Irish scandal

Years ago, at school in north west England I had a left-handed friend. LHF was very shy and under confident. When she blushed, and she blushed often, she blushed well. The pink would visibly rise up her face. Years later, she told me how when she was in reception class at her Catholic convent, the headmistress nun used to smack her across the back of her left hand with the wooden ruler. Try it on yourself. It stings with a plastic ruler. The headmistress was so cross that my friend was left handed that she kept her down a year before letting her into the next infant class.

That nun accused me of 'dragon-tears', and answering back, but didn't smack me. I can't remember if she was Irish, but there were a lot of Irish Catholics in the north-west. Nuns and clergy were held in great respect, and had much power. So I'm not surprised, though I'm sad to see here how much worse it was in Ireland.

---

Dragon-tears were false tears - putting it on - crying to impress a hard-hearted nun - and I didn't know what she meant

Driving somewhere

Son and others intend to go to the States in the long vacation at the end of third year university. They intend to hire a car, but son hasn't been able to drive since he passed his test years ago because he hasn't had access to an insured car. However, he wants to take his share of driving in the States. Now he is twenty-one he is statistically a safer driver than when he was younger, so despite being his worried mother, I guess he's okay.

Son and friend found a means of borrowing a car for a day, so they've been driving round at the weekend to various places. Son has taken the opportunity to practise driving and do his PassPlus sessions and today he and friend drove over here for Sunday lunch. Then son took me out for a Sunday afternoon drive, which was pleasant, despite the rain.

Now he's safely back in Oxford and I can stop worrying about him. (I know - he's safer in a car than on that b* bicycle of his!)

Shakespeare and children

Husband and I took two grandchildren over to Oxford to see Midsummer Night's Dream here. We were in a sunlit, windswept quad. The two fairies, Pease Blossom and Mustard Seed were scantily clad and must have been freezing. We'd brought blankets.

Eldest grandchild thoroughly enjoyed it, though grandson was more amused by the labourers attempts at the thespian arts, and his attention wandered when Titania was speaking, though I was impressed by his concentration throughout, given he's only seven, and bilingual, so following Shakespearean English wouldn't be a sinecure for him.

An academic, David Leal, wandered over to us afterwards, after watching our granddaughter rapt in the play. He asked her what part she would play (a giggling fairy), and encouraged her to get her school to do some Shakespeare next year when she's in year 6. I'd forgotten I'd done some Shakespeare with my year 4-5 class years ago - acted it, not read it. Shakespeare's for acting and for watching, not reading. Grandson knew that when he said he'd like to play Bottom.

There was no programme, so I have no idea who the actors were, nor the name of the director.

Shopping - hate it

I went shopping this morning because it's nephew's birthday and I want to get him a present. His parents are giving him a mobile phone because he's moving on to the secondary school in September, so I thought I'd get him something to go with that, an eco friendly charger. I was able to buy one a couple of years ago. You wind it up and it charges your phone. But I couldn't get hold of one. I tried the Eco shop in Wendover, but they only do the expensive Freeloader photovoltaic chargers. I tried the Car Phone Warehouse, but they suggested an in-car charger. How many eleven-year-olds do you know who have a car! Eventually, I thought of the camping shop. They didn't have exactly what I wanted. The wind up version that I have is great. I put husband's grand children in the back of our car with the charger and they wind and they wind and they wind. My mobile is charged, and so is the wind-up torch that goes with the winder. Their grand father is also wound up because he gets fed up with noise, but that's a minor disadvantage.

But they did have something: a pull-string charger, so it fits in with the eco approach, and the lack of access to a power socket. So my shopping expedition almost ended well.

I thought I'd celebrate by going into the Coffee Tree and ordering a decaf espresso with a glass of water. I made my order, received the cup and saucer and the glass, and stepped back with them to find a table. The glass wobbled. As I tried to steady it, the hot coffee wobbled, splashed my hand, so I wobbled more, then the whole lot went over, every single drop, over the counter, down the counter, over the floor and over my clothes. I saved only the excellent piece of Venezuelan chocolate that Barry had just given me to try.

Barry was very nice and got me another espresso (I don't think it was decaf by then). The Coffee Tree in Aylesbury is worth a visit.

Cleaners

Today's news reveals that some politicians have a lot of cleaning done. Mr Brown has been claiming about £240 a month for cleaning.

What bugs me, is why can politicians have a cleaner on tax payers' money and I can't?

