12 th September 2010

Written by a 54 year old Self Employed male from North Kent.

Written on September 12th 2010.

We both got up at about 07:30 having had a disturbed sleep…we put down to our tea. We went downstairs and I emptied the dishwasher from last night. I put the dishes etc away, only to put some more stuff crockery into the machine that had been left over from the night before.

We have my wife’s aunt, uncle and her cousin together with her mum and dad coming over this afternoon. So there was a quick dust and hoover round the house ready for their arrival also. We have also discussed getting our neighbours round for a Wii party sometime in December. My wife will put out an e-mail invitation for that later today. In the small hamlet in which we live, we have such great neighbours who are willing to help out. We look after one another’s property when away on holidays etc. Usually we have party/get together two or three times a year…especially around Christmas and New Year time.

Yesterday, I picked a bumper crop of tomatoes that we are growing in the garden…I gave half away to my wife’s parents, as we would never eat all of them. My wife does not like tomatoes…I love them. We have taken to growing fruit and veg in our garden, such as green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, beetroot, leeks, strawberries, tayberries and apples. I like harvesting them and the though that we have grown our own food. The truth is that the crop isn’t that big, and they take time to prepare. Like my wife’s brother says ‘fruit and veg grow in Morrison’s!’

I do like opening up the freezer and getting ‘my’ crop out, knowing I grew them and prepared them. Our apples are delicious and although we have to cut out the bits that have been attacked by the bugs or bruised, they are lovely when cooked. We have recently also been picking and then cooking blackberries from down the lane opposite to where we live. Yet another free crop of garden produce that we shall enjoy over this coming winter!

I cooked breakfast, which consisted of scrambled egg, tomato and smoked chilli salmon. It was lovely…I had a cup of coffee and my wife had a glass of fresh lemon that was diluted down with water. My wife has just picked two enormous tomatoes, which were still green. We will ripen them up on the windowsill. Our grapes are also quite big this year, and could be harvested if we wanted. Very much like our one’s on our Spanish vines only they are much bigger…we have owned a casa in Andalucia Spain for the last six years. I am hoping that a neighbour of ours in Spain will again harvest them, as he did last year. We have a bottle of wine made from our grapes last year, awaiting our return later this month. We are so very lucky and have quite a lot in our lives to be thankful for.

I have just finished watching the Andrew Marr TV programme on the upstairs bedroom TV before taking a shower. We don’t have a bath in the house. I enjoy watching the political programmes on TV, as I really think that it is important to have an understanding of the issues facing our country. Todays show featured Boris Johnson – the Mayor of London. He comes across as ‘bumbling’, but I think that he is quite an astute politician. Since becoming Mayor of London, he has shown himself to be quite adept in the post. His appointment is of interest to me as In my capacity of being a Territorial Army officer; as I look after a number of Boroughs regarding civil resilience and military aid in an emergency. The UK is going through a process of budget restraint caused by a number of years of over spending. It is compounded by a recession brought about by a crisis in the financial sector.

What we are experiencing is the sectors facing spending cut are politically posturing in readiness for the October budget. Every Government department protecting it’s cash flow! We have already experienced on round, following George Osborne (the Chancellor) carrying out an emergency budget on being elected in May. The Chief Constable of Kent has already indicated that there will be a loss of officers from the front line and also civilian support staff. I am concerned about this, but from my experience, (I was a police officer for thirty years, now retired) that there are savings that could be made across the service. I would suggest that they maintain a cheaper vehicle fleet for example as one saving, and having police sergeants and inspectors available for patrol duties another. These officers should be visible on the streets and exercise their office as a constable; because they all hold a warrant card.

One thing I have observed during my service is that on being promoted these ranks hardly ever patrol and ‘do the job’. I should however point out that there are a few officers of that rank who do go out and patrol, but a high proportion do not. When I talked to the ‘old boys ‘when I joined the police in the 1970’s, they remembered the days when the ‘supervisory’ ranks regularly patrolled, not only to supervise, but carry out general police duties as well. It would certainly get the police high visibility that the public want. I don’t think I should mention ‘Police Community Support Officers’, who I think to be not value for money as they are completely ineffectual.

My wife and I went into the garden to collect the fallen apples and to pick a few off the tree. We have peeled them and cooked them, yum. We either cook them with ginger of honey. We then freeze them for puddings…already mentioned! My wife’s parents have come over for the Wii party. My wife’s mother is exceptional at Wii, and she invariably gets her Wii age down to 20 which not bad for a 72 year old. I’m not a great lover of the games, but play to be sociable. My wife’s uncle and family have turned up; they are stopping in a caravan in Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey for a week. They had a problem with the caravans TV last night and were unable to watch the TV programme ‘Merlin’ which they follow. We were able to see on BBC iplayer through the Wii. It is wirelessly linked to our computer and we can view it through our TV.

Now we are going to play games…there is great merriment! I have just had a go on one game that uses physical coordination and mental agility…I was rubbish initially, but got better the more I played. We all had a good laugh. Her uncle mentions that we should pick our grapes and make grape jam…my wife seems up for the idea. We have had a good crop this year, but our green beans not so good.

For our tea we had ‘chicken nuggets and potato wedges followed by ice cream. They all left around 8pm and after clearing up, my wife and I sat in our ‘hot-tub’ and mulled over the day. It was a pleasant evening, with no cloud, so we were able to see the stars. It was a perfect end to a lovely day. We went to bed at 9.30 pm.

REE