GrannyRant

Afternoon, Granny Calling……You know the type of telephone call you get on a wet Wednesday afternoon, from some numpty salesman, just out of short trousers, with a script that says “have you ever thought of getting an extended warranty on your XXXX”.

Whether it be your oven, microwave, car……you huff and puff, and um and ahh as you weigh up whether or not it’s worth the £6 per month? You have nothing better to do, so you let him ‘rattle on’ about the benefit of insurance and the fact that they will replace your XXXX if it’s lost, damaged or stolen!

Well, my significant other, got a nice Nikon Camera for a present a couple of Christmas’s ago and the one year guarantee ran out in December, so he decided, after listening to the nu….I mean nice young gentleman, that he would take the extended insurance, after all, new for old if it was lost, had to be a good idea…didn’t it?

So there he was, all set up with his insurance, off we went on our Canadian Adventure, when – on day 15, (as readers of my Canadian adventure will know) we got unceremoniously thrown from a raft and lost 3 cameras along with a pile of other stuff.

The next day, he dutifully rang Nikon Insurance and informed them of the ‘loss’ and the lady said, ring again when you are back in the UK and we will sort it out. We carried on with our holiday, safe in the knowledge that we had reported everything as it says in the bumph and that it would be sorted out, what could be easier?

We arrived home and on the first working day, he rang Nikon…and he rang…and he rang. After tens of phone calls and e mails, passes of the buck to other departments’ etcetera etcetera etcetera….we finally received a letter telling us

“we do not cover your camera for water damage”!

It was not damaged; it was lost to the Bow River! We reported the loss and you said you would sort it out! We wrote to you saying as much, but it was to no avail.

Now…..is it me? Would you say that when a bag gets swept away by a torrent of water, the camera was lost, or water damaged? We haven’t got the camera, we don’t know where it is, we don’t anticipate getting it back! I think you will agree, it’s well and truly LOST!!

We have been back from our holiday for over 2 weeks now and there is still no joy. The Other half has now cancelled the policy, they have sent him a refund of £41.00 and he swears he will never pay insurance again….What is the point?

Granny

Today, I am back on the weightwatchers’ plan after my holiday. I’m glad to say that during my holiday (all 4 weeks of it) I only gained 6lbs….RESULT! Eating pancakes for breakfast, drinking far too much delicious beer and wine, barbecues galore and still, only 6lbs!

Right, that’s the positive side of things. On the other hand, it just goes to prove, that 9as a yo-yo dieter all my adult life), I only have to stop eating healthily for 4 weeks to gain that amount of weight. So, if I retired and didn’t have to work, I would be on permanent holiday and therefore would be heavier than ever! Perish the thought.

To try and re-educate myself into healthy eating again, I am now eating cereal for breakfast, weighing very morsel, eating salad for lunch (with copious amounts of salt) and writing everything down. I am even counting glasses of water. I know this works for me as I lost 33lbs before my holiday but it is so difficult to get back to it and motivate myself to eat sensibly.

Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight will relate to that feeling, when you’ve lost enough weight for people to start noticing and telling you how good you look. I have been at that stage for months. The trouble is when you’ve gained 6lbs; no-one then says “oh, I see you started to gain again”! Well, they would be too polite…wouldn’t they, but that’s what I need now, to stop me getting a false sense of security and thinking, that I’m ok as I am, when I’m still at least 3 stone from the ‘healthy range’ and still classed as obese!

So, if you see me in the street, or if you want to say something on my Facebook Wall or on twitter, here are some suggestions of what to say;

• A moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips
• You are what you eat so watch what you eat
• Eating all your dinner does not help starving Africans
• Checking your portion size is not a sexual act
• Eating until you’re full does not mean, eat until you’re so full you throw up

I thank you in anticipation of your help, in my quest to be healthy and turning my body into a temple…..Granny!

According to The Guardian teachers will get tougher powers to deal with unruly pupils in a “zero tolerance” crackdown on nuisance in the classroom……..

Staff will be given powers to search children for mobile phones, music players, pornography, fireworks and cigarettes, extending existing powers that allow teachers to search pupils for knives.

Well, it’s about time some of the power was given back to teachers/lecturers, I know from experience the absolute terror of dealing with an angry teenager, who could threaten others in the group as well as yourself and then suddenly thinking, if I touch this person, I will lose my job!

As a new lecturer (around 10 years ago) my first experience of teaching a group, was with 15 level 1 hairdressing students. A nice group, 13 girls, 2 boys all aged between 16 and 19 years. I wanted to stamp my authority, while being fair, approachable and fun during the session. All was going swimmingly until I asked one grumpy looking student to stop using her mobile phone to text while she should have been practicing her cutting skills on a block (practice head). The conversation went along the lines of me saying, “you know it’s against class rules to use your phone during lessons, please put it away”. Her saying, ” who the F*CK do you think you are, I am 16 years old and you can’t tell me what to do!” Before I knew it she was holding a scissors 4 inches from my face and from the look on her face, she would stick it in my eyes at any moment! They didn’t prepare me for this during my PGCE course. I managed to calm her down and another student took the scissors out of her hand, but I was physically shaken and the girl was subsequently disciplined and expelled from the course.

My point in all this is that at the critical moment my actions could have been instictively to man-handle this obnoxious little she-devil and get her out of the training salon and what would have been the consequences then? There could have been an investigation, which may have resulted in me losing my first ever teaching post and who knows what else as a result?