At university, the students get rooms in hall, or college. At Oxbridge, they have colleges that own their own premises and rent them out to the students. Cleaners come as part of the deal. No-one has to buy their own sofas, or arrange 'essential maintenance' because that's the colleges' problem, not the students', and it shouldn't be an MP's problem either. Why can't MPs have the same arrangement? Parliament should buy and own accommodation that is available to MPs, so there's none of this nonsense of expense claiming for second homes.

Ashridge walk

I skived off this afternoon for a couple of hours walk with retired husband round the Ashridge estate. The bluebells enticed me over there, especially as even the newspaper had a photo of them yesterday. There are other flowers there, like this white one - what is it?

If you know what you're looking for, you'll know where to find wild garlic leaves. This is the only time of the year to get them and they are delicious. We found them. I picked and ate about half a dozen. Yum.

Sunday spring flowers

Our bluebell walk is in our own garden. These are real English bluebells. Aren't we lucky?

Brasenose reunion lunch

Husband arranged with his university friends to have a reunion now that they've all retired (more or less). They all seem pretty active for retirees, but now they are doing what they want to do, rather than for the sake of supporting family, mortgage or pleasing an employer.



We had a champagne starter. Then moved to a private room for the meal. The food was splendid, with wine to match.





Even better, I realised that one of the other women is a research student in the same year as me at the OU.


I love meals with people, long slow meals with good company, food and wine. This is the style to which I hope my husband accustoms me.

RAF HW

I went to an exhilarating meeting of the Institute of Chartered Managers at RAF High Wycombe, for a behind the scenes view of Air command. The fascinating talk was on leadership and was an MBA useful?

The charismatic speaker - a squadron leader with 2500+ hours of Tornado flying, after a tour of duty, leaving Basra, viewing the Euphrates and the Tigris and thinking he might want to come back and visit later, meaning in five or six years, finds himself back in weeks but this time in charge of the airport and airfield. This squadron leader becomes Group Captain Dean Andrew.

The brief is to get the airfield ready to hand over to the Americans at an unknown date, and the airport ready to hand back to the Iraqis at some unknown date, and not to let each party know when about each other. In the meantime, the insurgents are launching 125+ rocket attacks a week at the airfield, an area one and a half times as big as Heathrow airport.

The airport had been built in 1983, but never had air traffic through because the Iran-Iraq war happened soon after, and there were the two gulf wars. Group Capt Andrew used a variety of resources - the ground force (I didn't realise the RAF had one) to defined the no man's land by the airfields and make sure no rockets got launched there. Every day these men worked in 66F in the heat of the midday sun - "mad dogs and English men ..."

He mapped out the stakeholders with high/low power against ability to influence, so he could identify people he really needed to work with. He recognised the cultural challenges of difference between English, American and Iraqi. The cultural difference probably saved his life. The RAF was not exactly very welcome; the insurgents bombed their offices two weeks after he arrived. The insurgents chose a Sunday morning, which is an ordinary working day for Iraqis, but a day for church (or whatever) for the British, so the office was empty.

He prioritised his day by working hard from 7am to 11 pm, but spent the first couple of hours doing the most important things - allocating jobs and trusting people to do what they had to do.

"Understanding culture builds trust"

He built trust. Having some spare money he could have spent it on something important to Westerners, like fixing the luggage carousels,but he asked the Iraqi airport manager, who wanted pot plants, because that what made an impression in Iraqis eyes. Dean Andrew got someone in the UK to fly out such pot plants within 48 hours - thus earning the trust of the Iraqi manager, who was so grateful that he invited Dean Andrew to break the end of the Ramadan fast with him and has invited him to return with his wife.

He handed over the airport to the Iraqis in January 2009. And did the MBA help?
This was about leadership, not management, so depends on personality. The RAF didn't know he had an MBA when he put in there - he was put in because they'd already seen his leadership qualities, and whilst he used knowledge from his MBA studies (e.g. case studies of other airports), it was the leadership that mattered.

Last of Isle of Wight

On Friday we visited Dimbola, a photographic museum commemorating Mrs Julia Cameron, an early portrait photographer of the mid nineteenth century. She worked with Tennyson too, to illustrate some of his romantic poetry. Tennyson had lived on the IoW, so I read some of the "Lady of Shallot" to grand daughter, glanced at Ulysses and enjoyed the rhythm of the "The Charge of the Light Brigade".

We came back via Winchester stopping off to visit the cathedral, and heard before we saw some wonderful drummers.

