Banger racing this weekend

This weekend, the annual two day banger meeting takes place at Netherbridge, just over the border into Devon. It is a great event put on by North Cornwall Motor Racing Club.

If you have never seen banger racing, it is quite a spectacle. There are different classes from full contact bangers to classes which (in theory) allow no contact. There are even junior classes.

The NCMRC holds a number of meetings each year, but the two day August meeting is a highlight. You will be amazed at how some of the cars apparently written off on day one can make it onto the track again on day two.

Racing starts at 1.30pm on Saturday and at 12.30pm on Sunday. On Saturday evening there is a BBQ and music. Entry is £6 for adults each day and £3.50 for kids and OAPs.

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Apple and Orange back off the naughty step

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about problems I had been having with my phone as a result (it seems) of upgrading to the latest operating system.

I'm happy to say that I have got as new handset from Apple (which works) and just had a call from Orange to apologise that I was given the wrong information by their helpdesk. They have also agreed to compensate me for the time I was cut off.

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Dear Apple and Orange - you are in danger of losing a customer

Congratulations Apple and Orange, your new operating system is losing you a customer.

Last Saturday I got a message on my phone (a four month old iphone 4S) to say that I should upgrade to the new ios6 operating system. I had read the comments about the problems with the mapping software but figured that I could live with that problem and so I pressed the upgrade button. Big mistake.

Since that time my battery life has been cut by at least 50% to the extent that it needs re-charging during the course of a working day. And, in addition, I can't make or receive a call without losing signal and being cut off within 30 seconds. Even when a call starts with a full five bars of signal, it will disappear to nothing and cut me off within 30 seconds which makes it a bit difficult to do my job.

So today I called Orange. They told me that the problem with my signal might be because the new EE carrier isn't working yet and I should manually select Orange as a different carrier. Brilliant. They upgrade me to a system that doesn't work.

Unfortunately, even that didn't work and the phone tries to shove me back onto the EE signal at every opportunity. I asked about returning to the old operating system and was told that this is a strictly one way process.

And what of the battery life? Well Orange seem to think that my handset magically developed a hardware fault at exactly the same moment as I upgraded the system. Not so sure about that one. So then they suggested I call Apple.

After the usual ten minutes of menu options and speech recognition lady, I'm put on hold. And then they cut me off.

I'll give it one more go to try to call them tomorrow morning. If not, I'll be returning my otherwise lovely iphone and cancelling my contract.

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Perfect music for St Piran's Day

Launceston's own Crowns have released their new single today and the video features a criminal waste of Stoggs.



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Subscribe to my regular e-newsletter

I've started producing a regular monthly(ish) email newsletter focusing on my work for the people of Launceston as a Cornwall Councillor.

The first edition went out last week and included a review of the annual Launceston debate, news about the adoption of Kensey Valley Meadow and about the application to build houses on the police station overflow car park in Moorland Road.

So if you are interested in receiving this newsletter, please sign up by clicking on the link below:


Subscribe to my newsletter


*I say monthly-ish because I'm not going to bombard you with non-news. If there's something urgent and important to say then it might come out more frequently, but if there is little going on then I won't clog up your inbox.

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No you may not call your child 'Anal'

Way back in 2008 I wrote a post about silly names given to children and it's proved to be one of my most popular posts - even though I suspect most people are actually looking for public transport between Edgware and Victoria. Now officials in New Zealand have released a list of names they have refused to allow parents to give to their children.

There are no specifically banned names, officials insist. But the rules state that they must be less than 100 characters long, not appear to confer a position on the child (so Princess and Justice have both been refused on a number of occasions) and cannot be offensive. In the latter category, some parents apparently wanted to bestow the name 'Anal' on their newborn - a case where government prevention seems the least they deserve.

Numbers ('89'), Roman Numerals ('II' and 'III') and keyboard symbols '*' and '/') are banned, as are single letters ('J' is popular, presumably among Simpsons fans) and religious references (lots of 'Lucifers' have been saved).

There are a few of the names which sound like they should be adopted by bands - 'Yeah Detroit' and 'Keenan Got Lucy' are great - but nothing trumps 'Tulula Does The Hula From Hawaii', or Kay as she now prefers.

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Late Night Shopping tomorrow!

Launceston's annual festive bonanza takes place tomorrow evening with and evening of entertainment in and around the town. The event is known simply as 'late night shopping' but it's far more than just having the shops open late.

There will be a parade featuring camels, the town band and a samba band. There will be street stalls and a charity auction and there will be food and drink available. And you can do your Christmas shopping at the same time.

If you haven't been before, it's a huge party.

And the lovely people at the Town Council have announced that they won't be charging for car parking in the multi-storey car park after 4pm (the Cornwall Council car parks are always free after 4). So there's no excuse for not coming to join in the fun.

