She said, 'Oh lets have that one. The little one. We'll call it Daisy Belle. It'll be something I can love instead of having to look at your fat face'. I said, 'I ain't so sure. It's got a mean menacing look about it. I mean look at its claws and its teeth. We could be picking a killing machine here'.

'No', she said, ' I want Daisy bloody Belle.'

And we did. Of the litter of nine, we picked Daisy bloody Belle who, in the fullness of time turned out to be the most spiteful and mean spirited cat I could have ever encountered.

To the wife and every single person that crosses our bloody threshold, its, 'ain't she sweet' and 'oh she's so beautiful and gentle'. To me however, I've other conclusions about this beast from hell that's now camped up in my humble dwelling.

The bloody cat, who I refuse to call Daisy bloody Belle, hates me. She, you see, sees me as her prey. She's entirely instinctive and when she decides to hunt and she hunts moreoften than I'd like her to hunt, its bloody me that gets it.

And when this horror of a feline menace pounces, drags her claws down my fat legs and I howl, 'bloody hell!', she the wife says, 'don't scream in pain. You'll scare Daisy Belle'. And this is now the way of things in this once peaceful home. Im sat there minding me own bloody business whilst the cat decides on how to attack me, what weapons to use from her considerable armery and from which position she'll pounce and inflict her wounds.

And when, as I often do, I stagger home, pop the bloody key in the door, the game begins for this cat that now has become the centre of my wife's world. No matter that when I get in through the door and I've got a scratching, clawing and biting member of the animal kingdom dug into my neck, its always the same, 'Dont you scare Daisy Belle'.

Well I'll tell you now, not that anyone has asked, the clock is ticking on little Daisy Belle and I'll be damned if I sit back and put up with this unprovoked onslaught any longer. Course, its how to do the job isn't it. How to commit the crime and escape any blame.

I've thought about staging a Road Traffic Accident. I get into the car, Daisy Belle is nibbling on some salmon that I've covertly placed at the back of the car, I then reverse over her and rush in shouting, 'Honey. It's a tragedy, I've flattened Daisy Belle. Our lives will never be complete again'. Course, me problem is I've got the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator living opposite and she's a curtain twitcher. Nosey bloody woman! And worse, she's got her own Camera Security system which makes the whole accident scenario near on impossible to carry out.

Mind, I could creep out late at night and smash the lens of the camera. That'd sort it. But, what of the film footage that's captured of me creeping across the road carrying a hammer to do the smashing. That'd have to be destroyed, which means, if I want to get away with the crime Im going to have to break in to the Cordinators house and steal the film footage.

Mind, then its, what happens if the Cordinator wakes up and challenges me as Im about to make off with the stolen property. I'd have no choice would I. I'd have to strangle her and then dispose of the body. But where to get rid of the evidence. Say someone sees me racing across the Lugg flats carrying the body of the local Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator.

There's no end to is there! In the space of just a few minutes, I've flattened the cat, burgled a house, murdered a woman and been caught dumping a body on the Lugg flats. And for what? A bloody cat!

Did we not meet this lady at one of our Voice gatherings at The Victory? Yet again we see the full force of the state come down on an individual trying to do her best for her daughter when everything else was failing. This on a day when a child in the north of England went blind through neglect and the squalor the child was living in went unnoticed by social services for years. It said social workers had several chances to intervene after concerns raised by doctors and a school nurse, but that the boy’s case was closed twice.

A vacancy is soon to arise at Wirral Council:

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/11526799.Wirral_Council_chief_executive_announces_retirement/

I took this photograph of the Left Bank tonight, a day after the alcohol license was granted. There is an event tonight, its great to see the Left Bank back open and all lit up after several years being closed.

'Lively' by name and tonight it certainly is living up to it's new owners name already. 

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/11556396.Herefordshire_Council_attempt_to_take_possession_of_Edgar_Street/

Do who didn't see this coming? It's amazing how untransparent this council is yet everyone can see right through them.

Nothing but lies, deceit and plotting behind the scenes at EVERY SINGLE turn.

With November 5th coming up, I think someone needs to go and burn that ******* place to the ground. Nowhere have I seen so much ineptitude, lying, secrecy and ripping off of the public.

Literally putting the CON into Conservatives.

So reports the HT Here

I "" local because I don't know how local or who they are - according to the Knorr gravy advert, 70 miles away is "local" :P

Anyway, risky business, but well done to them for having the balls to invest in a side of the city that the council has left to squander.

