Hi There...
Sorry that I have not been on here for a while but I was grabbed by my GP and had a 'flu jab shoved in my arm last week, felled at one blow! I have decided that the NHS have done a bit of forward thinking for a change and have decided to give me a whopping "charge" of bugs so that I seriously do not get ill - they can then deal with the poor souls who get the real swine flu and not less poorly folk like me. Anyway - the bugs are now marching out of the door and I'm on the mend.
Bill and I have a meeting this week on Thursday with an HSH member of staff called Natasha Dennis who is standing in for Robert Hamlin, the HSH Residents Involvement Officer, whilst he is on "gardening leave". Robert has worked for HSH for some years but has not been around for a good while now and we all hope that he is not seriously ill.
As we have a mostly new Committee now we need to have all the papers from the retiring Officers of the GRRA so that we can provide continuity of representation to the residents. All the Committee members want to pass on their grateful thanks to the outgoing committee members for their dedicated and hard work over the last years. I know that they were very good at providing social events for all who live in Grantham Road and we very much want to continue that service. We might not be able to do too much for Christmas as time moves along so quickly and we have not yet got any of the GRRA books or papers that we need. This means that we have no access to the funds available as it will take time, when we do eventually get access, to get the signatures changed etc. However, Easter should prove to be a surprise for everyone as it is already being planned.
There is a meeting in the Old Laundry this evening about anti-social behaviour on the Stockwell Gardens Estate in particular, but this also has a relevance for the whole area and Bill will attend at the invitation of one of our local councillors, Pete Robbins. Our safety is key to everyone who lives in the area and it would be wonderful if we could get more people interested in taking part in looking after the place where they live. I have long wanted some sort of workable youth provision in this area and the Stockwell Community Resource Centre, behind Stockwell Tube, is doing what it can. There seems to be an interest by the "powers that be" in putting some more Government money into Stockwell which can only be good news.
HSH have a new Income Mananger who is responsible for all the income collected by the Stockwell office. She has taken over from Sarah Day who is on maternity leave, having had another dear little baby girl. Nazia would seem to be a very keen person who wants to embrace the job ahead of her. She comes from another company where she was key in setting up a Leaseholder Forum and has been brought on board by HSH to take on the task of setting up their own Leaseholder Forum.
There have been two meetings already but I am worried that not all the Leaseholders got the information due to reasons various. If you are a HSH Leaseholder and do not know about this can you post something on this blog or our website - http://www.hshresidentsvoice.org.uk/ - and we will try to help. We also have an email address: hshresidentsvoice@googlemail.co.uk
Bill and I have lived in the area for many years - if you want to see and hear Bill go to Stockwell Stories on the web (Onion) and you will hear him talking about his life in the area as part of an ongoing project to go into the Lambeth Archives. If anyone out there is interested in being interviewed for this please get in touch. There is no "wrong" person as everyone has their own story to tell. Your recording will then go into history and your memories will be available to all for generations.
Well - off to do something about feeding William now I suppose - has anyone else (female or male) noticed that if you do not feed men at regular interval they get very strange. If I fill Bill up three times a day - sweet as a nut - if I don't - duck.
Take care
Jayne
