Author: Richard

What’s Your Beef with the NHS?

| Richard

So two stories have dominated the news recently: horse meat in cheap beef products and failings in a hospital trust.

The supermarkets’ pressure on prices will always mean quality will suffer and sourcing meat from the cheapest source was bound to cause problems. If you want to guarantee quality, use a local butcher with locally sourced organic meat. You’ll taste the difference and help keep small businesses and your High Street alive.

The NHS story ignores the main problem with the NHS: fake management jobs. These layers of middle management with people doing nothing of any use to patients cost a lot of money – money that would be better spent on front line nursing.

I know of someone who skived off work for many months on a couple of occasions on full pay. Her work? Well there wasn’t any work to do in the first place so no-one missed her and nothing needed to be carried out by others working longer or harder.

It’s one of those jobs created for someone they can’t actually sack. They give it a job title with words like ”lead’ or ‘manager’ for someone who doesn’t actually lead or manage anyone. At most these people do reports about stuff that’s completely irrelevant and they sit in meetings to discuss producing these reports. Fake jobs. They report to Assistant Deputy Directors and the like. How many more tiers?

What is needed is a clear out of people who don’t actually contribute to patient care. Everyone should have to write a job description for their own position. What they do, the value that adds and how detrimental it would be to patients if they were sacked. Anyone with the term ‘lead’ or ‘manager’ should be able to show who they actually lead or manage and the benefit they bring.

And the people carrying out these reviews shouldn’t be other NHS Trust managers with vested interests like justifying their own jobs.

But no-one in Government has the balls to do it.

Reflective

| Richard

Work’s been quite hectic of late, as has my social life (which is no bad thing, of course).

Friday and I was off up to Soho and the Jazz After Dark to catch up with a mate, the excellent James Gillespie, who was over in the UK from Fuerteventura to play a few gigs on a whirlwind visit. Really good to catch up with him and his partner Jess plus a few other people I’d met at the Rock Island Bar as well as a few of James’ family members. Lots of drinks as always – ciders, spirits and shots! It was a great night out and even being grabbed in the bits by a friendly transvestite on my way home didn’t faze me!

Saturday and I was up bright and early to go and look at a house in the next block from mine in the same Crescent: a fair sized house for me with an even nicer garage which has the potential to double as a photographic studio due to its size and the high ceiling height for backdrops, lighting rigs, etc. We’ll see.

The it was off to see GT for lunch and an afternoon watching three hours of “Django Unchained” – spaghetti westerns reinvented for the 21st Century. Then it was off for another excellent curry at Cinnamon Spice.

A nice lay-in on Sunday before heading to Covent Garden for more retail therapy at Dr Martens with GT before I made my way home to pack and change to get to Paris by Eurostar and my hideously expensive but comfortable hotel.

A long day Monday in meetings and giving presentations to the MD of one of our larger Clients, made more difficult by a streaming cold {sigh}. Drinks in the Eurostar Business Lounge obviously help you care less.

Finally back home; my cabbie is also riding down to the Pyrenees this summer, apparently…

Working from home today so that I didn’t spread the sniffles; I took the opportunity to cancel a couple of remaining credit cards having cleared all the balances over the past few months. There’s something cathartic about doing this and cutting up the old ones. They were a safety blanket for me at times over the past years but with the potential to bite back, so it was good to cut them up and cut off more past times. More ties with the past severed for good.

Winter Wonderland

| Richard

So winter has finally arrived, or at least the snow we all like and loathe in equal measures.

Friday was cold and snow was forecast for London, so I wore big boots and my fabulous Superdry Polar Puffer Jacket (which was a real bargain … and isn’t available online any more). Just as well, because the air conditioning units in the office packed up at lunchtime so I wore it all afternoon. Walking home in the snow, the roads were safer than the pavements and I gritted the stairs up to my apartment block when I arrived home to be safe.

I’d decided not to risk driving at the weekend with further heavy snowfalls forecast and took the train over to GT’s, arriving at lunchtime – steaming, herby veggie soup and pâté – before  a few repairs and fitting a replacement cat-flap. Then we headed up to the Epsom Downs for an afternoon’s sledging. Great fun!  Off to the pub for a drink and to warm up before trekking back again for dinner and chilling out in front of the telly and a bit of admin. sorting out a CV for GT.

A long lay-in this morning before pasta for lunch and a relaxing afternoon whilst it continued snowing heavily. Then off to Nando’s for a huge dinner before I took the train home. I’d feared the worst: South West Trains had been Tweeting about disruption all day before they halved the services back to London. It actually turned out the train I chose left on time, arrived into London on time and, after a brief tube and bus ride, I was home within an hour.

