Tony_S

Aditi was on a course once, it must have been for Adult Education. She was partnered by a colleague from the Careers Service. They had to continue working after dinner on the Saturday evening, writing proposals for courses that would widen community participation in Adult Ed. and other worthy aims. As they had been made to work (this wasn’t paid, just a professional expectation to attend),Aditi and her colleague’s submission went quite well until the course organisers realised it was something of a spoof. They had put together a course to attract people from the Italian community in Southend, noting that mobile confectionery retailers were very under represented on Adult Ed College courses. I think it may have been the “music appreciation” module that gave it away.

The dermatologist I saw recently was very impressed that I had been to the Med in summer and had come back as pale as when I set out. I was,very good with the factor 50 and wearing my hat. Though the lump she wanted removed and sent for biopsy wasn’t anywhere that had been exposed to the sun.

We still have a lot of children’s books that feature bears.

If you are prepared to have a resin strap the cheap Casio (pictures on Argos website) are tough. They do slightly more expensive ones with expanding straps but I don’t like those (hairy wrists!). They keep time really well. When I broke the one I had used at work for years I did replace it with one of the Casio G shock which is solar powered and gets gps time signals. But the £9.99 one is fine!

Matthew said he always felt we were fairly strict parents. However after he returned from Canada he said he had changed strict to “caring”. It just so happened he had met various people that year who had really dysfunctional parenting. I remember one discussion we had after a rather traumatic parent teacher evening at secondary school. I said something like I was rather disappointed he hadn’t told us about the problems with certain subjects (we had asked). Years later he said he felt bad that I was disappointed and would have preferred to be shouted at. It was quite hard when he was in his mid teens trying to give him some opportunity to follow his own interests but his epilepsy wasn’t that well controlled then so we would take him places rather than get a bus. Later he then realised we’re not controlling or strict , just concerned.

I did wonder if being exposed to anything that could increase blood pressure would be detrimental when I noticed you had visited the Hippodrome. I am glad the lump isn’t as worrying as thought. Modelling while taking anticoagulants can be interesting, I could write “Weathering with Blood”.

I was being questioned prior to having my ankle and hips dexa scanned when the technician asked if I had artificial limbs or implants. I reassured her I hadn’t and asked if many people with artificial legs were sent for DEXA scans. She said yes and on her her first solo scan she had a man who said he hadn’t got one and had!

Is there a “ not” missing from your sentence about children being given the MMR vaccine and getting measles?

The gavel is the “not English “ item.

You will be appearing with Uncle Roger soon, critiquing British rice cooking?

I wonder where Bear sits in judgement. That isn’t an English court scene.

Some of the small supermarkets seem to have security in the evening. Though some of them don’t look very “secure”. There was one at the small Sainsbury once who clearly decided to tail me. It was so funny I went up and down the grocery aisle a few times while he attempted to be be stealthy. Do they get set exercises in following on security NVQ courses?

We had just returned home from Ireland and the bill from the funeral director who had organised Matthew’s funeral arrived. So I completed all the online stuff for an international payment. Then I got a call from the bank saying they had blocked the payment as it didn’t match our “account profile”. I said hopefully paying for a son’s funeral didn’t match too many profiles. She wouldn’t send a code to our registered phone either. She seemed keen on freezing the account. Then another call came in on my mobile from the banks security department who also said we had a payment halted. She said to end the other call and proceeded to clear everything and was very helpful and apologised for her colleague. I had been getting rather angry with the intransigence of the first person.

I had quite a faff getting an export contract but even though my smart meter transmits the export data I have to send a photo of the reading to an email address at eonnext! Adding an extra battery recently has of course reduced our export but has significantly reduced even our cheap rate consumption. We had decided we needed an extra battery and by coincidence our supplier contacted us to say they thought we would benefit from more storage. It must have been the easiest sales call ever, as I just asked when they could come and fit it.

I worked in a London Borough’s Educational Computer Centre. The centre bulk purchased all the BBC/Acorn and Research Machines computers. Any bulk purchase discounts were used to fund the technician support. Despite supplying software packages for those attending courses, and classroom support some schools wanted all that and the discount too. Everything was audited and available to see. However certain school managers were known to state suspicions about bribery “only joking ha ha”. Once of course the Local Management of Schools came in, the centres budget was distributed amongst the schools and the centre had to bid for support contracts. Most secondary schools kept the money, and in my opinion set IT provision back by many years. I moved to a job in a local college. The management there didn’t buy into the local centre. The principal had a pc at home so considered himself an expert. They spent a lot more on consultants than supporting a borough service.

That would probably help, though one of his siblings prefers pizza.

Guess how EonNext insist on paying me for the electricity I sell to them… Not only by cheque but an “unsigned “ cheque which the bank phone app doesn’t recognise, requiring a trip to the bank, which have all closed in Benfleet. Fortunately the Post Office counter in the Coop still has cheque paying in facilities.

CRS?

Back in 1975 Aditi spent ages making handouts with lovely maps or landform diagrams for her geography students. When I did my PGCE at Keele there were courses all about classroom technology , Banda copiers, stencil cutters and how to make clever ohp slides with overlays. Also how to use a video tape (not cassette) player and film projectors. Eventually all that lot were replaced by computers. They also had some weird teaching machines that someone somewhere reckoned would replace teachers. They didn’t.

I did watch some video of both events. I still can’t get used to Prince Edward being the Duke of Edinburgh though.

Counterfeit products …

Not a river cruise but have you considered a cruise to the Norwegian Fjords in summer. It is quite light at night and the scenery is pretty spectacular.

As a result of the falling out of a bunk, Aditi requested Matthew to please reserve a bottom bunk in future. He had reserved a bottom bunk in a hostel somewhere he was meeting up with other geography students, in Bulgaria I think. When he went to his reserved bunk there was a female already installed. There were no other lower bunks available. Management were not interested but one of the other students who knew Matthew swapped his lower bunk.

Matthew flew down from the Netherlands to Lisbon. He and some fellow students had organised a geography conference in Seville but their funding body insisted on a recognised academic based in Lisbon to approve various items. He stayed in hostel accommodation to keep expenses low. While there he fell out of a top bunk and landed on his head. He woke up in a hospital and was there for nearly three days. He was still a bit concussed when released and met the academic, had no recall of it later, but she was happy. I wanted him to come back,to the UK but he said he had too much work to do. He at least let me buy him a ticket on a proper airline flying to Schipol instead of somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Australian Heeler dogs. Other dogs appear as well. I sat and watched some really awful cartoons when Matthew was little. He liked them thiugh and some were very amusing. I would have enjoyed Bluey, my niece recommended it. She is 7. Her family don’t have Disney so they haven’t seen the famous cricket episode though their dad listened to the review on Test Match Special.