Greetings from far sawrey.... Apologies for my absence, I have been up in carlisle representing myself with regards to my legal case, its been quite a week, the kind that could not be made up... upon reflection I wish I had blogged events of this this from the onset as it is all quite unbelievable......to summise there has been two cases, the first I won which was in relation to the harassment I endured as a consequence to whistle-blowing, the second which was last week was me claiming constructive dismissal as a result of getting assaulted at work by a collegue whom I had whistle-blown about and the follwing suspension procedure which was adopted in relation to me and which lasted 7months, which was the reason I resigned, claiming constructive dismissal.

So the hearing began last week, I was cross examined for a day and a half by a barrister whos actions I define as a sledgehammer approach to cracking a nut, I survived that and then I had to cross examine three of the county councils top people, the head of cumbria care, the head of personnel and the senior investigating officer who was comissioned to investigate it all for 7months.....

1st up, the investigating officer, who spent her 7months career with the council investigating all of this, she had produced a witness statement saying some very derogertory things about me......cross examination should have cleared it all up, but guess what, she was not there, she had chosen not to come to the hearing as it was all too stressful for her and she did not want to expose herself to such stress!!!

2nd up was the head of cumbria care, who in her witness statement had said she took full responsibility for the process adopted in relation to my suspension and disciplinary investigation......under cross examination by me it turns out she was responsible, but only for the first few weeks, then her responsibility ended! Quite unbelievable! so, asked the panal and me, who was responsible for the 7month suspension I endured for being assaulted at work, answer...."NO-ONE"! Marvellous ..........not!

3rd witness up was the head of personnel, I asked her under cross examination, someone must have been responsible for making the decision to send me to a disciplinary hearing 7months after I was suspended, oh yes was the reply, I showed the file to a manager and he decided, which manager she was asked,...............are you ready for this..................."the head of waste management" made the decision!!!!!!!!!!! "THE BIN MANAGER" I said! Yes was the reply,

So thats last week in a nutshell, as you can imagine, the judgement was deferred and I have been left reeling from it all.........

Back in sawrey the weather has been glorious! blue sky days and warm balmy evenings.....the air ambulance, 2 fire engines and a police care were called to the village yesterday when one of our residents had a road traffic accident. I am pleased to report he his back home today and sucking on some blackcurrent and licquorice sweets he sent his son in for earlier this morning.......GET WELL SOON Norman....

Veg market day has been moved to thursday as customers have suggested its a better day for them rather than wednesday, so its off to manchester tonight... I am going to send emails out to customers who would like a list of the fresh fruit and vegetables that we got from manchester, if any of you would like to recive this weekly email, please drop me a line and I will send you one.

There is a meeting in near sawrey tonight, its been set up by the national trust to talk about the impact of the film on the village and to meet the new people who are renting the sawrey country house hotel from the national trust, they recently purchased the hotel...

SO folks thats about all for now, hopefully things will get back to normal now

Happy Wednesday from Sawrey