Training in Cirencester, November 1999

Thursday 25 November 1999. For the moment I had done what I could for the I.T. network at Myerscough College and it was time to start to look at the Management Information System.

At Preston we had Femis software provided by EMIS, the company, with the data store running on Oracle. EMIS had been bought out, merged or otherwise acquired by Capita with the intention that all colleges using Femis would eventually move to their Dolphin software which, at Myerscough, used SQL*Server as a data store. SQL*Server still used the same SQL (Structured Query Language) as Oracle and also MS Access which I could use as a front end for running reports once I got my head around the Dolphin structure diagram. This latter looked a bit similar to the star charts used by the Millenium Falcon...

So this night I found myself staying at a tiny B&B in Cirencester where Capita had a training base. They didn't do evening meals so after the course finished on day one of two, I went into town to see what was available.

Well the Romans hadn't left much... By the time I got out of the course it was starting to go dark but there was just time for a quick look around the town. The first thing to catch the eye was the age of the buildings.

Cirencester has Roman roots and had an abbey built by the Normans and demolished by Henry VIII. The locals were not too sorry to see it go by all accounts as the Abbot dealt out severe punishments for petty crimes. In the Abbey Grounds a small section of the Roman Town Wall is preserved.

And elsewhere yet again - at the opposite end of the Abbey Grounds was the Norman arch that was the gateway to the Abbey. The Gatehouse was a small and picturesque 12th century building with heavy studded wooden doors. It is seen here from inside the grounds. Inside the arch were plaques on the passage walls.

One told us: The 12th century gate house, the only surviving building of the great Augustinian abbey of St. Mary, was one of the entrances to the precincts of the monastery until its dissolution in 1539. Purchased from Queen Elizabeth I By Dr. Richard Master, physician to the queen, the abbey site remained in the ownership of his descendants until 1954 when the gate house was presented to Cirencester in memory of the late Col. W.A. Chester Master by his family.

As it got darker, so I got hungrier. It would seem that nowhere opened until 6:30. The most likely looking place was The King's Head Hotel which had a few meals on the menu that sounded alright. I walked back to the B&B for a while and got some work done on the College's Intranet pages. I ventured out again at 7:00pm.

By now it had gone dark a bit more and I took another shot of the church, which is floodlit from the centre of the town square. The town had more or less gone to sleep and few people were about.

The receptionist of the King's Head told me that the restaurant was a carvery and I was looking forward to a meal as I walked through the ancient courtyard of the inn to the seperate building at the back. What's this? Only one other couple eating and in the bar, just two old men and a dog. And even the dog was asleep...

One of the men called out as I approached the empty bar: "She's gone to change a barrel - help yourself and get me a pint while you're at it!" It turned out to be a carvery with no roast... I had to make do with a chicken kiev, which although nice, was a bit of a let-down!

When I came out of the inn the night was black and still... (still what?) still black! If the town had gone to sleep before it was definitely snoring now! Even the teenagers were walking about in subdued groups. You might also notice that it was pouring with rain...

Work Index

Work Trips During 2004

Better hang onto something - I'm racing through an entire year here. This was my second year with JISC infoNet. The training courses I was running were taking off big style and more topics were being added.

I did a lot of workshops alongside Clive Alderson, a consultant whose business Clive Alderson Associates was very well respected in the private sector and was about to make an impact in the public sector also. Plus he was a brilliant chap to get on with and had a wealth of knowledge and a very quick mind when the odd awkward question got asked. He became a good mate and I enjoyed and learned a lot from the time I spent with him. Please note that not every trip was conducive to taking photos and there were many more not covered here!

Tuesday 27 January 2004. Standard brightness for arriving (and leaving in this case) venues during the first two months of the year. Edinburgh's Waverley railway station looking down over Princes Street Gardens with Edinburgh Castle floodlit on the horizon. The forecast was for temperatures of -14°C and several inches of snow. We didn't see any...

Wednesday 28 January 2004. With Clive running a Project Management training workshop at Preston College the following day. Having had a night at home after Edinburgh it was a familiar journey for me as I had worked at Preston College for almost 12 years from the beginning of 1988 to October 1999.

Thursday 19 February 2004. It was Clive's turn to have a night at home as a workshop in Sunderland was not too far from his own home. I arrived after dark and drove round to try to see the transporter bridge, but ended up bottling it and turning back - whether it was or not, as I got closer to the bridge it seemed as though I was driving into a somewhat scary area!

Alan Cameron and myself at one of our team building and strategy meetings. Alan was a Scot and had responsibility for Records Management training to the HE and FE Sectors, which I used to do alongside him. This particular meeting was in York and whilst I can't quite remember what exactly prompted this behaviour, I'm certain it was engineered by our boss with this photograph in mind... If not, I'll get an indignant message during the next couple of days...

[EDIT: I received this the same night... "Loving these trips down memory lane! I took that photo and nobody incited you to pose. You were just being yourselves - I doubt either of you even knew there was a camera present"] Agh, rumbled... yes that was the pose we habitually struck whilst walking down the street...

