Langley Mill's Christmas Lights 2012

This lamppost evidently deserved a 'whole' tree

Just a short one this time ... and this would have been done much sooner had Sky asked BT to flick the damn switch back on at the exchange for our phone and broadband:

I thought I'd better pass comment on our Christmas lights this year seeing as I've done nowt but moan about them previous years.

langley mill's christmas lights 2009
getting excited 2010
asdas christmas lights event donation 2011
langley mill's christmas lights 2011

Well the one's we've got now - new, not second hand cast-offs, I believe - are all remarkably similar, the only difference being whether a lamppost gets one or two Christmas trees, making half a tree or a whole one.

They look nice and twinkly at night and quite treey by day. Better still they're solar powered ... hmmm, this solar bit in all honesty looks naff, it would have been nicer if it could have been star shaped, but that's probably just me being pedantic.

Asda donated £2,000 for last year's lights which was too late to use. I'm not sure who else has donated yet or if Asda has done so again this year. Someone is bound to tell me if they have, and I'll update accordingly.

Because the lampposts shouldn't need testing first - and there's no electric bill - there's only the expense of 'putting 'em up, taking 'em down' , so these Christmas trees should prove a winner (in certain quarters) ... or would do if there was a bit more variety and colour - red tub, green tree, white lights ... yawn.

Car Wash dump of Langley Mill

I took lots of photos of different lampposts as we flashed past in the car - my chauffeur was kind enough to slow down for me - but as there wasn't much difference I settled for the one near Asda when we went round the stupid 'WHICH LANE! WHICH LANE!??' roundabout.

Then I took the one above when I went to Home Bargains via Asda car park. There is a whole tree adorning a lamppost next to the DUMP still allowed to conduct business with NO PLANNING PERMISSION - it ran out June 2011. Incidentally this pile of garbage is right next to the new McDonalds currently being built. Obviously we can do what we like in Langley Mill regards planning so I may extend my house onto the road a bit (mini-rant over, I feel much better now).

I would like to know - of course - who decided which lampposts deserved half a tree or a whole tree ;-) ...

Our Latest Parish Magazine

Just lately I've received several visits from fellow grumpies - this is despite the fact that I hide behind a photo of a badger and no-one knows it's really me - these visits were regarding our local parish council.

Questions were raised about how our money was being spent or in some cases - as mentioned in previous posts - not spent. A bit of other interesting information was shared about a garden party paid for by council funds. But no-one knows any of the - seventy - 'worthies' invited. I can't even check on the veracity of this information as the parish council website is being reconstructed, so please, do feel free to ignore this bit.

During December [after my second grumpy visitor called for the first time] I 'Twittered' - as you do - asking myself 'Who are our local councillors and how to contact them if I wanted to?' ... This led one grumpy to think I'd blogged about it - before it disappeared - but it was just my twitter feed [on the informative side bit of my page] updating. I also asked myself 'Do I need to get involved here? Am I just a whinging moaner? Or do I indeed care enough to write about it?

Hmmm, actually I am just a whinging moaner and really couldn't be bothered with the whole idea of someone else giving me bullets to fire. But today my mind was changed - slightly - and I decided to have a go, because the 'Parish Magazine' - from our alleged quality council - has just plopped through our letterbox. This was not a conducive moment for it to arrive as I couldn't resist having a quick gleg at it, even though I was meant to be working.

Oh heck! It got me so annoyed in places that when I continued to finish today's work, there were tiny pink missiles flirting around the room, followed by much magnet and scissor action [collecting and adjusting]. I'd have been better off abandoning work for the day and getting to my keyboard.

Ahem, our naff Christmas lights were mentioned on page 4, under the title 'News From The Parish Council Office'. It went on to tell us who sponsored them ... have they received a refund yet? ... I can only deduce that our parish councillors do not live in our parish, because they're clearly not seeing what the rest of us are seeing.

Anyway, I need wonder no more about who our councillors are as they're listed on the back cover of this glossy magazine - the majority of which are no doubt destined for recycling bags [magazines not councillors, hmmm]. Ooooh, they've got vacancies for two more councillors. I've been informed that it is not advisable to join this exclusive club because if you don't fit in and conform then life is made uncomfortable until you resign. 

Please note councillors when you read this, that I'm only relaying information given to me by other grumpies, and is therefore not necessarily my own opinion.

I've also been told - by yet even more grumpies - that a fellow grumpess has written to our local newspaper (Ripley and Heanor News) complaining about our Christmas lights, the letter was published but there has been no reply. There have been other letters written to our parish council asking pertinent questions, these have remained unanswered. So where can you get in touch with them?

