Is time just a concept?

 

One of those weeks :

This week definitely has to qualify as ‘one of those weeks!’ I realised that I had double booked myself for two things that I really wanted to go to, I lost my car stereo face plate and I took being early to a whole new level...

Firstly, I decided to leave my car stereo face plate I don’t know where, so I had to spend the whole week travelling to work in silence. Secondly, on Tuesday night I took being early to a whole new level when I arrived one month early for my staff training session with the enquiry unit! I’d even changed my daughter’s school parents evening slot to attend, so felt rather silly when I realised my mistake, and had to endure much hassling in the office as a result!
In my life, months go by and nothing happens, then by some strange happenstance two things happen on the same night! It seems like a long time ago that my friend asked me to come along and support the ‘Help for Heroes’ charity event that she was organising in Rochester. I happily agreed and thought no more of it until the date of our CRS firework party was set. As I am feeling a pang of conscience, I think the charity event will have to win out though. Two of my great-grand fathers served in WW1 (one in the trenches and the other in the Royal Air Corps), plus two grandfathers and a step grandfather fought in WW2 (in the Canadian Artillery, Home Guard and Navy respectively). In addition, we cannot forget the contribution made by women in my family, my great-grand mother worked manufacturing munitions at the Woolwich Arsenal, while my grandmother was a nurse treating the injured in hospitals around London.
 On the whole, I am a pacifist and always hope that conflicts can be resolved peacefully, but, at the same time I feel humbled by those who were willing to make such huge personal sacrifices to protect others. 
One thing I always ask myself at this time of year is... If I had been there at the start of WW1 or WW2 would I (or any of my generation) have been able to cope with the choices they faced?

J’s record of the week:

You're still a young man.'

by Tower of Power

After a few days of silence in the car, I managed to find my car stereo face plate in one of my daughter’s toy boxes... Not sure how it got there ?! To be honest I was torn between the first few songs that came up on my iPod, because it was just so joyous to have my music back again! So really it was a hard choice between ‘I’ll take you there’ by the Staple Singers; ‘The revival’ by Martine Gerrault; ‘Reasons’ by Earth, Wind and Fire; ‘War’ by Bob Marley and ‘You’re still a young man’ by Tower of Power, though eventually I settled on the latter for no particular reason.
Actually, I just love Tower of Power  - They are one of the most underrated soul bands out there, and their sheer wealth of quality material is staggering. ‘You’re still a young man’ was the first Tower of Power song I ever heard, back in the year 2000, only about 28 years after it was first released in 1972... Enjoy ! Jerushah X

'Scary ghosts and dangerous posts !

Knole Park :

On Saturday we had a fabulous day in the sunshine at Knole Park in Sevenoaks. Early in the afternoon, my daughter, my friend from uni and her son all crammed into my little blue car and headed over to Sevenoaks. It took about an hour, but the kids kept us amused all the way singing along to the radio. When we got there they had a great time building a den from old branches and bracken, and bouncing on some low slung tree branches.
It was a strange coincidence actually...  I didn’t realise that my friend had done her MSc research a few years ago on the topic of deer behaviour. We spent ages watching what the deer were up to and she was able to explain some of their behaviour, like digging odd shaped holes all over the place and bashing each other’s antlers - Strange to us, but perfectly logical if you are a deer!!

We finished the day off with steaming cups of hot chocolate from the cafe, which was just what we needed after all that fresh air !

A ghost walk :

On Sunday night my daughter and I went on an eagerly anticipated ghost walk at Smallhythe Place in Tenterden. The house was candle lit, and we had to bang on a huge brass door knocker which echoed sinisterly. The door was opened by an extremely tall man, wearing a dusty tailed coat, with dark shadows under his eyes. He silently led us up the stairs past a dark open doorway, where I’ll swear I saw a maid with a scarred face and dirty apron having a whispered conversation with a witch in a crooked hat. 

We joined a group and were guided around the house, meeting with an interesting mix of characters and stories ; including Edwardian actress Ellen Terry and her deceased husband; a deranged gardener with a saw sticking out of his head and a silent witch carrying a skull.

