If I’m honest, there is not much that can be directed towards me as a Scot that offends me, I was brought up to believe the mantra of stick and stones and like a good brainwashee it’s all mostly water off a duck’s back (how many more clichés can I fit into this entry do you think?) but having said that there is one term I don’t really like and that is being described as Scotch.

Now, while it is true that this adjective was once used to describe people, that was a long time ago and is now considered mildly pejorative and since the early 19th Century has been more commonly used to describe food and drink i.e. Scotch Beef, Scotch Broth and of course Scotch Whisky.

So when we received a letter a few weeks ago it wasn’t the use of profanity that offended me, it was the use of the term Scotch to describe my colleagues and I and in a broader sense our clients. This xenophobia towards Scots has always puzzled me however I guess that is really the nature of most phobias, they are all just a fear of the unknown and the person suffering the phobia usually cannot explain why they feel the way they do.  As a UK citizen I find it mildly amusing when I’m told to, “Go back to your own country” the UK is my country.

Now, this all seems quite detached and a little unbelievable and whilst it is true we receive perhaps 2 or 3 letters and emails like this a year, that is only because most people do not have the energy or, dare I say it, conviction in their beliefs, to actually sit down and string a few words together, incoherent or otherwise.  Things are not the same on the coalface aka the street; whether it’s people complaining about Scottish bankers, politicians or rough sleepers the terms used directly or indirectly are abusive yet somehow accepted by the vast majority of people.

Perhaps this is why Scots have a reputation of being dour if you spend all day being referred to in a derogatory way you’ve not got much to smile about.

Those of you who have been keeping up to date with ScotsCare’s news will know that we have formed an alliance with Borderline and our remit now includes helping homeless Scots in London.  This has resulted in myself and colleagues attending specialised homelessness courses designed by Shelter; who ever said you can’t teach an old dogs new tricks hasn’t witnessed the sight of me getting all my answers right in a multiple choice test

Strangely however his biggest complaint was that the majority of people don’t talk at all and instead spend their 15 minutes avoiding conversation completely, he seemed to think this a grave insult, “Why don’t they want to talk?” he asked.  I suggested that rather than it being the case that they didn’t like him personally, it might well be that they have something major going on in their lives that they can’t share with friends and family, let alone a guy they see for 15 minutes every 5 or 6 weeks.  I usually greet the cheery enthusiasm of most barbers with as few words as possible, more so as I have little to no interest in sport and I’m not sure how to make a conversation on the weather last more than 15 words let alone 15 minutes!

It got me wondering how our clients feel when they get invited to meet with a case worker to discuss their application.  For many clients it will probably appear a daunting task, to come along to a strange office and discuss their current situation, their past and hopes for the future with a stranger, unlike my friend the barber, I often end up knowing things about clients that they have been unable to share with friends and family and in some cases I can see a look of relief on their faces, that something that has been a burden on their mind for so long has finally been shared. A problem shared is a problem halved, as the saying goes.

I suggested to my friend that perhaps he soften his approach the next time he has a customer who doesn’t appear to be in a chatty frame of mind, that perhaps his demanding, Why won’t you talk to me? approach will only make them less likely to open up.  “Ask them if they’ve read any good books lately,” I suggested, “you’ll be amazed how often people are willing to tell you about a book they’ve enjoyed and from the author or the title/subject you’ll find out a lot more than asking them about the weather and Arsenals poor goal scoring record of late!”

Before I leave you for another fortnight, I thought I’d mention a new social blogging website that may be of interest (No, I’m not sure what that means either) it’s called ScotBlog and has been set up by two 13 year old boys from the North East of Scotland.  There are individual blogs on there as well as groups which range from Scottish History to Call Centre & Customer Relationship Management Why not have a look?

However joking aside it will be nice to wake to daylight streaming through the window rather than wondering if I’ve woken in the middle of the night although in reality 6.30am is the middle of the night to me!  Spring brings with it the opportunity to shake off the remnants of Winter and with the brief glimmers of sunshine we’ve already been getting it surely can’t be too long before the moans and groans about the cold are replaced with grumbles about it being unbearably hot; those who say the British don’t complain enough obviously shied away from weather related conversations!

