Up up and away~ not today!

In the UK it is compulsory to place your name on the Electoral Register to vote in elections and referendums. However, not every household returns their forms and these have to be followed up through personal visits. Today Embee and I have been out all day chasing up some of these forms. We do get paid for this, albeit not very much for the amount of effort it takes. When the weather is warm and reasonably sunny like today I quite enjoy it. Over the years you get used to visiting the same households, I'm always amused by the reasons excuses people have for not having returned their forms. It was rather funny to find a couple of houses where the wife confidently said "my husband posted it" for them to then admit the forms were still in the car. Someone else said we've been talking about that~ excuse me forget talking about it just fill the form and post it. I felt so sad for one elderly lady whose husband had died four days ago and today would have been their wedding anniversary, I think she said it would have been 43 years. I was pleased that she had all her family with her today.
An added bonus is that Embee meets me for lunch at one of the pubs in the area and this helps the day along. Towards the end of the day, with only five more houses to visit before I headed home, I saw a hot air balloon gradually loosing height and eventually landing in one of the fields. That's when I wished I had my camera, I nearly put it in the car but decided I wouldn't need it~ wrong again! As I was writing this I remembered that back in August I took a photo of a very similar balloon that floated over the gardens one evening so that's what I'm posting.
I'm sure everyone else will be watching the rugby rather than blogging. Embee did tell me the score so far and England are currently trailing which is not good news. However there's still time for them to reverse this~ I must send positive vibes!!

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October 20th 2006: No archive

How I got my daily dose of excercise today!!

Nothing remotely worth mentioning has happened today. Mike and I have spent most of the day with a smile on our face knocking on doors in an attempt to get people, who have failed to return their electral registration forms, to complete the form. We do this over a three week period and have another week to complete the task. We have to visit during the evenings or weekends when people might be home. Doesn't always work in practise as people who've been at work all week are out and about at the weekend. We have both come across a few people who are ignorant and abusive, we have had doors slammed in our faces and refusal to complete the forms despite the fact that it is a legal requirement and individuals can be fined quite heavily. Then you meet people who are lonely and want a chat and it's hard to get away. Some people, when they realise you are from the council, think you can solve all their problems. For example one elderly lady thought I could prevent her neighbour building a garage to her adjoining wall which she said took several inches of her land. Someone else couldn't understand why I was unable to take all their forms for their council tax exemption and another person had a problem with the drains. So you can see why this takes a long time, the social worker in me would like to help everyone but we have to stick to the task in hand. So we will be out tomorrow doing more of the same!! and if the weather continues to be sunny and dry it's actually not such a chore. Now if it rains we ask ourselves why do we do it- well the money helps pay for a holiday so that's a good enough reason and I do want to visit Sam next year.