Early Risers.

[Ashcombe]

So sorry to read Tim's post about Don but appreciate being informed, thank you. He has always been so positive in his outlook, despite the limitations of his circumstances. I will always remember his supportive, warm responses when my granddaughter, aged one, was in hospital last year with bronchiolitis. Sending love at this difficult time.

[New Haven Neil]

Gutted to hear Don is so unwell, but thank you Tim, for letting us know, and for being THERE for him.

 

Debs, yes, it was a while ago for me too!  I worked on Mirrlees-Blackstone engines, a lot of our ships used them for alternator engines, straight 8's, can't recall the designation, about 30cm bore.  Also Lister-Blackstone - identical, take overs of companies I suppose.  Those funny strips that held the crankcase doors on were a positive pain!  The chrome was always peeling off the bolts - rips your fingers apart.  Good solid engines though, no trouble. Whereas.....Wartsila, Crepelle, Ruston....don't get me started!!

[Smiffy2]

Thanks, Tim.

[NGT6 1315]

The report should include an explanation of the grading method used in the report. In a good school/college nothing in the report should come as an unpleasant surprise to parents.

I'm having the impression that in Saxony at least, it is being promoted to teachers to make grading as transparent from a layman's point of view (and "explainable") as possible. There are matrices with several different ranges of grading points for the individual skill level manifested on a certain number of skill dimensions which we can take as a basis (and adapt) as needed for the complexity of an assignment at hand. These grading points are translated into component marks and then used as the basis for an overall mark, but not usually referred to when discussing results with students.

Edited November 19, 2014 by 1216 025

[NGT6 1315]

Didn't see your post until after I finished my previous one, Tim. Thinking of Don and wishing for the best for him. Please do forward our good vibrations to him, if you would, please.

[PhilJ W]

Very sorry to hear the news about Don, nothing else to say really except to give him our best wishes.

[Jock67B]

Evening all,

With that news from South Africa, I simply don't feel like making a jolly post tonight so all I want to do is echo what others before me have said, all our thoughts are with you Don, and with you Tim for the support you are giving him. Can't be easy for you either my friend. Thank you for keeping us informed,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Ian Abel]

Thanks to TIm as everyone has echoed... best wishes and prayers for Don

[Purley Oaks]

So sorry to hear about Don - if you read this, Tim, please tell him that he's missed on the word games here.

Best wishes for a recovery

Mal

[travelintrev]

Good Morning all, 

 

Just going to add my thanks to Tim for keeping us updated on Dons condition, lets hope he recovers to re-join us?

 

As might be expected the work e-mailbox filled up while I was on the plane yesterday, including the sad news that one of my former staff here (35.yo UK guy)passed away  earlier this week - the dreaded C again.

 

I must have twisted my back as I got out of the car yesterday morning as it was agony sleeping last night--.not much better this morning - anodomini creeping up I suppose?

 

Hump day already, and looks like I've got a shed load of stuff to sort out.....

 

Lets make the best of what ever life throws at us today, 

 

Trev.

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all…

 

Today's a bank holiday in Saxony. Still too dark to see whether it's dreich, but I'd suppose it is! Will be out for a railfanning event later which I hope will be a bit different to my usual photo rounds.

 

Try to make the best of the day, everyone…

[gordon s]

Just caught up with yesterdays news and very saddened to hear about Don's health taking a turn for the worse.  Please pass on my very best wishes to Don.  We go back a long way and I have fond memories of the railway Don built for Thabo all those years ago.  The support from RMweb members was phenomenal and we raised a good sum of money plus numerous items of stock for the young lad.  Needless to say our bit was easy.  Don did all the hard work in actually building the layout in secret for Thabo.  

 

I'll never forget the joy on Thabo's face when presented with his own layout…..

Edited November 19, 2014 by gordon s

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

The dreary news from SA rather overshadows anything I might contribute today. We can only hope the medics help Don turn a corner and get back on track. Tim's willingness to share what he knows is a great help - TVM.

 

A trip to the recyc beckons, & the car is already packed, mainly with cardboard boxes suitably flattened.

 

Misty morning becoming brighter later, we're told.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is grey and generally dismal here.

 

So sorry to hear the news from South Africa, but thanks for Tim for taking the trouble to come on here and let us all know.

 

Don - you are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Barry O]

Morning all

 

thanks Tim for your update. I hope that Don remains free from pain.

 

Baz

[Barry O]

Off to the dentist for a filling shortly frabjoy!

 

DCC test boards for Warley await the N gauge track to go with the OO and EM ones....due to space limitations these tracks are no longer roundly roundly but a nice S curve.

 

Umpiring last night was fun...the teams played for enjoyment and didn't try to cheat the scores!..or is that back to maths...

 

Have a good day everyone!

Baz

[andyram]

Like everyone else on here I feel that the news from SA about Don overshadows anything any of us will consider posting on here. That and the news of Trev's former colleague certainly puts things in context as I sit here rather bleary eyed. Should I really sit here complaining about a lack of sleep, excessive workload etc? Probably not!

