Coventry Cathedral

I've not posted to this blog for a long, long time so I am posting this image from my visit to the Cathedral on 2 January 2018.

The Cathedral holds many memories for me from earlier visits.  This was the first visit that I had to pay a fee for entry (£6.00).  I did not begrudge this as the Cathedral needs to be maintained.

There were only a few members of the public visiting so the atmosphere was one of quiet with plenty of opportunities for me to enjoy the building again.

If you've never visited this Cathedral then I recommend it to you:  you will not be disappointed.

Housing Regeneration in Tamworth, Staffs

Today is a significant moment for Tamworth, Staffs, with the announcement of Tamworth Borough Council's  £21.5m housing regeneration project for the Tinkers Green, Wilnecote, and The Kerria, Amington, areas of the town which is projected to be completed in 6 years.  Follow this link to read the announcement. http://yourhometamworth.wordpress.com/

St. George's Church, Glascote, Tamworth

It's always a delight to walk down a street and to catch a glimpse of some church architecture which excites. I knew that St. George's Church, Glascote, Tamworth, was somewhere down Bamford Street but I had never ventured there to find it - that is, until today - a beautiful warm, sunny Tamworth summer's day.

I was so excited that when I saw a priest exit the Church I stopped him to ask if he was the Vicar. He wasn't but said: "The Vicar's inside - just knock on the door of the office and walk in." The Rev. Jim Trood welcomed me as did Anne Bassett who was working there with Jim.

Jim took me on a short tour and presented me with some literature about the church and allowed me to take some photographs of the interior.

On returning home Jim's literature told me that the church architect was Basil Champneys and was built at cost of £3,000. c1880. Champneys (1842-1935) also designed The John Rylands Memorial Library, Manchester.

If you like 19c Gothic architecture then you'll like St. George's. Visit between 9.15am and 1.00pm Mondays to Thursdays when visitors are welcome and you'll be able to enjoy the exterior and interior as I did.

Some alterations/additions to Champneys work have been made including to the interior but they are sympathetic to the style apart from a horrible monstrosity of a metal chimney at the back - you'll know the style - they usually adorn fish and chip or takeaway shops where they often catch and offend the eye immediately. Fortunately, the one here is only visible from the back but I would have preferred a "solution" other than this which is awful.

Personal Wellbeing

Last night on Newsnight on BBC 2 I found this Paxman interview with Professor Seligman fascinating. He talks about how to achieve personal wellbeing viz

1. help another person

2. every night write down 3 things that went well for you during the day. This is addictive and influences your continuing wellbeing

3. if you have grandchildren write your own obituary through their eyes - this will add meaning and purpose to your own life.

Public policy for wellbeing can be influenced. He gives an example of training teachers to learn/manage their own wellbeing with these tools and others. The teachers so trained in dealing with kids aged 10-12 years pass on this "learning" with the result over time that the kids' lives have more meaning; they suffer less from depression and their wellbeing is improved.

Anyway, see what you think about Prof Seligman yourself. The interview is the last item of this edition of Newsnight so you'll have to surf right to the end to find it. I guess there might be a quicker link to the actual interview but I lack the current "computer skill" to do it.

Here's the link - hope it works:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012f4zy/Newsnight_06_07_2011/

Tamworth Lifeboats & Social Networking

Into Tamworth town centre this morning to support the Mayor of Tamworth's Coffee morning in aid of lifeboats! Yes, I know Tamworth is nowhere near the sea but we all have an interest in supporting the good work which those manning our nation's lifeboats do for all of us and this is a truly worthy cause.

Thence a short burst of retail therapy which found me in Smiths where I browsed the books/magazines.

I recalled that (like many of us) the Mayor of Tamworth is a keen social networking fan and sees this (again like many of us) as a useful way of keeping in contact with others both for business and pleasure. Ages ago, the Mayor mentioned to me that he had seen a book in a bookshop (where else?) which usefully brought together many of the tools to assist in social networking. Within the last fortnight I had stumbled across Tweetdeck (I'd read an article about it in a good old-fashioned newspaper) so looked it up. I downloaded Tweetdeck and started to experiment with it.

Now, in Smith's, I was thinking about this as my casual glance alighted on a magazine about Social Networking. As is my wont, I glanced and then went to the back cover to see the price! Ouch, nearly £10! "All this is available, free on the internet, if I only knew where to look but it will not be gathered together in one place" I said to myself under my breath.

I bought the magazine. The good old-fashioned hard-copy magazine or book "brings most of it together in one place" and is portable and easy to use. Surfing the internet offers too many distractions and I'm soon lost in too much detail and often forget what I've started doing in the first place.

Then back home for a cup of tea and a snack and a more detailed glance at my new acquisition. "Is this the sort of book which the Mayor told me about some time ago?" I asked myself. Yes, I know that I'm given to asking myself a lot of questions. There it was a section on Twitter and Tweetdeck and lots more all neatly gathered together with some attractive eye-catching pictures.

So, as an enthusiastic novice and silver surfer, I hove to my computer and resolved to Blog this experience. Because I've not blogged for awhile up pops a menu demanding my password. Out comes my file of passwords all kept in neat order (essential, I find - there are so many of them) and after a couple of goes I stumble upon the right one which lets me in to my dashboard. This constant necessity to "log in," I understand, is meant for my protection but it is still a chore when it is frequently having to be performed. When I first started surfing and "experimenting" it constantly put me off but a file of user names and passwords for my sites has helped me no end. I get over the logging on hurdle again and here I am.

"Can I add a picture to this quick blog?" No time, I want to get this off my chest and back to my social networking magazine. But wait, though retired, I have some work to do - generated by emails no doubt and then I have meetings to attend in less than a couple of hours time so perhaps the magazine had better wait to be enjoyed and absorbed at my leisure.

Modern life dominated by the computer is something I never dreamed about when I was a young or even nearly middle-aged adult. Now I am in my mid-60s, I cannot avoid it nor do I want to do so - it is exciting and new possibilities open up continually.

"Well done, Bill Gates" I said to myself as I listened to him on Newsnight on TV earlier this week, when he was discussing his current project to spend some of his vast wealth generated by his ideas for the computer on less fortunate folk.

So, I'm really back where I started this morning - give generously to the Lifeboat men or others less fortunate than yourselves and be thankful for what you might have, health or relative wealth and, if you can, take advantage of the modern technological revolution which includes social networking to keep you in touch with what is going on elsewhere in the World.

Swimming At The Peaks, Tamworth

Went swimming this morning with 4 grandaughters at The Peaks, Tamworth.

The attraction for the girls was the inflatable in the middle of the main pool which seemed popular with other children and adults too. 2 of my girls accompanied by their intrepid grandad also enjoyed the flume, over and over again - great fun.

After lunch worked in the garden and enjoyed the sunshine. Now I'm tired.