I have been up to the Coastal Eco Centre in Skegness (hands up if you know where that is) for a couple of chats with the man in charge, more about that in a future blog. As a result, I spent a couple of hours there yesterday morning when some pupils from Eresby Special School were there. What a great couple of hours it was. The young people were great, really friendly and really keen to get involved with the activities that the Eco Centre provides for them. All of the youngsters have Special Educational Needs and in some cases their impairment is severe. No matter what their problems though, they all mucked in and had a lot of fun whilst also experiencing new learning opportunities.
For me it was a humbling but very rewarding experience. I would like to thank, Sarah, Sammy, Andrew, Dale, Charles, Stephen and Amanda for allowing me to join their group and I hope to see them all again soon.
See more about Eresby School here: http://www.eresbyspecialschool.co.uk/
Friday 30 September 2011
Friday 23 September 2011
Countryside - How Much Do We Have?
Lot's of discussions recently about planning policies, new planning laws etc. etc. have concentrated the mind somewhat. I asked myself "What is countryside?"
Now that is a difficult question in it's own right, but then again ask what is REAL countryside and it becomes even more difficult.
Look at the Lincolnshire Wolds. Lovely wide-open spaces but is most of it actually real countryside. How long has it looked like that?
Drive from Skegness to Boston and how much countryside do you actually see?
Difficult to answer without an answer to the question what is real countryside.
Put it simply. Is mile upon mile of fields countryside? Is that real countryside? Or is it actually an industrial landscape with the industry being agriculture?
That makes it an interesting question doesn't it?
Now that is a difficult question in it's own right, but then again ask what is REAL countryside and it becomes even more difficult.
Look at the Lincolnshire Wolds. Lovely wide-open spaces but is most of it actually real countryside. How long has it looked like that?
Drive from Skegness to Boston and how much countryside do you actually see?
Difficult to answer without an answer to the question what is real countryside.
Put it simply. Is mile upon mile of fields countryside? Is that real countryside? Or is it actually an industrial landscape with the industry being agriculture?
That makes it an interesting question doesn't it?
Tuesday 20 September 2011
One In The Armpit
So there I was digging away on my allotment. Just lifted all my onions and racked them up to dry in my shed. Turning over the onion bed ready for some manure to go on it in a couple of weeks when BANG!
Gee up neddy right in the armpit. Really sharp pain. BANG and another.
What the...............
Ripped off my sweatshirt and then my t-shirt, bare-chested to the world. Away flew a wasp out of my t-shirt. Little bleeder.
How had it managed to find it's way into my sweatshirt and then under my t-shirt and then to sting me not once but twice in the armpit.
Really nasty experience. I can't remember being stung by either a wasp or a bee since I was a little lad. Quite forgotten how painful it can be.
Made me sweat I can tell you. Off home straight away for a couple of smears of Anthisan. Happened about an hour ago and it is still blooming painful. Two huge red marks where the little bugger got me.
Worst thing about it is that I didn't get the chance to squash it to death..........................
Gee up neddy right in the armpit. Really sharp pain. BANG and another.
What the...............
Ripped off my sweatshirt and then my t-shirt, bare-chested to the world. Away flew a wasp out of my t-shirt. Little bleeder.
How had it managed to find it's way into my sweatshirt and then under my t-shirt and then to sting me not once but twice in the armpit.
Really nasty experience. I can't remember being stung by either a wasp or a bee since I was a little lad. Quite forgotten how painful it can be.
Made me sweat I can tell you. Off home straight away for a couple of smears of Anthisan. Happened about an hour ago and it is still blooming painful. Two huge red marks where the little bugger got me.
Worst thing about it is that I didn't get the chance to squash it to death..........................
Monday 19 September 2011
Love Fish - Love Curry - Read On.
I have had fish curries in several parts of the world, which I love, but have never managed to get one in England. Maybe I have just been unlucky or have not been looking in the right places! Whenever I have queried this I have always been told that there was no call for it.
Imagine my surprise then when I, along with the Mem Sahib and daughter, popped into the Agra Tandoori on Drummond Road, Skegness the other night to find Fish Bhuna on the menu. This was a brand new addition to the menu there.
Described as follows:
Succulent fresh water fish cooked in various spices to create a delicious medium flavour - a must try!
