Under the weather

Been feeling a bit rough over the last couple of days so I haven’t got round to going to collect the filled in questionnaire waiting for me at Hackney Town Hall. I’ll try and pick it up after work today before Clare and I head up to Norfolk to spend the weekend with some Maltese friends who live there. It’ll be my first visit back to the Norwich area for a while after all those fun years at UEA a decade or so ago.

Meanwhile, I’ve also received an email from Michael Desmond telling me he’s also filled in the questionnaire. That’s 8 definite answers so far, although I won’t be getting my hands on his answers for a while as he’s going to ask come activists to fill it in as well. All in all, good news.

If I have a total of ten responses by the time I meet Faizullah Khan on Tuesday, I’ll make a start on some analysis.

Take Two

Got a call from Councillor Siddiqui this morning. He’s filled in the questionnaire again which is good news. I’ll try and go and pick it up after work tomorrow. Hopefully, there’ll be more good news in today’s post.

Another three responses

Since my last post, I’ve been to Hackney twice in an attempt to collect Councillor Siddiqui’s answers to my questionnaire. It seems it has been lost but I’ve left another copy for him so hopefully in the next day or two I’ll get it back. On the responses front, there has been some progress. Two completed questionnaires turned up in the post this morning and I’ve also received a call from Faizullah Khan, who is the Speaker at the council. I’ve made an appointment to see him today week. He seems pretty keen to help out which is good news. All in all, it looks like I might manage to get my 25 per cent quota after all.

Other news? Well, I’ve had an awful sore throat for the last couple of days. I must have got infected at Stamford Bridge! Also, the lovely people at SpecSavers in Harrow have been screwing me around again. Not content with failing to get my new glasses done by last Saturday (despite them being marked urgent), they have just called to say that they still won’t be done today. Even tomorrow seems unlikely. So, that’s going to be nearly two weeks for an urgent pair of specs. Lovely! Even more annoying, the one pair that they have managed to get ready is faulty. Oh well, still have loads to do today so I’d better quit moaning and get on with it.

Survival

Well it looks like we made it (court cases aside). For the first time since we beat Villa in the FA Cup semi final last year I think I can say that I’m a happy Hammer. The last couple of months have been amazing and to think we had to beat Man Utd and Arsenal twice to stay up. Hopefully next year will be a little less stressful.

Strangely enough I ended up at Stamford Bridge today watching Chelsea draw with Everton. Some free tickets came up at work and I thought I’d take them just to distract me from developments at Old Trafford.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow. I’ve done nothing dissertation related this weekend as yesterday we met up with some friends from Malta and then spent the evening watching Eurovision (how exciting!). The trouble is that Tuesday also already looks booked up as I have to do some EiA work and run a few errands and stuff.

I will have to get over to Hackney though even if it’s just to pick up questionnaires. I’ve also got to kick on with research among other stakeholders. Hopefully, that can take centre stage on Wednesday and from then on I should really pull my finger out and get motoring at least until the end of June.

Wasting Time

There was a bit of excitement at work over the last couple of days as our neighbours, HIS, entertained Madonna. The great Madge even popped in to our office to make a phone call giving me the privilege of saying that I’ve been alone in a room with her. Mind you, she had her back to me at the time so she doesn’t even know that she’s had the privilege of being alone in a room with me.

Moving on, I got a phone call from Councillor Siddiqui today to tell me that he had completed the questionnaire and that he had left it at the Town Hall reception. So, after work, I headed off to Hackney to pick it up. Unfortunately it was nowhere to be found. Hence, the title of today’s post.

Even more unfortunate was the attitude of the guy at reception who, when I asked him to double check, pointing out that the questionnaire would not necessarily be in an envelope addressed to me, went off on one. I had to listen to a load of moaning about how I was doubting that he could do his job. Well, if you speak to people like that mate, you can’t do your job! Never mind. It doesn’t matter.

One final bit of news is that I got a couple of tickets to go and watch Chelsea against Everton on Sunday. It’s a nothing game, which is probably why the season ticket holder who owns them is lending them out. Still, I’ve never been to watch a match at Stamford Bridge and I will laugh (though not out loud) if Chelsea fail to match Liverpool’s record of undefeated home games. It will also provide welcome distraction from worrying about what’s going on at Old Trafford.

If it's Wednesday ...

… it must mean a trip to Hackney. I think the receptionist at the Town Hall must be wondering what I’m up to. Anyway, after a morning printing and stuffing envelopes I’ve now left questionnaires in the pigeon holes of all the remaining councillors. I’ll give them a couple of days and then start chasing up. I’ve given them a deadline for the beginning of June so let’s hope within the month I get the dozen or so replies I need.

On Holiday

I can't decide whether I care about the results of the French election. Clare's certainly not amused. Regardless of the outcome, I have to repeat what I said after the first round which is that it's the clearest sign there ever was that people in Western Europe still care about politics especially when there are important issues and philosophical differences between the parties.

Perhaps if Labour and the Conservatives believed in debate and ideas rather than just political marketing in the pursuit of power, we might get something similar! Oooh, I'm such a cynic sometimes!

Anyway, moving on. It's been an exciting bank holiday Monday waiting for the rain to clear before going shopping! I’ve also been catching up on some EiA work, updating texts on some of the programmes they have been running, or are about to run in Bexley, Newham and with the DfES. Hopefully, we’ll get the website updated soon and send out a newsletter.

I’ve also sent off a couple of emails to follow up the questionnaires I left at Hackney Town Hall last Wednesday. That’s about it really. We can’t really get up to much at the moment because having broken my glasses and having had to spend £290 to replace them, money’s a bit tight (to put it mildly). Oh, the joys of being a student! Never mind, we’ll just have to be careful this month.