These teachers! Can't trust them to do anything right...Right?
Life in north east England (yes, we've moved!) with an eccentric Welshman and a small white dog that thinks he's a Rottweiler.
Children and Health and Safety
News of the mother who allowed her nine year old son to travel on the New York subway alone comes right on the heels of this little item which missed the headlines.
These teachers! Can't trust them to do anything right...Right?
These teachers! Can't trust them to do anything right...Right?
Football - again!!!!
People who know me quite well may harbour a suspicion that I am not a football fan.
They would be right. Not that I go on about it, of course, although my definition of football as a gang of twenty two idiots chasing a bag of wind round a field has certainly stood the test of time and is well remembered by various members of my family. So I have to stand up and be counted. For me that definition sums it up perfectly, plus the issue of all the millions of pounds, euros etc which said idiots are rewarded with and the stupid habit they have of jumping all over each other whenever one of them kicks it into the net.
If you have read this far, you will no doubt be getting my drift. So you probably won't be too suprised that I am considerably less than impressed by the way the TV schedules have been messed up by the latest dose. Instead of banishing the football to an obscure satellite channel, (Who wants to watch it anyway?) the men in suits are depriving me of my usual fixes of Emmerdale and Corrie!
What is wrong with these people???
(As you can see, withdrawal symptoms have well and truly kicked in.)
They would be right. Not that I go on about it, of course, although my definition of football as a gang of twenty two idiots chasing a bag of wind round a field has certainly stood the test of time and is well remembered by various members of my family. So I have to stand up and be counted. For me that definition sums it up perfectly, plus the issue of all the millions of pounds, euros etc which said idiots are rewarded with and the stupid habit they have of jumping all over each other whenever one of them kicks it into the net.
If you have read this far, you will no doubt be getting my drift. So you probably won't be too suprised that I am considerably less than impressed by the way the TV schedules have been messed up by the latest dose. Instead of banishing the football to an obscure satellite channel, (Who wants to watch it anyway?) the men in suits are depriving me of my usual fixes of Emmerdale and Corrie!
What is wrong with these people???
(As you can see, withdrawal symptoms have well and truly kicked in.)
Return of the Wanderer
Well, I'm back chez Jennyta. The house is still standing and I have been duly missed. The vegetable plants are growing fast and furious and I have even managed to watch three hours of Primeval on ITV3 this afternoon.
Now, however, the recording of Formula 1 is deafening my eardrums and numbing my mind. What joy! Did I really race up the M5, M54 etc for this???
Now, however, the recording of Formula 1 is deafening my eardrums and numbing my mind. What joy! Did I really race up the M5, M54 etc for this???
Man with a red flag
As I am in Bristol visiting Dad again, we set off this morning to do a spot of shopping at Yate, the reason being that I wanted to re-visit a shoe shop I remembered there. The main problem was not that I couldn't find what I wanted, but the journey there. After leaving the ring road, the rest of the route was sabotaged by ridiculous and ever-changing speed limits.
OK, so my little Toyota Yaris does not easily lend itself to burning rubber, even if I was inclined so to do, (the Probe was, and that's another story!) but tootling along at 30mph on a wide country road with no immediate habitation...and then 40....followed swiftly by a sharp return to 30 and passing a side road with a 20mph limit, was not my idea of a pleasant drive. It left me wondering, cynically, which city in this benighted country of ours will be the first to re-introduce an obligation for every car to be preceded by a man with a red flag, to warn other road users of the imminent danger.
(Paying £1.24 a litre for petrol did not add to my delight either. That too is another story!)
OK, so my little Toyota Yaris does not easily lend itself to burning rubber, even if I was inclined so to do, (the Probe was, and that's another story!) but tootling along at 30mph on a wide country road with no immediate habitation...and then 40....followed swiftly by a sharp return to 30 and passing a side road with a 20mph limit, was not my idea of a pleasant drive. It left me wondering, cynically, which city in this benighted country of ours will be the first to re-introduce an obligation for every car to be preceded by a man with a red flag, to warn other road users of the imminent danger.
(Paying £1.24 a litre for petrol did not add to my delight either. That too is another story!)
Dinghy rescue
On BBC TV's morning programme 'Breakfast' yesterday, a teenage girl was interviewed. I only ever watch morning television with half an eye but I soon realised that this girl's story was interesting, if only in its stupidity. You can see the account of her experience here, but basically, seventeen year old Sammy and her friend, sixteen year old Tom were on holiday in Weston Super Mare (or Weston Mare, as she kept calling it in the interview) when they decided to go on a little sea trip. Not being the owners of a boat of any description, they spotted a couple of £4.99 children's inflatable dinghies in a nearby shop and bought those as an alternative. At no point did it occur to either of them that floating off in these might possibly not be the wisest thing to do. The article mentions that they used the dinghies' paddles, but on television, it looked as if Tom was using metal household shovels. (Yes, metal - think about it, Tom!)
