Boxing Day 26 December 2021

Last Sunday I was booked in to attend the (from a pedestrian's viewpoint) abysmally signposted @wiltscouncil Wiltshire Unitary Council owned Chippenham - Mobile PCR Testing Unit at Chippenham Council Depot SN15 5PT and set off in plenty of time walking to find it but what with fog and a road run taking place was unable to locate it and during the following week put in twice to receive a home test kit. Despite acknowledgement neither arrived. Eventually following prompting by the Zoe App I applied again to attend the mobile unit having convinced myself that I knew the directions to find it. Coming out of Cocklebury Lane the Google App tried to take me to the left telling me the destination was 3 minutes walk away. I knew it wasn't! Confirming with a lovely family walking down the footpath from the right that it was indeed in that direction I continued along the footpath to the junction taking a right at the roundabout walking past the Wavin factory the app was then telling me the location was 7 minutes walk away. It was indeed at https://www.google.com/url?q=https://w3w.co/retract.rotation.trickster The staff at the centre were excellent but I was astonished to disconver they were part of the French owned Sudexo outfit https://uk.sodexo.com/your-industry/healthcare.html who seem to have taken over the testing system. Thank goodness for our friends in #Europe. Our wonderful NHSStaff are currently under immense pressure. They have a bad pay and conditions deal and the ongoing #Pandemic is putting them under immense extra pressure. I spent 2 weeks in the #Care of the wonderful RUH Bath in August and I'd have happily contributed on top of my #NI payments over the years to a top-up fund to chip in toward giving #NHSstaff a fair pay structure. The fact that a Staff Nurse is paid, I think, £12 PH and butchers for example are paid £15 PH is a total disgrace. Fair enough those going into the medical profession do so in part because it's a dedication and something they are wonderful at but they must be given fair pay and conditions. We the public demand this. Given we know that some #NHSStaff are forced to visit #Foodbanks currently to make ends meet is an extra travesty. As an aside, I will be donating through sponsoring one of my daughters running in March for the @foreverfriendsappeal https://www.foreverfriendsappeal.co.uk/

Book Review - Shallow Ground by Andy Maslen

 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53817640-shallow-ground" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Shallow Ground (DI Henry Ford, #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1591269095l/53817640._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53817640-shallow-ground">Shallow Ground</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/870945.Andy_Maslen">Andy Maslen</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4329773180">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

Andy Maslen really has hit the Crime Drama scene running with this his first detective Ford book. A superbly intricate cast of characters thrown together, a sad but excellent build-up to the start of the real crime. I just love the way he adds so much extra detail to the story, such as the weather, sun on cornfields etc it makes it feel all the more real. I'm about 3 chapters in and already this series is up thereof not well beyond J K Rowling aka Galbraith’s Corman Strike series. It actually has the hairs on the back of my neck rising as I read about one line of enquiry dropping into place. Superb. It also has me smiling a lot when nice things start to happen. A full-on page-turner from the start to the very last page. Quite brilliant. 

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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/116363905-geoff-brewer">View all my reviews</a>

Housebuilding

 It's a bit rich to find Tory MP's being critical of their Government strategy being implemented by the Council they control through their dreadful cabinet system. This vast housebuilding programme ALL OVER the country is happening. 7,500 new houses to be built on green pasture land in Chippenham supported by an unwanted road carving up from Laycock around the back of the town crossing the river and cycle track. Not bringing new jobs with them but serving commuters out of the town. In the blink of an eye we will see Devizes absorb Pottern, Roundway, Coate, Bishops Cannings having already absorbed Nurstead village. Chippenham marches ever faster to join up with Calne. Westbury and Trowbridge are fast becoming one entity. Where does it all stop?