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Revenge!

I had to laugh when I read this news story as it was so bizzare;

A US man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning leaves could only watch in horror as it ran into his house and set the building ablaze.

Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, found the mouse in his home and wanted to get rid of it.

"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," he was quoted as saying by AP.

Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.

"I've seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one," Fire Department Captain Jim Lyssy said.

New Mexico has seen several major blazes after unseasonably dry and windy conditions which have destroyed 10 homes and devastated more than 53,000 acres (21,200 hectares) of land.

Consulation process???

My local authority is going through something of a change at the moment. There are surplus places throughout the city within their schools.
The LEA is merging and closing schools area by area .
Tonight I went to a 'consulation' meeting to discuss the latest round of 'proposals' for change in 2008.
Apparently, according to the city, pupil numbers are falling rapidly.

I guess that they haven't been talking to the schools then, who are all at, or close to capacity within their early years classes. These are the classes that will be at school age come 2008.

Maybe, not being a councillor, I have missed out here, but if early years classes are rising, this will pass through Key Stage 1 and 2 in due course.
Excess places now there may be. Excess places in the future will be less likely. Closing many of the schools will then cause larger class sizes when these pupils work there way through the system.

The council also quoted government advice that Key Stage 2 children can walk a maximum of 3 miles to school.

Maybe, but 3 miles for a child could take up to an hour. If a school starts at 8.45 that means they must leave the house before 8am. In the dark in the winter, and cross several major roads during their trek to school. Glad to see that the council is thinking of child safety.

And what happens to the teachers in the schools that are closing?

(you will have noticed I said 'are' and not 'might' because everyone is aware that the decisions have already been made. The 'consulation' is just a legal annoyance for the council that they have to go through)

Well, the council is looking at - very kindly - letting teachers know a term before the closures of opportunities elsewhere.
Such a caring authority, I'm sure you will agree.
And to prove how caring, one of the panellists at the meeting when asked about staff futures said (and I quote) "The heads and deputies aren't important!"
Well, I'd like to see the schools run without them.

The best way to raise standards and morale throughtout an authority is to respect your employees. The best way to alienate them is to treat them like the council is currently doing.

Travel enquiries

Over the Christmas period, we've been busy getting things sorted for the wedding. (Only 6 months now - suddenly it gets closer!)
We've settled on visiting the Island of Bute on the West coast of Scotland, and booked our accomodation, but not the transport yet. You see, we thought it would be nice to travel by train, and so I visited the national rail website to enquire about the journey from home from Wemyss bay (the closest station to the ferry port to Bute).
Well, firstly they couldn't give me any information, as they only have details for the next three months, so then I entered a false date to still try and get the details.
Success, I thought. It gave me a list of stations to visit; a journey to Derby, then a journey to Birmingham then a journey to Lancaster, then a journey to Glasgow, then a journey to Wemyss Bay. Forget the hotel - this would take the entire holiday visiting all these locations. And the cost of this magical mystery tour?  Over £250.
So I tried one more time. And this time, I asked for details in stages. One journey to Birmingham (it can't be avoided unfortunately!), followed by one journey direct to Glasgow, and then a final one to Wemyss Bay. The cost - around £170.
So the national rail website, designed to make booking a journey easier, quoted me a more expensive, less direct route than me sorting it out myself! I'm not impressed - and I wonder how many people just accept the results that the search query throws back at them?