A Dog is for Life - 3

The thing is that Bandit has Duracell batteries & I don't. I've got the cheap Ikea ones! It's quite a revelation. I knew that I have to pace myself & not overdo things & rest, but I wan't expecting this. I found it quite difficult to do my normal half mile swim today because of all the extra walking taking Bandit out for training & toileting.

Although he is a small dog, having him on a lead is having an impact on the Fibromyalgia in my arms. Bending down to put his lead on & take it off is not doing my heart problems any good. I'm having bad hot sweats & get breathless. I'm also finding it really difficult to unclip his collar or harness because my hands are bad.

None of this is what I was expecting. All the problems are because of my health, not his behaviour. The real problem is that all my health issues are chronic. None are going to improve, quite the opposite.

I still think I should give it a week. But I do need to make my mind up because I don't want him to be upset by another return to the Blue Cross when we have bonded. At the moment I could just be another foster owner.

A Dog is for Life 2 - Bandit

I'm not at all sure that it's going to work with Bandit for several reasons, none of which were the ones I anticipated.

He hasn't messed in the house or destroyed anything. He hasn't seemed too bothered about being left overnight. I've managed to take him out for walks regularly enough & he is fine on the lead, although he doesn't respond to commands from me as well as his handlers.

It's me not him I think. I anticipated enjoying having a dog around, but don't really like the continual presence of something needy that I have to watch continuously. He is very agile & hyper & will need constant training not to jump on furniture. He doesn't settle & is into everything. Although well behaved at the Blue Cross, he's not so good here. It's a very different environment.

I found our first morning very difficult. I don't feel good first thing & got up earlier than usual so I could take him out for a walk, which was an effort. I really didn't feel well. It's early days I suppose, but I think I am too accustomed to being on my own now & being able to completely relax when I'm tired.

But it is only the first day. I think I will give it a week. A dog really is for life & I may have left it too late in mine to adjust to a new one.

PS
Spoke too soon. After taking him out @ 7.15 & again mid morning I got back from 1 1/2 hrs  swimming at lunchtime to find a big puddle in the kitchen. Seems illogical - how can you tell how long you can leave a dog?

A Dog is for Life

Such a quandry! I really don't know what to do.

I love dogs - Not in a soppy anthropomorphic sort of way - They are animals after all.

I had a much loved German Shepherd & have been toying with the idea of a smaller dog for ages, as company now that I am on my own. It would be nice to have something to welcome me home to an empty house. Talking to a dog is certainly preferable to talking to myself! I didn't particularly want or need a pedigree dog. I prefer to give a home to a rescue dog. There are, after all an enormous number of them.

So I have been looking at dog charity websites for months. I have found a very nice JRT - Bandit,  at the Blue Cross in Burford who seems to fit the bill perfectly.

We have been introduced & he seems very confident & fairly well trained. Blue Cross are very organised & helpful. So, what's not to like? Why the hesitation?

Well it's a lifestyle issue - Mine, not his. The problem of caring for & managing a dog when you are on your own & frankly getting on a bit. It's going to turn my daily routine upside down & curtail my freedom enormously. At the moment I can do what I want to when I want to & for as long as I want to.

I have built up a life. I'm a volunteer for 2 local organisations. I swim most days. I go to the cinema & to exhibitions. I meet friends & also stay with them overnight. A dog should be OK for a couple of hours, but 6 hours is about the maximum. You can't leave them indefinitely. They need exercise & toileting. They get bored & anxious on their own.

So what do I do? Give up going out for the day? I don't have any family who can step in. My daughter works & has two boys at school. You can't put a dog in kennels for a day out it's disruptive for them.

The internet may have saved the day. I've found several websites where local people who are willing to visit or walk a dog advertise. There do seem to be plenty of people who are available to do this for a fee.

It's so amazing - You can literally find anything on the internet.

PS - Saturday
Bought food, chews, treats & a dog tag this morning. Collecting Bandit tomorrow. It's a big deal. I had to cancel seeing Miss Saigon tomorrow night - couldn't leave him on his first night in a new home. Time will tell.

PPS - Sunday
Paperwork completed, cheque paid. Now we are home after a very excitable journey in the car - my twin Grandsons, not the dog. Not sure this is going to work. Bandit is very hyper, doesn't settle & is into everything. At the moment he is destroying a tennis ball. Nothing like Mable my GSD, but then that's not surprising - very different dogs! Although well behaved at the Blue Cross not so good here.

But it is only the first day.

"Things I Know to be True"

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all ye know on earth & all ye need to know" Keats

I ushered at "Things I Know to be True" at the Oxford Playhouse last night. It was a wonderful performance. It managed the difficult task of being funny, honest & touchingly sad at the same time. The cast of six were all excellent. It made me think - about family realtionships, about what I know to be true.

