How Was Your Week End?

Well if I was going to work this morning like I have done for years...which in fact I am not!

I would know doubt be chatting with colleagues about the things that happened over the week end. The fact of the matter is though I am not at work for this month, the week end still happened!

My week end was 'good in parts'. I am still struggling to rid my self of a throat and chest infection that has laid me low for days. Heavily dosing on penicillin I have not been at my best.

On Saturday night both the police and the firebrigade were called to the Broad Lane North Bridge where local youths had clearly stolen a residents 'wheelie bin'' and then of course thought it was great to set it on fire underneath the busy road bridge.

Several thousand pounds have been spent to tidy the canal, give new walkways, and provide a bench at this location. Only for the neighbourhoods finest to try and use arson.....who knows what for to liven the scene up.

I do not think anyone was injured but it was a scene on a Saturday night, that I have a feeling will happen again before the year is out.

On Sunday morning Mary and I decided that we would have a gentle walk along the canal, enjoy the wildlife and generally take advantage of the new investment that has taken place along the canal. It was a pleasant walk but there is still a lot of debris in the water and alongside the paths.

I hope the City Council and British Waterways will be able to address this in the near future. I didn't think the three piece suite that we gazed upon looked anywhere near its best floating along the canal! So why dump it there?

We also found evidence of two other fires that had been set. Again a melted wheelie bin this time under the bridge at Lichfield Road caught our attention. It seems that some one likes burning wheelie bins under canal bridges?

So come early Sunday night I am still full of indignation when I spot 5 youths and a couple of girls making their way down the Lane. I watch as they swig cheap cider out of large bottles, all of these kids are underage drinkers. I peer at them as they pass opposite my house and then reach into a neighbours garden and with a little struggle up root a wooden stake that is in his borders.

I have to say at this point I am overcome by anger and as they make their way towards the canal, I just have to go and confront them. My wife is not happy at this I think she was expecting the worst!

But I just could not stand by and watch these kids just do as they please. So out of the house in a flash, waving my arms , bellowing like a lost bull I shouted at them. " The police are coming"

That wasn't very original but the next two or three lines were very original...though none can be printed. They stared then shouted some more obscenity back in my direction.

I continued on my collision course with them. They laid the stake down. I picked it up and retreated towards my neighbours house. Shuffling as fast as I could in bedroom slippers. The last I saw of them was the finger gestures they made at me as they disappeared over the horizon.

Now the reason for this blog, is two fold really. We can as a society just retreat from every social war zone and do nothing to tackle bad behaviour, bad manners, and law breaking. Or we can be determined to take on this attitude that is being displayed all to often by the youngest in our Society.

Take on and tackle wrong doing, continue to invest in beneficial community projects try and provide inspiration and good role models for them to follow have some respect for property and law and order.

Now I am not sure that what I did was right, but what I know is I retrieved a neighbours stake that could have been used to create further criminal damage. More importantly I will be reporting the incident to the police, and I shall be asking them to patrol the canal regularly just in case this arson thing starts to get a hold.

So my week end was OK! How was yours?