marrying a very nice young lady of oriental descent, they will make a very fetching couple and it will be a very special day for us all. The service is being held in a Chinese stile garden, with a lake and bamboo bridge, the photo opportunities will be plentiful. More information for our family tree, that is if we get the chance to find out, as the day will be very busy, and chatting might not be high on her list of things to do.

You will be pleased to hear I did not go for the biscuit after all, I drank the coffee while writing this, and I did not have the urge. Am I a good boy or what?

Off to the shop now, for milk. More next week for all my avid readers, all 3 of you. Spread the word, this is the blog to read, or not.

This has been the strangest week of my life; it started with me wearing glasses and ended without them. I also have some Cool Dude Sunglasses.

On Monday I underwent optical correction surgery called “Wavefront Intralase – Lasik (primary- Balateral)” with Optical Express. I did try to keep it a secret as I was very nervous about it and I did not want everyone wishing me well as this would have made even more anxious when all I wanted to do was forget until the last minute, I hate having particulates in my eyes so the thought of my eyes being operated on while I was awake and watching, really did not appeal to me, but as I have worn glasses for 50 years of my life I decided that it was going to be worth it. Howard if had a word for me, Thank You it worked.

I was surprised how simple and painless the process was, the discomfort came on the way home and in the hours that followed until I fell asleep, my eyes stung and there was nothing I could do to alleviate it, it was like that for about 2 to 3 hours, sleep was the healer, next morning, my eyes were a little sour but “Wow” I could see, a bit hazy but that was due to the drops that were going in every 2 to 4 hours. I had to return to Bristol on Tuesday for a check-up, they found some inflammation in one eye so the drop rate went up to combat that and as a result I had to return to Bristol again on the Thursday for another check-up, it was a lot better by then and I was back driving again, my next check up was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but as my Wife and I had 4 visits to Cabot Circus in Bristol, I pressed for a different venue to give my supportive wife some different shops to look around while I was being sorted out, so we got to visited Cribbs Causeway that time. My eyes were not so good on Saturday the sharpness was gone, but the surgeon said this was normal, as the eyes had, had, a traumatic experience, there was some fluctuation to be expected, Sunday is the same, I knew I would need some reading glasses, so I will go in search today, ready for work tomorrow, my long vision is fixed, (I hope) but my close vision isn’t, it will seem strange wearing   reading glasses, for close up stuff, when I didn’t need them before. The surgeon also said in some cases there is a need for minor corrective surgery after the event, as some people eyes don’t always respond as well as others. We’ll see if I fall into that category or not on Tuesday

My last visit for a while should be next Tuesday (in Cabot Circus again) where I hope to be given a clean bill of health until my final check-up after our holiday. “Fingers crossed”. If there is any doubt “Cabot Circus is a shopping centre”.

On a different note, the judges came to Yeovil on Tuesday for the South West In Bloom Competition, the town looked great, but I was not the judge. You can never read a judge, you think you’ve done well and you are disappointed with the outcome, and when you think you have done poorly you are surprised. We will have to wait until September to find out at the presentation in Newquay. If you have not yet been to the town to see the floral displays, now’s your chance they look great, and don’t miss the displays on the roundabouts, especially the Old Creamery sponsored one, at the bottom of Bunford Hollow.

Our German Twinned Town of Taunusstein – http://www.yeovil-twinning.co.uk/taunusstein/index.html – has come to visit, they are here until Tuesday, Monday is a day I can join in and we are all going to Tiverton, for a slow trip on a horse drawn barge and then on to Tiverton Castle for a guided tour, the day concludes with a visit to Barrington Court for a walk around the gardens and a meal in their restaurant, here’s to a great day out and let’s hope it stays dry.

Well I’m sitting here today on this lovely sunny Monday morning, with my ass getting tight, today’s the day the lights go out, I hope my shilling for the meter is enough, Howard, have a word with the Big Man for me, I know I am not worthy, but I need the reassurance and all the help I can get, to get through this day.

On a more cheerful and different note, it is judging day tomorrow.  Tuesday the 12 of July, The South West In Bloom, RHS Judges will arrive in Yeovil at 9am, to see our town in all its glory, the yobs had a go last Friday night, but I hope the damage was minimal, we all need to remember that the whole town is judged not just the floral displays, it is our green qualities, cleanliness and overall impression of our town as well as the public and neighbourhood involvement, so, all in all, it is everyone who is involved, you will see judges and our team walking around the town centre just after 9am, then they go out into the communities and neighbourhoods to see for themselves what is being done there, I hope we do well but it is out of my hands now, the horticultural team at the SSDC nursery have done their best, and in my view “a very good best it is to”. If you want to help, just make sure, there is no litter about, on the day, if you see someone allowing their dog to soil the pavement, make sure they pick it up, we lost a gold medal a few years ago for just that reason. As Chairman of Yeovil in Bloom I hope to be there myself, but we will see how I feel, today will be a difficult day to get through.

The 40^th Anniversary of the first flight of the Lynx Helicopter was last Friday and AgustaWestland had a celebration event for the staff and contractors on site. The rain stayed away and we were given a lovely flying display by all sorts of aircraft, most of which would have been built at Yeovil, there was a Wasp Helicopter, built in 1975, the year I joined Westland’s and I would have cut gears for that one, I am amazed it is still flying, obviously I was “trained well” and I chopped a good cog or too. I was surprised at the New Lynx (Wildcat), it is very quiet, it could sneak up on you without any trouble. It was also nice to see the G-Lynx, the fastest Helicopter in the world, refurbished by a team of apprentices; those apprentices are the children of the people who built parts for the original Lynx, 40 years ago. The wheel has indeed, turned full circle, and so it should. There was an Apache helicopter on display as well, if I am every in need I hope that bad-boy is on my side, I don’t think I would last long against it, just imagine that bad-boy Paintballing, OUCH.

When the flying display finished in Yeovil, the aircraft were prepped ready to go to Yeovilton, for the Air Day at HMS Heron, but you had to pay to get in there, sadly my plans to go fell apart at the eleventh hour, never mind they all flew over Yeovil anyway, so we got to see most of them in the grey skies anyway.

That’s it for this week, if I am able I will be back next week, we’ll SEE, I hope.