WEDNESDAY 18TH JANUARY 2012

It was a real step forward to starting to get some kind of assistance at home today, Gillian went through what her role was and the next step forward.  It was her first time in organising care packages, so it was a little bit of the blind leading the blind but it sounded like progress was going to be made.  We came away from the meeting with Gillian set to organise for me to interview 3 care agencies, which is what is required for the CHC funding to be approved then they have 3 quotes to go from.  Hopefully these interviews will happen in the next couple of weeks, this was a big relief and I came away feeling really positive, if a little apprehensive.

Because of the strike I thought work were going to say I had to go back into work only to then walk back out, but fortunately they allowed me to work from home until the strike began at 3.30pm.  It just felt like a normal working from home day though and I felt as though I should have been with my colleagues as they walked out on mass.  It is the first time I have ever taken part in strike action, but I believe in the Save BBC Birmingham campaign and once production has moved out of the building, you wonder what the future holds for the rest of the staff within BBC Birmingham.  So at 3.30pm I stopped working and had the rest of the afternoon to myself.

It was strange watching the strike on Midlands Today this evening with my colleagues walking out together, because it is only our Union, BECTU that are striking, it meant staff from other unions remained in the office along with staff from other departments.  But the reception they received from fellow non-striking colleagues was brilliant as people stood up and applauded as the strike started.  There was a big part of me that wished I had been around as I think it took people by surprise the level of support that was shown.

In the evening I settled down and watched Wolves Vs Birmingham City in the FA Cup 3^rd Round replay, it was a really good local derby with Blues winning to go through, which was a bit of a surprise but hardly a giant killing.