A look back at '08 and forward to an exciting 2009!

Happy New Year!

Well, that's that for another year then! Christmas festivities have come and gone and we're now into 2009! As is usual, one takes a look back at the year just passed and for me and my family, 2008 was mixed - a lot of dull, frustrating, annoying, at times depressing and thoroughly average days, broken up by a few exciting events that lifted the gloom!

The trip to Arizona and Grand Canyon was (as I have mentioned many times already!) was the outstanding highlight. Ruth and I also had a great time in August travelling round Britain on the 'Carillon Tour' - a tour of most of the UK's Carillons with Ruths' sister Caroline who is the Carilloneur for Loughborough in Leicestershire. For the uninitiated, a Carillon is a fascinating and rare (in the UK at least) musical instrument, consisting of varying numbers of static bells, played by a clavier or baton keyboard.

A Carillon clavier, this one at Bourneville in Birmingham

The tour took us as far north as Aberdeen in Scotland and as south at Spalding in Lincolnshire. It was a fun and fascinating way to spend a summer and certainly beat sitting on a beach! It gave me much more respect for these things....

Bells! This whopper is also from the Bournville Carillon.

Anyone interested in reading a lot more about Carillons can take a look at the outstanding daily blog we did during the tour, expertly written by my dear wife Ruth. Just click here.

So what of 2009?

Well, exciting stuff in store! In February, Ruth starts her new job in the midlands, which means that Ruth and Aimee (our youngest), will move down to Loughborough, while Anna and I will remain in Lancashire until Anna does her GCSE's in the summer. In the meantime, we'll be rushing back and forth between Loughborough and Lancs at weekends. Splitting up the family temporarily isn't ideal I guess, but as we have always planned to relocate back to my wife's home town at some stage, at least we can do it gradually, rather than try to sell up, move, get jobs, etc, etc, all at once! At least this way the stress load can be spread over several months - well, that's the theory anyway! In between, we'll need to do a lot of decoration of our house to get it in sufficiently good shape to either sell or rent out - preferably the former! Plus of course, the Open University course continues, so I'll have to find sufficient time to continue the studies!!! Phew!

So, exciting things ahead! I'll keep ypu posted!

Cheers for now!

Alyn

Return to education

The last few weeks have been a little crazy, racing around the country in search of Carillons, but that's another story. Suffice to say, it's been an education and that is something that is going to play a big part in my life in the coming months and years all being well.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Geology has been an interest for most of my life and really ought to have been my life's vocation. However, due to the unfortunate combination of a lousy maths teacher and my school's refusal to allow me to drop my 'A' level maths and concentrate on my geography and physics, I failed both maths and physics. That scuppered any hopes of getting into Oxford Poly to do the Geology degree course that I had set my heart on, but at least my excellent grade 'B' in Geography meant I could activate 'Plan B'. Being the cautious type, I did at least plan for the nightmare scenario of not getting the required two C's and only managing the one Geography 'A' level. As a result I embarked on a Higher Diploma in Geographical Techniques at Luton College and my life took a different course as a result.

A working life that started as a Cartographic Draughtsman has evolved into that of a CAD Technician. Yes, still drawing but now with the computer rather than Rotring drawing pens; on a computer monitor, rather than drafting film. They call it progress and I suppose it is of a sort. But like so much of modern life, it doesn't make it any better or more pleasurable. Quite the opposite in fact. Where I used to have the satisfaction of some degree of artistic creativity, that is now all but gone. So not surprisingly my heart yearns for something more, something to feel passionate about, that will stimulate my mind for the next 20 years plus. What frightened me was the thought of plodding through the next 17 years bored senseless, waiting until I retire to a life of gardening and incontinence! No thanks! Not for me, ta!

High time then for a change of direction. To make a start, I have enrolled with the Open University to start their Science Foundation course "Discovering Science - S104 which is due to commence on 29th September. Exciting! This will hopefully kick start the 'grey matter' and re-familiarise myself with the concept of study. As around 30 years have passed since my last period of formal study the next 9 months could prove challenging, particularly as I will be attempting to do it all around usual family/work life! So, if there is anyone out there from UK who has done S104 or S103, it's predecessor, do post a comment and let me how you found it!

For now I will leave you with another reminder of just why I want to study Geology and if I ever work out how to set up this Picaso Slideshow thingy I'll show you a whole lot more!

Cheers, Grumpychops.

The 'Tee-pees' at Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Arizona. A stunning place!

(Photo by Grumpychops, March 2008)