Social – Page 27 – Fooyah

July 23 2014

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

This was a much better film that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes which I watched at the weekend and was just not fussed by it. I went to see “Dawn” last night because it was the only thing on at the cinema worth watching and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to spend the time going. It was only after I looked at the IMDB Critics’ Metascore that I decided I would see the film because it had scored 79, which is pretty good.

The animation was stunning. The acting was stunning. I believe ape culture was reproduced accurately. I thought the whole film was a good piece. It showed just what assholes apes and people can be, this film could be attached to any of the trouble spots around the planet at the moment and used as an allegory. The film is worth watching.

This film is really about two groups who know little of each other and how they handle the first encounter. All of the behaviour is brilliantly human. It quickly descends into violence. Just look at human history and what we have done to each other over the years. Overall this is a sad film commenting on how crap humans treat each other.

SPOILERS
I had a couple of issues with certain points of the film. I was happy to accept intelligent apes, that’s the main premise. I wasn’t particularly happy with three people being able to get an hydro-electric dam working again after 10 years of non-service. That seemed rather unlikely to me, but it was a minor thing.

I was also rather unsure of Caesar’s final conversation with the man. I felt that Caesar wouldn’t have accepted that war was an inevitable part of the future. It didn’t quite fit with the rest of the film. It was exactly at the point that the two characters needed to stand up and be leaders and organise peace. Two cultures can exists next to each other but there has to be movement and discussion. There is always a need for negotiation. As an example I give you the fact that all the time the IRA were bombing the shit out of the UK in the 1980s the government [we do not negotiate with terrorists] were secretly negotiating with the IRA. It is the only way to make progress, to allow differing cultures to live together. Forgiveness needs to be learnt by all to allow healing and future cooperation.

July 21 2014

It’s What Happens

I teach. It’s what I do. I teach teenagers. A lot of people I meet consider this to be a mad career. Teenagers are horrible. They wonder why I don’t teach younger kids. I teach because of a long series of accidents and uninformed choices throughout my life. However, after starting my teacher training in 1995 I found that I loved being in the classroom and working with kids. I consider myself utterly fortunate to have discovered a career that I enjoy so much. I have often said to myself that the day I “have to go to work” is the day I quit, at the moment I still get up every (working) day and “go to school”.

Teenagers are hilarious. They try to argue and make valid points, they are starting to learn the craft of putting together valid arguments and come to valid conclusions. Some can do this well, others take quite a bit longer. They often try to communicate their thoughts are struggle to do so. Daily I am involved in creating new thoughts and ideas and methods for explanation. This is great. It’s exciting and when the teenagers mess it up it’s just funny. I work with some of the brightest and [unintentionally] hilarious young people.

You’ll have to take this on trust but having a teenager try to explain his/her actions in a logical manner leaves me laughing (inside rather than in their face). Although my role is to teach mathematics I also aim to offer up techniques for questioning and finding out what really happens, how to get evidence, how to appraise arguments. I see this as far more important than the actual mathematics I teach. If I can help people seek their own evidence and make their own decisions then I have succeeded in improving their contributions to future society.

The title of this communication is “It’s What Happens”. I’d just like to point out that society seems to have a massive “downer” on teenagers.

Said Socrates [not the footballer]:

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

This is a quite well known quotation. It’s definitely gives the impression that we hate teenagers and have done for many years of society. There are often modern headlines in the newspapers and web-news-services where the implication is that modern society is going to ruin because of a type of behaviour of teenagers or young people. This is utter rubbish.

Here’s some cases of behaviour of the youth ruining society:

Pinball machines in the 1940s
Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1950s
Sex and drugs in the 1960s
Punk in the 1970s
Alcopops in the 1990s
Mobile phones in the 2000s

Most of the people “corrupted” by these forms of behaviour are now the ESTABLISHMENT. I’m pretty sure that if you look hard enough you will see that society isn’t ruined. My theory is as follows:

People who write opinions and the news are jealous of teenagers. They don’t like the freedom, the care-less-ness, the risk taking, the fun that teenagers have. It reminds them of what they have lost and the dreams that have dimmed. It reminds them of mortgages, children and politics. They want to be young again.

The constant dislike of teenagers in the press is a constant of society, it will always be there. Are the youth terrible? Are the youth poorly behaved? No, not really. Teenagers are meant to be restless and care-free. It means they move on and develop in to fully functioning adults. It’s what happens.

