Saltford Lock

It was such a gorgeous evening I decided to pop out for a quiet drink with friends by the River Avon in Saltford. As we sat by the river chatting we watched a group of folk kayaking by the weir and a narrow boat come through the lock. It was a great opportunity to try out my new toy and shoot the clips I have used to compile this short video of the kayakers and lock gates.

Video: Simon Mills 2008

A Couple Hours In School

Planning a couple of hours at work today, unpacking, laying out furniture, popping up the beginning of our class learning wall and laying out tool pots. I met with a colleague yesterday, and am hoping also to take part in a slightly more leisurely site visit to the Primary phase building at the BLC with other colleagues from the ICT managed service group. Don't know if possible but would like to take in disgo camcorder and shoot some frames of the site as is.


Aerial Photo Bridge Learning Campus
June 2008 Image Credit: Skanska

Reading and Thinking

I am meeting my dissertation Tutor this afternoon and hoping the weather improves a little before I set off out. I have spent the last hour or so reading through what I have written so far, and can see a few things I need to refine and sort out over the next week or so. My starting point however must be to complete the data analysis section of the report, which I have used comic strips to help me with, and is nearly there actually I am beginning to see the wood in among the trees. I then need to revisit my Literature Review carefully chopping it and moving material around to support my Research Design and Methods chapter. Busy Busy...

Mountain Hockey.

Here we are looking out across the 13th hole at Stockwood Vale. From the tee behind me, the hole drops to a short run that is separated from the fairway by a stream. The fairway rises to the green in the top left of the photo. This is one of our favourite holes. Today was one of those rare occasions when we all not only managed to make clean contact with the ball, but also landed them cleanly on the fairway, without dropping a shot to the farmers on either side of the hole.




It was extremely hot today, and ending in the 19th hole for a little something to eat and drink was a treat worth waiting for, Lime and Soda is Sooooooo refreshing .

Ping, the golf ball that wouldn't come back, or at least didn't want to be found at the fifth hole, some how myseriously wormed his way in for a quiet one to finish.





Photos: Simon Mills 2008

Shock at the Loss of Grand Old Lady of Weston

As I picked up my friend this morning to play golf , he reported how a fire in the early hours of this morning had reduced a local landmark to ashes. The 104 year old Grand Pier at Weston Super Mare, also known as the "Grand Old lady of Weston," was destroyed as flames ripped through the structure, creating a plume of smoke, reported as visible up to 60 miles away.

I remember vividly my first visit to Weston as a 10 year old on holiday with my Grandparents. The fortnight's holiday I spent with them here in the west country, influenced my choice to study and finally to settle here. I have repeated many times our walks on the beach, and our fish and chips strolls along the pier at Sunset. The landmark has featured in retirement and staff summer events, framing memories of colleagues and friends, as well as the beauty of the landscape in which it was set. The pier has risen from the ashes before, after a fire in 1930, and hopefully will again.

Where is Weston Super Mare


View Larger Map

• A Brief History of The Grand Pier and Seaside Pursuits

News Footage and Coverage From The BBC

• Huge fire destroys historic pier
• 100 years of entertainment at Weston
• The Grand Pier Through the Ages

Image Credits: Top left BBC
and Middle right grandpierwsm.co.uk

Setting Up Joomla to Play

Joomla looks like being the tool we will be using to manage our Web Site Content for the campus. I downloaded a copy a few months ago to play with, having read an article in a magazine, but haven't done much with it other than exploring online live demos until this morning. Watching Video demos it seemed pretty straightforward, but as with many best laid plans this morning my inexperience would come back to haunt me.

Step 1, download xampp from Apache Friends
Step 2, download The Most Recent version of Joomla
Step 3, Set up a localhost Server on old laptop, by installing xampp
Step 4, unzip and copy Joomla Files to new folder called Joomla in xampp/htdocs
Step 5. open localhost/joomla and install
Step 6. delete temporary installation files
Step 7 run localhost/joomla and login

Sounds pretty straight forward huh! Well it was initially everything going swimmingly until Internet Explorer didn't recognise http:// localhost / I eventually resorted to the xampp read me file where I found an alternative way to get to the host using an ip address, that when pasted into IEs address bar accessed the splash page I was looking for. Using this I was able to install Joomla and Run it, log in and am now feeling really pleased with my self as I now have a space where I can practice the skills and processes I need to learn to begin thinking about transferring content from our existing website to form the Primary Pages in the Bridge Web Site.

The X Files: I Want To Believe.. Can't Wait!

It's been great to grab some me time today and think about some of the things I would like to do and this will be a must for me. I love the X Files, it was one of my favourite shows on TV. Billy Connolly is another fave, so maybe tomorrow I will pop out and book my ticket. The Truth IS out there!

What a way to spend the first day of your holiday?

The last three days at school have been spent cleaning out cupboards and moving things from one place to another, and how do Ping and I spend the first day of our break, yep you guessed it in domestic bliss, a spot of weeding, pottering in the garden, washing and washing up and a tidy kitchen once again. Hope my study looks that good soon. Next stop, an email to my ISP and spot of surfing out there.

Moblogging with Ping

Welcome to my Moblog experiment. We are starting a 1:1 anytime anywhere learning project at school and I thought that it would be interesting to explore just what it means to be a mobile learner and in this case a "moblogger," by trying to keep a tumble type blog, over the summer. This will give me a chance to see just how mobile a learner can be as I explore and share my local world explore web access in the city and my surroundings, as well as trying out a few new gismos and resources. Haven't decided who ping will be yet, did think of the "golf ball that won't come back," but perhaps he will be something else entirely.