steve loves moira (true)

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary.
Because we got married at this rather silly time of year, I think Moira+I have each “forgotten” our anniversary perhaps once over the years… but not today. We don’t very often buy each other presents to mark the occasion but, today, Moira presented me with a truly beautiful set of Rob Ryan’s plates (entitled “Four Trees, Four Seasons”). He was born in Cyrus, but now lives and works in London and makes wonderful, intricate papercuts (cut by hand).
Photo: hopefully(?), if you double-click on the image you might just be able to make out the words (warning: they might make you cry).

somewhere

Alan, Gareth, Eilidh, Moira+I went to the Watershed yesterday afternoon to see Sophia Coppola’s “Somewhere” film. Stephen Dorff plays a pampered film actor, surrounded by beautiful, “willing” women. His troubled ex-wife leaves their 11-year-old daughter for him to look after for a couple of weeks (before the daughter’s shipped off to a summer camp) while mother has time for herself. Having his daughter with him seems only to underline the film actor’s directionless, privileged lifestyle – with Dorff frequently having to shield his daughter from embarrassing situations, mainly involving young women keen to “impress” him.
Perhaps this was the essential message of the film – it took the presence of his daughter for him to realise, despite all the fame and the money, just how mundane, lonely and discomforting his life had become…. or maybe I’m just trying too hard to justify why the film was made at all?

Not a patch on "Lost in Translation".

contemplating retirement

For me, the turn of the year has always been a time for reflection. This year has taken on rather more significance than usual as I’ll be retiring in the summer.
Many years ago, I remember thinking that there was absolutely no way I’d work beyond my sixtieth birthday. Well, clearly, that didn’t happen.
Moira retired at the end of March 2010. I was really impressed (and a little envious) with the way she prepared for this next stage in her life. She met with our good friend Bruce a couple of times to exchange thoughts and also booked herself on to a retreat in Devon (on the edge of Dartmoor… a place she’s been to before).
By comparison, I feel totally unprepared. People who are aware of my impending retirement frequently ask me what I plan to do… and my answers are always very vague and invariably dull. Whilst a huge part of me is really looking forward to the imminent prospect of retirement, deep down, I also freely admit to feeling rather nervous.
So, over the coming weeks, I might commit some of my “retirement thoughts” to paper (well, computer) – hopes, dreams and fears!
Don’t hold your breathe.

the birds are back….

Last January, we noticed a batch of strange birds at the back of our house. After investigation, we decided they were Fieldfare. Well, they’re back… and perching on the same tree. According to the RSPB, Fieldfare “may come into gardens in severe winters when snow covers the countryside”.
Sounds about right to me!

Photo: some of our Fieldfare visitors (there were some 18 in all).

pinocchio

The Tobacco Factory Theatre's Christmas Show has now become a traditional part of our seasonal festivities (quite possibly something to do with the fact that Felix has performed in a lot of them perhaps?). Moira+I went along to see "The Adventures of Pinocchio" last night and it proved to be another evening of captivating, live theatre in front of another all-age full house. Once again (of course!), we felt that Felix was the real star performer, especially with his Jimmy The Cricketer character - an intriguingly clever version of Disney's invented Jiminy Cricket.

Theatre is alive and well and, very fortunately for us, can be found at the wonderful Tobacco Factory Theatre - especially at this time of year (the current show runs to 16 January)!

