Hurry, rest, there isn’t much time.

16ºC, sunny with wind.
Big storm coming: Sunday night, gales, Monday heavy rain.

Film: Sightseers. Serial killer goes on holiday in a caravan. This is like Mike Leigh with casual murder. Beautifully shot and rendered on Bluray. And funny too. There is plenty written about this film, I don’t need to repeat here but I am still impressed by the quality of hidef on Bluray. Colour depth and shadow detail are dramatically clearer. The extra resolution is secondary in my opinion.

My holiday to-do list is far too long for a one-week holiday. The marking bag is heavy this year, but I will try.

Posted from a mobile.

Skyphone.

15°C, wet morning, sun afternoon. Shorts weather.
CD, Skyphone– I confess, at the start, that I don’t really know how to review a CD. So all I can do, is make a recommendation. Currently, there only exist two CDs from this Danish trio; Avellaneda and the one currently in my CD player- Fabula.
The sound is woven from interlocking synths and percussion things to make complex of sweet harmonies and little sounds. The little sounds have caught me. It reminds me of the ever wonderful Fred Frith. This adds harmony and rhythm to Frith’s sometimes dissonant layering.
Music like this I can work to and listen to exclusively. In other words, it works in the back-ground and bears close listening while doing nothing else.
Would you like to know what category to put this CD in? I don’t know- that seems to be a question that youngsters are more concerned with than I am.. Look under S then.

Fabula

Will this do as a music review?

Posted from a phone.

Workload

15ºC heavy showers,
I teach 17 groups which vary in size from 28 down to 12 kids. Most classes come in 16s. In all that makes 265 pupils, each of whom is supposed to receive one homework a week. For me, that makes fifty pieces to mark each day. That doesn’t count half-term projects that also need a grade, comment and associated paperwork. Every pupil is supposed to receive personalized learning, special needs for many and I am expected to know them all by name. Any advice?

It can’t be done can it?.

Posted from a mobile.

Absurdly wet

16ºC, heavy rain.
Will this ever end? The world will be washed away eventually. I blame the comets, they brought it all here originally during the second heavy bombardment.
This weather causes steamed up glasses when I stop at traffic  lights, or out hiking it makes map-reading difficult. Maybe I should just have laser eye-surgery and have nothing to complain about.
Rainfall like this is said to continue all week. My needs are simple.

Posted on my phone.

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Prisoners’ votes.

BBC.– prisoners won’t get the vote after all. The story brought up all sorts of arguments about justice, European interference, sovereignty and stuff. My problem was that I couldn’t easily make the bridges between arguments presented. On one hand, the debate is not really that important- the number of prisoners is relatively small and many of them aren’t going to vote anyway. The other side revolves around arguments of principle.

Today, I have made some headway after reading the above linked feature. There are several strands to balance:
Prisoners with long terms, more than one parliamentary term won’t be free to benefit from their vote. The changes in society voted for, they wouldn’t see.
Prisoners will not have their right to vote taken away by the state, they have made choices that led them to jail.*
Prisoners may be incarcerated for behaviour that was in protest at government policy. They could still retain the vote, in my scheme, so can still affect law-making.

So my current position is- give them the vote unless they are sentenced for a long time, longer than a parliamentary term.

Anyway, shut up, I am tired and want to go.
Posted on my phone.

Non-week

12°C, showers and grey.
No miles, still held up with this cold, but at least the plateau stage has gone. At this rate I could be back on the saddle by Wednesday.

The only exercise has been with the dog.
lodger: has upset my neighbour by parking over part of his dropped kerb. That makes it difficult to get his cars in or out. It sounds like the guy next door blew it by loosing his temper and threatened to damage the lodger’s car. I need to look this up because I suspect that it’s illegal to block access, but I am no expert. Perhaps it’s a civil matter, whatever that means.
The root of all this is there are simply too many cars.

Posted on my phone.

Related articles

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Drop ten.

9ºC, NE brisk.
Cold weather swept over us today. Autumn proper is here, it’s dark and it may be necessary to switch the heating on in the house sometime in the next few weeks.

Posted on my phone.

Housekeep

18ºC,sunny.
Jobs done: it’s ironic that on a weekend at home, feeling ill, that I got more done than ever. Normally on a fine Autumn Sunday, I’d spend the day on the bike enjoying the landscape and sun.

Now, door-frame and gate post painted; patio cleared; curtains washed; garden cleared for winter and shopping done. An interesting job is coming up- part of a door frame is rotten, so I will cut out the bad bits and make new.
This headcold is past its worst, so I could be riding again later this week. A good result.

Posted on my phone.

Argo

16ºC,clear.
Film: Argo, tense, but not that tense, likable characters, but not that likable. A film worth seeing but don’t go out of your way, there are other films available.
Despite rather an ill weekend, I have done stuff- the garden table is finished, with dry varnish this morning. On this weekend, with no travelling, my todo list is much shorter. The daytime routine is job then nap, then another job…

I spent money yesterday, some went on a cordless drill. The old one one is shagged out, though was never great to start with. Now I want to find something to fill with holes. If there are enough holes, might the thing cease to exist?

Posted on my phone.

Rest

18C,rain but warm.
No more rides for a few days. The new term has settled with a looming cold. Sore throat and grogg means the cold season is here. The kids at work are coughing and spluttering and perhaps given it to me.

Posted on my phone.