JMB's scribblings - Christmas 2004

Here are a few jottings about 2004. I'm going to write a bit each day for a few days, aiming to cover the whole year without getting too boring!

I got back from the Round the World trip in early January, to be hit immediately by all sorts of commitments. I had to go and see the neurologist for my three monthly check-up. She persuaded me to try some pills for Parkinson's, and assured me that driving would be ok with them. I got home with enough pills for three months (enough to fill a cupboard), but each pack said very clearly DO NOT DRIVE, so I rang up for advice, and was told that it would be fine to drive. Confusing! In the end, I left the pills in the cupboard and didn't take any. I had another appointment in April, when the specialist said that it was up to me whether I took the pills or not, and it would not make much difference. We agreed to leave them in the cupboard, and fixed another appointment for six months later. Meanwhile, my writing is much worse, and typing is going downhill, but otherwise all is reasonably well.

Monkton was without a senior rowing coach for the season, so I volunteered to run the club, and coach the 1st VIII, which was my 25th as full time coach. (More about this is in the Bluefriars Newsletter.) Luckily, I had kept up to date with the Boat Club administration, as I have been helping in the background in recent years. The crew consisted of boys I have been coaching on a part-time basis throughout their time at Monkton, so I knew them all quite well, and slotted into the training regime fairly easily. Luckily they were well led by the Captain. Much of the admin was done by mobile phone calls (with me out of school, and him in school), and I think vodafone must has done rather well out both of us! Looking after the boat was hard work, but I left more of the heavy work, like lifting the coaching launch in and out of the water, to the boys.

There is of course much more fuss about having the right bits of paper nowadays, so I had to take a minibus driving test, and have a medical. One of the rules is that one has to be able to see the big letters on the eye-test screen without glasses on. I suppose they want you to be able to drive to a safe stop if glasses fall off during a journey. (I suppose it could happpen!) I was just all right on this one. They didn't seem to fuss about the Parkinson's. On top of getting a new driving licence valid for just one year, I had to take an informal minibus test for the school. Once that was over, I drove crews and boats all over the place, as I have done for years.

My teaching job continued until July. I was only doing two lessons a week for a sixth form statistics set, so it was not too onerous. Out of a set of about 10, half a dozen of them came from overseas (mostly mainland China). They have a reputation for working hard, but on the whole I wasn't impressed, so my end of term reports did not mince words or grades. I handed out several effort grades D (poor effort). (A is excellent, C Satis and E is awful), and achievement grades 4 (similar system 1-5). This is almost unheard of now, because most grades are A or B and 1 or 2. Perhaps it is that everyone works harder than they used to, or perhaps good grades keep the clients (parents) happy! Even the best member of the set, who is aiming for Cambridge, did not have anything like as much mathematical experience as his predecessors of years ago. Much of the effort that goes into the work done now is directed to long projects which may seem to be of high quality because they look smart, having been prepared on the computer, and consist of 1000's of words. A mathematical example - past generations used to learn integration by doing pages of questions, after which they became competent and confident. Now they do just one or two questions, probably exactly in line with examples in the book, and they have then 'done' the topic. Meanwhile, they might have spent hours spinning coins in an experiment (often called 'doing research') which will then be written up in lengthy coursework.

Despite my approach being rather old fashioned, some (not all) of the set seemed to thrive on the way I worked with them.

The other big job for the Spring was my usual work for ISIS - now re-branded ISCis - the Independent Schools Council information service. My first census was in 1982, and my 23rd in 2004 (if I have the arithmetic right) looked like being the last. I have often discussed the future of the census and other work I do with ISIS, and we have often said that it risky running a nationally important survey and database from a cottage in a little village outside Bath. We have talked of me being run over by a number 12 bus, not that we have them round here. My suggestion is that ISIS should take out some sort of insurance policy so that when I do stop, for any reason, they could spend quite a lot of money quite quickly, to set up a new system.

During the Spring, ISIS underwent major changes. The Director, who been there for years, left when his post disappeared, and a new General Secretary came. One of many upshots was that 2004 was to be my last census, and I received a letter thanking me for 22 years work, and asking me to wind up the operation by late summer 2004. Meanwhile, various firms were approached to see if they would take on the work I have done. I cooperated throughout, and explained the system I have built up since 1980. The result was that ISIS received some large quotes and tight contracts from nationally known firms for taking over the work. (I am glad to say that I have no contract, written or verbal, after 22 years with ISIS.)

