the spring collection

As the clocks change, I produce my spring wardrobe, the result of a rare shopping trip to Hanley on Sunday, with Lisa in tow to provide essential advice and guidance. With a second visit to the apiary on Saturday and our second kung fu class on Monday, it feels like we're emerging from the winter. This is the real start of the year.

another first

Today's first - my first kung fu/kick boxing class. I was surprised just how much I enjoyed it. I'm glad they're treating us gently to start with, though.

The instructor came up to Lisa and me during the class and told us he has people in other classes who are in their 60s. It didn't occur to me until afterwards, but I assume he was trying to reassure us because we're the oldest people (by a long way) in the beginners section. It's just not something that either of us think about.

'bee' bop a hula

This morning was the first of what I hope will be many visits this year to the bee hives of the North Staffordshire Bee Keepers Association. It's too cold at this time of year to keep the hives open for long, so we couldn't handle the bees ourselves, but we were made very welcome and people took the time to explain what was going on.

There are dramatic changes going on, trying to resuscitate weak colonies or merge them with stronger ones, and I liked the trick of using newspaper to separate two colonies within the same hive until they get accustomed to each others' scents.

I'm looking forward to going back next week to see the effect of today's changes.

RSSenic and old lace

I spent a while this morning trying to work out how to combine the various RSS feeds from all of the Mind Bloggling blogs into a single feed that people can subscribe to so that they are automatically notified whenever a new item is posted.

Once the feed was working, I tested it in the Mind Bloggling offices using Internet Explorer 7. It was the first time I'd used IE7, and discovered that it automatically listed the tags used in posts and added up the number of times each one occurred. I assume that this only applies to items currently in the feed, rather than a cumulative total in all posts, but it's still a way of encouraging people to read posts.

I've tended not to use tags on my posts in recent weeks, but because of this discovery, I'm going to start doing it again.

(By the way, the combined RSS feed will be available from the Mind Bloggling website in a short while. In the meantime, you could subscribe to it through this link if you want. I'll post about this again when the link moves to the Mind Bloggling site so that you can update your subscription.)

tasty little flowers

We did little to look after our purple-sprouting broccoli apart from water during the heat of last summer - no thinning out, no repair of the netting to keep the pigeons off. In fact, it seems ages since we planted it (twelve months ago), and I've hardly looked at it since the autumn. It just sat there doing nothing.

But suddenly it has tiny dark florets, and tonight we ate some - a real surprise treat. It was so sweet and tasty. Mmmm!

hard graft

Today was the first of a few days off work. I spent several hours down at our new allotment this morning, and had a great time.

I haven't felt comfortable with writing about it until now because technically it still isn't ours yet. We've now discussed terms with the Council representative, and have been offered a good deal because it's in a poor state. It's large (two double plots), so it will take a long time (years) to get it all into a reasonable condition, but we'd prefer that to a small plot in good condition.

So today I cut back brambles, cleared an area for our greenhouse, removed some old wood and brought in some flagstones rescued from another plot that's being completely cleared.

I like having a big project to work at. (Just as well!)

party on, dudes

Tony recently asked why, if many of its staff are good, Stoke-on-Trent City Council is so bad. As one of the people employed by that organisation, I feel that question deserves an answer, but it will be too long to fit in a comment on his post.

By way of introduction, I consider that my immediate colleagues and I provide a good service that is welcomed by the residents we work with. Our posts are funded by central government, so we don't cost the Council tax payers of this city a penny.

Today, Steve Robinson, appointed as Chief Executive and Council Manager last November, addressed two huge groups of employees to tell us his plan for the council over the next three to five years. He has already met with all of the managers, and now, over the course of several weeks, he's meeting the rest of the 12,000 staff.

It's impossible to disagree with much of what he said. The Council has to improve, and it's up to every single one of us to provide an excellent service for residents. Steve talked at great length about the Council's values and the aim of achieving excellence. Indeed, he said the word "excellent" so many times it felt like a scene from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Perhaps he'll suggest that we change the organisation's name to Wyld Stallyns-on-Trent City Council.

It's not hard to mock. One of his early e-mails to all staff talked of "one city, one council, one voice", which is highly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's "one folk, one reich, one fuhrer". Today's event had a huge red curtain across the front of the stage and posters in the Council's colour scheme of red and black. It was easy to imagine long banners down the walls with huge swastikas on them.

Steve stood at a lectern in front of the curtain and orated like a leader at his party conference, complete with the usual tricks of rhetoric: the rule of three, asking questions to gain attention then answering them, and establishing a bond with the audience against a common foe (the few who aren't willing to change).

At the end, he asked everyone to stand up. He then asked, in three separate but similar ways, for anyone who didn't share his vision to sit down. Not surprisingly, no-one did. That kind of manipulation, the simplistic "you're either for us or against us" choice, excluding all other options and viewpoints, and peer pressure must have been what led to Hitler's rallies. (Sitting at the back, I chose not to stand in the first place.)

I found this working the crowd offensive, but I was interested in what he omitted to say. It's all very well to make glib, politician's statements about the need to improve, then try to sweep people along with you. He didn't, however, address how his laudable aims could fit with the long-term policy of not replacing staff who leave, capped off with the recent invitation of applications for voluntary redundancy. Staff are suffering from low morale and feel bruised from repeated re-organisation. In response to a question about how we had seen all this before, all Steve could say was, "Yes, but this time it's different."

I don't want Steve's job. He has a lot to do to achieve his aims, and it's easy to sit at the back and criticise. I like this city and the people who live here. I want to carry on providing a good service, and I want this Council to improve, but it's hard to respect a leader who thinks he can trick us into doing what he wants.

red-faced

Lisa bought some pampering treats yesterday. I tried her facial cleansing mousse, but stupidly didn't wash it off until later. That delay led to the skin on my face today being red, dry and cracked. It wasn't as bad as the Joker's fiendish plan in the Batman movie, but still far from the intended result. I won't make that mistake again.