Port De Soller Mallorca

Port De Soller Mallorca
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Friday 26 July 2013

Book Review: Secret Doors; The Challenge by Brian D Meeks

Look inside Amazon UK here
Look inside Amazon US here 
The Famous Five meets Harry Potter.......

I follow Mr Meeks on Twitter and saw a post from him looking for Beta Readers for a new novel he was getting ready to publish.  Normally, even although it is a chance to get a first look at a new book before publication, I do not, as a rule, take part in this type of process, preferring to wait until the book is published, have a look at the 'fly leaf' and then decide whether I want to purchase it, or not.  On this occasion however, I sent an email to Mr Meeks and said I would be willing to take a look at the book for him, and I am glad that I did.

YA fiction in book or film form really aren't my cup of tea but I did however enjoy the Harry Potter movies a great deal and so too did many others if the film and book revenues are anything to go by and so too did Mr Meeks if this new book is anything to go by!

I absolutely loved this opening book to his planned series and if it doesn't make his name I have no idea what will.

This is essentially a story of Abby, a young girl orphaned in a fire.  She is seen being rescued on TV by a rich Boston socialite, who hated the thought of having children  and despised the fact that as she did, and needed to as it was a 'condition' of the marriage to a banker, that she gave birth to twin boys.  She would have much preferred to have had a pretty girl to dress and fawn over, than horrible boys... and twins, double yuk!

When Abby was rescued and seen on TV she was grimy and dirty and all that Mrs Draper knew was that she was a girl, so, encouraged by his wife, Mr Draper pulled considerable strings and arranged for a swift adoption. Abby steps out of the car to be greeted by her new family only to have her new mother sneer at her as she turns away, commenting angrily, "My God, she is a ginger...."  and from that moment on the 'ginger brat's' life is made even more of a living hell by her new 'family'.

Enter stage left, streetwise Stevie, also an orphan living in a local orphanage who manages to regularly escape the confines of the dormitory into the real world.  He befriends Abby and they become the closest of friends.

During a visit from Stevie, when Abby has been locked in her basement room by the Drapers while they head off for the weekend to visit real family, Abby and Stevie head off to the Pak's, a Vietnamese couple who run a local store and with whom they get on well.  Abby and Stevie notice a tiny little door down near the floor in one of the Pak's rooms.  As they look and wonder what it could be for, there is a huge bright light that engulfs them and they suddenly find they are no longer in the Pak's store but have been transported to a meeting room with lots of other kids in it and a bunch of adults on a stage.

Buckle your seatbelts and get comfy folks.  Gather your necessities around you, coffee, beer, wine snacks if you are an adult,  or if you are a youngster reading this review, get your fizzy pop, sweets, chips and whatever else you might want for a couple of hours of reading -  and get ready to take 'The Challenge', as this is where the book comes into it's own and you will not want to stop turning pages.  You have just entered a magical world through an opening not unlike that famous train platform from somewhere else and the roller coaster of high adventure of the scary and awesomeness begins.

The characters were just right with the mixture of feisty red headed orphan girl Anny, to the self obsessed narcissistic Cindy, scholarly introverted and  thoughtful Jo, Georgie the lion who begins to find his courage during The Challenge and finally to streetwise Stevie who has both courage and brains but also has the heart to look out for others.

The introduction of other characters Chancellor Alphius Omega, "but you may call me Alphie", Alouicious and  those wonderful giant talking guinea pigs, Billy and Badger was masterful, even if Badger only talks in 'wheeks' was clearly due to the authors obsession with the quaint and ridiculous and teaches us all that the quaint and ridiculous should be embraced with vigour and love.

He has made it so difficult to pick a favourite character but I am particularly fond of Alouicious in the adult department and can't wait to find out what else he has in his magical pockets as I loved the fact that he carries an oasis around in his pocket for when he travels in the desert, I mean, if you were magical, why wouldn't you do that sort of thing it was such a deliciously delightful thought implanted in my mind but, as for the kids I am torn, clearly Abby is going to be the star, with Stevie at her side, as he is in the 'real world' but I do really like them all, even Cindy who had grown on me by the end of the book,  . And then you give us Mr Pincer who we just know is going to be trouble along our journey and that at every opportunity he is going to go after Abby and the rest of the gang .... So, keep writing.