Well I couldn't resist. I have to say it was delicious. The fish, served as small pieces of sliced fillet, which I think is a variety called Pangas, had the texture of trout and therefore held together in nice chunky pieces and the spices were just enough to give the dish some heat without over-powering the flavour of the fish. Lovely.
I will definitely be back for more.
If you have never tried a fish curry before then why not give it a shot.
Imagine my surprise then when I, along with the Mem Sahib and daughter, popped into the Agra Tandoori on Drummond Road, Skegness the other night to find Fish Bhuna on the menu. This was a brand new addition to the menu there.
Described as follows:
Succulent fresh water fish cooked in various spices to create a delicious medium flavour - a must try!
Well I couldn't resist. I have to say it was delicious. The fish, served as small pieces of sliced fillet, which I think is a variety called Pangas, had the texture of trout and therefore held together in nice chunky pieces and the spices were just enough to give the dish some heat without over-powering the flavour of the fish. Lovely.
I will definitely be back for more.
If you have never tried a fish curry before then why not give it a shot.
Sunday 18 September 2011
Football - The Same At Every Level
Lincoln City have the same problems as Arsenal who appear to have the same problems as Blackburn Rovers. A lack of money and a manager under pressure due to poor results. Amazing really that the same issues can cause the same reaction at the top and bottom of the football pyramid. The only difference really is in the degree. Arsenal and Blackburn really need tens of millions of pounds to improve their situation and Lincoln need about the same as the other two pay their top player a week to improve theirs.
The total reliance nowadays on money is the thing that is going to bring the football world crashing down. Too many clubs spending too much money they haven't got to try and achieve results. Ridiculous amounts of money being spent to buy players who are then paid equally as ridiculous amounts of money in wages. It is unsustainable and will cause the end of football as we know it now.
This might not be a bad thing to be honest. Perhaps then we can move back to an era when football really was "the people's game". To a time when the largest part of a club's income was made up by the man-in-the-street paying to watch the game live in the grounds. To a time when the board and the chairman were not sleighted by large parts of the supporters of the clubs for not putting money into the club because that is the panacea of all ills. To a time when football told the TV what they could and could not do and not the other way round. Never going to happent though, unfortunately.
If that happened then one other thing that I have already touched upon would make more sense. The constant calling by some supporters of clubs for the manager to be sacked. If the clubs were on a more equal footing financially then the performance of the players could be put down to the abilities of the managers. There would be some equity in the standard of the players at differing clubs. Let's face it. If a manager is at a club where the money is not available to go out and buy the best players available at a particular level, then they really are on a hiding to nothing from the off. What can they actually be expected to achieve in an environment where the "haves" will always prosper and the "have-nots" will always bring up the rear? What will changing managers really bring? Probably just a different face to be berated after a few months of poor results. What will that achieve? Not a lot. After all of this time with the game kow-towing to money I would have thought that supporters would have got an understanding of that.
The total reliance nowadays on money is the thing that is going to bring the football world crashing down. Too many clubs spending too much money they haven't got to try and achieve results. Ridiculous amounts of money being spent to buy players who are then paid equally as ridiculous amounts of money in wages. It is unsustainable and will cause the end of football as we know it now.
This might not be a bad thing to be honest. Perhaps then we can move back to an era when football really was "the people's game". To a time when the largest part of a club's income was made up by the man-in-the-street paying to watch the game live in the grounds. To a time when the board and the chairman were not sleighted by large parts of the supporters of the clubs for not putting money into the club because that is the panacea of all ills. To a time when football told the TV what they could and could not do and not the other way round. Never going to happent though, unfortunately.
If that happened then one other thing that I have already touched upon would make more sense. The constant calling by some supporters of clubs for the manager to be sacked. If the clubs were on a more equal footing financially then the performance of the players could be put down to the abilities of the managers. There would be some equity in the standard of the players at differing clubs. Let's face it. If a manager is at a club where the money is not available to go out and buy the best players available at a particular level, then they really are on a hiding to nothing from the off. What can they actually be expected to achieve in an environment where the "haves" will always prosper and the "have-nots" will always bring up the rear? What will changing managers really bring? Probably just a different face to be berated after a few months of poor results. What will that achieve? Not a lot. After all of this time with the game kow-towing to money I would have thought that supporters would have got an understanding of that.
