HaPpY NeW YeAr 2006
from MaRtIn!
The year began with me looking after Jake the lurcher for Kevin his owner. I walk him most Wednesday afternoons before Kevin feeds both of us. I also served on a crown court jury in January. The accused was convicted by us of stealing a hammer from his aunt’s garden shed in a vain attempt to break into her house to feed his drug habit. At the end we found out he had 122 previous convictions. What a waste of time & money, he can elect for jury trial every time since it costs him nothing!
In the spring I bought a GBP 50 mountain bike from Woolies and enjoyed cycling down the chines and along the promenade until, in the autumn, the duralier gear mechanism crashed into the rear spokes as I was cycling along. (P.S. I had the bike repaired and it served me well until 2020 when the rear axle broke!)
In the autumn I visited America, whilst for Christmas and New Year my father has booked for us to go on the QE2. We did the Caribbean three years ago and this year it’s Barcelona, the Canaries, Madeira & Dakar.
On 7/7 (our 9/11) I arrived in London at 8:20 and decided to walk across town. The suicide bombs on the underground went off at 8:45. Our meeting was of course disrupted and after lunch I made my way by bus and on foot to Brian’s house in Ealing where I spent the night, before getting the train home the next morning from Ealing Broadway not Paddington.
At work I continued as Academic Leader of our MSc course in Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). It has been moved on to our main MoD contract but with only two places a year allocated. Cranfield University has won another 22 year contract with the MoD but in the first year the amount goes down from GBP 15M to under GBP 10M so retirements and redundancies are in the offing.
In November Cranfield University finally offered me early retirement (GBP 90k tax-free lump sum and GBP 16k USS pension). However, in view of the government’s ‘A’ day pension changes next April, I declined the offer. After April I’ll be able to take a GBP 150k tax-free lump sum. A good job has come up at the Defence College of Communications & Information Systems (DCCIS) at Blandford in Dorset so I may apply. After April it may be possible for me to live off my USS pension whilst contributing 100% of my salary to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) thus avoiding income tax!
On the line dancing front I continued with one class per week. I ran 6 social dances and attended other peoples’ classes in Coventry, Clacton, Oxford, Wolverhampton, Worcester and Exeter as well as two in the States and 35 in Dorset. At the “South will rise again” Country Music festival in Poole I taught a dance to over one thousand people. Linedancer Magazine published 7 of my dance reviews, 4 of my playlists and one thank you letter from a lady in Spain!
Trips away included Seaton in Devon, Cranfield in Bedfordshire (twice), Portsmouth (twice, once for the Isle of White), Worcester and Clacton in Essex. As with last year I drove over to my Father’s place, took him via Ashbury to Parkstone and then back via Ashbury to Clacton. This included two displays by the Red Arrows and three trips to casualty. My father needed to visit both Poole General (PGH) and the new Great Western Hospital (GWH) in Swindon, whilst I was rushed to PGH when I fell off a ladder trimming the hedge!
Visitors included Mike from Southampton (four times?), Mark from Portsmouth (now Brighton), Brian from Ealing, Stephen from Welwyn (but soon Bournemouth) and Mike & Stephanie from Faringdon.