Thursday, 18 January 2007

The day of storms

Wednesday’s radio warned of storms. The early morning certainly looked a bit forbidding, but I made it to Watford with nothing worse than a few buffetings. But the wind worsened as I worked on papers for the trustees’ meeting and by about 9:00 am it all looked pretty scary outside.

At 10:30 I had a staff review meeting with Vanessa (Development and Training). This was our third meeting and all have proved very useful – focusing on real issues and problems and identifying creative and effective solutions. Overall, that's four staff reviews completed and five still to do.

Cate Hall

By the time Vanessa and I concluded, the storm outside was noisy and in its full fury. I was expecting a visit from Cate Hall, Corporate Director of WBC. After colleagues here saw a man blown off his feet and across the High Street, I had an awful premonition of Cate being blown away on the wind like Mary Poppins and me being held responsble. I telephoned to offer that I should visit her, but she would have none of it and she arrived promptly

Cate and I were to discuss WBC's proposed changes in the way that properties are made available to voluntary groups. The proposals already had quite a history. Most recently I had submitted a report just after Christmas, and it was this that Cate wanted to discuss.

It’s difficult to know how hard to push in these situations when the statutory authority is the property-owning landlord, the bountiful funder, and holder of the public purse and the democratic mandate. The only response is to rely on the reputation and moral standing of WCVS and of its members. This brings with it distasteful echoes of 1970s trade union negotiations and more than once I looked around expecting Sue to be bringing in beer and sandwiches.

In the event, we had a very businesslike and genial meeting. Cate was very prepared to listen and discuss: there were a number of explanations, lots of intense negotiations, several concessions, one or two points of principle, and quite a few compromises. I think I put down some important markers and won some important points - most importantly we reached agreement on a reasonable transition period.

After Cate left, I made several telephone calls. First my Dad was coming out of hospital and then he wasn’t. Ade from the African Caribbean Association confirmed he would attend the 24 January meeting. Jackie was stuck at home in a powercut. I couldn’t contact the Muslim Project. Angelo and I talked through some network developments. Jez was worried the roof was coming off his warehouse. The Credit Union are visiting Friday to view the vacant offices here with WCVS.

After the storm

I left the office about 6:30. I had intended to stay and try to finalise papers for the trustees meeting. I also needed to send out information to people on the outcome of my meeting with Cate. I had every reason to stay in the office: the storm had passed, but the radio was reporting widespread traffic chaos and (having waited until everyone had left home) the traffic authorities were warning everyone not to travel.

But frankly I was exhausted after the efforts of the last two days, and I wanted to get home to see my lovely Jackie. There was indeed traffic chaos in the centre of Watford but I soon escaped this and the journey home was otherwise unremarkable. I drove to Welwyn Hatfield CVS’s furniture warehouse and this looked fine.

Arriving home I saw that the electric supply had been restored. But the storm had taken away part of our wonderful Japanese broom tree. This stands outside our front door and gives a shock of yellow blossom through the spring and summer; its branches are dramatically twisted as if it was constantly leaning into the wind on some distant moor or headland. But it has now lost a third of its volume. In the back garden, we had lost part of our garden fence. Jackie was fine, but NTL was still down so we had no telephone or television. But we do have two if the largest and finest amaryllises imaginable. Jackie and I enjoyed a relaxing evening: me reading There is a Happy Land with aged Ken on my lap, Jackie doing some sewing, and both of us doing the Telegraph crossword.