Alford
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar
John Spendluffe College Primary
Bardney Primary
Barrowby Primary
Bassingham Primary
Binbrook Church of England Primary School
Blyton cum Laughton Church of England Primary
Boston – John Fielding Special School
Branston Junior School
Branston Community Academy
Branston Little Pickles Pre-school
Burgh le Marsh St Peter and St Paul’s Primary
Caistor Yarborough School
Caistor Grammar School
Caistor Church of England and Methodist Primary School
Caistor Montessori School (some services available at Stallingborough site)
Caythorpe Primary School
Cherry Willingham Community School
Cherry Willingham Primary School
Coleby Primary
Colsterworth Church of England Primary School
Coningsby St Michael’s Church of England Primary
Corby Glen Primary
Corringham Church of England Primary School
Digby Church of England Primary
Donington The Thomas Cowley High School
Dunholme St Chad’s Primary and nursery
Dunston St Peter’s Church of England Primary
Faldingworth Primary
Fiskerton Church of England Primary
Frithville Primary
Gainsborough Queen Elizabeth’s High School
White’s Wood Lane Primary School
North County Primary
Parish Church Primary School
Trent Valley Academy
St George’s School
Grantham
Walton Girls High School
Belmont Primary School
Spitalgate Church of England Primary
St Hugh’s C of E Mathematics and Computing College
The Priory Ruskin Academy
The National Junior School
Harrowby Cliff Infant School
Huntingtower Primary School
St Anne’s Primary
Great Limber
Brocklesby Park Primary School
Great Ponton Church of England Primary
Great Steeping Primary
Hackthorn Church of England Primary
Halton Holgate C of E Primary School
Harby Queen Eleanor Primary
Harrowby Infant School
Heckington St Andrews Primary (school trips cancelled too)
Hemswell Cliff Primary School
Holton le Clay Infant, Junior and pre-schools
Horncastle
Community Primary
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar
St Lawrence Special School
Huttoft Primary
Ingham Primary School
Ingoldsby Primary School
Kirkby on Bain Primary
Lea Frances Olive Anderson Primary School
Leadenham C of E Primary
Leasingham St Andrew’s Primary
Legbourne East Wold Primary
Legsby Primary
Lincoln
The Fortuna Primary School
Yarborough School
Monks Abbey Primary School
St Faith’s Church of England Infant School
St Faith and Saint Martin Junior School
Sincil School
St Peter at Gowts Church of England Primary School
Hartsholme Primary School
St Christopher’s School
University of Lincoln – all campuses closed
Bishop Grosseteste University College
Lancaster School
St Giles Nursery School
The Meadows Primary School and Little Learners
Christ’s Hospital School
Birchwood Junior School
Ermine Primary
Sir Francis Hill Primary School
Manor Leas Junior School
St Peter in Eastgate Infant School
Manor Leas Junior School
Kingsdown Nursery School
Lancaster Infant School
St Peter and St Paul’s Catholic High School
Leslie Manser Primary School
Priory Academy LSST
Our Lady of Lincoln Catholic Primary
St Hugh’s Catholic Primary
Louth
Cordeaux School
Wolds College
Eastfield Infants and Nursery School
Monks Dyke Technology College
Lacey Gardens School
Kidgate Primary
St Michael’s C of E Primary
King Edward the sixth grammar
Mablethorpe Tennyson High School
Market Rasen
De Aston School
Church of England Primary
Martin Mrs Mary King’s School
Marton Primary School
Marsh Chapel Primary School
Metheringham Primary School
Middle Rasen Pre-school – closed until Monday
Morton Trentside Primary School
Navenby Primary
Nettleham Junior School
Nettleton Community Primary School
Newton on Trent Primary
New Leake Primary School
New York Primary
Normanby by Spital Primary
North Hykeham
Ling Moor Primary School
All Saints Primary School
Robert Pattinson School
North Kesteven School
North Kelsey
Kelsey Primary School
North Scarle Primary School
North Somercoates Primary School
Birckbeck School
Osgodby Primary
Partney C of E Primary
Potterhanworth Primary School
Ropsley Church of England Primary
Saltfleetby Primary School
Scamblesby Church of England Primary
Scampton
Pollyplatt Primary
Church of England Primary
Scotter Primary School
Skegness Grammar School
Skellingthorpe St Lawrence Church of England Primary School
Holt Primary School
Sleaford
William Alvey Church of England school
Methodist pre-school
South Hykeham School
Spilsby
Lady Jane Franklin School
Primary School and play group
The Eresby School
Stickney
William Lovell Church of England School
Church of England Primary
Sturton by Stow Primary School
Tattershall Holy Trinity Church of England Primary
Tealby Primary
Tetney Primary School
Theddlethorpe Primary
Thorpe on the Hill St Michael’s Primary – open for emergency childcare only
