AN ANIMAL DIES EVERY 12 SECONDS IN THE UK as the result of cruelty. Lets go out and prosecute all these people I hear you say. Call the RSPCA or other animal cruelty charities. I'm sorry this is not possible. You see all those animals that die every 12 seconds, subjected to the most horrific and painful acts are at the hands of animal testers. If you knew an animal was being cruelly treated at the hand of one of your neighbours, those animals would be protected by "Protection of Animals Act 1911." The persecutors would be prosecuted. However, animals that die and are subjected to some of the most horrific experiments, usually without anaesthetic under the umbrella' of animal experiments are not protected by this particular law. They have no rights at all, except to resign themselves to their cruel fate.
I hate to sound really negative but, the spate of burglaries we have had in the neighbourhood along with the half-term shenanigans from local school children, have not done much for the local community's morale. It seems that the local youths are watching everything that is going on. A house in the St.Paul's Road area was burgled as soon as it's occupants moved out. Local residents thought the banging around, finally indicated, there was work being undertaken on the 3 houses in Percy Road, only to find out that again local youths were doing what they seem to do best. I heard a knock on the door one evening and opened it to find out that my neighbours had seen youths sitting on my back yard wall armed with bolt croppers. The message I urge to fellow members of the Seacombe community is to be vigilant and keep an eye out,' for your neighbours. You could even start up your own neighbourhood watch scheme and most certainly log' every incident, especially if it concerns any of the major housing associations. If you would like information on starting up your own neighbourhood watch scheme then contact the Wirral Crime Reduction Officers on 0151 606 5484.
I don't mean to sound all doom and gloom,' but I went into Seacombe library yesterday for the first time in ages. Well, I must admit I was shocked. The stock in the adults section had decreased drastically. There were hardly any books in the non-fiction section. The librarian informed me that libraries are not popular any more as people don't use their book services as much as they used to, the demand is usually for access to computers. Apparently there is hardly any requirement for non-fiction works, although, they still have a good demand for fiction. I am sounding my age now. I remember when I used to be able to go to the library and borrow text books for courses etc. One last general moan, the noise,' is all I can say. I would not like to be a student trying to concentrate on my studies in the library due to the noise, members of the public shouting their communication to each other instead of the customary whispering and babies crying for long periods of time within the library building itself. My conclusion is that technology is moving us on, but peoples' general attitude and courtesy leaves much to be desired.
To all the readers of this blog. This is where the action is. I said I would keep you up to date on the progress of the houses on Percy Road. See earlier blog. The owners of the houses have made a planning application to Quote " change use from 3 no. three bedroom dwellings to 6 one bedroom flats." There is as yet no decision but comments were wanted by 3rd January 2008. If you did not sign the petition which was submitted by the local residents, then please make your comments by email to Wirral council.
Amityville house of horror has nothing compared to what the residents of neighbouring Percy Road and Norman Road, in Seacombe have been subjected. These are the three houses, which stand as the carbuncle on Percy Road's backside. The massive carbuncle has blighted the neighbourhood, as surrounding house prices fell while local children smashed windows and used the buildings as their playground.
Wetherspoons - Hoylake Lights
My son decided to treat his old mum' to a Sunday afternoon drive and a meal out. We drove up towards Hoylake when I said to him that I knew somewhere he would like to eat and that it had lots of classy young ladies for him. We decided to go to Hoylake Lights, which is a Wetherspoons alehouse. Once inside it was bustling and there was a slight hum from all of the customers pleasantly chatting. We headed towards the eating area where there were lots of families. I perused the menu with absolute glee when I discovered they catered for us Veggies on a Sunday. This sounded gorgeous a vegetarian roast with their own veggie loaf, roasties, gravy and stuffing. Sounded yum. My son ordered a Gammon meal and a glass of coke for himself (he is a driver now), and a vegetarian roast for me along with a pint of shandy. We sat and chatted and caught up with what we had both been doing over the last week while waiting for our meal. Then caught up and caught up some more but still no dinner. Forty five minutes later and still no dinner. My son went up to the bar just to check that the order had been put through. That is when we heard the people on the table behind us complaining that they still hadn't had their order. They were seated before we arrived. Alas one of the staff walked towards us with plates of food. Was this for us? No, it was for the family behind us and we heard the staff apologising profusely. Then we heard the woman behind me saying that there were no potatoes on her plate. It was duly sent back to the kitchen. Then our meals arrived after almost an hour's wait. The staff again apologised and said that they had a huge backlog because they had been busy. I however, enjoyed my meal but my son was not at all keen on the frozen vegetables on our plates he thought because the menu's said roast dinners that they would taste like home made. I found the meal nice but not especially good value for money. Normally I praise Wetherspoons for value for money, because you can usually get a meal and a drink for under seven quid, but this vegetarian roast was slightly more expensive. I would recommend it if you're not on budget. However, if you're on a budget I would go for the two meal deal.'
Unfortunately I am not a call girl or stripper, if I was I would probably have a bankruptcy notice served on me. The punters would want me to pay them and that would probably mean another court case from all the people who would want to sue me for misinformation etc I can just see the advert in the paper or wherever one would normally advertise these things.. "Beautiful blonde slender stripper or model ?" To anyone who knows me I am quite the opposite therefore I would be sued in an instant. Oh well, I will have to continue with my writing until I either get bored or become famous.
I recently made the decision to reduce my carbon footprint on this world of ours. I sold my car and decided to travel to work by public transport. I haven't really travelled on buses for years except the odd time when my car was off the road. How was I to cope with this new task? Well I would walk or get the bus everywhere, after all, for the past few months I had got my self used to walking to shops a couple of miles away on my days off. As long as I had my mp3 player and some good music stocked up on it, I was ok to walk for as long as the batteries would last. The very first day I used the bus to go to work I sat on the bus with my own earphones in my ears and looked around the bus and noticed that approximately 50 percent of the passengers also had earphones plugged into their ears. That's marvellous, I hear you say. But does this mean that we are breeding a generation of people with insular personalities. We all sit on the bus inside our own personal space. This is not only the arm's length personal space' which people need, but the personal space within our own heads. We all appear to be internalised within our own thoughts and dreams helped along by our mp3 players.
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Sonja Lewis is an ex teacher who now works with older service-users in sheltered housing.
