Education.

This is a follow on from a post three years ago “Education education education” Not much has changed.

This caught my eye. David Willets, a former Tory MP and a current Tory Lord says that we need to increase the number of places at University to avoid our children getting low paid jobs.

Now, is he an idiot?  Does he think that going to University stops anyone from getting low paid job? If 50% of the population go to Uni, but 75% of the population are required for low paid jobs (someone has to do them) then half of the people in low paid jobs will simply be degree qualified, but with a huge debt.  So is he an idiot?

No, he’s not an idiot, but he may have a little self interest?

He is currently:-

• a visiting professor at King’s College London where he works with the Policy Institute at King’s,
• a visiting professor at the Cass Business School,
• a board member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
• and a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.
• On 9 February 2018, the University of Leicester announced they had elected David Willetts as successor to Bruce Grocott to become their new chancellor.
• As the minister responsible for universities, Willetts was an advocate and spokesperson for the coalition government’spolicy of increasing the cap on tuition fees in England and Wales from £3,225 to £9,000 per year.
• In November 2013, Willetts announced the sale of student loans to Erudio Student Loans – a debt collection consortium – removing £160m from public debt but ignoring the implications for former students.

From Wikipedia

I think it would be fair to say that he has a bit of a vested interest in increasing the number of students, which will call for an increase in the number of lecturers and therefore more responsibility for the governing bodies of Universities and therefore more money for them. 

As always, particularly with the Tories, follow the money.

Every extra student brings in an extra £9000 a year to the Uni’s and most leave with a huge debt burden. When they enter the job market, the majority will find they cannot command a higher than average salary, and they are way behind their more enterprising friends who have been earning and building a career for the last three years and have no debts.

But David Willard and his ilk won’t give a damn.

Rame head, Whitsand Bay, Cawsand and Kingsand

 It was Linda's turn to plan today.

We breakfasted at home then drove to Rames head. The road is quite narrow and winding over the last few miles.  From the car park we walked down then up the long climb to the church at the headland.

We passed some horses on the the way, including this  young foal.  Meg was interested but did not bark or disturb the horses in any way.

 The climb didn't seem to slow Meg down at all, although we weren't quite as fast. 

It seemed strange that the ancient church had a big concrete slab added on the seaward side.  This would have been a WWII gun enplacement.  The views of the sea and the cliff are stunning.

We walked back down and and up again to the car park, passing the horses again.

We then drove to Whitsand Bay where we had lunch at the Cliff top cafe.  The coffee was excellent and we shared a bacon, brie and salad sandwhich. Linda kept her bacon for Meg. 

 Then we walked down to the beach. I say "walked" - it is very steep and quite a challenge just to get down.  We were on the beach at two hours before low tide - the beach is not existant at high tide. We did our usual stroll along the beach while Meg sprinted backwards and forward probably covering more than 10 miles.  We encountered a couple with a lovely Spinose dog - an Italian breed.  It just trotted along beside the owners - the exact opposite of Meg.

Then it was the long slow arduous climb back up the cliff.  Meg was not much help - she pulled hard on the way down (the last thing you want) but did not give much assisstance on the way back up.  We finaley reached the Cliff Top Cafe and treated ourselves to a couple of Magnum Classics.

Then in the car, and a short drive to Cawsand and Kingsand where we had a pint overlooking the beach and the sea it the Devon Bar.  Then we walked up to the Rising Sun where Linda had booked a table.  The food was good bit not as posh as the night before in the Manor hotel in Rilla Mill, although the prices were similar. Table service however was far faster.

Then we drove back home.  The drive took 65 minutes.

Stara wood again

It was my turn to plan

So we had breakfast at St Kew Farmshop then drove to Rilla Mill where we set out on the Rilla Mill to Plushabridge circular walk. It is classed as moderate-strenuous so I thought we might not manage it all. 

We didn't,  so we cut it short after around 2 miles.  It was a lovely walk though. We then drove to Calstock for a look around and had a drink in the Taymar bar.

Then we drove to Callington with the idea of getting a coffee, but at around 5pm, most cafes were closed.

So we drove back to Rilla Mill and the Manor hotel where I had booked a table.

The food was excellent, but the service was really slow.  The drinks did not arrive until I asked a waitress, but by then we had almost finished the meal so Linda declined the white wine she had ordered. I dranl my San Miguel Zero, and after talking to a couple of local farmers who were interested in Meg and wanted to buy her as a sheep dog! We declined.

Then we headed back home.  The trip back was only around 40 minutes, but the trip there was much longer.  Google took us on a strange route from the St Kew Farmshop.  It would have been quicked to go back towards Wadebridge then go voa Bodmin and the A30.

Once again we did not think to take photos!!!!

Stara Woods

 I am writing this a few days after the event, but here we go. It was Linda's day.

 We had an appointment at the Vet on Wednesday, to chech out Meg's eyes. They were fine.  Then we went for Breakfast at St Kew Farmshops.  Linda got granola with all sorts of fruit an yoghurt in it and I got a bacon sandwhich.  Both were excellent and the cafe, although busy was was not completely full of visitors.

 Then we drove to Stara Woods.  The entrance really took some finding!  We drove for miles in circles, before following the website directions very carefully.  For future reference the entrance is beside Stara Bridge. 

The woods are wonderful.  

 

 

(I took a couple of videos too but they don't work on here if I load them up.  I'd need to put them on youtube or similar.)  The rope bridge was fun.

After Stara wood we headed to the Rising Sun in Alternun for a pint.  But it had stopped searving an hour before we got there.