Saturday 10 September 2011
Skegness Hospital A&E - Not Closing
Over the past few days I have heard the rumour that Skegness A&E is closing. I have heard this from both Skegness residents and also from a councillor colleague. I am not sure how far and wide this rumour has yet circulated and you may not have heard it yet. If you have fear not, if you do in the future, disregard it.
I contacted NHS Lincolnshire regarding this and, after several false starts, finally managed to get to talk to the General Manager of the hospital. She informed me that there were no plans to close the A&E at Skegness but there were going to be changes to the way it was staffed and that they were looking at the increased use of Nurse Practitioners within the department.
In my opinion, Skegness Hospital has not had a "fully functioning" A&E facility for some years but I have been told that the service being provided by the hospital after the staff changes would not be diminished from it's current level.
Encouragingly, I was also told that the hospital is viewed as an asset and that there was scope for the services, other than A&E, to be widened and enhanced.
So good news all round then.
I contacted NHS Lincolnshire regarding this and, after several false starts, finally managed to get to talk to the General Manager of the hospital. She informed me that there were no plans to close the A&E at Skegness but there were going to be changes to the way it was staffed and that they were looking at the increased use of Nurse Practitioners within the department.
In my opinion, Skegness Hospital has not had a "fully functioning" A&E facility for some years but I have been told that the service being provided by the hospital after the staff changes would not be diminished from it's current level.
Encouragingly, I was also told that the hospital is viewed as an asset and that there was scope for the services, other than A&E, to be widened and enhanced.
So good news all round then.
Tuesday 6 September 2011
Really Good News - VisitEngland
As most of you will be aware our wonderful town of Skegness has been rated 4th in the list of the Most Visited Towns and Cities in England. This is an excellent achievement, surpassing the previous list in which we were rated 6th. This year we were beaten (if that is the correct word) by London, Blackpool and Scarborough, nothing really surprising there, to be honest.
This shows just how strong our visitor base is and the affection that they hold for our town. What is even more gratifying and an excellent pointer to the future are the figures behind the ratings in the list.
Businesses in the town have been saying that this has been a very poor summer. I have no evidence to disprove this statement and they are the ones that know what has happened to their takings. The figures from VisitEngland do show a position of strength when compared to other resorts, so things could have been far worse.
Skegness has seen a fall in visitor numbers of just 2%, not to be viewed with any satisfaction but when you compare this with other resorts, Scarborough down 14%, Great Yarmouth down a massive 22%, Bounemouth down a huge 25% and Brighton an eye-watering 37%, I would suggest we are not doing too badly.
So what do I read into this then? Well, it appears that the people are still coming to Skegness but that they are spending less. This is only to be expected, to a large extent, in the current economic climate that the country has been left with. The important thing though, is that they are still coming. Our visitor numbers remain strong. As the economy improves, then we will be in an excellent position to benefit from it because the people are still here and they will have a bit more money to spend which will benefit us all.
So not only is the headline "Skegness 4th In The Country For Visitor Numbers" excellent news but the underlying strength is also very, very encouraging.
No room for complacency though!! Seek investment, accept investment and improve the town's facilities. Attract more visitors and grow the town's economy with the accompanying increase in jobs.
This shows just how strong our visitor base is and the affection that they hold for our town. What is even more gratifying and an excellent pointer to the future are the figures behind the ratings in the list.
Businesses in the town have been saying that this has been a very poor summer. I have no evidence to disprove this statement and they are the ones that know what has happened to their takings. The figures from VisitEngland do show a position of strength when compared to other resorts, so things could have been far worse.
Skegness has seen a fall in visitor numbers of just 2%, not to be viewed with any satisfaction but when you compare this with other resorts, Scarborough down 14%, Great Yarmouth down a massive 22%, Bounemouth down a huge 25% and Brighton an eye-watering 37%, I would suggest we are not doing too badly.
So what do I read into this then? Well, it appears that the people are still coming to Skegness but that they are spending less. This is only to be expected, to a large extent, in the current economic climate that the country has been left with. The important thing though, is that they are still coming. Our visitor numbers remain strong. As the economy improves, then we will be in an excellent position to benefit from it because the people are still here and they will have a bit more money to spend which will benefit us all.