After 10 years of working in FE, I have seen my fair share of angry teenagers and indeed adults and I have usually managed to placate the person and calm the situation down but the threat is ever present when teaching large numbers of people who are frequently using ‘cut throat’ razors and scissors. At 16 plus, very rarely are parents involved and on the odd occasion that they are, they will defend their offspring vociferously, while never once ticking them off for their behaviour. The attitude of far too many parents, is that they put up with this stroppy teenager and if you are prepared to teach him/her then you have to deal with it too.

Thankfully the majority of teenagers are absolutely fine. They are imaginative, motivated, polite and while having their moments, they usually realise themselves that you reap what you sow in this life and that respect is reciprocal. Those are the people that teachers/lecturers enjoy working with. The satisfaction you get from working with people like this cannot be under-estimated.

Unruly students/pupils who are a threat to the learning experience of others should not be tolerated and parents should support facilitators in their quest to turn their children into well adjusted, employable young adults. As Spiderman once said, “with power comes responsibility”, I would argue that with responsibility, you should also have power!”

I am no football fan, being born and brought up in the South Wales Valleys I was exposed to the other ball game. Rugby Union was the name of the game at my house and when Wales was playing the whole of my small village went silent apart from the sound of Fathers, Grandfathers and Sons shrieking at the Black and white TV with every pass of the ball and calling the referee names that cannot be repeated here. The one thing that stands out in my mind, is the passion that surrounded the game. These players played for little or no money and often trained after working shifts in the coal mines, the foundries and other manual occupations.

This was not only the case in Wales but was repeated all over Scotland, England and Ireland. They played for the love of the game, the pride in their country and the friendships built on discipline, respect and trust.

Turn the clock forward 40 or so years and look how things have moved on. Rugby players are now professionals, they earn money from playing and no longer have to work underground to support their families, progress indeed. That, however, is where the similarity to Football, the so called ‘beautiful game’ comes to an abrupt halt! Players earn rediculous amount of money, from a very young age. they have no respect for themselves, their team mates and certainly not the referees and official trying to police the games.

Rugby players know that if they were to act as footballers do they would be in the dog house from all sides, coaches, fellow players and fans. Referees are ‘wired’ for sound and you can hear the conversations, very rarely do you hear rugby players swearing or arguing with officials and if they did they have the sin bin to look forward to. They still have passion for the game and perish the thought that they would one day earn so much money that they would become spoiled rich kids with more money than sense.

After watching the farce that was Englands performance in the World Cup and even as a person who does not follow football, it was obvious that the team were not playing to their full potential. They were half hearted in their commitment and they left their loyal fans with a lot to be desired. They should be ashamed that they let everyone down, they should forfeit their fees and they should apologise to fans for their lack of professionlism and effort.

They could also do themselves a favour by taking a leaf out of the rugby book of life. Then maybe they would earn the respect of the nation…but I doubt they would ever be able to justify the obscene amount of money they earn whilst showing such a lack of respect for the game, the fans and the ethos of sporting behaviour…….Granny

Picture this, it’s someone’s birthday and you have to buy a really special card. You haven’t seen this person all year and you really want to push the boat out and post a card of distinction, not just any old card, but a £4.99 card with a lovely verse, you know the ones that are a bit like a small novel when you read them.

You pop out in your lunch break and forego eating your sandwich because it’s so important to send this card to your best friend in all the world. You take care choosing it, you read every syllable to make sure that it says exactly what you want it to say. You decide on the right one and take it to the checkout, you take care to keep it flat and ensure that you get back to the office with it in pristene condition and think about what to write on it.

Before you can write on it, you have to get it out of the bag and believe me this is not going to be easy! First you hold it up to the light to see where the little pull tag is on the plastic, you scratch a couple of areas that look likely to no avail. Calm down now don’t get into a fluster (you say this under your breath). You then realise that there is a sticky bit which opens like an envelope…phew, you breathe a sigh of relief, it’s going to be easy now, you can relax…..Or can you ?

You finally get this object of beauty out of the bag and sit back and admire it. It really was a good choice, she will love this card and I know she will appreciate the really gushy sentiment because she’s my best friend and we have been through a lot together. then…out of the corner of your eye you spot it (queue ‘JAWS’ theme music) the dreaded sticker, Oh No! It’s right over the top of the only bit of glitter on the card, if you rip it off it will take that glitter off with it. Breathe, ….that’s it.. inhale deeply, it should be easy, it says ‘peel here’ how difficult can it be?

You try to get the edge of your finger nail under the corner, no joy, so you get your staple remover gadget and try to get the pointy bit under it, it’s not happening. You ask 3 of your colleagues, one of who thinks she is the Goddess of sticker removers and you watch as she bends and twists your beautiful £4.99′s worth until it resembles a discarded newspaper from a litter bin.

Finally, you manage to lift the corner of the damn thing and you peel it very carefully until it’s off, never daring to breathe until the whole of the sticker is detached from the card and …yes….you guessed, all of the glitter and the little yellow bow, is attached to the sticker. By now the air is blue, you have to spend another £4.99 on a new card and it would be cheaper and far less stressful to just give her a ring and say happy birthday….so to all the ‘card sellers’ out there, stick your stickers up your proverbial A***………………….