Trip to Trinity Bristol

As I left for College, just after eight this morning, two traffic wardens were out in nearby Llanfair Road booking cars parked on four of the 'drop kerbs' at the end of our three side streets. Six new 'drop kerbs' were constructed only a couple of weeks ago. It's the first time I've seen the traffic wardens out locally at this hour. At first I wondered why they were bothering to annoy residents who'd had enough trouble finding a place in our car congested back streets to leave their vehicles overnight, and would soon be on their ways to work in any case. Then it occurred to me how fed up people walking with children in buggies to reach a day nursery, or wheelchair users out and about early to get to the surgery or shops would be, day after day, having their access to a safe and easy road crossing blocked by cars.

When CBS shared office space with Cardiff Council's Civil Parking Enforcement team, last years, I remember the phone calls received by desk officers from people complaining about cars parked in the wrong place, or from people complaining that they'd been penalised for parking in the wrong place. Both kinds were often harsh and unpleasant in tone, and I didn't envy those dealing with irate citizens. Very wearing, day after day. Having a car, keeping it and using it on the roads is not a right but privilege all to easily taken for granted. The finer points of the highway code are easily forgotten or ignored. Sometimes paying the penalty is the only way to bring home a reminder of the need to consider others. As I know from my own experience of being 'caught on camera' last year.

Today I went with six other College staff members to visit Trinity Theological College in Stoke Bishop, Bristol to see its implementation of the Moodle content management system. I was glad not to drive, for a change, just navigate to a place familiar to me from undergraduate days. From 1963-1965 I lived in Churchill Hall, one of the Bristol University student residences next door up the hill to a grand property which subsequently became the Trinity campus. The College is located in a noble mansion set in wooded hillside grounds which dates back to 1669. It's been much extended since it was taken over for College use back in 1971, but still presents an elegant face to those arriving.

We were shown around after our meeting and lunched with the ninety students and dozen staff in the refectory. There's a very lively buzz about the place, with spouses and children around. All their University courses are taught on campus, and that's a huge advantage for College life. St Mike's residential students have to travel in to the Cathay campus of Cardiff University, and effectively this loses them an hour and a half of time from each study day, and distorts the timetabling of many in-house activities. Would that it were different.

It was a very interesting session, encouraging us to think that adopting it would be a positive development for St Michael's. Nice to know too that experienced help and support is there as we figure out all the questions we should ask about our information needs, prior to setting up our own system.

After a quick cup of tea on our return, I went into the CBS office and had another go with the BT duty software support team at rectifying the remote access problem for our network drive, but with no success. Time to get in touch with Iomega, I think. No Chi Gung class tonight, so I had time at home to catch up on a few tasks waiting for my attention. The list never seems to get any shorter, however.

 

Reading Week diversion

No need to get up early this morning as College routine is suspended in Reading Week. I walked there across Llandaff Fields mid-morning, and was rewarded with the distant sight of scores of gulls and crows, some pidgeons and magpies searching busily for food on the grass, suddenly all rising into the air, as if disturbed by some invisible force. Then I heard a handful of gulls above and behind me, high in the air over Penhill, crying out as they wheeled round and round. Then I noticed in the midst of them the larger form of a buzzard in a hunting mood, or so the gulls thought. It's the first time I've noticed one in such a built up area. I should keep a lookout for them in future.

This afternoon I joined the College administrative staff for a hands on learning session about the Moodle content management system, beloved of many in the educational world. It was developed as a free Open Source learning support tool by teachers for teachers, and it's an excellent resource for managing the complexities of courses that involve hundreds of students and scores of teacher throughout the year. It was a brief introduction prior to a visit tomorrow to Trinity College Bristol to see how their Moodle system operates.

At teatime, I took the bus into town and the CBS office to install the network drive and get it running to serve the three computers in use there. It's a sophisticated piece of equipment which permits remote access to its contents from computers away from the office. The installation routine was easy, but the rest was a problem, due to the BT modem we use. Later in the evening when I was at home, and Ashley was in the office, as neither of us knew how to enable port forwarding on the router, Ashley spent more than half an hour with the BT tech support team trying to do this without success, so it'll have to be tried again tomorrow. So annoying that it didn't 'just work'.

 

Better than telly

An uneventful Saturday, apart from a brisk afternoon walk across the fields for tea at Jasper's in Llandaff. It was bitterly cold, albeit just above freezing, but a persistent wind chilled us to the bone. I took my camera, but only managed a few photos of a heron hunting for fish just below Blackweir bridge. I wasn't too pleased with the result, but at least I have an indication of what settings I might try out next time I go out snapping wildlife at 50 metres with a telephoto lens.

I drove to Abercanaid to celebrate the Eucharist and preach this morning. At the end of the service a bright eyed old lady came up to me to tell me about the snowdrops under the tree behind the church, urging me to go and look. So I went out, camera in hand, and shared in her delight.

 

On my way back into Cardff to pick up Clare from St Catherine's and go to the Riverside market for veggies, I called into Staples and bought an Iomega network drive at a bargain price for CBS office use. It also has a facility for remotely accessing files over the internet, invaluable for me to keep up to date when working from home, and for Ashley when he is out and about. 

The forthcoming review of the life and work St Michael's College has been on my mind a good deal of late. With time and leisure on my hands after lunch I, worked on a brief reflection to share with students about the life time value of a diverse and holistic education for ministry when it's my turn to speak at Tuesday Matins. The coming week is reading week. I thought I was due to speak the following week, but it turns out that I'm not due until the last week of term, so there's plenty of time to refine what I want to say. I enjoy tasks like this. It helps me to find out what I have noticed, and to develop what I think. Getting to a place where I'm satisfied can sometimes be a tortuous and lengthy process. I find this more satisfactory than watching telly, even if it's less relaxing.