Freya Sykes’ Personal Blog

Does anyone who’s reading this remember Riley’s Toffee at all…?

If you do can you let me know please…I may have a treat for you!  Let me know via the comments section please!  cheers.

Once again it’s that time of the week to say hello and welcome to all the new visitors to my blog.  According to my stats this week since the last weekly welcome there have been 119 new subscriers to my blog. 

So to each and everyone of you hello!  hope you enjoy the blog…feel free to jump in and comment on anything that you see here…after all it’s good to have feedback!  Also if you want to say hello back…this is the post to do it on…let us know who you are and a bit about yourself - what you do for a living etc.  Don’t be shy now!

Also interestingly whilst going through my stats I noticed on my keywords that people enter in order to find my blog - one of the phrases someone had used was…”what does god want freya to do”!  So someone (presumably another Freya) has put that into Google and hit search and found my blog as a result of it…I dread to think what she thought God wanted her to do as a result!!  So if you are that Freya…let us know what you decided God wanted you to do as a result of reading my blog…perhaps you’ve decided to go into business?  Maybe you’ve decided to write a blog yourself?  Who knows…but let us know if you’re reading this…I’d love to know!

Other interesting entry phrases to my blog recently have been “i want to be a bone marrow donor” (thanks to Adrian Sudbury for this link through!) “nylon stocking online models freya” (? no i don’t know either!!) or what about “salt freya face book” (No I really did give up at this stage of the game…some folk are just odd!)  So to each and every odd person who’s reading my blo - hello and welcome.  It’s good to see you here. 

ENJOY!

You might remember a little while back I told you about the Wakefield Express’ *lovely* comments - calling my husband a “cheeky feckwit” for pointing out to them that perhaps making a commercial venture out of a local sporting hero’s funeral wasn’t the best move they’d made…well seems the Wakie Express - God bless ‘em are up to their old tricks again.

You see as a local rag - you might reasonably expect them to fair and balanced in their reporting wouldn’t you?  Hmmm well what you get seems to be emmerging as a very different story.  Seems they are as red as the masthead on The Sun!! Talk about reds under the beds - seems we’ve got them between the sheets too - well the sheets of this now tabloid sized local rag.

You see it finally happened - but only after complaints from Tony Homewood of unbiased reporting…but they finally printed a letter of his, pointing out the hypocrisy of Ed Balls and Mary Creigh - after all when these two MPs had the chance to put a halt on the closures of the POs in the region - the same MPs who are now making out they are all for helping to stop the closures - are the very same MPs listed on the Hansard register as voting FOR the closures in Parliment of the POs…funny that but it seems they don’t like it when the members of the public send in letters to the Editor being critical of Labour in the local area - but it’s ok if the likes of Janet Holmes are being petty and childish in their comments towards the Conservatives of the town. Now THAT will get printed

It’s ok to give a political voice week after week to the Labourites of the town in the “politically speaking” column…will you ever see a Conservative figure in there “speaking politically?”  Will you eck as like! I’ve NEVER known them to offer that political slot to any Conservative voice - be it the PPC or a Councillor or just a Tory supporter from the area.  Oh no this red rag couldn’t possibly give a balanced view!  Heaven forfend!

So let’s look at it..Janet Holmes, stamps her feet and says that she was disappointed that the people of Horbury didn’t vote her back in (as they *should* have done in… her eyes) and I wrote a letter in, as did Steve, saying that as local residents perhaps she could do with doing a bit more door knocking rather than relying on croney-ism as she did. Perhpas getting to know those consituents who she expected to vote her back in - rather than just the handful of cronies in Horbury that she relies on for support.  Perhaps if she hadn’t been so quick to vote for the closure of the pavillion in Reid Park - only to say (hypocritically again!) that she actually wanted to try to save it…she might have got some where.