And now I’m wonderfully relaxed, listening to great music on the Apple TV through my surround sound system with a Southern Comfort for good measure. Fab!

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com

| Richard

Just had a notification on this blog:

“You registered on WordPress.com 6 years ago!

“Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging!”

I have to say in this time WordPress have continued to update their blogging platform with new features making it so easy to keep your sites up to date. Long may it continue.

Having had a presence online since the early 90s on various platforms, forums and message boards before running my own web business from 1998, I’ve been filling the search engines ever since!

2012 Review

| Richard

With 2013 upon us, it’s time to look back on an eventful 2012 for me.

January

I was based up in Wigan for January, staying in a Premier Inn for almost the entire time. Just as well they’re comfortable, clean and friendly.

Another photoshoot with the delightful Polly Lockitt … which I haven’t really edited yet. Oops!

January also saw the end of an irritation for me: the psycho ex-girlfriend had been badgering her local police trying to get them to take action against me for what she claimed was harassment by me. They’d been in touch with me to make an appointment for them to come and see me for an interview and a time and a place to suit me, so I saw them at a Solicitors’ offices in Liverpool. It was a very light-hearted afternoon given the increasingly bizarre allegations we went through and we finished by me giving them some real evidence of her (sadly ongoing) harassment and stalking of me. Needless to say, it wasn’t long after this that they dropped their investigations against me completely.

Of far more importance was my father’s funeral. It’s sad that it’s only times like these when we get to hear about people from others’ perspectives. My stepmother was upset not to be able to attend but she had been admitted to hospital herself the day before.

My wife and I agreed terms for our divorce at the very end of January. I suggested we get her Solicitor to tidy things up and agreed to share costs doing so, assuming – very incorrectly as it turned out – that we’d be divorced by my 50th birthday in April…

February

A short month, mainly spent in Wigan.

March

With a few days to spare following the completion of my work in Wigan, the highlight this month was that I took the chance to head off to Barcelona for a break and a few photos, taking a suite in a fabulous luxury hotel on Las Ramblas.

The month ended with the first of many gigs this year – Pop Will Eat Itself – and a weekend away staying in a suite at Luton Hoo with another quickie photoshoot with GT thrown in for good measure.

April

My 50th birthday was celebrated in a lovely restaurant in Ireland with GT where we’d gone for a week’s break. My first time visiting Ireland as a tourist rather than on business. That came the following week with some work in Dublin.

GT ran the London Marathon prior to which we decided she’d do the Venice Marathon in October. On the same day, it was Kawasaki Day at the Ace Cafe which meant a blast to the Ace in the morning – and a dyno session – before heading to the finish to meet GT.

The month ended with me heading off to Vienna to do some client training.

May

May saw a load of work and play in Manchester plus another photoshoot with Marlyn Lindsay.

June

A busy month, mainly in Manchester for work plus lecturing at the University of Vienna which was good fun.

And of course there was the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend. That plus the House of Burlesque (with me on stage…) was where it was all happening!

My Decree Nisi was granted in the middle of June, some 4 months after getting things moving.

On a sad note, my stepmother joined my father on 24th June.

July

It started getting a wee bit hectic in July. The month started off with work in Manchester and the Marilyn Manson/Lacuna Coil gig, plus my day driving a Ferrari on track.

Then it was Paris do some training for one of our clients there.

And then, of course, there was my flight to Chicago…

August

…for my little trip across the United States along Route 66 on a Harley. Truly epic stuff.

Once back, it was more work including more training for a client in the Paris.

September

More work, more champagne receptions and more shopping, mainly! Most of it was recounted in this blog entry.

October

I started October with trips to Paris for two clients as well as another breakfast seminar. This one was videoed and a copy was allegedly on YouTube for a while! It’s now forming part of our company showreel.

Mid-month and I was finally divorced: almost nine months after starting the divorce process on an uncontested divorce!

At the end of the month, it was off to Venice for GT to take part in the Venice Marathon and a lovely stay in a luxury hotel. Great time! Oh and confirmation that I was booked to take part in the Berlin Marathon in September 2013…

November

More of the same, work-wise. Birmingham, Glasgow and London mainly.

Gigs included Fields of the Nephilim and Marilyn Manson with Rob Zombie.

And some mucking about with a camera with my friend Alix and, of course, Movember!

December

As the year drew to a close, my diary was a little crammed.

Work was London and Paris and there was a little trip out to Fuertevenura before Christmas which was great to recharge the batteries.

Gigs were Fear Factory and the Prodigy.

2013

And here we are! Crawley this week, Paris next. And so it starts all over again.

I need to start some training for the marathon and then buy myself somewhere to live in London to plan for the future. Torn between apartments and penthouses and actual houses.

