B. Terry Aspin the artist

Since Keith's father died, two years ago, most of his personal stuff has been stored but now Keith has decided that some of it should be sold. As well as being a published author on model engineering and foundry work for the amateur, Terry built scale steam locomotives from scratch and spent hours following this interest in his workshop next to the house. As well as that, he was a gifted artist. In the sixties, he did a lot of the illustration work for many of the comics published by D.C. Thompson, of Dandy and Beano fame. It seems strange to think that comics like School Friend and Girl's Crystal, which I bought and read avidly every week, were illustrated by him and Keith still has some of the original drawings.
But there's more. He also painted in oils. Keith has most of his paintings and recently decided to put some of them on Ebay to see whether they sell. So, you never know, B. Terry Aspin could be the latest 'must have' in art circles - people could soon be flocking to own one of his paintings. Remember, you saw it here first!

INSET for teachers - Staffordshire or Spain?

Dad sent me an email with a link to this article yesterday. It tells of the staff of a technology college in Staffordshire who had decided that they really must do their next INSET training in sunny Spain, at a hotel which just happens to be fully equipped with poolside bar, Turkish baths and casino, so off they planned to go for four fun-filled (sorry, work-filled) days whilst their pupils stayed at home with homework tasks.
Not surprisingly, parents, pupils and the wider community are somewhat less than impressed by this and are not at all convinced by the head teacher's argument that, actually, it works out cheaper than hiring a conference centre in this country. Now, that's the bit I take issue with. Why, in the name of fortune can they not hold their INSET in their own school? Theirs is a technology college, which means that they have ample facilities for the planning they need to do and they don't even have to sit scrunched up on mini chairs like we poor primary teachers do! No, I'm afraid I have no sympathy with them at all and I'm quite pleased that today, thanks to a rising tide of adverse publicity, they have now decided to cancel the trip.
And I'm not even going to START on how much easier a time secondary teachers have their primary colleagues...;)