k800mer

I am wearing lots of layers, vest type T shirts meant for Goa under cotton tops also meant for Goa and thin cardys (sound just like an old woman) tights under thin trousers and socks. I disposed of most of my winter clothes when I retired as I intended to spend the winters in Goa coming home for Christmas but the two month rule put paid to that but I live in hope so have not replaced my winter wardrobe. You could try charity shops but the sales are already on with large discounts.

noni

QUOTE=k800mer;9794934]I am wearing lots of layers, vest type T shirts meant for Goa under cotton tops also meant for Goa and thin cardys (sound just like an old woman) tights under thin trousers and socks. I disposed of most of my winter clothes when I retired as I intended to spend the winters in Goa coming home for Christmas but the two month rule put paid to that but I live in hope so have not replaced my winter wardrobe. You could try charity shops but the sales are already on with large discounts.[/QUOTE]

Flying home tonight, will have to stock up food - as all freezer etc empty. Bloody hell, and just at Christmas time, and buy some warm clothes, at the moment have not got the energy to do it. But as long as OH gets sorted everything will be o.k.

I must say - and I hope Bipat reads this - the patients in the hospital although not speaking much English were really friendly and we all shared things, the guy who owns our shack paid many visitors to Dulkes, GMC and to the apartment, and I cannot praise our "Estate Manager" (cleaner who looks after the apartment, taxi driver, and great friend) for looking after me and not leaving me when OH was in the GMC. I cannot speak to highly of any of the ordinary Goans.

I have my dad's sense of humour, two very young nuns came and chatted to us, nothing about religion, they were leaving and I quiped you will have to say a pray for us (meaning in church) OMG they went into the whole prayers for about 10 mins. Himself thought he was having his last rights.

Tina1

Flying home tonight, will have to stock up food - as all freezer etc empty. Bloody hell, and just at Christmas time, and buy some warm clothes, at the moment have not got the energy to do it. But as long as OH gets sorted everything will be o.k.

I must say - and I hope Bipat reads this - the patients in the hospital although not speaking much English were really friendly and we all shared things, the guy who owns our shack paid many visitors to Dulkes, GMC and to the apartment, and I cannot praise our "Estate Manager" (cleaner who looks after the apartment, taxi driver, and great friend) for looking after me and not leaving me when OH was in the GMC. I cannot speak to highly of any of the ordinary Goans.

I have my dad's sense of humour, two very young nuns came and chatted to us, nothing about religion, they were leaving and I quiped you will have to say a pray for us (meaning in church) OMG they went into the whole prayers for about 10 mins. Himself thought he was having his last rights.[/QUOTE]

Ha, ha. But you have had tremendous support from the locals,They are only repaying the many kindness that you and Jeff have shown them. xx

dreadsoc

Flying home tonight, will have to stock up food - as all freezer etc empty. Bloody hell, and just at Christmas time, and buy some warm clothes, at the moment have not got the energy to do it. But as long as OH gets sorted everything will be o.k.

I must say - and I hope Bipat reads this - the patients in the hospital although not speaking much English were really friendly and we all shared things, the guy who owns our shack paid many visitors to Dulkes, GMC and to the apartment, and I cannot praise our "Estate Manager" (cleaner who looks after the apartment, taxi driver, and great friend) for looking after me and not leaving me when OH was in the GMC. I cannot speak to highly of any of the ordinary Goans.

I have my dad's sense of humour, two very young nuns came and chatted to us, nothing about religion, they were leaving and I quiped you will have to say a pray for us (meaning in church) OMG they went into the whole prayers for about 10 mins. Himself thought he was having his last rights.[/QUOTE]


I can just imagine the look on J's face when this happened - I hope it cheered him up a bit when he realised he wasn't having last rites.
All the very best for a smooth flight home for you both Noni. I have sent you a pm.

Dread - x

prestonjohn

Reading the report on Bbc.co.uk about how the police lost control during the riots in the UK during the Summer.Usual reasons were given .Lack of training, absence of senior officers Etc.....Why dont journalists write the truth these days or has Political Correctness gone to every ones head so no one can actually see the truth anymore ? The reasons why the London Metropolitan Police lost control of the streets was because the Government threatened them with budget cuts and a more robust control system relating to excessive over time being claimed by some officers.Some officers, constables, were coming home with over £200,000 a year !The police didnt lose control they with drew it knowing that a riot situation would justify their demands for more money and that the Government would cave in to this blackmail.The shooting of the black guy in Tottenham was just the trigger they were looking for.They retreated to the police stations knowing the situation would rapidly escalate in Tottenham, what they got completely wrong was the rapidity and escalation in regards to other cities getting involved.The riots were the responsability of the Met being greedy for more money as usual.They could have stopped the riot in minutes if they wanted to by just agreeing to meet the family and community leaders who waited outside the police station in Tottenham for 4 hours.What a load of cobblers !

