Ouch – One Step Forward…

Having reviewed the kit list for my trek up Kilimanjaro, a trip to buy some new walking boots and a bigger rucksack was in order.  Over in Harrogate is a family run outdoor pursuits shop called Out and About (http://www.outandabout-online.co.uk/ ).  My good friends Pat and Diane duly kitted me out with shiny new boots and rucksack and my “flexible friend” helped out too.  If you’re jaded by the lack of customer service at Cotswold, Blacks et al, give them a go!

What to do to break in the new boots? A short walk to minimise problems would be advisable.

So a crisp Sunday morning finds me stomping off along the Dales Way from Addingham to Grassington, not such a short walk!  Kate joined me at Burnsall and we walked up to Grassington and back with a break for lunch.  Despite the doom-laden weather forecasts of the last couple of days, it was a sunny morning, t-shirt walking weather in fact.

After around 16 miles, my feet felt fine with no blisters but my right shin had become quite painful (maybe the twinges after 6 miles or so should have been heeded).  Needless to say there was little sympathy in the Shaw household after my antics.

On the fundraising front, I’ve also set up an account with Easy Fundraising … a website that offers cashback if sites are accessed via its pages.  Instead of the cashback going into your pocket, the cashback is given to the nominated charity.  Quite a neat idea and I’m hoping it’ll generate a little extra into the fundraising pot.

If you want to contribute via the cashback site, click here:

        http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/jonshaw/

There are also details on how the site works here:

                http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/how-it-works/

Meantime, if you’d like to give via the traditional donation route, then click here:

                http://www.justgiving.com/Jon-Shaw2013

On the fund raising front, I’m looking at organising a music night at Addingham Mem Hall sometime in September if I can get some bands together  and also looking into whether I can organise a horse racing night too.  Kate’s helping out too by roping in Ermysted’s Grammar School to do a “non-uniform day” for the pupils to contribute a £1 each.

Reality Bites!

It's been a long time since my last sporadic blog but I actually have something to blog about for once...

This week’s “earworm” is the refrain “you may say to yourself, my god, what have I done?” from Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads.  "Why's that?" I hear you muse...

At the beginning of last week I got confirmation that I was successfully registered for the Alzheimer’s Society hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in January 2013.

The Alzheimer’s Society is dedicated to defeating dementia through research. They fund research into the cause, cure, care and prevention of dementia.  My father in law Walter passed away after a long time of suffering from dementia.  I saw a bright and funny ex-bank manager fade away as the dementia took hold.  I also saw the effect that Walter’s dementia had on his family and friends and this trip is a way for me to raise funds to help improve our understanding of this pernicious disease.

At 19,341 feet (5,895 metres), Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the African continent and the trek up the mountain is not for the faint hearted (apparently).  Whilst I can prepare for the walking the one thing I can’t prepare for is the threat of altitude sickness at such heights.  However, if Chris Moyles and Cheryl Cole can make it up there for Comic Relief…how hard can it be ;-0

To be honest, I am most worried about the fund raising aspect…  I have to raise £3,900 for the Alzheimer’s Society by November of this year!

I now need to start planning some activities to get the money flowing; first up a horse racing night sometime at the start of July and then I’m hoping to arrange another event at the beginning of September.  Any fund raising suggestions are welcome!

Meantime, if you’d like to sponsor me, you can do so at the following link:

http://www.justgiving.com/Jon-Shaw2013

More on my fundraising ideas and training progress to come J

Poetry, trying to “get it”

Unlike some people, I “get” Jazz and I “get” Prog Rock but despite numerous attempts I can’t seem to “get” Vic & Bob. Also on my “I don’t get it” shelf is poetry.
I felt it was time to move poetry to somewhere else in my mind space (no chintz allowed) and that’s why I find myself attending a poetry evening at The Craiglands Hotel put on as part of the Ilkley Literature Festival.

I have a barely suppressed feeling of entering a familiar but somehow different reality as I sit down and wait for the fun to start. People are chatting about poetry, poets and their personal favourites and I feel apart, left out and bereft of conversation. To me “iambic pentameter” sounds like a device Walter Bishop would invent on the sci-fi programme Fringe and I feel slightly uncomfortable. Then, horror of horrors, the person next to me asks me a question about the poets appearing tonight… now I know how a rabbit feels heading towards speeding wheels. Neatly dodging the question by asking one of my own, the evening starts.

Tonight, three poets are reading from their collections.
First up is Paul Bentley. Brought up in the South Yorkshire coalfields, his first reading is a section of a long and powerful poem about the miners’ strike. He finishes with a football related poem regarding traditional team rivalries. I think I would need to study Paul’s poems on the written page to appreciate all that he was conveying tonight.

Paul is followed by Jonathan Davidson and his poems are personal, nostalgic and humorous with the unexpected appearance of death and mortality in a lot of them. So much so, that I can imagine Pratchett’s Death sitting at the back (thinking in capitals of course) and nodding sagely whilst wearing a beret and puffing on a Gauloise.

