Legalities and paperwork

Daughter and I are spending a few days with parents in Yorkshire. They're encouraging and helping me to sort out legal power of attorney for someone. Do you realise what a pain this legal procedure now is! There's a twenty six page document to complete with signatures from at least three different people. No wonder the radio had a File on Four enquiry about it a few weeks ago. It's almost more trouble than it's worth because the people who most need to set one up have trouble accessing, reading and absorbing all the information that they have to know in order to protect themselves.

You can find out about it from the Office of the Public Guardian.

Recording life

Found a few interesting pictures here that give the technology and history of those quadrophonic speakers I have (or had if I've sold them). Scroll down for photos, and explore the site for photos of other people and technology. I like some of this one about the concert. But the one about what's wrong with quadrophonics shows the fun they had messing about.

Elderly

We know a lovely old lady, mother of several daughters and lots of grandchildren. Her husband died some years ago, an intelligent and interesting man who contributed much to the community and was a great support for her in every way. Now widowed and alone, she's so old that she forgets things. She knows people and places but forgets what she was doing and if she ate what she ate. So for some months she stayed with one of her daughters. Now she's home again but worrying and tearful and not eating. And her daughters are just as worried because they can't help her until she agrees to accept help.

Tomorrow I'm seeing an elderly relative who has her own problems, so I've looked up the Lasting Power of Attorney forms from the government web site. They are horrendously long and complicated, twenty plus pages to fill in, sign by the correct people and pay over a hundred pounds. Still, that is cheaper than renewing an attorney every year. But I don't live near enough to my relatives to help. I'll have to depend on the NHS. But news like this doesn't inspire me with confidence.

Flowers and fungus

We spent a pleasant weekend with sister and friend. Weather was good enough to stroll down to the model railway for husband to admire them. Although they weren't open, they were planning for their open day the next day, and welcomed us.

After a long evening tasting some good wines and lovely cuisine, we retired late, losing an hour more sleep because the clocks went forward too. Nevertheless, we managed a walk to the model railway again. At Dore station, On the way, sister and I were intrigued by this fungus growing on a wall, in the mortar, and through the mortar. Is it dry rot?

After the railway, we walked through ancient urban woodland admiring spring flowers. It's wonderful to have such a wood in the middle of a city. It's a rather nice city for the woodland, the busy bright and bustling park we saw and its easy proximity to the peak district.

Catholics

I see here that politicians want to reform the laws that prevent Catholics coming to the throne.

Don't do it!

The Church of England has preserved Christianity in this county in a way that the Catholic countries of Europe haven't been able to. If they change the law about royalty marrying Catholics and still being able to ascend to the throne, then they could have a Catholic as head of the Church of England, which is silly. In fact, I can't see that at the moment, they can't have a Muslim as the head of the Church of England as there's no law against that.

When I was a little girl, and looking for a prince like in the fairy stories, I thought it a bit unfair on me that if I married an English prince he'd lose his throne. It wasn't meant to work like that. But now I want the law to stay as it is. There's no other discrimination against Catholics, and this one causes little bother to Catholics, and has had a lot of advantages to the rest of us. Let it stay.

Retirement day

Like the unwilling school boy, getting husband and me to work today was a slow trudge.

the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

Husband took ages, faffed about with his new mobile phone, muttered about mastic to fix the leaky shower, read the paper and looked surprised at the thought of leaving the house at a quarter past eight.

Husband retires today. I've dropped him off at work instead of him dropping me off (first time I've driven his car in years) so he can have a drink at lunch time and I'll drive him home in time and sober enough to get to his model train club.

More hobbits

I scanned in other photos of the hobbit party. These are the photos of the non-gliding people, like neighbours, relatives and fellow OU students. Were you there? See my flickr stream here for memories.

Isle of Wight plans

Husband suggested some time ago that we visited the Isle of Wight. Good idea, I agreed. I went there in 1974 with a load of fourth year junior children from the East End. I thought it a pleasant place, with beaches, interesting Roman ruins, and things to do with the children. I can't remember where we stayed - probably some convent. So husband booked.

He booked a Youth Hostel. I know he's retired so got less income now.
He's booked a family room. Oh! OK, then.
He's booked in the school holiday. Why? We don't have to go at expensive times any more. Because he's bringing his grand children. He's told their mother - not me.

Good job they're great children, so I can look forward to a holiday with them.

Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace blogging happened yesterday.

Adele Goldberg and Grace Hopper were important computer scientists who've been blogged.
At least five other people wrote about Emmy Noether. Here's one. I really like the Gin and Comment blog on Honorary Men.

I like it that some people wrote about their mothers as inspiration but isn't it wonderful that fathers are writing about their daughters programming? And there's two posts on grandmothers.

And there's a map of where we blogged at here.

