Katie Butcher

I’m sitting here waiting for the top of the hour in order to join in a conference call. I absolutely detest conference calls, so waiting for them is awful. I dislike talking on the ‘phone at the best of times and conference calls are even worse. I find it really hard to talk to a group of people none of whom can see your face or who can see yours, which makes communicating a point so much harder. Also I find it’s difficult to know when to speak – if I do somebody else speaks at the same time. Or you get the opposite of long pauses as nobody is sure whether it’s their turn to speak or not.

…You can get a double bass, a stool and a violin in the back of a Ford Focus. You have to put the back seats down and remove the parcel shelf… and when driving you have to be careful that when you go to change gear you grab the correct knobbly bit. It is possible though… I was actually quite surprised. I’m very glad I don’t play the double bass; moving it about seems to be enough of a performance in itself.

There seems to be quite a few programmes on TV and radio at the moment featuring Bradford.

On Friday morning on Radio 4 there was a programme on at 11 called ‘Fat City Challenge’ which was about how Bradford is tackling the problem of high obesity (a problem which is applicable to many, if not all, cities in the UK). The programme spoke about the various initiatives being put in place by Bradford Council and Bradford and Airedale PCT. Apparently Bradford Council have appointed an ‘Obesity Champion’ to help tackle the problem.

On Friday evening BBC2 documentary ‘Last Orders’ was about Wibsey Working Men’s Club. It was intended to give a portrayal of how white working class people are feeling ignored by the government. It was an interesting although somewhat depressing documentary. The heavy industry that the WMC’s thrived beside now no longer exists, and with most of the long-time members dying off, so too are many clubs. The committee of Wibsey WMC were desperately finding ways to save money, but they were clinging to fragile remnants of a past that is now far away (and will never return), rather than finding ways to modernise. Very sad.

To some extent I sympathise, as I could understand how some of those elderly men just want the club to be how it was in times past. But the programme also featured some younger local people, most of whom were annoying. I get irritated by people who complain and be miserable about things, blame others for it, but appear to do very little about it themselves. It seems there are a number of people who seem to want to have everything handed to them on a plate. Most of us have to work hard to get qualifications and skills and go out to get jobs, whereas some of the people on the programme appeared to think that everything should just come to them.

Last night there was also a drama called ‘White Girl’ on BBC2. It was about a white family who move into an Muslim area of Bradford (as if!). I missed this as I was at orchestra practice.