Spring, for some reason or another, is the perfect excuse for cleaning, no one talks about Summer cleaning or Autumn cleaning but Spring?  That’s the Season to dig out the rubber gloves and start scrubbing, appropriate I guess if you’ve left the dirt to it’s own devices for the previous 9 or 10 months!

One place that parents will know only too well about that needs a clean more than once a year is the kids bedroom so it may be worth pointing them in the direction of this Spring Clean your Bedroom article.  Having read it myself I’ve made a mental note to try step 7, who would have thought that windows needed to be cleaned more than twice a year?!

Of course there are lots of things and places that need cleaned, most are pretty obvious; the car, the garden, the office desk, the garage, etc but very often the things that most need cleaning are the things used everyday and just neglected.  I’m referring of course to the average computer, keyboard and mouse!  Admit it, when did you last give yours a clean?

There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose!

While a lot of people have moved over to optical mice, the vast majority of users will still have a trackball mouse and you’ll know it needs a clean when you find the cursor just won’t go where you want it, if that sounds like you then here is a simple to follow guide on cleaning your mouse

Sticky fingers leave more than fingerprints.

One thing that really does deserve regular cleaning is your keyboard, if you happen to share yours then statistically you should count yourself lucky you’ve not fallen ill when you consider the dirt and grime that’s transferred to your fingers every day.  I see the way you’re looking down at your keyboard but fear not, here is a straight forward guide on cleaning your dirty keyboard

Portable by name, portable by nature.

If you have a laptop the chances are you’ve popped it in your bag and dragged it all over the place with you so not only have you got the debris from your home/office to deal with, you have the wide open air to contend with.  This makes this article on cleaning your laptop essential reading.

Unlike a lot of people who found themselves stranded at home I was able to work thanks to the wonders of remote access. It’s interesting how things have progressed, I remember in 1989 when I worked for British Telecom and the notion of being able to log onto your corporate desktop from your home PC was getting bandied about.  No one quite believed it would ever catch on and even to this day there are a great many sceptical people, managers included, who raise an eyebrow when someone says they are working from home, the belief is often that without someone there to watch over them the at home worker will spend all day watching daytime TV in between visits to the fridge.

I have to admit, I was one of those sceptics; although I longed for a job that allowed me to work from home as I figured it would be an easy life.  Let me tell you, if you think the same, take it from me, it’s not!  Without the distractions of the telephone ringing or the friendly banter of colleagues I find I log on, tune in and forget to pause for breath.  Great for getting work done but not at all the gentle sedate pace I thought it would be and when you’re already sitting at home you forget to leave work which is why I cursed myself on Tuesday when I looked up from the screen and found it was almost 6.30pm!!  I was very much relieved to wake on Wednesday morning to find that public transport was running again, this working from home lark is harder than it seems

One thing that did strike me about being snowed in was the complete frustration of not being able to leave the house.  In some respects I felt I could relate to some of our clients.  They find themselves housebound either through lack of mobility or finances, instead often spending 24hours a day at home, maybe even 3, 4 or 5 days in a row.  Once that habit has set in, it can be very daunting to break out of it.  Often, during an assessment interview with a client, I will mention training in order to get some skills which will enable them to get out of the house and into work.  Sometimes there is a look of excitement when it’s explained that we might be able to help with a course to develop work related skills but occasionally there is a look of panic, for some clients the thought of having to leave the safety of their house can be quite daunting, especially if they have been out of the workforce for a number fo years, either through ill health or raising children.  They know they want to work but suddenly the prospect of leaving the place they thought they hated being in (home) fills them with dread.

This is when ScotsCare’s volunteering opportunities prove beneficial.  Clients who are worried about re-entering the workforce are often less worried when they are given the option of spending just a few hours a week in a friendly environment that will provide training and support as they re-discover the joys of work.  No, that wasn’t a typo, I really did say joy   A large number of our volunteers leave ScotsCare having secured paid employment as a direct result of their time volunteering with us.