Let’s look at Mary Creigh - on Radio 5Live the other day - saying the strikes going on were only happening in Tory lead councils because they were too stingy to pay for the pay rise…wouldn’t happen in a Labour council of course…except for the fact that whilst she was lording it up in London at the BBC…in her own constituency - a Labour run constituency…there were strikes going on.  How convenient that this wasn’t noted in the Express hey?  But of course that would be unbiased reporting AGAINST Labour wouldn’t it?  Tut tut- couldn’t have that now could we? 

Ed Balls of course standing firm whilst claiming on all our taxes for his and his wifey’s second (ahem) home in Castleford.  He’s got some nerve!  Especially sitting there looking as smug as you like - with his John Lewis list clutched in his sweaty palm…making money off the back us all - pretending like they don’t actually live in London….pretending like he didn’t vote for the PO closures…pretending like he actually gives a stuff about the schools across the country.  Yeap that’s right Balls - we were ALL born yesterday and all believe your insincere posturing. 

So where’s the balanced reporting from the Express - telling the public about this?  When will we actually get what we deserve in Wakefield - which is journos who actually take a pride in their craft, not ones who seems to think the only way forward is for them to present only one side of the story.  Do they really think so little of their readership that they think they can churn out week after week a frankly second rate copy of “The Socialist”?  ‘Cos that’s what’s it like reading the paper.  It’s almost like a Labour run rag. But then again you’ve seen the contempt they hold their readers in…look at the comments they stupidly sent on an email to Steve about them making money from a man’s funeral.  They are really the lowest of the journalistic low.  A paper with no scrupples or morals it would seem, who do not wish to give a fair and balanced view of the Wakefield area…after all why should they - they seem to think we’re all as thick as f*ck and “feckwits” - just so long as we continue to buy their rag week in week out, paying their wages and proping up the rapidly failing Johnson Press “empire” what would they care?

Perhaps an idea would be for a group of us to get together and write pro conservative comment and then come back here and see how much of it actually gets printed - all in the interest of scientific measurement you understand!!  I bet you wouldn’t get more than one in every ten letters that you wrote printed.  Not a chance in Hell!  What do you think??

 I was talking to a business contact of mine the other day (who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons) who told me that he was aware of a number of companies who were doing something that really shocked me.  It would appear that some companies are actully taking advantage of the economic downturn and using it as a very convenient excuse to shed staff who have become over the years - dead wood.  (I thank God that so far we have made zero redundancies and in fact are actually looking for more researchers to support the new franchisee who are beating a path to our door at the moment.  I can’t seem to beat off the ex EAs who have either been made redundant or who will shortly be, who want to switch sides of the fence and come and work in our green meadow.  See the market for us is in an up turn…when it’s a slow vendor’s market with dropping house prices THAT’S when all our investor buyers come out to play!)   

Anyway back to the posting…you see the government has made it so hard for an employer to get rid of staff now that it would seem that this is perfect excuse to shove out the door staff who aren’t quite up to the job but are still perferming on that “just doing enough to get by” level.  You see if a staff member has been with you for a specific period of time then their “rights” to employment start to out weigh the “rights” to terminate that emploment by the employer…and I can see how the government has tried to “help” the employee by increasing their rights but they have gone too far.  The process for getting rid of a staff member who isn’t performing is too long and converluted to be frank.  If a staff member wishes to behave in a manner which is not becoming to the company working standards then in order to “prove” to a tribunal that you have “fairly dismissed” them then you, as an employer, have to jump through certain hoops - you have to be seen to be fair and balance - no matter how unfair or unbalanced your staff member actually is to your company!   (there is no “having to be seen to be fair and balanced to the company by the employee - theycan be as shitty as they like to you and YOU are the one who still has to go through processes…they don’t at all. Fair hey?  And before you moan I can see how how it was set up to weed out unscrupulous employers, but hey what about the cocky little employee who now realises that “there’s nothing you can do”?? and that the government has unfairly bound the hands of the employers of this country when it comes to dealing with staffing issues??)

