Chadwick St

I went past Chadwick Street today to find that the Campus there is being demolished!

Back in 1989 I did my PGCE at Chadwick Street which was part of Bolton Institute of Higher Education (BIHE) then. My PGCE was actually from Manchester University, but Chadwick Street was the Teacher Education Centre.

I had just completed my Open University Degree and decided to give up my job as an electronics technician to become a teacher! My year at the college was memorable, a great atmosphere and I made loads of friends there. I had never been to University and this was the next best thing to me.

Had a whole year as a student living on my grant...loved it!!

Spent my placements at Salford College in Worsley and Bolton College. Gosh...can't believe I taught IT to twenty four girl hairdressers at Salford College and Science to sixteen A level nurses!!

Must admit that working in a college is nothing like working in a school!

Turing apology

"Gordon Brown has said he is sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code-breaker Alan Turing was treated."

"A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer. "

Alan was a genious, he is the master of computer technology today. Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers built the first ever number crunching computers based at Bletchley and Manchester University. The trouble was that nobody knew about the computers, later, "Collossus" the first programmable computer, was a secret and after the war, instructions were given to dismantle the machines and hide them away! Fifty years later when the secrets were revealed the machines were 'found' and rebuilt. This was all too late for Alan...a sad story!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8249792.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

What was it that Winston Churchill said...something about owing so much to so few...well Alan Turing, you rank high in the league table!

I signed the petition and now he has got the apology deserved!

Iron Maiden

I was astounded when I stumbled on this picture!

Back in the early 70's I went to a gig at a Methodist Church on Chorley Old Road with Neil and my girlfriend at the time Carol. Now I have seen a few pop groups live before now at the Palais and places, but never a group like this!!

Iron Maiden were LOUD and I remember two brass horns on either side of the stage! My first real experience of Rock, it was brill!!

Then there was this other guy called SAG who danced in the middle of the floor covered in foil and flashing lights. What I didn't know at the time is that my wife Kath (and a few others) dressed him up in foil and they all danced. Now SAG is quite a guy, wore a huge chain with his name on it or sometimes with flashing lights and did his famous 'back dance'.

I will never forget the amazing Moss Bank Park festival with other other local groups like 'Black Cat Bone' and a girl called Jacky from Radcliffe who came with Kath and myself and another girl who got lost!!

http://www.theboltonironmaiden.com/

A great site!!

Woodstock

Another 40 years anniversary! Woodstock...August 15th - 18th 1969, quite a year was '69!

Brian Adams wrote a great song 'Summer of '69' says it all!

I must admit that the Woodstock Festival at the time was a bit strange to me, I didn't know much about the artists and it took another few years before I fully appreciated rock and blues stuff. Even then I thought Janis Joplin was 'noisy', now I can see the light! Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and a few others could have had a huge influence on music today had they not died early. I can see where Led Zeppelin's stuff came from, particularly where Robert Plant's voice came from....Janis Joplin!

A truely analogue festival - Valve Amps!!

Summer of '69

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zWnE-NB2jQ

Matthews Southern Comfort

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTUF5gP2KE

Janis Joplin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAY-Ei7SFWw

Open University 40th Anniversary

Stirling University - My first Summer School!

In 1980 I made probably one of the boldest decisions of my life. I started studying with the Open University with a view to getting a Degree! I had looked at other options for getting better qualifications, but when I read about the OU and the prospect of a Degree at the end I thought it was the best option. At this time I was a qualified electronic technician, but still had no GCEs. You didn't need them to study with the OU! Fantastic!
The first year I did the Maths Foundation Course M101, this was a make of break course, if I could pass I would carry on, but if not I would just give up! I had a lot of applied maths experience from my courses in electronics, but the pure maths stuff worried me! I was lucky, I met a guy from the corner before I started. He was sat at the bar in the social club around the corner with another guy discussing some questions. I overheard and asked him if it was OU stuff. It was and they were doing M101! He lent me the units and and some preparatory stuff and this gave me enough confident to make a start.
Discipline was the thing, I had to adapt to working two hours a night in my study room, away from the TV and Radio stuff!
I did it...I completed the course, passed and then never looked back!
Followed it with the Science Foundation Course S101 and then second and third level courses. OK, sometimes I struggled, but I passed every course!
It took me eight years to complete and finally become a Graduate!
Congratulations OU! It changed my life!

"23 April 1969 saw the birth of The Open University but its intellectual roots go back much further. In 1926 the educationalist and historian J C Stobart wrote a memo on a ‘wireless university’, while working for the BBC. By the early sixties many different proposals were being debated such as a 'teleuniversity', which would combine broadcast lectures with correspondence texts and visits to conventional universities - a genuinely 'multi-media' concept. "

Gosh...packages through the post every week, books, resources. Six in the morning watching the course TV program, cassette tapes to listen to!
That was in the analogue days of learning, I wonder what it would be like to do the courses again in the digital age?
High quality TV productions on TV, Sky + Box, DVDs and CD Roms, memory sticks and Laptops. Interactive Whiteboards and Visualizers. E mail your TMAs and CMAs on line! Blogs, Twitter, Forums and the Internet! WoW!!!

Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline live on Sky 0199!

Way to go...playing some great stuff on this digital, internet and satelite station. At the end of August they go live from the old Radio Caroline ship 'Ross Revenge' that has been renovated and moored at Tilbury.

Gosh...what memories of Radio Caroline on 199 back in 1966 and 1967. We had a GEC transistor radio and could pick it up during the day if my dad sat the radio next to the electric socket which acted as as an aerial. Radio 1 had not been thought of yet and Radio Caroline along with Radio Luxembourg at night was the only station that played POP MUSIC. I used to have a tape recording of the last programme when the pirate stations became illegal on 1st September 1967.

Well, I have just ordered a Radio Caroline T-Shirt that I will wear with pride when it comes. The website is super and you can listen live on-line!

http://www.anorak.nildram.co.uk/listen/newwmplayer.htm

http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/

The Black Stuff!

Unbelievible!
After 32 years the council have FINALLY decided to re-surface our road and estate!

Even Melissa can't beleive her eyes!
What was it John Lennon said...."Four Thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" well I can beat that...we have five thousand just on our estate!
My poor cars have suffered for many years, I lost count of the council men that come every year and stamp a bit of tarmac into the bigger holes, then dissappear for another year.
At last common sense has prevailed...welcome to the digital world!