Things drifted on until September, when I went to a meeting at ISIS about another small survey I had done for them. This was in connection with the charitable status of schools.

The contract for the January 2005 census had not been signed, and I advised them to get on with it immediately, if they wanted a census at all in 2005. It was clear that the new contract would not be signed, so after about 10 minutes I offered to do the 2005 census to give them time to sort out something for the following year. This offer was accepted immediately (to my surprise), so I'm still on board for one more year!

The exam results exercise went ahead in the usual way in August, and as in the past few years, we made no mistakes, and produced the data for the league tables published in the national press. ISIS have already asked me to do this job again in 2005, because it will be very difficult to find a national firm to undertake the work so quickly and cheaply.

The hand-over saga goes on. Today (9th December 2004) two people from the ISIS office and a computer man are coming to see me. The new firm will take over the database soon, and the plan is that they do the census, possibly with me acting as a consultant for their first year and the 2006 census. We'll see.

(Later..) The meeting went well as the computer man and I got on well. He said that on his drive down from Reigate, where he is based, he had been full of worries about what state he would find the data. He was not at all hopeful at the thought of dealing with a one-man-band amateur who had very old computers! In the end he was very impressed by the structure of the data, and by the extent of the work that has been built up over the years. He reckons that the transformation of the data will take far less time than he thought it would, but thee complexity of the operation is far greater than he expected. I demonstrated the speed of one of the programs that produces the census booklet, and I managed to get it to produce a whole page quicker than it would have taken one of Mr Gates' programs to wake up. All rather satisfying. It looks as if the will want me to act as a consultant for a while, until they get the new system up and running.

11th December 2004

I've had a look back over what I've written so far, and there are of course lots of gaps. I'll fill some in. (Incidentally, I have never used a spell checker when typing, but have resorted to using one now , as the letters typed by my left hand are becoming fairly random! )

The third of the Girard children, Alexandra, from Nantes spent a year with me while she was studying at Bath University. She had coxed for France in 2003, but didn't get much rowing done while she was here. Instead, she did Judo and other sports, and enjoyed her GAP year. She is now at Nottingham University. Her older sister, who stayed with me for 2001/2002 went on to Bordeaux for a year, but didn't get on well. She is now in Bristol, and enjoying the course. The oldest of the tribe, Stephane, did his degree at Nottingham, and is now back in Nantes. I'm going over to see them all for a few days in the New Year. It will be quite a change not to have one of them in the house.

I was sorry not to have been able to go to the Olympics, which clashed with the exam results exercise. You will have seen from the rowing newsletter that we nearly had two Monkton boys in the Gold winning GBR four, so I won't go into details here. I found myself being interviewed on ITV and BBC television and local radio. The press wanted a local story, and I suppose it was nice to bathe in a bit of reflected glory. The crew won by inches, and lots of people who had dealings with them during their rowing careers reckoned their influence had made just that amount of speed difference. I suppose there might be a grain of truth in it, but the crew themselves were the ones that trained and pushed that boat over the line, and all hats off to them! At least two Monkton men are starting training with the GB Squad in January (one of them a new face in the frame), and we are waiting to see if the Gold Medallist will give another four years of his life to row in China in 2008. The crew was kind enough to invite friends and helpers to a party in Henley a few days ago. It was a great and happy occasion, and it was a privilege to be there. Soon after the party, the crew was voted team of the year on BBC Sports Personalities of the Year. Steve Williams, who was in the crew, can be seen on Supersports on TV over Christmas. This was filmed in Spain not long after the Olympics. Rumour has it that he did well, so the programme should be worth watching.

Another party recently was a 50th Birthday party of one of my Captains of Boats (from 1973). He held it at Portmeryon in North Wales. We had fireworks, delicious Welsh food and good company for the week-end.

I have mentioned the Bluefriars rowing Newsletter, which takes quite a long time to put together. It is the annual newsletter of the Monkton rowing charity. We have also got a website www.bluefriars.org.uk, on which you can see news during the year. Even if you are not interested in rowing, but buy items from Amazon on the internet, you might consider doing so via our Bluefriars website, because the charity then gets commission - all going to a good cause.

