After 10 years of sitting around dodging all forms of physical activity, I've finally unlocked an achievement in a real life sport! It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I am not a particularly sporty person. Actually, that's an understatement; I loath sport. Somehow my mind has used this psychological flaw to traduce any form of exercise. Getting sweaty is not for me. But, I'm getting older and fatter. Although I'm a vegetarian and have a fairly healthy diet, it was…
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Last night, I ran my second Code Club at Woking Library - teaching kids how to program using Scratch. We're following CodeClub's syllabus which has loads of kid friendly lessons. The first lesson was a great success. It was held before the Christmas break - so I was eager to make sure that interest hadn't waned. Far from it - we were over subscribed! We had 10 PCs and 12 kids - which lead to some sharing of equipment. Everyone involved seemed to enjoy it (including me) - so I thought it…
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A few months ago, my friend Adam Cohen-Rose told me that Surrey Libraries were looking for a volunteer to help teach coding to kids. Adam Cohen-Rose@adamcohenrosehey @edent Surrey Library Service in Woking is looking for a @CodeClub volunteer… know anyone? codeclub.org.uk/getting-starte…❤️ 0💬 0🔁 009:44 - Fri 31 August 2012 So, after a few months of negotiations, demonstrations, CRB checks, and consultations - I'm now ready to run a pilot programme at Woking Library. Although I've written a f…
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Regular readers will know that I think Woking Council's subsidy of curchgoers is ridiculous, illegal, and unfair. It's an issue I've raised with local councillor Carl Thomson in writing and on Twitter. A few days ago I entered into a discussion with him online about the issue. He has since deleted the tweets. But, as we know, the Internet has a long memory - so here they are. I've reordered a few to make our conversation clearer. None of my tweets have been deleted. It started when I saw…
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My local council, Woking, have found themselves in a spot of bother recently. It has emerged that they are subsidising parking charges for specific Christians churches. If you belong to a different church, worship a different god, or just want to go shopping, you have to pay for parking. The total subsidy was at least £55,864 between 2009 and 2011, and is still rising. The National Secular Society took issue with this and, unsurprisingly, complained that this was blatant discrimination. …
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(Unlike most "open letters" this one was sent to my MP using the fantastic WriteToThem. I've added hyperlinks for context.) Dear Jonathan Lord, I want to thank you for highlighting the inadequacy of South West Trains service from Woking. As commuters for four years, my wife and I are sick and tired of trains which are overcrowded, frequently late, and often filthy. As the answer you received in Parliament shows, the private companies which provide train service in Woking are not looking…
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During the recent furore over MPs attempting to hide their expenses, I wrote to my MP using the wonderful services of http://www.writetothem.com/ Dear Humfrey Malins, I understand that MPs plan to grant themselves the privilege of exempting themselves from Freedom of Information requests concerning their expenses. Whenever I have a business expense, my employer asks for every receipt, no matter how small. How else is it to correctly pay its tax and protect itself against fraud? I would…
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