The Bakewell Show
Well we nearly didn't go to the
Bakewell Show this year because the weather forecast had been predicting an absolute deluge but, in the end, Elliot (6 3/4) and I went.
Now, as a long-term vegetarian (since 1984), I do have various reservations about country fairs and agricultural shows but it's always been a good day out, though quite tiring. At least the Bakewell Show can be justified on the grounds of celebrating agriculture whereas things like the
Chatsworth Country Fair are so much more a celebration of field sports and hunting and other evils. Anyhow, I digress!
Elliot and I got up early (well, early for the school summer holidays) and drove to Bakewell, parking in the field opposite the entrance to the
Showground where a former student of mine from
Lady Manners School was manning the gate.
We paid our entrance money (free to under 7s which I am still impressed about - far too many places start to charge for kids as soon as they can walk or talk) and then went and had some breakfast from one of the many foodstalls - a yummy egg bap for me!
It all seemed very quiet to begin with - maybe others had seen the weather forecast and it had scared them off - but later in the day it got much busier and, with the sun warming the damp ground, a lot more humid.
There was such a variety of things to do, stalls to look at, activities to take part in.
At 10 o'clock we went to watch a theatre show on the
Village Green - the whole of the musical
Oliver! condensed into 15 minutes. It was fun, even if some of the singing and dancing was rather ropey!
At 11, we watched
Titan the robot do his thing - sadly it seemed pretty much the same "thing" as last time we saw him perform and (to don my Mary Whitehouse hat for a moment) was it really necessary for him to use a couple of rude words when this was so blatantly a family event?
Elliot had a go at reading the news for
Central TV News - they were fantastic and even gave us a DVD of his performance. I know it's not a parents' place but I think he is soooo cute in it!
Just before we left we had the highlight of the day (according to Elliot anyhow) when he was chewing some
fudge and said "this is a bit crunchy Daddy"... and then shouted,
"my tooth, my tooth, it's finally fallen out!" - yes we've been waiting for this for a few weeks now. So now it's under his pillow awaiting a visit form the
tooth fairy! (What is the going rate for tooth fairy visits these days? I'm thinking a quid?).
We got home, uploaded the video of Elliot reading the news to
YouTube, got the girls from nursery and, well, that's the day really. We have a bag full of fairly useless freebies (except the pens and erasers), full bellies from the various things we ate at the show and very tired feet but a thoroughly good day out.
Published Date:
06/08/2008
Modified Date:
07/08/2008
OK, it's been a while....
Yes, it's been over a year since I last blogged on here - and so much has happened both nationall, internationally and personally.
Since my last post there's been the whole Madeliene McCann saga, the anniversary of Diana's death, Saddam Hussein's death, a new Prime Minister..... and last June we had a new addition to our family: Martha Rose Steadman - so she's over a year old now!
Anyhow, the intention is to re-new the blog and post more regularly.
Rob
Published Date:
05/08/2008
Modified Date:
05/08/2008
Greatest Living Briton
So, according to ITV, the Queen, Eizabeth Mountbatten, is the
Greatest Living BritonOn a short list that included Paul McCartney, Julie Andrews (yes, really!) and Margaret Thatcher, the greatest living Briton is the monarch - why? What has this woman ever done for us?
She gets given huge amounts of money, she has all sorts of special privileges, she has "special" tax arrangements, she is loaned several nice houses in which to live and when one of her relatives burns down a large portion of it she gets the public to pay for the repair, she is nothing moe than an anachronism - a parasitical one at that.
June 2nd will be
Republic Day - a chance for us all to call for an elected Head of State and the removal of this overpriced, overpublicised and pointless institution.
Elizabeth Mountbatten may be a nice person - but that is irrelevant - she has not earnt her position or her status, and she is, in no way, a Great Briton.
Published Date:
23/05/2007
Modified Date:
23/05/2007
Songs and slogans
According to
this news report, Hillary Clinton is asking the public to choose her campaign song as she tries to get elected as the next U.S. President with a shortlist including:
- Beautiful Day
by U2
Suddenly I See by K.T. Tunstall
Ready to Run by the Dixie Chicks
Rock this country by SHania Twain
City of Blinding Lights by U2
I'm a Believer by Smash Mouth
Get Ready by The Temptations
Right Here Right Now by Jesus Jones
I'll Take You There by The Staple Singers
Surely, instead of campaign songs, Mrs. Clinton needs an appropriate and memorable slogan. How about "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water..."