I was responsible for coaching my 25th school 1st VIII last year (and there have ben 10 others that I have helped with). This was one of the reasons that I got together with the captain to persuade some of our supporters to fund two new boats at about £15,000 each. The last of the necessary money came in a few days ago, so we will have two much needed new craft for next season. A new rowing coach has now arrived, so I can take more of a back seat again after a busy year in 2004. I'll be able to concentrate a bit more on the charity side of the Boat Club.

We keep thinking of new ways to raise profile and money, and two new things will take off next year, we hope. A new section on the website, www.bluefriars.org.uk/ads will list local business and businesses run by our supporters. We hope we can bring them some business and that they will give us donations! And we hope to publish a book which should sell well. More details (or even copies!) next Christmas, if all goes well!

Brian Mawer and I are still selling oars which are made near Nantes, where we go on rowing training camp each year. We are not very good salesmen, so the business hardly thrives, but we do have occasional successes. Brian has retired from regular work, and he and Ruth have moved to Devizes, which is about 20 miles away.

My more active business is as a Director (!) of Gavial Limited, which is the company which I do my computing work through, based at home (the 'Bath Office'); meanwhile my god-daughter Annabel Tall works from home in Hanham (the "Bristol Office"), about 25 minutes away by car, and a couple of seconds by email. She concentrates on producing websites, and most of my work is still for schools, but we do some joint projects, and have complementary skills). The joint jobs appear as done by the Keynsham Office in the accounts. Keynsham is roughly half way between our two houses. Older readers may remember a chap called Horace Bachelor who lived in Keynsham, spelt K E Y .. Younger reades will be mystified by this! One of the jobs we do together is setup email addresses for people (hence all-the-family@bewick.org ,etc). We keep adding more families and small businesses to the system.

My 'granny flat' at the bottom of the house may become vacant soon. One of the two tenants is going at the end of the year, and the other is talking of going. I'll have no difficulty filling it.

I have had major expenditure on the house this year, for the first time for years. The roof had to be stripped of so new felt could be fitted, and while that was being done, I had solar water heating fitted. It arrived in August, and for two months I had the gas water heating switched off, except for a couple of slots of one hour after three miserable days. With a larger hot water tank, it doesn't take much sunshine to heat enough water for two or three days. It will take ages to pay back the capital cost, but I'm pleased with the system.

New neighbours moved in to Number 3 while the roof was being done. They stripped the place, and part of their project was to lay a new drive on their half of our common driveway. I found out in the nick of time, and made arrangements that both of us would have the same - good looking small drive bricks. There are some left over, and I'm hoping to get the other drive done next year. Whilst in extravagant mood, I had the patio re-laid, and a keen gardener comes round to sort out the plants. What with all that and regular-ish cleaning lady, the place is more civilised than it used to be. It's still like Clapham Junction most of the time, with people coming and going, and the washing up machine (12 places) goes on several times a week! Projects for the early new year are internal painting, and probably a new carpet in the lounge, as 100's of feet have worn out the old one.

The year ended as it has begun with a visit to the hospital to see the specialist - a different one this time. All the others had offered me pills, but I had not been persuaded that they would do anything. This specialist saw that I was a mathematician, so we talked statistics for a while (no doubt to put me at ease, so she could study me carefully!). The result was that I had a 10 minute stats and chemistry lesson about taking pills. She was also rather more old-fashioned than the other doctors. Most of them give advice nowadays, but there seems little sign of 'doctor's orders'; in contrast this one just told me to get on with it. I'm sure she isn't supposed to, but it seemed a very sensible way of dealing with an expert! I was persuaded and obedient, so I started on the regime (in small way) in late November. unfortunately, a heavy cold was going the rounds when I started the pills, so any effect was masked by feeling miserable for 10 days for other reasons! Now that the cold is over, I think the pills are giving me a bit more energy (having been though a somewhat lethargic summer), but they do not help my left hand and its typing which is now getting horrific. All typing has to be gone through much more carefully than before.

I'm expecting an invasion at Christmas, so the house had had a spring clean, because I don't want any complaints about cobwebs, dust, or dirty light switch covers! for the last year or two, I have been trying to throw things away, and week by week the dustbin man, the re-cycling and the garden and cardboard waste people take masses of stuff without complaining. I think the campaign is beginning to have an effect - but there is more work to be done!

Well I hope that wasn't too boring, and that it gives you a picture of a fairly busy lifestyle. (and I've left lots out). There's always room for visitors, so do drop in any time in 2005.

This comes with best wishes for Christmas (just in time) and for 2005

16th December 2004