SteveKingswear

That was an absolutely damning view of our police force and not one I currently share; however before being totally dismissive of your view I would ask that you provide some evidence to support this view and please not something you have read in the Daily Mail

k800mer

I agree with you. A relative of ours was a policeman with the Met for many years, he certainly did not earn loads of money through overtime. He was badly injured in the course of duty and could have taken retirement on health grounds but he kept on working although in a job where he did not have to go out on patrol again.

dreadsoc

I would love to meet those coppers who are on over 200k per year - to get that on a basic constables wage they would have to work something like 22 - 23 hours per day !
I knew one copper who worked on the terrorism branch and for about 2 years did a 16 - 18 hour day every day - he is a detective constable rank and his annual take home was 88k (and if you saw some of the stuff he dealt with he deserved every penny of that and more). That is certainly not the normal constable take home for sure.
The Commissioner and the other top brass don't even get 200k a year - so certainly not the basic plod.

Now let's actually look at the facts here :
1. There are less coppers to police the streets - due to major staff cut backs, not replacing those who leave and retire because all forces have to make cutbacks of about 30%, complete freeze on recruitment - and the serious cutbacks of support staff meaning coppers have to do a lot of stuff themselves which they did not have to do before - which involves TIME.
2. Pay freezes for the next 3 years - only public sector workers to be hit with this - and unlike every other sector they have no right to strike.
3. 14% of earnings going for the pension (most public sector workers pay 4-6% into pensions)
4. Police budgets cut by 1/3 - meaning the availability of overtime is at zero
5. The Winsor and Hutton reports which basically aim to bring back poor working conditions, less pay than ever, and a whole load of other appalling things which if enforced on any other workforce would bring them to long winded strikes - even worse Winsor has been proved to have lied about the research upon which he bases his recommendations

I don't know where you have got the above from PJ but I can assure you it is not accurate. The police NEVER get to 'blackmail' any government over pay - in fact over the last 15 or so years, the police have had many of their benefits and allowances eroded, their pay cut and have had conditions imposed which do not actually work for policing - because the government know they can do anything they want to the police, which they cannot do to other workers - and for one reason alone and that is because the police cannot strike or take any form of industrial action.

It doesn't matter how much someone hates the police, it doesn't change the facts.
And let's face it, don't the old bill get the blame for everything ?

Dread - x

prestonjohn

Firstly i am not a police hater, far from it in fact.London would be a nightmare with out them.From special constables to Commissioners.The information regarding police over time rates came from The Evening Standard, last year.Its a very complicared system that calculates police over time rates.But when i said that some serving police officers were taking home over £200,000 per annum i wasnt exagerating either.From public relation officers to IT specialists the rates of pay had gone through the roof in the last 15 years, most of it under the New Labour.As for the riots that was a blatant denial of service to force the governments hand in the public service debates on pay and pensions.I have a very close friend, who was a women police officer for 20 years.One cold morning she skidded going to work and came of her motor bike. I know she was pissed the night before because i was in the same pub with her.She was off work for 2 years on full pay before accepting a medical discharge with a partial pension and £70,000 in cash.Its not just the police, its The Fire Service too and theTeachers.In The Fire Service they have more ex-firefighters claiming pensions than personal actually fighting fires !The whole system of pay under New Labour had got out of hand regarding pay and pensions.The figures dont add up.A london Underground driver now gets nearly £58,000 per year and they want more too....!Going on strike on Boxing Day to get it. The whole system is permiated with self interest and greed.The cheepest ticket on London Underground now between 2 stations is £1.50 on an Oyster Card. In Hamburg i can travel any where across the city for £1.80 for 2 hours.Where does the money come from then-out of your pockets mate and whats more your not getting a better service either too.

k800mer

So are you now saying that it is not the policemen but the ancillary workers that are getting paid excessive amounts of and for overtime or both?

SteveKingswear

Aha! So it was in the Evening Standard about two years ago; thats it then case proved! If it was in the Evening Standard it must be true!

dreadsoc

Sorry PJ but I know the rates of overtime for police officers and I stand by my comment that for any basic constable to earn the sum of £200 per annum would be virtually impossible even if the constable worked 24/7 every day for a year. Police overtime is paid at time plus one third, and the first half hour of every day is unpaid. Prior to the Sheehy report of 15 or so years ago, basic overtime was time plus half, and if less that 7 days notice, a cancelled rest paid at double time - those days are very very long gone.