Here's hoping they get the work done swiftly and have some nice things back up and running. Personally, I think the resturaunt and bars were fantastic, ideal for the locality and, from an investment and development point of view, a good cheap bet.

This is the question!

We all know that Our Good King Bobby has retired from blogging....exhausted by his efforts over the past few years!

We've all suffered bouts of "The Tappers" over the years, but is it really possible to post too much??

In seven months I've clocked up nigh on 1,100 posts. Beyond ridiculous!

This really is a heartfelt plea, to all those who have signed up in the last few months, and indeed, those who have been members for years,(You know who you are...you log in regularly!!) to post your thoughts. Share with the group!

This forum is being read by many. The next 12 months are crucial. We want our voice to be heard, but to keep a forum like this vibrant, we need as many views as possible.

Too often, there are only a dozen or so who post regularly.....so I ask you politely....Get Involved! Get Busy! and Get Posting!!

I've absolutely no problem with the ageing process. I'm more than happy to be the age that I am and frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way.

The fact that I'll never see my testicles again is of no concern to me. As my waist size gradually catches up with my years upon Earth I know that unless I take the trouble to stand above a mirror my testicles will never be seen by my eyes ever again. I'm comfortable with that.

I'm also content knowing that I talk to myself and have done for years. Truthfully, I enjoy talking to me. I find myself to be a very interesting character and given the choice I'd rather It be me than some other fool who you've no wish to talk to down the battle cruiser.

Whether its my thinning hair, an ability to repeat myself over and over again until someone says, 'we've heard that before' or that when I gaze into the mirror to shave I no longer recognize the man I once was, I couldn't care less. I'm happy getting old.

What does bloody bother me is humming. Yes! Humming. I wake up humming, i spend my day humming and I've absolutely no control over it. Worse still, its Delilah! This song, originally gifted to us by Tom bloody Jones is a melody strongly associated with men who get drunk and for no apparent reason, climb upon a table in the pub and start singing it. This is the tune I hum over and over again.

It's bloody relentless. I'm humming the blasted tune now!

Couple of weeks ago I was sat in the fourth row at The London Palladium listening to bloody Nadine Coyle, her of Girls Aloud, who was appearing on the Michael Flattley production, Lord of the Dance. Dangerous Games. While she was slaughtering some melodic ballad I was humming Delilah.

Course, not only did everyone around me here my senile humming, bloody Coyle did as well. As she gradually raised her tones to follow the progression of chords in the song, she glanced down at me, threw me a glare which moreorless said, 'I'm going to jump off this stage and crack your skull if you give me one more note from Delilah'.

Course, whilst no words were exchanged, I gave her a look didn't I. I moreorless said, ' just you bloody try it Coyle. Leave that stage and attack me with your hand held microphone and I will defend myself'.

And, on the subject of Girls a bloody Loud, if bloody Cheryl Cole or whatever her name is nowadays, delivers me more tears on the Xfactor I'm for turning the tele over. She's got that Scarey bloody Spice doing it as well. They're trying to outcry oneanother. It's a bloody disgrace to light entertainment.

Bloody Scarey Spice my right nut! There's nothing Scarey about her. If she wants to meet Scarey she should pop down the Commercial for an half and hear the list of girls we'd like to kiss. That'd scare her. That'd make her think that perhaps she ain't as Scarey as she claims to be.

Anyway, I'm content getting old!

Did they respond with a date? A month on from my last cycle ride past these vandalised benches and, guess what? Nothing done. Why am I not surprised. In fact more pieces have been removed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x2b1xymflU.

If I've managed to buggar this up, go onto Youtube and type in woman kicks mans head on the beach.

Kirsty Williams AM, Peter Hain MP, Neil Hamilton and Jesse Norman MP on Any Questions tonight, Radio 4, 8pm.

Any Questions, or as I call it 'The Jonathan Dimbleby show, its all about me, me interrupting and then some more of me'.

Great programme spoilt by the opinionated Chair (and very often appallingly amateurish sound).

Jesse will be up against the deputy chair of UKIP and two others!

DURING its projected lifespan, the temporary car park on the site of the former Rockfield DIY store, will earn the council in excess of £300,000.  A nice little earner, though a drop in the ocean compared to the sum the Wolversons banked.

So where goest all this wonga? I hear you cry.

