r/Clacton

However I'm wondering if there's any real life advertising going on outside the online spaces? It does have a chance to effect the election results.

The TIME BANK CLACTON says it is there to help people swap time and services. But in truth it is really where people sit all day when they don't want to be at home on their own, or pay for their own utility bills.Wow. My friend, an old lady, contacted the above place as they advertise time bank services where you swap yours for theirs. She is housebound and lonely with no visitors and wanted a regular visitor to chat to, someone fun and chatty of course. She contacted the TIME BANK CLACTON and explained. The lady who runs it, Jackie, went on and on about her family life and difficulties as if the call was about HER and HER NEEDS, for ages, then again a few days later and again a few days later. She then wanted to arrange to come over to see the old lady to go over everything - she had wasted 3 hours she could have done that in - and came over, and told her all the same about her family then. The old lady told her what she wanted, someone chatty to visit regularly for chats. Fine she said I have just the person for you. I will get in touch.

The first time she did this she said the person she had in mind had moved and was not part of the group anymore, then she offered an old lady who wants to go to the cinema to see a certain film - apparently housebound people go out - and chatty people want to sit there and watch a film RATHER THAN CHAT. Would have thought a lady who is on her own a lot would very much value a nice chat with someone and could do without another chance to watch a film. Just common sense eh, and she would probably not be keen on paying someone to come to the cinema with her to watch the film THEY CHOSE and just sit there? Surely if the other person prefers the cinema and watching a film of their own choosing to visiting a housebound person and chatting, the payment should be the other way around? Then she was offered a so called psychic who must come with her sister as a bodyguard, then a very quiet woman who is not into speaking and chatting. The old lady told Jackie what she thought, that she had wasted a lot of her time and delivered nothing at all that was as asked for. Jackie got defensive and said she is not allowed to criticise her, these TIME BANK CLACTON people were going to sacrifice their precious time to help her.

Not sure how she figures this out. The one who wanted to go to the cinema to watch a certain film was hardly offering something suitable for a housebound person or someone who is chatty. None of them remotely fitted.

The sensible way to do this, if you are BUSY, as Jackie claims to be. Is to keep work and family life separate. You chat on phone to old lady and get a good idea of what she wants, and see if you have someone suitable. If you do not you are honest and say so, you don't con her out of hours of her time on the pretext that she has someone but she is not sure who at the TIME BANK CLACTON yet. Be professional. Don't talk to clients about family - it is wasting precious time and boring.

Then in a very immature way Jackie said to the old lady, well the people who come here and sit here drinking tea all day know you and did not want to meet you, because they know you can be critical. Really? So how does this HOUSEBOUND lady get to meet these people, how do they know her? It's not when the HOUSEBOUND person goes there nor when they invite themselves over to her place not knowing her address. NONE of them has ever spoken to her, let alone met her, or spoken to anyone she knows. All of the people the old lady knows get on well with her and don't go there, so there was no third party. TIME BANK CLACTON. Even after all this wasted time and admitting that she does not have anyone suitable to introduce to the old lady Jackie expected the old lady to let her come over to go on and on and on again!

I will tell you why. Some women like to go on and on about whatever it is that their brain is focused on. It might be the husband leaving his socks on the floor. It might be a friend forgetting to phone, it might be something important, and whenever they get a chance they want to go on and on to any woman who will listen to it. Preferably over and over again, preferably for a long, long time. And this sort of woman then moves onto another subject. I've met loads of them and when I lived alone they would think they could just come around, spew out whatever it was that was getting to them, and then go home till the next time. But when I had someone like my husband there they lost interest. They wanted it to be private and confidential, just between them and me, with me just listening. They talk you listen. Nobody else listens. They are the dynamics they want and grab hold of when they can. So instead of focusing on finding someone to visit the old lady like she had asked for, Jackie focuses on making excuses to phone her and visit her as much as she can to spew. It's very very selfish, no thought to how the lady is not interested or is too busy.

It seems to me that the lady who should be paying for a listening ear is the lady who runs this place, Jackie. She has a partner and family and plenty of people at the TIME BANK CLACTON she can spew to but she wants more, and that might not be private enough for her. Desperate to spend hours telling strangers all about her family and making as many opportunities to phone again or return again to do the same again.

I once met a woman in Clacton on sea who told me, with a chuckle, she pretends to be a psychic reader. She cannot really do it but she is lonely and likes to chat, so she gets people to pay her a small amount in return for a "reading" and makes it up as she goes along or just listens. And, she is quite busy, because most of them just want the listening bit and go back over and over. It is their time you are paying for. No skills or talents.

Jackie said she had often matched up someone with a regular visitor for chats yet she told the old lady she was not sure but she might have to get checked out by the police to prove she has never broken the law. I know several people who visit people for chats for a charity, they need to be checked out and prove they are genuine because sometimes there are two of them, they might be violent, steal, sexual, and all sorts. The person they are visiting is taking a risk letting them into their home. Especially when they could just run off and she would have no idea of their address/real name to trace them. It is hardly the same thing with someone who is probably older, housebound, maybe disabled, more likely to be on their own, who might be surrounded by pretty things they might want to steal, a handbag they might want to empty etc! The person being visited has NEVER had to be police checked, so why did Jackie have to find this out if she had arranged a lot of visitors like this before?

And how come when a local charity asks her if she has anyone on her books that would like to be a chatty visitor for their clients she always says no?

If you want a chatty visitor your best bet is to get a telephone friend. So much simpler. Go to AGE CONCERN UK or SILVERLINE and sign up with them, it is free. But as with all charities there are always some who have ulterior motives for being there or are not very competent. Pay peanuts and get monkeys.

Hello

Has the recent political hoo haa been impacting on numbers coming to the town (positively or negatively)?

I live in the South West so when I go to a beach I usually go further west but as a result of the drama I’ve been checking out pictures of the East coast and it’s beautiful!