It's Friday and it's my day off, so time to chill. I work 36 hours in 3 days so I don't feel that having today to myself is such a bad thing, so my plans are, chill, relax, drink coffee, more chilling and maybe fix a watch or two.
My new found hobby of horology I find really relaxes me and also when I do manage to fix something gives me a great sense of achievement and that make me happy, I would gladly fix watches all day, but I have to pay the bills so not just yet. Today I have 2 watches to have a go at, 1 is a really nice 35 year old vintage Seiko that needs stripping down and rebuilding, the other is my sons 01 watch, needs a new battery and reprogramming.
Anyway yesterday was interesting, I have manage to get picked to write another new course on Vox Popping, and have to deliver it to my students next Thursday, so my weekend has now all but disappeared as I am working Saturday at another college delivering 'How to use an iPad for beginners'. I do love my work but sometimes I really don't have time to enjoy it as I am constantly creating lesson plans, schemes of work, course material etc.
So I thought I would take a few minutes today to go political, something I don't really talk about much, I find there are 2 things that you should not discuss with friends and family as they cause more rifts and arguments than any other subjects and they are Religion and Politics, I shall talk about my religious beliefs at another time.
Should I stay or Should I go, theres a song there somewhere, just change the I for we, and of course I am talking about Europe, I can remember as a child my grandparents and parents being outraged at Ted Heath for taking us into then then Common Market, as they were all Labour supporters I understand why, they just followed the line of the Labour Party, I can still remember the comments like, 'We are an Island we don't need to join the rest of Europe', 'its the end of the world as we know it', well you get the picture, personally I think changing to decimal was worse. On 15 February 1971, known as Decimal Day, everything cost more at that point nothing was reduced in price, let me give you an example, under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence and now referred to as "old pence", with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. The loss of value of the currency meant that the "old" penny was of relatively slight value, while the farthing, which was worth one-quarter of an old penny, had been demonetised on 1 January 1961, don't get me started on my favourite coins the threepenny bit, Florin and the Half-Crown, the latter being Two and Six (2 shillings and 6 pence).
SO each new penny is worth 2.5 old pennies, stay we me folks, so my favourite lolly at the time was the enormous 6D, so 6 old pennies, I go to the shop with my new money and ask for a 6D, I am charged 3p, HANG ON, STOP THE BUS, my lolly has now become a 3p not a 6D costing me 7.5 old pennies, to me as a cunning child and economically sound when dealing with money this was in the territory of Dick Turpin, and to make things worse most of the old coinage was still in circulation adding more confusion to the elderly and the young alike.
I have added a conversion chart below for your convenience.
My new found hobby of horology I find really relaxes me and also when I do manage to fix something gives me a great sense of achievement and that make me happy, I would gladly fix watches all day, but I have to pay the bills so not just yet. Today I have 2 watches to have a go at, 1 is a really nice 35 year old vintage Seiko that needs stripping down and rebuilding, the other is my sons 01 watch, needs a new battery and reprogramming.
Anyway yesterday was interesting, I have manage to get picked to write another new course on Vox Popping, and have to deliver it to my students next Thursday, so my weekend has now all but disappeared as I am working Saturday at another college delivering 'How to use an iPad for beginners'. I do love my work but sometimes I really don't have time to enjoy it as I am constantly creating lesson plans, schemes of work, course material etc.
So I thought I would take a few minutes today to go political, something I don't really talk about much, I find there are 2 things that you should not discuss with friends and family as they cause more rifts and arguments than any other subjects and they are Religion and Politics, I shall talk about my religious beliefs at another time.
Should I stay or Should I go, theres a song there somewhere, just change the I for we, and of course I am talking about Europe, I can remember as a child my grandparents and parents being outraged at Ted Heath for taking us into then then Common Market, as they were all Labour supporters I understand why, they just followed the line of the Labour Party, I can still remember the comments like, 'We are an Island we don't need to join the rest of Europe', 'its the end of the world as we know it', well you get the picture, personally I think changing to decimal was worse. On 15 February 1971, known as Decimal Day, everything cost more at that point nothing was reduced in price, let me give you an example, under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence and now referred to as "old pence", with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. The loss of value of the currency meant that the "old" penny was of relatively slight value, while the farthing, which was worth one-quarter of an old penny, had been demonetised on 1 January 1961, don't get me started on my favourite coins the threepenny bit, Florin and the Half-Crown, the latter being Two and Six (2 shillings and 6 pence).
SO each new penny is worth 2.5 old pennies, stay we me folks, so my favourite lolly at the time was the enormous 6D, so 6 old pennies, I go to the shop with my new money and ask for a 6D, I am charged 3p, HANG ON, STOP THE BUS, my lolly has now become a 3p not a 6D costing me 7.5 old pennies, to me as a cunning child and economically sound when dealing with money this was in the territory of Dick Turpin, and to make things worse most of the old coinage was still in circulation adding more confusion to the elderly and the young alike.
I have added a conversion chart below for your convenience.
Anyway, like I said, that as far as I was concerned was worse than joining The CM.
So onto the present and Stay or Exit, I think my personal views are best kept to myself, however, back to college, my students are making a programme for their studio project as part of their Assignments based on Question Time and the subject is.................... Yes The referendum and should we stay or exit, hence me having to deliver a course on Vox Popping.
So, I discuss and explain the multi camera techniques used in the show, the layout of the studio, lighting etc, then we talk about the subject, (at this point I would like to add that nearly all the students will be available to vote in June), so playing Devils advocate I ask for there views, I was horrified to find that nearly 90% had no real idea about what they would be voting for, the common answer was 'To stay in Europe'?, yes but what are your views and why will you vote yes or no? the answers, 'I don't know', 'My mum says that I should vote for' etc.
So I ask the question, how will the result effect immigration, knowing that most of the students are on student visa's? Only 2 out of 26 had a rough idea on the policies in the manifesto's. at that point it became obvious that they would vote with their parents or mates, disregarding the consequences of their actions. I have 4 weeks to get these guys to understand the debate that they are filming, how to ask the correct questions and how to shoot it all. Now you know why I deserve my Fridays off, I think that a large percentage of the UK have no idea about what the referendum is really about and they will follow the same route as my students, voting with their parents and mates, god help us.
My next blog we be GOD, who is he, does he exist and where the hell is he when we need him.
Have a good weekend, ( I need to find a name for all my followers of this blog like the late Terry Wogan had for his followers, maybe Grumblelogs)? Just a thought.
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