Editing for Kindle: 4 out of 5 - but this was a Beta copy and there were only a couple of very minor issues 
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Page Count: 159
Front cover Art Work: 5 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Sunday 21 July 2013

Film Review: Prometheus 2012


Theatrical release poster Image (C) Wikipedia 
Finally just got round to watching Prometheus with Charlize Theron et al and I find myself asking myself IS IT ME?

Is it me, and are my expectations of a good movie these days too high? Is It Me, as someone once said, who is the lone voice in the wilderness, and I am so different to everyone else that it is me that is the lone non conformist among the millions and millions of cinema goers around the world - ok I didn't actually go to the cinema to watch it- so at least I saved a few bob there ....

I had seen the trailers months ago and couldn't wait for it's release, but then missed it. I read the rave reviews by the masses telling me that this was a great cinematic experience and a wonderful piece of entertainment.

It was made by Ridley Scott who terrified the life out of us with Alien (the sequels not so much)

I even saw Michael Fassbender who plays David being interviewed by Graham Norton OK, you got me there, interviewed and Graham Norton in the same sentence is a bit of a leap , but he is funny and so is the red chair. Apologies to US and other readers if you have no idea to whom or what I refer, but he raved on about what a great movie it was too, I like Graham Norton, but he lied to me on this....

It had Charlize Theron in it who appeared to be a clone, a beautiful one albeit but they forgot to give her personality, charm or wit and I suspect she must have forgotten her script as she was as laconic as a moody gunfighter hitching his spurs over the bar rail in a smoky saloon.

It had Idris Elba, dark brooding erudite John Luther from a TV show here in the UK who was a caricature of a heroic ships captain but who at least did the right thing in the end.

And talking of doing the right thing..... Lazy, lazy lazy writing in the extreme to come up with two characters right out of the stereotype handbook who are cowards through and through without one ounce of redeeming character between them, and who you just know are going to die horribly, and so too should the scriptwriters for that sheer piece of unadulterated dribble along with the director, producers and the studio for allowing them to remain in the script. We have seen it time and time again but one need look no further than David Hewlets portrayal of Dr. Rodney Mackay in Stargate to see the same traits as these two, BUT Rodney, while a coward, learned to step up to the plate, he didn't want to, but he did or he died and when he did it was great, AND he survived and we all thought better of him for it.

Guy Pierce was the only one who came out of it unscathed, only because he was made up to be an 100 year old dying nut job and therefore unrecognisable.

If you have yet to see this movie, well done; watch the trailer all the best and most interesting bits are in it and it only lasts for about 2 mins 40 seconds you won't wast another 119 minutes watching the rest of a forgettable movie which came from thoroughbred stock but bred with a nag producing an ass....

Foot note: Fassbender is the only one for me who came out of this with any credibility and that's only because he played an AI being but maybe his acting is that wooden as I can't recall seeing him in anything else.

Tom's rating: Prometheus was a Greek God from Mythology, a bit of a trickster and we believed and were tricked so,  A miss .

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Book Review: Rock and Roll Homicide by R.J. McDonnell

Look inside Amazon UK here
Look inside Amazon US here  
New author for me and I think I downloaded it on a whim in April 2012 and it has been sitting in my TBR pile ever since, but we got there in the end and it was a good read.

Jason Duffy is an Ex rocker, Ex social needs councillor and now a full time private investigator.  His father James is a 30 year veteran of the San Diego Police Department and his son is a bit of a disappointment to him as he should have been a cop too instead of messing about as a failed musician, councillor and now the ultimate slap in the face to any cop, a son who wants to be a 'private dick' (My words, not the authors or the fathers).

An up and coming group are in the studio laying down the final tracks to their third CD, the one that everyone says is going to turn them from a support band to the headline act.

The group front man and co writer of many of the songs, and a perfectionist calls a break and puts on his noise cancelling headphones, a present from his wife..........

It gets messy after that and while sitting in his office Jason Duffy's PA shows in a new client, Chelsea Tucker, wife of the dead rocker who stands to inherit $5 million from a recently taken out life policy, she needs a PI as she thinks the police are going to arrest her for the murder of her husband and as Jason finds out during he course of his investigations, they had had a very public and acrimonious argument a few days before the incident.

It turns out though that Terry Tucker, being a perfectionist and as is the way things are with those folk, made lots of people unhappy in his willingness to walk over those who did not come up to his high standards of performance and so not all of the band or the hangers on or roadies gave him their undying loyalty.  It also turns out that while a superlative musician he also had a business head on him too and there was the little matter of him publicly embarrassing his wife's father, a successful and powerful business man, over a deal that Chelsea's father was trying to get them involved in.  

