Early Risers.

[Andrew P]

3 hours ago, 5 C said:

Morning awl,

 

Female teachers. At primary school it was almost all women apart from two men. One was quite young but a fearsome individual who clearly wanted to be in the army. He shouted a lot (for no good reason), would publicly humiliate any miscreant (no matter how minor the offence) and gave us all a number which had to be written on every exercise book and other pieces of equipment. He even rotated pencils on a weekly basis, so you would gradually work your way up to the best/newest/longest pencil. Although he'd been at the school a few years, I only had him as my teacher for a couple of terms. He left on promotion to another school. At least that's what we were told. Most of us thought it should have been the other way.

 

By the time I got to high school (late 70's/early 80's), female teachers made up at least half of the teaching staff if not more. I remember many of them but two of them stick in my mind. The fake tan, bottle blonde, bottle green tracksuit wearing games teacher who we christened "Farah Fawcett-Kermit". The other was a young and very nice English teacher who was rather well endowed and forgot the affect water has on a white t-shirt when she agreed to participate in the "soak the villain in the stocks" event at the school fete.

I just read your first line far to quick, what I read was = Female teachers at primary school were almost all women. Back opticians  tomorrow to get my glasses changed.

[Andrew P]

Nice walk to the shop earlier for the paper and bought some lemon and chocolate cake.

[Andrew P]

I can now report that the Lemon and Chocolate cake was awful, or Pha as Baz would say.

[Andrew P]

Even did some gardening earlier, I emptied the composter ready for this years grass. Might even do a cut later.

[5 C]

8 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

I can now report that the Lemon and Chocolate cake was awful, or Pha as Baz would say.

Cue sound of bears and hippos running in the opposite direction.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, after a tropical day yesterday, it's back to normal dull and overcast, though dry, at least no frost like yesterday. Back to school if we must, most of the infant teachers were female at my school, juniors was a 50/50 split and my memories are mostly pleasant apart from when they tried to force me to write right handed, which they failed to do. High school was all boys and as far as I can remember all male teachers all of whom failed to teach us anything of worth, this wasn't just my opinion, apart from playing rugby it didn't excel at anything, oh we did have a reputation as a "fighting school" the rugby team got banned for a year because of it. Grammar school seemed to be full of throw back Beatnicks who smoked pipes, including the females, apart from metal work and technical drawing(which I ended up doing for a career) I learnt nothing else of any great worth. They nearly got me playing the trombone, but little else of worth for life in the real world.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land (just). Tea has brewed  so back in a mo.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Late on parade today due to printing off a load of family tree info for Vickie as she has started searching online. 

 

Currently in the workshop about to start working on the test track to turntable extension. I've decided to permanently fix it to the test track, so I'll need to alter the wiring to the controller connection point. 

 

I suspect that when I said I was sick of learning, it was more the way it was taught. Once at college the tutors methods were different and that made all the difference. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian 

Edited February 28, 2021 by BSW01

[andyram]

Afternoon all. Just typing this sat in bed after a very rough night. The side effects from the AZ vaccine arrived last night  - head ache, chills, sweats and intense tiredness. Despite this no sleep all night, although I managed to grab a couple of hours this morning. I am just starting to feel human again all be it very delicate.

 

On the subject of schools I have a long association with my primary school having also conducted a year of my teacher training and completed my NQT year there. I returned 17 years later for a brief spell after I left Weston but by then the black dog was in control and was on the slippery slope towards exiting the profession. Overall I enjoyed my primary days. It was generally a female dominated staff however the one male teacher had a fierce reputation. There were many of us dreading it when we ended up his class. It turned out he was the best teacher I had. Firm, did not take any messing, but very fair and the nicest man you could meet. The head teacher at the time eventually retired and opened a model shop. He set up the miniature / narrow gauge railway attraction in Devon and, I believe, is still involved with it.