Emmy Noether

Einstein couldn't have proved the conservation of energy without the work of Emmy Noether. This was a German woman born 1882, so of my grandmother's generation. My grandmother was the daughter of a Scottish carpenter. Emmy Noether was the daughter of a German mathematician. When my grandmother was 14, her father died, so she had to leave school though she'd intended to train as a teacher, and go to work. Emmy Noether's father taught her maths, and in 1907, she was awarded a doctorate - only the second doctorate awarded to a woman by a German university.

In the same decade, Einstein was working out his theory of general relativity but had more problems to solve. He presented his theory and problems in 1915, convincing Hilbert and Klein of the merits of his work. They involved Emmy Noether, who within months produced a brilliant paper that resolved one of the issues of general relativity.

In 1915, my grandmother had her first child, my much loved aunty. Both Emmy Noether and my grandmother have impacted on my life. It's people like Emmy Noether beating the way through prejudices against women and Jews that mean my grandmother's children, grandchildren and great grand-daughters can recognise and use their mathematical talents.

But achievement is not due only to women on their own. Emmy Noether had a skilled father who recognised and nurtured her talents. Women need reliable, caring fathers who respect and encourage their daughters to realise their potential to contribute to our world so men and womens' work complement each other, as did Einstein and Noether.

---

Source: Derbyshire, J, Unknown Quantity: a real and imaginary history of algebra, 2006

Sleepy cat, sunny day

Blooming garden

The clematis flowers display so well this year. I see them from where I work, though the glass greenly. But if I go outside, then I get a whiter picture. Either way, I enjoy looking at them.

Retrieved daughter - maths with supper

Fetched daughter home from uni today so now we have both her and her brother back. Meal time conversation is quite a high level now because not only does he rabbit on about physics problems, dilemmas and things that have no meaning to me, but since they have little meaning or interest to her either, she fights back - verbally. This isn't too easy as he is highly articulate. However, they now have a common interest in maths. He needs maths for his physics. She loves maths for the sake of it, and the discipline suits her perfectionist mind. So our first evening meal included a lot of mathematical discussion.

Don't ask me about what - I think it was group theory, but it might have been something Hamiltonian. Either way, it's better than arguing who sits where, how much room the other takes, or who has the last piece of scrumptious whatever.

Husband's unbirthday present

Husband is about to retire. Having been on three days a week since his 65th birthday last September, he is going down to zero days at the end of the month. This means he will lose the accoutrements that come with employment, like a laptop and a mobile phone.

Daughter #3 has bought him a mobile phone, set it up, put useful phone numbers on it and it arrived today. See -

Blossoming clematis

I worked at home a couple of glorious days this week. The plants are promising blossoms. This clematis armandi has hundreds of buds.

Gliding again

Here's the P1 (first pilot) who took me up for a flight yesterday. Many thanks to him too for organising the reunion. People were already there when I arrived around lunch time. We signed the insurance forms and put our names on the list for a guest flight.

Take off

Circuit and landing

Some of us had forgotten how cold it gets on an airfield, and shivered in too flimsy scarves and cloaks.

At four o'clock we gathered together in the Brown Elephant.

Our erst-while chairman gave us a short history of the club. Its original aims were:

• to make gliding accessible, affordable and enjoyable for people who might not otherwise take part
• a "self help" organisation
• to encourage an interest in glider engineering and flying

There were also heaps of albums and photos around, including the newspaper one of the K14 after an early solo pilot didn't make it back to airfield, was too low for Queens Parade, tried to land in a street, and ended up climbing from his cockpit through a bathroom window.


There was a super slide show too. So after the talk we stood and looked and reminisced for a while before repairing to our old Lasham haunt: the bar.

Gliding

Today is the Royal Aircraft Establishment Gliding Club reunion.

I used to glide a few moons ago. It is good to go to a reunion and meet old pilots, some still flying. I liked this photo we took at the interuniversity gliding competition. I was going to send it to the Open University Sesame magazine , but I never got round to it.

The glider is my Skylark 4, which I shared in a syndicate with three others. I've scanned and uploaded some other old gliding photos to my flickr site here. I have added photos from the Hobbits party because there's a lot of glider pilots at that party. See here.

Today

The newspaper hasn't come, so I'm already at my desk but with the radio still on listening to the Today programme. They're trying out viral marketing so have made a video Inside Today of what they say goes on behind the scenes. So it's interesting to see who the people are and where they work and who backs them up, but I'm not sure that I can believe it all. Look for yourself, either here or at YouTube and search for "ad AND Today AND programme".

I was hoping to find inspiration for an assignment for the creative writing course the OU does A174. The task is to switch on the radio and write a story from something mentioned on it. But as usual, all I get is distraction, so I'm neither writing my research nor the assignment, nor anything useful.

Tae Kwon Do Award

I'm well chuffed and gob smacked. Tae Kwon Do subum has awarded me the club Student of the Year award. Thank you to the black belts who nominated and supported me and taught me. This is so motivating.

Snow on the air field

I like to look at the view across the gliding field at La Motte du Caire. You can see it here on the club's web cam. A couple of days ago the clouds scurried across a grey sky, but today the light seems to have fader faster and there is snow on the ground.