Blogger Beware!



I found this through my friend's wife's site and had to give it a go. I got PG-13 because I have used 'dead' three times and 'death' once. At least my late Aunt and Uncle who I was talking about when I used those words would have seen the funny side. Strangely though, I expected worse because I'm sure I've swore (shock horror!) on here before.

Chris finally told me how to get at his pics on Photobucket so I've updated my profile photo from one of my aged 19 to one of me aged 23 taken a few weeks ago at Jamie's 21st birthday dinner. He took it with his new phone on the sepia setting while we waited for pudding cos we were bored and he wanted to have a play with different settings.

Arson.

At mum's school there is quite a large garden area for the nursery with a lovely big climbing frame. It took years and years for the school to save up enough money, about ten grand, to be able to afford this climbing frame and the kids absolutely love it. It looks a bit like this but the legs aren't splayed because the area underneath is enclosed and one side has a sensory area in it with bark and things.

[Edit: Pic removed as link died.]

Last weekend some young lads (aged 11/12) got into the nursery garden and vandalised the climbing frame. They ripped off parts of the eaves and damaged some climbing poles. The police were called by neighbours but they didn't come and get rid of them or even get back to the people that called. Again this Saturday the same boys were back messing about in the nursery garden, smashing bottles and vandalising the climbing frame. The neighbours called the police again and still they didn't come out. Then on Bank Holiday Monday at about 5pm, one of them decided to set the climbing frame alight and it went up like a rocket. There were lots of witnesses and I know someone has a photo of it on fire. These are the pictures I took of it after the firemen had put it out and forensics were on the way. In some of them you can see how the trees around it have been scorched.





This one shows the leftovers of a crawl tunnel made out of heavy duty plastic in the shape of a caterpillar that was nearby, originally there were four sections to it.


This one shows how the heat affected the sign on the side of the school, it just melted away. You can't see it but the white bit next to the blue door is all bubbled up and if that had been melted away the fire would have got into the structure of the building and the whole nursery would have gone up.


Thankfully the staff and police know the lads that did this, at least two of them only left the school last September and mum taught both of them.

The duck saga.

Two Saturdays ago we had a bad case of ducks at Palace Green. Not bad for us cos they're lovely but bad for them cos they were stuck. It appeared that a momma duck had somehow fallen or fled into an area of water, a sort of sump, behind the library and her chicks had followed her. Momma duck could fly out but the poor little babies couldn't because they weren't old enough and momma duck was getting in a bit of a flap.

We rang Estates & Buildings but they said they couldn't do anything so we rang the RSPCA and they said they'd call us back but didn't know when or whether they'd be able to come out. So one of my colleagues and one of the Assistant Librarians mounted an effort to get the poor chicks out of the sump and back safe with their mum. Unfortunately the place the ducks fell is a good four feet down from the lowest window and about eight feet from the external wall. I took a picture of the little ducks and their mum out of the window with my colleagues camera, here it is:

You can just make out seven ducklings and on the left is this weird metal jetty affair. You can tell it's a long way down too cos the momma duck looks quite small but she certainly wasn't when she flew up the wall to see what I was doing.

They are, however, saved from their plight now. One of my colleagues got a bucket and a shovel out of the disaster kit (usually reserved for fire, flood and bomb damange) and the other guy climbed out of the toilet window and onto the jetty thing next to the stagnant water to try and coax them out. Two of the ducklings climbed straight onto the shovel but the others were more wary so he ended up hip deep in yucky water chasing them into the bucket. they were released somewhere in the Fellows' Garden, which belongs to the Castle and straight away we could hear mum quacking so hopefully she was getting them away and fed. The Assistant Librarian has put some shelving over the hole to stop anything else falling in but why on earth it's uncovered and allowed to fill with water we have no idea, especially as it's right next to a load of rare books.

"Librarians: Beware exploding signage!"
(or "Stupid students should look where they're going")

So I'm merrily rebarcoding a trolley full of books and the porter, Marc, is about to put more paper in the self-check in machine when there's an almighty crash behind the Short Loan section. Round the corner is this guy grinning like a dickhead and looking around like he's just stepped out of friggin Narnia or something, surrounded by shards of broken glass. Marc heads off to have a look at where the glass has come from and it turns out that this student was wandering past this large glass sign board (it has a poster on that says where all the different books are on this level) and knocked it with his bag or something, which pushed it over and it shattered all over the floor.

