Freya Sykes’ Personal Blog

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Wakefield council have scored yet another home goal this time over sporting facilities in Wakefield.

For months they have lead the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats fans on…letting them believe Thornes Park was being earmarked as a potential site for a new stadium for the club.

Now here’s the crux of the problem…in order to be awarded a Superleague franchise the Clubs have to tick certain boxes and one of them is to have a suitable stadium (It’s actually a pretty big tick in the box to be honest) Without a new stadium WTW (Wakefield Trinity Wildcats) are likely to not be awarded a further continuation of their franchise in 3 years time. Which in turn will mean the death of the club as it is currently known.

A pity when you consider the sporting history at the club. For years it’s been the jewel in Wakefield’s sporting crown…something for the council to be proud of…but now they are neglecting it, abusing that history and that relationship they have shared for years.

Why?? Well one of the theories (and the one I tend to agree with) is that the Council Leader is one Cllr. Box, from the Castleford end of Wakefield. Now the smart money is on the theory that he favours that end of the 5 towns, naturally as that’s where he’s from…and that there is only ever going to be one stadium built in the Wakefield District and that’s going to be the Castleford stadium.

So why else are folk in Wakefield unhappy about the stadium issue? Well, Sun Lane baths were closed down over a year ago now along with the Lightwaves pool about 4 months ago…this means that Wakefield has shamefully been left with NO swimming pool in the district. As part of the proposed plan for the Thornes Park stadium there would have been a new swimming pool included too…so naturally the good taxpayers of Wakefield are pretty annoyed with the Cllrs who seem to constantly let them down in the Town Hall.

After all, Cllr Box shouldn’t allow his geographical preferences to cloud his judgment when it comes to city wide council decisions. And i’m certainly not being funny when I say this but the following fact is true…the Horbury/Ossett/Sandal end of Wakefield is the side with the highest proportion of taxpayers, simply because this side of the borough is not as deprived as the Ponte/Cas/Hemsworth side where Box comes from. That side of the borough is very much the poor relation, historically. It’s the side that had all the pits and the miners and unfortunately a part of that Mining legacy lives on today with that side of the district having higher unemployment rates (and therefore less council taxpayers) and yet they are getting all the benefits of the tax money (seemingly) whilst the more affluent areas seem to be the Taxpayers who are forever putting their hands in their pockets and not only getting buggerall back for it - but are actively getting facilities closed down by the council.

You can see how the bitterness is starting to fester across the west side of the city can’t you? (and I’ve no doubt I’ll get Cas fans who read this and “well I’m not unemployed…” or “Well Cas is still a part of the Wakefield District and we’ve been neglected for years now” etc, but I’m not in any way trying to run down Cas here…just stating things as I see them really. There is an indesputable wealth gap between the west and this side of Wakefield.)

To my mind it is a serious breech of duty on the part of Box and it certainly shows that he is not capable of running a complex organisation like the WMDC as well as it should be. The cracks are certainly there to see…sadly though I doubt he’s likely to be stepping down anytime in the near future. Ego’s and all that…why let a cushty number go when no ones forcing you to go etc??

So in the meantime, Wakefield rots and festers in the sports department and the taxpayers are shown a healthy disregard by the councillors at the Town Hall who continue to stick the proverbial two fingers up at the loyal fans of WTW as well as the taxpayers int he west of the district.

But hey…that’s NuLabour…NuSocialism for ya! Spin, spin spin and Grab grab grab and nothing in return!

And talking of spin…I did find it amusing that the council had in their reception a clutch of banners which would have cost a good healthy grand at least to make (knowing how much presentation banners are from experience!) expounding the value of having “healthy communities” with an image of a Great Britain swimmer on it…*groan* “back of the net” Wakey council with that one eh??
What chance have we got as a town of ever producing a Rebecca Addlington? And what will become of our beloved WTW? It seems if you want a sporting chance in life - then DON’T move to Wakefield unless you can afford to join an “expensive” local gym to use their pools facilities. DON’T expect that there will be a grass roots rugby league movement nuturing youth talent…we’ll be lucky at this rate to keep a decent club like Trinity going if Box and Co have their way.

What a disgraceful way to behave. They ought to be fully ashamed of themselves wasting our taxpayers money like that on feasability studies and the such like - all the while *knowing* they were never going to go ahead with the stadium in the park at all.

…As I say gross neglect of duty of the part of the council and as Box is presiding over this debarcle he should be the first to resign in my opinion.

What do you think?
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I will for the next couple of hours be trying to change my blog theme around to make a bit more “me”

So if you happen to wander along here during that time - apologies! It WILL look odd and nothing like it should - sorry but I should be done fiddling in the next couple of hours!!

Cheers guys.

**********Up date…ok ok - I’m about half way there and as they say “i’m having technical problems” with finishing it off.  (I can’t seem to access the CSS coding file on my back office to edit it and make changes - any help…greatly appreciated!!)

