RIP Mid-Kent College

These are a few recent snaps of Mid-Kent College (Horsted) where I studied for my A-levels and my HND in Computer Studies many moons ago. Since the college packed up its belongings and relocated to the new campus in Gillingham the buildings have fallen into disrepair and vandals have left it looking forlorn and derelict. There was a time when I used to look down the main entrance and believe it was a another world (when I was little!), we used to go past it on the way to my Nan's house, now if Countryside Properties get their planning approval it will be replaced by a new housing estate, the first phase (nearest us) to be finished by Summer 2012. It seems so sad to see the place falling apart now when I spent several years there improving my knowledge, I had my first experience with computers during my A-level course when I joined an "after school" club using Commodore PET machines, in a way it was this introduction to the mysterious world of computers that prompted me to do the HND. That and the fact that I didn't fancy leaving home for Uni and the course was sponsored by what was then Marconi Avionics so unless I was completely crap at it or annoyed anyone important I'd be offered a job, which I was and I'm still there. Whilst I'm not enamoured by the prospect of seeing a new housing estate on my doorstep, albeit that we will just see the edges where the existing footprint of the college is, I appreciate that this once proud campus cannot continue to be allowed to decay under our noses possibly attracting all sorts of unsavoury creatures during the process. So these images will remain a reportage of what was once a valuable learning facility in the Medway Towns.

Inside Animal Minds

Read about this gorgeous border collie "Betsy" in an article about animal minds in an old copy of the National Geographic Magazine that someone had brought into work. A really fascinating read into how the minds of several species of animals works when compared to humans. of course there were the usual ape characters but it also followed studies into birds, parrots and jays to name a few, elephants, sheep, octopi, dolphins and of course dogs. Both Betsy and another border collie, Rico, have learnt hundreds of words and can retrieve said objects from name or in the case of Betsy, a photo of the object. She is said to have a vocab of 300+ words and counting! It was amazing to think that animals other than apes have almost human like traits and the following quote will probably stay with me:- "This is the larger lesson of animal cognitive research: it humbles us. We are not alone in our ability to invent or plan or to contemplate ourselves - or even to plot and lie."

The other edition of the mag that caught my eye, someone has brought in a large collection of these old mags, was on "Unmasking Skin". It was an amazing insight into something that covers our entire being and which we probably take for granted most of the time. It dealt with the mechanics of skin, apparently it measures pressure, pain and temperature but not wetness, it's our brain that interprets us as being wet in the shower not our skin and touch is the most important thing of all especially for young babies. Denied human contact they can withdraw into themselves and even die. It covered the layers of skin and our defences against the sun, tribal tattoos, burns and our desires over the years to be lighter/darker depending on fashions.

All very interesting stuff which whiles away a lunchtime in paradise ;-)

Spring is Coming!

Its been confirmed, Spring is defo on its way! I've seen it for myself in new buds forming on the bushes I pass on my way home and in the clumps of daffs pushing up through the ground all over the place ready to burst into riotuous colour before too long. And for the first time today I didn't need the light on when I got ready for work, though did succumb for putting on my slap, its takes alot of money to look this cheap ;-) Dont know about you but the emerging light in the early mornings and evenings is making me feels a whole lot brighter and whilst we are still not outta the woods as far as the threat of snow goes, we are certainly edging away from it with every passing week. Which after the truckload we had dumped on us at the end of November and over Christmas, is a real blessing as last year I can remember having to go back to work after the Chrimbo break IN THE SNOW :-(

Mothers Day will soon be upon us too, April 3rd for those of you who want to know, make sure you take the opportunity to tell that special lady what she means to you. My Mum's been gone now for 24yrs this November and I still miss her, its easy to let things slide what with our busy lives but you never know when one day she wont be there anymore.

George Jumps for Charity!

My little nephew George (he's only 3yrs old) took part in a week of fundraising at his nursery and yesterday completed 119 jumps. They are supporting Birmingham Children's Hospital as I believe one of the children at the nursery is receiving cancer treatment at said hospital. Can't believe they managed to hold the kids attention for that long 'cos at their age it flits about all over the place, but my bro' posted on Facebook how proud he was of his son's efforts :-) And at that age the thought that they might actually be faced with the harsh realities of life is pretty damn scary. I remember Julia going to a birthday party for a boy in her class whose sister was suffering from cancer, leukaemia I think it was. They were all only in the Infants school and she sadly passed away after moving up to the Juniors, so no age and I couldn't believe how difficult it must have been for him to have to face the death of a sibling at his tender age. But sadly life is very unfair at times and all we can ever do is to protect our kids from such things for as along as we can.