Photo: the cast (Felix is second from right - pity there isn't an image of him in his Jimmy The Cricketer costume!).

pre-christmas family get-together…. almost

As you can imagine with three married daughters and with their various other family commitments and complicated schedules, the opportunities for us all to get together at Christmas are relatively rare. Yesterday was due to be one of those key occasions – it might not coincide with the “proper” Christmas holiday period but, for us, it was going to be very special. Alice+Dave etc were due to come to stay for a couple of days but, unfortunately, due to the horrendous weather conditions that have disrupted so many people’s holiday plans, they were forced to abandon their attempts to drive down from Lancashire in the snow and ice (the prospect of being “trapped” in traffic with young children for hours on end were rightly considered untenable). As you might imagine, we were (and still are) left feeling very sad by how things turned out. Despite this, we decided to continue with our family supper arrangements last night (it was Felix’s night off from performing at the Tobacco Factory Theatre and Stu managed to get back safely from a crucial glass installation meeting in London – albeit he missed the main course, poor man!) and it WAS lovely.
We count our blessings as a family… and Alice+Dave were definitely with us in spirit last night – just very sad that they weren’t actually there to hug!
Photo: Iris attempting to catch snowflakes on her tongue earlier in the day.

university education.... again

With all the recent student demonstrations regarding university fees and the like, I’ve perhaps been strangely quiet on the subject. I did write a facebook status note on the morning of the parliamentary vote – acknowledging that I would never have pursued an architectural career if I hadn’t received a full grant (and no tuition fees) and that I feared tomorrow’s architects would once again only come from privileged backgrounds. I have, however, previously voiced my concerns on the subject of university education and tuition fees – for example, November 2010 and November 2006. Polly Toynbee has written some brilliant, thought-provoking, education-related articles in the weekend Guardian over recent weeks (eg. this one on students’ EMAs).
There was an article in yesterday’s Guardian Money supplement entitled: “Would you have paid £27,000 for your degree?” which included interviews with various “writers and celebrities”.
AL Kennedy (novelist and comedian, who studied at Warwick) said:
“I couldn’t have gone to university if I had had to pay anything, or go into debt. I wouldn’t be doing my job, paying tax. I wouldn’t have a life to enjoy… I’d say to students, keep protesting… if I’d done more when I was a student, you wouldn’t have to be doing this. For which I apologise”.
On the other hand, Dan Snow (television+radio historian, who studied at Balliol College, Oxford), having made some sensible comments about the value of a university education, then went on to say:
“I didn’t have to start paying back the £9,000 until I was in a decent job and through my early 20s it meant a few less pints a week, delayed my entry to the housing market by a couple of years and prevented me from buying a nice car. Hardly a sacrifice.”
Something tells me he just doesn’t live in the real world of normal people.

autumn/winter books...

Once again, I’m using this blog to record books I’ve been reading. These are my latest titles:

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (Chris Stewart): The final book in the “Driving Over Lemons” trilogy. I’ve really enjoyed all of them and find Chris Stewart’s writing style very endearing – affectionate, self-deprecating and rather life-enhancing!
Paula Spencer (Roddy Doyle): Probably one of the best books I’ve read this year. It’s about a middle-aged, “recovering alcoholic” mother. It’s quite brilliantly written and captures the despair, struggle, pride, compassion and humour of Paula’s life quite beautifully. I was also fascinated and won over by its somewhat quirky writing style – written in the third person, through the eyes of the central character (as it were!) and with no chapters at all. I absolutely loved it!
Deaf Sentence (David Lodge): I’ve read a number of Lodge’s books (albeit some time ago) and have always enjoyed them as relatively light, amusing novels. After looking at the sleeve notes, I hadn’t really got particularly high hopes for the book – it’s about a retired professor who is going deaf. In the event, I found it quite moving (and funny) as it dealt with some of the things that Moira and I are experiencing first hand for ourselves – the prospect and reality of retirement; our own “failing” faculties; and dealing with old age (well, older age at least!). A surprising gem of a book.
Scoop (Evelyn Waugh): Inevitably dated (first published in 1938!), but I found this irreverent satire of Fleet Street quite charming in its way (as I have many of his other books). This might seem somewhat surprising to many who know me - given Waugh’s reactionary character and his negative image as “intolerant, snobbish and sadistic, with pronounced fascist leanings”. I would clearly have disliked him with a passion!
God of Surprises (Gerard Hughes): We’re reading this book in our weekly Ithaca group and, I have to say, I’ve been rather disappointed. Perhaps I’m not in the proper frame of mind to appreciate it fully at the moment - but, although it does contain some profound and helpful insights, I don’t any of us in the group have particularly warmed to it.
PS: I haven’t included Cave Refectory Road (Ian Adams) in the above recent list as I blogged about this last month (and it’s excellent!).

christmas is coming...

