Continuing in the ‘exotic places I have jogged’ series, here’s three laps round the lake at Disney World in Florida. Glad I went out at 5.45AM as it’s warming up already (or was that just me!) 21′49″, roughly 8.6 minute miles.

Thank you very much for the parking fine I found on my car as I departed from Kemble Station this Monday evening. I would like to explain the circumstances around this fine, in the hope that you might reconsider.

As is quite common for me, I was planning to catch the 09:19 train to London Paddington. I left home with plenty of time, so much in fact that I arrived at the station shortly after Nine O’Clock. As I saw I had time on my hands, I chose to buy my parking ticket at the same time as my train ticket - in this way, I thought, I would save having to file two expense forms.

So, I drew up outside the station and popped inside to queue. The line was quite short, to the extent that I was not in the slightest bit worried. At first anyway - until I realised that the person at the front of the queue was buying an old person’s railcard.

Starting to fret slightly, I sighed with relief as that person was dealt with - and then the next, who was also very slow. My nerves were further agitated at the sight of a car park attendant out of the window.

The next person in line was about to be treated when I heard the announcement for the 0907 to Cheltenham. To my horror by this point, the ticket officer gave his apologies and left the booth, to deal with the train. The car park attendant was still outside, and I did start to go speak with him but before long (though it seemed an age) the ticket attendant returned.

I calmed down somewhat as the next person was dealt with and the attendant (having changed into a summer jacket) drove away. There was then one or two people in the queue, which were dealt with before me - but by now the time was approaching 0915 and the speakers were announcing the arrival of the London train.

Arriving at the counter I asked for a return ticket to London but I was so flustered I completely overlooked asking for car parking as well. Having got my ticket I ran out, got in my car, drove to an appropriate parking space (fortunately there was one nearby) and then ran back to catch the train. Admittedly by this point the parking charge was the last thing on my mind.

I hope you understand that it was certainly not in my interests to park without a ticket, nor would I ever intend to. However I also hope you will take these mitigating circumstances into consideration.

All the best, Jon Collins

We found this fist-sized blobby thing in the pond over the weekend. If anyone has any idea what it is, please do share!

A bigger version is on Flickr.

Burn, baby, burn burn burn. Also known as: a teenager’s guide to cookery. Step One: watch the oven.

The snow here has been absolutely fantastic - real winter wonderland, memory making stuff. There have been village snowball fights, sledging and a phenomenal team effort to build an igloo. Take a butchers at this. More due tomorrow apparently.

If your son says, “I’m going to make a snowman like in Calvin and Hobbes,” be afraid.

Just upgraded to Wordpress 2.7. Following an “issue” with the site which turned out teo be me needing to top up my data transfer quota. Thanks Fraser

This should go some way towards explaining why I’ve been so busy recently…

Interesting times, indeed. But exciting!

I’m sure there is a good bit of Las Vegas. As I sit here at Newark Airport, half way home, I am racking my brains to think what it might be. The past couple of days I’ve had the delight to attend what turned out to be a rather enjoyable conference (really), and I’ve spoken with some great people and had a pretty good time. If only I could say that Las Vegas had anything to do with the more pleasurable parts of the trip, but I just can’t.

It took me a while to realise what was wrong, then one morning, when I was out for a half hour jog, it dawned on me. I ran past a bunch of twenty-somethings standing outside a casino, and one of them laughed, heartily and out loud. I suddenly thought what a rare phenomenon that was - there’s beaming smiles up on the hoardings, and lots of faux-bonhomie around the tables but genuine, friendly laughter is a rarity.

What is it about that place, that man-made rats nest of gaudy and overblown structures, that saps the soul? I genuinely don’t know. But there is something unnatural about the whole place. One only has to traverse the length of the canal system in the Venetian, a place where it’s never night and never day, to get an idea of this. When I first went, I decided that the canal system would give a pretty fair impression of what US hell would look like - a nothingness that somehow resembles familiar places and ideas, and which never, ever changes. I have since been told that the inside of the Excalibur would be the UK hell, but I haven’t yet had that pleasure.

Oh boy, I can’t wait to go back.

Here’s the thing. On my travels I have spent a reasonable amount of time with academics and industry leaders, in the course of which on various occasions they have bemoaned certain faults in our education system. It has been worrying, to say the least, to consider that the kids coming out of schools today lack the skills they need to play a full part in our society in general, and to act in technological and scientific roles in particular. Being a parent as well, I have been feeling a certain implication - my kids are in their teens, which puts them in the centre of the debate.

Quite deliberately, then, I have been asking their teachers and other parties what is the truth of the matter. To work back from the answer: industry and academia may have had a point. But there was never a golden age of education either - as one person put it, “I don’t think the education system of the past was ever designed in any way other than to get people through exams.” It may be - and this is an area I haven’t yet fully investigated, so consider this uncorroborated - that it was the elitism of universities in the past that served to minimise the impact of what was an education system for the academic few. Who knows.

But to bring things up to date, you will notice I said, “may have had a point.” From my dealings with schools as a parent, and more recently as a governor, I have seen a very different picture. The teachers I speak to in general are using a language and teaching style which is totally at odds with the idea that school is exclusively about passing exams - they describe different methods of learning, the importance of investigation, looking for alternative solutions and so on. Furthermore, they do so across the curriculum - from English and Design, to Maths and Geography.

So, where’s the truth? When I put the question, bluntly, “Are we failing our children, and potentially our society,” I have been informed that such practices are really, quite recent. Young teachers - those only two years into a career for example - confess that the way they teach now is very different to how things were even when they were at school. All the same however, the way they go about their business does seem to be infused with what can only be described as teaching problem-solving skills.

There are still challenges. Yes, and there remains unanimous agreement on this, our schools are still struggling when it comes to serving up budding scientists. Elsewhere, the side effect of all this educational positivity seems to be a veritable flood of jargon - perhaps a side-effect of quite rapid, and what has probably been workshop-driven change is that for the outsider, it can be difficult to engage without first knowing what is being talked about. This may seem a trivial point but it is important - our school system may be undermining its own credibility with the average parent, or indeed industrialist, by cloaking itself in terminology.

All the same, there is positive news to be had. Let nobody be unconvinced that there is a struggle taking place, to improve the educational lot of our kids. However it is one that the new educational approaches do look in danger of winning. And indeed, the recent demise of KS3 SATs (there’s some jargon for you) may have unfortunate side-effects in the short term, but may well act as a further catalyst to progress. We may be yet to see the benefits of what’s already been achieved, but the future looks bright.