They had recently signed to a 'new' record company with the proceeds of the new CD due to go through the stratosphere based on the sales volume of the first two releases but the 'new' record company who it turns out may have links to the Russian Maffia, were not to clever at the kind of contract that Terry Tucker was looking for and he had built in a get out clause which would have meant the record company losing a rock venue sized stadium full of money...

So young Donovan has a lot of suspects but no hard evidence and finds that the local cops have already determined who the killer is, even after he tells them they may be wrong and finds some evidence to support this, including the fact that the main roadie /soundman was in the Army and was an expert in explosives.....

BTW, just a personal aside but I really did hate the name GI Jo-JO  absolutely hated it

But, for the rest of the story it was fairly fast paced and moved along constantly with plenty of twists and turns although I did think at a couple of points, especially with the caricatured Russian's oh, and the involvement of the SDPD Irish 'Mafia' it was a bit passe' even for a book written in 2008/9 but never the less a  passable days reading.

There were a couple of Kindle formatting errors and spelling errors, but only a couple, however they do tend to distract you, which is never a good thing if you want to entice the reader back to your books. 

And why is that there is a table of contents AT THE REAR OF THE BOOK and why bother with this anyway if your chapters are going to be called Chapter 1 through 31.  I suppose there are differing views to my own, in fact I know there is, but if you are going to have a ToC put it at the front of the book and to my mind use it if you are going to name your chapters, but I really don't see the point taking up a page or two just with a load of chapter numbers 

Editing for Kindle: 3 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 4 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
Chapters: 31
Page length: 304 apparently but not evident on my kindle or iPad app - just % read

Saturday 13 July 2013

Mr Fat: Chemotherapy - day 1 to 3



view from hospital room 
Well It finally got here, but I suppose if looked at logically it wasn't that long a wait and If I hadn't been the usual dumb ass moronic man it could probably have started a lot sooner!

Have you noticed how much dumber humans and particularly MEN have become since the advent of the Internet and Google (other search engines are available) have become part of our daily lives? We want to know something, before Google we would have asked a friend, picked up a book, visited the local library and done a bit of digging; not any more, whether it's the smart phone, the laptop, the office pc or the tablet open up the search, type in your question and miracle of miracles, your answer appears, unfortunately it is usually wrong!

chillin
I did that way back in October/November time and put in my symptoms and was convinced I had a sliding hiatus hernia and I was up in the middle of the night, almost every night with it. It wasn't until April , after seeing the practice nurse for my MOT on Asthma that I mentioned this to her and she said I should really see the doctor, so an appointment was made. It was about a week or so later and in between seeing the nurse and the doctor I lost almost a stone in weight too, go figure.

My Bed!
Anyway the upshot of this was she made an appointment for me in hospital, which I have to say came through pretty quickly and I saw an upper GI specialist. He listened to me and made an arrangement for me to have a gastroscopy which again was done within a week or 10 days. it was at that appointment when little happy doctor who met and greeted me and carried out the test came back down the corridor looking all gloomy that I knew that it was something else, ah well shit happens and he went on after a little humming and hahing, bless,must be difficult for them - that I had a cancerous tumour in my oesophagus.

The fun really started then with the shunting between three hospitals but really for all my grumpiness and my perceived shortcomings, particularly where Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford is concerned, I suppose all in all April to July for all the various tests and minor ops before into Southend on Thursday just gone to start Chemo, is not too long a wait at all, so I am grateful, even if I don't sound it at times .....

Having made that last comment though it would be remiss of me not to point out that I did turn out, once again, to be the patient from hell on Thursday towards the staff on the Elisabeth Loury Ward at Southend hospital.

I was booked in for an 8.30 Am appointment and due to stay overnight. As it turns out you get all these drips attached the first one being a little saline solution to clean out, I suppose any dregs of crap in the vain and then they hit you with something called the red devil, which turns your pee red and could make you feel uncomfortable, they tell you. I was keeping folk up to date, even with this and I got this message back from Jenny our youngest, " @jenniestronach: mollie said she is interested to know how you are but not about your pee :-) xx" Mollie, as you know, is the oldest of our grandchildren at 10 and is a handful ......