By the end of the weekend, I’d started to feel a little Christmassy. It was clearly helped by getting together with friends on Saturday and exchanging Christmas gifts and also going along to Simon Taylor’s excellent “Christmas in an Hour” lecture at St Mary Redcliffe earlier in the week. However, what really did it for me was attending the Gasworks Choir wonderful concert at St George’s, Bristol yesterday afternoon. Really beautiful, powerful voices, impressive musical arrangements and fun – an absolute treat of a concert…. and our lovely friend Gareth was performing too (see circled in photograph!).

BABs luncheon in bristol

When we all lived in Oxfordshire, Moira+I used to get together for lunch on a regular basis with our lovely, lovely friends Gail, Ian, Debby+Ken (six times a year – to celebrate each of our birthdays)(note: BABs is short for Barnes-Adams-Broadway!). Now that we’re living in different parts of the country (Oxford, Devon and Bristol), we still try to get together as often as we can but, inevitably, it’s not as often as we’d like. Yesterday, G+I+D+K came to Bristol and we met up for a really excellent lunch at Bordeaux Quay…. wonderful to catch up again… lots to talk about… much laughter, as usual!
Photo: "atmospheric" Ian, Moira+Gail (sorry Gail!) on Pero’s Bridge after we’d said our goodbyes to Ken+Debby.

meteor

The Mabey-Broadway bus passengers (well, it was just Andy and me!) witnessed a very rare sight on our homeward journey yesterday – a meteor! It was about 5.40pm and we were driving through the fairly well-lit streets of Knowle West when we suddenly caught sight of an amazingly bright rocket-like “thing” travelling across the sky. We both reacted in the same way: “wow, did you see THAT?”…. Initially, I thought it was a huge firework, but soon realised it was something much more impressive than that. We followed it for about three or four seconds before it disappeared from view. I’ve previously seen shooting stars but never witnessed anything quite so dramatic (in astronomical terms, you understand). Andy is the nearest I know to anyone remotely connected with astro-physics and he told me this morning that it was indeed a meteor (he tells me that the local tv presenter-cum-weatherman kept calling it a meteorite – which rather annoyed Andy, because it only becomes a meteorite if it survives impact with the earth’s surface… which it clearly hadn’t when we saw it!).
Anyway, it was a first for me!

Photo: unfortunately, I didn't take a photograph myself but this is the closest I've seen amongst google images to what we witnessed (but without such a long tail).

forest of dean 2010

We’ve just returned from the annual 3-day school trip to the Forest of Dean. This is a picture of one of the Year 8 pupils after she’d reached the top of the high climbing wall. Exhilaration, pride, sense of achievement and sheer joy. I could have chosen any one of numerous other images which would have told the same story. The Jacob’s Ladder, the Zip Wire, the Leap of Faith (climbing up a telegraph pole, standing on what amounts to no more than a tea tray and then flinging oneself into mid air to catch a swinging bar!), the Climbing Wall and, of course, the night walks/challenges in the forest (where, although closely and secretly monitored, these young children find their own way through the forest in the dead of night).
Witnessing children being prepared to undertake onerous challenges, being cheered on and genuinely encouraged by their fellow students, massively exceeding their own expectations and watching their delighted faces at the end… there’s nothing really to match it.
It’s humbling and a huge privilege to be able to do so.
I just wish parents (especially some of them!) were able to see just what their sons and daughters are capable of achieving – it would make them very proud (and amazed).

