Category: study

Booker Off

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

I do this to myself regularly. I buy and attempt to read another or more Booker nomination and/or winner. I should know by now that it’s not fun and it will not make me happy but I keep on trying.

This year’s winner is called Orbit. It’s an esoteric little number about the brew of the International Space Station. The guy at Waterstones gushed about it. There was a woman on the train clearly enraptured. To me it just seems a bit forced and pretentious. I  mean, I do read the occasional pretentious book. I read hard books all the time. I’m going to be a PhD sometime soon, fingers crossed. My point is that it’s not engaging. Not to me anyway.

What is the qualification to be a book prize judge? I say this carefully as one of my close friends is a prize winning writer. I mean… I joined a book group once. Hated being forced to read other people’s preference. Oh, the arguments. I can’t say it was a peaceful or enlightened experience.

These days I’m not afraid to put down a book and walk away if it’s not for me. Sorry Booker judges.

Siarad Cymraeg

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Two of my nieces and their parents (well, they are only 10 and 5 respectively) have just moved to Wales. The girls are settled in school and the family are enjoying their new life. One thing they have to consider is that the girls will have to learn Welsh as part of their schooling in order to get the best from life there. I think it’s great. Both parents have some Spanish, having lived there in their teens and now it’s time to see the other side where you are the parent in another country debating the need to learn the language.

As a wise old aunty I realise that teens love the idea of secrets from mum and dad. What better way to keep them than to speak a whole new language! Naturally there’s only one thing I can do.. I have to learn Welsh.

Now I’m not saying I’ll ever be fluent but hopefully I’ll know enough to scare the children into believing or worrying that I am. Lol (as the young people say).

I had a Welsh friend at uni many moons ago and started to learn then but you lose touch things drift and there’s no reason to remember so now I’ve gone back to a language app to try again. We went to a pantomime, starring one of the nieces and her mum, over the weekend and I found myself reading (badly) the Welsh language signs and leaflets. I even brought some home. I tried out a phrase or two on the staff and was thanked for my efforts. Apparently my accent is good.

It seems to me a matter of respect to learn something of a country’s language and culture before you go. Even if all you can say is “sorry I don’t speak the language” it shows you’ve made the effort. Trying to explain that Wales is its own country with separate laws and government within the UK is a tough concept for some people.

I’m not about to lecture anyone over their choices. Having a little Spanish when in Valencia a few weeks back made our lives easier (ironically so did having a little Dutch since they formed the bulk of tourists there). People open up to you and show a greater  to help generally (I’m not sure Paris operates on the same rules) gets a smile and care in service. Now I’m not claiming to be any kind of linguist I’m just saying taking a little time and care to be decent to people makes a huge difference.

I’m going to continue with my Welsh lessons. You never know when it could save a niece from a terrible situation.

Unsubscribed

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

So I randomly opened my secondary mail…. a sort of dead letter box… hundreds of things you forgot you subscribed to. Over 8000 emails unread and not needed. Let’s say even at 100 a ti.e it took a while to get rid of them all. The trick being to unsubscribe from each new service I spotted on the list. For a week or so I’ve had nothing in that inbox. I’m now on to email two, the main e mail.

I suppose I’ve signed up to things because, one one occasion, I was buying a gift and wanted a discount … or maybe it was something that interested me, but I’m done with that thing now. I’m sure the odd ‘newsletter’ or ‘warning’ will pop up unwanted in future. I’ll unsubscibe from the first and report the latter as a matter of course. It’s a joy opening my e mail and knowing that its not full of things I’ll never read. Sadly, I can’t entirely get rid of unwanted e mails from the Student Union in my PhD. email inbox. That’s OK. They are infrequent and who knows? I might need them one day.

Telling Tales

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Last night was.the first official run out for ‘the talk about my Australian adventures last year. A group of former Guide leaders assembled for the first time since July and excited to see each other as well as to hear the talk and, of course, have tea and a chat.

It’s a little unnerving when your mum is on the front row. This was only half the tale though. Tne story if the train across the desert but not of my time in the outback. I am reliably informed that someone was overhead saying they could listen to it all again. Certainly, feedback was in the form of questions and talwles of family members’ involvement in the building of Australia. Its lovely that people opened up to share their own stories with me, and I was honoured.

I should point out that this was the hottest day of the year to day at 29 degrees centigrade and that we had to close the door part way through because of brass band practice in the next building! The tea was amazing, and I’m pleased to say that all equipment worked as it should. (The touring show being a little different from a ready-made classroom setup)

I’ve a couple of weeks before the next one.

SCUBA Dooba Don’t

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment
That’s me on the Great Barrier Reef

I spent Monday evening teaching SCUBA theory to three blokes who seemed fixated on how many ways SCUBA can kill you. Obviously you can die SCUBA diving but the whole point of teaching safety and calculations etc is to prevent that happening. Almost the entire evening boiled down to …’there are old divers and there are bold divers but there are no old, bold divers’. Translated: do as you’re told, take safety seriously and you’ll have a better chance of survival.

Look, I know that calculating a risk is not sexy. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t care what you think. I prefer to come up from dive a little tired and grinning at the wonderful things I’ve seen or learned along the way. What set them off was a true story of the day there was an unsuccessful rescue of a diver at a site I was visiting. I don’t particularly know the details of what happened only that I was amongst those who helped in the rescue and aftermath. I’m sure it haunts the people directly involved to this day.

