Early Risers.

[The White Rabbit]

10 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

If someone opened a Chinese twenty four hour restaurant could they call it "Wok Around the Clock"?

 

When our local Chinese was closed for a refurbishment, a sign 'work in progress' was displayed outside ... you're ahead of me ... yes, this was speedily defaced to 'wok in progress'. 

[Tony_S]

We did have literature lessons at school but only the top set students did the O level Literature exam. I have always liked reading though Aditi did comment when she first met me that most of my books had spaceships or helicopters on the cover.
Tony 

[rockershovel]

Children of a certain sort are taught not to listen, far less to think but rather to mock unthinkingly and reflexively. My wife used to tell an anecdote from her teaching days, to the effect that an uncooperative child's parent asked (and one must assume he was a stranger to rhetoric) "why should Wayne(*name changed to protect the accused) take any notice of Mr X? What has that gentleman done to be respected?"

 

The answer, of course might be "well, he has a better job and house than your slob of a father" but there's no reward for that sort of thing in the world of education...

[jamie92208]

22 hours ago, TheQ said:

To be really boring the chippy in Repps with Bastwick ( people think it's in Potter Heigham but that is the second village away the other side of the river) is called "The Nippy Chippy" on its signs, to be really boring it's full title is "The Nippy Chippy on the Broads".

There is a pensioners cod portion along with specials on another board , the pensioners is £6:00 including chips.

 

Our forced Shakespeare was of course MacBeth, thankfully one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. Our teaching of it was heavy on learning sections of it off by heart, analysis of the technical way it was written,  political analysis of the play, not including the background to it being written for King James VI his beliefs etc.

 

These days I know this is the SONG of the witches and would have been sung. We just had to read it out.

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good

 

Ps yes I copied it out,  these days I can just remember the first two lines...

 

Many of the plays had large sections of music and some almost musicals..

 

The best education of mortgages and pensions etc was in the RAF, early on in our trade training they brought in a mortgage broker, to give us a couple of lectures on them. Very good advice was given,  which I took, particularly on mortgages, it saved me tens of thousands of pounds in the long run...

 

Mooring Awl,

3.5 hours sleep, long awake couldn't for a long time find a comfortable position.  2 hours sleep and some dozing.

 

75% blue welkin out there, light winds. Heavy dew.

 

Plans for today

Mowing muddling.

 

 

 

 

 

I use another part of that play when I see my good lady and two female friends plotting something.  " When shale three meet again". Then make a hasty exit. 

 

I do know a few lines from Julius Caesar as Russel Harty cast me as Brutus in a school play.  He latervsacked me because I missed a rehearsal to go to Mr Hay's model railway club meeting. 

 

 

 

Jamie

Edited August 28 by jamie92208

[Hroth]

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We did have literature lessons at school but only the top set students did the O level Literature exam. I have always liked reading though Aditi did comment when she first met me that most of my books had spaceships or helicopters on the cover.
Tony 

 

I love reading, always have.  As soon as I learned to read, I would have my nose in a book for a good proportion of my leisure time (or at least as much as I could get away with...).

 

What amazes me is that when Pointless has a "literature" (book titles) round, at least half of the contestants trot out the excuse that they don't read much, and score 100 on an easy board...

 

Football, however...

 

[Coombe Barton]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Keeping a pan just for omelettes is something a lot of cooks/chefs/people serious about food do. And it’s nothing new: Len Deighton* in the 60s in his “cookstrips” promoted the idea and even then it was a well established culinary concept.

 

Really does depend on how many omelettes you eat.

[PhilJ W]

29 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Use another part of that play when I see my good lady and two female friends plotting something.  " When shale three meet again". Then make a hasty exit. 

 

I do know a few lines from Julius Caesar as Russel Harty cast me as Brutus in a school play.  He later sacked me because I missed a rehearsal to go to Mr Hay's model railway club meeting. 

 

 

 

Jamie

You at least got your priorities right.

[DaveF]

I spend a lot of my time reading, these days I buy just about as many books as I read.  The only problem is that I have a very large backlog sitting on shelves.  I ought to have a clearout....

 

I did English Lit at 0 level, I had no choice in the matter.  The books were Thomas Hardy "Far from the Madding Crowd", Chaucer and Twelfth Night (if my memory is right) - but we read most of Shakespeare's plays while I was at the school.  I had interesting English teachers - one was a Geordie who taught us to speak Geordie (in Nottingham) which was handy when I ended up teaching in Newcastle.  The other was a published novelist, Stanley Middleton.  I never read anything of his but he had the knack of making any book sound interesting when he talked about it.

 

I've seen the GP, got some extra medication to deal with the fungus brought about by taking antibiotics and been reassured that the problem is improving.  Another blood test will be done next week as a further check on the prostate and I had another rectal examination this morning, it is a bit big but perfectly smooth.  There may need to be a change in the regular medication to improve flow.  Meanwhile drink plenty, rest a bit and be sensible(ish).

