Moving!

bus
Originally uploaded by nogbad the bad

I'm moving at the end of November and this is where I'm going to live. It's bigger than where I am now, it's just over a mile to where my children live and more than 30 miles closer to where I work a couple of days each week. Fields out the front and it backs onto a farm. Now I've got the faff of packing up and shifting over things like the phone and broadband but it's all good and it'll mean I can see the children even more.

This map shows where the house is and in the shot below I've highlighted it in red with the blue circle showing where the children live.

It's jolly exciting!

Today

I've just realised, while driving home, that today is my 25th wedding anniversary!

World school

Largest child is at "World School" in Japan right now. She appears in one of the photos - I've not looked through the videos yet.

Plymouth

Plymouth
Originally uploaded by nogbad the bad

Went to Plymouth to do a presentation to colleagues from the OU today. I went yesterday and stood most of the way from Paddington to Plymouth but there was a really friendly buzz on the train - a couple of guys who did the trip regularly were going out of their way to talk to people. Had a walk (and beer) round the harbour and a nice curry. After the presentation I headed back to the train station to get the replacement bus service to Tiverton and then the train to Paddington and then the tube to Victoria and the train back to Maidstone to collect the car - loooooooooong day but great meeting people from the far west.

Getting old

Today is the anniversary of the birth of both of my daughters. Rowan is having a sleepover with some chums so Cal is here with me. Jemma is in Japan with the school. I'm not the only one who is getting old.

So...................................

So England didn't win but it's still amazing that they dragged themselves to the final after an appalling four years since the win in Sydney and being destroyed by South Africa at the beginning of the tournament.

I love this image! It's from The Guardian today and it's a waxwork model of Jonny on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. Whatever the result tomorrow night I think that English rugby has reason to be both proud and relieved - the team have managed to deliver despite a terrible start and appalling four years since Sydney. Go England!

40 years ago

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr Ernesto "Che" Guevara - his nickname came from an interjection he often used when speaking. Hero or villain his image is now an icon and many of those who recognise it know nothing of the Marxist Revolutionary who helped Castro to power in Cuba. people of my generation grew up with this image as a poster next to the girl playing tennis.

Dali in Bond Street

Dali
Originally uploaded by nogbad the bad

The Persistence of Memory - a statue

Teachers....

I think this makes a good deal of sense except it'll take teachers out of the classroom - again! Schools are already suffering and using teaching assistants in the light of the last cut in teacher contact time.

Thirsty

Apparently it's difficult getting a pint in Earls Court tonight - the bar staff won't stop crying.

Happy birthday

50 years ago today the starting pistol on the space race sounded and the first man-made satellite went into a low space orbit. In a brilliant PR move Soviet scientists set Sputnik's broadcasts to be at a frequency available to radio hams - people around the world could listen to the chirping which signaled that the Soviet Union led the world in space exploration.

For goodness sake!

10 years? More funds than ever before? Sixth richest country in the world? And only now are we aspiring to "world class"???

Before anyone asks I spend enough time talking to teachers and others working in the compulsory education system to know a few of the reasons why we're still not there yet. And if you need proof of how much we're not there yet........

By the end of the last summer term, 246 schools were in "special measures" - the most serious category - compared to 208 at the end of summer term 2006.

That's according to OFSTED and they should know.

Jacquie

Tony Hirst has written the posting I've been avoiding since Thursday.

Dome

DSCF1765
Originally uploaded by nogbad the bad

Tidying up

I'm going to be doing some tidying up over the next few weeks. That'll include separating my links by type and shortening the roll. Just warning everyone that things will be coming and going.......

A monk

A monk
Originally uploaded by NaingKo,Burma/Myanmar

I'm blogging this as the only way I can think of showing support for what these people are doing in Burma.

Wonderful!

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

999

Just been listening to a piece on the radio which has brought me to tears. It's a recording of an emergency call to Essex Ambulance service

"With the midwives stuck in traffic and his wife going into labour, Leo Hickman had to turn to the emergency services......"

It is incredible and very, very moving. To read the transcript check out Leo's article in the Guardian, to hear the tape check out the BBC site. Not covered in either is the news that the operator had only been working there for a few months and is 20 years old.

Tricky

My mate Phil mailed and in amongst a fascinating dialogue about the origins and meaning of the word "mountebank" he mentioned a long held belief that it's impossible to strike a match on a jelly. First up it's difficult to see how this might be inaccurate but then I got thinking about the difficulty that this seemingly simple fact might cause in our polyglot blogosphere. And then I got to thinking about a blog someone I work with pointed me to - it's wonderfully written but so it should be, the writer is a professor of linguistics and English at the University of Sussex. Check out Lynne's "Separated by a common language". Back to striking that match - anyone ever tried it?