The Trouble With Stalkers…

| Richard

I updated this blog on December 27th with an update on what I’d been up to and in so doing I made a passing comment about how I’m being stalked by an obsessive individual on an ongoing, regular basis. The update was published online at 9.43PM.

And guess what? There was a visit from the stalker less than an hour later: at 10.37PM. And just for good measure, they visited again a little later at 11.41PM for a second look.

It is truly mind-boggling – and not a bit sad – that they don’t get on with their own lives, albeit they’re living a lie. Another one; one of too many to count.

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be…

| Richard

So after spending a great few days on Corralejo chilling out in my hotel and spending the evenings drinking and listening to live acoustic rock music with friends in the Rock Island Bar, it was back to normality with work for a couple of days before I headed up to Cleethorpes on the Sunday.

The view from my balcony
The view from my balcony
Coffee time
Coffee time

The plan had been to head up to Cleethorpes to drop off some old Court papers and some crap the ex-girlfriend had sent me with her parents but the ex found out about my plans – she reads my Tweets and this blog to stalk keep up to date with what I’m doing – and threatened to stop them from seeing the one remaining daughter she hasn’t thrown out if they saw me. Nice, eh? Mind you, as it turned out, that was just as well because an accident on the A17 delayed my getting there until later and I had plans to meet up with some old friends for a lovely meal out in town as their treat. Great to catch up with them and to have a load of laughs about Stuff.

Monday saw an impromptu diversion to Covent Garden on my way home for more Christmas Shopping for GT and my daughter (some killer heels for GT that were a leeetle more expensive than I thought but hey, she’s worth it) and then home.

The Tuesday night found GT and I going to KOKO Camden to watch Fear Factory‘s gig. Sadly this was disappointing. They mentioned they were 7 weeks into their tour and it had clearly taken its toll on the lead singer’s vocal chords as he was unable to sing in tune or make much noise for higher notes.

KOKO London
KOKO London
Fear Factory at KOKO Camden
Fear Factory at KOKO Camden

Wednesday and it was another gig: this time it was the Prodigy at the O2 Brixton Academy. We hadn’t realised when we booked the tickets that this was a late show, with the Prodigy not coming on until after midnight and finishing at 1.30am! On a school night! Oops! So GT and I had a meal and a mooch around and then went in to watch the support artists around 11.30pm and then waited for the Prodigy to come on and do a blinding set. They can still definitely do their thing.

We left shortly after and I got home around 3.00am which was just as well as a taxi was booked to collect me at 6.45am to take me to St. Pancras International for a trip over to Paris to see a Client. Back that evening, arriving around 8.45pm which was just as well as I needed to be nearby at our works Christmas do at a Comedy Club. Lots of laughs – why do I always get picked on by the headliners? Same as the Burlesque Shows – and they’d saved me my dinner which was nice.  We got thrown out around 1.30am and we grabbed some taxis to get us home.

Friday and it was time for dinner in Epsom with GT and some friends and to see Indian Elvis in action!

Indian Elvis
Indian Elvis

The food at the Cinnamon Spice is really excellent and we enjoyed a couple of bottles of wine with a great meal before heading home.

More shopping over the weekend and a lovely lunch out in Kingston at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. Recommended.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day saw drinks with friends at their pub and a lovely meal cooked by GT – part carnivorous for me and part vegetarian (and delicious) – with some of the contents of the Fortnum & Mason hamper I’d been given.

Boxing Day and I was off to Norfolk to see my kids and to watch Norwich City (mainly in the rain and doing OK against a strong Chelsea team).

Today was mainly spent driving: back from Norfolk via Diss to buy Amy a replacement Ka after hers got written off; then on to my Mum’s for lunch and presents; then to Egham to get Amy home and off to work.

Phew!

Hola Fuerteventura!

| Richard

So here I am in Fuerteventura yet again: it feels like coming home these days.

It all started this time two years ago when I came out here alone having split from someone I cared deeply about but who still felt the need to cheat on me for months and then swear on her daughters’ lives that nothing was going on. We were due to spend a week out here in a lovely villa so I went anyway despite her efforts to cancel the booking out of spite (despite us talking when I was at the airport and me saying she could come out to talk).

And I met a number of really good, genuine people who remain firm friends to this day.

I’ve since been back here on my own again – this time at the fab Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahia Real – and I’ve brought my kids out here another time as well as GT on one visit.

The place and the people are so chilled it’s good for the soul to kick back, breathe a deep sigh and relax.

Maybe I should buy a place out here? The received wisdom is that this place gets to you so you need to leave from time to time or go mad. I can see that. But in the meantime, I’m going to eat well, sleep well and drink well with my kind of people.

Cheers!