 

So I am going to have a quiet few days and will stay away from church just in case.  While I was out I bumped into a friend who is a retired vicar and he pretty well told me not to try to do things at church or even go to services until I am back to normal.

 

David

Edited August 27 by DaveF

[PhilJ W]

7 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

Our political class might be largely drawn from an incestuous closed circle of public schools (did YOU know that David Cameron and Harriet Harman were cousins by marriage?) but what they learn there, who can say. 

Jacob Rees-Mogg is a distant cousin of mine. Politically though we are complete opposites.

[Coombe Barton]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

Jacob Rees-Mogg is a distant cousin of mine.

Do you get invited to any of their ‘do’s?

 

And would you go if you were?

[PhilJ W]

10 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Do you get invited to any of their ‘do’s?

 

And would you go if you were?

The answers are no and no.  

[Coombe Barton]

12 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The answers are no and no.  

Thought they would be

[BSW01]

Good morning afternoon everyone 

 

Once again, very late on parade today, due to NOT having a lie-in, but instead heading out to do some shopping. Today I’m stocking up on perishables, in the hope that we’ll have enough in for at least the next week or so. IF we do need anything else, hopefully Vickie and Ian will pick it up for us. Later today, I’ll be packing my bag for hospital. As I’m not going in until midday, I’ll be up extra early tomorrow, as I can’t eat after 7am, so it’ll be a very early, but light breakfast in the morning. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Sidecar Racer]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Nothing wrong with the state paying for classes on music, literature, art, theatre etc. it helps create a well rounded individual. At the very least it helps level the field with the (fee paying) Public Schools who do provide their students with such extras, imbuing their students with self-confidence and a broad weltblick.

 

 

 

  In the five years of secondary school education I HAD to spend four years taking

lessons in music, french and art .

 

Guess what , since leaving I have never had to interact with a French person in their language ,

I have never had a desire to play a musical instrument and any attempt at art just produces

something akin to  that  a five year old does .

 

Do I think this has had an adverse effect on my life ,absolutely not .

 

 Some people have a natural aptitude for those subjects and some don't , criticizing those that

fall into this category can sound elitist and for the want of a better word posh .

 

 

 

Edited August 27 by Sidecar Racer

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Guess what , since leaving I have never had to interact with a French person in their language ,

I have never had a desire to play a musical instrument and any attempt at art just produces

something akin to  that  a five year old does .

 

But these things are your choice, not a failure of the education system.

[monkeysarefun]

15 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Guess what , since leaving I have never had to interact with a French person in their language

 

 

I had a choice of French or Indonesian and chose French because the teacher was a hottie. 

 

Since then, except for 2 weeks in Tahiti I have never knowingly met a French person so have never had to use the only phrase I remember:  "ooh ay la chaise?"

 

 

 

We  had to do a couple of random Shakespeare plays. "Dicky 3" and one with a fat bloke in it.

 

Other than that and "Sons and  Lovers", oh and John Donne  I remember mainly Australian stuff.

 

"Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll" and "The Club"  (about an AFL coach) were the plays. Bruce Dawe for poetry, and the most memorable books were  "The One Day Of The Year" (about ANZAC Day), "I Can Jump Puddles" (autobiography about a boy growing up in the early 1900's in Rural Victoria who gets polio) and "My Brother Jack" about a bloke who had a brother called Jack.

[Sidecar Racer]

32 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

But these things are your choice, not a failure of the education system.

 

 I was commenting on the fact that I spent four years being taught things that I just did

not have the ability to pick up , music and art mainly , french I still remember a few bits .

 

 It's no different to some people not being able to confidently drive a car , I was driving

on a disused airfield from fourteen , it just felt natural to me .

 

 When I was racing the sidecar you used hands and feet in all sorts of order to control

it at speed , so very coordinated , but could I ever pick up the ability to dance , not a chance .

 

 So yes some is down to choice but a lot still is what comes naturally .

 

 

 

Edited August 27 by Sidecar Racer

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

Our political class might be largely drawn from an incestuous closed circle of public schools (did YOU know that David Cameron and Harriet Harman were cousins by marriage?) but what they learn there, who can say. 

 

John Major contested the 1992 General Election using a TV advert featuring a Vaughan Wliiams soundtrack, seascape, quoting Orwell about "old maids cycling to Communion" and a rolling text about "this sceptered Isle in the sea", without apparently being aware of the irony thereby contained. 

 

Orwell's quote comes from an essay in which he mocks that image as a nostslgic never-land, which never was. The Shakespeare quote, well you need to know the WHOLE piece; I doubt if Mr Major INTENDED to reference the "shameful conquest if itself, bound in by ink and rotten parchment, like a pelting farm" although it would be quite a good reference to the disgraceful episodes going on in Parliament (expenses, for one thing) 

Had John Major gone to public school, and/or not run away to join the circus, perhaps he would have been aware of the full context!

[Sidecar Racer]

33 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

But these things are your choice, not a failure of the education system.

 

 As a PS ,

 

 I never said it was failure of the education system .