Is it, perhaps, being invested in the forward planning of the much-vaunted Transport Hub?  Like the one which Bromsgrove will have next year, costing £17-million?  An all-singing, all-dancing, state-of-the-art structure, providing travellers with a stress-free interchange from one mode of transport to another?  Car-to-train; train-to-bus; bike-to-train; train-to-hire car? 

'Fraid not.  Apparently none of the above is currently under consideration by Herefordshire Council's blue sky strategists.  They've simply been told: 'Just bank the cash!'

Why are we really building so many houses. It ain't the fault of the ageing population who are the ones the establishment like to blame when it comes to explaining why our overstretched public services are crumbling under the pressure of demand. Surely, we can't blame the ageing population again and again for all our woes.

The ageing population are not responsible for the high demand for housing which is driving up the cost of rent and affecting each and everyone of us who live within our fragile economy.

It ain't the ageing population who cram a dozen people into one house and it ain't the ageing population who require the bin men to collect a dozen bin bags from one family home and one or possibly two from the homes of the ageing population.

My wife's a Nurse. She doesn't think the ageing population has anything to do with the fact that our Health Service is crumbling. She and her colleagues would never say its the fault of the ageing population who have become a burden on our society. In fact, many of our Health Care staff would say that it's nothing to do with the ageing population and more to do with thousands and thousands of people arriving in Hereford within a very short space of time that's brought about the havoc that has impacted upon us all.

So what happens to all the landlords who've invested huge sums of mortgaged money developing their properties if and when we get the chance to get out of the European Union. What will happen then? Surely, they can't blame the ageing population again. If it happens, and I pray to God it does and we get the opportunity not to become a satellite of East Europe and we exit the European Union, what happens to our housing market.

Yes, the rents will shoot downwards because the ageing population don't tend to rent, but what of the economic knock on factors. Well, many, many people who've ridden this housing bubble will suddenly find they can no longer fill their dwellings with dozens of people who are prepared to share a room with three or four strangers because the demand is no longer there. These entrepreneurial poor souls will suddenly find that they cannot make ends meet and they'll go bust.

And what'll happen to our local agricultural economy that is so dependent on the cheap labour that sees their employees sharing a room with a number of strangers and causing the bin men to work harder and the Health Service to blame the ageing population for its predicament. Well, my guess is it'll destroy this economic success story that sees thousands and thousands of highly qualified people picking fruit for a pittance so that they can live in a room they share with complete strangers.

And round and round we go. Despite the obvious. Despite the clear leanings toward exiting the European Union, still, even now, we choose to build houses for thousands of people who may not be resident here in Hereford after I get my chance to say, 'I want to get out of the European Union'.

The tragedy is, despite my deep need to get out of this madness so that our Natuonal Health Service can be saved, I know that we in Hereford will pay a terrible economic price for pinning our hopes on a vast legion of cheap workers who only ever wanted to become wealthier than they once were.

So here we are! Building houses, haemorraging the talents of our local children who've long since moved away, paying pi.ss poor wages and paying sky high rents so that our fruit can get picked quickly and cheaply!

Makes you think don't it!

Course the problem we all have nowadays is the news isn't it. The media give us the news. They are the ones who control the way in which we discover what went on up our High Street and how we should react to it.

For example, some poor soul staggers around minding his own business and through no fault of his own, he gets completely flattened by a Concrete Mixer. It's a terrible thing isn't it. Getting flattened by a Concrete Mixer.

I wonder how you'd feel if you were able to know in advance that today you were going to get flattened by something large. Would you choose it to be a Concrete Mixer that did the flattening? Call me an odd sort, but out of all the heavy commercial vehicles available upon our roads, all very capable of flattening the life out of you, I don't think I'd pick out a Concrete Mixer to flatten me. Then again, it's all a matter of opinion isn't it. Me? I simply don't know which type of vehicle I'd wish to run over me and to be frank I'd rather not think about it if that's alright with you.

Course, it doesn't really matter does it because its highly unlikely you'd ever be told, 'today you will die and you'll be flattened by a Concrete Mixer'. If, for some odd reason I found this out about myself, I'd stay indoors. I would. I'd think, 'I'm not going out today thank you very much.' Mind you, if you stayed in doors hidden beneath the staircase and the Concrete Mixer suddenly came crashing through the wall and still managed to flatten you, I suppose you'd say, 'it was inevitable. I was going to get flattened today whether I liked it or not'.