We’ve all seen the headlines in which some politician or another denounces a single parent for being a burden on society, usually the tirade is directed towards a young woman who has just had a child.  What people often forget is that men can be and are single parents.  Funnily enough a lot of people mistakenly think that Fathers 4 Justice, who they recall from the photos of fathers dressed as Batman and Robin outfits from the news, are single fathers, they’re not, simply fathers trying to get more contact with their children.  Strangely I can never look at those photos without thinking of Rodney and Del Boy!

The reason I mention all this is because I was reading Gingerbreads recent survey results and it makes interesting reading.   From a survey of more than 755 single mums and dads between November and December 2008 they found that:

• 84% think the media presents single parents in a negative light.
• 70% of single parents had gone without something for themselves in the past year to help make ends meet.
• 33% had gone without something for their children.
• 79% had turned down the heating to help manage finances.
• 38% of single parents had to borrow money in the past year.
• 50% think it’s harder raising children alone today than 10 years  ago.

I tend to find these results mirror those of the single parent clients I meet in the London boroughs I primarily work in; Hackney, Islington,  Haringey, Barnet and Waltham Forest.

What they don’t mention is the immense sense of frustration a lot of single parents feel about their situation.  Very often they feel they are in a catch 22 situation.  They very often want to work and get off state benefits but are troubled by the fact that they may have left school with no qualification and therefore are at the bottom of the list for any vacancies that do arise; it’s very difficult to make a job as a toilet attendant sound glamorous even more so when you throw in you’ll be making minimum wage and probably have to spend 40-45 hours a weeks at it just to cover the essential expenditure to run a home.

For exactly those reasons ScotsCare aims to help those clients, not just single parents I hasten to add, who need that helping hand to help themselves.  Whilst it’s true we award grants for practical household items that a family may need, we also offer grants to assist with training whether it’s someone in their 40’s studying for their GCSEs or someone looking to train to be a forklift operator we are here to listen to the desires and aspirations, sometimes adding a drop of realism to the conversation – I recall speaking with one client who decided she wanted to be a beautician but it transpired she had an aversion to feet and skinny fingers! after discussion she accepted that perhaps work might not be so forthcoming if she refused to give anyone a pedicure or screamed at the sight of some elongated index fingers!

Whether it’s assistance with a household item, a child focused grant, help with tuition fees to enter a period of study or just some practical advice on where to look for more information ScotsCare is here willing to offer our hand, even to those clients who initially come with clenched fists and zero expectations.

Now, that’s rarely the news you’ll find making the headlines but just because it isn’t known doesn’t stop the truth from being true!

Perhaps with the exception of The Stig, there is no conclusive answer to the questions above or the majority of any others you can think of.  Unlike computers, which are programmed to work in a logical manner,  their programmers have varying thoughts and opinions on most matters and thanks to this quirk of human nature, whilst it can be debated ad infinitum, there is often no right or wrong answer, only the one that you believe in.  Obviously of course this doesn’t mean that you can rewrite the rules of mathematics or English grammar however hard text messengers try!

When it comes to blogging, which is still a relatively new art, there are few rule books from which to read from, unless of course you harness the might of your preferred search engine, in which case you’ll find around 149 million results for the question, How long should a blog be? and yes, that probably means about 149 million different opinions as to why your answer is wrong and the writers is correct.

Interestingly enough, if you change the question to Who should a charity help? it seems a much less debated question weighing in with only 433,000 results and yet it is one of the most often asked questions I hear.  Charities are not legally obliged to help anyone outside their stated target group which may be niche or very broad.  One way to help answer that question is to know how many charities there are, at the end of June 2008 there were 169,498 main charities on the Charity Commission’s Register for England and Wales of which ScotsCare is one, so it’s pretty safe to say that whatever your need, there is a charity out there that aims to meet it.

Here at ScotsCare we aim to help all first and second generation Scots who live within 35 miles of Charing Cross, London.  Notice I said aim? As the paraphrased saying goes, you can help some of the people most of the time but you can’t help all of the people all of the time and the sad reality is that even at ScotsCare we have to say no to some clients who come to us for financial assistance.  Obviously this is not a decision we take lightly but it does happen and that is often when the question is asked, So who do you help then? That’s when I refer back to our aim and explain that help is not always about money.

