Labour for Dinnington Don't Like Debate...

Today I noticed a Community page on Facebook called "Labour for Dinnington"... So, I asked a question of Labour for Dinnington regarding the green spaces in Dinnington, and asking them to explain to me why Rotherham Council were selling them off to property developers.  The reply I got was to delete my question and set the page so that I wouldn't be able to comment again.

Another resident and Council Tax payer asked them why they were deleting the comments from Dinnington residents... Guess what reply he got..? Yup, his comment was deleted also.

So, then a friend posted asking why they are deleting comments from residents and other people commented after him...

 At this point, my wife got involved and she posted a comment to "Labour for Dinnington"...

Again, there was no reply from "Labour for Dinnington" but they did delete my wife's comment and the comments of the others constituents.  It's not looking very good for debate at "Labour for Dinnington"... This time, however, they didn't set it so there could be no othe comments, my friend also posted again after realising he could still post...

A couple of minutes after this, when my wife realised she could still post, so she posted the original question I posed to them earlier along with one asking why they are deleting comments

Their oh so predictable reply was to delete all comments and disallow my wife and my friend the opportunity to comment again. 

So, this is what Labour for Dinnington think about the people who pay their Councillors allowances, they have nothing but utter disdain and contempt for US, the people of Dinnington. 

"Labour for Dinnington", but only if you dont ask them questions... "Labour for Dinnington" if you will do as your overlords tell you... "Labour for Dinnington" if you want Dinnington's green spaces sold... "Labour for Dinnington" if you want to carry on driving on pot-holed roads... "Labour for Dinnington" if you don't want to answer awkward questions... "Labour for Dinnington" if you want Councillors who neither live in, not care about, Dinnington... 

"Labour for Dinnington" don't like debate... 

Apprehensive...

Waiting to hear from my surgeons secretary with a date for my heart surgery.... Got to have a triple bypass... Off all the things my father gave me he had to give me shitty arteries... I don't blame him for all of it though, quite a bit of it is my fault, what with a crap diet, smoking from 12 to 27 and then from 30 to 33 and the other stuff I've smoked, on and off, for 20 years... All given up now and the diet has changed since the heart attacks...

If I'm honest I'm not looking forward to having the op, it's not so much the op itself, it's the recovery time afterwards... When you're used to being up and about and doing what you want to do it becomes somewhat of a ballache... But it's certainly better than the alternative...

Speaking of which, I don't think it would bother me if I died on the operating table, let's face it, I really wouldn't have a choice in the matter anyway... It's not as if I can say "whoa! hold on! not ready yet!"... Always been a firm believer in the maxim that when it's your time then it's your time... Obviously I don't want that to happen as I can't imagine a world without me, and that's not being vain...

I have a lot of things I have left to do, but the family history is against me, well on my paternal side it is... And that seems to be the side that I have followed... All being well once the bypass is done and I'm fully recovered I'll be able to get on with my life and do what I want to do...

Lots and lots of stuff to photograph... Get back on my bike and continue the cycling with my oldest friend Andy, get myself fitter and see what happens in my personal life... Hopefully live long enough to see any grandchildren I may have... So yeah, the title is "apprehensive" and that is what I currently am... The waiting has been the worst, still is... Mebbe I'm too impatient...

Wow..! It's been a while...

Wow..! I can't believe how long it has been since I was last on here... Lots of things have changed since I was here. I guess it's time I started up again and filled in on what's gone off since I was last here... Was talking to a photographer friend on Facebook last night about blogs and was saying it's been a while since I last logged into mine, never mind posted... So I came over, logged in and had a look... Had a read and can't believe that I was talking about the same subject, to the same person on Saturday last, that I blogged about in 2008 (q.v. http://thebalding.blogspot.com/2008/03/time-families-etc.html)... Got me wondering then, does anyone else have cyclic conversations..? lol

New blog...

I've added a blog to showcase my photo's, the link is to the right. I didnt want to clutter this blog with them so created another...

On grandmothers...

My grandmother died on 19 Feb last year (2007)... She wasn't the kind of grandmother who had much to do with us. My father was her eldest son. She only started taking an interest in us after my father died, when it was 'revealed' that she was our grandmother (I knew from the age of eight though, an Uncle had told me one day, why I dont know)...