Toynton All Saints Primary
Waddingham Primary
Waddington
Redwood Primary School
All Saints Primary School
Wainfleet
Magdalen Church of England/Methodist School
Busy Bees nursery
Walcott Primary
Washingborough Primary
Welton
William Farr School
St Mary’s Church of England Primary
Welbourn
Sir William Robertson High School
Church of England Primary
Willoughby St Helena’s Church of England Primary
Willoughton Primary
Witham St Hughes Primary
Woodhall Spa St Andrews Church of England Primary
Bucknall Primary
Wragby Primary School
School closures and cancellations in North and North East Lincolnshire
December 3, 2010
School closures: Wednesday, 1 December 2010
November 29, 2010
East of Wragby
Crossing the line means entering no mans land. Its a place where few dare go. It means you are either brave or stupid. A frozen wasteland with little sign of life. I can imagine the line of the trench, the lookout peering out uncomfortably through a gap in his scarf. Watching for nothing. Thanked by no one. The imagination plays tricks in these conditions, especially when you can’t feel your feet. You are almost looking for signs of blood circulation as much as movement out in the fields. Who is going to venture out in this weather?
In November 2010 the snow line divided the county into those who lived to the east of Wragby and those to the clear lands of the west. It was a short lived notoriety for the Lincolnshire market town but one that its residents would remember for days afterwards.
The line soon moved further west leaving Wragby temporarily buried under the snow. Whether everyone coped or not play no part in this narrative.
November 28, 2010
A chink in life’s curtain
It’s a comfortable old day. Snow was falling as we walked home late last night and there is an inch or so on the ground this morning. Plenty to fuel a snowball fight and enough to make sure that the golf was cancelled.
I have been out and chopped some wood for kindling and then to the garage to buy some coal and logs. It would be better to buy it in bulk at the beginning of the winter rather than in dribs and drabs but we only light the fire occasionally at weekends so we never seem to get round to sorting it out.
This morning I also bought another bird feeder. One that takes fat balls. I makes me feel good looking after my little feathered friends in this way.
Now I am sat on my own in the house, doing a bit of pottering. Today this mostly means laying down a few words. The foundations of legacy. The kids will get two things from me. Firstly they will inherit some of my genes and the effect of having lived with me for eighteen years. Then they will have my writing. None of the other worldly wealth stuff matters, not that there is much of it anyway.
I’m half thinking of having a bit of a snooze but I will have to go and pick up hannah from town shortly so there isn’t really time.
November 25, 2010
The murmur of conversation floats
The murmur of conversation floats around the hotel lounge as I wait for her to arrive. Quite relaxed, I am slumped in a chair with a pot of tea on the table in front of me. Business conversations carry on whilst my mind drifts.
This is a state of suspension I enjoy. Others continue with purposeful intent but I care not. Not whether the deal is done, the offer accepted or the idea has life. The machinations, the process, the exhortations and driving ambitions pass by in limbo.
The attendant sees to my every need, sure in the knowledge that she has my credit card held safely, out of minds eye and harms way. I imagine an infinite stay. The rows of teapots stretching to the horizon, empty, await collection. Biscuit crumbs add to the careless feel of the place.
I debate whether to order a beer but objections are raised from within. Not conscience, merely common sense. This clarity of lack of purpose needs no assistance. Even the tea is only a prop.
November 20, 2010
3rd Law Part 8 – Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The concert had its good bits and some bits where the violins strained a bit – everyone is tired on a Friday night, but these occasions are the whole point of playing an instrument. I didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight but the body still wakes up early so here I am again, streaming.
There are three sounds I hear. One is the gas ring hissing away on the cooker. It’s too early to put the central heating on – it would wake Anne up. Instead I use the cooker.
The second sound is the clock and the third is the keyboard with me tapping away at it. I notice that I seem to do a lot of typos these days. Typographical errors as was in the days of the typewriter. Maybe it is only this morning because I am still a bit tired.