Help is available in many differing formats and the most valuable of those IMO is information.  Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for life;  substitute knowledge for fish and you empower people to help themselves and that is real help that money can’t buy!

As for blog length, as you may have gathered I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that says a blog should be under 4 paragraphs in length.  This is primarily because I only blog once every two weeks here and it is often the case that you can’t properly say what you want in such a constrained space, if I wrote more frequently I’d write less, so consider my blog entries a full blown banquet of words as opposed to some of my colleagues entries which are more akin to the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite

Yes, it is true that peoples online attention span is typically shorter, they say around 90-120 seconds but it is also the case that you can part-read and re-read a blog at convenience and in multi-blogger blogs like this one, if you find a blogger whose style and approach you like you can subscribe to their dedicated RSS feed and be alerted whenever they post a new entry. If you look at our list of bloggers on the main page you will find a link to each of their RSS feeds and of course if you just want to know when an entry appears we have our dedicated blog entry feed which is listed at the bottom of every page.

Most browsers now have integrated RSS feed readers but if yours doesn’t then visit rssreader.com where you can get one for free. For those who have laboured to the end, you’ll be pleased to know you’ve digested 774 words!

The truth is, as is often the case, a blurry blend of the two.  Just before the office broke for the Christmas period we laughed and joked about the blog writing schedule (don’t be fooled folks, we do have one!) and just why it was that I, of all people, should be allocated 1 January as my designated day.  The reality is that today is pretty much like any other day to me, to you and the majority of the people we help here at ScotsCare.  Yes, it’s the start of a new year, fresh beginnings, reflections on the year that’s just gone, a clean slate but what does that actually mean in the real world?

Now, I’m not ordinarily known within the confines of 37 King Street as being the most cheery of people, especially at this time of the year.  I freely admit I see no purpose in Christmas other than for retailers to make up in the closing 4 weeks of the year the losses they made in the preceding 48; a time for people to put themselves into a little more debt in the belief that the smile on their loved ones face’s makes it all worthwhile and very usually it does.  All that said, in a perverse way it’s also probably true that the reason I seem not to care too much for this time of the year is because I do care for it.

The end of a year really is a time for reflection, of the good and the bad that has happened not just in the 12 months gone by, but in all the years we can remember.  The friends who have come, those who have gone.  The moments that have made us cry with laughter, those that have caused us to shed a tear in pain; yet through it all we survive, very often with the help of family and friends.  However we need to remember that not everyone has friends and family to fall back on, at best a lot of us survive with acquaintances and even that is a rather loose term.

So this year, as you either sit nursing your head which might be throbbing from a little too much celebration or reading with dismay that others might have given themselves over to the demon drink, spare a thought for those less fortunate.  I don’t just mean those obvious ones such as those who sleep on the streets or in night shelters, I mean everyone.  The families that face losing their homes in these times of recession, to those who start the New Year knowing that they no longer have a job, to those that feel they will never have a job.

Whether we know it or not, just about every household is probably leaving 2008 and entering 2009 with some less than perfect news. So whether you raise a glass of ice-cold champagne in their honour or a steaming mug of tea, pause for a second and think of them, then carry on with your day and bask in the warm glow that all over the UK and here in London, charities such as ScotsCare are doing their best to help those who need a helping hand to get on with their lives.

If it is one thing we’ve learnt here at ScotsCare since 1603, when the first seeds of our existence were sown,  it’s knowing how to weather the storm, face what obstacles life throws at us and just be here for those that need us, when they need us and all of this is made that little bit easier with your support.  Whether you give time or money it all goes towards the common good and is much appreciated by clients and staff alike.  On behalf of them all may I wish you and those close to you a very healthy and prosperous New Year!

Personally I like the fact that my colleagues think I do nothing, that tells me that I.T. is doing it’s job, busily working away in the background and making the working day that little bit easier.  A lot of my time is spent wading through the glossy sales literature and spiffy websites from companies promising to sell me the best tool for the job…most of the time, as is often the case, it’s all talk and it takes me all my time to get to the facts which enable me to compare like with like.

