Tuesday, March 02, 2010
The end of this blog
Since my last post a lot of things have changed. As a result this blog will not be updated again.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I was clearly in a bad mood
Well the last time I bothered to post on this blog I was clearly in a bad mood. That's what happens when you get seasonal affective disorder. Nothing like too many long nights and short days to send me off into gloom.
Its the start of autumn and I'm still ok at the moment. But wait until January/February time...that's when it all gets gloomy.
Meanwhile, this is a picture of the roof of our house. Well the roof framework. The plastic sheeting is the bathroom roof. And yes, we only have the one bathroom.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
whatever
Fed up with the weekend
Fed up with the week as well
Nothing happens unless I have the energy to make it happen
I don't have the energy
Repeat patterns in the house
How many times do I have to say the same thing
How many times does it feel like I'm the only person capable of thinking of more than one thing
I want to relax
I don't have the energy
Fed up with the week as well
Nothing happens unless I have the energy to make it happen
I don't have the energy
Repeat patterns in the house
How many times do I have to say the same thing
How many times does it feel like I'm the only person capable of thinking of more than one thing
I want to relax
I don't have the energy
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Harmoniums, hens, fish and rodents..
Summer is upon us. The hens arrived in February and are making the garden their own special playground. Lots of plants are just stalks, other areas are well turned over, no weeds, just well raked soil as the girls seek out interesting nibbles during the day.
We have two cream legbar hens and two light sussex hens, they all have names and very different personalities, and are laying well.
The local rodents seem to like hens so there have been some more close encounters of the rodent kind. I now have so many traps around I could start a pest removal business, if only I was better at catching them.
The fish are down to two koi, the koi have almost as much kit as the kids now, with lotions and potions for water quality and tonics for better health. The pond has a new filter and new plants for the summer season. We also got some goldfish to keep the koi company, we bought ten but there are only 6 left :-( But I am trying to keep the rest alive with yet more tonics specially for goldfish.
And the harmonium collection gained a new entry. A rather lovely Estey harmonium that we picked up from Edinburgh. It has the vox humana and lots of fancy stops. Apparently it is the other type of harmonium, I think that the difference is that one blows and one sucks the air over the reeds. Apart from which it is a beautiful piece of furniture. I've located a care and repair manual and I'm hoping to find a quiet moment to take it to bits and have a look inside. Tis a lovely thing. I can't look at ebay for harmonia because I might find another one and get tempted again. My mum has already asked how on earth I can play all the instruments that are collecting about the place, but I have to say that playing them is not always the point.
We have two cream legbar hens and two light sussex hens, they all have names and very different personalities, and are laying well.
The local rodents seem to like hens so there have been some more close encounters of the rodent kind. I now have so many traps around I could start a pest removal business, if only I was better at catching them.
The fish are down to two koi, the koi have almost as much kit as the kids now, with lotions and potions for water quality and tonics for better health. The pond has a new filter and new plants for the summer season. We also got some goldfish to keep the koi company, we bought ten but there are only 6 left :-( But I am trying to keep the rest alive with yet more tonics specially for goldfish.
And the harmonium collection gained a new entry. A rather lovely Estey harmonium that we picked up from Edinburgh. It has the vox humana and lots of fancy stops. Apparently it is the other type of harmonium, I think that the difference is that one blows and one sucks the air over the reeds. Apart from which it is a beautiful piece of furniture. I've located a care and repair manual and I'm hoping to find a quiet moment to take it to bits and have a look inside. Tis a lovely thing. I can't look at ebay for harmonia because I might find another one and get tempted again. My mum has already asked how on earth I can play all the instruments that are collecting about the place, but I have to say that playing them is not always the point.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Fed up with all the bullsh*t
Well I've had my weekly dose of politics, thanks to Question Time and The Politics Show.
I can't believe an intelligent guy like Gerry Robinson just said Gordon Brown was an excellent chancellor. I'm afraid Gordon Brown has been presiding over one of the biggest accounting swindles of all time, with public money.
For GB is the man who has mortgaged the future of the UK Public Sector infrastructure to PFI deals, to meet election pledges now. My poor kids will be paying for these third rate buildings into their old age. Honestly the old Victorian hospitals were better, and cheaper and considerably nicer to look at than all the crappy new boxyhousing estates that have popped up everywhere and the silly modern hospitals which are too small and too uninspiring, places you dread to go to even if you are not ill.