I should mention that the reason for my grumpiness was that having arrived at 8Am for my 8.30, given a bed I was the pretty much ignored for the next nearly six hours. If I had known that they would say to me once they actually got me hooked up but that all of the drips in total would take around 8 hours to get into me and then tell me as they were doing it that I would probably be allowed out that night, I would probably have asked them during the intervening six hrs of being ignored, to get it frigging started. When they arranged for me to come in they asked where I lived and how I would be getting there, drive or train said I. No, said they, we'll arrange transport. Fine says I ...

Then they tell me I can go home that night after the drips are finished, only problem is the drips won't finish until gone 10 pm and the volunteer drivers who shuttle the patients in and out of hospital don't work until that time, so why say it, really got on my tit.

Black Bag of Death!
On the plus side, through you can wander about both the ward and the hospital dragging your drip machine with you as long as you have had it plugged in and charged, as you re wandering about and it bleeps you keep getting stopped by folk looking at it and advising a trip back to whence you escaped from might be in order.... The only timeI couldn't escape was when they put the drip on that then gets fitted with it's own little black bin liner cover. Apparently this signifies Chemo treatment but I thought my description was better and funnier, The Black Death Bag, but as usual my humour was not appreciated, sheesh, some folk... and during all my wanderings hooked up or not I still managed to go over my step target for the day, well no point in sitting around when you don't need to.

Oh, and I did read a book too, Rock and Roll Homicide by RJ McDonnell which I will be reviewing shortly. I enjoyed it. It's about the investigation into the murder of a just about to hit the big time rocker who puts on his sound excluding head phones to listen to some tracks he has just laid down, switched them on and oh dear, bang boom no head ... No kidding, but it was good

So, had all this chemo, stayed in overnight, mind you they pumped me up with steroids too and I was still strolling round the hospital grounds and corridors at 2Am and was expecting the worst feelings to be attacking me with all the doom and gloom info you get from the oncologists and then the specialist nurses in the pre chemo consults and do you know what, and I do realise that they have to give the worst case scenario and that I have only been on it three days but I feel bloody great.

I haven't been eating well at all over the last seven months as every time food has gone near my mouth I have been gagging and choking and poor Ishbel has been panicking a bit, mind you so have I and even managed to throw up a couple of times, but since Friday no gagging, nada, nothing and I think I ate more in the last couple of days than the last couple of months, so a good start let's hope it continues.

I am back in the day treatment centre in 20 days for my next session of intravenous and then three weeks of pills and then the cycle starts again for a final three weeks and at that time I suppose it is then back to Broomfield for the hackers to get there knives and laser cutters in to chop it out, then back for another 60 days of chemo all being well I should be fine by Christmas and looking forward to cooking the usual mammoth turkey for the family, oh joy ......

Talking of food, this is the hospital menu and very tasty it all looked too. But, and bearing in mind I have had this gagging reflex I thought I would go easy so ordered mushroom soup for lune, nothing else and then the Shepherds pie for dinner.




the mushroom soup was passable, just, the shepherds pie was .......



DISGUSTING 

So to make up for that horrible site, her is a butterfly from the garden this morning 


And here is a wood pigeon trying to be a contortionist and going to do itself and injury in the process....




Oh and I forgot to say to all my Family and friends, Thanks for your Love and support.... but I think these guys say it better than me

crank up the volume 




And to answer my Delicious darling @PennyRomance , this is how WE feel today, apparently the photo is to large for twitter

Thanks my Sweet xxxxx


Update: was sent this interesting info-graphic resource on the affects of Chemo check it outfrom;

Maggie Danhakl
Healthline • The Power of Intelligent Health
660 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.healthline.com | @Healthline | @HealthlineCorp

Wednesday 10 July 2013

More Foreign Aid Planned by UK Govt: To European Road Users!

Last Saturday Ishbel and I planned to visit Jenny and Steve and the grandkids down in Woking.  We only live 5 minutes away from the Dartford Crossing over the river Thames and as we leave our village we drive over the M25 (otherwise known as the outer London Parking Zone) before getting on to the approach to the QEII bridge going South and the Dartford Tunnels going North.
(c) http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk

Our hearts sank in despair as we crossed our local bridge and looked down at the parking zone below as queues formed for the bridge and the inevitable toll!  Apparently there had been an accident on the Kent side of the road that was causing the delay.  We have no idea how long it took to clear it as we made a snap decision to go clockwise (north) and go that way.  I did at one point say to Ishbel, rather grumpily as we were now in the hottest day of the year,  that I wished we had just stayed at home, as much as I wanted to see the grandkids and spend time with them, our usual journey of about an hour and a half took us approximately three hours as there was delays further round between junctions 17 and 14 as signed on the overhead notices,  but in reality from Junctions 18 to 11, the one we get off on for Woking. Fortunately, by the time we left to return home at 8.30 that night the roads were clear and the journey home was uneventful taking the usual 90 or so minutes.