Isle of Wight visit

Thursday was our nicest day on the island, starting with a gentle walk over the Downs to the battery, somewhat slowly because grand daughter had a tummy ache so bent double like an old lady with osteoporosis and a sack of potatoes on her back. We sang "The Battle of Waterloo" to get us marching. She cheered up when we reached the chairlifts (videoed when I can get YouTube to accept my upload) and she sketched the needles while her brother threw stones into the sea. Grandpa searched for different coloured chalks from the cliff for her to experiment sketching with. Then we walked back over the downs. We met a man with a bouncy dog. It ran circles round grandson, whilst the man announced that the dog was frightened of children. It didn't look frightened of grandson; it looked like it wanted to play and it ran more circles round him, while he got more and more nervous. Then the poor child fell over. Man called dog, stroked his nose gently and murmured lovingly "bad dog". Grandson picked himself up, covered with dusty chalk, a bit bruised and he bit his lip. He nearly cried, but he is so plucky, and we told him so. Plucky was another new word that we'd collected that day. Plucky grandson.

In the afternoon we went down to Freshwater Bay, a pebbly but pleasant beach and the sun came out. An elderly woman was collecting seaweed. Yesterday on 'The Apprentice' the competitors had been collecting seaweed to make soaps. I wondered to husband how to do it. He suggested I ask elderly lady. "Excuse me." She told me she was collecting the bright green weed to eat. You had tow ash it very carefully and well, put it in the microwave for 30 secs and it was good with pasta. She also had been collecting rock samphire and gave me some to taste. Delicious, like a succulent parley. I went where she suggested to collect some, which I mixed with tomatoes for a salad. Husband and I liked it but not the grand children. Someone told me how her grandmother in law used to have it in a soup with hot milk.

The seaweed was even less successful, so I think I'll find out how to use it in soap instead of eating it.

Isle of Wight Youth Hostel

We're at this lovely Victorian place. I love the big rooms, the bare polished floor boards, the way people talk to you, are happy that you've got children. The first I noticed of this little girl was her feet flying past the window as she was practising her cartwheels. Granddaughter and little girl made friends being in same year at school.

Youth hostels have changed. They provide sheets for your bed so you don't have to take your sleeping bag like you used to. This one offers an evening meal and breakfast, English or continental. Continental is affordable and filling: muesli, cereal, jam, butter, toast, white rolls, croissant, pain au chocolat, cheese, ham, yoghurt, boiled egg. No-one has asked me to sweep the floor, but you do have to clear your washing up, and you have clear your place, sort your cutlery and crockery into piles, and scrape your plates.

This hostel has a TV room and a quiet room with lots of books and magazines, and sofas with enough good light to read by. It's peaceful with deep blue on the wall and sofa covers, brightened by deep red cushions. But don't bring in alcohol. Not allowed.

Tooth fairy on the Isle of Wight

What's the going rate for the tooth fairy?

Granddaughter #1 had a wobbly tooth and it's come out and she's carefully placed it in the window so the tooth fairy can get it

"She shouldn't have too much trouble getting in the window"

suggests GD#1.

No - but I might have a problem.

I rush off to phone her mother worrying of impending disaster due to insufficient briefing on modern day tooth fairies - daughter lost her last tooth nearly ten years ago, and I don't know the current rate!

Apparently it's a pound.

Tooth fairy duly arrives, removes tooth, which had been carefully placed in Zeus's hand - see model that GD#1 had created only the previous day in Portsmouth naval museum.

To the Isle of Wight

Here's husband and grandchild enjoying a trip round HMS Victory.

With two pleasant children, husband and I are youth hostelling in the Isle of Wight. We arrived from Portsmouth on an almost empty ferry. The whole island is so quiet that you'd think it a permanent holiday. A little girl asked her mother if there were no schools on the island because she thought it a permanent holiday island.

On the ferry to the Isle of Wight, with a calm sea green sea, grandson persuades Grandpa into buying fruit drinks from a machine. Grand daughter Joy draws. Grandpa teases grandson, "I hope that ferry isn't going to bump into that container ship over there." Grandson leaping up to look. The ferry goes round the stern.

Grandson and grand daughter wander off to read the posters. "Donning instructions" "Donning", what's that? It's not a usual word is it - to don your life jacket. We're collecting unusual words. "Muster station" you get buses at a bus station and trains at a train station. Do you get musters at a muster station?

Hens' bottoms

I'm sure I can take better photos.