So yes I know you can’t read the writing on the title/header…I know it’s white!  But I’m not finished yet!  But hang in there and bear with me - it won’t be too long before I’m done.

Cheers again guys***************************

ps if anyone wants to make suggestions for hexidecimal codes for the title writing colours please feel free to.

It would seem the Government is at it again…lying and trying to hide the truth from the general public.

This time it’s HiPs…and what makes this story worse is the fact that the Government commissioned a study to find out the usefulness of HiPs - using taxpayers money - but when it came back as less than favourable they have tried their best to bury the report…certainly until after the HiPs have been made law.

Yup that’s right - they commissioned a report that they hoped would say that HiPs were wonderful and glorious - but when it didn’t they tried to hide it away from the very people (ie the taxpayers - you and me!) who had to pay for this report (without much choice on the matter.)

The full story can be read at www.estateagenttoday.co.uk (http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/Story/?title=Dry%20run%20research%20on%20HIPs%20finally%20gets%20an%20airing&storyid=1056&type=news_features) …and I think commentator Dorothy Roberts has a good point - it is disgusting that Government is misleading the public at best and at worst lying through it’s teeth to them. However though whilst the HiP providers ARE moaning that people should “shut up and put up” with the Hips “because they are a good thing and are here to stay” (yeah right) the reason they cheer about them is that they of course have a vested interested.

Interestingly, there is another comment on the there from “Mark” the estate agent saying he thinks the HiPs are great too…ummmm yes, probably because he is stinging his clients for “extra money” on the Hips without them realising…either that or he’ll be getting a kick back for every HiP he sends to a HiP provider - so yeah he’ll be sticking up for HiPs -wonderful aren’t they when they’re lining YOUR pocket…not really what it’s all about is it Mark?? That’s not really why they were bought in was it? So with the HiPs will be no doubt propping up his firm at the moment…after all he doesn’t have to sell a house to make money this way does he and lets face it - what agent’s selling houses at the moment…there ain’t any!

So what do I think of “Mark”? Not a lot - in fact he’s probably your architypal Estate Agent…skimming money off his clients without them even knowing it.

He probably does all this with a smile on his face and flash of his teeth and will think secretly that his clients are as dumb as you like - paying him extra for their HiPs.

And this legalised money spinning is why HiPs should be stopped right away. The only ones being fleeced in all this are the general public it would seem…here’s hoping it’s the first thing the Tories get rid of when they come into power!

Amethyst

Originally uploaded by Redcrow at Corvus Chainmaille

One of my contacts - Sara - on Flickr, designs and makes jewelry and here’s her latest addition to Flickr - wow or what?
This is gorgeous and yes I would without a doubt, accept with much glee, any present like this!!

Well Christmas is just round the corner isn’t it? lol!

If you want to see more of Sara’s work then click on the picture and it will take you to her wonderful images on Flickr. If you want to contact Sara then her contact details are on the page headed “profile” (or if you’re new to Flickr and get lost - just send me a comment here and I’ll point you in the right direction.)

In the meantime - excuse me whilst I sit and stare at the wonder that is this gorgeous Amethyst. (*sigh!*)

So with HBOS being swallowed up by Lloyds TSB everyone is asking what will become of the bespeckled Howard from the Halifax ad - who apparently was chosen from their staff to star int he adds and was then plonked back into his old job when finished with.

In fairness the answer is quite simple - he will of course be the most secure in his future prospects of all his colleagues - after all, he is a household name and with any savvy he will have got himself an agent and will be on The One Show’s grubby little sofa of shameless self promo before too long selling his life story - in hard back and e-version …you mark my words.

As for his colleagues - well I’m afraid despite having had cameras shoved in their faces in Halifax town today all day - and them stoically putting a brave face on it (”Well we see what happens but I’m sure my job will be safe”) I can think of only one thing…It’s a take over and the business being taken over is always the one to loose it’s work force - after all they are the ones who come from the “ailing” company - so it’s only natural for it to work that way.

I’m afraid Halifax’s jobcentre is going to have a rush on in the coming days/weeks.  Perhaps they may have to take on staff in order to cope with the influx?? Now there’s a thought for any current employees of HBOS.

…and more improtantly what you should do with it is always going to be a major issue for an business owner.

Investing in a good cross cutting shredder should be top of your list when setting out, but DON’T use your shedded information like this one company did in this article I found here (!) OMG - they didn’t?? They DID! 

You have to be aware that there are thieves out there who trawl the net selling these sorts of details and they just love getting their hands on sensitive information like this.  More to the point it is illegal to handle data in a slapdash, loose hand way.  You can be prosecuted for it.