sir ken robinson+education

It was fascinating listening to Sir Ken Robinson talking about education on yesterday’s Radio 4’s “Saturday Live” programme. I’d come across him for the first time last year (I blogged about him in July 2009). Really interesting, thought-provoking bloke and I think you should watch/listen to his two “Ted Talks” (they’re only 18 minutes long and very worthwhile!). I particularly love his reference to WB Yeates’s poem “Cloths of Heaven” at the very end of his second talk:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
It’s not very often that I yearn to have followed a different “career” route but, if I had come across him when I was in my twenties or thirties, I think I might have been encouraged, in my own naive inadequate way, to make waves in the world of education!

aung san suu kyi

What an amazing lady.
Seeing her being set free by the military authorities from her latest period of house arrest, it felt very much like watching Nelson Mandela being released from Robben Island twenty years.
Such integrity, such dignity.
She has made it absolutely clear that she’s fully prepared to take the consequences if the military government decided to lock her up again for what she said or did… and, given what she’s gone through over the past 21 years, it would have seemed perfectly reasonable for her to call for the downfall of the military rulers.
But no, instead, she simply says: "I think it's quite obvious what the people want; the people just want better lives based on security and on freedom… I don't want to see the military falling. I want to see the military rising to dignified heights of professionalism and true patriotism".
If the military had any sense, they should seize the moment and accept at this opportunity she’s handing them…. but they almost certainly won’t.

£120 billion tax avoidance?

Came across a fascinating article in Monday’s Guardian (thanks to good friend Iain) by George Monbiot (I’ve previously read his excellent book “HEAT – how can we stop the planet burning”). He reckons it’s arguable that the UK government does NOT have a spending crisis; it has a tax avoidance crisis!
Official accounts suggest that the tax gap amounts to £42bn. Richard Murphy of Tax Research has demonstrated that this figure cannot be correct, as it contradicts other government statistics. He estimates that avoidance now amounts to £25bn a year, evasion to £70bn, and outstanding debts to the tax service to £28bn: a total of more than £120bn. That's roughly three-quarters of the budget deficit!
Just remember this when Public Sector redundancy figures hit the roof over the coming months!
Photo: nothing to do with tax avoidance – just a pic I took on the Windmill Arts Trail that I thought looked vaguely appropriate.

another year

Mike Leigh is a genius.
Alan, Gareth, Eilidh, Merry-Carol, Gerry, Moira+I went to see his latest film “Another Year” yesterday at the Watershed. It explores a year in the life of a happily married, middle-aged couple (brilliantly portrayed by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), content and fulfilled with their lives (and their allotment!), and their interaction with a small community of family (grown-up son and Broadbent’s older brother and his adult son) and needy friends desperately trying to make sense of their lives (sad, insecure Mary – played by Lesley Manville – and overweight divorcee Ken). Lesley Manville is simply outstanding.
A really beautiful, gentle, sad, funny film about the passing of time (and old age) - and made even more poignant as Moira+I find ourselves entering our own twilight years!
You simply must see this film.
Photo: Ruth Sheen (Gerri) and Jim Broadbent (Tom).
PS: Just wonderful to be able to spend some time with our old Ithaca friends again – and to round off the day with an excellent Canadian supper of maple syrup, pancakes, bacon, sausages and fruit.

