I'm busy over the next few weeks and will be working some funny hours, which has led to a dilemma. Big Boy's Bum. As you may have read in my previous posts, Bar-Os has partial paralysis of his rear end, so needs help in that department - help several times a day as it happens, because horses go about 8 - 12 times a day. Barman, who is secretly looking for a scive off work, has volunteered to 'do' Big Boy's Bum.
Yesterday got off to a poor start and I wasn't quite sure whether Barman was going to faint or not, and that was before we'd even got started! So today he decided to have another go.
Some of my favourite books are the James Herrriot vet stories, one of them is called If Only They Could Talk. Well let me tell you, the look on Bar-Os' face as Barman approached with sleeve rolled up, orange gloved and gelled up to the elbow, said it all -'I don't very think so buster'. There was much huffing and puffing on Barman's part, lots of soothing words from me (to Bar-Os of course:-)) and very little progress! Eventually I took over the reins, so to speak, more out of pity than anything else. I have a funny feeling that I won't be hanging up the lubrication gel just yet. Men eh!
In accordance with the vets advice, I have continued riding Bar-Os and he's in fine form, so much so that I mis-laid the brakes the other day. The fields are mostly clear of crops now and some of them haven't been ploughed yet, so I have been busy trespassing on the stubble fields and exploring new locations. A bit of new territory always gives Bar-Os a spring in his step and it's nice to see him enjoying himself. The faster exercise seems to help in the bum department too, as he's managing to go to the loo himself a few times a day.
So, that's enough about rectums! I haven't got a pupillage yet, but have a couple of applications outstanding. One is provincial and local, the other in London, both are entirely different to one another, but each look interesting. Having gotten through the Situational Judgement Test with the GLS, I went onto fail the following psychometric test thingy. It's obviously not my thing, as I failed the same type of test last year. I feel very thick!
I now have to sort out an email (which I've been meaning to do all week) to the hotel at the back of my house. The hotel featured on one of those trouble-shooting programmes last year and is owned by a pair of clueless, absentee, Americans. Having spent over £6m on the place, it stands mostly empty. The health spa is unfinished, the restaurant is unfinished, the kitchen is no larger than a decent domestic one, yet is meant to be able to cater for hundreds? The only activities which take place are weddings and parties, which are run by outside caterers and which brings me to the email. In their wisdom, the hoteliers offer firework displays, the 'industrial' ones that are loud, very loud, and are right at the back of Bar-Os' stable. Poor lad is terrified every weekend, refuses to eat or drink and then gets colic. I've had 2 weekend vet visits due to the said fireworks and am just about fed up with it all, not least the hefty bills that accompany the vet visits. So, I'm getting myself psyched up to rattle off a snotty letter and just hope that something will be done about it. A few other villagers with pets are also complaining, so I'm not alone in my plight, but it's very annoying that people can be so thoughtless about these things and have to be told time and again... I did stand and watch some Chinese lanterns going over, from the hotel, a few weeks back when the ground was dry and full of crops. I can't imagine that the local farmers will take lightly to those and I did notice one or two lanterns burning up and falling into the nearby fields. I can see an opening here, a Chinese lantern and firework litigation specialist, mm, bet there aren't many of those around!
Anyway, that's enough moaning from me, I'm going to clean the house have a kip and go for a hack later. What a gorgeous day:-)
5 comments:
OMG. :O
The firework/lantern thing sounds like nuisance to me.
A possible first step on the fireworks, if they carry on, is to get the local authority Environmental Health noise team to be there during a display. Assuming the noise is over a certain level, they can issue an abatement notice and prosecute on a breach. There could also be a civil claim by you and anyone else affected.
The lanterns are also potentially nuisance.And there could be a hefty claim for damages if they did set a field (or anything else) alight.
Drop me an email if I can be of any help. (With the nuisance. Horses rear ends, I stay away from).
Andro - I think your expression is pretty much the same as Barman's:-) What's the betting he'll decide to go to work after all and leave me on bum patrol:-)
Hi Michael - yup, I've had a look into nuisance, did a fair bit of it during BVC. As I live in the sticks, Environmental Health are pretty much a waste of time - it's a bit 'wild west' out here, but a neighbour has been onto them. Apparently the hotel are restricted to 8 firework displays a year, but they've exceeded that.
As for the Chinese lanterns, it seems that they are causing problems in more ways than one, the wire that forms part of the paper hood causes injury to livestock, who ingest it when it falls into fields on burnout of the lantern. I was just pleased that they floated away from my house, not towards it! They are quite big!
On an even more grotty note, one of last night's hotel wedding guests had kindly thrown up on the side of the lane that leads to my field. Lovely sight at 7am in the morning!
Er Barmaid - I'm NL, not Michael. And I actually do run nuisance claims ;-)
Pity about the Environmental Health. But exceeding their limit on displays is prosecutable - a pressure group of neighbours could maybe get the Council to enforce. I take it you have records of when they took place.
A civil claim is possible (or threat thereof) would be possible from those affected by the noise. The Lantern thing is potentially far more serious - as you say, a threat to livestock as well as a fire risk. Any farmer suffering a loss from this would have a pretty damn solid claim.
Sorry NL, I'm so flamin' tired these days that I can't concentrate - fine barristerial material indeed:-(
It's a bit difficult with the local authority, they really are the most useless/bent bunch of idjuts you'd ever wish to encounter. The hotel owners cut down acres of woodland without a felling licence, LA said they could do nothing and refused to put TPO's in place, DEFRA huffed and puffed over it and then decided it wasn't in the public interest to prosecute. LA got a few injunctions against the hotelier when he was building, but he's ignored everything and just ploughed on making a pig's ear out of a grade II listed building. It seems that the LA have turned a blind eye.
I do wonder if my horse has been mis-diagnosed and the fireworks have brought on the neurological form of Equine Herpes Virus (which is activated by stress). Time will tell I suppose, as the prognosis points to a virtual full recovery within a year. If so, the hoteliers can have my vets bills.
The fireworks are supposed to be (mostly) the quiet ones, but the machine they use to propel them makes a loud noise, the fireworks aren't 'quiet' and the ones at the end of the display are really loud.
Anyways, enough moaning from me! I'll drop you a line if nothing comes of my snotty letter.
p.s. I wonder if the place isn't being run as a 'hotel', therefore it's outside the granted planning permission? The only thing the place is used for is weddings and parties - they only open to private guests when there is a 'do' on, don't do accommodation, have no bar or restaurant, the booze licence is in the outside caterers name and registered at another address.
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