mikes web log

After 24hrs in the clouds you come to one of the cloudiest countries in the world. It’s the rainy season in Penang – an island in the north of Malaysia.

But before the delights of Penang a little about the delights of flying Business Class. Wow. I had to stretch my legs fully to reach the seat in front of me and its not just about flying. Before you fly you are invited into the Business Class lounge at the airport. Free booze and food and leather chairs and a really good view of the runway …. an excellent view for all those unhappy about flying.  I must admit that we felt the ‘people watching’ in the main Birmingham concourse was a much more interesting experience so we retired to there after 30 minutes. Into the air and yet again the leg room was fantastic. Then again there was the booze and food. Champagne as you settled down in the massive seat and then a 6 course dinner followed by more liquids and then a breakfast. Change planes and more champagne and then another meal …. not quite sure how many courses we were both asleep by then. Finally another meal and we arrive at Kuala Lumpar. Another 4 hours in the airport and we are off in economy class on the 50 minute trip to Penang. The Shrangrila complex here is its usual phenomenal self. No mould on the bathroom walls and a brilliant environment but then there are the clouds!

The Green Man has to have a voice so we have created 15 potential voices. Has the reader any favourite?

The voices can be found on the following page. It now works!

http://www.zygoconsulting.com/demo/gm-sounds.html

This is just my latest report on the progress of the project.

A significant problem has appeared.

The project is linked to the e-learning foundation. This link is the foundation for sustainability. We are asking the families who receive the computers to donate £10 per month to the foundation. This is then returned to the project minus expenses. It is anticipated that this will provide for future support for the project. 

At the start of the project our main concern was installation. We thought the money bit would sort itself out so it was at the bottom of our list. There was no proper link between installation and donations. The first problem that appeared were families having donations taken from bank accounts when their computer had not been installed. This was quickly resolved by cancelling direct debit orders and returning monies. However a more dramatic problem is evolving – we are having to tackle those parents who want to pay and cannot because they have not been given a direct debit or have not been asked to pay. This are now talking to those who have been asked to pay and have paid – as you would expect in the communities we serve. Then there are fears that those who have not paid  will suddenly be asked for not one but three months of payment.

I am relieved that we have now appointed somebody to tackle these problems over the next ten weeks. The message is – this is an area that will not sort itself out. It is a complex area involving mutiple interations, school – family, family – e-learning foundation, project  – family and so on. The dangers are potentially significant.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of my software build visits is the number of mothers I meet who are looking after very young children. This is coupled with the number of people who answer my phone calls who are unconfident in speaking English. The two observations are not necessarily related. They are however both interesting and require further investigation.

Is this part of the European statistics that give Birmingham  the youngest age profile in Europe?

There are many mothers who want to find out what is happening. They look at you  installing the software for the full 25  minutes and you know that they are fascinated by what is going on.

I am excited by the potential of what we are doing. Parents are exciited by the interaction of their families with ICT. In a few it is unconditional. In most it is conditional on the safety that we offer and I am pleased that we can cope with this.

Lets admit it they did achieve it. At last evidence of a refund. No apology. Maybe that is part of being a Michelin star restaurant!

I arrive home and receive a letter from the restaurant which included a copy of the original bill and a copy of the £13.50 refund. No more. Never mind. Now ended. Wife is now thinking about going to a ‘Simply Simpsons’ somewhere else in the West Midlands. No problem, all I can think about is the food.

This is interesting.  It is now three days since I made my complaint to the superb Simpson’s restaurant. They have now apparently overcharged me by £13.00. However let us be magnanimous about this. It could be my fault, I could have misheard the credit controller at HSBC.  There is the possibility that the head waiter at Simpsons misinterpreted what I said …. maybe he thought that I had been undercharged. Maybe the receptionist at Simpson’s never passed my Saturday morning message onwards – I did ask for my returned receipt.  Maybe they had refunded me, and HSBC had made the mistake. Shall I phone again. The alternative is awaiting my HSBC credit  card report on the 12th. Yes let us go for that and see how it unfolds. It maybe it is me that makes the apology.

Here is a nice state of affairs. It was my wife’s 50th on Thursday – lots of presents and nice phone calls and then a special dinner on Friday. Where – Simpson’s of course – one of the only Michelin Star restaurants in Birmingham. Booked it in November just to make sure. Great meal. There was seven of us. You are welcomed with a glass of champagne and then before even the first course you get two of chef specials. You could see that some of our guests could not believe what they were tasting. The food was absolutely excellent. No pressure to finish, great waiters and if you were bored  you could viewthe kitchens and its organised chaos.

Then coffee. A great coffee – it would taste even better with a Cointreau so I order one. The rest of the evening is great some excellent petit fours arrive, which we greatly enjoyed. No Cointreau. The bill arrives and I notice, just before the taxi arrives, that I have been charged and paid for the Cointreau (£6.50). I comment on this and the head waiter indicates that it will be refunded to my credit card account.

The following day I had one of those calls from the credit card company. These are the ones that they do to check on unusual expenditure. I am in full support of them. “We noticed a £550 bill at Simpson’s last night” “Absolutely correct” was my reply “And wasn’t there a £6.50 refund” “No there was a further £6.50 charge” was the reply.

A phone call to Simpson’s resulted in a muttered apology and that they would look into it. Wow. Since then (48hrs) nothing. Lets see if the apology comes a little later.

There I was sitting there thinking about the Computers in the home project (just about to announce an expansion to another school) and the Botanical Gardens project (children’s website to be launched and NESTA agreed development) when there  was a credit card advertisement recommended by guinea pigs. Hell, who would agree to a proposal from a set of guinea pigs. Time for bed.

I am a governor of one of the biggest primary schools in Birmingham. We have 750 pupils, 100 odd staff and a budget of about 2.5 million pounds. This morning I (as a governor) and the head and assistant heads interviewed  three members of staff for promotion posts. We have a policy, which you can have in a big school, of providing promotion opportunities for all significant staff when there is an opportunity. This morning we interviewed three superb staff for a Religious Education, Year Group and English at Foundation at Year 1 responsibility. They were all brilliant, but yet again the question that arose was where do we realise their real expertise within the school and curriculum structure. One of them was fluent in Russian, another was a pyschologist who had worked at some time with severly handicapped children and the last had for a year been part of a counselling service for women who were physically threated by their partners.

I come home to my wife who admits that she has just broken the curriculum structure – unofficially of course. So the children are now looking at myths and legends which resulted in  a PE lesson on Nemo and corals and a lesson on ‘Bridge over Trouble Waters’ where the children talked about their troubles because Pandora’s box released so many . What were the troubles?

They were about separated parents, about death of relatives and pets and now and  again about not liking school .. troubles but eventually what about the bridge across….