The National education lottery

The university I attend is changing its administration of service in many ways. One now has to design one's own course structure and apply for places in the selected courses online, which will be allocated on a first past-the-post-basis, where numbers are constrained. There are core courses but the number of these varies wildly from school to school (these used to be called departments).

The trouble is, we are hampered by complete ignorance of our timetables and not knowing the courses whose numbers are limited and what those numbers might be. Some courses are being offered across the board to several different years undergraduates, JYAs and post-graduates, so no one has any idea of the likely take-up of each course.

Worst of all, we don't even know when we shall be able to go online to sign up. We thought we did and now that date has been postponed without notice, because of problems with the first groups of students who attempted to make their choices online. Our sign-up time slots are now occupied by these students trying to sort out the mess of their course structure.
It's beginning to look as if it won't matter that we shall have our heads down over trenches in the Wicklow Gap, far from Internet access, since the system is so backed up that we shall be lucky to be signed up by September 11.

I really pity the incoming students who have pushed through their leaving certificate, now being expected to create their own courses, without the slightest idea of the different schools, staff or little idea of course content. It's all vague enough at the start without having these decisions pushed on you. I certainly would have had difficulty if this had been demanded of me before I had even begun lectures where we were introduced to the subjects - in many cases completely new subjects to study - which we were thinking of reading. In those distant days of 2 years ago, we had up to 6 weeks to decide which subjects we would settle on, but once those were decided, the course was rolled out before us. Of course, few people had Christmas exams in those days, so we could take what seems now as a luxuriously leisurely approach.
Tutorials for 1st and 2nd years and optional courses for 3rd years were signed up for in the same 6 week period. That system had its own semi-chaotic problems, but looks like a model of Athenian discourse compared with today's street brawl.
Is this any way to run an educational service? People are already complaining that they have been forced into courses in which they have no interest, or worse, that they have been excluded from courses they need to take.
If it's a horse race, the horses are hobbled by lack of information. More like a lottery with a few lucky winners and lots of frustrated losers.

I am not a terrorist

In spite of having visited Afghanistan and Iran (twice each) and Lebanon and Syria and Morocco(twice)and Algeria and Tunisia, I am not a terrorist.
Now I am wondering if I could be guilty of 'possessing articles useful to a person preparing terrorism' under the new anti-terrorism acts.
I own a map of Afghanistan.
I also own a map of Tibet, where it is labelled as such, not 'People's autonomous area of China'. I daresay that would be enough for the Chinese authorities to imprison me were I living in China.
As far as I know, I am not in possession of any suicide notes or wills of anyone else. Hey, I haven't even got around to making a will myself; it's one of those things I keep meaning to do and feel guilty about not having done occasionally, but I don't think procrastination is illegal yet.

Off To the Wilds of Wicklow - part II

I have my brand new trowel - 4", not 4.5 as specified, but that was the best I cd come up with and kneeling pad. I have my steel-capped boots - they even have steel midsoles, presumably to protect me from attack from below, I have my brand new cheap, thin raingear, socks (2 pr.) gloves, hat, thermoses, notebook, camera, pens and pencils. Will it all pack into my backpack or should I purchase a bergen as recommended by the SAS, complete with taupaulin and mosquito net? I do have first aid kit, sunscreen cream and Jungle Formula spray against the possible midges, although everyone knows, there is no real pretection against them short of a midge hood.
Now, for what possible hazard is this formidable pile of equipment required? A trip to Borneo, no doubt? The answer is that a series of day trips (no overnights)to the Wicklow Gap in August, not March, requires this gear to be hauled in on a daily basis, complete with fresh provisions for each day - food and water and hot drinks. Clothing,should be of assorted layers, in order to be ready for any weather conditions, from intense sun to steady rain, hail, total cloud cover to the ground, thunder, lightning or even snow.
I can see the need for most of it but I do take issue with the steel-capped waterproof boots.These are not a cheap option and may be worn for a total of 5 days before being cast aside as never agin necessary items. We have not previously been asked to come up with anything more substantial than waterproof boots for field trips but it seems that the insidious Health & Safety (Organisation? - who are they anyway?)have now decreed that these are essential to our safety. The cheapest I found were €30 and they weren't waterproof. I settled for a pair at €40, which were 'water resistant' and looked more comfortable although they the above-mentioned steel-lined midsoles which hardly sounds a soft option. Lots of socks and hope that there is not too much walking involved.
I did want to recce this tough terrain and site before the scheduled course begins at the end of the month, but due to a number of crossed and delayed emails and the holiday season, it didn't happen. So, next week at some horrible hour, I must rise, go into college, return tediously in the hired minibus, along the road I have just paid to journey, continuing south for some miles, eventually rising to the scene of our previous crime in March. From there we will walk to the new site on the opposite hillside and begin our one remaining chance at Practical Archaeology within this course. We can only hope that the weather gods smile on us and we are not 'snowed out' as we were in March or have some other reason for the dreaded Health and Safety gods te refuse to allow us to complete this section of the course.
Plus I hope that I can walk in the plug-ugly boots, without my feet becoming minced to pieces. I have worn steel capped rubber boots before, when I worked on fishing boats. They were hideously uncomfortable, kept the feet soaked in unevaporated sweat, producing a variety of trench foot and eventually were punctured by a gaff which missed the steel cap by a fraction, fortunately not puncturing the foot inside them, which rendered them no longer waterproof. Come to think of it, I still have them somewhere.....