[PhilJ W]

 

Interesting to note how special schools differ from the mainstream. The special school attended by my friends lad has no homework, once they go home thats it. Its more a case of gentle nudges and encouragement and praise. The lad has obviously benefited from it, he has advanced five years in the two and a half  years he's been attending the school and would have done even better had it not been for covid.

 

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

.  Now the interesting thing about that was that when plays were put on only the girls changing rooms were used - for both boys and girls although unlike the boys side they were partitioned into cubicles big enough for 4 or 5 people to change at once but still not entirely private - yes, plays were fun.  But the real eye opener was that there were far more bent pieces, and worse, in the ventilation grills on the girls' side than there were on the boys' side.

 

When I used to man the polling booths at elections the polling stations were often on school premises. On one such occasion it was an all girls comprehensive. We had to use one of the pupils toilets, the graffiti was eye opening.

 

[Winslow Boy]

I will confess il Dottore that I too fall into the same category as yourself. I suspect that having football  'taught' -  I was going to say rammed down your throat but thought that was a bit over the top, from an early age did not help. It did lead to some interesting discussions in later life though when it became clear that I was interested in horticulture as a career. Particularly when i was responsible for the maintenance of pitches.

[Andrew P]

School sports, NAAaaaaaa, I'd rather clean the changing rooms, wash the equipment and generally skive. I had a very understanding PE Teacher. I wasn't lazy, I just could not see the point of someone throwing you a ball, and then you hit it for 7 and someone else has to go and fetch it. Same with Footsie, why damage perfectly good toes? 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Andrew P

[iL Dottore]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

...Dump the nuts and add Sultanas instead, and surround the outside with a wall of Cadburys Milk Choccy Fingerss standing vertically.  Even better, dump the choccy and use sticky lemon icing instead....

 

Well, if I dumped the nuts and added sultanas and changed the coating from a chocolate glasur to chocolate fingers, then it wouldn’t be a chocolate fruit and nut chocolate bar cake would it?  In fact, the base recipe is for an old-fashioned boiled fruitcake with the fruit in the cake being sultanas and raisins (which is very, very good indeed) And one that undoubtably could be made by a bear or a hippo without special equipment or training....

 

In regards to modifying the base recipe yet again, I think I might go back to the original recipe for the boiled fruitcake, and take it in one direction by adding things like Angelica, candied peel and glacé cherries for a very fruity fruitcake and also take it in a different direction by removing the fruit from the base cake batter and adding loads of assorted nuts, such as walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts and pistachios for a very nutty nut cake.

 

I will let people know how the clinical trials go.

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

....Appalling music at the end of 'The Archers' - some BBC trendy needs to be shot - slowly, in numerous places starting with the knee caps...

 

What is it about the BBC and British culture?

 

Britain has a rich and intriguing culture, some of it is relatively new (such as “pop music“ from swinging 60s onwards) and some of it goes back centuries; yet the “trendies” at the BBC can’t seem to accept the fact that certain things just don’t need changing. Whether it is because they think by mucking around with tradition they can “get down wid da kids, innit” (their preferred demographic, even though older generations are the more populous viewing/listening public) or because they truly despise Britain and British culture and wish that they were “sophisticated continentals” (as some so obviously seem to do), is hard to say.

 

Somehow I can’t see the Germans, the French, the Italians or the Austrians (or any other European nation) mucking around with their version of an institution and tradition such as The Last Night of the Proms. 

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

I can now report that the Lemon and Chocolate cake was awful, or Pha as Baz would say.

I regret to say I am experiencing a frisson of schadenfreude  over your mishap with a lemon and chocolate cake.  What were you thinking of Andrew?
 

Many things go well with lemon and many things go well with chocolate, but trying to marry chocolate and lemon is akin to trying to marry a Rangers supporter’s boy to a Celtic supporter’ girl!

1 hour ago, 5 C said:

Cue sound of bears and hippos running in the opposite direction.

Assuming that lemon-chocolate cakes are sufficiently deterrent for long enough, these may turn out to be a suitably low-tech solution for protecting my stocks of HNW (high net worth) cake.

