“I like to be in America”

Posted on December 27, 2011 by john graham

This blog was written while on a holiday in America and it is interesting to observe the differences between the UK and the USA.  In some ways they are ahead of us and in some ways behind.  Neither is automatically good or bad.

One thing I like is they still have imperial measures – they haven’t given in to the incomprehensibility of metric.  A foot is still a foot, roughly the size of your feet so you can measure most things by putting one foot after the other; or for longer distances, a large stride is a yard, so you can count your paces to calculate distances outside.  Although I never did figure out a rod, pole or perch, I still think they must be more to do with fishing.

They use miles too, but then again so do we.  The European Court of Justice has not yet caught up with our road sign-writers.

The weather forecasters still speak Farenheit so at least I know that when it is 70°or more, it is going to be hot.  In the UK I still haven’t a clue what the temperature is going to be even after watching the weather forecast.

Filling up the car is a bit more confusing, because for some reason they call petrol “gas”, which it isn’t!   On the good side, they still use gallons, but to complicate things if you want to pay cash, you have to pay in advance, which requires you to guesstimate how many gallons you need.

Weight wise they calculate everything in pounds, they don’t seem to have got the hang of stones.  So people weigh in at 140 pounds if they are 10 stones.  I never got around to finding out about ounces.

One thing they are different on is the currency.  Dollars are simple enough to understand until you come to pay for anything – then the notes are all the same size and colour – just to get you confused again.   On top of that, it’s only when you get to the till that they add on the sales tax. So everything costs a bit more than you think.

You buy potatoes in pounds and petrol in gallons, but why did they never learn to drive on the left   ???????????????

 

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“Vulnerable Grey Market”

Posted on December 22, 2011 by john graham

It is over a year ago that I last wrote about some of my concerns about the selling of mobility equipment to vulnerable older people.  (See

There is vast potential for this market to be preyed upon by unscrupulous salesmen.

Now it appears that at the very same time that I was writing the blog, Derbyshire Trading Standards were investigating the miss-selling of mobility scooters after a host of complaints about  REO Marketing Limited.

The company sold scooters, stair lifts, beds and wheelchairs over a wide area of England.

Their aggressive sales techniques included:-

  • Long sales visits to people’s’ homes;
  • Exploiting health problems;
  • Falsely claiming to carry out surveys as an excuse for sales visits;
  • Offering discounts for immediate orders placed

The two Directors of the company were jailed for 3 and 4 years each, but after pleading guilty they will, no doubt, be out in half that time.  I am sure that does not reflect the loss and distress they caused to many of their elderly customers.  I believe this example is just the tip of a very big iceberg of exploitation of older people in their own homes.

As the grey market expands, there will be many more examples like this in the future.  Elderly people who can’t get out to shop, don’t have the skills to use the internet and have no close relatives to advise them – they are very vulnerable to this type of exploitation.

Trading Standards are only ever able to lock the stable door after the event.  We need properly “kite marked” and trusted organisations.

ELDERLY  BUYER   BEWARE !

A quick search of Google using “exploiting the elderly in the UK” threw up three million results !

Products highlighted included:-

  • Energy sales
  • Home insurance
  • Retirement housing
  • Will writing
  • Financial services
  • Doorstep sales
  • Double glazing

Footnote:  Between a third and half of all cases of elder abuse cases in America involve financial exploitation.

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“A Fishy Story”

Posted on December 20, 2011 by john graham

Yet another piece of research related to the diet of older people and its possable connection to the onset of dementia.

See earlier posts by clicking on dementia in the TAG CLOUD.

Researchers at Northumbria University suggest that eating fish may stave off dementia in later life.  The evidence they found suggests that eating oily fish regularly may slow down memory loss through improving blood flow to the brain.

No need to move to Grimsby just yet, the report is couched in terms of “could” and “maybe”.

And…….that is OILY FISH…….but that does mean a trip to the chippy everyday.

Sardines on toast should be ok ……. maybe without the toast?