When it comes down to it if I was to make a list of things I really know are true it would probably be very short - We are born, we die. We love & hate & experience all the emotions in between. If we are lucky we make relationships that enrich our lives. However we can never really know someone else. All of us keep something back. We all have secrets. We all massage the truth at times in our lives, often because we don't want to hurt someone else.

The only truth I  really know is my own truth - What I think, what my values are, what matters to me. We are all capable of deluding ourselves, but I believe that at some level we do know ourselves. The good & the bad.

We all have choices to make about which path to take. Our decisions shape us into adults. We don't live in isolation, everything we do or don't do affects others. 

If we were all able to be "true" in the real sense of the word maybe the world would be a better place.

A Cross Passenger on Cross Country Trains

I caught the 14.14 from Birmingham International to Oxford on 23rd Sept. It was a very short train & was completely packed when it arrived. People were standing throughout the train. I am 71 & have a disabled railcard. Standing on a moving train is quite difficult. Someone did kindly give up their seat for me at Banbury. This is not the first time this has happened to me. 

If I pay for a ticket I expect to get a seat, especially as I rarely travel in peak times. Train companies appear to treat paying passengers no better than cattle & should be ashamed.  I met a middle aged lady who had had to stand from Scotland.

The refreshment trolley was unable to operate because of all the people & luggage in the aisles. The shelves above the seats are too shallow for a lot of cases & elderly people or women cannot lift heavy cases that high. The luggage racks by the doors are totally inadequate for the number of people travelling. 

Surely companies have a pretty good idea how many tickets have been sold & how many are likely to sell on the day. It is their job to provide adequate trains to meet the demand. This just seemed like total incompetence to me, which at the least causes people huge discomfort & at worst is a H&S risk. 

I sent a complaint to Cross Country Trains. The following are their responses.

"I am sorry for how busy the service was, our franchise does not have the resources to acquire longer or more trains, but we do understand that crowded trains are a daily problem that we face.Unfortunately we have only been allocated a set amount of coaches which is set out in our franchise agreement.

Please be assured that we are looking at ways that we can alleviate the pressure on our busiest trains, by altering the workings of our higher capacity trains to more closely match demand.  We also encourage those that are flexible with their travel plans to travel on quieter trains. Whilst I'm sure you will appreciate the challenges we face to try and provide enough seats for all of those passengers travelling, it does not take away the fact that your journeys with us have not been as you would hope to expect and so I would again like to apologise for any discomfort caused.

For future journeys I would recommend you reserve a seat, you can do this at your point of purchase, by calling 03447369123, at any ticket office or by using our Ten Minute reservation service via the following link https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets/ten-minute-reservations

I responded:-

• "Our franchise does not have the resources to acquire longer or more trains" - Why not? If you don't have the capacity to meet demand & don't have sufficient carriages or finances to increase provision then you should not be the operator, especially as you admit that "Crowded trains are a daily problem that we face".
• "We also encourage those that are flexible with their travel plans to travel on quieter trains" - That is no help to many people who have no options.
• "I would recommend you reserve a seat" - I did on the outward journey, but had no way of knowing which return train I would be able to catch.

Nothing encourages me to be confident that "should you choose to travel with us again that you have a much better experience". Basically Cross Country Trains know there is a serious problem, but have no plans to make the experience any better in the future. That is really not acceptable. I don't have to stand if I book a seat on a plane, why should trains be any different? I wonder what the company would have done had I had a heart attack through standing.

You have not addressed the issue of the lack of accessible luggage space at all.

Cross Country responded:-

"Our franchise, like all others operating in the UK, is set by the Department for Transport (DfT) who prescribe the services we must provide and the frequency of trains to deliver this. This specification was set by the DfT in 2007 at the start of our franchise and we procured all available trains to deliver this. Since then the railways have seen unprecedented numbers of people seeking to use rail as their preferred form of travel and our trains, like those of other operators, are seeing instances of crowding throughout the day on many services. We have recently extended our franchise for a further 3 years and we have been provided some additional coaches to provide further seating for our passengers however access to new coaches is limited. There are currently no trains suitable for us to lease in the UK, this situation is unlikely to change for many years.

As we are limited to the number of coaches we have, we try to encourage passengers to travel on quieter services by offering cheap advance fares. This does help passengers who cannot choose to travel on quieter services as if we didn’t do it the services during peak times would be much busier than they currently are.

As mentioned in my previous email, we provide a number of options for passengers looking to reserve seating for their journey. If you were unsure of the train you were travelling on you still can reserve a seat up to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time by using our ten minute reservation service via the following link https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/tickets/ten-minute-reservations

I can fully appreciate your concern about the number of passengers travelling on our trains. However, unlike bus and air travel, there is no legal limit for the number of passengers on a train. This is because trains are deemed safe no matter how many people are on board. Under the Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) train operators must manage risks from overcrowding ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. They may be liable for problems arising in hot weather but given that trains are walk-on services, it is not feasible to limit passengers to the number of seats."