Tuesday I took a couple of those same blokes into the swimming pool (the have not progressed into open water yet) to practice rescue techniques. Let’s say they will get some more practice before we let them out into the real world. It’s hard trying to relate the safety of the pool environment to the great outdoors and a surprising number of big husky guys and gals revert to holding the instructors hand like a child when they get into a diving centre’s water for the first time. Eventually though they learn to float effortlessly with the flow and it becomes an almost meditative experience. I’m lucky. I’ve been a BSAC dive Instructor for about 5 years at time of writing, and diving for about 8 years or so. I get to practice all the skills very regularly because I’m teaching them. Complete mask removal and replacement in 4 degree (centigrade) water if not fun but it proves that you could do it if you needed to, it is not that cold at the moment and was a balmy 11 degrees C in the deep end of the quarry last week.

A word about quarries. The one where I dive is not a working quarry. It has been converted into a dive centre. There is a phone and rescue equipment, certified rescuers… that sort of thing. To anyone out there thinking of a refreshing dunk in your local water source please don’t do it unless properly trained and equipped. I spend a chunk of time every summer explaining to parents and teens that the water may look lovely but it is both deep (your toddler will get into difficulty in 6 to 20 metres of water) and cold (look there’s a reason I’m wearing this diving suit and rubber hood). Even the open water swimmers are wearing full length wetsuits and carrying floats. At the moment most of the UK is staying indoors (it is summer) as its heaving down with rain but once that sun shines you know that some teenage boy is going to die by being too bold in very cold water. For reference it’s the shock to your system of a huge temperature change. (I have swum, supervised in a dock in the North of England wearing nothing but a swim suit in November, a long time ago. It was for a lifesavers exam. I really can’t recommend it).

Summer’s almost gone

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Apart from being an excellent Doors song, it is true as we approach the longest day already (unless you are Aussie chums). Its been a bit on the warm side for the UK i.e. over 30 degrees. Occasional thunder storms have definitely not helped l, in our area at least. I did note that we may actually be growing mashes potatoes. This has proved not to be true as we had a great crop from one of the tubs earlier this week.

Spuds

This year we moved things around in the beds to see if they might grow better. On the whole.it seems the brassica may be better where they were and the potatoes like being in tubs not the purpose built boxes. The blackcurrant looks like it will crop despite only being put in late Feb. No gooseberries this year though.

Then came the thunderstorms. It’s not so fierce as predicted.

I did get a bit soggy earlier as I drifted between buildings at the local university where I’d gone to use the WiFi in the library for a PhD meeting online. The storms seem to have devastated our home WiFi. Not sure really but it’s been slow to none existent. Good meeting BTW. Its about now that I begin to think what has happened since I were young and how little we now seem able to do without the damn www. In fairness I’m a reader, as our local charity shops and library can attest so it wasn’t too bad but all the doctoral work is stored in the ‘cloud’ as they say. I do have backup copies, but infuriating all the same. I implore you all to save local copies of your documents. Indeed a pencil and paper seldom fail even if you run out of paper or break your pencil.

Which takes me back to the garden. My non digital starting place and a note to self that it’s impossible to rely on technology all the time and important to have some skills that don’t involve electrical devices. I’m going outside now to play my tongue drum.

Bye-bye Bullet Journal

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

Yeah. I took this up to support my wife, who has ADHD. It works for my wife. I have tried. For a year or more. It is not working for me. Here is the thing. I forget to use it. Then I get frustrated cos I missed a day or a week. I tend not to carry it cos it’s a bit big, but a smaller one would be too small. So I’ve made a decision that scheduling is going digital ( I’m gonna use my phone again) since I pretty much always have my phone with me.

I have several beautiful notebooks. More precisely, I have some beautiful leather notebook covers that I use to contain my notebooks. I have a new pocket size one that I can carry around, and I do. I also have the big one I’ve been trying to bullet journal in. That I’m gonna keep and just use it as a regular notebook or, as my American chums might say, journal. That works better for me. The whole BuJo thing is great for people with ADHD brain. Can’t knock it, but for me, it does not work.

If you are interested in trying it, I’ll link to Ryder the guy who invented the BuJo (as the aficionados call it) so you can take a look. To each their own eh? I’ve noticed that “lifestyle” and “self improvement” bloggers and vloggers tend to get very “YOU NEED TO DO THIS” shouty about things that work for them and anyone who tries to convert me or sell something will very quickly know that it does not work. I have to find it useful or beautiful. Note to any salesperson. Don’t try to sell things. If I want help/information/advice I’ll ask. Try selling me something, I’ll leave. If that makes me seem nasty or anti social sorry folks. I never really got past my teens and if you try to make me do something you can bet its not gonna happen.

Back to the Real World

Published on by FfiftyplusesLeave a comment

If you were hoping for more tales of adventure I’m sorry to disappoint. Today is a work day for the PhD student in me and a difficult review meeting. Its been an interesting year… what with the ongoing pandemic and a big trip to Oz. I’ve been plugging away at the research stuff. It’s not glamorous. A lot of transferring notes and filling in forms. I’m at that difficult stage (like its not all difficult) where I actually have to put in some writing time. The forms are all but filled and need to go to a higher authority for approval. A chapter must be produced.

I admit I’m a great procrastinator. There’s always another place to look for inspiration. Another theory to check out….. I could go on but that’s just more procrastination.

My question is which chapter to begin first. The ever exciting ‘Literature Review’ or the even more scintillating ‘Methodology’.

I want to apologise now to my supervisors for not realising I could just get on with this before the ever popular ethics form was completed….. Doh.