 

My only concern would be whether or not a lemon-chocolate cake would be considered that as a biological weapon of mass destruction...

[Andrew P]

The lawn got its first cut, it really was to wet and long, and so was hard work, but it's done now, and looks a lot better for it.

Never did like Gardening either, but LOVE to see a nice garden.

[Andrew P]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

I regret to say I am experiencing a frisson of schadenfreude  over your mishap with a lemon and chocolate cake.  What were you thinking of Andrew?
 

Many things go well with lemon and many things go well with chocolate, but trying to marry chocolate and lemon is akin to trying to marry a Rangers supporter’s boy to a Celtic supporter’ girl!

Assuming that lemon-chocolate cakes are sufficiently deterrent for long enough, these may turn out to be a suitably low-tech solution for protecting my stocks of HNW (high net worth) cake.

 

My only concern would be whether or not a lemon-chocolate cake would be considered that as a biological weapon of mass destruction...

My thoughts when I looked at the box, so a good lesson learnt this morning, still it was only a pound, that SHOULD have told me something I suppose.

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

Dump the nuts and add Sultanas instead

SWMBO suggests that may not have the effect she desires  

 

Good after-lunch one and all.  A cold grey start has given way to a cold slightly sunny day.  It may be time to venture beyond the front door but neither of us is keen.  

 

I also have to be home between 3 and 4 to receive the weekly offerings of Ocado.  Something went awry in their warehouse overnight - our order has barely half of the items requested today with those missing not substituted.  They cannot, surely, be all out of potatoes, wine, milk and other standards.  I hopped onto their website and found everything was in stock and was able to place an order for all the missing items for delivery on Wednesday.  I then called them.  A lovely woman answered on the first ring (and thereby immediately exceeding my expectations) and was both very apologetic and very helpful.  There has been, it seems, an up-c0ckage overnight.  Every order on "my" van is short about half its items.  Helpful woman also mentioned that they normally aim to call customers when more than a couple of items can be neither delivered nor substituted but she acknowledged that I had "beaten them to it" and "would provide feedback" .  She went into my account and could see not only that I had successfully ordered all the missing items but also that I had the Wednesday slot.  She promptly offered to have them delivered tomorrow afternoon instead.  That's something I could not do via the public side of the operation.  So full marks for their customer service though a lot of customers in this area are going to be inconvenienced today for some sort of technical reason behind their scenes.  

 

SWMBO reported a sore arm during the night after her Government Stabbing but so far that is the only after-effect.  We hope that's as bad as it gets and are aware that many people have no ill effects whatsoever while a few have more severe side-effects starting as late as 2-3 days after jabbing.  

 

The sun calls.  It is time to inspect the green-bladed stuff outside.  

[New Haven Neil]

As a result of the edumocation disasters above, I am occasionally rude about teachers on here, and get rightly told off by the various educators on here, so I should say I had two really good teachers in the grammar school, who managed to engage me and got good results.  There were 5 horrors for every good one though, including one who would without doubt be locked up nowadays.  I don't know why there were so many sarcastic bullies, but things have thankfully  changed 'since my day' and the school is an 'Excellent' in Ofsted.  The unofficial school old boys website makes guarded comments about that particular teacher, but there were several almost as bad.

 

It was a boys only school in my time, and the so called sex education left us years behind our secondary modern mixed school friends in that area of knowledge!  

 

The school here failed my 'adopted later in life daughter' badly, in failing to identify her dyslexia, and she left school with no qualifications.  She now has an MA and is a highly respected practitioner in her field.  Still mad as a box of frogs though......

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Sorry but have been AWOL for some time now, due to (insert current excuse here...............................................................................).

 

So it's the usual generic greetings, but I have to also report that 30747 has had an awful reaction to her COVID jab - arm very tender, and almost on her back on Wednesday after getting vaccinated on Tuesday afternoon - and not a whole lot better on Thursday.  Went to work on Friday, but really should've stayed at home.  Starting to pick up a bit now - must stock up on paracetemol and ibuprofen as she has been consuming a lot more of them than normal - though well within the set down maxima.