July 20 2014July 22 2014

.22 Rifle Shooting Courses

What else am I going to do on a Sunday evening apart from write a couple of communications? Especially when Gold TV are broadcasting the Monty Python show from the O2. I’m not watching that because when they started to sing the Penis Song the television channel censored some of the words! I was so annoyed with this that I watched Veep, The 100 and am now writing this instead of watching the Pythons. To be honest I can listen to the Penis Song anytime.

I get a little confused over the next few entries in my Form 3822. The could be courses or they could be competitions. I know that I shot quite a bit with the Squadron and I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you want to see more about experiences of a teenager in the late 80s then click here.

There now follows a list of .22 rifle shooting events I attended and took part. All of these were on 25 yard ranges.

31 July 1986
5 December 1986
20 February 1987 [Mark Sykes Trophy competition]
20 March 1987 [Mark Sykes Trophy competition]
22 May 1987 [ATC Marksman achieved]
3 July 1987
26 August 1987 [ATC Marksman achieved]
27 August 1987
28 August 1987
14 November 1987
28 November 1987
28 February 1988 [Falklands Competition]
29 April 1988 [ATC Marksman achieved]
21 June 1988
22 July 1988 [ATC Marksman achieved]
26 July 1988
28 July 1988
1 December 1988
15 December 1988 [Battle of Britain Competition] 79/100 scored
3 July 1989 [Wing Field Day]
13 August 1989
29 December 1989 [ATC Marksman achieved]
11 February 1990

I was selected for the East Essex Wing Shooting Team one year but I couldn’t make the competition because I was on camp in Cyprus [or I may have been at a concert, I can’t quite remember].

July 20 2014

Storm

The 18th July was a good day. It was the end of my twentieth year of my teaching career. It was also the hottest day of the year. My car said 33C at one point.

Phew! Just been for a 20 minute drive so I could feel vaguely human. Sorry earth, I will plant some trees! pic.twitter.com/KUxvlTt6iP

— Ian Parish (@iparish) July 18, 2014

That night there was also the most almighty storm. I was sitting watching television when it went darker than normal and so I went into the garden. I saw a sight I can tell you. The sun was setting in the west and it was bright in that direction but to the east and south it was dark and foreboding. There was no noise but there was a lot of lightning over towards Maidstone.

After a while I could hear what I thought, at first, was rain but it was a slight breeze going through the nearby trees. Then all of a sudden the wind really picked up. It became a constant driving wind and then the rain came, large spots at first and then torrential. The lightning and thunder was just spectacular.

These are two videos I took to show the electric storm over the Weald of Kent.

July 18 2014July 18 2014

Rage

I titled this communication Rage. Using that word is wrong, this should really be titled “makes me slightly annoyed with modern life until I forget I saw it”, but that isn’t snappy and so I thought I’d follow the Dail Fail headline writers’ rules.

The following picture gives the options I found on a questionnaire for a company that rates childcare nurseries.

I am happy with the questions. I am very disappointed with the options for answers. This grading system is a bit like Ofsted criteria where satisfactory is bad and good is bad and excellent is the only thing that’s good. My issues are:

Only three answer options – never give an odd number of possible answers people choose the middle value.
Poor options – what if I want to say something is poor or bad?
Poor criteria – what is the difference between good and excellent? This is all very subjective.

These sorts of thoughtless things make my head hurt when trying to figure out what they mean. I dislike things like this and would, if I cared enough, write to them and suggest how to improve their options. It is now time to forget about this questionnaire and to move on to things that are really annoying.

I ought to explain my hatred of the Daily Fail. If I ignore that fact that the company behind the Daily Fail probably doesn’t pay its share of tax (which might not be illegal but is definitely immoral) and ignoring the fact that the newspaper supported the fascists in the 1930s it is still a shockingly bad news website. The newspaper purports to be the moral and ethical backbone of the UK and yet it portrays all manner of poor behaviour and encourages readers to click on the right hand column.

I have big issues with headline writing in the online version of the Daily Fail which is one of the MOST visited websites in the WORLD [sad face]. I rarely read the print version because I get so annoyed by it I want to cause serious damage to the fabric of society that actually buys this shitpaper.

Here’s an example and a link to the original page if you want to:

Loom bands are small coloured rubber bands that people are weaving together to make bracelets and more. They are a productive, creative thing for people to do and I hope the manufacturers are making lots of money from them.

The headline states that a boy was blinded by a loom band.

