Updates

At last I've updated the family web site. If you've forgotten its URL, then do email me, or try searching by using a couple of our surnames.

Funeral

I went to Jack's funeral on Monday. The memorial service at the church was philosophical. When the priest first arrived at the parish, Jack greeted him by telling him that he had been at school with his son-in-law, and that's how the priest started his memories of Jack.

His middle daughter read Jack's favourite poem, High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, and I've got a reasonable recording of it to put on the family site when I get the time.

Afterwards there was a meal at the Cottage.

Electrical failure

5.00 Calm and quiet Friday night planned, with easy meal and glass of beer.  Husband and I start home.

5.30 Daughter rings   -  burglar alarm is stuck on, no power to any sockets, what should she do?

• I tell her to switch on electricity trip switch - she tries but it trips again.
• I tell her to ring burglar alarm emergency maintenance people - she does so.

Get home - inside alarm is loud and painful, external alarm sounds like clucking starling - neighbours have called police, who called another neighbour who's supposed to have the key.

• Burglar alarm maintenance man comes - disconnects alarm.
• We ring an electrician. He can't come.
• We ring another electrician. He comes in the morning and disconnects a whole circuit, so now we have power to the rest of the house but not to freezer, dishwasher, burglar alarm or the wi-fi network.

Great man, this electrician!  He comes back on Sunday morning and finds the problem, - a fused wire in a socket that must have been sparking for ages.  He fixes it and another potential problem (electrical joke - laugh!) and switches that circuit back on again. And he explains RCDs, new legislation on circuit boxes, leaks in circuits and trip switches.  

Visit to Bristol university

Daughter & I have been to see various maths departments in universities, including Warwick, Bath, Surrey and Bristol. They offer more or less the same but ask for different A-level grades. Warwick, for instance, asks for four grade As, ie AAAA.

Yesterday we went to see maths dept in Bristol. She has to make a firm choice of university and a back up choice in case she doesn't get the grades for her firm choice.

Choosing a university

• reputation
• course
• flexibility
• type of uni: collegiate (Oxford, Durham), campus (Bath, Warwick), city (Bristol, Birmingham), metro (London)
• accomodation
• cost of living
• abiltiy
• teaching
• social life
• geographical situation

And an admissions tutor amplified on these various aspects of choice.

Where do maths grads go next?
You can't tell long term, so Bristol can only say of its recent graduates

• 30% in finance
• 20% in further study
• about 15% other
• 12% industry

Requirements are AAB results in A-levels. Bristol is turning away people with predicted AAA but only single maths.

Studying maths at university
Activities include:

• lectures
• tutorials
• problem classes
• homework
• practical sessions

In the first year you expect to do units totalling 120 credit points so as to sample all aspects of maths.

If you go on to a MMath, it's a four year course, but with the master's being mainly taught components.

Son to Switzerland

Son's making own way to airport for this trip to Switzerland, for the student conference that Deloitte's running. He sent me four texts, more or less like this. Together they give the sense of frustration with public transport:

Son text me.

“Underground delayed,

Circle, Bakerloo and District lines running late

Not fun with this suitcase.

Two connections. Grr!”

“On the Gatwick express.”

“Checking in okay.”

“Boarding!

Bye”

Uncle J died Friday

Odd! There I am thinking about Uncle Bill when his big brother, Jack, dies. Uncle Jack was 90, nearly 91.

I'll add a page for him to the family site and include some sound recordings from the memorial service.

Spanish lodger left

Our lodger's left. It wasn't anything that we did, honest! But she landed a teaching job in Spain. It seems that in Spain, it isn't too easy to get teaching jobs, but you have to take a test with 60 or 70 subjects in it, and then if you pass, you may get offered a supply job. Well our lodger had passed the test, but a supply job came up on Thursday evening - she found out through the web site. She was to start on Monday in Spain, so on Friday she handed in her notice at the school where she's been a language assistant since October, and told us.

Poor thing had no notice and has had to leave bags of stuff, including food and meals that she'd cooked and frozen. She hopes to come back for a few days to fetch her things and perhaps come again in summer to improve her English.

The good thing is that she gets to see her gorgeous dogs again. Here's a photo she sent me of one of them.

