Richard Baum

Council officially returns from recess tomorrow and, like buses, I have waited weeks for a meeting only to see several looming on the horizon now as three are coming over the next three nights.

Tomorrow it’s another meeting of the Resource and Performance scrutiny commission, on Thursday it’s the Licensing panel, and sandwiched in between is a meeting of the Lib Dem Council group where we’ll reconvene to discuss the issues that have been happening whilst people have been away.

The bank holiday weekend has not been as relaxing as I’d hoped, and I now find myself at the depressing precipice of another working week having recharged my batteries not one iota.

I was on a “stag weekend” in Chester on Saturday and Sunday, a part of which involved trooping to a tree-top activity centre / assault course designed without reasonable thought to the fact that I like to go about my daily business without being strapped inside a harness and throwing myself onto a cargo net 50ft from the ground. Heights and I do not have the most cordial relationship, and the experience there did not help make it any better. And, as a result of some inexpert leaping and a subsequent underwear malfunction, I am now both tired and injured. As I limped from venue to venue in Chester afterwards, wishing to God that it was still under Roman control and that a centurion would put me out of my misery, I once more was of the view that I am not cut out to be a 27 year old man when I am in the company of other 27 year old men. They have more stomach for a night out than I do.

Last night, returned from Chester and when I was desperate for sleep to envelope me like a loving friend, I had to attend a rock concert at Lancashire County Cricket Club. And let me reveal to you this pearl of wisdom - trying to capture 40 winks whilst standing ten yards from a speaker doing 150 decibels is easier said than done.

I did eventually find my bed, only to be woken early this morning by what sounded like a large lorry careering through my bedroom. It turned out to be driving on the road outside, but I am of the view that the walls to this house are made from tracing paper, as they have all the sound-proofing qualities of a pair of tights.

And so we come to tomorrow, and a return to the business of Bury. Jokes aside, there is serious business to discuss at the Scrutiny panel, not least the Job Evaluation exercise that has justifiably worried a lot of people and which I hope we get to talk about.

I miss Council when it’s in recess, and I’m glad it no longer is. There is much to do and I am looking forward to getting on and helping to do it.

Rick