We eventually made our way out into the grounds where we were warned that unknown entities in the nuttery had a reputation for throwing missiles at passers by. The worst thing that happened to me personally was when a rotating skull on a pole emerged above a bush. I was so distracted that I walked straight into a fence post and screamed. This resulted in a screaming daughter and two screaming women behind us. There were also various creepy outbuildings, each with a terrifying tale attached, plus ghostly white shapes in the trees, slamming doors and distant screams! I have to say though that the thing I most enjoyed was the mulled bramley apple juice served at the end of the walk.

J’s Record of the week :

‘Ghost Town’

By The Specials

Sorry... I seem to have had some extremely dodgy themes and tentative connections for my record of the week lately, but with it being Halloween last Sunday I just had to choose ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials. It was released in1981 and spent three weeks an number one. I have fantastic memories of being about seven or eight years old and skating around to this song with my friends at a roller disco in Penzance... I wonder where they are now and if they can still skate? Jerushah x

Money saving tips:

This weekend I texted a friend to apologise for not being in touch as I’d been far too ‘strapped for cash’ to go out anywhere..! A phenomenon that all of us students (even old ones like me!) experience from time to time.
After talking to some of my friends working at the enquiry unit today we have devised some money saving tips and useful websites:

Food & household shopping
- Tesco/Morrisons/Sainsburys; shop as close as possible to 4pm on Sunday, bargains guaranteed !
- Morrisons; the bakery & rotisserie depts put their products on clearance prices at 7pm each night.
- Save 10p on hot drinks at Medway by bringing your own cup (thanks Kelly!).
- Aldi have 10 x instant cappuccino sachets for £1, great for making yourself a hot drink at Uni – hot
  water only costs 10p on campus !
- Medway student shop have an excellent bargain shelf at the back of the store.
- Avery Hill student shop sometimes have boxes of discounted items next to the till.
- At www.amazon.com you can order travel plugs 5 for £5 (thanks Remco!).
- Lidl are currently selling tomato soup at 17p per can (thanks Remco!).
- www.madaboutbargains.co.uk lists all the 2 for 1 & 3 for 2 offers in all UK supermarkets.
Resource saving
- Use energy saving light bulbs (some power suppliers give them away free if you sign up).
- Avoid leaving halogen lights on, they use loads of power!
- Use a slow cooker, they can be bought for £14 at Argos. You can cook a meal using the same  
   amount of energy it takes to power a light bulb. 
- Share showers/baths (if appropriate!) that’s what they do in Australia!
- Free smoke alarms  ! You can get them from the Kent Fire Brigade, and they may save your life!

Travel
- Car sharing – When I was at studying at Canterbury I saved at least £1200 by car sharing. Check out the 5hare scheme on the U of G website.
-  www.skyscanner.net for cheapest flight fares (thanks Remco!)
- www.couchsurfing.com for free accommodation (thanks Remco!)
- www.yha.org.uk for low price accommodation in some beautiful locations, from £14 per night.

Going out
- Orange Wednesdays 2 for 1 cinema tickets for orange network users.
- www.vouchercodes.co.uk for eating out vouchers

Communications
- www.skype.com for free communications.
- www.freecall.com for free calls with a 20 Euro deposit (thanks Remco!)

Everything else !
- Have a savings account (thanks Taz !)
- Have a rainy day fund in the ashtray of your car (thanks Taz!)
- Make a budget list (thanks Taz !)
- www.moneysavingexpert.com for a whole variety of ways to save money (thanks Spencer!)

J’s Record of the week:

Night nurse

by Gregory Isaacs

It was a sad day on Monday 25^th October. Gregory Isaacs passed away aged just 59, after a long battle with lung cancer. I thought it only fitting that this week’s record of the week should be dedicated to him.
He had an illustrious career spanning 1968 to the present day. He was signed to Island Records in 1982 and released ‘Night Nurse’ the same year. Initially, although it received frequent radio play, ‘Night Nurse’ was not a hit in the UK. However, the song did rise to popularity in the 1990’s when it was covered by Simply Red.  Hopefully a more cheery musical choice next week !  Jerushah x

Road rage:

Yesterday I experienced a fabulous (is that the right word...?) example of road rage that I would like to share, plus a cautionary tale about the same. A driver was careering along the A289 gesticulating at a variety of cars, plus beeping and flashing at intervals (it wasn’t me, don’t worry!). ‘Someone’s having a bad morning!’ I said to myself, which nearly got even worse when he hastily changed lanes, pulled close in front of another car and subsequently jammed on his brakes. The other driver narrowly missed him, then it was his turn to be on the receiving end of some beeping , flashing and a variety of gesticulations.. Hope he managed to survive the day unscathed!!