 

Finally got round to getting some of the excess items from the doll's house purchase onto Ebay, along with some doubles of railway books that I haven't been able to shift last year at the car boot - some are going to the charity shops, but I have a spare copy of Steam Finale North by Colin T Gifford, which I've just listed - if anybody out there wants a copy, I happen to know that there's one on eBay for fifteen quid - proceeds to my beer and modelling token fund which is sadly depleted due to the doll's house purchase.

 

Back tomorrow?

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[The White Rabbit]

Hello everyone,

 

I too have been AWOL due to [multiple excuses].

 

It feels like the first day of spring up here. Winter probably hasn’t done with us yet (there was a frost this am and the birdbath lightly frozen over) but the crocuses are out and some other flowers too. At the front (south-facing) it feels warm and no need of coat or hat. By ***** , we need something to lift the spirits. 

 

Frantic G-word activity so far this weekend, trying to catch up on/repair a year's neglect is always likely to produce a sweat. If you know of anyone complaining about the gyms being closed in West Yorkshire, point them in my direction, they'll get more exercise and aerobic activity than in any gym - and I'll happily waive subs and attendance fees () 

 

Busy week, I'll try and catch up on ERs and other followed threads shortly. It sounds like there's been some reminiscences about schooldays - as the saying goes, I've only just finished therapy for mine. Some (both inmates and warders) were OK, others were psychopathic and/or sadistic and made various people's lives an utter misery. Of some of the former warders, one was killed in a still unsolved hit and run case, one did time for child-abuse, another for ABH and another got convicted for supplying 'exotic substances'. Looking back at my school-life, I now realise just how much psychological damage was done. The numbers of ex-inmates with mental health problems or who came off the rails one way or another is rather above the national average and that's without those who are still too traumatised to speak out. 

 

At the risk of sounding commercial/being accused of soliciting, are there any ERs in the West Yorkshire area who could be tempted by free furniture? Beds, desks, sofa, armchair, desk type shelving units, melamine shelving units? Probably to be collected from near Shipley once the current public health issues have eased. I need to create some space fairly urgently, both by disposing of the ex-exhibition trade stock and clearing the bigger items from my mother's house. If I can't find a good home for these, they'll end up being skipped, which would be a real shame.

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Many things go well with lemon and many things go well with chocolate, but trying to marry chocolate and lemon is akin to trying to marry a Rangers supporter’s boy to a Celtic supporter’s girl!

 

Can I nominate il D for 'quote of the week' for this comment? 

 

 

[TheQ]

Hmmm, teachers,

The second primary school, all women of the dragon variety, even my parents said so.

 

First secondary school all male, a really good teacher of physics ( who had also taught my dad)  and another of woodwork..

 

Second secondary school mostly male, a really good art teacher. The rest I think were beaten down by the disinterest of pupils and parents. Maths, English, sciences, were of no interest to Gaidhlig speaking sheep farming  crofters.

 

Third Secondary school, mostly male again, a really good male English teacher, I don't remember any other outstanding or come to that particularly bad.

 

Today's work,

top shelf installed ok.

Parts assembled or made or painted for the next section for next weekend.

 

Trailer, 

Parts previously made second top coated, 

24  4mm holes drilled through 2mm steel,  various brackets fitted.

12 12mm holes drilled through 2mm steel, the two largest parts bolted together.

Forepaws not happy at previous work.

 

Next weekend weather permitting, cut off old axle mounts ,  seal the old mountings I don't want water inside the chassis.

Then start derusting the chassis.

 

Before then plan , fitting of boat supports,  guides for locating boat onto trailer.

 

Drain rods ETA, 15:45 or later..