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“Grumble Post 4”

Posted on December 16, 2011 by john graham

No less a person than the ever headline-seeking Caroline Spelman – Environment Secretary, must have been reading my blog.  She obviously shares my concerns about the postal service.

Look in the TAG CLOUD for earlier posts by clicking on “Grumblesmile Post”.

Ms Spelman is paid a lot of money to be Environment Secretary and no doubt has years of experience working in the Post Office as a student delivering mail at Christmas.  She has come up with a great idea to solve the problem of junk mail – a website to allow people to ban the Royal Mail from delivering unsolicited post.  The website is to be launched next April, and if it is as effective as the Telephone Preference Service, it will have no effect at all!

  • Every household in Britain received 450 pieces of junk mail a year
  • 11 billion items in total
  • £50 million is the cost of disposal

One little loophole in Ms Spelman’s thinking is that 40% of junk mail is delivered door to door in the form of leaflets from local businesses.

The Direct Marketing Association is obviously deliriously happy about Ms Spelman’s idea.  Their members employ 280,000 people and the value of the direct mail business is around £27 billion.  Although that doesn’t include the recycling cost :-).  Their spokesman, Mike Lordan, the Operations Chief, said with no sense of irony, “unwanted mail is an annoyance and an unnecessary cost to business”.  He forgot to say “do worry we will keep on sending it”.

The Royal Mail are equally delighted about Ms Spelman’s proposals.  They said, between gritted teeth, “this scheme will build on the arrangements already in place to enable people to opt out”.  What he meant was “if it works, it will bankrupt Royal Mail, but it probably won’t work”.

I think I have a much simpler solution.  Why not put it back in the post box with your name and addressed crossed out and re-address it to Mr Mike Lordan of the Direct Marketing Association, DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W  8SS.

ALTERNATIVELY —- a great idea I read recently ——- send all the buisness reply postage paid envelopes you recieve back to the sender stuffed with junk mail you have been sent by someone else 🙂

As Elvis said                 ” RETURN TO SENDER “

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“Smile Post” 3

Posted on December 11, 2011 by john graham

Before reading this post, look at earlier posts on this subject by clicking on “Smile Post” in the tag cloud.

Postman Pat’s buggy train is now the length of a bendy bus and there is one final buggy to go, which will make this a totally unique, all smiles, cure the ills of the day, all new Royal Mail service.

  • The last buggy on Pat’s train will be a luxury,  seats and tables,  silver service,  get on and off anywhere, for £1 , extra special,  especially slow,  Royal -handwaving trolley bus.
  • It will be staffed by Volunteer Grannies and Grandpas (CRB checked of course), who will take young pre-school age children out for the day.  There will be nappy changing facilities, sleeper seats and naughty corners.  There will be a small charge by the hour and fines if your child ends up in the dog house.  By the way, this trolley will also do a dog walking service for £1 – you can tie your dog to the back of the buggy.  Pat’s black and white cat will not allow the dog to ride on the buggy for Cat Health and Safety reasons 🙂

Finally, because the train is now so long, it will need to be followed by a red flag-waving, keen-eyed neighbourhood watching, “Hello” and “Good Morning”, mobility scooter driving, rear guard Grannie or Grandpa.

Of course, because of all the extra work, Pat’s postal round will have to be much smaller, which means there will have to be a lot more Pats and black and white cats.

Remarkably, even without any more letters, there will need to be a lot more postal worker jobs created.  Also there will need to be sales people on the postal train, who will handle the retailing operation.  Since everything will cost £1, NO special skills are required to do the role, except being able to count to 10 on your fingers (and thumbs).  This will create thousands of extra minimum wage, part-time jobs, out in the fresh air, — ideally suited to 60 – 70 year olds who are winding down to retirement at 65 – or 66 – 67 – 68 – 69 – 70 or whenever.

These additional posts will be called A.P.O.’s — Assistant Postal Operatives.  The Communication Workers Union wanted a posher title to reflect the importance of this new position and suggested they be called ‘Assistant Postal Executive Safety Health Improvement Technicians’,    but Pat didn’t think this was such a good idea?