So it’s with this in mind that a number of companies are apparently making redundant staff who they genuinely should be making redunadant but are also throwing the deadwood staff on the fire too…you see it’s an easy “exit” for them, without running the risk of a tribunal for unfair dismisal…it eases the sting of having to pay for a barely performing staff member’s wage when times are tight you see.   In short it’s the easy way out, making the redundancies higher than they should be…after all which staff member kicked out in the middle of a redundancy is actually going to concern themselves with finding out the current figures of the company in order to prove they were unfairly made redundant…if the company is making genuine redundancies then the figures are likely to be on a downward trend anyway.  Meetings of senior staff and directors are likely to go unminuted to discuss the issue, and any staff member being made redundant is unlikely to sit around waiting for another job to fall into their lap at the moment.  It’s truely a dog eat dog world out there in the job’s market at the moment.  Whereas 12/18 months ago they might have been only a few folk after one job, now with less jobs coming to the market and more jobless folk chasing those same depleated jobs in the market the competition is hot.  It’s fierce.  they won’t have time to sit around and ponder what just happened or how to prove they were unfairly shoved out.

So my advice to any staff member at the moment is this…if you’ve got a job and you even halfway value it…look at the external market and ask yourself “would I really get a new job over night? Would my skills and work experience to date mean I’d be a viable employee?”  “would my age be a consideration if I were to look for a new job?”(ie too young and inexperienced and needing training or too old and close to retirement age!)  Instead my advice would be to suck up like hell in the role you are in.  Approach your employer proactively and tell them that you know times are tough and what can “we” do to get the most out of your working day…is there anything extra that you could do to your role to increase your value to company?  Ask what you can do to safeguard your job, but do it in a way that makes your employer feel like you are trying to pull together as a team.  This will place you straight to the top of any mental “to keep employed with us” list your employer may have!  And then when agreed as to what you can do to help keep the company afloat…then do it and do it to the absolute best of your ability…because trust me - at the moment within most companies it’s all hands to the pumps at the moment.  If your company is fortunate enough not to be going down, then you’ll find that your boss has a company that feasts off the down turn (think cheque cashing shops, prawn brokers, recuritment agencies, employment lawyers) What can you do to ease the burden of stress which an influx of business brings, becasue as sure as eggs is eggs there will be a downward swing in your business when the economy picks up and you want to be entrenched as a employee who roles up their sleeves and pulls out all the stops - good or bad times!

So has anyone else heard any stories similar to the one I heard?  Have you just been made redundant and are you finding it tough to get a new job??  Let us know…we’d love to hear from you. 

Well I’m seriously going have to start calling this a fortnightly welcome…I’m so bad at keeping it weekly at the moment!  however I must admit - I’m too busy at the moment to even catch up with my bud for our weekly cuppa tea at Val’s…what can I say?? (ok apart from “sorry Kelly”!)  So why have I been so busy?  Well this week in work, Kate, Tom and I have been working hard on getting the new Homefinder UK website uploaded with content and to be honest I’m really looking forward to the new site “going live”!  It’s got a much sleeker look about it than the old one - which was starting to feel a little “old” as it was a few years since we last upgraded it.  The new site has got a blog attached to it, and an intranet system for the franchisees…along with a new style of navigation bar and a way to sign up for the company newsletter.  It’s just choc full of new goodies and hopefully it’s going to be well recieved - only time will tell - but we’re all really excited about it!  :-)  I’ll let you know when it’s up and you can give me your thoughts on it.

Anyways…since my last weekly welcome we’ve had  a cracking 217 new subscribers join us here at the wonderful world of freyasykes.com…so to each and every one of you welcome…make yourselves at home.  Feel free to comment/agree/disagree with any of the posts or other comments made here.  Suggestions to improve the blog are also readily accepted too!!  Also if you want to tell us all a little bit about yourself then feel free to comment here on this post.  If you have a blog yourself - leave a link…I’m confident enough in my own blog not to edit other blogs out!! 

So to each and every new reader…hellllllooooooo!  Enjoy!  And good to see ya here.

