Web Blog of Greg Mathews

This week has been one of those weeks, it started Monday night when while walking Lady, our Golden Labrador, she saw a cat the otherside of our street and decided to chase it, at the same time a taxi cab was driving up the road. Unfortunately the dog had seen the cat before us so she had gone before we had chance to stop her, thud as the cab hit her but up she got and carried on chasing the bloody cat.

Fortunately she was not hurt apart from a cut in her mouth, limbs etc appeared normal by the way she carried on running, even when she was back home.

The next morning we took her to the vets just to be sure there was nothing wrong. The vet confirmed that all that was wrong was a slightly brused mouth, but she gave her antibitoic and pain killer injections, I am sure just to charge me more.

When leaving the  Vets I reversed into a bloody tree, putting a lovely dent into the back or the car.

Tuesday afternoon the car was already booked in to be checked over as there was a couple of problems, they managed to fix them in a couple of hours apart from one, they want the car back next week and to be left as they need to run tests on my gear box. It’s poorly apparently.

Tracey has decided she wants a wall knocked down between kitchen and dining room, so have had to get quotes as it is a supporting wall so needs a steel rsj fitted to support the wall above. Then today we have started clearing the units that are fixed and/or against said wall.

Oh what a fun week.

After weeks of snow and Ice our street has actually been gritted by the council. There must be a reason!

For the past few weeks the council has been running out of grit/salt, they haven’t been refilling the grit boxes on the sides of roads where accidents are likely because ‘they do not have enough salt’, well that is what they told me over the phone although on TV they say because people used it on their property rather than the roads and pavements.

They did fill the grit boxes last week and I managed to grab some to put on our street before it all ran out, boxes where  empty within hours, but then we had a big freeze during the night, below -5C (23F) so the grit/salt didn’t have any effect.

What annoys me is I am disabled but I am the only mug gritting the street when possible, one resident stood talking to me while I gritted yet not once did he offer to help. There are some lazy bastards around today.

Yesterday we kept the kids home, schools where open but the school bus that two took  didn’t turn up and I couldn’t get to the car without slipping over so driving was not a good idea with the amount of black ice about.

Today does appear a bit warmer, the stuff is melting slowly and for this unknown reason the council truck came down our street today and gritted (2 council workers shoveling from back of truck. The only reason that we can think off is because our refuge has not been collected since before christmas and they are planning to collect it soon. We could  be wrong though:)

PS Don’t forget it’s just one month to Valentines’ day.

After I posted yesterday we got a call saying that the secondary school our eldest two boys attend was closing at lunch time because of the snow, school buses would run so no need to collect them.

About 20 minutes later it was announced that the primary school our youngest attends was also closing so we had to collect him. We couldn’t get up our street in the car so had to go down a track at the other end and join the main road on a blind corner. Main roads had not been gritted so there was a lot of snow/ice. It appears we was one of the first to get there.

When we returned home there was a telephone message from our Sam, our 2nd son. He decided not to wait for the school bus and he would walk, was not happy as he has no phone (seeWho is at fault?) but then nor did we as kids.

I can’t see the rubbish being collected today as the minor roads are still bad. I also found our more from the council about the grit/salt boxes. It appears they are running out of the stuff so can only grit major roads although they claimed not long ago they after last year they have made sure they have enough grit this year. On the TV they are also claiming people used the salt to clear their driveways rather than the roads and pathways.  So a few are miss using it so others have to suffer.

Oh it’s snow.

Today is the first day back to school for the kids today after a 2 week break and guess what we was all doing this morning, listening to the local radio for the list of school closures. Tracey and I in the hope the schools our kids attend are not on the list, the kids hoping they are. Even after 2 weeks off, getting bored etc they still want more time off. Fortunately neither school was on the list and the kids trundled off to school.

It does annoy me when we have snow, the country is never prepared for it. We had some snow before Christmas and main roads where gritted, and grit boxes on the side of some roads (roads with steep incline) had grit/salt in. A couple of times I was able to get salt from these boxes to ‘grit’ our street, which has an incline but no salt box. Now if you drive around they are all empty (not me) and have been for over a week. Surely if the council can’t grit our roads they can at least fill the boxes so residents can.

In addition to that, our rubbish was due to be collected yesterday but wasn’t, normally collection is Fridays but due to holiday season it was pushed back to Monday, and now it’s Tuesday and it is obvious that the refuge lorries will be unable to get down (or back up) the street to empty them because it’s like an ice rink and with more snow forecast I can see there will be a lot of rubbish on the streets of Ashfield due to lack of planning.

Why does Britain collapse in the winter because it’s too cold and in the Summer because it’s too hot?

Update 11:49am GMT

Just got off phone from council, not collecting rubbish today and assessing tomorrow am and they do not have enough grit/salt to fill the grit bins.

What is going to happen for us all this new year?

2009 was a up and down year, things started of not great income wise but then they picked up.
Out of the blue we bought a motor home and as we signed the loan agreement income seemed to have dropped to nothing again.

Although there was little income I still could not get my head into gear and get coding again. The savings from the previous GOOD years have gone so this year that has to change.

Although income from Adsense is now picking up and a great ‘Adsense’ income, xmas was ‘on a budget’ but was just as enjoyable as the xmas’s we had when money wasn’t an issue a few years ago.

This year I have to get something done to bring in a decent regular income, the last big project did and paid for 3 good years, I now need a knew idea.

Happy new year.