I was on the way to Newcastle on the train one day, heading for the firm's head office at the University of Northumbria. The Euston-Glasgow train was delayed so I was kicking my heels on Preston Station and I missed my connection at Carlisle. It was a nice if somewhat crisp day and I snapped this out of the window as we passed over the river near Corby Bridge after leaving Carlisle.

Wednesday 5 May 2004. With Clive in Llandudno. A band was rehearsing in the hotel's ballroom but playing the same little bit over and over again. It was a bit annoying really, as a musician myself I ended up feeling as though I wanted to go in to show them how it was done...

The hotel was also full of old women on a pensioners' special deal and we were the only two men... They were vying with each other to enter into conversation with us whilst the rest of the party shouted encouragement or giggled...

No idea of the date other than it was in May... Ooh-er, Clive and I stay in a hotel right opposite the mural in Belfast. Getting to Belfast was always an adventure. I used to fly from Blackpool in an 8-seater plane which ran a regular service from Blackpool to Belfast with a stop on the Isle of Man in the middle.

It could almost have been accomplished with a big catapult, a trampoline on the Isle of Man and a net at the far end... Coming back, the check-in procedure was often handled by the pilot who then led us out through the gates onto the tarmac to the plane. He would then read out the safety instructions before taking his place behind the controls. You were never more than 4 rows behind him.

Tuesday 11 May 2004. I was in Southampton. Clive couldn't make the trip and I was doing a workshop on my own. Not having been to Southampton before I had a wander around the old city walls and marina.

Tuesday 18 May 2004. We were in Cambridge to do a Project Management workshop for the Regional Support Centre, Eastern Region. We were on best behaviour too, as the boss was doing a quality check on our delivery.

It was June 2004 but I don't have the exact date. In Brighton for the night before a workshop, Clive had some work to complete for a client so I went for a wander on my own. Brighton Pavilion all lit up like a Christmas Tree.

The following morning we were at East Sussex University.

Later in June we were delivering a workshop at the University of Sunderland at a venue on the banks of the River Wear.

We jump to September and the start of a new academic year. I was in York for two days, spending the first day running a training workshop on Process Review techniques. It meant I had a full evening to wander around York.

The following day I had been invited to speak to an audience of IT people from universities by one of the Higher Education support agencies, possibly ucisa (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association), but I can't be sure.

The topic was the Further Education experience of Management Information Systems, something I had quite a few years of experience and a recognised reputation in. The conference was being held at the National Railway Museum, so it was a great venue.

I was first on after lunch and the host, who had a very quiet voice, was having trouble getting the audience to settle down quietly. In the end I stopped her and said over the mic, "Right, we've tried the Yorkshire way, now allow me to try the Lancashire way - SHURRUP!" It got a huge laugh from the ones who had been getting fed up at the delay and my presentation went down a storm as I made sure there were plenty more laughs amongst the serious bits.

The Director of our service and one of our researchers were present and both were complimentary afterwards, as were the hosting organisation.

Tuesday 7 September 2004. Another early morning start from Blackpool railway station and the shot was taken from the train on the curve in Gateshead as we approached the bridge over the River Tyne towards Newcastle.

Friday 24 September 2004. Taking down responses to a group activity at a Project Management workshop run on behalf of the Regional Support Centre (North West) at St Helen's College.

Thursday 14 October 2004. I'm back at St Helens College, this time to run a couple of sessions as part of the FERL Practitioners Programme. This was a national programme aimed at supporting teachers and transforming Teaching and Learning with Information and Learning Technology. I had been asked to put together some materials drawing techniques from some of JISC infoNet's resources and producing some bespoke exercises. Modesty causes me to blush excessively when I tell you that one feedback form given at the end of the event said simply: "John Burke - EXCELLENT!"

Work Index

VLEs in Aberdeen

Monday 5 June 2006. I drive over to Newcastle for the usual Monday morning team meeting and then fly up to Aberdeen with Jac to run a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) workshop tomorrow at Aberdeen University.

It's a place that I've never been to before. Aberdeen is overcast and dark, but with some quite spectacular architecture.

If there's one architectural feature that Scotland does well and is proud of - it's turrets.

There's not a lot of time for exploring but we do need to find somewhere for a meal.

Tuesday 6 June 2006. The following morning shows us a much brighter, warmer and more cheerful Aberdeen. The statue is of William Wallace. Not that he had a great deal to be cheerful about by all accounts and I'm still trying to work out if he's just poked a hole through his tunic with that great long pointy sword...

A view of Aberdeen University. Time to go to work...

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Work Index

A series of articles related to my work. Given that I used to charge around the country leading workshops in universities and colleges, many of these are more mini-travelogues than about the actual work, though there are a few that describe my input to conferences and other events. The May 2010 entry with a video is perhaps the best entry to get a flavour of my teaching style (if I can call it style...)

Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to each relevant article. A link on each page will bring you back here.