When you then read the bullet points it turns out that he might be ok after surgery which is still pretty bad but not utter blindness. It also turns out that the boy was struck in his eye after his brother “accidentally” pinged a band at him. So it was the brother’s fault, and therefore, because the brother was young, this was the fault of the supervision of the child not the loom band itself. This is headline writing at its worst. It’s also making a “news” story out of nothing.

This article was written by Mr or Mrs Daily Mail Reporter. Even the staff know this is such a non-story and misleading that they don’t want their name attached to the story.

As for the boy who fell asleep with the bands on his fingers, he’s ok now. His mum took them off and his fingers are fine.

If you read this article [click on the picture] you will notice that the father took PHOTOS before taking off the loom bands. He can’t have been too worried then. If this had happened with boring office rubber bands do you think this would be in the news? No, it’s there because it’s a new children’s fad that Daily Fail writers don’t understand and so they fear the *new*.

Rage and anger and outrage at how such a rubbish website can be one of the most visited. Perhaps I judge by standards that are too high but I would like to think that there is a market for raising the intellectual game and making people *think*.

July 11 2014July 22 2014

CCF Camp BZN

I spent a week at RAF Brize Norton recently with the Combined Cadet Force RAF Section from work. I had a great time but more importantly all of the cadets we took had a good time. We were very busy and it was extremely tiring but I got so much from it.

Here’s a list of things that we did (mostly because I can’t be bothered to compose prose for this):

5.56 shooting at the outdoor range. After over twenty years of not shooting a weapon I was very happy with my twenty shot grouping.
Grob Tutor air experience flying with 6 AEF at RAF Benson.
RAF Section Visits to:
- Air Traffic Control
- Fire
- Armoury
- JADTEU
- 47 Air Despatch
- Survival Equipment
- SERE
- Dog Handling
- DMTS
- Support Eng Flight
- XXIV Squadron
- Parachute Training School
DCCT – I managed to pass my RAF shooting test with a score of 65/75
Low Ropes
High Ropes
Laser Target Practice
Ten Pin Bowling

The Officers’ Mess was a delight and a wonderful building that overlooked the runway about half way along. My only problem was that the Friday of camp was the Officers’ Summer Ball and while my room overlooked the runway it also was directly above the bar and next to the funfair that was set up for the ball. That night I slept in the cadets billet as a supervisor rather than not sleep in my room in the mess.

Here’s a selection of photographs I took during the week. I can’t share some of the really cool stuff we saw because it’s covered by the OS Act.

July 10 2014

Daily Fail

I shouldn’t really pick on the Daily Mail because it is like shooting fish in a barrel. This was the MAIN headline earlier today:

Firstly, my response to this is “you are stupid and you should say NO to her”.

A bigger issue with this, apart from the celebration of the outliers of society rather than concentrating on reinforcing the good of society, is that this was the FIRST story on the Daily Fail website today. I’ll say that again: The FIRST.

Today there are massive public sector strikes, the government are bringing in a snooping law and there are wars still killing people around the world. Even the soccer world cup is on at the moment and this was what the Daily Fail chose to inform the world about. Tossers.

July 10 2014October 13 2018

An Atheist Answers

I recently looked at a tweet in my timeline:

10 Questions For Every Atheist – Today Christian | Stay Informed | Your Popular Christian News Site http://t.co/Ww2fkZMXnU

— Jerry W. DeWitt (@jerry_dewitt) July 10, 2014

I am an atheist. Let me see if I can answer these questions. I will do my best to not turn the question around but actually answer the question to the best of my ability.

Quoth I:

Some Questions Atheist Cannot Truly and Honestly REALLY Answer! Which leads to some interesting conclusions…

1.       How Did You Become an Atheist?
2.       What happens when we die?
3.       What if you’re wrong? And there is a Heaven? And there is a HELL!4.       Without God, where do you get your morality from?
5.       If there is no God, can we do what we want? Are we free to murder and rape? While good deeds are unrewarded?
6.       If there is no god, how does your life have any meaning?
7.       Where did the universe come from?
8.       What about miracles? What all the people who claim to have a connection with Jesus? What about those who claim to have seen saints or angels?
9.       What’s your view of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris?
10.   If there is no God, then why does every society have a religion?

I answer these below.