I will go back to bed when I take the tea up. That second doze is a good one. The typewriter would have made a much bigger noise of course. A real clacking. My iPad makes no noise at all. I probably switched off the keyboard sounds. Stealth typing. I don’t use the iPad for writing stuff that needs speed of finger and thought. Or should that be thought and finger?
Sounds almost like the name of a pub aimed at literary types. It almost certainly has book lined walls and maybe even uses remaindered pulp fiction as beer mats. There is some poetry in there somewhere, a statement. Your book was crappy so I’m just going to use it to stop my glass marking the table. Bathos? Is that the right word. Certainly a deep disappointment.
Perhaps not. The author probably just got paid a fee for churning it out to a recipe that some bimbo (male or female – I’ve just retargeted the definition on the fly to avoid accusations of sexism) thinks they find interesting or suitably mind numbing on the beach, or both if that is possible.
Have you noticed that my paragraphs are quite short. A lot shorter probably than in that bimbo’s book. I suspect it is all to do with the font size I use in Word. It makes words look bigger on the screen so I may artificially be shortening the paragraphs although I’m not sure that there is an international standard for paragraph length. It would be difficult because different countries have different average word lengths.
I said that in quite an authoritative manner though I’m not at all sure as to the veracity of the statement (good word veracity – slipped it in to see what you think). Authoritative is also a good word though I won’t labour the point. The Germans I know for a fact have some really long words. The Welsh are also known for them but in actual fact that is based on just a single village name in North Wales. Anglesey to be more specific. Anglesey isn’t the long word, its the place where the village is. I’m not going to reproduce the long word here. It would make this paragraph too long.
Carriage return sorry “enter”. “Carriage return” is dated. Readers of this stream of words should not be confused into thinking that this is a product of the 20th, or even the 19th centuries. When did they invent the typewriter? Who invented the typewriter come to think of it? I could find out but I’m not really that interested. Ditto the refrigerator.
Due to the sheer professionalism with which I approach the writing of this stuff you probably will not have noticed that I am now using Word2007. It has a lot more features than my previous version, Word2003, well it seems to, but the problem is that I am still learning it. It took me a while to find the “strikethrough” icon for example. But I’m starting to bore you here. Shakespeare didn’t leave comments in his margins informing readers that he had deliberated over his font size or the size of his quill.
My hand writing is terrible by the way. I would have been useless with a quill. Ink spots and crossings out everywhere.
For the technically minded amongst you I have written 698 words in roughly 45 minutes. I don’t know exactly because I haven’t yet worked out where to look for the statistics on this new Word package. I only know my approximate editing time because I looked up when I started tweeting this morning.
Enthusiasm is grinding to a halt now in any case as the body reminds me that it is still a tad tired and wants to take a cup of tea up to bed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
November 19, 2010
notes
notes have feelings you know
they sometimes need love
though they can get angry
and occasionally want to be left in peace
it can often be a mistake
to leave notes to their own devices
November 18, 2010
November 14, 2010
November 7, 2010
Violent violins of Vancouver
Violent violins of Vancouver,
Dangerous double basses of Boston,
Poisonous pianos of Portsmouth and the
Terrifying trumpets of Tunbridge Wells.
October 30, 2010
floating into the day
breakfast consumed and I am set for the day
except for a state of casual undress
that eases into a Saturday full of promise
frictionless state, free of strife
Lying Awake
Lying awake in bed is when you realise that when it all comes down to it we are all just animals. The grunts, loud breathing and snores coming from the person next to you!
October 25, 2010
the frosty overhang
the central heating clicked in
and it was warm, at last,
the days of shivering
under bedclothes,
frosty hanging red nosed breath
relegated now to history
snippet on train
The man was reading El Pais. I assumed he was Spanish and imagined him a few hundred years ago wearing the uniform of a conquistador. He may of course have been a Jesuit.
There was no way of telling.
Elsewhere in the compartment sat a few people in varying states of bedraggledness and a woman of indeterminate age. I wasn’t sure whether she was looking good or good looking. It was all a matter of perspective.
The train driver was also a woman.
I was only physically there.
October 23, 2010
third law of tinternet part 7 – addiction
I’m staring at a towering in-tray. Most of the stuff in there can probably be thrown away or recycled. The point is I just don’t know because the higher the pile gets the less likely I am to tackle the job. It has to be said that usually when I do take on the task, which isn’t that often hence the height of the pile, I find a letter that I should have opened 2 months ago, or one that I had been waiting for but wondered why it hadn’t arrived yet.
