just a little bit of time

I started the day with a drive to mid cornwall, well almost and a meeting that to be fair stretched my functional skills learning (not level) to say the least.

but it was sunny, as I hope to work embedding function into everything I do or teach almoast as a reason for being. my morning meeting didn't inspire but sometimes things have to be learnt and have to be done.

below the leftovers from yet another meeting.

then on to the city, and a different prospect altogether.

I love working, and thinking about working as well as gearing my work to enable other peoples ideas to become real. perhaps I will consider a change?

chairs >> space

it is sometimes the second thought that is the one that gets me interested, this post was.
I used to think so often that the first mark you make is the right one but I am moving way from that as I become hopefully more considered and thoughtful as the spring of youth is looking far away these days.

any way I had meant this post to be about the classroom of the future but got completely side tracked by chairs.

I have been thinking about chairs for a few days as my eldest son is well in to a serious project with chair as the key theme, (& have seen some good work from him).

but through the little research I have do I found this picture of chairs and yes I know it is shallow and I know I had nothing to do with its creation but I like it enough to make it the reason for this post.

you can't live on a view?

I think I am really lucky the picture below (taken 10 minutes ago) is the view from the window that I have my currently incredibly messy desk next to. I think it is one of the best views in the whole area, the weather in not too good today and the light is very flat. on a clear sunny day I can see the sea, the harbour mouth and the fishing boats in the bay.



I had a good friend, I only met her as an elderly lady. I visited regularly in her later years both in her home and in the old peoples home she eventually had to move to. she was a wonderful font of information I remember her telling me that she saw the council putting up the first set of traffic lights in cornwall and people drove miles just to see them. as well as passing her driving test in 1939 after already been driving for a few years, as she told me the driving test wasn't compulsory then?!


her room over looked a fantastic view not unlike the one on this page, except hers was more dramatic, as the sea was closer, the cliff edges of south cornwall were clearly viable the only disruption to the view were livestock in the fields. I used to gaze out of the window happily always looking for something new, very often finding it. I always enjoyed the visits to listen to her stories whilst watching the place where the land and the sea meet.


something she said has stayed with me for the years since she passed away, however much I enjoyed looking out through her picture window, she always said to me, 'you can't live on a view, it is people that matter'.
I think she was probably right.

torch >> recharging >>99p

it is not often that I find something (apart from the occasional food stuff) that I actually like in a morrisons supermarket.
I had gone to the dentist with ben we both had check ups great nothing wrong so I am free from the dentists chair for another year!! ben has to go back every three months as they are monitoring his new teeth as they come through (he is 8). the dentist is near morrisons so we dropped in to get some bits (as carol says).
while we were there carol pointed out this torch. I am sure that it was produced in china under bad conditions of overwork and underpay. just looking at the design and the function and had to buy one (well we bought two). the torch is selling for 99p, as it works using dynamo system and no batteries it should have a much longer life, the batteries alone for most torches would cost more than a pound.
I thought I would post it I realise that it is nothing new, both wind up radios and torches have been used across the world for more than ten years largely thanks to trevor bayliss.
it was more the place and the price that I found interesting. its not to get you to rush to morrisions (as it probably would not be worth it) but just to make you think that things do not have to be expensive to make a difference.

batteries are so difficult to breakdown when dumped in land fill and at least this torch though plastic does not need batteries and actually feels nice and I think looks good as well.
at 99p, I do worry how a profit can be made on it with out exploitation, I wonder whether the workers who make/assemble the torch have the opportunity to have their children's teeth checked every three months without charge?

(morrisons press release fair trade coffee in their cafes)