Monday, 22 October 2007

Safer Watford

Promptly at 9:00 I arrived at the Town Hall for a meeting with the consultant retained by the borough to review the focus and aims of the Safer Watford Partnership. The consultant seemed very capable and it is good to see the Borough Council getting the right people in to do these important jobs.

Immediately after, I left with Maria for a meeting at the Muslim Community Project to talk through political and logistical arrangements for our 3 December networking lunch at the north Watford mosque. The Community Project had organised an impressive team and we were also joined by two representatives of the Muslim Awareness Forum for a thorough discussion about arrangements. I am confident that this is going to be a great event.

Just as Maria and I were rising to leave, our host Mohamed Khan announced that food was arriving. And so we stayed for a flavoursome lunch of chicken curry, dhal, rice and chapattis.

Back at WCVS, I met with Laura to talk though the next stage of development for the Community transport scheme, and with Vanessa on arrangements for next February’s county-wide trustees’ conference.

Before leaving the office I did some work on two of the HIC projects we are working on, and I sent the Value and Volumes report off to my CVS colleagues for a “peer review” of sorts.

Aged Ken

Back home in the evening, I was struck by how quickly Ken (our decrepit white cat) is now aging. He can still manage the cat flap but it is a real struggle; every exit and re-entry is a minor trauma for him and mostly he mews at the door until one of us opens it for him. He doesn’t like using the stairs and wont unless he is scared by fireworks or rowdy children. He has now lost all his teeth and can’t munch on cat biscuits - we no longer torture him with these after we realised he was just sucking them for a bit and then spitting them back into his bowl. He doesn’t seem to be in pain and still purrs contentedly when he can sit on a warm lap. Poor old Ken.