Batmobile

Heard on the radio that there’s to be an auction of famous cars and the original Batmobile is about to be sold for £75,000. If I had the money I would bid on it!

When I was ten in 1966, at the height of Batman mania, the Liverpool Echo reported that Fort Perch Rock (tourist atrraction in New Brighton) had bought the Batmobile. I could not contain myself, and spent the rest of the week cajoling and encouraging my mates to get the money together to go and do over to New Brighton to see the wonderous vehicle.

In ‘66 money was tight, you’d only get a shilling a week pocket money and getting to New Brighton would prove expensive and a litttle daunting, Bus to the Pierhead, ferry boat to New Brighton, and the other thing was in the 1960’s unaccompanied kids was a real rarity, yuo stuck out like a sore thumb. You see we weren’t allowed to go to town on our own and if any of the parents had found out we’d have all got “battered” .

So we all had a week to try and get the money by Saturday or we wouldnt see the car’s magnificent unveiling……….

to be continued……………..

Have you heard the one about the van full of Neutered Cats?

I ain’t no cat person, so why may you why yesterday I was driving a van full of neutered cats. Well feeling a bit of loose end I eventually volunteered to do some driving at the animal rescue centre. When I thought the Vet run was to the local one in Crosby (15 min round trip) I found out that the Vet they use is about 20 odd miles away in Bamber Bridge.

What this means is I had to get to the centre by 7.45 am and and drive the eight poor creatures to their inevitable sterile fate. The drive was fairly uneventful, the van was a very powerful diesel transit with a good radio, but the smell in the van was unbelievable, cross between wet dog and cat pis, ended up driving with the window opne, also made the mistake of putting my wooly hat on the seat next to me, picked it up and it look liked a mohair version. Luckily the van radio was pre tuned to Radio 4.

Dropped the moggies off and then went back to Southport to do some work, emailing etc.

One of the perks of this voluntary work is that you get to keep the van in between drop and pick up, so me and Sheila decided to go and buy a mattress. After over an hour of “trying” out various beds and getting our posture and bed type scientifically tested, the super salesman managed to get us to plump for Sealy. The bad news was the shop didnt have this mattress in stock so the van became surplus to requirements and the eagerly anticipated new mattress has been postponed.

Anyhow phoned up an went and got the cats. Once the rather groggy and shaved looking cats were unloaded, Gus was out in the yard and he spotted me and started freaking out so I had to take him for a quick walk. Still undecided whether to take him on.

Forcing Down’s Syndrome Teenager to take drugs

Tuns’s out over the weekend that Alex (Sheila’s Down Syndome teenage son)  had some problems with his hearing aid.

This may not sound much, but he has a very special hearing aid, last year after several attempts to get his left hearing canal from healing up, the doctors decided to put a link from the bones in his ears to a pop stud on the side of his head, into which his new BAHA (http://www.entific.com/aboutBaha.asp) hearing aid can be popped in, the sound then travels from this hearing aid via the bones in his head to the nerve and to his brain!

The hearing aid is held on via a pop stud, yes you actgually pop stud something to his head. It is the weirdest thing you can imagine, you push and it pops onto the side of his head, and then you have to get your fingers under it to pop it off. The first couple of time it went through me doing it and Sheila’s Mum still hasnt managed to bring herself to  do it. Basically you cringe when you do it. 

The first mishap was last July a couple of months after he had it done, while we were swanning about in Istanbul for my birthday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEvGaFyImo) the little plastic hearing aid got lost, we then found out they cost over a thousand pounds to replace, fortunately they let you lose one, but onl one, the rest have to be paid for.

We’ve all been vey careful since then until this weekend, while he was going to his dad’s he was compalining about a pain in his ear and in the car he passes Alice his sister his hearing aid, except its not his hearing aid, it’s the hearing aid and the bit from inside his head. So Sheila shifts into “incredibly resourced mother of down syndrome” mode and gets direclty in touch with the consultant on a Sunday!.

So for most of the day we’ve been driving to Manchester where the specialist and wandering around the Manchester Northern, then driving back. “Back to Square One! said the specialist and so the whole implantation process has got to start all over again.

But Alex despite all his problems and the fact his head has been chopped up and gouged he still knows how to enjoy himself.

Just in case you are wondering about whether stuffing a water pipe in a Down’s Syndrome’s mouth counts as child abuse, it is a fact that genetically speaking DS are missing the gene which predicates Lung Cancer, so Alex can smoke as much as he likes, there’s onl heart disease to worry about…

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrzXvZJLJrI 

Where’s the Bear?

the bear in all his glory

I was standing on the corner of Sheil Road and Kensington on Wednesday midday when I noticed the giant C7 Neon Polar Bear had been taken down.