And I expect her mother will be pleased to have her home.

Horse in garden

We have a new toy in the garden, this rubber horse. It's cleverly made out of just one rubber tyre, cut and twisted back on itself to create a head and tail. Husband says grown ups are not to go on it. But I've had a swing - and I reckon it's just big people aren't to go on it or they'll be too heavy and break the rope.

Mothering Sunday

Had yesterday off marking assignments to go and see the Mikado in London, and now have strains of "I have a little list... they never would be missed" running through my head.

We went up to London, youngest daughter, husband and I. We

• lunched at the National Gallery
  
• had a mosey round some Turner and Constable paintings, as well as Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks,
  
• walked down Parliament Street just up to Downing Street,
  
• strolled around St James Park - saw squirrel

I did enjoy the Mikado and am rather sorry that we didn't buy a copy of Richard Suart's "They'd none of them be missed" - I've ordered a copy from Amazon.

Rude mother and Uncle Bill

Son on phone to me today accused me of being rude. "Nanna and Gran'pa and Granny are the politest people. Why are you rude?" I don't think I was being very rude, but it did set me wondering where I'd got my rudeness from - I can't have inherited from such polite parents. But I did have a rude uncle.

Uncle Bill was deliciously rude. For example, when I was around seven years old, I remember him eating spaghetti - this was something that my Nanna, with whom he lived, would cook for him in a Bolognaise sauce. He would take some very long strands of sauce covered spaghetti, and slurp and suck them into his mouth, and they whirled round and round in the air before disappearing down, and his mouth would blow out into a big 'O' and his eyes would open wide as if surprised and Nanna would say, "Bill, behave yourself in front of the child!" Perhaps it's from him I've got my rudeness.

He never married - perhaps he didn't find the right person - perhaps it was the war. His wartime memories are up on the BBC history web site. See for example, Training completed - a letter home and Overboard

Does anyone else remember stories of Uncle Bill? Can you add them as a comment here? And I should find a photo of him too.

New Zealand contacts

I've got a few friends in New Zealand, and someone from there has sent me an anonymous letter!

A hand addressed envelope arrived today with a full page spread from the Dominion Post newspaper on step-son's latest book. The envelope was post marked New Zealand, but no city, no covering note inside and I'm not sure whose the handwriting is.

Thank you, friend!

Quiet house

The only sound in The Mount today is husband and me rattling around in it. Daughter's gone skiing with school in half term, son's at uni, lodger's in Spain, and cat is in the garden, where it is staying.

I came back from tutoring yesterday evening, and found it weird because there were no children. I took on this tutoring job in 1989 because I could do it while their father looked after them when I had to go out on Saturdays and evenings, but now it doesn't matter any more - no-one needs to look after them the same.

Empty nest.

However, to my delight, eldest step-daughter and family were here. New baby smiled, nay - she laughed with me. The older two were in the garden playing. We've got a new toy out there - a rubber horse to swing on that we got from Luca's garden design. It must have gone down well as they stayed out for over an hour playing on that and with the toy kitchen that we have out there while their parents and grandparents had tea and chats in the warm kitchen.

Their company is something to enjoy now the youngest children are so often out of the nest.

Visiting Bath

Daughter and I went to visit Bath University where she had an interview in the maths department. There was the usual milling around of enthusiastic youngsters, the pleasant experience of finding someone else who is as interested in maths as you are, and the almost-always-male lecturer who provides an explanation of the course and eulogises on the department and the university.

Unfortunately, they did seem to emphasise Bath's great sporting facilities, and there were a lot of very sporty looking people bouncing around with their kit - probably because it's Wednesday afternoon when many universities take the time off studying for sport. This didn't go down too well with daughter, even though they apparently have a good tae kwondo club too.

Two other things put her off:

• the university doesn't have arts or social science faculties and she would like to meet other than scientists, mathematicians and technologists.
  
• after first year you have to live on the other side of the city and it takes 40-50 minutes to get across to the university
  

She quite liked the city; we spent a happy hour exploring the shops in the centre, including a magic shop where we found a birthday present for small cousin, and a chocolate shop...