 Sleep has been rather at a premium in the last week or so it has to be said! Sarah had the flu jab just under a fortnight ago and then promptly came out in flu over the subsequent weekend. She was ill in the whole week leading up to the Weston Exhibition which meant my time at home was spent on family duties rather  than show prep. Amber seemed to sense mummy's illness and was regularly having difficulty drifting off and was then waking up on numerous occasions during the night. I was later to bed on many occasions as I tried to fit school work and show prep around all the other family duties. This included about 2 hours quality sleep on the night before the show.

 Sarah is still not better and went to bed early again last night. However Amber slept through until 6am so I managed over 6 hours continuous sleep for the first time in two weeks. I think the exertions of yesterday probably knocked me out. We were off on a school trip to the National Space Centre at Leicester. My colleague organised the day, and did a pretty good job for a first attempt it has to be said. The museum is very good, but probably a little bit above the level of our children at present. That said they enjoyed the film show in the planetarium which was spectacular and enjoyed seeing the full size rockets and exploring the journey into space display. The stuff on the moon landing did get them fired up even after climbing all 144 steps to the top of the tower! Follow up work planned for today.

 

 Anyway I will wish everyone a good day and once again send thoughts and prayers across to Don and hope to hear some better news from Tim the next time he posts. Thoughts are with him too.

[NGT6 1315]

I was just thinking about what else I could add to the teaching methods topic which seems to have developed on here yesterday! –

 

I can't really speak for maths or sciences as my subjects are German and English, but in foreign language teaching, the trend over here has long been that students should be encouraged to essentially keep talking and to overcome any possible fear of making mistakes – the idea being that mistakes are there to learn from. For teachers, this means that in practice, you should normally let students finish their statements and address them about any mistakes they might have made only after that so as to not interrupt them. This is because interrupting students while possibly having difficulties piecing together a comprehensible statement can be embarrassing and demotivating in particular for those who feel less secure in a foreign language. Exceptions can be made in cases of very grave mistakes which make a statement totally incomprehensible, of course.

 

I myself also think that introducing students to synonyms for frequently used words whenever possible is a worthwhile goal, and I also like to point out relationships between languages or how language has evolved over time when a suitable example presents itself. In my view, with one key goal of language lessons being appropriate and well-formed expression, such input should not be left out.

[grandadbob]

Morning all,

Very sorry to hear the news about Don and cannot really add anything to what's already been said apart from sending my best wishes.

Bob.

[DDolfelin]

Gordon has said it all.

It's a good few years now since the Thabo project.

 

B*gger.

Edited November 19, 2014 by DDolfelin

[Shedman5]

Morning, Cloudy day forecast which is a step down from yesterday which was excellent and a great walk took place.

 

Really sad to see the news re Don, and as others have said thanks to Tim for keeping us in the loop.

[Killybegs]

I don't think I can add to everything that has already been set except to add my best wishes for Don's recovery.

 

Mild and overcast this morning. We still have the cold east wind and heavy rain and gales are forecast for later. It sounds as though Devon and Cornwall already have the bad weather. It was also very dark this morning, I had to use a torch to locate the dogs a couple of times. We startled a couple of curlews, didn't see them but did hear them. Their call must be one of the most evocative, it often takes me back to my childhood reading the Romany books. A couple of years ago, I managed to find all the books on the web (second hand) and they are now with my daughter who will plans to introduce the grandchildren to them in due course.

 

The weather was so pleasant yesterday that I really couldn't stay indoors so the dogs had an extra walk after lunch. To be honest, I don't think they were overly impressed, especially when they were dragged out again later in the afternoon. No great sunsets in the evening but I did take the following shot, looking down on our little community, on our early afternoon walk. You can see the beach, where we take our early morning walks, in the distance.

 

Make the most of the day.

 

John

 

[AndyB]

Tim, I'd just like to echo everyone else's thoughts and good wishes for Don. 

He's in our prayers here. 

Andy

[The Lurker]

Morning all - grey here but a hint of blue.

 

All the best to Don. And to Trev with the news of his colleague

 

FiL's results yesterday were as expected but not quite as bad as he feared. Bowel cancer which has spread to two lymph nodes (but not the back, lungs etc, all the pains he was suddenly fearing).

He sees the surgeon today for discussions on the various courses of action.

MiL has decided to go to one of the places she volunteers at today; he doesn't want her at the surgeon's appointment.

 

With all the news "Make the most of the day" becomes a phrase that resonates so much more....

[beast66606]

Seems weak to use a "me too" but my best wishes are with Don and Tim - thanks for keeping us informed, I'm not sure how many of us have someone who would do that on the t'Internet forums.

 

A grey day here, the short days are really depressing, yesterday it was dark at just after 15:00, not pitch black dark but miserable dark.

 

As I type this I'm marvelling at nature, the window I look out of onto the garden has a spiders web in the corner, it's active as the windows were cleaned last week and the web has returned. The birds which feed will sometimes fly into the window, my Jill thinks this is a hint to restock the feeders, that may be the case, or it may be confusion but either way the spiders web was yesterday full of bits of feather, quite large (but light) bits. Looking at the web now it's all clear, every last bit has gone so the spider obviously wasn't impressed by the presents.