This causes me to have flashbacks to my maths lessons when Mrs McCance would yell at the class, “In algebra you can’t add apples and oranges together!”  A great many I.T. marketing departments would have benefited from attending her algebra classes however I half suspect companies collude to ensure they never disclose the same information thus making it that much harder for consumers to make a truly informed decision but that’s probably just the inner cynic in me talking.

Of course it’s not all boring sales literature, 300 page installation guides and the occasion light relief provided by Dogbert and Catbert, I also spend time trying to find ways of using the software we have in a more productive way.  This I suspect doesn’t always go down well with my colleagues as I often hear a collective groan seconds after I send an email to everyone with my latest ‘handy hint’.

Take my latest find, it’s a way of sending a mass email out but making it look as if you’ve sent it to one individual.  Anyone who has ever used mail merge will know the effect and it’s particularly handy for this time of year as you can use it to save money and the environment by sending Christmas emails instead of cards.  If you’re interested on finding out how to do it yourself click here if you use Microsoft Outlook 2003 or click here if you use Microsoft Outlook 2007

No matter how easy I think my hints are to follow, I’m brought back to the reality that for a great many people I may as well be talking Martian and so I strive to word things in plain English, I don’t always succeed but I try.  I sometimes still feel a sense of amazement when I sit on the bus checking my email on a device smaller than a packet of cigarettes while remembering that when I first started using computers a colour monitor was one that showed text in either green or amber and floppy discs were the size of a compact disc but held only 1.44Mb compared to a compact discs 700Mb!

Of course for many of our clients, the rapid rate at which technology is moving fills them with dread; computer skills are almost a pre-requisite for even the most basic of jobs and many of them feel they are “too old” or “too stupid” to learn which of course is nonsense.  I’ve witnessed some of our volunteers shy away from using email when they’ve joined ScotsCare, preferring instead to use pen and paper but after only a few weeks they’ve gotten over the fear factor and are happily double clicking, drag and dropping and even mail merging

What most people seem to forget is that for the vast majority of ScotsCare’s clients, the credit crunch is nothing new, it’s been around for most of their lives but it’s only now that someone has attached a handy label to it, this is no doubt why you’ll hear park bench drinkers bemoaning their inability to buy more strong lager because of, you guessed it, the credit crunch!

This week I’ve been brushing up on my debt advice knowledge to help enable me to assist a few clients who are feeling the very real effect of debt.  Whilst the newspapers advise shopping around for better deals on credit cards and taking exception to the fact that rates have shot up to 16.9% they seem to forget that for a great many people, those are rates that can only be dreamt of.  A very well known ‘home money lender’ has recently increased their APR to a staggering 189.2% sadly I predict that they will be very busy this festive period when some of the most vulnerable people have no option but to make use of their services.

At ScotsCare there is little we can do to pay off these debts other than make available the information a client needs to enable them to make an informed decision on what options are open to them, burying your head in the sand is not really an option, no matter how popular it seems to be.  For most it will be to contact the creditors and request that interest is frozen and to offer them a weekly repayment, others will enter into a debt management plan and for some it may be the more serious option of bankruptcy.

One of the hardest things to do when you are in debt is account for where the money goes, all you seem to know is there is never anything left after you pay the bills, assuming you manage to pay them at all.  You skip a month thinking you’ll catch up next month but by then something else needs paying and before you know it you are six months in arrears and numb to the thought of just how bad your situation is.

However all is not lost, if you are on benefits and in arrears with utilities such as Gas, Electric or Water you can request that your debt is deducted directly from your benefits each week. By agreeing to do this you ensure that not only does the money go directly to the provider, you are guaranteed never to be disconnected.

Most gas and electricity providers as well as British Telecom now offer social tariffs for people on certain benefits which offers them lower rates, so it’s always worth making a phone call to see what is available.  Additionally a lot of providers have trust funds who will consider paying off energy debts.  Don’t think this is an easy route out, the application process can be long and arduous and more cases are refused than accepted but if you can show how the debt built up you stand a good chance of being considered.  You can find out more by visiting this link