"'refuse' you ... ouch Sarah.."Oops! John! Are you okay? I heard that ‘ouch’, upstairs.I do believe that you have entirely the wrong impression, of moi. Let me clear the air.My writings about the goings on at The Fortress are driven from an exasperation. Any other walk of life you would converse with ‘them that be’, and get a sensible answer. I do not find the customer service ‘pat’ answers of ‘nothing will be done until a child is killed’ (there was another strange one I had about vehicles mounting the pavement at the bottom of St Johns road, which will come to me … ) very suitable.On the other hand, I do not find the screaming and shouting and demanding of things to be done, very comfortable either. I should put my mind to a booklet on ‘How to converse with the Fortress; a concerned citizens guide.’ Indeed, I think that we may have started this booklet on the forum?Per-raps it is me, but it appears to be a very strange setup in the place which takes such a huge amount of money from my bank account each month, without giving me much of a say, when they are spending it strangely? The option of getting something done if I pace the walls and shout a bit (well, shout a lot, actually, ‘cause I had quite a cough the morning after the PTA’s attempt to break out some sense from within) is just as strange.You have to bear in mind that from an outsiders, to the insiders, point of view, tis a strange state of affairs when you first have cause to mix.I don’t mix with this fraternity so maybe my point of view, might be, shall we say, ‘offset’, to theirs? I might even use the word ‘circles’ as I do feel peculiarly dizzy, on occasion? … Before any wise Herberts or Guy’s move on in, I don’t touch gin and it is a Friday, so allow me, if you don’t mind?A while ago, well things may have changed, I had to wait on corridor 1 inside the fortress. The queue was lengthy and then everyone was very busy, so I had time to wander. A number of the posters were pretty much out of date, and certainly not accessible should you be under 5ft 10” (leaning across a desk whilst somebody was talking at a table in front of the very important notice). Should you have been in a wheelchair, well, I shouldn’t think anyone in a wheel chair would have even bothered to look?The interesting bit was the route which Zec took to his desk. This was easy to spot, ‘cause the posters were all very statistical and factual and praising ones of the merits of The council. Don’t know if he ever bothered to stop and read them? They were probably an extension of the ones people placed on his desk for him to read, all day long? The bits they want him to see?Heck, look, I have seen this done, chaps. Y’know enter Boss’s office, holding just enough papers in arms to look as if one is busy, but not too great a pile as to bend ones arm. Top of the pile hold colourful displayed information ones about how well the weather (inside the fortress) is. As you leave, drop copies of such papers on any spare bits of uncluttered desk top. Repeat the process the following day and so on?The ones on the other staircase, the route up to the public places, were pretty bland in comparison.I have had this strange interest in ‘public information’ since I went on a course, years ago, where they had been listening to comments people were making about the lifts in the building. It was one of those pow-sh Civil Service buildings in London, so maybe there were reasons to take account of comments made by the persons within?There had been great grumblings about the length of time the lifts took to respond to the Principals Prime finger, so somebody was despatched, to find somebody, to sort it out. The end result was not the super boost button (hidden under the panel, key access only) but notice boards at the waiting points beside the lifts, and the removal of any methods of time watching (rumour had it that these clocks reappeared above the tea urns). Until they worked out what was needed on the notice boards, there was the same style as in the HM magazine, of spreading the information around and out, just to cover the board underneath.Do you think that the snow will melt today?
Sarah Felstead ● 7357d