Published Date:
17/05/2007
Modified Date:
17/05/2007
GCSE Music Exam Compromised...
It seems extraordinary but yesterday, on the day that
Edexcel have been trumpeting the new security tagging of
exam papers, there has been a clear breach of security to the Listening Paper for their
GCSE Music exam which
is due to be sat in the next two weeks by around 20,000 candidates.
For this exam, candidates are played extracts of music on a CD and have to answer questions about them.
Before the day somebody has to check that the CD works (!) even though, as I understand it, several copies
of the CD are sent to centres in case of CD problems.
Yesterday, a week in advance of the exam, at least one teacher has decided to discuss the questions on an
internet discussion board run by the TES (Times Education Supplement):
http://www.tes.co.uk/section/staffroom/thread.aspx?story_id=2379839&path=/music/&threadPage=1
With luck that link will not work by the time you read this as the thread will have been removed, so here is the opening post:
1 | Posted by: vll23 at 11 May 2007 16:01
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... has anyone else listened yet? By listened I mean checked the CD worked. There's a very strange track in AOS 2 that sounds like Vangelis or something, and I'm trying to work out if you would classify it as electronic... perhaps we're not allowed to mention it?!
V
Why does "vll23" need to know what a particular extract is unless it is to pass on the information to his/her students?
This, of course, is an outrage. Surely the music teacher should not be the person checking the CD and nobody
should be discussing the contents of the CD until after the exam, let alone seeking out "answers" online.
Edexcel's GCSE Music Listening paper has been compromised. The paper MUST now be replaced and an
investigation needs to find out who "vll23" is so that Edexcel and the General Teaching Council can prevent them from behaving
like this again.
I have reported this to both Edexcel and the GTCE - please look into this because, as "morgs" says on the forum,
there is no longer a level playing field if some teachers are cheating like this. Those teachers who play by the rules,
and more importantly their students, are disadvantaged by cheats.
Published Date:
12/05/2007
Modified Date:
24/05/2007
Little Englanders shame the UK
The European Commission, in one of its more stupid moments, has decided that the UK can keep feet and inches, pounds and ounces and that they will not impose the
metric system across the entire EU. The
Metric Martyrs, who can, surely, only be a bunch of Little Englanders, the lunatic fringe of
Daily Mail readers all voting UKIP or BNP, have won their battle and shamed the UK.
Why does anyone really want to keep the nonsense of imperial measures when the metric system is so much easier and so much more sensible to work with? Is it just because it is "British" or "English"? Do these people think that Churchill is still PM or that Victoria is Empress of India? Do they never look at their calendar and see that we are well into the 21st century now?
Who on earth can be bothered using a system with a different base units for ounces than pounds - do these people want to go back to shillings and farthings?
I really hope the European Commission review this matter soon and reverse this decision - reject the demands of those who would ha us live in the past. We don't need ounces and pounds, inches and feet - they are an anachronism. The EU shouldn't give in to Little Englanders - preservation of worthwhile traditions is one thing, retaining nonsense is quite another.
Published Date:
09/05/2007
Modified Date:
09/05/2007
Matlock Bags - an update...
Sadly there has been no response from the shopkeepers of Matlock to my call for them to ditch all plastic carrier bags by 29th April next year.
Now, that could be because they don't read this blog or it could be they don't think it will make a difference..... perhaps the Matlock Mercury could help with the campaign by featuring it in the paper?
And maybe a few more of us could start to refuse plastic carrier bags when they are offered in shops?
Published Date:
07/05/2007
Modified Date:
07/05/2007
A bright future for lightbulbs?
It was great to read that the village of Ilam in Staffordshire (not a million miles away) have all agreed to end the use of the old fashioned un-environmental bulbs.
I have never understood why, if they are so much cheaper for the consumer and so much better for the environment, the government hasn't banned the sale of the old fashioned lightbulb and only permitted the newer, eco bulbs to be sold. It would be very easy - set a date, say, six months ahead and say enough's enough. (The government propose to end the use of old-fashioned bulbs by 2011 - why so far in the future?)
The villagers of Ilam have a far brighter future ahead - and their bills go down too. It's a win-win situation.
Now, come on Matlock, how about us following suit? I'm sure it wouldn't take a great deal of effort (and as we are regularly told, the costs are paid back pretty quickly) - let's ditch the old-fashioned lightbulbs and have a greener future - why can't we be the first town to replace all its bulbs?
Published Date:
07/05/2007
Modified Date:
08/05/2007