The perils of driving over a Bank Holiday

If you ever see me driving on a major trunk road on a Bank Holiday weekend (including the Friday) you have my permission to shoot me.
Ever since we had a journey from hell driving to a family golf day in Wiltshire, SWMBO and I have said we would NEVER drive ANYWHERE again on a Bank Holiday weekend Friday.
The golf day was scheduled for the Saturday of the early May Bank Holiday weekend in 2000 so we set off on the Friday afternoon “to miss the traffic”. Unfortunately no-one had told the other motorists on the M11, M25, M3 and A303 that we were trying to avoid heavy traffic and it ended up taking about eight hours instead of three and a half.
For the next 21 years we managed to avoid Bank Holiday travel. Until, that is, the last late August weekend.
I worked out it would take about four and a half hours (five with a stop) to drive from deepest Suffolk to Skipton in Yorkshire for a 50th wedding anniversary do.
So we left home at 10am, looking forward to settling into our hotel mid-afternoon for a relaxing couple of hours before joining our friends for a meal early evening in a country pub a few miles from Skipton.
As the journey went from bad to worse we rang the hotel and said we’d be late checking in as we’d decided to go straight to the pub.
We eventually got to the pub at 8pm. All the other revellers had eaten (the meal was at 6pm as there were three children in the party) and we checked into our hotel at about 10pm.
As I said, you have my permission to shoot. But please make it quick.

Time for charities to pull their socks up

I’m not sure whether it’s a Covid-19-related issue or what but I am amazed at the lackadaisical attitude of some charitable organisations towards their volunteers.
SWMBO has been helping out at a local charity shop for a number of years.
She chose the charity carefully, wanting to help one that meant something personal to the family.
When Covid-19 hit last year things were a little up in the air, with the shop not always able to open for its “usual” hours. Sometimes SWMBO was needed, other times not.
But the last few months has seen a real change in attitude. Basically, lines of communication have ground to a halt.
SWMBO had always been contacted but things changed when the shop manager was signed off work.
When this first happened, SWMBO, who volunteered for an afternoon a week, rang the shop regularly to see if she was needed.
Then, quite suddenly, the phone went unanswered. Did this mean the assistant manager and other volunteers were too busy to answer the phone? Had the shop closed? Was she still needed?
After several weeks of no communication SWMBO decided it would be best to pop into town and try and find out what was happening.
When she got to the shop she was met by a hand-written note, Blu Tacked to the inside of the door, with the new opening hours – which were now just a couple of days a week but not on the day she was usually in.
No-one from the charity had contacted SWMBO, either by telephone or email, to let her know what was happening; to say she was no longer needed on the “usual” day or to explain what might (and might not) happen in the coming months.
SWMBO also helps out at an activity-based organisation. She is emailed regularly and asked to help with events still some months away. Unless we are away she will always agree to help and always replies within a couple of days.
And then, as with the charity shop, communication grinds to halt. No follow-up email with timetables, schedule of events, when (or even if) she’s needed etc. A gently electronic prod a day or so before the event then gets an apologetic email – yes, she is needed, it will say, accompanied by all the relevant information.
SWMBO is, admirably, only slightly irritated by the lack of communication – she is, after all, a nicer and more tolerant person than I am.
But I have no doubt that at least one of the two organisations will lose a volunteer quite soon. They may not be paid but they are valuable.
BIL, my brother-in-law, had a similar situation a while back when a charity close to his heart let him down somewhat.
He was asked if he could put together a regular newsletter and immediately said he could. Well, I could. Within a couple of days we had a sample produced and sent to the charity’s head office.
Since then he has heard nothing. Zilch. Not even a “thanks but no thanks.”
Come on, charities. Get a grip. We can’t blame everything on Covid-19.