Winter warmer

Weather here v. chilly: snow oop north, but not here. Bookies shortening their odds on a white Xmas. I've been Werking At Home yesterday and today: laptop on knee in front of window looking out over garden and birds at the various feeding stations JN keeps topped up. Today I finished what I needed to get done about 1500, just as the grey light was turning into grey dark, so headed off for a Swim -- about 50 lengths in 40 mins, and I was definitely fastest in the pool.

Another packed weekend coming up: tonight we have local 'Winter Warmer' social with wild dancing etc -- fundraising for the Save Wards Corner campaign, with its strong Latino involvement. JN normally doesn't do dancing in public... but perhaps he'll tai chi to the music? I have a shimmery gold pleaty-satin swirly skirt to wear. Then tomorrow morning, it's manure delivery at the allotments... followed by tomorrow evening, Tottenham Civic Society Xmas dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

Next week, I have a Social Research Association conference, where I should get elected onto exec board, then off to Birmingham for our Team Meeting -- arriving in time for dinner, followed by some sort of social. We are under orders to put on fancy dress (Good or Evil): so far, I think we're all planning to be Evil -- haul out vaguely Gothic bits of Morticia Addams style black... Then on to JN's folks at Lyme Regis for the weekend. Getting from Birmingham to Lyme is not quick or easy: either a 4 or 5 hour train trip, depending on how long you wait for connecting train or bus at Exeter.

Meanwhile, our local Council is headline news again: failing to spot that Baby P was being tortured (physically abused) by his mother or her boyfriend and to stop the poor kid being killed. Really awful: and comes on the heels of a similar horrifying failure a few years back to stop 8-yo Victoria Climbie being tormented and killed by her foster-aunt and boyfriend. There have now been resignations at the top of the Council. What seems to be coming out of the news reports is that Government tightening up of paperwork procedures last time actually made things worse -- social workers having to spend time at computers, and therefore less time actually in contact with the people on their case-loads. It seems there are simply more cases needing help or protection than the existing numbers of social workers can adequately cope with (in almost every part of the country). Not enough public funding for the number of social worker posts needed -- but managers keep their paperwork in order by assigning cases to the front-line social workers, rather than reporting back up the line that front-line workers are already overloaded and therefore unable to look after existing cases. Human tragedies waiting to happen...

Oh yes, and it seems like this country no longer has a working economy to speak of...