Tory Police Cuts

The Conservatives have said that they will increase police numbers. And to be fair, they have started to do so locally.  But they have cut them in the first place.

While many of the cuts had occurred in the years of the ConDem coalition they had been continued once the Tories were in power without the Liberal Democrat’s.  In fact when my MP, Will Quince, posted about increased police numbers in Colchester, I had to ask him if he had voted for earlier cuts.  And despite always being polite when doing so, he blocked me.

So, the when it comes to police numbers, I do trust them to increase the numbers.  But I do not expect that the increase will be just full time police officers, but will include Special Constables and PCSO’s.

The cold

The weekend has been infuriating.  My brother, the one from up North, drove down from Manchester so my side of the family met up.  My son, who is prone to colds decided that it was too hot to dress up warmly.  Now to put things in perspective, on Friday, when I was late for work, that was the day frost delayed me getting to work even more.

Anyway, my son, refused to dress up in a decent jumper.  He was cold in the pub where we all ate, he was cold on the way to the car and was cold in the car as we set off for home.  

This morning, I was to walk into town with both kids, but my son refused to wear his coat.  So we did not go into town, which was sad for him was we were to get his mobile phone sorted out.  

Now you would think that this was bad, but worse was to come.  We all went out later, and not only did he refuse to wear a coat again, but he said that he was not cold yesterday!  Needless to say, this resulted in an ‘interesting’ discussion.

Things have been smoothed over now, but I am hoping that he will not are similar claims in the future like having the largest presidential inauguration audience in history...

Wagamama

I forgot to mention the cookbook that my son wanted yesterday.  Before seeing my mother, we had gone to Costco to shop.  When there, my son saw a Wagamama cookbook.  He wanted it, and while we got it for him, the deal was that he has to help me cook with it.

And on a different note, I have finally watched the football and our 2-2 home draw against Crystal Palace.  And the big talking point was not just our inability to defend, but was how our winning goal was disallowed.

The grandparents

Not much to say today.

Yesterday I was at work catching up on paperwork while my daughter was recovering from the plague that she had given me the day before.

Today, we saw my mother, brother and the parents of my wife.  We had travelled down to London later than planned, and took a trip to Costco to stock up on supplies.  After that, we drove to collect my brother to see my Mum.  I had not met his two dogs in a while, one of who had labyrinthitis recently.  I also got to meet his partner, Jess, who I have not seen in ages.  My Mum loves seeing the kids, and sadly does not get to see them often enough.  And then it was to her parents.

Anyway I am at home and am too tired to watch the Arsenal draw. Time for bed.

Thorpe Park October 2019

A quick post before I retire to be.  My daughter had a non-pupil day today and I took her to Thorpe Park.  We were only able to stay a few hours as she started to feel unwell.  Sadly I have now got what she has!

She only got to enjoy three rollercoasters, one being Swarm, which my son did not get to go on, but she also tried Colossus and before she left, Stealth.  Needless to say, the last one terrified me.

I am not sure when I will return, but I suspect both kids will want to visit here again.

Cambridge

Today was great.  After a great breakfast we travelled to Cambridge where my daughter had her birthday shopping experience. We were tempted to use the park and ride scheme but instead parked in the centre of Cambridge after a vote.  Being her birthday weekend, my daughter had the deciding vote on this.

After spending time and money there, we returned to The Angel and had an amazing dinner.

As I type this, everyone is asleep and I am watching Match Of The Day, not knowing the scores of course. 

My genius son

It is actually the birthday weekend of my daughter and as I type this, we are at the Angel in Bury St Edmunds.  We are to use this as a base to shop in Cambridge tomorrow.

We got here for afternoon tea, but later went out for nibbles.  I had an interesting walk with my daughter and met up with my wife and son later. While there, I realised that my son was spending a lot of time on his iPhone.  In order to restrict screen time for them, we have made use of a password, but they have repeatedly cracked it.  When I say they, I mean him.  He shares the code with his sister.  In fact, that was how I realised last time as I noted that she had been using her iPhone a lot, more than the time I had allowed her.  They have managed not only to work out the code, but a way of not alerting me that they are using it.  This time though, he gave it away and I realised that he had cracked the code.  Apparently, he beat it months ago, but I had not realised.  And he gets it off me, as he knows that deep down, I am proud and impressed that he has outsmarted me, again.  He also knows that his mother will be more angry with him.

But so far this month, he has lost his bike keys, his glasses, not been able to find things on the table in front of him, and this afternoon, his shoes, that he had taken off an hour ago!