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

I don't know why there were so many sarcastic bullies

That seemed par for the course back in the day.  I offer the following evidence:-

 

Head of Latin who took obvious delight in hitting you on the top of your head with a pile of books;

Metalwork teacher who threw lumps of mild steel across the room at you;

Head of Games who happily slippered your bared behind;

Maths master who stuck a boy's hand to the desk with a compass point and cheerfully threw pointed objects across the room at you;

Head of Biology whose language put the fear of God into all who crossed his path;

Head of Modern Languages who scored you fairly in tests but still awarded you a fail and detentions if you fell short of his required 9/10 standard

 

There were more.  Some whose bark was worse than their bite and some who, when you got to know them a bit better, clearly frightened the bejeezus out of the younger boys but were model teachers and could listen to and coach the older ones when required.  

 

We don't know to this day how they all got away with the things they did.  Even complaints to parents didn't seem to carry much weight.  The assumption was (with, perhaps, some legitimacy) that Little Johnny hadn't been paying attention and got what he deserved.  

 

[TheQ]

Drain rods arrived, I think I've pushed the broken set through, sludge level dropped, though not as much as I'd like.

It will have to do for now,

[polybear]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

And a 2.1 later. And MIMarE, MCIPD, all that guff.....despite school's best failings.

 

Bear can challenge with a 25 yards swimming certificate......

 

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

It sounds like there's been some reminiscences about schooldays - as the saying goes, I've only just finished therapy for mine. Some (both inmates and warders) were OK, others were psychopathic and/or sadistic and made various people's lives an utter misery.

 

Bear's primary school days were fun - wish I could shrink and go do it again, with the same friends (all of whom I've long lost contact with ).  All teachers female, apart from Mr. Blake (crafty type; his wife used to help out and she was a bit of a dragon IIRC) and Mr. Rees (sporty type).  All female teachers were fine, apart from Mrs Scott - you didn't want to get on the wrong side of her.  I still recall many cakes later an incident where she asked Bear to pass her a pair of scissors, so I did - pointy end first; boy did she let me have it.  I'd never been taught differently (I was probably only 6 at the time) so it's her fault, not mine - right?

Secondary school?  Not fun, from start to finish.

 

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

At the risk of sounding commercial/being accused of soliciting, are there any ERs in the West Yorkshire area who could be tempted by free furniture? Beds, desks, sofa, armchair, desk type shelving units, melamine shelving units? Probably to be collected from near Shipley once the current public health issues have eased. I need to create some space fairly urgently, both by disposing of the ex-exAlsohibition trade stock and clearing the bigger items from my mother's house. If I can't find a good home for these, they'll end up being skipped, which would be a real shame.

 

 

May Bear also suggest the following ideas:

1. Some Charities welcome furniture, and will collect (I believe British Heart Foundation is one, and has specialist furniture shops accordingly.  Any upholstered items need a fire label though, and certain leccy (and gas) items are a no-no.  Other shops will take leccy items as they have arrangements for PAT testing.

2. List items on ebay for a 99p start price and see what happens.....

3. Offer for free on Freecycle (now Freegle).

 

It'll keep them out of landfill and give them some more useful life with luck, and may with luck raise money too.

 

Bear's ceiling is painted   Also the sellotape used to mask and protect the new window frame from risk of scratches during plastering was removed.  It was applied in four pieces, and removed in 15,684 pieces - effin' piggin' soddin' stuff....

Need to ponder the next stage now - the Floor tiler arrives 2 weeks tomorrow; I still have to remove the old stick-on floor tiles, though indications so far suggest that these should fall off easily.  I may live to regret that statement.  I also have a bathroom doorframe to paint - at least in part, an Alarm sensor to refit, some papering of walls, some stripping of paint from pipework, a lump of kitchen worktop to cut.....

I guess that should keep me busy until tomorrow lunchtime

 

[polybear]

[New Haven Neil]

Was just thinking I only have contact with one person from my primary school days - but it is a touch long distance.  He's an Archdeacon and Deputy Vicar-General in New Zealand!