Conkers and the community

A couple of years ago I spotted a story about the demise of the humble horse chestnut tree so I wrote a blog about it. What I didn't know was this was going to be the start of an amazing story.
I've included the link to the original story :-

https://jeremysnewsthoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/bonkers-its-end-of-conkers.html?m=1

So I wrote that and a few people read it, around a year later I was chatting to another Councillor prior to a meeting. During this conversation with Richard Kingstone I explained the situation of the reduction in Conker trees, Richard then used this to create a press release connected with the work he does in Wigginton Park.
And this is where the miraculous happened.

At the start of the month I was taking part in a litter pick with Dosthill Park Wildlife Group when I spoke to Mr and Mrs Moseley who were sitting on a bench over looking the river. Mr and Mrs Moseley had seen the article that Richard Kingstone had got in the Tamworth herald about conkers. The two of them had not only read the article but taken it upon themselves to plant and grow 10 conker trees AND they would like to give them to me and Richard to plant and support the growth on the conker tree.

So having spent the weekend in my care they have now been passed to Richard for planting in Wiggington Park.

So a big thank you to Mr and Mrs Moseley for growing these trees!!!

I have to comment on the whole series of events, 2 councillors having a chat and generating a tiny bit of interest sparked a year long project by two members of the community who we didn't know and now we have 10 new conker trees in Tamworth.

So linkages between 2 members of the public, the use of social media, printed press, public open space and the community groups looking after them all coming together with no intention as such and doing something small yet mighty.

It's just amazing how communities work when we have a mutual goal.

You must not be allowed in

Today I have witnessed two people driving in a way which just really winds me up. Now before it seems like I'm just picking on the VW Golf and Audi A3 this rant is not limited to those two drivers and this behaviour is a common sight delivered by all sorts of drivers in all sorts in vehicles.

So dual carriage ways and queues.

Dual carriage ways have one role and contra to belief dual carriage ways are not for creating race tracks and an opportunity to put your foot down, they are built to increase the capacity of the highway. Ooh stop and think about that a queue of 50 cars will take up half the distance on a dual carriage way that it will on a single carriage way. BUT only if we use it correctly and here lies my rant.

Why do drivers feel the need to negate the purpose of the dual carriage way and straddle the white line to stop anyone going passed them? I generally look ahead and pick a lane to get in. If the other lane is moving quicker then so be it. What I witnessed today was one of these drivers straddling the white line and when another driver went to drive passed without leaving the lane they were in the first drive literally drove the passing car off the road.
So my question what was the benefit to the first driver of extending the queue. Now the impact on me of this was one car passed me and joined the end of the queue ahead of me, so about 15 feet. Surely no one needs to get so stressed about progress of others they swerve to stop someone quite legitimately driving passed them in an open lane.

So moving on to the golf, we all make mistakes and sometimes don't realise what's on the road ahead. Today a bus was stationary at a bus stop so a couple of cars pulled up behind, it was then they realised it had its hazard lights on (I was 4 cars back). The first car indicated and began to pull round the bus and yes that meant into a queue of slow moving vehicles, the golf did all they could to stop this car getting in infront of them and passing the bus. No one cut anyone up or made anyone change direction or brake but the fanfare of car horns was almost orchestral. Just let the car out and let's all stay calm. If you're in traffic being a selfish person isn't got you help you progress.

OK got that off my chest

This has not been proof read yet so please excuse predictive text and spelling errors

Size really does matter, Maybe

I've just had the radio on and listening to a news story about clothing sizes, particularly female clothes sizes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44367791 . It was whilst listening to this that I thought about a conversation I recently had with a fellow council who has successfully lost weight. His target is now to be of a certain chest and waist size rather than a particular weight. Combining the conversation I had and the news story I have to ask 'what is size all about ?

I have no idea what a size 12 is, or a 16, 20 etc and as clothing is often imported I wouldn't have a clue what a US size 0 is compared with Uk sizes, and then we get onto small, medium, large, xl, xxl, xxxl etc. what? no sorry not  a clue.

What I do know is that my waist size is larger than is like it to be but its measured in inches as is the length of my leg so if i go out to buy a new pair of trousers I look for those measurements, and should they be labelled small large etc then they generally get ignored.

Maybe its a sign of the times, with less outfitters and more mass produced garments that we are always looking for an average fit, trying to put labels on clothing and apply those labels to ourselves.

The news story featured an interview with someone who had taken to social media to voice their concern at not fitting into a particular size they thought they were. This interviewee went on to say how devastated she felt that she could not get into the clothing that was labelled up in her size. In a world of fast passed social media and todays unreality Tv shows I can quite sympathise with the impact this would have had.  Another tweeted "It's called UK size for a reason, it means all clothes UK stores should measure to that guide.". I think this however falls short of addressing the problem.

The problem is we ar all different in so many ways, and whilst i understand this creates a challenge for clothing manufacturers i still have to ask why do we not apply simple measures to clothing? In my halls at university there were a group of 6 of us in the same area, i recall one conversation whilst out shopping with one of them who had a slim waist and long legs with wide hips, he used to buy jeans that fit his waist and leg but went for an anti-cut to get a pair that fit him correctly.

Boom there's a solution - stop putting people into boxes and judging them accordingly and label clothing up based on actually measurements and different cuts from highwaisted to skinny, from anti-cut to boot cut. There's a reason bra sizes have more than one measurement why do we not apply some thought to clothing and scrap the meaningless sizes for actually measurements.