But anyway, back to the death of this poor man who, minding his own business has managed to get flattened by a Concrete Mixer. The headline would of course be, 'Man minding his own business gets flattened by a Concrete Mixer'. That's pretty much what the media would report. It's all doom and gloom isn't it?

Course, they could have reported this tragic event very differently and given everyone a bit of a boost. Instead of 'Man, minding his own business gets flattened by a Concrete Mixer', if they wanted to and chose to cheer us all bloody up, they could have said, 'man minding his own business got flattened by a Concrete Mixer but luckily twenty six thousand good souls who were also minding their own business in the same street didn't get flattened by a Concrete Mixer. I know which one I'd prefer to read!

All I'm saying is lets have some balanced reporting on the facts. If the Council have wasted near on a million pound on a poorly procured IT system, let the headline read, 'The Council have not wasted two million pounds. They've only wasted a million pounds' which, when read, gives us all a boost muttering, 'that's good news. They could have wasted a lot more than they did'.

I have to ask the question , is it not about time that we the Hereford people got organised and started a protest group to try and get something done about the absolutely horrendous traffic situation in the City?

 All members of the community should get involved, we all need the emergency services to be able to reach us in times of need, we would all like to pass around the city in a safe reasonable time, regardless of what our chosen mode of transport is, and was it not the conservative prime minister who said that it would be the small business's that would drive this country out of recession?, that one must have got past the conservative members of the various councils who govern us, you try delivering around the town with its gridlock traffic, unhelpful parking attendants and some very out dated parking restrictions.

The council policy of driving motorists out of Hereford is bonkers to say the least, yes they do with parking restrictions, refusing to allow business to build car parks, and driving the parking problems out on to the estates, you try driving up Hinton Crescent  its blocked by cars parking to avoid the charges in town. Do councillors still have the right to free parking?they did when I worked for the council, many a weekend saw councillors parking in the rear of Garrick House so that they could take their families shopping. As a council employee I was also entitled to free parking and was given a permit to park in the swimming pool car park when I worked in Garrick House, I live in Hollybush walk so that was very useful We need people to come and spend their hard earned  and limited cash on goods and services, not spending hours in traffic jams to pay ridicules parking charges and for our local trades people to be able to transact business in a free and easy manner which allows growth and jobs.

Their are job opportunities, Paul the ex Treacle mine Burger Van could open a mobile cart selling food and drink to the people waiting on the Belmont and Ross roads, full English for me.

I believe that it will be the pubs and restaurants and other eating places that will save this city next year so lets get behind them and create footfall and jobs,

 The council seem to be shoehorning in more developments in to an area in which the infrastructure is failing at every level, I see that there is another back street housing development in the pipe line, more cars more people more traffic misery.

Public Transport is poor to say the least, the state of the roads is abysmal, our councillors are rubbish , all to eager to give excuses as to why they have not done something

and ready to blame someone else, I just wish they would man up ( or woman, equal rights for all) join together regardless of what political party they support on the day and simply put the citizens of Hereford first for once instead of the petty minded squabbles that they all engage in for their own satisfaction and self  importance and to get their pictures in the paper again

Hi Folks,

As you know I often find myself encountering dishonesty, fraud, obfuscation and secrecy...once again it happened at the awful County Hospital and involved my 92 year old Nan...

My Nan was paying a fortune for private care in her home and had lots of falls which resulted in a prolonged stay in Hospital....the care was appalling but that is not why I am here....

I am here to tell you all about a secret package of funding that can provide a minimum of £110 a week for nursing care in your own home or a care home...see link:

 http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/2392.aspx?CategoryID=68

Of course nothing is done properly in Hereford and the Hospital did a secret assessment and found my Nan did not qualify...I found out about this challenged it and she was awarded £110 a week to start with and as her condition progresses it will be reviewed..

The beauty of this funding is ..it prevents someone with a house and savings having to eat it all up in costly fees ....it can provide completely free care regardless of your savings or home ownership status 

I am currently involved in highlighting this care package via the offices of Healthwatch Hereford and would be happy to help anyone obtain an assessment....

There is also a whole raft of info about help with Health Care for our elderly loved ones...

Hope you find it useful 

I drove past Symonds Yat Services on my way home from South Wales yesterday afternoon and noticed that the shutters were down and police tape was all around. I assumed there had been some sort of accident but I have just read this article in the HT that there was actually an armed robbery.