Random ramblings

[godricgal]

I can't concentrate one any single task, it's driving me up the wall! I want to actually finish something!

Ah yes, I remember what I was going to talk about this evening: Parking.

I live just outside the Congestion Charge zone and in a street that is either residents parking only or metered parking at £1 for 25 minutes. All fine, if it were a free for all, it'd just be a mess and a nightmare for residents. I don't keep my car in the city, I tend to walk everywhere and if I do need to go somewhere that's further than a 30 minute walk I get the bus. My car currently lives at my parent’s house and since my Dad's car died about 2 years ago, I have more or less shared it with him. Tomorrow he is coming to visit me and driving the car up because he is (finally) going to put my shelves up for me and needs to bring his tools with him. So earlier in the week I rang up Westminster City Council to arrange for either a temporary residents permit or a guests permit. Apparently no such thing exists. So, said I, how do I get a resident's permit? This is a list of the things I would need:

1. Two utility bills with my name and address on them
2. The title deeds to my property/tenancy agreement
3. My driving licence - registered to the same address
4. My vehicle registration papers - registered to the same address
5. £110
6. To keep my car permanently in London, on the street

Now I am a good girl and I do as Ken tells me by not driving my car in the City and take his buses and (if i have to) his tubes with their over-inflated fares and I am punished for it. My poor car will spend the day garaged at an NCP at a cost of £30 and the night in a metered spot that doesn't charge over night. Either my Dad or I will have to get up at 8.30am on Sunday to move it back to the NCP. Grrrrr, Ken. 

Anyway, assuming that Dad makes it here without incident and isn't a totally miserable git, it should be a good weekend. We're going to go for dinner in Soho although I haven't decided which restaurant and then he can choose what ever he wants to do on Sunday, although knowing him, he'll probably just make his excuses and leave early after lunch. 

I'm booking his birthday present tomorrow, a plane ticket to Beijing! I'm so excited about it. I have arranged holiday with our boss and that week is a national holiday in China so my brother and his girlfriend will have the whole week to show him around. Apparently Betty is already planning what she is going to cook (she's Vietnamese and her cooking is to die for). My only concern is that he will work himself so hard up to the date he leaves that he will just spend the entire week exhausted, worrying about how things are going back here with work and all. The work package that has kept him busy for the last 7 weeks is being demoed by me to the shareholders during the week that he is away. I'm wondering if I can convince everyone not to tell him about it so that he doesn't fret. Ah well, that's why I'm buying the ticket without telling him, so that he has no choice but to go. 

My rather iffy muse has deserted me this evening. I had such a clear idea of what I wanted to write for prompt 7 of the RT_Challenge and I just can't put it into words. I have pages of notes and nothing is working for me:(

So bird flu has made it to the UK. Woo-bloody-hoo, and the government are urging calm, where are the panicking masses? It's just the government way of saying 'There, there. You need us, we'll look after you. Don't you plebs worry your pretty little heads about it.' Well guess what Tony? No one is overly concerned. Almost every person who had died from bird flu (all 120 odd of them) practically cuddled chickens for a living.  They started their scare-mongering, what, a year ago? There hasn't even been a mass bird death let alone signs of virus mutation so that it can be transmitted from human to human. In any case the government can't be all that concerned if it took them a week to respond to a dead swan. 

 

My muse just came a knocking, so I’m going to wrap this up and post……quickly.

Comments

[sea_thoughts]

God, that's so pointless. My dad got a parking permit for Scarborough without any problems whatsoever, what a load of rubbish. I can't believe you need all of that just to get a permit. Frankly, I can't believe there is NO such thing as a guest permit. Do they not realise that public transport outside London is RUBBISH?

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who's noticed that NOBODY is panicking about bird flu. Because as you say, only bird handlers die from it, you can't contract it if you cook the meat properly, which you should do ANYWAY if it's poultry or game. The only meat that should be eaten rare is beef (or maybe lamb), and funnily enough, cows don't suffer from "bird flu".

It's my dad's birthday this Wednesday. ^^

[godricgal.livejournal.com]

It hadn't even crossed my mind that there wouldn't be such a thing as a guest permit, I thought it might be a pickle to get and I'd have to go along to the council offices. I was told flat that a meter or NCP carpark was my only option.

My twisted self thinks that the whole media hype of bird flu is funny. You are quite right about the cooking, when I cook chicken throughly, I for one am thinking 'salmonella'. Hee hee! I'll have a bit of a chuckle next time 'must cook it 'til the juices run clear, mustn't catch bird flu' lol!

My Dad's is the day before!