And just how bit is the hole in the public sector pension provision that is being buried in on the UK balance sheet? The deficit must be vast. Again my kids have to work to pay for the pensions of today's politicians, civil servants, council workers, police officers, doctors, nurses etc. I don't think all the quangos have separate pension funds, but the figures aren't included in the national debt. There has to be something wrong here.
Targets in education are meaningless but millions are being spent enforcing these targets. The output of the education system needs to be employable people who have ambition to succeed. I don't care how many exams the kids have passed...can they do a decent days work? If they are creative and polite and personable they'll do just fine. My kids are already neurotic about tests and feel like failures, they are 7 and 9 years old!! As an employer I can't understand the CV of a 17 year old as the courses that they have taken are incomprehensible. I have to check that they can actually read and write an hold a decent conversation.
This is especially true when they are 21+ and have degrees (good degrees from very good universities...but can't write a sentence...great education system). These graduates can believe that the world owes them a living, because they have a good degree, which their parents have now paid a lot for (government policy again, denying access to university with one hand whilst setting a target for more people to go). So how much pressure are the universities under to increase their pass rates...hmm govt targets + parental top up fees = serious pressure. Don't tell me it doesn't happen.
When I went to Uni nobody on my course had got a 1st Class Honours in 20 years. Now 40% get them, this is a good university with a 5* research rating...well the kids today are clearly that much cleverer than we were. The difference is the targets, plus the competition to attract students and all those nasty divisive league tables.
And as for the day to day dirge that a lot of schoolchildren have to put up with, it truly makes me despair. The excellent teachers that have been driven out of the profession by the politically correct rubbish they have been forced to teach must squirm. I couldn't really tell you who did what when I was at school, but from an inner London primary school I ended up at a decent state funded grammar school and then got a grant to go to university...this was 1985...I'm not that ancient.
As a penalty for my success I am not quite rich enough to pay for an independent school to teach my kids the same things as I did at that primary school in the 1970s and 80's!!!!!!! I've been round plenty of private schools for a look, so I do know what I am talking about.
I was brought up with a work ethic, to value education and to make the best of my opportunities. A lot of my ethics were grounded in that primary school education. On the statistics the school was rubbish, but they gave the kids the opportunity to think for themselves...if they chose to take it. The government would do well to back off a bit and let people think for themselves.
Common sense is out of the window...unless it meets a new government target of course, in which case we'll all have to pass a test and get a certificate.
I can't believe an intelligent guy like Gerry Robinson just said Gordon Brown was an excellent chancellor. I'm afraid Gordon Brown has been presiding over one of the biggest accounting swindles of all time, with public money.
For GB is the man who has mortgaged the future of the UK Public Sector infrastructure to PFI deals, to meet election pledges now. My poor kids will be paying for these third rate buildings into their old age. Honestly the old Victorian hospitals were better, and cheaper and considerably nicer to look at than all the crappy new boxyhousing estates that have popped up everywhere and the silly modern hospitals which are too small and too uninspiring, places you dread to go to even if you are not ill.
And just how bit is the hole in the public sector pension provision that is being buried in on the UK balance sheet? The deficit must be vast. Again my kids have to work to pay for the pensions of today's politicians, civil servants, council workers, police officers, doctors, nurses etc. I don't think all the quangos have separate pension funds, but the figures aren't included in the national debt. There has to be something wrong here.
Targets in education are meaningless but millions are being spent enforcing these targets. The output of the education system needs to be employable people who have ambition to succeed. I don't care how many exams the kids have passed...can they do a decent days work? If they are creative and polite and personable they'll do just fine. My kids are already neurotic about tests and feel like failures, they are 7 and 9 years old!! As an employer I can't understand the CV of a 17 year old as the courses that they have taken are incomprehensible. I have to check that they can actually read and write an hold a decent conversation.
This is especially true when they are 21+ and have degrees (good degrees from very good universities...but can't write a sentence...great education system). These graduates can believe that the world owes them a living, because they have a good degree, which their parents have now paid a lot for (government policy again, denying access to university with one hand whilst setting a target for more people to go). So how much pressure are the universities under to increase their pass rates...hmm govt targets + parental top up fees = serious pressure. Don't tell me it doesn't happen.
When I went to Uni nobody on my course had got a 1st Class Honours in 20 years. Now 40% get them, this is a good university with a 5* research rating...well the kids today are clearly that much cleverer than we were. The difference is the targets, plus the competition to attract students and all those nasty divisive league tables.