Then, a few years later, I got married and obviously invited her to the wedding. We had the wedding in the afternoon and a celebration at night... However, in between we had a small party for close family and friends. Only those invited knew about it, she wasn't invited (only because she'd not really been close family).

She found out about it when the Vicar published the details in the local rag... That was when she phoned my mother and played merry hell with her about it and asked why she'd not been invited. I cant remember what my mother said at the time (although it wasnt really anything to do with her as my wife and I had decided who was going), anyway this resulted in a falling out...

A few months later I saw her in the village and she just walked past me, blanking me totally... And I never saw her again, or had anything to do with her after that...

I figured it was her loss, I have three children that she could have seen and had a part in their lives, plus the children of my siblings. She fell out with us, as far as I am concerned it was up to her to come with the Olive branch, not me... But she didnt...

Then, while at an Aunt's funeral I was talking to my grandmothers sister as we were going into the service and found myself sat at the side of my grandmother... I was still talking to my great aunt before the service began when my grandmother asked who I was (because I kept referring to family members)... I told her... then the service began...

My youngest daughter had come with me to my Aunts funeral, she wanted to be there for my cousin (she's a friend of his) and as we were coming out of the service my grandmother asked if my daughter knew that she (grandmother) was her great-grandmother... I told her yes...

That was the last time I saw her...

For the last six years, I've been tracing my family history... and all the time I've been doing that I've wanted to go and see her but thought she wouldn't want to see me after, well, 24 years of not talking to her... That and the fact that she had a sister she never spoke to, and I went to see her to get the information I wanted...But still, there were questions that only she could have answered... and now I can't ask her...

And I've since found out that she's left some of her estate to myself and my two siblings... and when my Uncles and Aunt went to clear the house they found unopened presents that she'd obviously bought for us that she never had the chance to deliver...

She also used to talk about us a lot... So, why the flying foojar didn't she make that extra effort to reach out... All this time I thought she never wanted anything to do with us... and pride got in the way of everything...

I can't say that I miss her, I don't, she wasn't a big part of my life (apart from the fact I carry remnants of her DNA).. I do wish she'd made the effort to contact us... and conversely I wish I'd made that extra effort to go and see her and ask her the questions only she could have answered...

In the end, there were no winners... Everyone lost... My grandmother lost out on eight great-grandchildren, they lost out on knowing their great-grandmother... I lost out on getting answers to specific questions, she lost out on seeing me and my siblings...

Que Sera Sera...

Time, Families, Etc...

I was talking about time flying etc, last night with my cousin (while we were having a drink!) and he was saying that his father is amazed by the fact that he spoke to someone who was born in the year 1864 (his great-grandmother) and he's also spoke to his own great-grandaughter in 2008... a distance of 144 years... Fascinating stuff really when you get your head round it, I myself, remember my great-grandmother (born 1892) and she was always an old woman. But, in reality she hadn't always been an old woman.

I think that we can only relate to our own experiences and how we grew up, finding it hard to comprehend (whilst still knowing) that our own parents were once children as were their parents.

I'm currently tracing my family tree and find it amazing how families branch off and go down different routes, and how it's entirely possible that my own great-grandchildren (if there are any!) might not even now each other... and yet their grandparents are brothers and sisters... or even conversely my own brother's and sister's great-grandchildren may not know each other...

Certainly food for thought.. well for me anyway...

Time Flies...

I've noticed that as I get older, the faster that time appears to go by... Is it really over a year since I last wrote on here? Well, obviously it is as the dates will testify... I was sat thinking back earlier this week and remember myself and my best friend at the time remarking to each other (we were about eight or nine years old) that in the year 2000 we'll both be 36 years old, and it seemed a long , long way off, but here we are and we're EIGHT years PAST it...

I have cousins that are now GRANDPARENTS... hell, even my YOUNGER brother is a grandparent now... It doesnt seem two minutes ago that we were all new parents!!! My own eldest is 24 this year... TWENTY flamin FOUR!!!! Yet, inside I still feel like I did when I was younger... Obviously physically I look different, wrinkles appearing, hair pigment disappearing (leaving me with "silver" streaks), hair receding.. but other than that I'm still me...

Anyway, I'm gonna have to keep going with this now I've remembered where it is...