Daughter and I visited an old and trusted gliding friend and wife. They keep hens - hilarious creatures. Feed them and suddenly a loud clucking and another hen rushes out of the hen house to see what she's missing. Heads down, bottoms up. I can't get a good photo of hens with their heads facing.

Daughter now wants me to keep hens.

Just a mum

When I was doing my MBA, I did a thesis with a research element. I had to arrange interviews from home with a toddler and baby around while I phoned. If I had a fellow mum around when a call came through unexpectedly, I'd apologise that I was in a meeting at the moment.

One of my British Computer Society colleagues occasionally has problems when she says she's a mother. She posted this on the BCS women's forum:

A woman, renewing her driver's licence was asked by the woman at Registry to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself. 'What I mean is, ' explained the woman at Registry, 'do you have a job or are you just a ...?'

'Of course I have a job,' snapped the woman. 'I'm a Mum.'

'We don't list 'Mum' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it,' said the recorder emphatically.

I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation. The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, 'Official Interrogator' or 'City Registrar.'

'What is your occupation?' she probed. What made me say it? I do not know. The words simply popped out:

'I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.'

The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right. I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

'Might I ask,' said the clerk with new interest, 'just what you do in your field?'

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, 'I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out) 'I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family) And already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to disagree?) And I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.'

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.

I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than 'just another Mum.'

Motherhood! What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door.

Does this make grandmothers 'Senior Research associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations' And great grandmothers 'Executive Senior Research Associates?' I think so!!!

I also think it makes Aunts 'Associate Research Assistants.'

I'd answer my colleague, but the forum's on yahoo and a pain to read, especially as I frequently forget my password.

Consorting

I'm reading a book on "The Feminine in Management Consulting" by Sheila Marsh. I notice she says she's drawn on material from key figures, with key roles, and on material about and from women and

"those in key roles such as queens consort"

What does that mean "queens consort". Not "consort of queen" because it's not apostrophe 's'. But I like the term, so I think in future rather than refer to "husband", I'll blog him as "the consort".

---

PS
Reading a bit further, I deduce that "queens consort" means those women who were queens and so consorted with their kings.

Jack's jokes

My auntie has been clearing out some of my uncle's papers. He died last year. I blogged it then.

Auntie has sent me some of his jokes. On the paper he's written:

The official ebonics medical terms dictionary

Benign: what you be after you be eight
Bacteria: back door to cafeteria
Barium: what doctors do when patients die (shouldn't that be what grave diggers do?)
Casarean section: a neighbourhood in Rome
Cauterize: made eye contact with her
Colic: a sheep dog (groan)
Coma: a punctuation mark (some of students do think this)
D&C: where Washington is
Dilate: to live long (what my uncle did)
Enema: not a friend
Fester: quicker than someone else
Fibula: a small like
GI series: world series of military baseball (from this line and other spelling I guess Uncle Jack got this from the states)
Hangnail: what you hang your coat on
Impotent: distinguished, well known
Labour pain: getting hurt at work
Medical staff: a doctor's cane
Morbid: a higher offer than I bid
Nitrates: cheaper than day rates
Node: I knew it
Outpatient: a person who has fainted
Pap smear: a fatherhood test
Pelvis: second cousin to elvis
Post operative: a letter carrier
Recovery room: place to do upholstery
Rectum: damn near killed him
Secretion: hiding something
Seizure: Roman emperor
Tablet: a small table (which is logical)
Terminal illness: getting sick at the airport (Uncle J did get sick once, flying to Italy, I think he had a heart attack)
Tumor: more than one
Urine: opposite of mine
Varicose: near by/ close by

I think his brother, Bill, would have laughed at these too.

GoApe

Daughter spent yesterday afternoon at the local GoApe with seven friends. She and I did this a couple of years ago (see old blog posting), and it was just great, exhilarating, one of the best things of that year for me.



She came home very happy, and talked about her friends who'd gone with her, who'd not turned up, who'd been afraid of heights, and who'd made her a birthday cake. Exhausted girl is still in bed this morning.

Easter break

I have a few days to work at home,

• marking TMAs,
  
• catching up with the story I'm trying to write,
  
• enjoying company of retired husband,
  
• children home from university.
  

Perhaps the weather will be nice and I'll enjoy the garden. Perhaps the weather will be nice but I'll sneeze as the hayfever season starts.