no support for school support staff negotiating body

Somewhat predictably, Education Secretary Michael Gove has abolished the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) set up by the last Government in 2009 to improve pay and conditions for school support staff. The body would have introduced a national pay and career development structure for the 500,000 lowest paid school staff in the country. Mr Gove issued a statement claiming that the SSSNB "does not fit well with the government’s priorities for greater deregulation of the pay and conditions arrangements for the school workforce".
Too right it didn’t!
I wrote to Ed Balls, the then Secretary of State for Children, Families and Schools, in September 2008 on the subject of school support staff welcoming his initiative to introduce a statutory independent chair to ensure that teaching assistants and support staff are paid fairly.
Here are some extracts, specifically highlighting my own role:
“I have worked in a comprehensive school in North Somerset since September 2005 (classified at the end of last year as an “outstanding” school by OFSTED) and joined as one of four Assistant House Heads. It was a newly-created role responsible for providing pastoral support to the work of our respective House Heads and Tutors - as well as supporting the pupils themselves in their learning (encouraging positive attitudes and behaviour in and around the school) and their welfare. We are full-time, term-time employees and work closely with an Assistant Head Teacher, responsible for Pupil Support, and are involved with children from Year 7 up to Year 11.
As one might anticipate, the original job specification has developed somewhat since that time! The scope of the role is wide-ranging and carries a high degree of responsibility – we are dealing with staff, pupils, parents and outside agencies as well as liaising with individual teachers, departments and faculties in relation to behaviour and learning for both individuals and groups of pupils. As non-teachers, we represent the key point of contact for parents throughout the school day…. This new role has been very successful - we have been readily welcomed, respected and appreciated by all tutors, teaching staff, pupils and parents alike and are seen as fulfilling a valuable and vital role in the school. One of the key benefits of our role has been its effect on the teaching staff – we have certainly enabled “teachers to teach” rather than to be trying juggle various other pastoral issues.
“Our differing backgrounds and experiences (an English literature graduate; a learning support assistant; a policeman; and an architect!) mean that we have different skills, interests, abilities and ages. We are very good at our job and highly valued by the School’s Leadership Team – even if we are NOT adequately rewarded financially for the work we undertake!....
I believe our type of role in schools is absolutely crucial – and will become increasingly important over the coming years.
“At present, there is no career structure for this or similar positions – all too often (and exactly the same comment can be made about jobs for teaching assistants and other support staff), non-teaching roles in schools are regarded as being for the “secondary earner” in a domestic partnership (even an appalling assumption that it will be mainly mothers taking up such positions “so they can look after their children in the school holidays”!)!”
Support staff are all too often seen as the “cheap option” for many roles in schools. Additional roles (such as those dealing with vitally-important Child Protection matters within schools) are doled out on the basis that “they will look good on your CV” (seriously!) for absolutely nil additional pay or undertaken “voluntarily” on a goodwill basis because staff are conscious of gaps that need to be filled. With no career structure in place, schools seem to rely on “senior” support staff leaving so they can be replaced by new, even-cheaper staff – an awful waste of talented and committed individuals. Despite the fact that roles are constantly being changed and extended in scope, schools and local education authorities continue to hide behind extremely clumsy and outdated grading bands.
There are no national pay rates for support staff employed in the state sector. Most LEA schools use the local government pay scales to pay their support staff in conjunction with National Joint Council (NJC) terms and conditions. However, this can vary between local authorities, which means it is not possible to be prescriptive about the rate of pay support staff will receive – a fact that, in my limited educational experience, employers take full advantage of to suit their own individual circumstances (ie. even if they are apparently financially-independent of any LEA). And, of course, term-time-only contracts means that an employee is only employed when the school is open - in most cases, for 38 or 39 weeks a year.
Individual schools could take the initiative to reward support staff more fairly and to address matters of career development, but this rarely appears to be the case. The SSSNB did seem to be a serious attempt to address national pay and career development structure for the 500,000 lowest paid school staff in the country. The Government clearly doesn’t seem to acknowledge the roles these school workers fulfil (and, frankly, I’ve been pretty appalled by the standard of trade union representatives I’ve come across – none of whom seem to have the necessary knowledge or experience of schools). So, it now seems that school support staff will remain a hugely-undervalued resource and, of course in the present financial climate, those who still have jobs will be reminded just how lucky they are!