Originally I think the bear went up as part of the Liverpool Biennial in November and was a sort of Pseudo Christmas display, organised by METAL.

My feelings on the light sculpture took a while to crystallize but I think the Bear did a couple of things well and this type of event can have significant effect on the community.

Brian Eno in a recent lecture at Hope University defined art as anything that man does which is not a necessity, I sort of agree with him, but I think applied to the Bear it makes perfect sense.

The Bear doesn’t have to be there, its not fulfilling a concrete or practical purpose and as such transcends the usual criticism applied to regenration initiatives, goings on or shenanigans in the area.

So if it simply makes people smile, frown, question it, turn and look, then its served some purpose, but one of its’ telling legacies might be the fact for a short time the area had a “landmark”.

What I mean by this is that people from as a far afield as St.Helens and Prescot (or even further, people forget that Prescot Road is one of the main Liverpool traffic arteries into the city) passing through on the bus or by car had something to look at and react too and maybe they even had a “positive thought” about Kensington as opposed to reacting to empty shops, boarded up buildings.

Now this might not sound like much I’m not saying this is the panacea to our troubles, but maybe turning shops frontages into a series of neon light sculptures might not be a bad thing, better than what passes environmental enhancements at the moment e.g. the banners “hanging” limply and shabbily from lam-posts, billboarwd poster meant to cheer us up and so on.

Bring back the Bear!

Another day Another Dollop

Been off line for a week since my free broadband year has finally run out, after 20 months. It was really difficult being offline as I use email so much and of course I am addicted to Ebay.

It’s been a week of meetings and shenanigans, the first of meeting of the “Kensington Creative Edge” group took place at the METAL House. It was interesting that this group have come together out a common feeling that things aren’t happening to the regeneration of the area as it should be.

It is now seven years since the New Deal came to the area and it seems to me and a lot of people that the early promise and promises are not materialising.What is happening and has happened is a bit sad.

For example the area now has a sports centre, which I do use but it has got to be one of the ugliest buildings in the city or any city and the quality of the interior build and brickwork leaves a lot to be desired.

The refurbishment of the shop frontages seems on the face of it a move in the right direction. It has been going on for over a year and I think three blocks of shops have been done so far I seem to remember the whole of the Wetherspoons building refurb was done in about two months so it does seem a little slow. The brickworks has been cleaned the roof tiles changed and new fascias and shuttes. At least one the shop signs hasnt been put back up straight, spirit level anyone? Early in the week I was stuck on th 10 in a traffic jam , so I spent a good twenty minutes looking at the refurbished shops, again the workmanship looks pretty poor and insubstantial., especialy the fascias over the shop entrances.

One of the unintended by products of this refurbishment is that the lack of signs (i.e. the empty shops) is highlighted, there is a really low occupancy rate of the shops (see photos below of the same road in teh 1960’s). It would be intereseting to know whether KNDC are implementing any other schemes to try and encourage the community to go into business or to companies into the area and fill some of the empty shops? The other problem is that landlords might see this as a golden opportunity to bang up the rents making an shopping renaissance even less likely.

The impression I get is “It’s only Kensington, that’ll do”, I get the feeling the penny has dropped that the New Deal wasn’t enough money and hasn’t been implemented in democratic, creative or fair way.

The creative edge could be the answer to this problem, a group of intelligent, clever, creative individuals who are not from a political background and who have a personal investment commitment to the area.

Has the area improved, I have been trying to apply an objective eye over the area and it’s close run thing. I might go out next week and video a quick vox pop on prescot road and kensington to ask this very question.

Le Weekend

It’s Monday and I’m just reflecting over the weekend.

On Saturday the lovely Sheila woke up feeling ill, not sure whether it was food poisoning or some bug, despite several attempts to get up, she finally stayed in bed. When people are ill the best thing to do is to stayin bed and try and let nature take its course, some people just get the message. I am also not very sympathetic when people are ill, it’s bad to say this but I am not, I will support and wait on, but I’m not very florence nightingaley. The other side ofthis equation is after a month of religiously taking my vitamin supplements and the badminton exercise I am now feeling very well indeed….

On Sunday I went to the rescue centre to walk the dogs. Gus was first, walked him up the lane then to the feel for a bit of rough and tumble, try the dog clicker on him, despite this being a fool proof device, it didn’t seem to register with him, deaf, daft you decide. Next took Jodie “the Bitch” out and she was really pleasant and did respond to the click, finally took Benson (the Alsatian that bullies Gus in the centre) he just pulls and pulls and pulls and ignores you, got his attention with the clicker (success!) and loads of treats, he was actually walking normally by the end (these dogs can be viewed  at http://www.freshfieldsrescue.org.uk/).