Inevitably, they floated off away from Weston and eventually managed to come ashore at Brean. Even then they were apparently unfazed by their experience.
"Did you not ring for help as you had your mobile with you?" inquired the presenter.
"Nah, we just thought we could walk back. It was suppose to take about forty minutes, we were told."
Eventually, the realisation dawned on them that they were actually lost and at this point, they did indeed phone for help. Realisation must have taken quite a while though, as the seach for them lasted seven and a half hours.
"It's good to see a happy ending to an incident that could have been turned out a lot more serious. We would never recommend that people set sail in inflatable dinghies," was the coast guard's comment. I think I might have been inclined to put it a lot more forcefully than that.
And did I mention that Sammy had been carrying her mobile during this adventure? She had it with her during the interview too. I know this because the message tone went off at least three times and instead of switching it off, she was caught on camera surreptitiously texting back, mid-interview! Oh well, it's nice to know she appreciates the seriousness of it all.
Inevitably, they floated off away from Weston and eventually managed to come ashore at Brean. Even then they were apparently unfazed by their experience.
"Did you not ring for help as you had your mobile with you?" inquired the presenter.
"Nah, we just thought we could walk back. It was suppose to take about forty minutes, we were told."
Eventually, the realisation dawned on them that they were actually lost and at this point, they did indeed phone for help. Realisation must have taken quite a while though, as the seach for them lasted seven and a half hours.
"It's good to see a happy ending to an incident that could have been turned out a lot more serious. We would never recommend that people set sail in inflatable dinghies," was the coast guard's comment. I think I might have been inclined to put it a lot more forcefully than that.
And did I mention that Sammy had been carrying her mobile during this adventure? She had it with her during the interview too. I know this because the message tone went off at least three times and instead of switching it off, she was caught on camera surreptitiously texting back, mid-interview! Oh well, it's nice to know she appreciates the seriousness of it all.
Four years today
Four years ago today, this blog was born. You can see my first post here. Try as I might, I can't remember how I became aware of the world of blogging but I do know that I have had great fun with it. I have, at times, got bored with Blogger and migrated to other platforms, but always returned 'home,' usually because I liked the people who became regular readers over here. Through blogging, I have 'met' lots of lovely people- Daphne, Silverback, Yorkshire Pudding, Dale in Canada, Beachhutman and the longest standing, Gemmak who is practically my twin in blogging terms as she started her blog only a few weeks before me and was the first one I ever commented on. I've fiddled with templates, the air has turned blue on occasion, but eventually I learned that it is a Good Idea to save one's blog first before diving in to make irreversible changes. (OK, so I'm a slow learner!) I have also been in trouble over teaching-related posts, to the extent of being refused a reference by someone who took exception to what I had written. When I re-read that first post this morning, I realised that what Jay had pointed out in her comment on my meme, was quite right. I am a truly 'demob happy' teacher and I won't bore you all yet again by going on about my disillusionment with teaching. Suffice it to say, I am pleased to have left that world behind. Let's live for today! Innit!
Tidying NASA
This post on Gemmak's blog yesterday made me smile but with a hint of envy too. As it happens, I had just spent half the morning attacking the chaos, confusion and collection of debris that is Keith's computer desk, aka NASA. It is called this because, as long-term readers will possibly recall, it used to be three tiers until I persuaded him to remove the top one to give it at least some semblance of a normal computer desk. That was quite a milestone for Keith. I won't say he needed counselling afterwards, but suffice it to say, he is inordinately attached to NASA.
However, this piece of furniture does sit in the corner of our living room, for heaven's sake, a blot on an otherwise reasonably normal landscape so I really do feel I have to take charge now and again.
So when I told him on the phone that I had blitzed it again, the response was less than enthusiastic and of course, now, almost twenty four hours later, he has worked hard to reduce much of the evidence of my work. However, you can see how it looked when I had finished, not wonderful but definitely better than it had been.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to work the same transformation on the box. It seems to be essential that the side is permanently removed and the DVD rom is hanging out of the side rather than being installed in the slot allotted to it.
Oh well, can't have everything, I suppose.
(I wonder if Gemmak is available for hire. Maybe he'd listen to her.)
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