So with the squeeze being felt by more and more folk thanks to the credit crunch you can expect a rise in certain ”easy/faceless” crimes such as information fraud, so do your bit and don’t make it easy for the fraudsters to get their hands on your customers details.  Don’t leave laptops unattended (and certainly not without a password lock on there!)  Don’t leave memory sticks where they can be stolen and keep all files locked away especially if they hold sensitive info.  You can of course go to great lengths to secure your data and often at not very much expense too, so there really is no excuse!  

Ok so here’s the crack…I’m talking to a friend of mine who happens to mention that her husband makes biodiesel…”oh ok - how does that work then?” I say as my ears prick up.  “Oh I’m not sure really - he sort of does all his mixing of chemicals down in the shed and it’s a bit like homebrew - just a bit more potent!”  Hmmm.  Homebrew you say?  Chemicals eh?  Hmmm so I hopped onto the ole tinterweb and put into Google “how to make Biodiesel”.

Bang! Up comes the instructions and well to  be honest…I ain’t no chemist but I reckon even I could handle it…so am I ging to give it a try.  You bet I am!  With Diesel prices spirialling out of control and it being our second biggest monthly expenditure out of our household budget after the mortgage, well yeah I’m going to give it a try.

So my biggest worries were:

Will it knacker my car up?  *seems not by all accounts, and the cars seems to run just as well/smoothly.

Is it legal?  *yes so long as you don’t sell it - you can make it for personal use.

Is it safe?  *No is it buggery - you’re playing with chemicals and frankly that’s NEVER safe…I should know, my Father used to own a Dyestuffs and Chemicals firm and whilst he now looks about fifty (despite being nearly 70) it’s all down to the unexpected “chemical peels” he gave himself whilst working!!  Three times he managed to burn his face off completely in chemical spills during the 40 odd years that he was working…so no it’s not safe whenever you fiddle with chemicals but so long as you exercise caution and know what to mix and in what quantities then you should be ok.  For Biodiesel production you’re not actually using chemcials that can’t be found in the home in different guises but that’s not to say they aren’t caustic and shouldn’t be handled with care.

Can I sell it?  *seems it’s possible but you need a licence…however it seems the government aren’t exactly helpful in giving out info as to where you get the licence from - but hey why would they??  You’re doing the treasury out of it’s filthy lucre!

So I’m going to try to make my first batch this next week and I’ll let you know how it goes….who knows if it’s any good and I can find out where to get a licence from - I may put it into production.  After all..I see no reason not to, do you? 

Ok so Britain is now “officially” heading into a recession and all the indicators are certainly there:  stalled property market, weak pound against the Euro, astronomical petrol prices, redundancies being doled out like sweeties at the end of Lent…well…I’m sure you get the idea! 

So what’s the solution to all this?  If you’ve just recently become one of the many hundreds of folks up and down the country who have been made redundant then you might just be thinking about setting up your own business from home and to be frank - there really couldn’t be  better time to think about doing it.

Here at one of my companies - Homefinder UK - we recently did a bit of research with Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation and Edmund King of the AA which showed that actually it really does pay off to work from home.  You will of course save on petrol/commuting costs and we found in our part of the research that homes in the same areas were priced higher (and indeed were actually selling for more) than similar houses that didn’t have a study or a dedicated office.  So great news all round then…work from home - for yourself, so no nasty boss to stress you out with their demands, no petrol/commuting costs, simply roll out of bed, breakfast and work from the comfort of your own home! Bliss.  Oh and whilst you’re at it you can rest, quite smug, in knowledge that your little office at the bottom of the garden has made sure the price of your house has risen over that of the neighbour’s next door!!

So lower over heads, bigger profits - what’s not to like really?  Ok ok so I know it’s not quite that simple…and I should know - I’ve run my own business from home for the last 5 and half years.  Yes there’s definately some high points but then again there’s some really, really low points too.   Trust me I’ve seen it all in that time and nothing fazes me now…which is why I’ve set up my second homeworking business (www.yorkshiretoffee.com ) and I’m in the process of setting up my 3rd one (ummm…it’s not really for the gentle hearted and is - shall we say, a *specialist* business?!  lol!) 

So yes I guess by now I’m pretty well versed in setting up and running a homeworking business.  As such I’m planning to write and set up an e-course to help other people to set up a home business too…after all I know all the pit falls - I’ve walked the walked and I definately know all the best ways to short cut a business to success…so, why not?  I may as well make available the information I’ve learnt to other people who are wanting to set up their own successful home business too.  So as they say …watch this space as I’ve been working on the project for a little while now and it’ll be ready for release shortly and I’ll let you know here first how you can join the select few that I’ll be helping to take their business to the heady heights of success! 

…how life takes twists and turns and you never quite end up where you think you will eh?

The Ebor races are cancelled, the A64 in Leeds is blocked because of flooding and all of our rivers are dangerously high again.

Is this really August for the second year in a row?  Is it just me or is this crap?