Surprise Surprise! Something is being done at Lucam Lodge!
Our new electronic doors are being fitted at the front entrance!

Well.....WOW!
I mean....like how many years have we waited? And sadly a couple of the residents here who would have benefited most are no longer with us!
But that is Genesis Housing Association for you! Hang around, prevaricate and wait until everything that ever needs doing is going to cost at least twice as much as it would have if done when needed.
Like the painting, we're now into autumn, so another four or five months at least before that gets done!
Like the fire hazards flagged up some three years ago, I cannot help but wonder when, if ever, that is put right!
Like the lifts we had upgraded, so very expensively, to modern day standards with, among other assets, voice notification for the visually impaired.
Those so very well versed engineers that Genesis insisted on giving the maintenance contract to, without any consultation with us again, manage to screw the whole system on almost every visit! (We did get someone to rectify it once, but within two day it was stuffed yet again!) 
And so it goes on and will continue to do so for ever more until there is a total cultural revamp of the Genesis culture.
Genesis cannot cope with leasehold supported housing with it's current setup.It will never be able to meet the demands or needs of elderly leaseholders while it continues to wallow in the bureaucracy that currently stifles it!
It must change. It must change now!  
PLEASE!

Pete’s Wandering Words.

Much discussion lately around elder-care in the United Kingdom, in particular concerning the soaring astronomical costs, and, additionally, about the recent cases of care home abuses and the many failures within the system.

The government claim to be seeking to reduce the bill for social care while improving care provision for the elderly and infirm.

Also the government continue to wrestle with the problem of forcing both young and old to work where there is insufficient work to be done!

I have the feeling that one massive black hole is being dug, a hole the country will never be able to climb out of! The elderly working until they drop with youngsters never developing any work skills!

Not seeking to save the nation but an idea that may help some.

Benefits and tax credits unearned and hotly disputed by many, are widely dispensed, frequently to those undeserving, the welfare state is now out of control with freebies considered to be a human right.

While welfare benefits are under revue adjustments could be effected that would go a long way to reducing the elder-care bill shifting ‘care’ back into the family.

While reducing benefits and tax credits consideration could well be given to making provisions that would encourage families to accept and care for their more senior family members.

Extra payments to house an older family member in the family home, or possibly a reduction in Council Tax, could well help to encourage a return to family providing more comprehensive, far more supportive and much less expensive, care with less reliance on the state.

A random thought, am I the only one feeling that we had no pension fund worries until the Chancellor of the Exchequer grabbed an annual five billion pounds off the insurance companies? Saying there was far too much sitting there? I do believe it is still going on, I could be wrong, in this situation I would love to have missed something, but I do not believe I have!

Before I go, our new committee here continue to find Genesis HA as immovably intransigent as were Springboard HA before them with little ever being achieved, so very long on promise, so short on action!

Bureaucratic, intransigent, incompetent and totally incapable of breaking out of their closed little world, could not, by all accounts, organise a beano in the brewery! 

And that was putting it politely!

Breaking My Silence!

I have been extremely quiet of late, far too quiet it seems, hoping  for that oh so elusive miracle, and we all know miracles just don’t happen.
Not in my world anyhow!
I personally have been trying so very hard to adhere to the edict of saying nothing if nothing good is thought of someone or something, and, quite frankly, my opinion of Genesis Housing Association has done nothing but sink ever lower in my esteem. Just how much lower they can go is well beyond my imagination.
I am firmly of he belief that the monkeys really have taken over in the mad house!  No one ever accepts any responsibility, no one admits to being in control, no one ever replies to letters, e-mails of phone calls, in fact I am convinced the whole organisation is staffed with Oliver Twists! “Please sir may I have some more?” More money that is, and they cannot even ask with he usually applicable “Please Sir”!
Sadly there are so many affected by the Genesis Culture,tenants and leaseholders alike, and, once captured, here is so little chance of escape. Genesis goes on relentlessly, ignoring necessary works, including fire and safety demands, failing responsibilities,  general incompetence on all fronts!
I really do believe that no one at Genesis can read or write the English Language! If they could they would surely have read their own terms and conditions, as well as their own house rules! None are ever followed,  totally incompetent!

One final note, for now, Genesis Housing Association seem quite able to afford extremely expensive ‘legal eagles’ while not being able to provide the services leaseholders and tenants alike pay exorbitant charges for, surely if the services were provided in the first place the legal fees would not be required!
         Now, for a very short while, Ol’Pete is back to saying nought about Genesis Housing Association simply because I have nought good to say about ‘em!

Hi folks, I’m back!

Never missed me? Nothing new there then.

I have been away, I have, honestly!

I went away for a brilliant couple of months to visit my in- laws in Chiang Mai. There, things, they are a changing!

But that is not my story today.

I am back. I tried so hard to stay away, but, as you see, Pete is back!

