OK so I've not been blogging for a year!

... well it will be interesting to see how many people are still connected to my updates won't it!! I am amazed that people still visit my blog when it has been static for so long.... never mind here we go with the next years' worth!

Well life has certainly moved on! I have been doing a lot of work for a University and a couple of local groups in Russia and had an excellent time devising new ways of engaging communities in decision making at the local level! It was a huge eye opener to work with people who don't understand WHY they need to be involved and deep down are afraid of being involved becuase of retribution or making the wrong decision. But I am pleased to say the whole thing has been very worth while and remarkably successful - far more so than I had expected and certainly far more so than if the same work had been carried out in England!

Yes - I still carry a healthy mistrust of 'democracy' in England - and a conviction that it will never truly exist until we radically reform the civil service and all those personal agendas and empire builders.... ouch!

Mind you the work going on at the moment in terms of the reforms of the Regional Assemblies is very interesting, although in my very humble opinion giving regional power to the RDA's is not perhaps wholely the right way to go - where is the democratic input to that?

I've got very involved with strategy and policy in the transport arena of late - a slight diversification although still very much on the democratic route. Interestingly Jim Fitzpatrick has recently joined me! And with Ruth Kelly at the helm I am obviously travelling in the right direction! Perhaps not suprisingly to many of you out there, the fact that there is yet another area here with massive lack of joining up of strategies - and in fact a very questionable skills issue in terms of the ability to develop an effective strategy that has an underpinning assessible and reviewable action plan! Now where have I come across that one before??

Aaagh enough! I'm back on the friendly high horse routine again. On the home front the horses are doing very well thank you - we were graced with our first foal this year - a cracking Welsh Sec C colt - now named Dylan, who is going through his equivalent of the 'terrible twos' and getting into everything he shouldn't and pushing the rules on biting as far as he possibly can to see how much we will take before we retaliate! He's a little treasure (most of the time). We will have two foals next year and then we go on as fast as I can break them to drive once they get to two year olds.
I sold Maggie the Thorough bred. She has gone to a polo yard in the South - they are ecstatic with her so we must have done something right!
And finally we have added 7 goats to the menagerie! 6 nannies and a wether (castrated male). They are very friendly and next year I intend to start making home-produced cheeses and butters. I used to make goats chees many years ago so I hope I can remember what to do - you never know I could be on Tesco's shelves in a decade or so!!

Well that will do me for now - I hope you are wll wel and happy out there - I certainly am, so I'll spread a little of my contentment to you all..... :-)