[pH]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Aditi did comment when she first met me that most of my books had spaceships or helicopters on the cover.
Tony 

Wot - no trains??!!

[The Lurker]

I too am of the opinion that a lot of of literature is spoiled by over analysis and that some good literature is denigrated because it falls into a particular genre - sci-fi, fantasy, crime are usually not regarded as serious despite some of these books being eminently analysable. I did not get on with English Lit as a subject despite being an avid reader. I did like "Lord of the Flies" for the story itself and did find the analysis of "To Kill a Mockingbird" opened my eyes to a different world.

 

Classical music has never done it for me - it was all my Dad listened to, and probably nothing much from the 20th century. Having to do it at  school didn't help but to be honest I got out of that as soon as I could.

 

On the other hand, I don't think that just "useful" subjects should be taught - I am a fan of education for education's sake, and the encouragement of the desire to know stuff. Otherwise I would never have been able to read history at degree level - it's not going to fall in to Pupcam's useful category very easily but I found it a darn sight more enjoyable than woodwork. 

 

Other opinions exist. (That's a perspective gained from degree level education 😜)

 

 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

In the five years of secondary school education I HAD to spend four years taking lessons in music, french and art .

 

Guess what , since leaving I have never had to interact with a French person in their language,

So, no holidays in France, Quebec, the Caribbean or parts of equatorial Africa?

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

In the five years of secondary school education I HAD to spend four years taking lessons in music, french and art….

 

……I have never had a desire to play a musical instrument

But learning about music doesn’t necessarily mean you have to play a musical instrument. Sometimes learning that there’s more good music out there than what is heavily promoted on commercial radio is rewarding enough.

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

and any attempt at art just produces something akin to  that  a five year old does .

But do you do any railway modelling? The whole process of creating a layout is a much art as is painting a landscape, more so perhaps as railway modelling is a multi-media discipline. And what you learn from learning about “art” (colouring, highlighting, the use of shadows, Trompe-l'œil, etc) rolls over very well into railway modelling.

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Some people have a natural aptitude for those subjects and some don't ,

Just because one doesn’t have an aptitude for something, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. Just because my aptitude for playing piano barely extends to the first few notes of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, doesn’t mean I can’t (won’’t? mustn’t?) enjoy listening to someone play the piano well.

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

some don't, criticising those that fall into this category can sound elitist and for the want of a better word posh .

Hmm. If I have any criticism then it’s of this mentality (overt or covert) of <not for the likes of us> that so permeates British society - at all social levels. Why shouldn’t someone with no musical ability enjoy great music? Why shouldn’t  someone with the means to regularly eat in Michelin starred restaurants not enjoy fish and chips on the sea front?

 

And yes, I am “elitist” inasmuch as in every human endeavour there are those whose skill, talent and ability set the benchmark for, and define, that discipline. I would consider those who model for Pendon amongst the elite of British railway modellers. Am I resentful? No, they give me something to aim for and whilst I may miss by “a country mile” my modelling would still be better than if I hadn’t strived to get to their level.

 

And as for POSH (a nasty little invidious word), many would benefit from abandoning their inverse snobbery and look behind that label. I find it telling that expecting quality and standards is so often dismissed as “being Posh”

 

Edited August 27 by iL Dottore
Missing word

[jjb1970]

16 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

I had a choice of French or Indonesian and chose French because the teacher was a hottie. 

 

Since then, except for 2 weeks in Tahiti I have never knowingly met a French person so have never had to use the only phrase I remember:  "ooh ay la chaise?"

 

 

Funny old world, I  had to learn French at school and have very rarely had any need for it. What little I learnt left me decades ago. We never had an opportunity to take Indonesian. If anyone had suggested Indonesian would be more useful to me than French it would have been met with howls of laughter yet that's how life turned out.

[45156]

Afternoon All,

 

I had to skip - seven pages a day is too much for me to read - though it was a bank holiday and there was little or nothing worth watching on TV so the post count is bound to be higher.

 

Well, here's a thing.  The delivery of my repaired carpet shampoo machine is becoming stranger and stranger.  It was due on Friday, but never came - driver was asked to deliver later - never came.  I was told it would be here today by DPD - then this morning got an email to say it was delayed, and tracking the order on the DPD website showed it as being returned to sender.  Phone calls to DPD elicited absolutely no response from a (very overseas) operator once I had managed to defeat their system which just kept saying "your parcel is in transit to the alternative address as requested".  She suggested that I call Vax.  So I did, and after a further 20 minutes of holding and music, the most helpful British operator said it appears that it was damaged in transit, and ordered a brand new replacement machine, which is arriving next Monday.

 

My surmise is that the parcel was damaged before delivery, possibly on the van, the driver found this and just put through a could't deliver email instead of knocking to let me know, then took it back to his depot where it was sent back to Vax - though why DPD could not have come clean, I don't know.

 

Still, a new carpet cleaner after four years use is a plus.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[iL Dottore]

I definitely enjoy learning for the sake of learning. I am interested in most things and I endeavour to learn enough to grasp the basics of a topic so that I can enjoy it more.