 :-)

Ok so there’s one or two bloggers who are out there that are known for little more than their rantings about other folk - day in day out…and probably the worst blogger out there for my money is that fat “cawfee house” slob Perez Hilton.  I’ve never been a fan of his - he really is prat - after all he’s named himself after an airhead female heiress…yup cos that’d be what your parents had in mind for you when you were born…dick!  He makes comments on folk in the limelight and is deliberately provocative in his comments.  Thing is - sometimes he just goes too far and often lies.  Take for example his comments towards Lily Allen.  No shrinking violet herself by any stretch, but some of his comments about her miscarriage go too far.  He’s a tit of the highest order and a nasty malicious little moron who’s outlived his fifteen minutes of fame to be fair.  I mean at the end of the day he has a talent for slagging people off - that’ll be something for his grandkids to be proud of hey?

As for Lily…I like her.  She honest and vulnerable in her postings and I like that.  Yeah ok…she comes up with “right foot in mouth” moments but hey..she’s young - she’ll learn.  Plus she’s not too bad at making good music too.

Keep up the good blogging Lily and my advice is to ignore that fat prick…focus on yourself and don’t give him the time of day…it’s the petrol that fuels his fire! 

*whisper*:  Pssst….oi yes you…come here…don’t say it too loud, but it’s happening…it’s here.  It’s that dirty little word that the Government certainly don’t want you to say.  The dirty little word that sits on everyone’s lips but no one dare utter.  The dirty little word…recession.  Yes that’s right, I said it, recession.  It’s upon us like a dark shadow, no longer a looming cloud on the horizon…no it’s here.  Is it crazy talk?  The big wigs in Whitehall would you believe so…speak out of turn and that’s how they’ll “bring you in line”  But you know it right?  I know it, everyone knows it, it seems except the one set of people who should be in *ahem* (covers mouth to talk across the back of her hand) leadership of this country…where is the direction (not dictatorship!) Where’s the focus on swinging things round (rather than fiddling unnecessarily in every aspect that doesn’t need their imput.)  With the country teetering on the brink of financial and business disaster is bear baiting the way to go?  Do we really want to make that bear mad as hell?  Share values are being wiped out overnight…and who do you suppose it is that’s loosing their hard earned savings?? It won’t be just the FatCats of business but it’s everyday folks like you and me…those who placed their savings in companies that 6/12 months ago seemed as safe as…well…houses.  Ummm yes, well…less said soonest mended…so shhhhh…keep it under your hat…don’t mention it… let them think you’re playing along with the biggest spin scam this government has tried to pull off - “recession, recession??? What recession?  Not here mister, not on our watch!”  We know different hey?  Hundreds to thousands of redundancies up and down the country in any one SINGLE day.  But don’t say anything…that’s right if we all ignore it we can’t be accused of any crazy talk…they can’t drag us off to the asylum if we all comply and stay quiet eh?  All us crazy’s together…crazy crazy crazy’s…

*wanders off jabbering to herself, muttering out loud to the walls and any random passing dog.*

(see here for more on the *non existant* recession and it’s impact)

I was thinking today - as you do - (okay it was Dr Who that got me thinking about this but we all have our guilty little pleasures don’t we??) Who’s the greatest living man in your opinion?

You see today’s tale of the Dr was about duplication but not quite…about being half a man in one entity and half in another…but is there really a shining example of a truely great man…or woman come to that in one entity?  One great living being?

I can’t think of one person who has had such a profound effect on this world in their short life time that we could truely call them the greatest living man or woman.  Is there such a thing still?  I mean you think about it.  In this day and age of technology anyone who as even remotely “good” should be all over the internet and being held up as an example.  I mean look at Mother Teresa…a humble nun with no PR machine behind her but she springs to mind.  Or Rosa Parks?  A simple act of strength that gave the African American people the courage to rebel against their lot in life. Or further back…Florence Nightingale…tending to soldiers but still remembered today?  But who have we got alive today - making a difference? Nelson Mandela maybe… but out of a whole Continent and numerous decades we can only come up with one man??  Surely not?

