Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

I often wonder if the stats for missed appointments are not always the patients fault. I received a hospital appointment letter two days after I should have attended.

 

Controversial maybe, but I don't believe there has been a sudden upsurge in autism, ADHD etc. There has been an upsurge in people seemingly demanding that their child be diagnosed with one or the other, rather than it being put down to bad parenting or the child basically being a little git.
We bumped into friends we hadn't seen in years today and asked how their daughters were. The youngest, who had been a lovely child, is in her mother's words "an absolute cow" who will never do anything for other people but expects others to run after her at the drop of a hat.

 

Can someone please explain how our Dobbies Garden Centre which closed at Christmas is re-opening and hiring 25 new staff to add to the existing 22?

Where did the "historically uneconomical rent costs" disappear in two months?

I also wonder if the queue to the planned new carvery will mix with the queues to the existing steakhouse across the road, or the one to the racecourse pub on the other side of the other road.

This area is a lively, but I'm just a tad sceptic whether there will be enough clientele to require 15 new staff added apparently to the previous restaurant staff. They can't fit in any more tables anyways...

But I'm happy to have my Dobbies back. Hello, "reduced to clear" section!




Gosforth garden centre to re-open with plans for carvery restaurant

Snippets below:

Jobs are to be created with the reopening of the former Gosforth branch of garden centre chain Dobbies, with plans for a new carvery restaurant at the site.

National brand British Garden Centres, which runs East Durham Garden Centre near Easington, has acquired the site near Gosforth Park and plans to create up to 25 new jobs, as well as retaining the store's 22 staff. Plans are now in place to reopen the store in "mid to late February".

The new owners are refurbishing the site's restaurant facilities to include a carvery, in a move that is expected to create between 12-15 new jobs. British Garden Centres says it will also be adding between 8-10 seasonal and permanent roles.

Closure of the Gosforth location came last year when Dobbies announced a significant restructuring of its business including the closure of 17 UK stores which affected about 465 jobs. At the time, Dobbies citied historically uneconomical rent costs and told of ambitions to return to profitability.

 

As I said, I either use a blunt but pointed butter knife or sometimes pouring boiling water over the jar (I lay it in the sink) also makes the lid want to cooperate.

 

Our local Dobbies has also been taken by British Garden Centres. They are talking about a carvery etc as well. Hopefully they will make a success of things. We do already have a BGC near us, much smaller than the Dobbies site, and their prices and quality have been better than Dobbies. If that model continues I think they have a good chance. Fingers crossed.

 

Many knives probably don't need the sharp tip, but try filleting or boning, for example, without a sharp tip to the blade. Even opening plastic wrapping without a sharp tip is a nightmare.

 

I think a lot of it is down to just latching on to differences in people and suddenly it has to have a name and be accepted as a disorder.
Its also strange how often you find out that two or three kids in the same family have different or same disorders, almost like the parents are looking for them, hoping to find a "reason", or possibly just like to feel their kids are different.

If that is not the case, where is it all going wrong, because at this rate in a few years all kids will be in special educational needs.

 

My latest moan is that our local council have approved the building of 1650 new homes on prime farmland on the edge of our village.
This country does not need to reduce its productive capacity. Rather, it needs to increase it.
On a personal note, those fields are less than 50 yards from our house, and will increase the size of the village by at least 50%.
The farmland also soaks up the increasing amount of rainwater, so the new development won't help!
Moan over!!

 

I feel for you! Re. the rainwater issue, I believe that developers now have to incorporate large, shallow soakaway areas within the plans. This is supposed to compensate for covering the ground with concrete, brick and tarmac. Why on earth they aren't obliged to incorporate some sort of individual water storage beneath the houses, garden or driveways is beyond me. Ah, no, I remember now...as we were told 20 years ago 'people aren't interested in having gardens nowadays' I don't suppose they're too enamoured of hosepipe bans, either!

 

You get a smaller Basic state pension but you had the opportunity to accumulate State Second Pension, or SERPS. So a person on purely state pensions from before 2016 can actually be on more money than someone on the new, flat-rate pension.

 

Most people who retired just after 2016 won't have got the full new state pension. Transitional rules were in place for years. I will retire under the new rules and I only qualified for the full amount a year ago, despite already having enough working years contributions in 2016. This is due to being "contracted out" of the state second pension.

Under transitional rules they work out your pension under the old system (SERPS etc) and under the new system and give you the higher amount.

 

I have never driven, and it would be a concern to be sent anywhere other than the big hospital in my home town. However most areas do have community transport schemes staffed by volunteer drivers, who can help with problems like this. It's typically something people do in their early retirement, when they still want to get out and meet people and feel useful.

 

I often carry secateurs for brambles, just snip off the ones that are hitting me in the face. Then try to kick the cut brambles to the side a bit so the cyclists don't go straight over them!

 

It's also eye-opening how many families have more than one "trans" or "non-binary" kid. Almost as if it's a contagion, or just a competition for attention.

 

The government has just started a Land Use consultation, which some of you may be interested in. I haven't started it yet. They may ignore what people say anyway. But the link is below:

Land Use Consultation - Defra - Citizen Space