Argh!  May 1st.  Not that it's ever done anything criminal enough to involve the Serious Crime Squad.  All it is guilty of is occurring on the first Thursday in May.  A time when Durham holds is local council elections.  Don't you just love these new ballot papers?   "Pick two only", says the message at the top of the voting form which proceeds to list about fifteen candidates claiming they have the public's welfare at heart.
To be honest, I only knew three names on the damn thing.  The rest live between three and seven miles out of the area and the only time you see them, if you're really unlucky, is after 7pm  on polling day and they think you haven't voted....  "So if you want to vote, Sir, we can give you transport to the polling station."
This is going to prove interesting when the results are announced,  We have the two obligatory Labour representatives (rapidly losing favour), a surprising amount of three Conservatives (who have never been known to get anyway in our predominantly socialist area), a British Nationalist Candidate and an odd assortment of Independents.  (They're the ones who count on the votes of the "Don't Knows" - Apparently).   Ooops,  nearly forgot the Lib-Dems. (almost, but not quite)

It's difficult enough when the two major parties are in control of local affairs, but if we ...
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It really annoys me when people who know very little about a subject actually get responsible jobs in the very field they have little or no knowledge of whatsoever.
Take, for example, the person who is employed by one of the north-east's education departments and is responsible for producing the lists of approved suppliers to each of their region's schools.  These lists, in theory, mean that someone has sourced the suppliers and has chosen them because they offer the best equipment at the lowest available price.  Works for me, so far!
I had an interesting discussion with , surprise, surprise,  a music teacher and the topic came around to introducing  the youngsters to  the recorder.  I was surprised when he told me his school had not even considered this activity because of the cost.
I was amazed, how much did a descant recorder cost from the 'approved list'?   The answer was unbelievable...a simple plastic bodied recorder in a PVC case was listed at GB£24.50.  Not surprisingly, the  supplier had been sourced from the Internet!
What I can't understand is the total lack of common sense by the person responsible not to have picked up a phone and called one or two of their local music stores to compare prices.
Typically, a cheap recorder that can be seriously used as an instrument for teaching purposes costs between GB£4.99-GB£6.99 in the northeast ...
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I introduced this section so my mate Matt and I could share some of our most profound arguments and discussions.
Since he moved to the Birmingham area to teach we never seem to have enough time to swap ideas, points of view, beer, funny stories or even punches.
Maybe our topical views will provide instruction, amusement or even enlightenment to others as we cuss, swindle, rob and otherwise barge our way through the narrow-minded highways of life, the universe, Everything...
We still may not find much time to make posts but if anything of extreme national importance comes our way, and we feel it ought to be brought into the open, don't worry you'll see it here first!