Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “kingston”

21 Dec 2012
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The New Toilet at Motspur Park Station. Time for CCTWee?


We all want better sanitary conditions. Most of us want toilets on stations. None of us want the station waiting room to be used as that toilet. Sadly this is what South West trains tell us has happened at Motspur Park station, a leafy suburb ( well sort of ) on the edge of Surrey and london. The result of this behaviour is that the waiting room has been closed. Now a few questions come to mind. Do the citizens of  Motspur Park have more sociopathic personality attributes than most? Do they have more troublesome bladders ? Why this station? Maybe some of my online readers can make their own suggestions as I have no idea. Motspur Park is not exactly ablaze with night life unless you fancy a night out in the Earl Beatty pub next to the station, where one now has to pay for parking, followed by a sumptuous supper in the Kebab house or maybe any one of the 3 restaurants that light up the high street. Not a nightclub in sight. Indeed the only real trouble in this area over the last 10 years has been graffiti, and even that seems to have died a death this last few years.

No, this is a situation that requires Sherlock Holmes to come forth.  The solution? Well there are many pharmacuetical companies out there that manufacture medicines for those with bladder hyperactivity and the suchlike. This is an excellent opportunity for them to undertake some remedial behaviours in  the local folks and sponsor the re-opening of the waiting room. Could we maybe have CCTWee? A live webcam perhaps?

Hmm. Better stop there.

Toilet at Motspur Park Station

Toilet at Motspur Park Station

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12 Jul 2012

Robin Mae and the Impressionists


Last night this band played in bar area of the Rose Theatre in kingston and were fantastically recieved. Encore was demanded. Nothing new about this sequence of events until one takes a closer look and you see that the two youngest band members are 11 and 12 years old. No need to make any excuse for age as they are a quality act. Great songs and surprisingly good stage presence for a singer so young. They have talent in abundance and I really think that we saw a star in the making last night. Here are a few photos to give you an idea but the full album sits on my facebook page

facebook.com/chris.bushe.3

Enjoy and when you can go and see them

 

Robin Mae and the impressionists

Robin Mae and the Impressionists

Robin Mae and the Impressionists

Robin Mae

Robin Mae

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17 Nov 2011

School choices. Nonsuch or Tiffin or not


One of the big changes since I was at school is the huge competition for secondary schools that are deemed the best. Fir example we are in the borough of Merton but have not selected any Merton schools. A few weeks ago Elena who is just 11 years and in year 6, sat the entrance exam for nonsuch school. Her chances come down to 180 places last year for around 1500 applicants . To have even a chance she had around 9 months tuition on exam technique which put simply means learning how to do mcq exams and practice in verbal, non verbal and maths. The real question when such tuition costs around 20-30£ a session for 90 minutes, is why schools are not teaching this anyway within the curriculum. Many able children will be denied a fair chance due to family finance. The other question is how much children are pushed into these exams when they don’t want to do them and are not emotionally onboard with going to what are colloquially called selective schools. One also hears of children being so stressed that they vomit or cry before or after the exam. There were rumors that may or not be true that this happened at tiffin boys school yesterday.
I was really proud of my 11 year old. She enjoyed the tuition but was lucky to be tutored in a group by a great last called mrs burgess. Recommended big time. She did well in the nonsuch exam and yesterday went to tiffin girls along with maybe 1200 others . I have to guess at numbers. We arrived 8 am to find huge queues down the Richmond road and there was a really impressive organization to get all the children in and out. This involved using coloured slips. Placards held by maybe 5-6 th formers, some very keen others totally unimpressed. Parents in lines in a tenniscourt and lots of walking up and down the road to Kingston. Big congratulations on the organization to Tiffin girls.
Clearly this is a debatable topic and in response to my twitter comments had some great discussion with pupils who both agreed and disagreed with the selective school system . Watch this space next April to see what school Elena arrives at in 2012

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27 Sep 2011

Murder in kingston on thames


Just by chance sitting at the computer ordering Elena’s birthday presents very conveniently from Amazon. Selection of books and Lego. Her request! Elena was off school monday as she came back from Windmill hill the PGL place with cough and cold etc but is fine today. she has her entrance exam for Nonsuch school on thursday! Poor things exams at 10 years old to get into a school. Seems like all the good state schools here have about 1500 applicants for maybe 150 places, so not good odds. I am off to Berlin tomorrow for 3 days to present some data at a congress with my friend, the nurse from Manchester, john, who always gets me to smoke cigars! He is the one who eats 48 oz steaks and is already enquiring about steaks in Berlin. Have a busy time over next few weeks, have 2 days in Paris, 3 days in slovenia, 4 days in toronto and 4 days in indianapolis, and holiday over half term!
one interesting thing happened today. I took /elena to her tutoring after school and we passed a house all covered in police tape like a crime scene on the way into Kingston near the infamous Cambridge estate. Seems that there was a murder there last night. Lovely area this, bit like Mexico!! elena ( the 10 yr old for those who dont know her, think a younger version of hannah montana in terms of attitude and maybe singing ability too) informed me that they are doing forensic science at school. that would make an interesting school trip to a real murder scene. Information all care of Radio Jackie tweets! am off to Berlin in the morning so not much on here till the weekend.
seems an interesting game at wycombe tonight, wycombe 3 Preston 4. Preston will go up as champions of League 1 you heard it first, and Brentford will be in play-offs and we all know what will happen then………….
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