Be wise with speed . A fool at forty is a fool indeed.
Edward Young
6 Comments CherryPie on Nov 15th 2009
The Marlborough Pavilion was built as a summer house in the mid 1920s and decorated in 1949 by Churchill’s nephew, John Spencer Churchill. The theme of the decoration is John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough who was Churchill’s oldest ancestor:
On the north wall are the motto, Fiel Pero Desdichado (‘Faithful but Unfortunate’) – a reference to the loyalty of the 1st Duke’s father to the Royalist cause after the execution of Charles 1 in 1649. Four terracotta plaques on the walls represent rivers that played a part in Marlborough’s campaigns during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13): the Danube, the Rhine (with the sirens of the Lorelei), the Meuse and the Moselle. The terracotta medallions at the corners represent the 1st Duke; his wife Sarah; Queen Anne; and Prince Eugene of Savoy, Marlborough’s most steadfast Continental ally, who played an important part in the victories of Blenheim (1704), Ramilles (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709). The low-relief frieze around the ceiling evokes the Marlborough wars. One panel shows the defence of the village of Blenheim, the climactic moment of the 1st Duke’s most famous victory. *
*From the National Trust guide book
20 Comments CherryPie on Nov 15th 2009
No doubt most of you will have read the recent reports in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail stating that MoD civil servants have earned in excess of £47 million in bonuses in the last six months. The Telegraph starts the article with this sensational comment:
Civil servants at the Ministry of Defence have been paid £47 million in performance bonuses so far this year despite claims that troops in Afghanistan lack essential equipment.
Unfortunately the articles don’t tell the whole truth which is that MoD bonuses are imposed on the staff by a cabinet office ruling, which says that a bonus element must be included in any pay deal. What this really means is the minute pay increase for MoD civilians is mostly payed as a bonus which means it is not pensionable.
It is the usual spin & lies by the media to inflame public opinion so that it agrees with the policies to cut public services. What the papers also fail to say is that MoD staff are currently receiving an ‘imposed’ three year pay deal, which in effect has meant a pay cut for many members of the lowest grades.
The following is the PCS response to he Daily Telegraph:
12 November 2009
Dear sir,
If civilian staff in the MoD were receiving huge bonuses, the anger expressed by families of soldiers on the frontline would be understandable, but it’s not true.
Recently over 1,000 MoD civilian staff had to receive an emergency payment because their pay had fallen below the national minimum wage and the department have this year cut the pay and pension of the lowest paid staff.
Most of our 16,000 members earn less than £20,000 per year. After years of pay restraint, the current system means that these low paid civil servants receive paltry, non-pensionable, one-off ‘bonuses’ of between £300 and £400 instead of fair annual pay rises.
No one is more angry than our members about the mismanagement of defence by politicians, private consultants and senior management.
Our members work directly on the frontline alongside the military providing training, security, procurement, storage, distribution and critical support.
MoD civil servants are working around the clock to support the military and will continue to do so despite the impact of the 25,000 arbitrary job cuts imposed by the government over the last six years.
Instead of disgraceful and misleading attacks on low paid staff the focus should instead be on the real waste.
For example the billions of pounds wasted in the MoD equipment programme every year, on the myriad failed privatisation projects and on the employment of thousands on non-deployable military personnel. This is the real scandal in MoD.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Serwotka
PCS general secretary
15 Comments CherryPie on Nov 14th 2009
I was struggling for for inspiration for this theme, when I suddenly remembered that there was lots of music at the Women’s Chainmakers festival that I attended in September. We didn’t stay for all the music but this barbershop quartet were very good and also amusing.
There was also a brass band to lead the celebratory march and display of banners that took place around the Black Country museum.
For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.
24 Comments CherryPie on Nov 13th 2009
This is one of Churchill’s favorite spots at Chartwell, a place where he loved to sit and rest, feed the goldfish or simply relax and paint. The view is much the same as when Churchill enjoyed it, although the trees that would have formed the backdrop to the scene were brought down in the great storm.
I would have loved to have been able to cross over the pool of water and experience the garden from Churchill’s point of view but that wasn’t possible. But I could feel his presence lingering in that beautiful spot 
12 Comments CherryPie on Nov 12th 2009
We are all being encouraged to have a bit of a sort out at work. There have been lots of desk moves since we successfully stopped our work being centralised in Bristol. We have been squeezed into a smaller space that has led to a lot of clutter which doesn’t look good when we are trying to attract new customers. So I have been having a bit of a clear out, my desk has been de-cluttered (mostly), my trays tidied and I have started on sorting out my desk drawers. I have thrown lots of rubbish into the recycling bins and also been told off by the cleaner because my bin was too full!!!
There is no modesty board on my desk and I was told some time ago that there were none in the building so I improvised with two large posters which were different sizes and looked rather messy. They also seemed to attract rather a lot of dust. Today I came up with a neater plan which was to put white paper across the gap between the desk legs. The only paper I could think of that was the right size was a large roll of Christmas paper. So there was I cutting Christmas paper to size (with the help of my colleagues). Someone quipped, ‘Is that a Christmas present?’ and I replied, ‘The present is me’. They went a bit quiet, I am not quite sure why 
I am also not sure how long my desk will look tidy. I am betting the new modesty screen will get trashed next time the cleaner gets the Hoover out!
Anyway, onto my struggle with Photoshop…
As part of the clean up process I removed all my higgdley piggledy photo frames and clips and planned to replace them with a photo collage pinned to the board at the back of my desk. Photoshop made things difficult for me by crashing whenever I tried to manipulate the photos in the picture but I was determined not to let it beat me completely. The following is the result, which I am not quite happy with because of the white area on the left hand side. However, I decided it would do for now and I will try again when Photoshop is behaving itself a bit better!
13 Comments CherryPie on Nov 12th 2009
These days it looks like the vegetables in the Old Kitchen Garden are not up to the task of supplying food for anyone, it seems like the slugs enjoy them too much. Maybe that is why they are advertising for a resident hedgehog
6 Comments CherryPie on Nov 11th 2009