 

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“Smile Post” 2

Posted on December 4, 2011 by john graham

This is a continuation of the “Smile Post” theme.  For earlier posts click on “GrumbleSmile Post” in the tag cloud.

  • The penultimate buggy is the “Recycling” rag and bone cart.  A sort of bring and buy sale on wheels.  You can put on the buggy all your old clothes (and new ones if you are a teenager that has moved on to the next designer label) and the wooly jumper that Grannie knitted you for Christmas  🙂
  • You can also put on this buggy all the gadgets you have bought and hardly ever  – or never used — the teasmaid alarm, juicers, breadmakers, chicken bricks, the pressure cooker, and the hostess trolly  (as long as Pat can bring it back just for Christmas Day)

There are two other extra benefits of the recycling trolley:-

  • Pat will deliver all the clothes left over at the end of every day to the local charity shop, so you don’t get lots of plastic sacks put through your letter box from charities you have never heard of.
  • All the unused electrical goods will be Pat-tested 🙂 and then plugged in at the post office to the recently installed, heavily subsidsed, carbon neutral,world-saving, windmill  for anyone to use free of charge  providing the wind is blowing.
  • Then there is the express junk mail service.  For a small extra charge, Pat, who is of course an expert on what’s in the post, will throw your junk mail straight into the recycling buggy so you don’t even have to read it.  Yellow pages telephone directories will automatically go onto this cart and be sent to call centres.  They don’t need them but it will waste their time disposing of them instead of yours.
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“Smile Post” 1

Posted on November 27, 2011 by john graham

Before reading this post, if you haven’t already done so, you need to go back and look at Grumble Post 1, 2 and 3 dated 6th, 13th and 20th November 2011 or click on the “GrumbleSmile Post” in the tag cloud.

In an effort to turn a Grumble into a Smile, I thought it would be a good idea to suggest some ways to keep our Royal Mail alive by re-inventing it as a completely new service based on some old experience and a fun new image.

  • Pat will visit every home, every day, rain or shine 🙂
  • Pat will have his little car and pull a train of Disney style golf buggies :-
  • The “Wakey Wakey” buggy will sell milk in bottles which will rattle to let you know Pat’s on his way  🙂
  • The “Cock-a-D00dle-Doo” buggy will sell fresh, free-range eggs with no “Lion” stamp on,  just straw and chicken poo  🙂
  • The “Baked Today by Grandma” buggy will sell fresh bread – brown bread, white bread, bloomers, rolls, French sticks but absolutely no sliced loaves in plastic wrappers –  there will also be home baked cakes  – Victoria sponges, chocolate cakes, Chelsea buns, fairy cakes, Eccles cakes, iced rolls but  absolutely no  calories ——and there will be a lovely smell of fresh baking left behind everywhere Pat has been on his daily round 🙂
  • The “Five-a-Day” buggy will sell only Organic fruit and veg supplied from nearby farms.  As an additional benefit, you will also be able to sell your own surplus garden produce to Pat in exchange for £1 stamps to pay for your Christmas card post 🙂
  • The “Get-You-better” buggy will deliver medical supplies, all your pills and potions……and incontinence pads.  For the elderly and young children, Pat has been specially trained (a sort of ‘pill NVQ’) to administer the tablets at your front door with a spoonful of jam 🙂

TO BE CONTINUED ………….

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“Lift your Spirits” 3

Posted on November 22, 2011 by john graham

See the Tag Cloud for earlier posts on this theme.

Simple things to do for a mood changing happiness boost:-

“Hearing a baby laugh”

In my time running nursing homes, I found nothing lights up older people’s eyes so much as seeing young children, especially new babies.  A relative visiting with a young child, was an event in itself and brightened everyone’s day.  Knitting is a valuable skill still practiced by many older ladies and the cardigans, twin-sets, scarfs, hats,booties and woollen toys, are a guaranteed way of ensuring you always have a present for a new-born grandchild.  I have seen the most amazing large knitted dolls – Noddy and his car, a gardener with fork, spade and watering can.  Scarecrows by the field full and dolls to capture every little girls’ heart.