And then, to add to the misery of the more frequent users and of all the local road users whose roads get snarled up as a result of queues on the M25 and A13, this nightmare of a road system presided over by consecutive lying cheating British Politicians/Governments, another accident occurred on Monday (admittedly not politicians fault) that resulted in all lanes from Essex to Kent being closed around 6PM    and once again drivers getting out of their cars to spend three hours walking up and down the hard shoulder with their babies, toddlers and dogs in an attempt to at least cool their frazzled bodies if not the immense frustration and anger at once again being held up for 3 hours. And as the queues hadn't quite reached the prescribed length as laid down by statute, when the road was eventually re-opened, the tolls were left in place, just so the misery could be inflicted even longer by keeping the traffic moving at a snails pace.

I did mention earlier about lying cheating politicians and governments and the reason I made that comment was because when they first announced the build of the QEII bridge out of public funds they also told us that once the money had been raised through the tolls to reimburse the public purse, the tolls would be removed, it wasn't and in fact it has been increased in an effort to reduce traffic using the bridge and tunnels, which just goes to show how dumb our politicians are, how can you stop an ever increasing level of traffic on the roads especially when the rail infrastructure is so expensive and unreliable?

Now, to the title of this blog, sorry about the preamble rant but,........

It now transpires that in an effort to keep the vast amount of vehicles using this route on a daily basis, because, a) it is there and b) there is not another option for them except to take a million miles out of their way by way of a detour, they, the ConDems have decided that they are going to continue to keep it as a toll road but instead of barriers they are going to introduce free flowing traffic through Number Plate Recognition Cameras and driver will have until midnight of the day they travelled through the toll to go online or visit one of the retailers who operate the payment system.  The only problem with this is, that if any UK citizen fails to pay by midnight they will end up with a demand for payment plus a fine, through the post, non payment will lead to further action including through the courts!

And this is where once again the UK government are going to introduce another method of foreign aid to European based registration numbers and drivers.    It is my understanding that if a UK driver travels to continental Europe and is caught on camera for a traffic offence or non payment of an auto toll, then the issuing jurisdiction will pursue the UK driver for payment and fines back here in the UK.  But, at this moment in time we have no reciprocal means to do this from the UK as the Mayor of London has found to the tune of millions of pounds through the London Congestion charge where every year thousands of European drivers enter London , do not pay the charge and then bugger of back to Europe and are never pursued as there is, as I understand it, no international legal framework in place to allow pursuit.  So, how can continental Europeans pursue British drivers, but we can't do it the other way round? Simple 'the UK' make enough from the mugs in the UK to not make it worth their while pursuing foreign drivers, even although it is costing millions in unpaid tolls.

Even if they did pursue foreign drivers for this 'toll' would it be economically viable, I have no idea? But here's a thought. If they are going to install ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras at the tolls why don't they do the same at every port in Britain.  Then, when a foreign vehicle attempted to leave the country after going through a toll a warning flashes up at the port of exit the vehicle is stopped and the driver is reminded that he has gone through a toll previously, that there is a charge to pay before leaving the country and that all forms of payment, including debit and credit cards and even cash will be accepted in payment, before they leave the country, job done and we end up NOT GIVING more FOREIGN AID to others who shouldn't have it!

Just another thought, that is all......

Monday 8 July 2013

Film Review: Safe House 2012

(c) WIkipedia
SOME SPOILERS

Settled down to watch Safe House the other night with Ishbel, well Denzel Washington, it has to be good, right!

Funnily enough while watching it I couldn't help thinking of Mr Snowden, he,  the tittle tattle who wants to claim asylum in any country that will give it to him.... for fear that he falls back into the hands of his countrymen over his revelations about PRISM

So, our Denzel is playing the role of Tobin Croft, I don't know what it is about that name but I really liked it, even if he was playing a chap of dubious character.  Just say it, out loud, Tobin Croft! It has something to it that just draws you in..... or it could just be Denzel's charisma although I was glad when he cut back on the mini afro and got rid of the beard.

Tobin Croft is an ex- CIA NOC agent (none of us had heard that term before the first reboot of Mission Impossible with Mr Cruise, now it makes regular appearances) who has gone rogue.