The student talks briefly to Marc and then disappears, coming back about five minutes later to ask me if he can have a plaster because he's cut himself on the glass (I've had bigger cuts as a child for fuck's sake, all he had to do was suck it a bit and it'd be OK). So while he's there he tells me that he walked past the sign and it just shattered. Spontaneously it would seem. Marc gets him a plaster from the First Aid box and then the Deputy Librarian arrives as she has sort out why this happened and make sure no one's hurt etc. He tells her he maybe clipped it with his bag as he went past but that it "shattered before it hit the ground".

So now we appear to have magical exploding signage in the Library *shakes head in disbelief*

Wow almost a month has gone by since I last posted here.

I don't think all that much has happened since the start of March apart from dad's birthday. We all stayed in for that and had a special home-cooked birthday tea; mum made her quiche lorraine and for afters there was pavlova made by me and nana (secretly, in the dead of night as well). I had a pay rise too but it was only by 7p so nothing much to write home about. All the will buisness still isn't finalised but apparently it's in progress so we'll just have to wait and see. Oh and Jane's having a little boy so we've had to go out and buy little outfits and things :D

Then there's nana. She's now living with us all the time until the bungalow sells and then she'll decide whether to keep on living with us (we'll do out the study for her so she can have a bigger room and it'll be downstairs so easier for her to get to) or to buy a new bungalow in Spennymoor. So this weekend we're going down to nana's to have another go at clearing out the house. It's also my mum's birthday so the cousins will be coming too.

The funeral was on Wednesday and it was very emotional but nice at the same time. There were lots of people there and we did have a good time despite the obvious sadness. In the cars on the way to the funeral we had Chas 'n' Dave playing as a tribute to Uncle Malcolm, which I think he would have really appreciated. However, all this shite concerning his mum's mishandled will and his sister's money-grabbing really cast a shadow over the whole day. She tried to get into the meetings with the solicitor but we managed to stop that although her daughter is obviously trying to use her position as Uncle Malcolm's executor to her advantage. I put a stop to that too and so did "the kids" by not allowing her to just have her way and control over the flow of money and by blackballing her as executor and getting the solicitor to have overall control over what goes on.

It's all made things so fucking complicated and has really really pissed me off. All the lies and back-stabbing, it's so petty and really cruel in my opinion. How can this woman openly steal from her flesh and blood like this?

Anyway, yesterday was Nickeee's birthday so we made a fuss of her and had a party at nana's. We had a load of Mexican food and decorated the dining room with balloons and confetti :) Tonight we're going out for a meal as a family.

On Saturday night, we had the joint memorial and farewell dinner at the Toby Carvery in York. The food was good and not too pricey IMO and we had a good time. Everyone's still feeling very emotional but there's very little any of us can do about that. We did get to see Michael and Jane's house though, it's very compact but the kitchen is suprisingly big and overall it's a very nice little house. The parking's a total sod though so I'm pleased I wasn't driving.

Then on Sunday I decided to take the plunge and finally buy myself a new mobile phone. Everyone knows I need one cos my old one is barely usable these days. So I'd found a good deal online from Carphone Warehouse, went to their store in Durham and about ten minutes later came out with a brand spanking new Nokia 1600 for the unbelievable price of £40! That's including ten pounds worth of credit as well. It's quite a fabby phone too, no bells and whistles but it's got a colour screen and polyphonic ringtones, and it works, which is more than a bonus in my eyes.

Tomorrow is Uncle Malcolm's funeral. I have very mixed feelings about it, obviously I'm very sad and grieving for him but at the same time I'm feeling very wary about meeting up with his sister again considering the back-stabbing, money-grabbing bitch that she's turned out to be. We had our worries that this was the case but it's ended up being far worse than I expected so I'll be going with mum and everyone to the solicitor's on Thursday to make sure that at least Aunty Janet's wishes will be carried out. I don't know if I'll be able to make sure that Uncle Malcolm's will is carried out to the letter but I'll try my hardest.