Last year I almost got gored by a reindeer. I'll try not to get trodden on by the camels this time.

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Another great Visit Cornwall video

From the same source (I think) as the spoof Visit California ad comes this latest Visit Cornwall video. Next time, I hope he manages to make it up as far as Lanson!

My 1000th Blogpost

It's a milestone! This is the 1000th post I have made on this blog.

When I started in February 2008, I thought that this would be a mixture of national stuff, sport, TV and whatever else I felt like writing about with a bit of politics thrown in. I even contemplated putting a weekly recipe or book review on here. It hasn't exactly turned out like that.

Whilst there have been a few random postings (the latest of which was my giving up smoking post last week), I've focused more and more on Cornwall Council and local politics. I still comment on national stuff from time to time and still have lots of photos when I'm doing work for the Lib Dems (especially around conferences and the general election).

I hope that this season I'll be a bit more disciplined about putting up match reviews and photos from Cornish All Blacks games.

But at its heart, this blog was set up to concentrate on what's happening in Launceston and how the decisions being made by Cornwall Council affect us in our town. I tag every post I write and the most common tag is 'politics'. That's not so much because I'm a politician (which I am), but because almost everything we do has a political aspect to it, even if we don't usually think of it that way. Politics matters to our everyday lives and therefore the people who make the political decisions matter. That's why Cornwall Council matters and why the elected members - of whatever party or none - are all politicians. We all need to be held to account, but this means we need to be constantly explaining to our local residents what we are doing and what we are thinking.

So here's to another 1000 posts.

Coming up soon will be Cornwall Council's emergency budget. Will it threaten local frontline services? Can we keep and expand localism and really involve more local people in the decisions that affect them? Will the coalition government survive the full five years and what will be the shape of the Lib Dems at the end of that process? Will the Cornish All Blacks be competitive this season? Will I still be off the ciggies come Christmas?

If you have any thoughts about this blog, please do let me know. Either reply in the comments or feel free to send me an email - alexfolkes (at) gmail (dot) com.

Giving up smoking (again)

If you come across a slightly manic looking, crazily chewing person in Launceston over the next few weeks, that'll be me. I've given up smoking (again).

I think it's the eighth or ninth time that I've given up. Ironically, I've always been pretty successful at the task. Although not, of course, successful enough to quit for good.

One of my early attempts involved giving up at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. It wasn't the greatest party anyway, but I managed to make it infinitely worse for the person I had gone with. What should have been a time of careless abandon turned into increasingly tetchy behaviour. Lesson one in giving up smoking - give up from when you get up.

I truly admire those who give up on willpower alone. For me, the advent of nicotine patches and other aids has helped hugely. When they first came out, nicotine patches did something weird to my skin and brought me out in a rash that lasted for several weeks. So I had to avoid putting one anywhere they had been before. It's surprisingly easy to run out of arm space.

It may be psychological, but they also seem to give an extra hit of nicotine if you hit them. Hence the sight of me furiously slapping my arm in a particularly tedious meeting.

Using the patches I could give up for as much as a couple of months. The experts say that the first few weeks are the worst. I got through that time relatively easily, but succumbed when the hardest part was behind me.

The last time I gave up (before this time, obviously) was on the day of the St Austell Bay by-election last October. Elections are pretty stressful events and polling day is usually the worst. I just figured that if I could make it through that then I could do anything. I was right (in as much as I ever am), but two months later was back on the Marly Lights.

I was determined to quit again though. This time for good (yeah, right). The trouble is that I'm an inconsistent smoker. There are some people who smoke 20 a day every day and never waver. For me, it varies (varied?) hugely - anything from 10 to 20. In my nicotine addled brain I decided that I would be wasting cash if I quit when I was halfway through the packet. So I carried on for days (at £6.13 a pack) until bedtime and the end of the pack looked like coinciding. That day was yesterday. So in the afternoon I went up to the pharmacy counter at Tesco and got myself my latest batch of nicotine replacement materials. I've got seven days worth of patches and about 70 pieces of gum. (By the way, the gum you get today actually tastes like regular gum, rather than licking out pub ashtrays).

I'm currently about 18 hours cigarette free. I've been out and about most of the day so I don't just sit around and eat, but I haven't yet stocked up on cigarette replacement food. Those little baby carrots you can get pre-peeled are the best for me. You can munch a whole bag and not feel like Gok Wan would shoot you and they also have a bit of cigarette like shape.

I haven't yet had a truly zealoty conversation, but I'm sure it will come soon. The sort of chat where I lambast someone for the very idea of such a disgusting habit. (Hypocrite, moi?)

So if you see me in the street chewing, wish me luck. If you see me smoking, demand all my smoking materials and destroy them.