How did I become an atheist?
I’m not sure I was ever that religious. I was taken to church on Christmas Eve by my mum. I did, at times, attend Sunday school and I read a cartoon version of the bible. So I was certainly exposed to church and religion as a child but I was never really indoctrinated. When the Gideons came in to school and gave me a bible I ate each page so at the age of 12 I wasn’t that fussed by god and stuff. When I joined the Air Cadets I made a pledge to God, The Queen and Country but wasn’t that fussed about the God bit. I attended church as part of the ATC and have been to funerals to say goodbye. I don’t think my default position was ever God, I was looking for evidence and never found it. [that’s not actually true, one Xmas eve midnight service I was almost called to God because the church looked beautiful but then I was very drunk and although the church was pretty that doesn’t mean God exists]. Whenever I think about religion and God I get angry at how it suckers up people who lack a certain train of thought, it preys on everyone. It is quite obvious to me that there is no rational evidence for the existence of God. If it is discovered I will happily believe. Until then, the burden is on those who believe to convince me with rational evidence.

What happens when we die?
My heart stops, my brain functions die away as the oxygen is used up and I cease to exists. After that my body will slowly disintegrate and I will become part of the Earth again.

What if I am wrong and there is a heaven and a hell?
I guess this depends on which brand of religion wins the great battle. If it’s christianity then I’m sure that God will forgive me and understand my questioning and accept me into heaven. If it’s another brand then surely the compassion preached by religion will accept my mistakes. Can I really be sent to heaven for questioning the lack of evidence for God? Perhaps the more fundamentalist Christians and Muslims will condemn me to ever lasting pain and torture.
I would like to point out that while I have answered the question my answer to the previous question pretty much rules out the existence of any afterlife. The afterlife is just a human invention to easing the pain we feel when those close to us die.

Without God where do you get your morality from?
As much as I grew up and currently live in a country with a largely Christian culture I don’t need to be told that to kill someone would be wrong. I also don’t need a book to tell me right from wrong. My personal morality is probably quite different from the overarching social morality which exists within the laws of the country in which I reside. I can reach my own conclusions about morality by thinking about it. My general rule is to not do harm to others.

If there is no God, can we do what we want? Are we free to murder and rape? While good deeds are unrewarded?
No, no and the knowledge itself is it’s reward. A longer answer: Our social laws exist outside of religious instruction. As a member of society I accept the law of this land and the morality it implies. I don’t always agree with it but I accept it. There was once a time when the law was “god given” but to be honest it was just the interpretation of god’s law by a human being and so open to problems [it was once acceptable to kill witches, evidence of witches having supernatural powers is remarkably skant and so it is no longer legal to kill witches, a triumph of reason over god]. I do not want to murder or rape. I want to do no harm to others. I don’t need god to tell me that. I also reap my own rewards of doing good, I tend to be treated well by others. I don’t need the promise of life-every-after to make me do good things, I can’t imagine anything much worse than living forever.

If there is no god, how does your life have any meaning?
My meaning comes from trying to learn and understand the cosmos but more so from the love I get from my children and getting a thank you from someone.

Where did the universe come from?
I don’t know and to be honest I’m not that bothered by that. I do find it amusing we seek answers to the questions WHY and HOW when sometimes you shouldn’t think in those human terms. In science terms we know that the big bang is our best explanation of the START of the universe but not the WHY and HOW. I will just say that if God did create the universe then why does that mean that I have to follow the writings of some dessert people from two thousand years ago?

What about miracles? What all the people who claim to have a connection with Jesus? What about those who claim to have seen saints or angels?
What about miracles? When miracles are investigated they turn out to have very Earthly origins. Humans are brilliant at fooling themselves all the time. People can claim to have a Jesus connection or having seen saints or angels but I don’t think they fully understand the working of our minds/brain. People can claim everything they want. Until they can show demonstrable evidence I’m not interested. I feel as though I have a connection with Thor, am I ok or deluded? If I grew up in India you would be asking if I felt a connection to Shiva or other gods. It’s quite cultural.

What’s your view of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris?
These guys are necessary to help people learn to think rationally and see the problems of religious arguments. They pretty clearly try to explain why beliefs are wrong, they don’t try to mock those who have those beliefs.

If there is no God, then why does every society have a religion?
Not every society has religion, Buddhism can be considered a religion but it is devoid of our notion of god. Some religions have many gods. Some gods have been supplanted in common culture. Which god are you talking about? Humans are story telling great apes who concocted tales of supernatural beings to explain the things to which we had no answer. Over the last 2000 years we have made leaps and bounds into understanding so much of the wonder of our world that the notion of answering Why? and How? with the answer God should be dismissed entirely.

