At last Monday’s Community Council meeting, the convenor of the planning committee announced his resignation of this post. He’d held it for 12 years, I believe, during which this he and committee continually opposed Fife Council’s proposal to site a new hospital on the southern hillside. They feared that this proposal, if passed, would be a trigger for development on this hillside. This fear was recently accentuated by the current draft local plan: if passed, this plan will zone much of the hillside for development.

Of course, he and the committee produced detailed and (in my view) cogent arguments against this site – and for alternatives which would avoid such development and yet suit this town in other ways.

However, recently Fife Council granted planning permission for the southern hillside proposal. The convenor felt that this (and many other instances of FC deciding planning questions against the advice of CC*) showed that he was wastign his time and energy. Hence he announced his decision to resign the convenorship at the end of this evening’s planning committee meeting and invited all community councillors to attend this meeting to elect a successor. The committee is composed of any councillor who chooses to attend its meeting.

*Fife Council has a statutory duty to consult with Community Councils representing areas that will be affected by any planning application. However, it does not have to follow such CCs’ advice or objections.

So who turned up? The about-to-be-ex-convenor, I and four of the six committee stalwarts. (The other two sent apologies due to illness.) A further councillor was due to give birth yesterday and so has an excuse. Where were the rest of the councillors? I had said that I couldn’t take part in many planning committee events because of needing time to work on my impending move but I felt the election of a new convenor demanded attention from all councillors. I ended up taking minutes and writing a planning objection this evening.

No-one was elected as convenor, ostensibly to give the other two stalwarts a chance to volunteer.

I think you can tell I’m rather disappointed with around three-quarters of my fellow community councillors. Planning has to be just about our chief responsibility: trying to ensure that development is suitable for this town. After all, a new building might last 100 years, so it’s vital we at least try to say the right things to Fife Council. Encouraging pretty gardens, running bandstand concerts, ceilidhs and parties for senior citizens and organising grants for worthy causes are all worthwhile but I think they’re rather ephemeral compared to planning questions.

So I’d have hoped for a better turn-out and at least one volunteer to try his or her hand at convening. Oh well, my optimism and naïvity bit the dust – again!

The thing that will kill me is almost certainly nicotine. So I found and friended purely so someone with this lj-name was on my friends-list. The results vary depending on whether I say I do or don’t want a boy- or girlfriend.

I do

Which Lj friend will kill you? LiveJournal Username What is your full name? What sex are you? Male Female how old are you 0-15 16-25 26-35 35+ Do you have a gf/bf? Yes No Do you want a gf/bf? Yes No Where do you live? What was the last thing you ate? Who do you think will be the answer? The Person who will kill you… angela_x The person who will dance on your grave… ggreig The person who will write your obituary… msinvisfem The person who will dig up your bones to use in a strange voodoo spell to resurrect you… angela_x The person who won’t realise your dead… orbstravels The person who will change your will to get all your stuff… scottymcleod THe person who will hide a second body in the coffin with you… msinvisfem The chance this will happen? 80% This Fun Quiz created by Robin at BlogQuiz.Net

Free ringtones and wallpapers! Click here!

 

I don’t

Which Lj friend will kill you? LiveJournal Username What is your full name? What sex are you? Male Female how old are you 0-15 16-25 26-35 35+ Do you have a gf/bf? Yes No Do you want a gf/bf? Yes No Where do you live? What was the last thing you ate? Who do you think will be the answer? The Person who will kill you… msinvisfem The person who will dance on your grave… thelastdalek The person who will write your obituary… silverwhistle The person who will dig up your bones to use in a strange voodoo spell to resurrect you… ggreig The person who won’t realise your dead… orbstravels The person who will change your will to get all your stuff… orbstravels THe person who will hide a second body in the coffin with you… scottymcleod The chance this will happen? 19% This Fun Quiz created by Robin at BlogQuiz.Net

Free ringtones and wallpapers! Click here!

 

I celebrated my 75th birthday at the wheel of double-decker bus

BY DAN KENDRICK 01905 742253 dk AT thisisworcester.co.uk

A 75-YEAR-old thrill-seeker fulfilled a lifelong ambition when her family organised a special birthday present – for her to drive a double-decker bus.

Lena Ryan, of Hallow Road, Worcester, had wanted to take the wheel of an Aston’s coach since her early days as a teacher at the city’s Sunnyside preparatory school.

She remembers vividly how much she wanted to ask the driver if she could take the wheel when the coach came to take the children swimming each week.

She even considered writing to Jim’ll Fix It – the popular TV programme where Jimmy Saville helped people to fulfill their dreams – until someone else beat her to it.

However, on her birthday on Friday, Mrs Ryan’s son, Bruce, finally arranged with Aston’s, on the A38, near Kempsey, for her to put a double-decker and long-distance coach through their paces.

Mrs Ryan said: “It was a complete surprise. My husband told me we were going for lunch and I said ‘We are going the wrong way’. When we turned into Aston’s I finally realised.”

Mrs Ryan kept to the private land at the coach park and said the experience was every bit as good as she had hoped.

“It was just unbelievable. I’m still on cloud nine,” she said.

“The double decker was easier to drive and the coach was so specialist. They pointed out all sorts of additions for driving on hairpin bends and tight corners.”

Aston’s even suggested a donation to St Richard’s Hospice instead of payment for the gift.

The surprise celebrations continued when her husband, Jack, said they needed to attend an important scout committee meeting at the Portobello pub, in St John’s, that night.

“We arrived and the room was full of friends and wellwishers for a surprise party,” she said. “It was amazing.”

Mrs Ryan even joked that with one son in the Army and friends in the Navy, perhaps she might be flying a helicopter or plane this time next year.