So not only is the headline "Skegness 4th In The Country For Visitor Numbers" excellent news but the underlying strength is also very, very encouraging.
No room for complacency though!! Seek investment, accept investment and improve the town's facilities. Attract more visitors and grow the town's economy with the accompanying increase in jobs.
Thursday 1 September 2011
Skegness Leads - Hull Follows
Remember this from the SO Festival?
The Levity II Luminarium. This was an added extra at the superb SO Festival 2011. Well now Hull have got the same thing as the centre-piece for their Freedom Festival.
I wish them all the success in the world with their festival but purely out of pride in my home-town, I would say:
Luminarium - Skegness - Been there; done that; got the T-Shirt.
What inovative things will we come up with next year?
I wish them all the success in the world with their festival but purely out of pride in my home-town, I would say:
Luminarium - Skegness - Been there; done that; got the T-Shirt.
What inovative things will we come up with next year?
Damaging To Skegness?
Is the incident at Bottons Amusement Park damaging to the image of Skegness? Let's look at what actually happened.
For the first time in getting on for 50 years, as far as I am aware, the park suffered a fairly serious mechanical failure on one of it's rides. Thankfully the safety features built into the ride worked properly and so the damage to human health was minimised, although it must have been pretty traumatic to have actually been on the ride when the incident occurred.
The Emergency Services kicked in with their normal professionalism and swung into action within minutes. What would we do without them? They freed those still held into position by the safety features and dealt with the casualties properly. We should all remember the great job that our policemen, firemen and ambulance crews, in fact all of our Emergency services, actually do.
The Health and Safety Executive were notified as they should be and will (or have by now) carry out a full investigation. It is to be hoped that their findings are not detrimental to the Park itself, which I am sure they will not be.
Jimmy Botton (the owner of the park) has stated that the ride that failed would be removed from the park and, due to third hand reports, I believe this has happened or is happening.
So, what do you think? Damaging for Skegness?
I would say no. Accidents happen and can never be eradicated. Whatever the cause of the problem with the ride lessons will have been learned and the procedures in place locally for such an incident have been found to work well. We can be confident in them as can visitors to the town.
There has been lots of national coverage in the press and the media. Is that bad for the town? I don't think so. In the short term, and remember we are coming to the end of our season, a very few people may be put off from visiting, but in the long run the name of Skegness will be in the consciousness of far more people.
All in all then not overly negative.
I wish all of those that were injured a speedy recovery and hope that those others involved and not injured will not suffer lasting problems. These things happen so infrequently that all involved were incredibly unlucky to have been there at that moment in time.
For the first time in getting on for 50 years, as far as I am aware, the park suffered a fairly serious mechanical failure on one of it's rides. Thankfully the safety features built into the ride worked properly and so the damage to human health was minimised, although it must have been pretty traumatic to have actually been on the ride when the incident occurred.
The Emergency Services kicked in with their normal professionalism and swung into action within minutes. What would we do without them? They freed those still held into position by the safety features and dealt with the casualties properly. We should all remember the great job that our policemen, firemen and ambulance crews, in fact all of our Emergency services, actually do.
The Health and Safety Executive were notified as they should be and will (or have by now) carry out a full investigation. It is to be hoped that their findings are not detrimental to the Park itself, which I am sure they will not be.
Jimmy Botton (the owner of the park) has stated that the ride that failed would be removed from the park and, due to third hand reports, I believe this has happened or is happening.
So, what do you think? Damaging for Skegness?
I would say no. Accidents happen and can never be eradicated. Whatever the cause of the problem with the ride lessons will have been learned and the procedures in place locally for such an incident have been found to work well. We can be confident in them as can visitors to the town.
There has been lots of national coverage in the press and the media. Is that bad for the town? I don't think so. In the short term, and remember we are coming to the end of our season, a very few people may be put off from visiting, but in the long run the name of Skegness will be in the consciousness of far more people.
All in all then not overly negative.
I wish all of those that were injured a speedy recovery and hope that those others involved and not injured will not suffer lasting problems. These things happen so infrequently that all involved were incredibly unlucky to have been there at that moment in time.
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