Perhaps depressingly people no longer see it as their lot in life to make a difference to others?  Maybe we’ve all become insular and selfish?  Perhaps we no longer care about our fellow humans?  Perhaps we don’t care enough to stick our heads above the parapit and to make that stand?  How sad if that’s the case? What a pathetic excuse for Humans we’ve become if we care so little for our fellow humans that we would rather do nothing to help them in their hour of need…simply because it’s easier for us to say nothing and to stand lamely by.

Please tell me I’m wrong and that I ‘ve forgotten someone really obvious.  Let me know if there REALLY is hope out there for us.  Who’s da man??

..As you may have heard recently Johnson Press who own the titles such the Yorkshire Post and the Wakefield Express have issued a profit warning which has seen a slump in their share prices. 

Now I’m not normally one to crow at someone elses misfortune but in this case I’ll make an execption for this bunch.

You see if you are a Rugby League fan you cannot fail to have heard of the recent and sad passing of David Topliss.  His funeral was on Wednesday last week and the Cathedral at Wakefield was packed to the rafters with mourners.  The Wakefield Express was there taking pictures from which they put together a montage of the shots and placed it on their website…fine and dandy you may say - a fitting tribute to a local lad done good.  Well you’d think so until you heard that they placed a lovely little advert on the end saying you could buy pictures of the Funeral from the Express office!!  So they were taking what was a private moment for many and were profiteering off it.  Now I know the profit warning is dire but to stoop so low as to make money from pictures of a funeral???!!! 

So Steven, my husband and co director wrote to the Wakefield Express and expressed his dismay at their actions…here’s the email he sent below:

I have just sat down and watched the photo slideshow tribute to Mr Topliss on your website.  I was at the ceremony yesterday and had the privilage of sitting with some rugby greats and and paying tribute to a rugby legend.  I thoroughly enjoyed the photos and thought it was a fitting way to remember the day (as I had i tunes on in the back ground for suitable accompanyment)

Then I get hit with “if you want to buy any of these photos please visit photos today”

Come on, this is classless and has shown this slideshow to be nothing more than an advert selling the photos and in no way a tribute to a great man.  It has shown you in a very bad light and can only be seen as tastless money making during people’s geniune showing of respect to someone who was held as a  hero in some eyes and a dear family member in others.

Show the same level of class and decency as Toppo had and either pull this shameless plug or at least give the profits from the photos to the Charity that were collecting on the day.

….So the response back from Scott Merrylees who is the picture editor was:

All our slide shows are put together using our masthead at the begining and the photostoday icon at the end as a matter of course.  This adds uniformity and usually people like to know where they can order photographs of our slideshows.  However on reflection I agree that in this case it is inappropriate and I have had it removed.

…Lovely I’m sure you’ll agree…that is until you scroll down the page and see that Steve’s original email didn’t go directly to Scott but went via a third party who forwarded it to Scott Merrylees and Rebecca Wright with the message on there about Steve’s email:

Cheeky feck wit.

…Nice huh?  Real respectful eh?

I frankly don’t think that Steve spoke out of turn in his pointing out that attempting to make money from someone’s funeral is out of order…but to call him a cheeky feckwit for making the point is out of order.  But for Scott to then reply to Steve with the comment on the email is just plain stupid.

In case you’d like to make your feelings about this issue known to Scott then please feel free to leave a comment here as I shall be making him aware of this posting.  In much the same way that the Wakefield Express clearly have no respect for the deceased or indeed their current readership - I would encourage you to be as upfront as they are with their “cheeky feckwit” comment.

So this… along with a couple of other issues I have with Johnson Press is why I’m not sorry to see them giving a profit warning.

They ought to hang their heads in shame at the levels to which they will stoop to make money and the dizzy heights from which they will sneer down on their readership from.

you’ll have someone’s eye out with that sunshine!! 

Feel free to come up with the wittiest caption for what can only be described as a truly eye watering picture!!