Happiness

Carlyle wrote:

What is Hope? A smiling rainbow
Children follow through the wet;

'Tis not here, still yonder, yonder:

Never urchin found it yet.

from this web site. A pessimistic professor quoted it to me when we were thinking about a stressed and grumpy mutual colleague.

We need hope. I keep finding bad things at the moment:

• three people with senile dementia
• someone going blind
• someone getting very forgetful
• a miscarriage
• a grumpy colleague
• a stressed colleague whose research isn't coming together
  

Carlyle cheerfully asks:

What is Life? A thawing iceboard

On a sea with sunny shore; --

Gay we sail; it melts beneath us;

We are sunk, and seen no more.

I'm feeling sunk. Great.

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today" (Wayne Dyer)

The Class

We went to see The Class (Entre les murs) at Oxford. Interesting discussion with husband on way home because he thought that perhaps it didn't represent a real class. Daughter and I assured him that this was normal behaviour in a year nine classroom, unfortunately. Then he expressed dissatisfaction with the 'plot', which is fair enough because there isn't really a plot, just a film of a year in the life of a class of French 14 year olds.

It was worth seeing.

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.

Snowdrops

The snowdrops are out. There's a mass of them down the garden but I can't see them from my desk because there's a stone wall in the way. I can only see them if I stand up and stop working.

From where I'm sitting I can see the top pond, the bird table and an old blue tarpaulin that we used to keep the rain out of the conservatory. The cat sits on the tarpaulin, watching for birds and hoping that someone will appear from the conservatory door to feed her. The tarpaulin is warmer and softer than the pebbles. She has just woken up, cleaned herself a bit and now is curled up really tight again. Her fur is thicker than it used to be, perhaps because she's an outdoor cat and needs it to keep her warm.

New toy train

Husband had such a good weekend playing with model trains and grandson that Monday was sad. To cheer himself up he did some shopping therapy and has bought himself a big Lego train set. It's his, and it is to stay in our house, and people who want to play with it come here. He thinks his one grandson will have offers of help from willing aunts.

Model train exhibition

Husband and grandson enjoy model trains this weekend. We get grandparenting duty Friday night with grandson, while his big sister has an exciting weekend away with aunty at university. Husband and grandson came home from here enthusing about Lego trains, and the one that grandson crashed. Photos are available from the Risboro site - look for exhibitions and then Risex 2009, and our video's here.

Retiring husband

Husband spent a retirement day at home today. First he met Milly for one thing, and then she passed him on to Louise for something else. Then he spent time helping a local charity with their computers. He tells me that first he had to get introduced to Wendy, and then had a cup of coffee with Pat who wants him to talk to Lindsey next week. But he did fit in the time to meet Cherry as usual.

He thinks he's going to have to get organised, but if he's going to be meeting that many women then he'll be organised. How funny! He's spent most of his working life in a really technical environment where few women go.

Saving pensioners

The paper here says that old people are going to be ever so badly off because water bills will be so high - as high as £300 per year. But our bills have gone
down,
down
and down!

since the children left and there aren't long showers, and so much laundry to be done. We've gone down from something like £44 a month to £5. Husband says if we had one more teenager to leave home, the water people would be paying us for water.

Weekend - fledgling returning

Daughter's coming home for the weekend. And we have a child stopping overnight too. Good. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll get to read a bed time story and have an interesting chat over a leisurely cuppa or glass of wine.

Retirement looms

Husband says that he has heard that he is definitely retiring at the end of March. So he'll go from working three days a week down to no paid days a week, and have to occupy himself in the house and home seven days a week. He's been building up to it by:

• attending a local archeology course
• getting involved with the old town residents association
• building and displaying model trains
• advising the local Florence Nightingale trust on their IT, broadband and PCs.

Snow 18 years ago

This is son's first snow man.

Feather fight

I burst a couple of feather pillows and the fabric on an eiderdown was perishing. So it was sew or throw, like I said earlier. I've made a new eiderdown-come-duvet for daughter's bed when she comes home, and spare feathers to have a go at doing it better.

How does one make an eiderdown?

Dusty room

Weekend plans frustrated by snow, ( I was going to visit family in the north) I've spent most of the afternoon rearranging my study. For those of you who don't know, my "study" is literally a corner of the sitting room, growing off it like a carbuncle and separated only by a pair of long thick curtains, which if closed, darken the sitting room. This study has nine huge windows on three sides, which make the corner very bright, but also very cold in winter, and too hot in summer. So it hasn't got much wall space for books, and it's not conducive for cosy contemplation in winter.