William Henry Letley

Here's a wee snap of the little fella himself, even got his eyes open this time to prove that he IS awake some of the time ;-) Am liking his "boxing gloves", Julia had a pair when she was little, in fact judging by just how badly she scratched her arm the other week when it was itchy and made it bleed, she could do with a pair right now. Probably will end up leaving several scars, that's how bad it was :-(

William is the dead spit of his older brother George, they'll be like two peas in a pod growing up. My bro' and his significant other will certainly have their work cut out with two adventurous boys on their hands, there are definitely times when I'm relieved that Julia was an only child!

Baby Letley Now Official!

Baby Letley was officially registered into the family on Monday 21st February as William Henry Letley :-) William after Jo's grandad and Henry after our grandad, both names appear in the Letley family tree so EXCELLENT choice!

He's also put on half a pound (keep wanting to say half a stone but that's pushing it!) in the last 3 days so seems to be finally getting the hang of this feeding lark. Must be so hard for them to adjust to "life on the outside" and bless he shouldn't even be here yet so not surprised he's a bit freaked out by the whole process of birth and feeding ;-) He seems to be more active in demanding food during the night so think he could be turning into a night owl already like his dad.

Hopefully we'll pop up mid-March to say Hi, Julia's swamped with Uni work this weekend and has a study week coming up so be ideal to pop up there and check the little man out. And see his big bro' George too who I'm sure will be there to "supervise" us and drag his grandad off to play cars.

Oh and the nose piercing seems to be settling down OK after deciding to take the stud out for good. It's scabbed over a bit but hoping when that goes there should be no scarring. Pity cartilage piercings aren't like ear lobes where you could just take the jewellery out for a rest but unfortunately it heals over VERY quickly.

Nose Piercing Retired

I have taken the steps of retiring my nose stud after many weeks of putting up with it bleeding and generally playing up big time. Almost ripped it outta my face the other week after washing it which did not help one little bit so thought rather than leave the lump around the edge to get bigger and maybe end up leaving a scar I thought it might be time to let it go and allow it to heal properly. Hopefully it will be OK and the lump will diminish as it did when I removed my ear rim jewellery. I like the stud but after nearly 4yrs of it playing up periodically the novelty is wearing thin and i'm more interested in my tattoos, trust me they are by and far much easier to look after than a piercing and once healed need no further fussing. Julia was just saying over the weekend that the ear lobe piercings she had done with a needle still play up on a regular basis and yet the gun piercings are OK. I know everyone advocates needle piercings and I'm on that wagon too but somehow there must be some difference that can cause one to play up much more than the other. I am defo gonna stick to tattoos from now on...

Julia's New Tattoo

Here's Julia's latest tattoo, done last Friday by the awesome Ben Shaw who will be winging his way up to Derby at the end of Fenruary to start at a new tattoo studio up there. Guess there must be something about the Medway Towns that keeps putting him off :-( Anyhow, the piece he's done for Julia is real nice, it's fairly "old school" if you're looking for a genre, swallows, keys and hearts, but she loves it and thats the main thing. Just waiting for it to finish shedding and itching and then it will be done and dusted.

Reminiscing

Having browsed through my few photos of life at Chatham South it feels that my time spent there was a lifetime ago. I look at the young me and wonder "Where did she go?" Now at 45yrs, flying solo since my divorce, with a grown-up daughter who's just started at University and sporting my first pair of varifocals I don’t necessarily feel middle-aged but at times my body confirms that indeed I am! However its not all doom and gloom, I am the proud owner of an ever-growing collection of rather cool tattoos acquired since I entered my second childhood.

Almost the end of the week...

Almost Friday again, where does the time go? Julia is getting her next tattoo tomorrow, courtesy of Ben Shaw at Tattoo Medway - Gillingham, though he's only there till the end of February and then he leaves for Derby. Popped round Dad's last night to wish him a Happy Birthday for today, had a good natter which passed the evening along quite nicely. Baby William has come home again from hospotal having been taken in on Sunday due to him not feeding properly. They topped him up directly through his tummy whilst checking him out for various ailments but in the end admitted defeat and sent him home again. Not sure whether it will be a battle of wills getting him to feed, he can when he wants to, or whether there is still some underlying problem that they've yet to find. Better that its the former really but time will tell. Anyway gonna try out my first pot noodle for lunch so wish me luck ;-)

Sunday Morning...