 

A cautionary tale... A few years ago I was amongst a group of friends, walking along Westcombe Park Road in Greenwich. We had barely stepped off the pavement to cross the road, when a woman came roaring around the corner, yelling at us to ‘Get out of the <insert swearword of your choice> way!’ out of her open car window. She was so busy concentrating on yelling at us that she failed to notice the stationary car right in front of her... Can you guess what happened ? Needless to say the group of us were not her main concern after that ! I think the moral of the story should be ‘Drive with all due care and attention...’
Life’s too short to get road rage everyone !

J’s Record of week :

Pull up to the bumper
 
by Grace Jones

I thought this would be a bit topical for my blog
entry this week ! Too obvious ?? Perhaps !
It was first released in 1982 from the ‘Nightclubbing’ album, but only reached number 53 in the UK charts. It was rereleased in 1986 and that time it reached number 12. Actually it is 1986 when I remember dancing around to ‘Pull up to the bumper’ wearing my royal blue ¾ length sleeved shirt , chunky blue plastic beads (oh so cool!), black lace jeans and matching royal blue stilettos... Happy carefree days ! Jerushah x

'The late-in-life ecowarrior !

Climate change :

I think I mentioned in my ‘all about me’ section that I used to work in the oil industry as a processing geophysicist. All those years I spent hoping the oil prices would go up so that I would get paid more, telling people that global warming is nothing to worry about because it has happened so many times before in the geological record.
Well, last year I learnt the error of my ways... I took a level 3 course called ‘Climate Change’ with the School of Science, and boy did I change my attitude after taking that course ?! We learnt a few crucial things :

Ø  The current rate at which climate change is happening is unprecedented.

Ø  As of 2010 the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is 390ppm.

Ø  The ‘point of no return’ whereby we will have to deal with the consequences of several centuries of warming, is 400ppm.

Ø  If current trends continue, we could see 400ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is the next seven years!

So I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether it is an important issue... On a more light hearted note, even the Uni catering establishments are doing their bit to reduce, reuse, recycle. Did you know that you can get a 10p discount on your hot drink if you bring your own mug?

To celebrate this fact, my friend gave me a lovely climate change mug, which shows the polar ice caps and glaciers melting, followed by global sea levels rising... See picture above !

J’s record of the week.

‘Waiting in vain’
by Bob Marley

This true reggae classic needs no introduction! It was recorded for Bob Marley’s 1977 Exodus album, and reached number 27 in the UK singles chart. It was reputedly penned by Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett (so called because so many local kids called him ‘Dad’!).
I’ve chosen this as my record of the week, as I’m still waiting for news of my imminent house move and I hope I’m not ‘Waiting in vain !’ A Jamaican friend of mine once asked ‘Why do all you Cornish people love Bob Marley so much?’ At the time I couldn’t think why, but having thought about it, I suppose it must be all the sun, sea, surf and palm trees in Cornwall...  Jerushah X

Life in the lab!

Let’s get crushing:

In the lab at long last... Having started lectures last week, I’ve been ‘chomping (or is it champing?) at the bit’ to get back in the lab. If I’m honest, apart from wading around in a muddy estuary somewhere, the lab is where I feel most at home...  Ready to don my lab coat now!
Way back in July I had put some peat samples in the oven to dry (only a degree or two above air temperature, don’t worry it’s not dangerous!). I came back to find them out on the bench with a note on top saying ‘taken out of the oven for a holiday!’  That could only mean one thing... that they were ready to face the horrors of ... The ball mill! Sounds awful doesn’t it?
See animation for a demonstration of its brutal crushing power!
Before starting I was given some very stern warnings about the mistakes made by the previous two users of the ball mill, who had each caused catastrophic destruction costing thousands of pounds!