We'd had a great day again.  

Boscastle and Breakwater Beach

We had to take Meg to the VET in Padstow at 10am so we just had coffee before we set out. Meg had a slight discharge from her eyes so the vet examined her then gave us some drops to put in. Then we headed up to Boscastle

The weather had cooled to a quite nice 22C (it had ben up to 29C in the last few days) and we got a seat out side at the Toby Jug cafe.  We both had a Toby special breakfast which was delicious BUT we both fely slightly queasy for the rest of the day. Neither of us mentioned it at the time for fear of spoiling the other one's day.  It felt similar to travel sickness.  Mine sorted itself out by around 9pm but Linda's is hanging on the following morning.

From Boscastle we drove to Bude, and the Breakwater beach.  The tide was out so there was some sand and very few people on the beach.  Meg had a gret time.  On the walk to the beach she took off across Summerleaze beach - which has a ban on dogs off leads and (I think) up to a £1000 fine!! but she came back and then wend running wild on Breakwater beach which was fine.

After that we drove to the Little Pig Cafe.  We got there around 2:45pm and there were plenty seats. They had stopped serving hot food but we just wanted coffee and cake anyway.  The website says they shut at 5pm, the sign on the door says 4pm,  but we were the last ones in, as they were tidying up at 3:30.

We then drove to Trebarwith strand with the intention of going to the beach and a drinh at the Port William.  But we both admitted we were really feeling a bit queasy (from the breakfast) so we headed home.

The intention was to go to the Gin Shack for drinks and nibbles, but we decided to rest our stomachs and we stayed in, taking a rain cheque on the Gin shack.

Despite the slight queasiness it was a nice day and we had a good time.  It was Meg's first walk this week as the temperatures have been too high to take her out.

Golitha Falls and Dozemary pool

I have decided to start using this blog as a record of what we are doing. 

Yesterday was Linda's choice so we had Breakfast in the Granary in Wadebridge. 

Then we decided to pick up some medication at Boots.  They said they had no prescription for it.  Rather than phoning the surgery and waiting for ages for them to answer we went to the surgery.

No-entry! Please ring Bell.  Ring, wait, ring, wait, ring wait for 5-10 mins till someone answered.  Not allowed in, have to explain at the door.  They dissappear, come back after a couple of minutes, asking more details.  I say the hospital has sent you a letter.  They dissappear, come back after a couple of minutes, saying the pharmacist will call me.  Meanwhile a lady behind me says she has to come in as she has been standing in the hot sun for 15 minutes and she has cancer and kidney failure.  The receptionist had not bothered to enquire if everyone is OK.  Port Isaac surgery Wadebridge branch administration is very lacking.

That episode over, we set off to Golitha Falls. We thought we'd have it to ourselves but the car park was full of tourists.  Probably mainly due to Rick Stein and Dawn French promoting Inkies smoke house (which adjoins the car park) on TV.

But we were able to get a nice walk through the woods.

Then Linda had planned to go to Trevallicks farm shop on Bodmin moor.  We had to eat inside as the, rather few, outside tables were taken.  He had to wait ages to order then ages again for our order.  The food was very good the prices quite reasonable, the surrounding nice, the view spectacular, but the service was one of the slowest we'd experienced.

Then we decided to go for a pint in the Crows Nest pub in Crows Nest Village. A really nice pub. We sat outside.  On the way back Linda suggested we visit Dozemary pool which is alleged to be the lake where King Arthur was given Excalibur, by the Lady of the Lake, and where Bedivere threw it to be caught again by the Lady.  The lady was not there to today but I got a picture of these two ladies by the lake.

Then we went home - the long way through Lanivet as I missed the Bodmin turnoff.

Jon's chippy for tea, then an episode of "The syndicate" on the telly.

A good day.

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 This is the first post documenting our days out.  It's quite easy and being able to pick pictures from Google photos makes it quite easy.

We do need to take more pictures though.

I'm a dinosaur

Maybe it's what happens as you get old yourself.  Identification with old things maybe, or simply resistance to change.

For example, my pedal bike I bought in 1968 and I think it was about 7 years old then.  I still ride it and it works fine, although it could do with a lower first gear. This is strange as even 30 years ago it seemed fine!

My motorcycle is an 1984 model BMW R65LS which I have had since around 2001 and I see no reason to replace it.

I am typing this on an old Lenovo Thinkpad X200s running Windows 7 which I really do not want to replace. Although when the bank said, effectively, "If we lose your money and you are not using Windows 10 then you are to blame" I was forced to buy a laptop that could run windows 10.  It's a HP, but once again a very old one. I only use it for banking.

I run an eighteen year old version of Microsoft Office and a fifteen year old version of Photoshop and a nine year old Microsoft Expression Web to design my websites.

When I was a keen amateur photographer I used a manual focus Minolta X500 and a 1940's Rolleiflex for for around 20 years as the world switched to autofocus computer controlled stuff. When I turned professional I bought a Nikon D70 digital camera which I still use occasionally for old times sake.

I bought a new scooter!!!  It is a very basic 110cc Suzuki and about as basic a machine as you can get nowadays.  I enjoy it so much that I bought another scooter, a 300cc Honda.  It is two years old and much more powerful than the Suzi, with lots more gadgetry.  I prefer the simplicity of the Suzi and will probably sell the Honda soon.

So I'm a dinosaur.  But Dinosaurs dominated the earth for around 150 million years and homo sapiens have been the dominant species for under 10 thousand years.