I HAVE visited Portugal

This is the final attempt to get it right, since it bugged me that Portugal had been accidentally left off the counties-visited worldmap. I loved Portugal the one time I went there and I would love to return. Especially I liked the Atlantic coast and the castle of Henry the Navigator, part of which was at that time used as a youth hostel.
I also have very much at home in those ex-Portuguese colonies and trading posts which I have visited - Macao, Goa, Timor, Sri Lanka and Cochin, the people seeming to share some special characteristic of reserved friendliness and the ability to cook simple but superb dishes which combined local cuisine with Portuguese flavours.
No, I have not visited Switzerland.

Let's just try that again, shall we? I realise that the site sidebar cuts off one third of the map, rather in the way some rather infamous Atlases have expunged the state of Wisconsin, as well as most of China from existence. As I am completely non-techy, I shall just try uploading from my saved copy and see if that works, not having a clue how to redesign the site without buggering it up.

World Traveller

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide
This gives a somewhat exaggerated view of my travels, since my very limited excursions into China, for example, allowed me to claim the whole of China as my explored territory. Alaska appears, although I have never visited that State; I have visited Hawaii, however(another non-contiguous state).
There may even be lacunae; I went through the list pretty quickly. The only sections I could claim nothing from, were Central and South America and the Caribbean, although most of Africa is as yet unvisited. How I long to visit West Africa, East Africa, most of China.
So many countries, so little time...not to mention money, terrorist problems, etc.

On not being at a London Airport

I have been fortunate recently. I had been worrying guiltily about my carbon footprints stomping all over my usually good green credentials, because I have taken 8 short flights this summer but I am very glad that I didn't find myself trying to go through an English airport this week.
I would have been stymied for that quick change I had to perform at Southampton, unless the aeroplane to Guernsey had been delayed too, but it sounds as if the short hop flights had no reason to be delayed - which doesn't mean they would not be.

I felt so sorry for people trying to go on a week's holiday, who were comprehensively buggered; even the weather is not really co-operating by having turned cool again. A week in the garden being the alternative 'destination'. Might be cheaper .....maybe it will set off a trend of people deciding to take British holidays in future, but Brit accommodation is so expensive, and food, dining in restaurants, entertainment, everything in fact so that many people could not afford a holiday at 'home'.

I really did not relish taking 8 flights when only 4 were needed but fewer and fewer flights direct to Europe seem to be available on the discount airlines. Ryanair may have started here but we have precious few useful direct flights, so endless trips transiting British airports are required. 'Point to point destination' means paying more, queing more, few transits of baggage and lots more stress.
Not as much as would have been generated if any of the 'terrorist' plots outlined had occurred. I notice that many reserved judgement, as a result of previous police (and government) bungles and lies, which have frayed public trust in the initial stories which are fed to the press.

Who would give credence to any of the accusations of the Americans in charge of Guantanamo? Or the organisations who managed the whole de Menezes tragedy/cover-up?
There already seem to be inconsistencies - such as the statement that 'maximum murder' was planned, but the aircraft were to be blown up over the ocean ---? when it is obvious that explosions and crashed aircraft over crowded cities would cause far more death, destruction and trauma be more likely to be seen on television, too. Al Qaeda are nothing if not media-savvy and that part of the story seems quite ludicrous.
Doubtless these men had their stories beaten out of them; time was of the essence, after all. They may have concocted stupid parts of the story in order to throw doubt on their confessions later, but the police reported them as fact. Was this wise?
However, the police are not noted for that quality.