I am happy it is half term. Below is a poem I was writing while waiting for my last delivery man. I performed it at the #Klinker club last week, and read it out during a wellbeing discussion I facilitated at Lesoco college. It is as an example of how concern leads to abrupt response leads to anxiety leads to frustration leads to concerned response on all levels, leads to a lot of time being spent on issues that aren’t issues, demonstrating that we are just all ants milling about, doing our stuff until the next wave of ants take over.
10.43am Daisy has been late – Please respond with the reason
Firstly, I’m glad to hear she got to school, New Cross road is a big scary road, it amazes me that she gets there at all, dodging buses and crossing the Queens road all by herself, she’s so little. I find it scary just driving down it.
Re the reason why she is late, she left on time so there is the possibility that the bus was late or didn’t arrive or was full so she had to wait for another. There is also a possibility that she dropped her very heavy bag that she carries, or that something fell out, she was carrying so much, PE kit, water, large pencil case, books etc. It’s a real shame there is no room in schools for lockers, these children are going to have terrible problems as their little spines grow.
I have just realised, sometimes Daisy gets chatting to the homeless man sat by the bus stop, he could have distracted her and she missed the bus, or maybe she was chatting with a friend and got carried away. Maybe she was actually on the bus and got chatting and carried away and missed her stop, this is only her second week of secondary school, all very new.
I was also wondering if there had been an accident on New Cross Road. I hear ambulance and police sirens regularly and never sure where they end up, there is the possibility that the bus was involved in an accident or behind an accident and had to sit in traffic while other traffic diverted to the bus lane. Then there’s the driver, he or she may have had a psychotic episode, stopped the bus, got off and went to Sainsbury’s or TK Maxx. The bus could have broken down and passengers had to get off and get on the next one.
Sometimes there are people who stop the traffic because they have mental health issues and aren’t now being looked after. In the 1980’s when I was living in Bermondsey one of my neighbours spent all day walking over the same zebra crossing, over and over and over again. Sometimes that caused congestion. He’d been given away by his mother and lived in Barnado’s from the age of 2 and never really settled.
I’m struggling to think of any other reason, but if I do I will email straight back. I really hope this helps and if you get to see Daisy at school today, do please ask her whether I am on the right track with the real reason.
p.s. I was just looking at google travel info and there was a diversion earlier today on Lewisham Way, I’m not sure it would have had a great impact, it would depend on how many minutes she was actually late and where on Lewisham Way. If you would get back to me re the exact timings then I can work out whether this is the reason. I apologize, I should have looked at this first but my phone was on charge and I was eager to respond to you and I only have two sources of internet.
Since I’ve been writing this I have received another email from you re Daisy getting one behaviour point that I now need to discuss with her. The email was unsigned so I really don’t know who to respond to, however, please would you let me know the parameters of a behaviour point and if you are concerned about Daisy’s behaviour then I would appreciate a formal letter and a meeting.
At the weekend I stayed at my uncle Peter’s. Uncle Peter has been disabled since 1946 when he contracted Polio. On arrival I was pleased to find he had a new stair lift installed and sink moved in toilet to make mobility in and out of wheel chair easier. We chatted about delivery men and how he uses Sainsbury and how good they are in Southampton. We chatted about Brexit and education and he helped me respond to a ridiculous school email.
Oh what a busy day being mad with the madness that surrounds us but as usual, #Tesco delivery man came to the rescue to cheer me up. More than I can say for QS supplies delivery man who delivered me a toilet. He was very rude when I was just being nice, but his previous customer was rude to him and so it goes on. There is no one here to blame, the deliveries were to come last Friday and customers are angry, delivery man is angry because he’s probably paid 0 hours contract and told me he had to pay for any wooden pallets he took back, he asked for £5 but I took them with my friend/handy man to Southwark recycling and they were really nice and I hadn’t been there before so it was really exciting and it didn’t cost me anything, just wanted to see proof of council tax and I got to see what’s called in the trade as ‘Hardcore Waste’. The refuse man was alarmed at my over excitement and said:
After a mare of a week (re last blog) I was delighted to get back online and back into the normality of grocery shopping. What a lovely surprise when Marco arrived with our delivery. Marco was last here on 6th August and was very happy to pose for me in front of the asparagus #Tesco logo. (I would like to reassure #Tesco again that these shoots take up very little time but bring a lot of pleasure to many people.)
Liz Bentley 