The Blog is Back Again

I have found it very difficult to blog just lately, the ideas have not been coming and I have been very busy adjusting to the demands of my academic course. However I am starting to manage things better so I thought that it was time to get back to writing.

I am finding my studies a real pleasure, I am studying something that I am really interested in and enjoy. Also there is not really the pressure of exams and nothing is riding on this other than personal pride. My problem is sometimes that I go off at a tangent and read beyond my brief. This can of course be time consuming. I find that I have to adjust to the digital age, particularly in my note taking. It is a lot easier to read a PDF as I can transpose the notes straight to my computer. Reading a book is slower as I can read and write, however I cannot read and type on my computer.

The course material is excellent, I really only have one issue and that is the participation of my fellow students. Every week we are posed two questions and are supposed to blog about them, commenting in turn on other people’s contributions. The first couple of weeks this worked well and there were some lively discussions. However since then it has tailed off and there are only two or three regular contributors. I find this a pity as I miss the interaction with fellow students. I have a sneaking suspicion that the majority are just reading and preparing for the end of term essay.

Still I am learning a lot, and really it is teaching me how little I knew even about things local to me. I am finding the story behind Whitby in the nineteenth century fascinating. Here was a small town argued over by the grandee’s of the North Eastern Railway, and no less a person than George Hudson that were fundamental to its development.

So now that I have started to get into a routine I will endeavour to blog more.

Railway Studies and Playing Trains

As I have already blogged I am undertaking some post graduate studies, this has already led to some comments from my family along the lines of “Nerd” and “Obsessed”. To confirm all of this I have spent the day in York, studying and playing trains.

Firstly I was at the National Railway Museum; it really is a spectacular national treasure. Although it has many full size exhibits I rather like the ephemera associated with railways. There are fantastic models that have been made of engines and boats, and the silver ware and crockery used by the railways. They exude a confidence that these were the great industrial combines of their age.

The museum also has a good library of railway books; particularly some obscure journals that I use on my course. As it is free to use and has good Wi-Fi it is a natural place to go and study. I have an advantage over all of my fellow students in living within easy reach of this facility. It must be a lot harder living abroad to undertake this very British study, even in this era of e-books.

The other big bonus of today was hidden away in the corner of the museum. There they have a large model railway dating from 1905 that was used to train the signalmen of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and it’s successors right down to Rail Track in 1995. It is a fantastic working period piece. Everything works, and even at model pace you really experience the pressure of working in a signal box, particularly for me because it is double track, and I am only used to single track with passing places. My thanks to the volunteers who guided us through using it.

It is the Grandchildren

Well we have just put our two grand daughters to bed, what a day. Their parents were off for a weekend at a luxury hotel so we were volunteered to look after the girls. Absolutely no hardship!!

Firstly I now regret staying up talking with a glass of bourbon to 1.30am. It was no preparation for the 7am start when two faces appeared round the door. Now we had promised the girls some time on the beach with buckets and spades, probably you should make such a promise after seeing the weather forecast. It was a brisk easterly wind straight off the sea, mixed in with rain.

Still undeterred we ventured on to the beach, there was nobody else there except dog walkers and one wind surfer. It was great, we ran around, dug holes, built sand castles, and for some mysterious reason buried two footballs. However after ninety minutes the girls were becoming cold, so the idea of a picnic in sub-zero temperatures was abandoned in favour of having it in front of the kitchen fire. Multiple ham rolls disappeared in no time at all. One child had a bath while the other was read stories.

I think all parties were happy to play indoors, where the barge of the Sylvanian families met Pirate Island. It appeared to be a holiday for the Sylvaniains in an island paradise.

Time for tea and a disappointment, we walked to the local fish and chip shop where it was proved that I could no longer out-run a six year old. However it was shut for holidays so no matter we had to drive for our traditional tea. The best moment however was when the three year old on being asked what she would like responded, fish and chips (so far so good), with scraps!!

Well after a mountain of fish and chips with mayonnaise we all donned our night wear for a film evening. It was great we watched Shaun the Sheep the movie. It was hugely successful as it had the entire audience in fits of laughter. It was a brilliant films hugely well crafted with something for all ages. It was like a silent movie as there was no dialogue, just music and sound effects.

Then after the usual, but this time very muted protest it was to bed. I can now hear the zzzzzing coming down the stairs. We are having an early night after a really lovely day. It is fantastic having grand children.

Everyday is a Weekend

Now you might think that the above is self-evident if you are retired as I now am. But I would like to take you through that statement in more detail to show how my life has been turned upside down by retirement.

Friday Evening

The disadvantage of being retired is that Friday evening is the same as every other. It is no longer the gateway to the weekend, but the same as any other evening. The pleasure of sinking into the chair with a cool beer with the weekend ahead. I can do that any evening of the week. However the advantage is that with no work Friday evening can start earlier. This Friday we took advantage by going to the theatre to see the Glass Menagerie; previously we would not have been able to start early enough. The play though divided opinion, it was well acted, but I felt that the play had dated.

Saturday

This becomes a catching up with what you have not done during the week. This week I had shopping to do, to get a haircut, sort out some insurance details, pay the months bill and do the finances. There was something else but I forgot. Amidst this it was great to see our friends Barbara and Iain.

Saturday Evening

So Saturday evening now becomes chill out time. We cracked a great bottle of French red wine, had a fantastic meal and sat down for some fairly mindless television. It was then that I made a mistake; I decided to sample the bourbon that my son had given me for birthday. It was delicious, but I probably over-indulged!!

Sunday

So on Sunday I had to work on my university course to get a jump on the week ahead as we are travelling to Stratford-on-Avon to see Henry V. (Really looking forward to it has received tremendous reviews). So it was an early start (for a Sunday at least) at 8am and down to work in my dressing gown. The work is challenging, but interesting. Getting things like the referencing correct is really difficult. Hanging over it all is the end of term assessment; I already feel the weeks ticking away. Fortunately half way through the day Marion dragged me out to do some exercise. But I was finished by 6pm and felt a sense of achievement.

Sunday Evening

Phew, an evening of conversation and planning. And now next week……

Busy Week and the Start of Academia

This week is the first of my proper retirement and it has been a shock to the system. Studying railway history has at least for the first week proved challenging but very enjoyable. It is so far removed from my time in college that I might as well be on another planet.

Firstly as I expected everything is on-line. Each week we take a topic and the tutor suggests some reading and then poses some questions for discussion. So far so straightforward, but the questions are designed to provoke what I would call a seminar. The seminar of course takes place completely on-line, so this takes away a little of the live interaction that you might get in a seminar room. The comments tend to be just a little too polished, I certainly agonise over my turn of phrase. Perhaps this will become more natural as the term progresses and things become more naturel. It does however get me thinking.

The technology really makes the reading easy. I have purchased a core of the text books, but most things are accessible on-line, can be downloaded as a pdf, stored on the cloud, and are immediately available on my I Pad. Therefore I can take advantage of every moment to read, and also store the articles without taking up acres of shelf space.

I am nervous about the assignments as in just over nine weeks time I am going to have to submit a fully annotated three thousand word essay. I am already having some trouble with my footnotes. Even the magic of MS Word I manage to go off track.

Along the way I am learning some interesting facts, for instance I surprised Laura by telling her that in 1899 a railway company paid her alma mater the LSE £100 to take one hundred workers, presumably managers, on their courses. Seems like a bargain to me. I also though that the universal delivery of mail came in with the Penny Post in the 1840’s, it did not it did not come in until almost the end of the century propelled by the widespread use of the bicycle.

So when you add signalling at Goathland, and volunteering it has been a hell of a week.