If you are thinking about whether fostering a child is for you, then there are a few questions you should ask yourself. Needless to say, it is a big decision and it is important to know if you have the required qualities to succeed.

The below list is taken from Fostering People Ireland, who are a non-statutory agency primariliy concerned with providing foster care in Dublin for children and young people.

About you

• I am over 25 years old
• I enjoy living or working with children and young people
• I am very honest with myself and others
• I am able to adapt my current lifestyle and routines to accommodate a child or young person’s needs
• I understand that a child will show their distress through their behaviour
• I am resilient and will see things through, even when the going gets tough
• I can put a child or young person’s needs before my own
• I think my expectations are realistic
• I like working as part of a team
• I’ve had a few knocks in life but have survived!
• I am in good physical and emotional health
• I have an ability to stand back and reflect
• I have a good sense of humour
• I don’t have any major unresolved issues in my life
• The thought of temper tantrums, swearing, mood swings, loud music, defiance, the joys of adolescence and a lot more doesn’t put me off!

Your Circumstances

• I am able to commit to fostering on a full-time basis (See the Fostering and work section below for further information)
• I have a spare room which can be made pleasant for a child or young person
• My home is clean and comfortable
• I have access to transport
• I have a good network of people around me to provide encouragement and support
• If I have a partner or other people in my household, they are on board

Fostering can be demanding, and it is important to have a good support network of family and friends. Some agencies, such as Fostering People, also provide support, including a dedicated Social Worker.

Previous entries in this series have not shied away from social commentary and satire (as well as pandering to the desire to cause vast amounts of mayhem). From the looks of the minute and a half teaser trailer it looks as though GTA 5 will continue this tradition, with a setting that resembles the depression era (current not historical)California.

The problems revolve around the so-called ‘man bag’. Fortunately ‘man bag’ is not an anatomical euphemism, but instead refers to any kind of single strapped bag carried by a man. These apparently fall short of conventional standards of masculinity, because, you know bags are for girls and stuff.

The British Chiropractic Association has found that the average weight of a single strapped bag carried by a man exceeds six kilograms. More than half of men carry some kind of bag daily, but they risk causing an prolonging back and shoulder pain.

Work reasons account for a lot of the necessity of carrying weighty bags. In the 21st century as at work, never at home culture, toting a laptop about to keep up with work on the go is increasingly being seen as the norm. Employers should perhaps be wary of the possibility of being subject to back injury claims should they force their employees to lug about too much.

So what can be done to guard against injury? One obvious answer is to avoid the use of single strapped bags altogether. You may feel less than fashionable dragging a granny’s tartan trolley down the street, but remember while the taunts of children at bus stops will fade away, the pain from a wonky back could live with you for a while.

The other alternative may be to be less metrosexual. The Mail article that has raised the alarm on this does not mention that the non metrosexual gentlemen among us are at any kind of risk at all. Non-metrosexual troops are required to carry bags weighing an average of 91lb.

One such series is the Volkswagen Racing Cup. This takes place over fourteen legs on seven days and is open to Volkswagens. Almost all of them. To be eligible race the vehicles must either have raced in the last to seasons or be no more than ten years old. This makes for a really varied grid that is much more interesting to watch than many others where the cars are nearly identical.

Obviously the different entrants all have their unique plus points that give them the edge in certain races. In terms of power it is the cars with the big V6 engines that do the best, like the Beetles. Being lightweight can sometimes be the best thing – of course it is the little Polo and Lupo cars that fill the bill for this. Even some of VW’s vans compete, their particular edge being the high levels of torque that turbo diesels can bring to the table.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles are offering a chance to win tickets to go the race on 25th April at Oulton Park, Cheshire. This is because this year sees the introduction of a new Caddy in the series. It is to be driven by Simon Eliot who has had done well with the earlier versions of the van. The little clip below shows just what he is capable of:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/VanTastic/videos/12/

The Hawker Hurricane; workhorse of the Battle of Britain

70 years ago if you were taking a flight to London, it’s likely that your name was Fritz, or something similarly Teutonic sounding, but today thousands of travellers, from all over the world, fly to and from the UK everyday, a feat of logistics which would be impossible to co-ordinate safely without modern communication and radar systems.
Obviously aircraft design & technology has come a long way too; jet engines were only in their infancy at the time of WW2 but are very much the rule, rather than the exception, these days, at least where mass transport is concerned. Propeller engines are mostly restricted to smaller, usually privately owned, planes these days, and although I think I’d prefer the comfort of a modern jet for my own travel needs, there is something wonderfully nostalgic about seeing the old WW2 prop fighters and bombers when they get dusted off for air shows or events.

So now you’re asking what exactly is this rambling old git going on about? what’s his point? I’m not sure I really have one, single point, but if you were after a TLDR I suppose I’d say mainly this is a remembrance of those brave souls who staved off defeat in what was, undoubtedly, one of Britain’s darkest hours, but also me marveling at far things have advanced, and changed, in a few short decades.

For all the cross channel rivalry that’s existed between Britain and France, for pretty much a millenium now, I do have to say that, as a nation, the French have a great attitude to protesting and protecting their rights, an attitude which sadly the Normans seemed to leave on the continent, or which, at least, has been well and truly beaten out of the British at some point over the last thousand years.
Still, for all I admire the Gallic attitude to asinine laws and regulations, any Brits planning a holiday in France this year would probably be safer to take a conventional approach to arranging their accommodation, and, for that matter, travel arrangements, I’m not sure that even the French would take kindly to one borrowing an unused car or van. No, even in France car hire is probably still the safest bet for getting around, unless you’re planning on your stay being extended, and “at the pleasure” of the French authorities.

However, I really have to wonder about the timing of the move. Ok, it looks like the economic slump may be coming to an end but even so it seems to me like quite a risky move. In the fairness M&S have said that opening the store is a “toe in the water”, to test the Spanish market, but is now really the time for such experiments? On one hand, the recent low prices in the Spanish property market have to be a good reason to make such a move now, you would think it’s certainly got to decrease the start up costs, and if Spanish property does start regaining its value, as some are suggesting is the case, then picking a store up now may even be a shrewd investment!
Still, if M&S’s target audience for the new store is Brits abroad, (it seems like a fair guess) then the timing starts to look a little more questionable to me. Britain’s slow recovery from recession means that many Brits are still going to be watching the pennies and avoiding foreign holidays, a factor likely to be exacerbated by the current poor Pound:Euro exchange rate, & reflected by the 15% drop in British visitors which Spain has experienced over the past year. What makes the move stranger is that this isn’t the first time that M&S have opened stores in Spain, the previous venture ended in the sale of the nine stores when they failed to make a profit. Still, the thinkers at M&S have no doubt considered all of this, and are presumably willing to accept a loss in the short term.

I suppose a big question is whether they’ll extend their recent move to stock non-M&S branded goods to the new store? Are we to be treated to M&S Marbella car hire? lol