Oh look, as well as ONE phone number, there's also ONE email address for our local parish council ... a shabby throw away yahoo.co.uk address ... very grown up and official I'm sure.

Oh I say, Gasp, splutter ... and just look who is responsible for our floral displays ... what floral displays???? They really are taking the wee wee - and yes, this is my own opinion ...

Langley Mill's Christmas Lights 2011

I received yet another google alert this morning about 'Asda' and 'Langley Mill', taking me straight to the Eastwood & Kimberley Advertiser [published this morning]. Telling me that - ooer - Asda has donated £2,000 toward the cost of Aldercar and Langley Mill Parish Council's 2011 Christmas lights.

I laid there in bed with the android jobby in my hand, sort of gobsmacked - grumpy was making my coffee - I roused myself out of my near catatonic state to text a few friends this news, and then I twittered - as you do.

I have checked - since I got up - what I put in a previous post, as I, ahem, vaguely recall mentioning something about apologising to Asda if they gave Langley Mill any money for lights. Phew, it's ok, I didn't commit myself, I only said I may apologise ... so that's not about to happen any time soon, now is it?

All that remains for me to do now, is to go out tonight to gaze in awe at these wonderful lights ... bought by our council with the money generously donated by Asda ...

Update 18.35 the same day:
O-k-a-a-a-a-y ... been through Langley Mill ... hmm, the same two - or maybe three - efforts on lampposts as last year and the year before. The same strings of lights around the churches ... and, have they nicked the Cromford Road lights to put around that industrial bit near St Andrews church, or are they The Acorn Centre's missing lights? Or The Jockey's?

I will of course write an update if more lights suddenly appear in Langley Mill - even at this late date. Apologise? - Moi? - Not on your nelly ...

Getting Excited!!

Oh yes, I'm getting in the Christmas mood ... after the almost total lack of Christmas lights in Langley Mill last year, things are bound to improve this year.

Well, you only have to read about Asda in Langley Mill donating £2,000 to Nottinghamshire's Eastwood switch on - I have to keep reading it because Google kindly sends me alerts whenever 'Asda Langley Mill' is mentioned on t'interweb. Ahem, 4 out of 5 times it's me that mentioned it ... but I digress.

If Asda in Langley Mill, DERBYSHIRE [oh yes it is] was that generous to a nearby town in a different county, just imagine what our Christmas lights and switch on event will be like in Langley Mill itself - where Asda actually is.

Oh I can't wait ...

Langley Mill’s Christmas Lights

We went out the other night, to gaze with wonder upon Langley Mill's Christmas lights, now I’m not talking fancy stuff, just coloured bulbs strung up between lampposts. It’s not much but it cheers the place up. We have them on Cromford Road - across from the bottom of Bridge Street. Then more at The Acorn Centre, and again outside The Jockey pub.

Er, where are they?

We're reduced to two individual efforts on lampposts, one at the Jockey and one at the Acorn Centre, where's all our bulbs gone? We’re used to the council workers coming in November to put the poles up, then they arrive a couple of weeks later with our lights. November came and went and there was no sign of the pole erectors, so we thought maybe they’d put them and the lights up at the same time this year.

Wrong.

There also used to be two trees at the edge of the Railway Tavern car park that were always decked with white lights every Christmas, that is until someone chopped both trees down one January [about three years ago – with the lights still on them].

It’s long been established that Heanor’s Christmas lights are naff, but because they're never switched on until the first Monday in December, they're not on - and working - long enough for us to moan about. But this year I think Langley Mill - who regularly seem to get Heanor’s cast offs, has reached an all-time low.

We’ve had a ride through other towns and villages in the past week and I can only say that I’m ashamed of our lights. The only ones we’ve got that are worth talking about are the Christmas trees near Lidl, and I think they’re only there to show Eastwood that we’ve got some - and have paid our electric bill. I’m thinking of asking Broxtowe council if we can tag on to Eastwood, as their lights - as usual - are quite nice, I wouldn't mind their cast-offs.

We used to put lights up on the front of our house - I like to get the grumpy old man up the ladder every so often, it reminds him that there are two sides to each window that needs cleaning.

I once stupidly put some quite expensive lights on the bushes in our front, ahem, garden. That is until some t**ts thought they’d amuse themselves over three consecutive nights pulling odd bulbs out and throwing them on the bridge. It was a bugger of a job trying to find out what was wrong with them; seeing first one colour go off then the next day another until we were down to only one colour. It wasn’t until I took the dog for a walk over t'bridge that we realised what the little b*****ds had done ...