We got back to the station in time to catch a train just after 5 o'clock.

Taxed

The assertion from the HRMC that their on-line filing system is secure taxes my beliefs.

I enthusiastically signed up for this some years ago, but to my horror found that they emailed me with my unencrypted password. That is not a secure action because anyone with access to my email server or their email server will have access to read my email, and the password in there. Consequently I have not used their on line system and will refrain from using it until I know that it is secure. Today's news that VIPs are barred from using it does not reassure me.

Heath Robinson

Heath Robinson eat your heart out!

We (daughter and me) being fed up with the rain dripping in through the conservatory badly designed roof have decided to take the task in hand. Waiting for architects and builders and planning permission from a tyrannical conservation officer meant damaged wood furniture, puddles of water on the play mat and slippy tiles.

So we've rigged up this Heath Robinson-like covering contraption over the parts that let in the most water most often. It's a £3 tarpaulin from B&Q, weighted down with water bottles.

Proud of step son

Step son is away on a tour of the states to promote his new book, The Logic of Life. He gave a copy to his father for Christmas (it's not published in the UK until February), and to my somewhat biased mind, it's good. My initial reaction was from the experience of having read an awful lot of research literature in the last year, so I thought I could see that he had researched his field (economics) and could provide the academic proof and references if required. It is a solid piece of work, written for the serious but inexpert reader. It is easy to read, fun to read, enjoyable even on holiday. I've ordered a couple of copies for people I thought would enjoy it too.

The critics are already at work, here for example, commenting on son's remark about Adam Smith never visiting a pin factory. But the comments just make me realise how interesting it is and how it's worth reading to see what the critics are commenting about.

What he's done to make me feel proud!

Son's going to Switzerland!

After an on-line application, a face to face interview and never giving up, son spent most of Christmas break preparing a three minute video as part of an application to join a student business forum that involves team work, including a day's skiing in Switzerland run by Deloitte. The web site looks inviting.

Naturally, son is not only on a high, but incredibly grateful to those friends and family who advised and supported him in making the video. I thank them too.

Photos of Kerala

There should now be photos and even a video of our stay in Kerala. See

• Homeward via Mumbai
• Kumarakom continued
• Houseboat & lake
• Houseboat (Jan 6th continued)
• Kummily to Kumarakom
• Our driver
• Kumarakom
• Lazy day
• To Thekkady
• Tea plantation at Munnar
• To Cochin
• Kerala - Cochin

Any other photos not published here (or not publishable such as the demonstration of the outside shower) will be available elsewhere.

spare Jan 8th liz

It was lovely to see Sunil at the airport, even though he wasn't able to drive us from the hotel. I hope it didn't put him out too much to come to the airport. I wonder if he lives in Cochin? near the airport or near where the Radisson hotel is?

That hotel is like another world, a compound quite cut off from the rest of India. One day there we borrowed a couple of bikes and husband and I went out for a cycle ride, to see what it was like outside. Inside was quiet, with perhaps few guests strolling round, but more often you saw security guards, especially near the lake where the houseboat arrived. And there were gardeners there in the day time, with little green hats like sunshades on their heads while they worked in the sun. The bathroom in our cottage had a bath and two showers, one in an outdoor courtyard and even if the electricity went off there was a generator so that the hotel still carried on with light, sound, or whatever electrical use was required. One night there was a presentation of India classical dance, followed by Indian classical music, but for a few moments when the electricity cut, before the generator came in, the sound did not echo round the amphitheatre (yes, there's a small amphitheatre in there too!)

As you can imagine, outside the compound, there was no evidence of electricity, running water, plumbed sewage and I realised that women riding bicyles was a rare sight too. One girl of around 15 on her way home from school hid her eyes in shock when she saw me riding along.

-- 

Photos of Ahmedabad

I've added photos to:

• First impressions
• Adrian's first impressions
• How we met
• The Navjote
• Adrian's report on the Navjote
• Monday shopping

I've also changed the layout so that the post titles appear on the right hand side - I've been up since 4.30 this morning doing this. No I'm not working hard, just jet-lagged because 4.30 UK time is 11 o'clock in the morning in India.

I'll do the Kerala photos later....