And as for the day to day dirge that a lot of schoolchildren have to put up with, it truly makes me despair. The excellent teachers that have been driven out of the profession by the politically correct rubbish they have been forced to teach must squirm. I couldn't really tell you who did what when I was at school, but from an inner London primary school I ended up at a decent state funded grammar school and then got a grant to go to university...this was 1985...I'm not that ancient.
As a penalty for my success I am not quite rich enough to pay for an independent school to teach my kids the same things as I did at that primary school in the 1970s and 80's!!!!!!! I've been round plenty of private schools for a look, so I do know what I am talking about.
I was brought up with a work ethic, to value education and to make the best of my opportunities. A lot of my ethics were grounded in that primary school education. On the statistics the school was rubbish, but they gave the kids the opportunity to think for themselves...if they chose to take it. The government would do well to back off a bit and let people think for themselves.
Common sense is out of the window...unless it meets a new government target of course, in which case we'll all have to pass a test and get a certificate.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
All change ...maybe
Well Jason is contracting for a well known oil company. So life is a bit different as I'm doing all the school related trips during the week as he can't get back to do them.
It has been a significant change. Quite unsettling in some ways, but reassuring to know that we are both supporting the family unit financially.
As usual I'm spending lots of time worrying about schools, either schools now or in the future. Because I live in the Consett area I guess I have a general phobia of the more trendy labour council approach to schooling that happens in the north east. I tried to overcome my fear by getting more involved in the process, but it still scares me.
I guess the reason is that I'm never really sure that the children come first. Too much is driven by centralised policies to improve standards. Why on earth teachers can't just teach without all the meddling and paperwork is beyond me.
I have one vaguely bored child who is underchallenged, and one struggling child who could do with more individual attention. The underchallenged one doesn't rate as a genius so won't get extra help, the struggling one isn't classified as having special needs so equally can't get any help. Thankfully both of them are well behaved.
I'd like to send them to private school but I don't have a spare £20K a year to fund that, and due to the above reasons neither of them is likely to get a scholarship. I can't reduce my earnings enough to qualify for a bursary. So every now and again my fingernails take a battering as I have a serious fret on the subject.
It has been a significant change. Quite unsettling in some ways, but reassuring to know that we are both supporting the family unit financially.
As usual I'm spending lots of time worrying about schools, either schools now or in the future. Because I live in the Consett area I guess I have a general phobia of the more trendy labour council approach to schooling that happens in the north east. I tried to overcome my fear by getting more involved in the process, but it still scares me.
I guess the reason is that I'm never really sure that the children come first. Too much is driven by centralised policies to improve standards. Why on earth teachers can't just teach without all the meddling and paperwork is beyond me.
I have one vaguely bored child who is underchallenged, and one struggling child who could do with more individual attention. The underchallenged one doesn't rate as a genius so won't get extra help, the struggling one isn't classified as having special needs so equally can't get any help. Thankfully both of them are well behaved.
I'd like to send them to private school but I don't have a spare £20K a year to fund that, and due to the above reasons neither of them is likely to get a scholarship. I can't reduce my earnings enough to qualify for a bursary. So every now and again my fingernails take a battering as I have a serious fret on the subject.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Finally did the ironing
As I have finally caught up on about two months worth of ironing I thought I would celebrate in print and update the blog a bit.
The summer holidays are almost over. I'm hoping the new uniform I ordered from M&S will turn up before the start of term. I've got the permanent laundry marker pen at the ready to write names on everything having lost a brand new pair of shoes last year in the first couple of weeks. I don't know who got them, but they got a good deal! The ones that came home instead were certainly in the well worn category.
After school logistics are about to become a nightmare if Jason takes on a contract job. I'll have to ponder how everyone is going to get from A to B to C if we are both working most of the time. I could do with a tardis or some similar porting device, or someone will have to give something up! Arrgh I can hear the complaints already.
The summer holidays are almost over. I'm hoping the new uniform I ordered from M&S will turn up before the start of term. I've got the permanent laundry marker pen at the ready to write names on everything having lost a brand new pair of shoes last year in the first couple of weeks. I don't know who got them, but they got a good deal! The ones that came home instead were certainly in the well worn category.
After school logistics are about to become a nightmare if Jason takes on a contract job. I'll have to ponder how everyone is going to get from A to B to C if we are both working most of the time. I could do with a tardis or some similar porting device, or someone will have to give something up! Arrgh I can hear the complaints already.
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