Genius!

university tuition fees (and stuff)

In what Universities Minister David Willetts described as a “progressive” reform, the Coalition Government has decided that universities will be able to charge annual tuition fees of up to £9,000 (from the current maximum of £3,290 pa). Costs will be transferred from the state to students. Willetts feels that the tuition fee rise is a “good deal for students” (really?) and confirmed that universities charging higher levels of fees will have to show support for widening access to students from economically poorer backgrounds – this would apparently mean the type of outreach programmes that many universities already carry out, such as summer schools and targeted scholarships. Mr Willetts said graduates earning less than £21,000 per year would not pay any real interest on loans, but rates would rise to inflation plus 3% at £41,000 per year and above.
The National Union of Students dubbed the plan, which will mean almost a threefold increase, "an outrage". NUS president, Aaron Porter, said Liberal Democrat MPs who were going to ditch their election pledge to vote against any rise in fees should be "ashamed of themselves" and I have to say, I agree.
In January 2003, I wrote to the then Education and Skills Minister, Charles Clarke, on the subject – and particularly in connection with the education of prospective architects from lower income families. This is just a brief extract:
“….This all leaves me with a real sense of despair for the future and, in particular, the pressures being exerted on this country's young people - both today and in the future…. Life in one's 20s has always been demanding financially, but today's graduates are now facing worrying fresh challenges with potentially-huge student loan repayments on top of high mortgage (or rent) costs - and, of course, the Government is now also demanding that they start to make arrangements for their pension provisions!
Through the actions of successive Governments (and despite the current Government's stated goal that 50% of all children should go on to "enjoy" higher/university education), we are sadly faced with a situation where it is now far more difficult, financially, for someone from a lower income/working class background to look forward to the prospect of university education than it was in my day in the mid-1960s. Despite the Government's latest "tinkering" to avoid top-up fees (I'm against them on principle), I fear that university education will soon only be available for those who have the financial means to afford it (nothing about ability or "education for all" aspirations). What an awful reflection on our society today!
I regularly participate in career conventions for young people (aged 13-16 predominantly) and, whilst I have been impressed their knowledge and enthusiasm, I know just how concerned the vast majority of them are regarding the prospective financial implications of higher education (with prospects of owing well in excess of £20,000 for architectural students, for example, will there be ANY architects in future coming from working class backgrounds?)”.
Unfortunately, this debt figure of “well in excess of £20,000” has now increased to staggering levels (architecture is a seven year course – of which five years are spent at university) – perhaps upwards of £80,000?
I accept that I don’t really have any of the answers, but I do think we’ll be getting back to the depressing prospect of a world of the “haves” and “have nots”.
PS: if you can stand it, check out my blog post on similar issues in November 2006 (click here).

let the train take the strain….

Moira+I had a lovely weekend in Leyland with Alice+Dave et al. As an experiment, we decided to use the train and it proved to be pretty successful (frustrations of having to change mid-journey and having to wait nearly an hour to pick up the connection each time, but…). Somewhat crowded on the return journey, but we survived. One of the bonuses was that I virtually read an entire book (Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop”) on the journey.
It was a lovely weekend and SO good to see the Buckleys after what seemed like ages (I think Jemima was just three weeks old when we last saw them!). We had great fun – lots of laughter, rolling on the floor and no end of boisterous games (quite a few of these seemed to involve me pretending to be a camel or a snake and transporting Mikey+Dan to various destinations!). Jemima seems to take the boys’ world of drums, ball games, zingzillas and general mayhem in her stride.... but I think she might be just biding her time.
Photo: various images taken over the weekend.

the amazing chile mine rescue

As usual, I’d been listening to the World Service on the radio “off and on” through the night. Just before 4am, I just had to go downstairs and switch on the television…. to watch the first of the 33 trapped miners, Florencio Avalos, being brought to the surface in the escape capsule (Phoenix One). Just amazing to watch as the capsule appeared through the tiny, stark, metal-sleeved hole in the ground to be greeted by his family and the cheering crowds on the surface and then, a little later, to watch the pictures back down the mine as the miners calmly awaited their turns in the capsule.
Almost beyond belief, the miners ARE being rescued!
PS: As I write this, the second miner has just appeared on the surface and another paramedic is sent back down the tube – perhaps it’s just me, but it does seem a little strange that there is now one more person back in the bowels of the earth than has actually been rescued!