That is, temperatures for the start of July hit minus two here on the weekend. But considering we’re a month into winter that isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that it’s taken so long to drop that low and again, that after a day or so there, they went back up. Yes, we’re still getting warmer than usual temperatures, and while April was dryish, (and so was June,) with a fraction under seven inches for May, and – if we do get decent precipitation for July – we should still end up with better winter grass growth than any year before that I can recall. And as someone or another was saying on TV the other night, they consider global warming to be established fact. I always believed it, I just wish it wasn’t currently being proved – although my damaged leg approves the warmer weather, as does Thunder, my Ocicat, who at almost 13 now, feels the winter chill and doesn’t like it

I returned to a riotous welcome. The geese did war-dances at the gate, twelve hens and a rooster hurtled in from all directions to celebrate my return by demanding dinner, and when my friend and I walked into the house, Thunder was already on his back, paws waving wildly. Yes. I was home. I returned with a box of books to read, no award, but at least I’d been on the ballot, and the trip home was pleasant and very productive.
What wasn’t so good was the con hotel, the Cuba Street CQ, which underwhelmed me considerably. I can overlook having a blown bulb in my bed’s headboard (for three nights despite them knowing about it) I can overlook the confusion over our request for a hotel parking bay at reception and the time it took to pay for one.I can overlook what appeared to be a problem with the internal phone system so that when I phoned reception I sat there listening to the phone ring for some 3-4 minutes without response, (how fortunate no one was having a heart attack.)
What I’m not at all happy over is the standard of safety and security at the hotel! Why? Well to start with, of the three of us staying on that room, I am very moderately disabled, but another friend is very much so after a stroke some years earlier. As she found after getting into the shower, to exit that she had to stand precariously on one foot while lifting the other knee-high – WITH NO HAND GRIPS and with no safety mat to give her feet better purchase. Not good, guys. A bathroom should have hand grips by both toilet and bath (and a rubber mat) for the safety of older citizens and those who aren’t 100% fit.
But it was the (none-existant) level of security that ended up bothering me the most. Sunday late afternoon we returned to our room to find all the lights on when I opened the door. Interesting! To activate the power it requires a keycard. I checked, nope, we all had ours, so the one I then discovered in the power slot wasn’t ours. That had to have been the cleaner’s. There’s only one problem with that. It can open a lot of doors. Horrified I rushed it down and handed it back at reception where this information and the card’s receipt was shrugged off. There seemed to be no understanding of the all too real dangers of this breach of security.
On my return the hotel asked for my feedback, and I emphasized the dangers of a system where someone could leave an all access card in a room and apparently not realise what they had done, while the reception staff also seemed oblivious to the dangers. In other words, a) they have no system of checking that cards have not been left behind, and b) they don’t look to have any worries when they are. Look at a possible scenario. I found the card and returned it at once. What if it had been someone else who found it, someone who saw the potential – and acted on it? A number of guests could have discovered valuables to have been taken. Worse still, if that person had entered a room where a guest wasn’t immediately obvious, then if the intruder panicked, struck the guest out of their way as the intruder sought escape, the hotel could have ended up with an elderly person with a broken hip…and that’s by no means ALL that could occur. Possibilities range from rape to manslaughter if someone less than honest had laid hands on that forgotten keycard.
What really worried me was that I said this on hotel feedback, the manager then emailed me and stated that “in respect to the swipe card left in your room, this card is used to activate the lighting and heating. All room access cards are securely stored and accounted for at all times.” I beg your pardon. Yes, it was used to activate the lighting, but it also opens doors. And if all access cards are securely stored and accounted for at all times, how come we found one left in our room? If they’re this casual about security, one of the more dangerous scenarios is likely to happen sooner or later. I’d prefer it didn’t. I’ve asked the concomm to speak to the hotel, but considering the very brush-it-under-the-carpet attitude over this and the safety issues, I wonder how much will actually be done to improve these aspects before something happens.

Two nights with light snowfall last week, and just under seven inches of rain over May. hens have mostly gone off the lay, sheep are muttering in the lee of the house, cat is very firmly by the fire. Winter!