Size matters - at least in cream tea terms

I went to a fascinating meeting this afternoon with some TV producers from cable channel UK TV Food. They are making a series called 'Monster Munch' which will feature competitions to produce the biggest of certain types of food.

One of the ideas they are considering is to produce the biggest cream tea. And, to perpetuate a debate that has been fascinating BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed for a while, they plan to have a cook off between teams from Devon and Cornwall.

And so they came to talk to a group of us in Launceston about whether we would like to take part and what ideas we had.

Dave, the owner of Mad Hatters Tea Shop in Church Street, has already been thinking quite seriously about this and how he would go about creating a World Record scone. (It's quite complex and relies on bars in the middle of the scone to make sure it is all cooked properly).

Other businesses are keen to help as well including the newly re-opened Harveys which has a huge oven for the cooking side of things. I am told that Kensey Foods and Roddas (the only place to buy proper Cornish Clotted Cream in my opinion) are also joining in.

If we are lucky enough to be picked to take part, we also want to have a huge tea party to celebrate.

Could this end the 'jam on top of cream' vs 'cream on top of jam' debate once and for all? Probably not, but I very much hope that the TV producers decide to invite Launceston to take part.

Miss Cornwall stripped... of her title

Miss Cornwall has been stripped of her title after it was discovered that she was too old to enter the competition and had no connection with Cornwall.

You can find all the details here.

Being a teacher, I suppose she could still lay claim to being Miss...

How much to park here?

In news reminiscent of London, someone in St Ives has recently paid around £60,000 for a parking space.

Full story here.

Apologies

I would like to apologise to all readers of c'llr. magazine who may have been startled when they opened this month's edition to find my features dominating the front page.

But it's nice to see Launceston mentioned lot!

The frozen flashmob

Absolutely brilliant

It's cold and wet, so it must be the start of summer

There is an argument raging at the moment about when summer can be said to officially start. Is it the beginning of June or is that still a spring month. How about July, when the school holidays start?

For me, summer starts with the late May bank holiday weekend. You can guarantee that the previous few weeks have been wonderfully sunny. Particularly the four weeks leading up the first Thursday in May when I have been spending all my time electioneering and have had not chance to get anywhere near a beach.

The Whitsun bank holiday is also when Run to the Sun occurs - thousands of VW Beetles and camper vans litter the hard shoulder of the A30 and AA men book the weekend off to avoid having to try to fix the most inaccessible engines known to man.

It is the real start to summer because Cornwall sees its first real influx of holiday makers. Parents decide that prices are too steep to take the family overseas during half term. Dad misremembers the halcyon days of his childhood (it was actually August) and packs Mum and grumpy teenagers into the Picasso for a seven hour road trip to a campsite near Tintagel.

Also this weekend is the Launceston Steam Fair where I have been today on car parking duty. The show last year was steaming hot and packed with happy tourists and locals developing (if they weren't already) all the characteristics of puffer-nutters. Henceforth, they won't be able to see a cardboard box of oily engine bits without having a rummage through to see if anything takes their fancy. It doesn't matter that the dull grey metal all came from either a 1970s Indesit washing machine or an Austin Allegro - it might look a bit like the bit they think they have been searching for and so they'll take it on the off chance.

This year, the weather forecast was a bit different. I stood all day in a field wearing a large orange 'hi-vis' jacket trying to persuade drivers that their stopping distance on sloping wet grass is likely to be a tad more than usual. The rain bucketed down and the wind blew a gale. My generosity in donating my time in return for bronchial pneumonia was to support the Launceston Rugby Club minis and juniors who receive a donation from the Steam Rally organisers for their car parking efforts.

I'm sure the Steam Rally itself has a wide range of attractions and fun for all the family. It's just that when it rains, it's not quite the same.

Still, at least there weren't any Morris Dancers.

Back online

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. One eve of poll my lap top died and it has taken me until now to get a new one. So welcome please my shiny new MacBook.

Why a Mac? Well, despite the apparent extra cost, the price is actually about the same as a similar spec PC. Of course you can get a PC much cheaper, but not one capable of doing all the work I need to.

In addition, I think Macs look nicer, don't crash nearly so often and are quicker to start up and close down.

Oh, and because all my computer games are in PC format, I can wean myself off them too.

More doppelgangers

Following my post about Rob and Stephen below, I've been told by a couple more councillors that they often get mistaken for colleagues.

This one I can sort of see:

This one I can't:

Separated at birth?

A bit of confusion at Strategic Planning it would seem. Someone misidentified Tory Stephen Rushworth for my Lib Dem colleague Rob Nolan. Surely not!

Welcome Tilly Jade Paynter

Congratulations to my council colleague Adam Paynter and to Katy his wife and welcome to Tilly Jade Paynter who was born at Treliske in the early hours of this morning.