I responded:- 
 

It would appear that much of the responsibility for passenger discomfort & annoyance with train services lies with the DfT. In particular the fact that the spec's they set for franchises are not reviewed & updated frequently enough. This would appear to make it impossible for franchises to respond quickly to the demands of increased passenger numbers. It has long baffled me why successive governments have never produced an integrated transport policy for the UK.

I had no idea of the option to reserve a seat 10 mins prior to departure time & will use this in future if I don't know what time I am returning  home. So thank you for the information.

I have to say I am amazed that there is no H&S requirement for any limit to numbers travelling on trains. While I can understand that it is a walk on service & passengers would be unhappy if they were refused access to a train, that does happen with buses, which have advertised maximum numbers standing & seated. I cannot see any reason why a similar rule should not apply to trains. 

The information you have given me confirms my view that train passengers often get a pretty rough & expensive deal. What does surprise me is that train operators do not make more fuss about this situation. It would seem to be in the companies interest to publicise this information widely & encourage passengers to become involved in order to make our train service at least comparable to the service standards on continental Europe.

I didn't expect to be sympathetic to Cross Country Trains, but I am. The whole set up seems ridiculously incompetent to me & the root of the problem appears to be the Department for Transport. The least important people in the equation are the passengers. 

Surely passenger needs & safety should be at the heart of Government policy. I can't help feeling that a transport system which is privatised & driven by shareholder profit rather than excellent service values is never going to achieve customer satisfaction under the current system. 

Anyone who travels on trains in Europe knows it can be done. Why not here?

All in the Mind

I have always been very task orientated. I am organised. I have prioritised lists. I have a calendar, a diary & a weekly magnetic planner. I keep a notebook.

Hitherto I would always be busy, working through my prioritised "To Do" list. I would rarely "waste" time. Every day would be packed from breakfast until after supper.

Now the 71 year old me seems to have morphed into someone else. I still have all the above, but I don't seem to have the energy or the inclination to get things done. So things can stay on my list for a very long time if I don't feel motivated to do something. The younger me wanted everything done yesterday.

For example, I have been meaning to tidy up the plants & plant some bulbs in my courtyard for weeks. I didn't want to do it. I know that bending & using hand tools causes me problems. I also know in my logical brain that I can pace myself & stop. However it wasn't getting done. The only reason it is now done is that my daughter took me to the garden centre this morning & I actually bought the bulbs. I'm really pleased that I will have Spring bulbs to enjoy. It was a job worth doing. I would have been irritated with myself if I hadn't done it.

So, what's the problem? Why do I do all sorts of displacement activities rather than getting things done that need to be done? I don't know. Some things just don't seem to be as important as they once were. It isn't just avoidance of pain, although that is part of it. I simply don't feel that I have to "do" in order to be a worthwhile person.

I am content to "be" a lot of the time. I'm more & more reflective & I research more because I want to know stuff. The computer is to blame for a lot of my time disappearing without obvious outcomes.

Time to think is really important & all too often modern life just doesn't allow us to do that. We are always busy. We don't listen enough, see or feel properly. People pay fortunes to briefly go on Retreat, to detox in Spa's. We frantically move from one thing to another & don't really live our lives in a healthy way.

Maybe it's one of the few benefits of ageing. You finally realise what is really important to you.

Yemen - Famine & War - UK Arms Trade Responsible

I'm old enough to have seen the extent of man's inhumanity to women & children as well as man. War is despicable and an admission of a failure to use our God given ability to communicate, think & be rational. War is failure on an epic scale. No one really wins & millions are killed, maimed & caused unimaginable suffering.

At the moment I am so angry I really can't put it into words. If you don't know what I'm talking about watch Channel 4's documentary, aired last night about Yemen - "Yemen’s forgotten war" @krishgm and @unreportedworld witness the horror of hunger. https://youtu.be/sIJppFpRbsc 
www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/emergency-response/yemen-crisis?cid=psc_FB_Yemen&dclid=CMifiLrguc8CFQuJ7Qodwx4DJQ

 I cried throughout this programme with pity for the people, especially babies & toddlers. But also in frustration at the part the UK is playing in this. We are now the second biggest arms dealers in the world. We are fuelling the conflicts in the middle East & elsewhere & our companies are making billions from other people's suffering.

I am ashamed.

We are selling bombs & planes to Saudi Arabia & they are bombing the infrastructure for importing more than 90% of the food which Yemen depends on. Babies are dying slowly of malnutrition & people are starving. Medical treatment is virtually non existant & people have no money for medicine.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britain-is-now-the-second-biggest-arms-dealer-in-the-world-a7225351.html 
https://www.caat.org.uk/get-involved/act-now/lobby/91

I have sent a letter to my MP, I have signed a petition, I have sent money, I have shared on Facebook - Big Deal! I know it it isn't enough, but I don't know what else to do. It is so frustrating.

There must be effective ways to stop all this madness in the world today - but what? Politicians are obviously not the answer. People do have power if they act together in sufficient numbers. But how do you achieve that?