End of the year!

Just wanted to point out that I've managed more than one post each day (as an average). I hope 2009 was kind and that 2010 delivers what you want rather than what you deserve :-)

Happy New Year to everyone!

NYE

Hot cross buns on NYE???

Yummy!

Tonight Cal and I will be mostly eating Chinese food. Homemade of course!

He's been!!!!

So here it is.....

My tree

My eco-friendly Christmas tree.

Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Nearly there!

Always nice when a visitor stays over - Cal in the spare room after an evening of Dr Who, pizza and Waterloo Road.
Tomorrow we'll hang some decorations and visit Waitrose for final bits and because we always go on Christmas Eve.
--

It's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiistmas!

More cuts

The government is to cut university funding by £533m - from £7.81bn this year to £7.29bn for 2010-11, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has said.

In a letter to the Higher Education Funding Council For England (HEFCE), he also asks universities to protect quality and access to higher education.

How special is this? A government which has sunk billions of pounds into projects to increase participation in higher education is now cutting HE funding and threatening fines for providers who over-recruit. Mandelson wants to take out more money - this is on top of the ELQ cuts remember - but also wants quality and access protected. Universities are generally very good at doing things which other institutions cannot but this one is up there with plaiting fog and nailing jelly to the ceiling.

Christmas in Maidstone

Yummy!

Bottle of plonk, dvd and liquorice. Bliss!

The lane

Today in 1903

The Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk.

(Image from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_976_prt.htm)

Pressies

The guys brought this back for me from the Christmas lunch. I'm finishing on Friday so stayed here to get some work done.

Frozen beef

Across the road this AM

Emergency Tea

Click on image to launch the Emergency Tea Response Unit.

Frosty morning

What doesn't show in this shot is the beautiful pink colour of the sky. The sun rises from behind the taller trees to the left of centre and before the sky gets light it's wonderful watching the sun creep up.

The Sun

Decided to post this because I miss the Sun at this time of year (yes - it's a pun!)

Sunday night music - "The bones of you"

Welsh bananas

Continuing the Welsh theme......

This story is two years old so I'd imagine that a coastal strip 20 miles wide and stretching from Cardiff to St David's Head is now given over to banana plantations. Seems to make sense to shift to fruit production and it would be nice to walk along the front at Manorbier eating figs picked from local trees. Resting in the shadow of Tenby castle eating a Welsh banana. Yummy!

Worth watching

Some stark stuff in here

Balls!

Schools 'get off lightly' in pre-budget report, but universities prepare for cuts (Guardian Education 09/12/09)

Education hit again by this stupid, stupid government. They continue to fund "gimmick" projects supposedly aimed at increasing participation in education (at all levels) and then cut the provision of that education by strangling the funding. Remember that it's this bunch which cut funding of any non-accredited adult education and cut funding of NVQ L2 and L3 FE courses. This lot made Charles Clarke secretary for education where he famously said

"I don't mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the state to pay for them"

They've pursued the idea that learning should only be vocational; it should have a utilitarian value rather then the simple joy of knowledge. They look askance at the growth of the "Chav" but they've created a culture where wishing to learn something aesthetic generates accusations of being a "boff". The bullying which happens in school playgrounds is simply an echo of the government's rhetoric. They've created meaningless qualifications in order to claim that education is working while cutting funding on flagship projects like "Train to gain".

They've bankrupt the country and, along the way, are bankrupting education.

We are the people we've been waiting for

Found on a great blog post by John Connell; A Race Between Education and Catastrophe.

Pure genius

Slanket - it's a wonderful idea! A blanket with sleeves. Thanks to Phil G for spotting this. Perfect for snoozles!

Spire

Beautiful blue sky over Union Crescent, Margate

Margate

Margate library is very swish indeedy!

Margate harbour

Today I'm going............

Local Advice Session for the OU in Margate library

Scrummy

Sitting in bed watching TV while snuggled in the duvet and blogging. It's a tough old world at times. If I wasn't working tomorrow I might crack a bottle of wine but local advice session in Margate.

Sign

Parked in a hydropool?
(Just to clarify - take a look at the photo full-sized by clicking on it. Read the sign.....)

Blue packets

I don't buy crisps and the only time I eat them are when I levy Crisp Tax. Before anyone gets concerned I am aware that we no longer have little blue packets of salt in crisps but I still miss them.

And from there, of course, it's only a short hop and a skip to all the other bits of the picnic that we don't have any more. Double Diamond and Long Life - the beers we grew up with, decent pork pies, long summer days.............

Just musing I suppose

Noggin the Nog

I decided it was time to remind everyone about the tales of the Northlands. Where, in days of old, the men of the North sat by their great log fires and they tell tales. And those tales they tell are the stories of a kind and wise king and his people; they are the Sagas of Noggin the Nog