He meets with an ex MI6 agent, Alec Wade played by Liam Cunningham ( I could listen to that man read the telephone directory, what a wonderful voice he has) in South Africa who gives him some secret information that he, Frost,  is going to make public, about shady Company ops, but they are being tracked.

After recieving the information he and Wade escape the handover place in a car when Wade is quickly despatched by a sniper. He manages to escape to the US Consular building as the team hunting him close down all the avenues of escape.

While all of that has been going on we have been introduced to the 'HouseKeeper' a person who looks after and maintains a safe house for the Company and is generally bored out of his skull, so you'd think this was a job for old tired agents, but the two safe houses we get to see in this movie are 'kept' by one fit and aggressive guys, the first of which is, and the other lead character, Matt Weston played by the Green lantern aka Ryan Reynolds. He has been stuck in this dead end boring role for over a year even although we learn later on in the movie that he was in the top percentile of agents to come out of 'The Farm'! So a bit of incongruity in the writing here I suspect.....

From then on in it is a chase film with the molten terminator Robert Patrick making a cameo, I guess, as he was killed off pretty quickly and he is putting on the beef a bit as he gets older with his team and he being killed off as the original hunt team attack the safe house to get their hands on Croft and the information he has.

The action is interspaced with scenes back in Langley who are clearly keen to get their hands back on Croft and the machinations going on back there.  Brendan Gleeson, another fine actor from Ireland like Cunningham is one of the head honcho's back there and I do like him in almost everything I have seen him in, including a couple of wee small independent Irish movies, but I Just couldn't take to him in this.

Back to South Africa and Frost is getting into Weston's head as they try to stay alive and reach a second safe house, but how are the Hunters being so successful in tracking them........

At the end of the day it was a passable action movie but not worthy of Washington, Cunningham and Gleason and Reynolds, well he is OK in the wee movies he does and I am a sucker for Superheroes but he is not in the same class as the aforementioned threesome.

My rating: Good and worth a watch but not great
Ishbel's rating; Bloody Good ( I am beginning to worry our roles are being reversed after all these years)

Friday 5 July 2013

Essex County Council - Social Workers - How can you be so incompetent?

I have been wrestling with this blog all morning, should I write it, should I not?

Social Workers, I am sure, on the whole are good people, and like all good people they are not immune from making mistakes, we see it happening time after time, but sometimes those mistakes can be unforgivable.  And not just social workers either. I see the parole board have just ordered the release of Jon Venables one of the killers of Jamie Bulger who had previously been released on license and then re-arrested  for accessing, on line, I believe, pornographic images of children.  So, when he does it again, once again proving that it is impossible to rehabilitate some people, I hope those on the parole board who made that decision can live with themselves!

But, back to social workers.  In my day to day role as centre manager and responsible for a multi tenanted office block which also houses three care companies and various other tenants I and they get lots of post.  Usually, if the postman doesn't know who the letter is for he will bring it to me and I will send out an email to every one asking if it belongs to them, one tenant has about 150 or more staff in the building, so not every one is known by name!

On this occasion though, one letter addressed to two ladies, in the building and without a company name, was delivered to a tenant who opened it and inside was a letter from an Essex County Council Social Worker in the Children's Services Family Support and Protection Services with four pages of minutes about two young boys under social care!

Surely my building is not alone in housing companies that are in the field of social care and many of these companies are in multi tenanted offices, and surely local and county officials are aware of this fact! So, when writing to them, whether you are enclosing very private and confidential material and again whether it be on children or adults, why would you not ensure that it is correctly addressed to a NAMED PERSON in a NAMED COMPANY.  It is a simple thing to do and in particular to the horrible things that they must have to deal with a very necessary thing to do, surely.

I said at the beginning of this that we are all prone to mistakes, I am no exception to this, and clearly social workers can and do get it wrong , but the difference is when I make a mistake it is unlikely to have a devastating impact on other peoples lives, unless of course I do forget the lift serving the building should be continually serviced and checked for faults, or the water systems should be checked for legionnaires disease, but it is unlikely that I will forget to do these things and even if I did, tenants are always asking for a certificate for insurance purposes.

But, for a social worker to send out details of a case study in a wrongly addressed envelope, that is unforgivable.  I have informed Essex CC about this and tracked down the intended recipients but one can only hope that the care worker is more attentive to those under her care AND to the minutia of the admin work that accompanies her duties .....