There were lots of volunteer walkers there today so many so that most of the dogs were going out for the second time.

Got back and made a massive full English Breakfast, the only meal I know which tastes good when you’ve made it yourself, this is down to the fact that you don’t have to taste the food when you are making it so your palette is fresh when you sit down to eat it.

The Slackers

I have been unemployed now for a total of nine months. Since the sad demise of the old Kensingtonvision project and before the start of the brand spanking AltValley Vision project I have got myself into a semi retirement or Slacekr routine.

It could have been the opportunity to write a book or a film but it wasnt, instead, well let’s take today as an example, I will be trying to sort out why my car won’t start straight away. It is air in the fuel system, it’s a diesel so air inthe fuel is bad, aslo the glow plug light flashes once the engine is going, I am consistantly bleeding and cleaning the system but  to no avail.

I am also reading yet another book on dog training and Jed Rubenfeld’s Interpretation of Murder (this look like it might be good). Don’t know what I am doing the rest of the day.

Actually Frozen Lakes-Lowering standards in BBC news reporting

Looks like the snow is about to go.

In this area the snow was very very light and didn’t cause any problems.

What has worried me more is that although the snow was heavyin the rest of the contry, it wasn’t that heavy.

The news (and as I watch BBC TV most I’m talking about them) have made the situation worse by making a crisis into a disaster.

BBC Breakfast have a reporter in Roundhay Park in Leeds saying “the lake has actually frozen over”, wow, frozen water in a park lake, hold the front page.

Guess what everyone, it’s winter, it gets cold in winter, sometimes it snows, let’s get this thing into some sort of perspective, other countries (e.g the Nordic ones) have much worse weather for a longer time and guess what, they cope with it and the country doesn’t grind to a halt for three months.

Considering there are so many 4 x 4s in the country a little snow should be a doddle.

Don’t get me going on Bird Flu and Turkeys…….

The BIG Match

Back in Kensington

As soon as I left Southport the snow increased significantly, although it’s still not sticking, not until I got to Liverpool, on a couple of occasions I even had the extreme pleasure of putting my Frontera into four wheel drive, although the roads weren’t that bad.

Today is badminton day, for the past couple of weeks every Thursday I have been playing the game as my of fulfilling my exercise requirement to help keep my type 2 diabetes in check.

In June after having several unexplained ailments, including genital thrush, pissing several times in the night, blurred vision at certain times of the day, and feeling thirsty. After a couple of trips to my Doctor (during which I had to show my poor thrush ridden willy), Sheila decided I had diabetes and using her Mother’s blood test kit found out I had a level of 17, which is high, it should have been around 5 to 7. I then went back to the Docs with my pee sample and was immediately diagnosed with diabetes. So since then I have been taking tablets (Metformin) for the diabetes, although I have cut these down from three to two a day, as they were making very very tired. I am still struggling to get control of my diet and to exercise, hence the badminton and cycling.

Tonight’s badminton was against Simon Sprince, who was in charge of the KensingtonVision project and he is one of the people I am setting up the social enterprise business of the same name. Until now I’ve been playing against another ex-workmate (Chris Chadwick)

Snow Snow thick thick Snow

In Southport

I was reliably informed last night by Shiela’s daughter Alice that there would be 3 to 7 cm of snow tomorrow (even though I’m Imperial I do have a rough idea what that is in inches). We woke up after the usual dose of Sarah Kennedy on Radio 2, looked out of the window, no snow show. Went down and got the coffee on tuned into Radio Merseyside to Simon and Lucinda going on about “Operation Snow” so realised it must be snowing in Liverpool. Within about half an hour the snow came and “Operation Snow”  on the radio had been downgraded to “Operation Light Dusting”.

It did not stick and it did not get any heavier.

I made Sheila watch me in the ICDC VOIP video, I’m a sort of cut price Roger Phillips, if you can’t afford Roger then I’m your man.

We also went around to Jessie Litwacks’s house, as no one could get the aerial plug out of her TV. Jessie is 90 years old and has jsut moved into a residential home as she was finding it increasingly difficult to look afer herself. So Sheila is dutifully helping her settle in, and she wants the TV moving over.

Sprayed the aerial socket with WD 40, got it out and we took it over to her new place. Seeing Jessie in the little room, which is now becoming her world hit me hard, I started wondering what it would be like if this was me it was happening too. I felt sad as up until  very recently she has been a very active person, its as if her life is being dismantled prior to the end. It’s gratifying in some wa as she is settling things as she wants them, but still tinged with sadness. I supposed it’s better than the situation that happens after people have died.