To insulate the room slightly at the expense of light, I've moved the one large bookcase against one of the brightest windows, and put my computer where the bookcase was. I'll now be better able to watch the birds in the bird bath. I've thrown out a bin bag of old papers, and the dust has dried my nails, so they've split. Do other people's nails do that?

What I'd really like is to redo the windows so they open and close more easily and securely and less draftily, and have roller shutters, and a door that would open onto the patio so I can wander outside when study, marking, computing, or research gets too much for me. Oh! And I'd like the floor not to be carpeted, but wouldn't parquet be wonderful!

Snow work

Wake up - you can have a lie in!

Husband woke me at seven to tell me that it was too quiet for me to get to work, that is, there's no traffic to hear because there's snow everywhere. He was out by eight o'clock clearing snow.

The little pink smart car had a less smart driver at the time I took this photo. The SC driver managed the first 10 yards but got stuck there. Half an hour later after much phoning of SC driver's mother and labouring of neighbours little SM ended parked on the yellow lines just behind the junction, facing the wrong way and SM driver had decided not to join friends in High Wycombe today.

Vacuum cleaning

I bought a couple of the step daughters a vacuum cleaner - a brand that my mother-in-law insisted on buying for me 17 years ago so I know it's good. Nevertheless, I was well pleased with SDs' delight and use of cleaner. And SD#3's thanked me so enthusiastically that I'm well chuffed.

SD#3 rang all excited to say how she was using it and which of the tools she used to get round the furniture and which tools do the backs of the radiators - the land lady is doing an inspection tomorrow. SD#3 was eulogising about how great this vacuum cleaner is and how land lady is going to find the place sparkling clean.

My SD#3 needs to get out more.

Working at home - a bit

The weather is too snowy to go to work. I've been admiring the robin on the bird table by my desk.

The plumber brought his electrician brother to do the electrics for the shower. We now have a working shower. However, the tumble dryer is now disconnected. We have to move it and connect it somewhere else.

Bruised knuckles

Doce pares - it's a Philipine martial art in which you fight with sticks. But holding the sticks gives you blisters, and the least damage you get is bruised knuckles when your partner accidently hits your hands instead of slashing you from head to toe.

Working at home - NOT

I started editing my work around 8 o'clock when husband went out, but I stopped to open the front door to cleaner.

I wrote, but then the phone went, so I talked / listened for a bit. Poor daughter (SD#3) had had an exam where she was expecting to answer 8/12 questions, but found the format had changed and she was expected to answer 3/9. Yeuch! She had a rant.

I wrote, but then the plumber came, (he was expected). No water.

I wrote but then electricity went off. I investigated. Plumber had opened up the switch for the shower pump. Inside was a tangle of rat tail wires, with live touching the switch. Electrician can come on Monday so we still have no shower.

Switched electricity back on and started to make coffee.

I wrote, but then husband came home. He made coffee. I switched on computer to write, but then none of the peripherals came on. Peripheral plug had switched off when the electricity went off. Rebooted.

Cleaner hadn't enough money - sorted that.

I went out to book dental appointment, offer consolations at local jeweller that's just got robbed and buy some cleaning stuff.

I'll try writing this afternoon.

Son's bad day

Son rings up occasionally and we saw him last week for a cup of coffee at the Head of the River, but today he rang to say that he was all right, but someone had tried to burn his college down. This article explains a bit.

Burns Night - Nanna

My Nanna had a Scottish burr that I grew up with and never noticed until on the phone to her - I was 14 by then - phone calls were rare - phone was for my parents, not for me.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then .."

she said with beautifully rolled 'r's.

I remember her teaching me to roll my rs in her kitchen. And she gave me kippers for breakfast, but once porridge with no sugar. I love it now, but then it was "Ugh!" She taught me about Robbie Burns when she wrote in my autograph book:

O wad some power the gift to gie us
To see oursels as others see us!

So tonight - haggis, neeps and mash. Yum! Washed down with a tot of malt whiskey.

Rainy days are here

So the car's broke.

And now we know why our toilets have been flushing with hot water for years - the shower pump's broke and lets hot water in to the cold tank through a varicose vein valve. Fortunately, the plumber investigated in time to realise the pipe had perished, and any day we'd have had a big flood, and now we won't have.

But we'll have another big bill.

That's what savings are for - a rainy day.

Broken car

We went to Oxford yesterday to see a relative, his daughter and his grandson.

