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

A Pre-Christmas Post!

Greetings one and all!

Yes I know, postings are becoming rather infrequent these days for which I can only apologise. But hey, the time spent on the OU course is proving to be well spent. We've now covered three computer marked assignments and three tutor marked assignments and with the third TMA still to be marked, my lowest mark is 87%. So that's not too bad eh?

AND! Developments have recently taken an exciting step forward. My wife was recently forwarned about the possibility of a job coming up at a university in the East Midlands that would represent a significant step up the ladder for her and so as soon as it was advertised she applied for it. After being invited for interview a week or so ago, she was offered the position last week! How fantastic is that? This means that our dream of moving to Ruth's home town of Loughborough is now defiinitely on and my own dream of getting into Leicester University to do that Geology degree is back on too!

At the moment, I can think about little else except Leicester Uni and it's geology courses. This weekend I have had to somewhat hurriedly assemble my UCAS application which needs to be submitted by January 15th 2009, in order to be considered for 2009 entry. All that I need now is for my chosen referee to provide me with the all important reference and that should hopefully be enough to gain me a place, fingers crossed.

Reading through Leicester University's prospectus, I can barely contain myself! The course sounds like it is everything I have longed for, for years. Decades even! If I get onto the 4 year MGeol degree, I can look forward to field courses in Arran, Wales, Spain, Tenerife and even Switzerland in the fourth year! On top of that, is the possibilty of doing the third year abroad in . . . . wait for it . . . . Arizona at the University of Arizona in Tucson!!!!!

Oh my! However, as awesome as that sounds, spending a whole year away from my family would be rather too much to bear, so I think I'll have to be realistic and perhaps aim for some sort of field work out there during a summer break maybe? We'll see, but anyway, that is getting way ahead of myself. The great thing is that already it has given me a new lease of life! All of a sudden there is a goal to work for, an exciting future to plan, rather than plod on indefinitely in a job that I'm afraid has bored me to tears for longer than I care to remember.

To be honest, I feel a bit selfish. Since Ruth got the call, offering her the job, I've been excited by the chance I now have of finally getting to study geology. Of equal importance of course is the fact that at last, Ruth will be doing a job where she will be respected for what she is - an extreamely intelligent and gifted woman in her field. I don't think her current employers fully appreciate quite what they have and frankly, don't deserve her! In the not too distant future, I can see us both in high flying academic positions making a real mark in the world! For me, if I can contribute in some small way to help unravel the mysteries that surround how Grand Canyon came to be the way it is, I will depart this earth a happy man!

As I have said many time recently, we only get one crack at 'life' so you've got to make the most of it! Life is just too short to simply waste sitting in front of a CAD terminal all day long. It's now time to take life by the scruff of the neck and GO FOR IT!!

On that exciting and positive note, may I wish you all a Happy Christmas and an exciting and fulfilling New Year!

Cheers!

Alyn

P.S. I'll leave you with a photo or two of a holiday which turned out to be by far the highlight of a difficult year - Arizona and Grand Canyon!

Above: Grand Canyon and the Colorado River - March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

Right: Bright Angel Lodges - the BEST place to stay

in Grand Canyon - we'll be back!

(Photo by Alyn, March '08)

View of the 'Red Rocks' approaching Sedona, March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

Meteor Crater near Holbrook, Arizona.

So big I couldn't fit it all in the photo!

(Photo by alyn - March '08)

The Wig-Wam Motel, Holbrook, Arizona on the legendary Route 66

(Photo by Alyn, March 'o8)

View for the top of Round Mountain, Globe, Arizona, March '08

(Photo by Alyn)

On your marks, get set.......

It's 18th September at last!

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So what, I hear you cry! Well, today is the day that the Open University, S104 - Exploring Science course website opens 'for business' and that business is the quest for 'knowledge'! I've had brief look at the site already and it all makes everything seem more real if you know what I mean. After months of build up it's really here and I need to get myself organised, pronto! There are no details of my course tutor as yet - I think these details will be given early next week. Poor guy (or gal?), I'm sure he/she will be enjoying his/her last week of peace before his spare time is forever interrupted by the likes of little ol' me asking increasingly stupid questions over the next nine months!

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So the long road to what will hopefully be a degree in Geoloogy starts here! By gum, it's exciting and I have to say a little bit scary, but I've already made a tentative start on the course work and it's a fairly gentle start with a look at Global Warming as I mentioned last week. This weekend I will have a crack at the first 'task' which is to design and make a couple of rain gauges to measure precipitation over a 2 week period. One gauge is to be open topped and the other to have a funnelled top. The former will show the effect of evaporation you see, while the funnel topped one will minimise it! So, this will take me back to my 'Blue Peter' days of making stuff with washing-up bottles and sticky tape! I'm sure I will get some cracking data here in the soggy north-west of England where it's done nowt but chuck it down all summer! Sod's Law dictates of course that we will now suffer the driest October 'since records began', but as the course book says, zero rainfall provides just as valuable data as a fortnight's daily downpours! Once Alyn's rain gauges are up and running I might just photograph them and post a pic on my next blog for you to have a laugh at, or perhaps marvel at my ingenuity and dexterity!!

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I've also already had a sneak preview of the second course book which covers amongst other things, geology. Now that book looks like it's going to be great fun! We're supplied with a small kit of rock samples, fossil plaster casts, what looks possibly like litmus paper, a hand lens for examining said samples. All exciting stuff! Now if I remember rightly, there's a test you do for a particular rock, limestone I think, that fizzes when vinegar is poured onto it. The acidic vinegar causes a chemical reaction with the calcium carbonate, I think, maybe?? Please don't laugh! I've probably got that hopelessly wrong, but hey, I've only just started! Gimme a break!

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One thing I've noticed myself doing already is thinking critically, an essential skill in academic work I do believe. Global warming for example is a subject that creates a huge amount of debate, not least at my mothers dinner table on a Saturday night! I have long argued that it is the long term trends that are relevant, not one hot summer. After only working through a few chapters of book one, I am already wondering over what length of time does one need to judge such things for the true picture to be formed? Hmmm!?!

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Let me finish book one and I'll tell you more!

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Cheers for now!

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Alyn.