However, she is no stranger to extraordinary birthdays, having arrived in Dover on her eighth as an Austrian refugee escaping Hitler’s regime in 1938 and on another occasion, having an Indian elephant adopted for her as a gift.

It’s with a mixture of glee and nostalgia that I delete my “Treasurer of Community Council” email signature. I’m pleased to see the back of the work but sad that I didn’t get further towards streamlining procedures (such as producing my reports in html that the secretary won’t sneer at) and reducing the amount of time it takes to process a transaction:

1. enter item in spreadsheet of all transactions
2. enter item in spreadsheet of appropriate sub-account’s transactions
3. check that the two new running totals match
4. write cheque
5. fill in manual transaction record
6. if necessary, write covering letter and envelope
7. get another signatory to counter-sign the cheque
8. post the cheque
9. file the paper documentation.

However, I have trained my Padme and am happy to pass my glowing and buzzing baton to her. However, I’m happy to continue to guide her in the ways of the market-Force for a while yet.

Also, that’s one more step on the road to leaving…

However, my financial duties aren’t quite over:

1. I still have to chair the first meeting of a “what-are-we-going-to-do-with-our-obscene-amount-of-cash” committee.
2. Until the new bank-account signatories can meet me at the bank to be vetted by them, I still have to sign the cheques prepared by my successor.
3. I’m still treasurer and web-weaver for Fairtrade

Reports that the Brighton conference was a cocaine-filled orgy have been played doewn by organisers, despite a newspaper investigation discovering traces of the drug in toilets at the conference hotels, just yards way from where ministers, hacks and delegates “networked” into the wee hours. Asked about the cocaine allegations,a Labour source said: “We don’t have a line on that”.

Deliberate or unfortunate? I guess your answer depends on how cynical you are.

I received a very pleasant email today:

Bruce,

I am still in the ‘stone’ age operating a Mac IIci offline (since 1989) and a Mac 7300 online (since 2002). I am writing not because I am interested in what you have to sell but to inform you of how appreciative I am to at last read writing from someone who has at least a modicum of style in writing for such a prosaic task as selling used computer equipment.

My day is made.

Thanks.

Mel

PS: I wish you well in being able to sell your equipment.

This has made my day too – thanks Mel.

In case you’re wondering, here’s my original

To: lem-swap@mail.maclaunch.com
From: Bruce Ryan <apba32@dsl.pipex.com>
Subject: clearing out
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Attachments:

Hi folks

The following are taking up too much space in St Andrews, Scotland (KY16 8YW) and are yours for shipping plus a few pounds towards my retirement fund or some of my desirables listed below. If you live in Edinburgh, Dundee or Fife, I can deliver.

• 8600/250. 288 MB RAM and 4GB hard disk with built-in 100MB zip drive and Asantefast 690 10/100 ethernet card, Apple extended keyboard and ADB mouse II (the teardrop shape) and adaptor from old-style mac monitor port to sVGA monitors
• CoStar LabelWriter: runs under Classic OS, plugs into printer/modem port
• D2 external 2X SCSI CR-RW drive, complete with caddy
• SyQuest EZ Flyer 230 MB drive and 13 230 MB disks
• two ADB extended keyboards. (one is branded PowerUser, the other isn’t branded at all). I only have one keyboard to mac cable and a two-button black mini-mouse to go with these
• Wacom A5 ADB graphics tablet complete with stylus and Griffin iMate to attach it to USB macs
• Wacom A3 ADB graphics tablet (no stylus but I do have the mouse) and Griffin iMate to attach it to USB macs
• belkin 2 x1 USB peripheral switch. Allows you to connect a USB device to 2 computers rather than all that tedious swapping of cables. (It’s brand-new but I don’t have the original packaging). Claims to work under any flavour of Windows and Mac OS up to 10·. (I didn’t see this small print until after I’d opened the packaging and the Panther-unfriendliness wasn’t mentioned on belkin’s website – GRRR)
• 5·-inch USB 2 enclosure. (will also take 3.5-inch devices)
• 5·-inch Firewire/USB 2 enclosure. (will also take 3.5-inch devices)
• SONY CD-RW drive model CRX170E (pulled from 800MHZ Quicksilver)
• 3 ten-metre cat5 ethernet cables
• 1 twenty-metre cat5 ethernet cable

================

I’d like some real money for the following which have been used and loved since 1999.

• Powermac G4/400 (sawtooth). Original (but far from pristine) packaging, original 10GB HD and DVD-ROM drive, Original OS 9.02 installer CDs, 384 MB PC100 RAM. I have an Apple no-button mouse for this but no keyboard. Also Belkin SurgeCube surge protector and “slave power cable” (takes power from the back of the mac to another device so you only need one socket for both mac and monitor.

The following are currently in the G4/400 but can be parted out

• 4-port USB2 PCI card
• Adaptec 2906 SCSI card
• Mitsubishi DiamondPro91TXM 21-inch CRT monitor in original (but not pristine) packaging.

================

Instead of money, send me toys:

• PC133 RAM or a speed-bump for my quicksilver (800MHZ is so pedestrian!)
• a palm with colour screen and more than 2MB RAM. My ideal is a Treo 650 (cellphone, camera and pal all in one!)
• a life

thanks for wading through this

Bruce

You scored as Frigg. Freyr 80% Frigg 80% Balder 80% Odin 80% Bragi 60% Loki 50% Thor 50% Njord 50% Skadi 40% Hel 40% Freya 30% Sif 30% Tyr 30% Heimdall 20%

Which Pagan God or Goddess are you most like?
created with QuizFarm.com

Oh bloody hell! I answer truthfully and I find out I’m the patron god of sprog-production. I suppose the Norse didn’t go in for vasectomy.