The basic pay of a long serving constable is currently just over £35k pre tax. London weighting adds about another £6k before tax. Inspectors do not get any overtime at all. 14% of the pre tax figure is paid into the pension fund. Other public sector workers pay 4 - 6% into pensions.

I can assure you wholeheartedly that these facts disprove the information stated in the Evening Standard....which has tended towards the inflammatory on more than one occasion.

New labour actually took away all of the alllowances police officers received following the Edmund Davis review in the late 70s - it was those allowances and improvement on conditions of service which were agreed in exchange for a law being made preventing police from striking.

The professions you have mentioned on your post are public relations, train drivers and IT workers - these are mostly private industry occupations, or in the case of IT and public relations, possibly consultants.
IT and Public relations staff employed by the police are only earning in the region of £30k at managment level.

I appreciate that the ex female police officer is a friend of yours, but I find that example quite deplorable. I know police officers who have been seriously assaulted whilst just doing their job fairly and decently and been left with very painful and lasting disabilities, which cause significant debilitation at a later stage, and renders them unable to fulfil the duties of a constable. The procedure for obtaining medical retirement is often made extremely difficult, and very often it is the genuine, honest and hard working ones who are prejudiced because of those few who abuse that system. I cannot speak of the medical retirement process of the fire service (but I believe it is similar). I can state that most fire officers I have met (a great many) have been extremely hard working and devoted to their profession. However there are always the small percentage of bad apples in the police and fire service - but let's face it, there are the rotten ones in every corner of every profession.

As for the police using the recent riots to blackmail the government over pay, that is absolute nonsense. Other professions are able to hold the government to ransom because they have a right to strike, which is the ultimate form of protest to get what they want. The police have no right to strike, and they have a federation as opposed to a union. A federation can only negotiate, and holds much less power than a union. Couple that with the denial of a right to strike - and you have virtually no means to blackmail any government, because whatever that government do to them, police officers will still turn up for work.

As for bearing the blame for the riots - I would have to put the other side of the coin here - were not in excess of 700 people charged with offences in relation to those riots? That is the highest number of people charged for a single public order incident ever, so hardly suggests the police weren't doing their job.

The government are so obsessed with cutbacks and reducing money in policing that they have not given any thought to the long term and actual effects of reducing officer numbers as a consequence of those cutbacks. Logic would suggest to me that owing to 30% cuts to police budgets, less 'proper' officers on duty at any given time than in any era previously, a society which gets more violent minded by the year, and a blanket ban on police overtime, would be far more likely a reason for any failure than some conspiracy theory about police blackmailing the government for extra pay.

('proper' - special constables and PCSOs cannot be used for riot duties because they are not trained - and New Labours excessive health and safety laws would prevent them from being utilised for such).

Me thinks the Evening Standard has got it wrong ..... innit

Dread - x

a_f_d

What p*****d me off?
Well a couple of weeks ago a friendly driver decided that the Candolim road was plenty wide enough for three lanes of traffic - even though that meant taking off my wing mirror ("your what? what are they for anyway? You've got a horn haven't you?).
Today the garage had the replacement so we dropped off the car (garage by St Xavier College, up the hill in Mapusa). Walked into town for shopping and a bite of lunch (a 10-15 minute walk).
<promo> got some spare passport/id photos done at Remy Studio, 12 id size + 4 2"x2" - all for about ₹120 </promo> - beats £5 for 2 of the square ones at VFS.
Looked for a rickshaw up the hill - asking ₹100/- and eventually offered ₹70, I said 'last year it was 30, I'll pay 50 -> "for 50 you can proceed on foot". There were a couple of dozen drivers there, none had any custom, but none would go below ₹70, so we cut off our noses to spite our faces and got the bus - ₹10/-
The new mirror was fitted, the bill? ₹178 - around what the return rickshaw fare would have been - go figure!

AndyD 8-)₹

noni

These guys don't deserve any business, just like everything else in Goa when things get tough - put up your prices.
What has p........... me off to-day is having a phone call from my friend in Goa telling me how hot it is etc. and am sitting here in the UK the rain is pissing down and now has turned cold again.

dreadsoc

Crazy that they would rather sit with an empty tuktuk and no business than do a trip for a reasonable fare !!

I know the feeling Noni - I have not been able to go to Goa this year yet due to work stuff - and I am hating this UK weather more than ever !
It has made me promise myself that when I retire I will never never spend another winters day in the UK !!

Here's to next season girl

Dread - x