Positive things happened:

• We had a lovely chat & I got to know his daughter and to admire his golden headed 18 month old grandson - a potential engineer who was fascinated by our car's tyres
• We met my son and handed over what he'd forgotten to take back after Christmas
• I managed to retrieve my lost handbag from where I'd forgotten it in the Head of the River pub where we had afternoon coffeeWe went to a BCS lecture which turned out to be much more interesting than we'd anticipated
• I managed to retrieve my lost handbag from where I'd forgotten it in the Head of the River pub where we had afternoon coffee

Negative thing happened

Husband's car set its alarm when we parked it and when we came back it refused to open. Eventually three doors would open but not the driver's so he had to clamber over the passenger seat to get to drive it. Anyone who knows our garage space will work out his problems in parking the car in the garage, so he took it to get the central locking fixed. Mechanics looked at everything. And everything - well nearly everything - else is broke too, like brakes. It's going to cost a four figure sum to fix.

Danger

I read OneMinuteWriter blogger. Sometimes I have a go at writing for one minute using her timer. Today's task (yesterday's but it's still night in the States) was to write on the most dangerous thing you've ever done. I wrote:

Danger was gliding.

Dry throat - why was I always thirsty as I waited to launch - parched mouth - into the sky launched on the end of a rope, pulling upwards I can see the white of the clouds, like my eyes, and my heart beat loud.

Now I don't glide. I did it. Done that.

I think I was confusing the danger (statistically low) with fear. Gliding was scary but I wanted to do it. Now I get a bit scared doing tae kwondo, and I come away with more bruises in an evening than I did in a decade of gliding. So I reckon tae kwondo is more dangerous than gliding.

Funny how I can do activities without children - before they came I did gliding and now - twenty years later - now they've gone I do tae kwondo.

Post curry

Husband did a wonderful curry last night. He found the Madhur Jaffrey book circa 1980, all covered with turmeric stains, and did a rogan ghosh, which he pronounced too hot so he did a cucumber raita as well. It was delicious and he served it with whole meal rice, which I love, so I was very happy and very full.

Problems working at home

I'm getting little research work written today, because I don't have a word processor to write with, nor a VPN to access the file from my folder at work. Why?

Because I've got a new motherboard, but also everything from my old hard disk has been wiped, which shouldn't be a problem because I have backups - just a chore. And I need to reinstall software.

1. First find the disks. I scratch head but a walk to the coffee shop & a brownie help me remember where they all are
   
2. Then I have to remember registration code. This could be tricky if, like for Office 2007, they sent the code in an email, which is on the wiped disk so somewhere in back up. Fortunately, I'd copied the code legibly onto the cover.

I need to reinstall:

• XP so that gives me a browser, IE :(
  
• First Class client, to get the key for Kaspersky that the OU provides
  
• Kaspersky - do my virus checker and firewalls fast
  
• Firefox - get a decent browser
  
• Thunderbird - accounts aren't all working yet though
• Office 2007
  
• OU eTMA handler
• Olympus camera software
• Olympus digital recorder software
• Inspiration
  -great for diagrams and structuring writing
  
• Dragon - one of the drivers for this reorganisation because I wasn't running fast enough and didn't have enough space for its files so couldn't speak my writing onto files
  
• Macromedia, like Dreamweaver
• FTP - perhaps
  
• Java and Netbeans for tutoring OU M256
• Notepad++ for tutoring OU M150 & the M150 data disks
• Skype - for chats and phone calls
  
• VPN for work
• Family Tree Maker
• Winzip perhaps
• Tablet software
• Creative Livecam video perhaps
  

and turn on automatic updates for things like Microsoft service packs.

Then I have to find or recreate

• my email stuff, like address book
  
• templates that I created, like one for my tutorial plans
  
• the data: photos, emails, tax records, family tree files, Dragon voice files (I'll just start again)
  

So if I don't email you, it's because I've mislaid your email address. Please do email me so I can have your address again.

In the meantime, it's taking hours to install Microsoft service packs, so I can't use my computer for research. I'm stuck on this tiny eeePC, with its tiddily keyboard, but at least I'm still electronically in touch, if not yet productive.

Dancing with scarves

Belly dancing this term is with scarves and today's session was great fun, and easier than I thought it was going to be. But I didn't get to jingle my new belt as much as I'd hoped - daughter gave me a beautiful one for Christmas, deep purple with several rows of silver buttons.

Lovely night

A photo of the night sky from the back of our house.