The final poet is Ian McMillan. Another of the Barnsley professional Yorkshiremen alongside Dickie Bird and Michael Parkinson, Ian’s poems, when he can fit them in around an almost non-stop raconteur patter, are funny and observant. He’s fast becoming another national treasure.

The evening ends with a Q&A session and then I reflect on three poets with completely different approaches to the medium and all of them making me stop and think about subject matter and observation.

So, do I “get “ poetry now?

Nope, but I am starting to appreciate the breadth of what poetry can be and a desire to understand more. Where to start is the issue.

Now, where did I put that Shooting Stars box set 

Village Update - more like a catch up!

The Scout Hut is no more :-(
Scouts and Beavers/Cubs are now meeting in "temporary" venues until the Parish Council and the local leaders can determine a permanent venue... I don't think I will hold my breath over that after the acrimonious debacle over the Parish Council "providing" a new alternate venue...seems local politicians are no different from those on a larger stage.

Access to Ilkley Grammar School for Addingham residents was eventually resolved, for now, but the spectre of future problems looms. Attention now moves to the possible redevelopment of the IGS site with the "best" solution from a bad bunch being a new purpose-built campus in Ben Rhydding. Needless to say, there is local opposition in Ben Rhydding to increased noise/traffic issues and concern in Addingham that the school is even further to travel to - possibly meaning further catchment area issues. Ho hum.

Here's a link to Education Bradford's website on the programme. Given that IGS is in phase 3 and phase 2 is only just getting under way; we may have a long wait for a new school wherever it may be.

Occasional Musings...

Very occasinal given that there has been no blog for over a year!
God knows ewhat I'd do if I had to twitter.

Village Fault Lines Appear...

and they're nothing to do with the recent UK earthquake.

Last week it was announced that around 17 children from Addingham Primary School were not allocated places at Ilkley Grammar School. The impact of this on the local village community is likely to be large.
Whilst the Ilkley Gazette article last Thursday touched on some of the issues, there is a danger that the fact that the children are being offered places at Greenhead school in Keighley will raise the spectre of racism due to its' location and catchment area.

Ilkley Grammar School has been the school of choice for children in the Wharfe valley for a long time, in fact some people would be hard placed to determine a state-run alternative. The Staff at IGS have worked hard to provide exemplary teaching standards in a school wanting for space and investment from Bradford Met. The school is regularly one of the highest achievers in the district and even attracts sixth-formers from the private schools in the area.

However, space is limited and now there are not enough places for this years prospective attendees. The end result is heartache for local children who are now told they can't go to their school of choice alongside their classmates because of where they live in the village. At the time of blogging this, there was no evidence of similar issues in Burley or Ben Rhydding.

A line has effectively been drawn within the village.

How will this affect the education of those affected?
Unfortunately, Greenhead is under "Special Measures" and the other offered alternative of Airedale has only just come out of "special measures" - significant for those school's existing pupils let alone the families of children who expected to go to the local Wharfedale school.

How will this affect housing?
Well, spookily Addingham has always been seen as feeder school for Ilkley Grammar and people have moved into the village to take advantage of this (there's a surprise)...the recent decision is likely to have a significant impact on housing decisions in future years!

How will this affect the village?
Alongside the house price apartheid issue, initially I thought it would split the village but now we seem to be seeing a pulling together of the community in opposition to the decision and the future ramifications.
There's a meeting at Addingham Primary School on Thursday 13th March for concerned people to meet with Education Bradford.

I'm sure I'll reurn to this issue in the near future.

Way out of here!

Leeds Metropolitan University Union - Porcupine Tree 9th December 2007

Another trip to see PT. Supported by Anathema who were not my cup of tea but seemed to apply themselves earnestly and had a stand-in drummer - not easy for either party I guess and not sure what he was stood in :-).

This tour was billed as Tour of a Blank Planet and the set list was, as expected, focussed on FOABP but with some interesting oldies like Waiting appearing. Couple of the songs seemed a tad ragged but found myself bouncing along to Open Car and Sleep Together like, like, well like a dad that can't dance!

Moving back to things Addingham...
Today (13th December) is local Parish Councillor election day in the village and I will be down at the Memorial Hall to cast my vote later this evening. If we don't vote on these things we can't really expect to be able to complain if our elected representatives don't follow through on issues we hold dear. For me the election boils down to picking someone I don't know about or an ex-councillor I know reasonably well and who is known to be anti-Scout Hut. I guess that last sentence really tells me which way I will lean tonight. Not sure if that's a good enough reason to vote for someone I don't know from Adam but I suppose that's the nature of local politics...we make judgements on how close a candidate's views match our own rather than the bigger picture.

The saga of the Medical Centre/Scout Hut continues at a snail's pace and I wonder whether we will ever see a new permanent venue for the village.

I see in the press that Sustrans has obtained a £50M grant from the Lottery to provide further cycle paths and expect that to kick off the village civil war again over who is right and who is wrong over the proposed path to Bolton Abbey.