After several days (plus a lots of noise, some dodgy solvent smells, plenty of dust, and an encounter with two delightful pharmacy students on Tuesday who were using a polymer that STANK of fish!) I have now processed 12 out of 16 samples and have not broken anything yet... let’s hope all is ok for the last four!

J’s record of the week:

‘Uptown top ranking’
 by Althea and Donna

Jamaican teenagers Althea and Donna (aged 17 and 18 respectively), released this single in the UK on Lightning records. It was number one on the UK chart in February 1978 and although they released other material, remains their only major hit.
It brings back memories of a really snowy winter and cosy evenings cuddled up to my mum by the Rayburn in the kitchen listening to the radio, as we had no central heating or TV! I was too young at the time to have bought this on vinyl, but it is a permanent fixture on my iPod which I listen to when in need of a smile (see Monique’s blog for the healing powers of music) and I will always love it to bits!  Jerushah x 

Climbing the walls!

Hello and happy first week of lectures to everyone !

This week my blog consists of an eclectic mix of Twilight, The Wall

phenomenon and David Ruffin (starring in my record of the week)...

Twilight :

'Oh no !' I hear you say 'Not those vampire films again!'

Actually, no vampires here! But there has been a new addition to our household this week, a kitten whose name is 'Twilight.' She is eight weeks old and we collected her last Thursday. I suppose she was really scared after being taken away from her family -  we hardly got a wink of sleep that night because she was meowing and pacing up and down until dawn ! I think I managed one hour of unbroken sleep from 5 - 6am, and awoke to find that THE KITTEN HAD GONE ! I had to leave at 7.30 for work at the enquiry unit still not having found her... I was worried all day, to the point that my work colleagues had given up trying to comfort me with rational explanations for her absence. We got home to find that she was still missing, but could hear a faint meow coming from somewhere in the house. After extensive searches, my daughter finally found her in a chest of drawers, cuddled up amongst the socks ! She had managed to crawl into the drawer through a three inch gap at the top, but had not been able to get out. Cats are funny, you buy them the nicest cat baskets and they'll sleep anywhere but... She has now taken to sleeping in a teddy bear’s deckchair (cute kitten photo alert!).

The Wall: Solved !

Yes, it is as I predicted on my very first blog, I have managed to climb over ‘The Wall.’  I think I explained (more than a few times) that I was having trouble getting started on my literature review.

I had a BIG motivation problem during the summer break, and have been looking forward to the start lectures and my normal studying routine (yes, I do have one !). If I did have just the tiniest, microscopic doubt that I would start work on my literature any time soon, it has now been put to rest... and the main reason for this ? A phenomenon completely new to me, a course designed for postgraduate researchers called 'Research Methods.' 

I was a little concerned when I entered the lecture room on Wednesday afternoon. There were approximately forty other students from a variety of disciplines and at least two different schools, my thoughts ranged from 'How will they cater for such a diverse group.' to ' What does Hermeneutical mean?' By the end of the afternoon, both these questions had been answered, and my literature review problem had been sorted to boot ! Apparently they ease us into our 'BIG literature review' by supporting us in writing a 'Mini literature review' on our own research topic - Fabulous, I thought - you can always trust the University to give added value ! 

Just in case you were wondering... Hermeneutical is a word derived from the

name of Hermes, the messenger to the gods of Greek mythology and refers to

interpretation in research.

J's record of the week :
‘Walk away from love’ by David Ruffin.

I bought my (vinyl) single of this song in a junk shop when I was eight
years old. I was out shopping on a Saturday with my Uncle Paul

(Cornish farmer, and singular most important influence on my musical taste), who

suggested it would be the very best thing I could spend my 50p pocket money on that week.
He was right and I am still listening to it regularly 28 years later !

David Ruffin was a founder member of 'The Temptations' but released this solo
single under the Motown label in 1975. It was produced by Van McCoy (famous
for among other songs such classics as: 'The Hustle' and 'Turn this Mother Out').
Jerushah x