Hey its another Sunday morning, not sure where my weekends go these days :-( Still we had a good time at the club last night, bit bizarre celebrating a late Xmas last week what with this week being Valentines, wondering if next week could be an early Easter ;-)

Planning to go up and see the new nephew at the end of the month if that's cool with them, think the little chap is gradually settingly in to life on the outside! Must be quite traumatic for them really, they spend 9 months (or less in his case) all nice and cosy in a water filled bubble, then get evicted out into a strange world full of weird stuff like clothes, nappies and having to work to eat! No wonder it takes them time to sort themselves out and I dont think people like health visitors and the likes help as they get all obsessive about weight measuring and percentages and babies are not all the same. I'm sure we didn't get obsessed over when we were born like they do now. Freaks new Mums out, at least Jo's been through it before with George so is less likely to be sucked in to their frenzy but still I'm sure she can do without the "life under the microscope" and just get on with taking care of William. Be good to see the little chap in the flesh and of course to catch up with George. He was very entertaining at Christmas, playing with all his cars and toolkits and chasing after his Grandad to come play! Very full on at 3yrs of age, they just dont come to a stop until they fall asleep. Wish I had some of his energy :-)

Paddington Bear

Booked a new tattoo in August with Ray Hunt to celebrate the new nephew. This time it's gonna be Paddington Bear (unless I have any radical changes of mind between now and then) with his name underneath. It'll be on my right back calf under Eeyore and George and was aptly chosen because Paddington is looking upwards and will therefore be "looking up" towards his big brother - cute or what?

Posted the proposed tattoo design on my website if anyone fancies a look.

Julia has booked more ink with my old artist Ben Shaw before he disappears back up North again, must be something we said? She's getting a swallow low down on her hip so should be cool, the kind of tattoo that is reserved for special people's eyes only ;-) be good for her to experience a different artist and she was relieved that Ben could fit her in before he leaves at the end of the month. Was good to see him actually, his appearance is rather "scary" in a way and yet he's such a nice bloke. Just proves that looks can be deceiving.

Posts by Email?

Thought the ability to post to my blog via email would be a useful thing but it's proving trickier than I thought. All sorts of issues with font sizes, extra stuff being added to the post such as company declarations and my signature for starters. For now I think I'll stick to the old fashioned way!

Hot Chocolate?

This is a bit of a test post I guess but if it works it’ll be the first sent via email!

Just been to get a hot chocolate at the canteen, not the best use of a pound I could have found. I’ve now tried it with hot water and then with milk and either way it’s a very insipid drink. Too much liquid and not nearly enough chocolate. They used to sell the most amazing hot choc I’ve ever tasted, like liquid heaven but it was too time consuming to make and the machine kept breaking down so we’ve been relegated to the instant variety :-( Even Aero make a better deal of instant choc, at least it pretends to be thick and bubbly so think I’ll skip the liquid refreshment next time or maybe buy a bottle of cold drink instead…

Worked reasonably well except for the crap added to the bottom of works email ;-)

Macbeth Soliloquy...

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I remember having to learn this off by heart when I was at school, can't remember much of it now but the thoughts behind it have stayed with me.

Busy Bee

Been a busy bee in Paradise today, been putting the data into a monthly planning report that "analyses" the latest schedule update and hopefully proves useful to those that read it.

Better than yesterday when at home I almost ripped out my nose piercing when it got caught up on a loop on the towel. Considering that my nose is playing up big-time anyway this was not a good thing to have happen :-( Dont wanna have to consider retiring it as I quite like it but it's the longest that its been "iffy" for. Dont think it was this bad when it was pierced!

Baby William is gaining weight again, after a bit of a panic about his weight loss since birth it looks like he's getting the hang of this feeding lark. To be honest I think everyone worries a little too much, babies are not a science and they are all different, all this micro-probing does is stress everyone out which is definitely not good for the baby! It must be pretty traumatic for them being born, they go from having to do nothing to get nourishment to having to wear clothes, nappies and work for their food, enough to freak anyone out! Anyway Mummy Jo seems to have him under control now so fingers crossed he settles down into life in the Letley family :-)

New Letley Addition!

Let me introduce the latest addition to the Letley family, William Henry Letley. Born on 1st Feb 2011 almost a month early and weighing in at just over 7.5lb he is George's new baby bro'.

Named after Jo's Grandad and our Grandad, the names William and Henry appear prominently in the Letley family tree.

Congratulations to Jo, Darren and George on the newest arrival. x