My father could never pass a mother with a new-born baby in a pram without crossing the baby’s palm with silver.  He used to always have silver joey’s in his pocket (a threepenny piece I think) ready for his next encounter.  Later it became a silver sixpence, then a shilling – then 5p, 10p, 50p (that’s inflation for you).  Sadly, these days, dad’s acts of generosity would probably be regarded with suspicion.

On a bigger scale, there are even more ambitious ways of fulfilling this approach to happiness.  When I was first researching retirement villages in the 1990’s, I went to see some schemes in Denmark.  One had a small swimming pool in a basement and was overlooked by a gallery in the village entrance.  Hanging over the balcony were lots of elderly people, all pushing in for a better view.  When I managed to squeeze to the front to find out what was going on, I saw a pool full of young mothers, all teaching their babies to swim.  Apparently it was the hottest show in town and was packed out every week.  That certainly had everyone smiling !

On a later trip to Holland, I saw a retirement village in Amsterdam which had a crèche to look after the young children of the staff who worked in the village.  Many of the helpers in the crèche were older residents who lived in the village and were only too happy to be volunteers .  That is a great idea, which I did later see repeated in the Rountree Trust Retirement Village – Hartrigg Oaks in York.

  Young children and grannies and grandpa’s together is a virtuous circle which we should encourage much more often.

 

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“Grumble Post 3” –

Posted on November 20, 2011 by john graham

This post is a continuation of the “grumbling” discussion on the postal service.  For earlier posts see Grumble Post 1 and 2 dated 6th and 13th November or click on the “GrumbleSmile Post” in the tag cloud.

Ironically, as I was typing this blog I was interrupted by a loud knock on the back door.  It was Geoff, our excellent family friendly, totally dependable, postman.  He could not deliver the Yellow Pages Directory through our small front door letterbox so he came around to the back door – he does that with parcels too !  🙂  He knocked loudly because he guessed I was likely to be still in bed – after all it is only 10 o’clock and I’m retired  !

He handed me the usual daily selection of bills, junk mail and the un-asked-for, never-changing,  shrinking -in -size,  soon -to -be -thrown -away  YELLow pages.

Geoff is the answer to the Royal Mail’s prayers, if only the management was listening.

Customer Service is in his bones, a smile and a “hello and good morning” are more than worth the cost of a postage stamp.

That’s how to turn a Grumble into a Smile ! 🙂

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“Lift your Spirits” 2

Posted on November 15, 2011 by john graham

This post follows on from ” Lift your Spirits ” 1 posted on 8th November 2011 and explores some of the ideas further.

Let’s look first at the things people said made them happy and cost no money.  They should surely be the easiest things to do:-

“Waking up on a sunny day”

This is in the hands of God, unless we can afford to move to a sunnier climate or at least go on holiday .  In the meantime at least get your chair on the balcony,if you have one, or in the garden ready for every sunny-day opportunity that comes along.

“A cuddle”

Easy if you still have a partner or close family.  Most elderly people live on their own and contact with other people is limited to a brief conversation or a quick handshake at best.

I always found a hand held and a hug works wonders and always brings a smile to people’s faces.  In these politically correct days, it has become regarded as invading people’s personal space, but that is nonsense if used appropriately.

“A kind word”

The easiest thing of all to do.  Too often lost in the rush of the everyday but also in the “heads down” walk on bye way of avoiding personal contact.  We are losing our social skills as a society and elderly people in particular are left on the margins.

It is very noticeable in the village I live in that when you are out and about, most people that you pass say “good morning” and anybody you know stops for a chat.  In the village Post Office, everyone is very friendly and help is at hand if you can’t find anything.  Understandably, these things change when you move to the larger scale of a town or city, but for elderly people who live on their own, we need to construct a virtual village around them to avoid them becoming totally isolated.

A sunny day, a hug and a kind word is not much to ask for and could transform many older people’s lives for the better.

 

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