I’m back in the UK, back in my abode, back in Lucam Lodge, back to suffer the Genesis Leaseholders’ malaise! (I’m not alone there, either!)

Same old same old!    All the old complaints, nothing much has changed, never expected much in that either.

So, rather than go over the same things again, let us have a look at what they have achieved. This should not take long.

While I have been absent it would appear Genesis HA have totally screwed our service charge accounts, after so long getting it almost right, now no one here has a clue as to how much is required, and we are now steadily getting further and further into debt each month while we await Genesis HA getting sorted!

Another achievement is Genesis HA deciding; quite arbitrarily, to increase their management fee by something in the region of 175%! Not at all bad for a company that has so far appeared totally incapable of managing a kindergarten, let alone sheltered housing.

Lucam Lodge is to have yet another ‘Fire Risk Assessment’. Our third in as many years!  The first apparently called for too much work in Genesis’s book, the second too little, but not to worry folks, the good leaseholders will continue to shell out, whatever!

While Genesis HA continues to flap around like the headless dinosaur it has become all the work that really needs doing here at Lucam Lodge continues to get ever more expensive, but not to worry folks, the good leaseholders will continue to shell out, whatever!

While the residents wait so patiently, for so many years now, for their new furnishings in the communal areas, the works that must be completed first continue to accumulate, the building continues to show increased signs of neglect and a an obvious lack of day to day maintenance, and the cost will continue to rise!

Don’t worry, the good leaseholders will continue to shell out, whatever!

Somehow Ol'Pete don’t think so!

 

IMG_0087 Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, วัดพระธาตุหริภุญชัย

IMG_0087 Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, วัดพระธาตุหริภุญชัย, a photo by ol'pete on Flickr.

Wat Phra That Hariphunchai (วัดพระธาตุหริภุญชัย) A principal landmark is the 46-metre tall golden Chedi whose present appearance was the result of the restoration work in 1443 by a king of Chiang Mai.

Further images of this temple:= http://www.flickr.com/photos/doiboipete/sets/72157620768881311/with/7235308586/

IMG_20070828_0230 Chiangmai เชียงใหม่

IMG_20070828_0230 Chiangmai เชียงใหม่, a photo by ol'pete on Flickr.

Wat Doi Kam was built during the reign of Queen Jammathewee of Lamphun by her two sons in the year B.E. 1230, (A.D. 687).
Said to contain Lord Buddha relics, it was origionally called Wat Suwannanpot, but the local villagers prefered to call it Wat Doi Kam.
Deserted for several years the temple was discovered to be a treasure house of old and highly valued images.
Renovation was started in B.E. 2524, (A.D. 1981) with the temple pagoda and the main Buddha Image "Lord Buddha Napee Seeping".
In B.E. 2538, (A.D. 1995), the statue of Queen Jammathewee was built in the Temple grounds.

More of this Temple here:-  http://www.flickr.com/photos/doiboipete/sets/72157620007264233/with/3021366221/

IMG_20070519_0833 Wat Phraputta Bat Huai Tom, วัดพระพุทธบาทห้วยต้ม

IMG_20070519_0833 Wat Phraputta Bat Huai Tom, วัดพระพุทธบาทห้วยต้ม, a photo by ol'pete on Flickr.

Wat Phraputta Bat Huai Tom, Li, Lamphun, Thailand.
วัดพระพุทธบาทห้วยต้ม ลี้ ลำพุน ประเทศไทย

Wat Phraputta Bat Huai Tom is the largest temple in the district, boasting a large Lanna-style Chedi and an extensive place of worship built in laterite by Karens living in the vicinity who were admirers of the highly revered Phra Kru Ba Chaiwongsa. The temple is about 5 kilometres off Highway No. 106 at Km. 47.

IMG_0723 Denchai, เด่นชัย.

IMG_0723 Denchai, เด่นชัย., a photo by ol'pete on Flickr.

Approximately three kilometres from Den Chai district is Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkhon Khiri. Although a comparatively modern temple, it boasts highly eye-catching structures. The Ubosot is particularly noteworthy for its delicate sculptures.

IMG_0009 February 5th.

IMG_0009 February 5th., a photo by ol'pete on Flickr.

Cheer up folks, I am leaving for warmer climes!
The weather here will be so much better when I've gone!
Smile, it is warmer when you do!

Worldly Woes!

The answer to all our woes?
Banish every 'expert', 'financial annalist' and 'naysayer' to a purgatory inhabited solely by overpaid and under taxed bankers along with all those self serving company directors to see how long they could put up with each other whilst the rest of us get on with our lives in peace and prosperity!
Seemingly largely ignored is the news that the directors of Thai International are taking a pay cut because the company has not done so well lately, hugely creditable, now, who will be the first among the British companies?

Come on now, any one will do for a start, any one?