Ada Lovelace day

Ada was a name that daughter's father and I had thought of calling her because I was a programmer, he taught me programming, we enjoyed controlling the computer, and Ada Lovelace was the world's first computer programmer, not a bloke, a woman. A geek as Brussels Girl Geek blogger writes here.

A thousand bloggers have pledged to blog about a woman in technology on March 24th. But who shall we pick? I don't know yet.

Vacuuming the washing machine.

Did you know you can wash feather pillows? But if the material is frayed, then put the pillow in something else first. Discovering my 30 year old pillows could be washed, I got too enthusiastic, and pillows burst in the washing machine, leaving grumpy husband to vacuum the washing machine clear.

So how do you dry a mass of feathers, which if left in clumps go mouldy and smelly? I dry them in our bath room, nice and warm, and turn the feathers over every hour or two. Keep them in open baskets and finally put them in the airing cupboard. But that left me with dry feathers, flying up in the static and the slightest breath and covering the bathroom carpet, so 'twas on a Monday morning that the vacuum cleaner came out again to clear the feathers.

I retain some sewing skills from decades ago. I've bought yards of some cotton material, threaded my sewing machine, remembered how to wind thread onto the lower bobbin, and am now creating something between a duvet bag and an eiderdown. I'm going to put the feathers in the bag and use it on daughter's bed - she was really cold this Christmas holiday.

I'm an accoustic illiterate

It's the end of an era because I'm finally getting rid of late-husband's electrostatic quad speakers. Am I letting him down? Do I say goodbye? Am I just acoustically illiterate? Yes. Thirty years I've tried to appreciate these space hoggers.

When I was trying to sell my old house, one viewer thought they were massive radiators.



I asked one of his university friends if he wanted them, but he never emailed me back. So I went down to the local audio place, that university friend had recommended, Northwood Audio, and asked them. The chap there said they were an acquired taste because of the space they need in front and behind them. I've never been able to give them that space. So I'll put them in the car soon and take them to Northwood.

So if you want them, you'd better tell me quick.

Post Christmas quiet

All is quiet again now. They've all gone back and I shall miss them. I shall miss the philosophical chats with son. We have debated the relative merits of particular approaches to research, and we had a great chat in the pub his last night home.

Daughter went back today. Her step-dad took her. Last night she was the chattiest she'd been for ages, and I really enjoyed her company.

Step-daughter #2 sent a lovely thank you card.

Step-daughter #3 got back to her rented house to find a huge electricity bill, and that her course work was many words too short, so wasn't so cheerful. But between us, I think her parents have helped sort those out a bit.

A ring at the door bell and step-daughter #1 is passing - 5 minute chat and away again. At least we have one child still with us and we have her children to look forward to as well.

Happy home

Nice son lit a fire for us to come home to, yesterday. He told me all the phone messages, the house was all tidy, and daughter was welcoming.

Most stressful day of year

I was looking forward to going back to work until I looked out of the window at the snow and anticipated the roads.

The paper says that today is the most stressful day of the year.

New Year resolution

New Year resolution has to be not to give up.

1. I have to support husband and our two families. I start by refraining from offering my three beautiful step daughters juicy apples and spinning wheels. I have already refrained from hanging a notice in the window:
"Three lovely step daughters
living here with wicked step mother,
need handsome princes to rescue them."


Fortunately two of them have already found their handsome princes, who are really nice young men, even to me, their step-mother-in-law. And step daughter number 3 has turned quite happy over the last year or two.


2. I'm going to carry on avoiding other people kicking me at tae kwondo, while not thumping them too hard. I like the exercise and the laughter, not the thumps. I might move up a kup if I grade and get another belt. That's one of the tenets of tae kwondo - perseverance.
   


3. Then there's the research work, which has its good moments and its bad moments. Never ever give up until the dissertation is handed in, in September 2010.
   


4. And I'll keep writing this. Thank you those people who tell me they read it and even mention it on Christmas cards to us. You are so encouraging. I really appreciate it.
   

Baby musician plays guitar

Youngest grand child is such a happy child, secure in a loving family with confident and content siblings. Here's a video of her listening to her musician uncle as he experiments with my old guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0es8YNkuvNM

What's amazing is that such a young child can sit and concentrate for so long when so many children even years older than her cannot. It must be something to do with her ease, her comfort, her health, her security in her family.

Family video

Oldest granddaughter went around with the flip video and took this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CNtqbMa0ok