It’s almost amazing that we still get physical mail. At work it will mostly be junk that gets binned immediately (or when I get round to it 🙂 ). Most people have learned to communicate by email, or instant message or twitter.
As the kids get older the snail mail system does lead to some amusing problems. Tom and I get letters addressed to T Davies. It irritates the heck out of him that I sometimes open his mail by accident. How was I to know? There hasn’t been anything uber-embarrassing yet. Just bank account type stuff.
Kids need to have their privacy though and at first it is a difficult one to get your brain round because “you have always controlled everything” when it comes to your kids. The hardest one was when he left home to go to university.
The old university thing is an interesting one. I did bugger all work when I went to uni. Had a great time. “Didn’t hurt me.” The problem comes when you have told your own kids that that is how you conducted yourself. Now I have nothing to contribute to the debate. As long as you pass and don’t get kicked out is all I can say.
You may have noticed a certain lack of flow in this writing this morning. It’s not because it’s morning. It’s because I keep jumping back and fore from twitter to Word. I keep doing it but not because I have an active twitter conversation on the go. Hardly anyone I know is awake. It’s because I’m addicted.
I freely admit this. It’s part of my rehab. It’s not really. That just came out but there could be a germ of an idea there. “The Philosopher On Tap rehab clinic for internet addicts”, specialising in healthy country walks without your phone. We could have individual lockers for people to keep their laptop battery and power supply so that internet access was denied.
For it to work people would have to admit that they have a problem in the first place which could be an issue. I’m not sure that “internet addiction” is a clinically recognised ailment yet. It should be though and someone has to invent or discover it for the first time. A bit like the “Third Law”.
There you go. I’ve just discovered something else. I won’t google it just in case someone else has already done so and not told me. That would be so disappointing. Can you detect an element of denial creeping in here? It’s a sure sign of addiction though I feel I am getting my addictions mixed up. How can one possibly have an addiction to wanting to have invented things?
I bet Leonardo Da Vinci didn’t have the same problem. Not that I am comparing myself with Leonardo you understand. He was the only inventor I could think of at such short notice. Barnes Wallis also springs to mind, the inventor of the bouncing bomb. But I thought of Leonardo first and he probably invented more stuff than BW, not that I’m sure of my facts on this one.
Anyone who feels they have an addiction to the internet should leave a comment on this post. All comments will be treated in total confidence – our therapists are fully trained. Most of them have already been through the treatment themselves.
It can be quite tough at first so we do break you in gently. It typically starts by getting you to turn your phone to silent. That way you still have the comfort factor of the phone in your pocket but are already beginning the process of being weaned off. With the most difficult of cases we get them to gradually reduce the volume of their ring tone, or change the ring tone to something less intrusive.
I used to have “phone call for Trefor Davies, phone call for Trefor Davies” as my ring tone. My daughter recorded it. That would have been a good start for our treatment programme because I could never hear it – especially if I was in a pub and engrossed in conversation. I had to change it in the end because I kept missing phone calls and we must remember that the purpose of this treatment is not actually to stop you talking to people but to stop you using the phone to access the internet.
Talking is in fact encouraged under the POT Clinic rehab programme. POT Clinic makes it sound like something different. Mixed messages there. I might have to re-evaluate the name but it will do for now.
Branding is ever so important don’t you think:) . Most of my clothes have got one brand or another on them. It isn’t what you are thinking though. They are mostly ones I have been given for free through work – none of the names on the t-shirts are ones you would recognise. I’m not a poser, just a cheapskate.
Talking about t-shirts I am just making another pot of tea. I found 4 teabags in the tea pot. Obviously not cleaned out in between “rounds”. I use 3 teabags first thing in the morning but only two during the day. Need that little bit more of a kick first thing obviously. It isn’t a huge teapot.
October 17, 2010
Sunday mornings in Autumn
I love relaxing Sunday mornings in Autumn. Classic FM on the radio, Anne pottering away in the kitchen whilst I sit on the pew at the table streaming consciousness.
The light in the back garden has a special quality this morning as the sun does its best to poke through. Half an hour ago the allotments were covered in semi translucent mists but these seem to be lifting and being replaced by a silvery glow. There are still plenty of apples on the trees in the garden. We have picked enough for our short term needs and are leaving the rest to the wildlife. It only seems fair.
A shiver of contentment ripples down my back. I have had a cup of tea, bacon sandwich with organic white bread (more…)