I am not an eloquent writer or purveyor of ideas so my arguments may not come over as the subtlest or best worded. I have tried to answer these particular questions to the best of my ability and in a small space. I have also tried to keep to the question and not end up writing at a tangent to the subject. I have also tried hard not to question the particular beliefs that have lead to these questions.

I don’t expect people who are strongly religious to accept my answers, but I have answered these questions as honestly as I can. I am unsure what particular conclusions I am meant to find but they probably aren’t the ones the website writers wanted.

The final word comes from the Ricky Gervais character Derek:

Derek

July 9 2014July 14 2014

DA 8 July 2014

Disaster Area played a gig along with some very talented bands last night.

Set List:
Highway To Hell [guest bassist – S-Mac, guest vocals – Parish]
Symphony Of Destruction [guest vocals – Parish]

This is only the second time I have sung in front of an audience and the first time without an instrument to play. I found the whole experience awesome. It was a real blast to be able to move and sing without having to concentrate on playing bass at the same time. I would quite like to do some more in the future.

Yes, that is an 8 year old child playing guitar in Highway To Hell.

July 7 2014

False Debate

Well, I have had this communication as a draft title since 8 April 2014. I thought I should write some more on sceptical thinking matters since I wrote the piece on osteopathy. I have returned to this matter today because for the last few days the virtual world has been lit up by the news that the BBC are no longer going to be allowed to have quacks and frauds on TV programmes to give the “two sides to every story”.

In a nutshell you take a generally accepted view on reality and interview an expert in that subject and then because you can’t appear to be biased you give a nutter the chance to speak about what they think. So you might have someone on the news or science programme discussing evolution and to “balance” the argument (there is no argument, evolution is pretty much done and dusted) you get some religious nut who really thinks the Earth is 6000 years old and therefore evolution can’t exist.

When a view of reality is considered fact (as far as we can accept it) you then have to understand that it takes a huge amount of evidence to over-throw those views and not just someone from a lobbying group going on about how climate change doesn’t exist.

Here’s the link to the Telegraph’s new story.

Just in case you were wondering, here’s some things that are scientifically accepted:

Gravity
Evolution by natural selection
Immunisations
Anthropogenic Climate Change

Here are some things that are considered bullshit:

Young Earth creationism
Homoeopathy
Chiropractic
Osteopathy
Reflexology
Zero loss power machines
Astrology
Crystal energy

Here are some things you are welcome to argue the toss about but there is never going to be proof of the positive:

Existence of god and or gods
Telepathic powers
Mediumship
The “soul”

July 7 2014July 22 2014

OIC

At the beginning of June I travelled to RAF Cranwell to attend my Officers’ Initial Course. I have recently been commissioned into the RAF VR(T) and I had to complete this course before I could formally wear my rank tabs. I wanted to get the course done quickly so that I could then go on a week’s camp and not have to wear the white (trainee) rank tabs.

I drove up on the Sunday and Warned In to the mess [what normal people would call “checking in”]. We had a briefing and were told about the expectation of behaviour and where to be at what time and in what uniform. It was quite exciting.

The first day was a mixture of classroom activity and drill. It turned out that some of us weren’t very good at drill and we had to work quite a lot on the basics, which wasn’t too bad as the older ones of us needed the practice. Our homework for the day was to prepare a presentation in groups. I was not selected as course leader, which would have been good fun, but at least I wasn’t responsible for a bunch of people I had never met before.

Tuesday morning was our first inspection and I had spent some time shining my shoes to make them lovely and also ironing my shirt. My trousers I had left as they were. I passed the inspection but there were some points to work on: seams in shirt sleeves and tying my tie a bit straighter. We presented our talks and the feedback was pretty accurate. We had more classroom activities and plenty of drill. Tuesday evening Mark and I went for a drive to Lincoln, just to get out in to the normal world for a while.

Wednesday was another inspection and my comments were just to work harder on everything. The day was very busy with more drill, more classroom stuff and finally a lesson on leadership and a small command task in the ATF building. This was a good precursor to our work on Thursday. Wednesday evening was mostly about preparing uniform and helping a couple of others learn how to “bull” their shoes. The Flight Sergeant has asked me to help a couple of the other members of the course and so I had to make sure their shoes were shiny, but I helped them rather than do it myself. Some of the female members of the course had found an interesting currency to barter for shoe shining services from the Navy pilots staying at Daedalus mess.

Thursday was the final inspection from the Squadron Leader who was also ex-Queens Colour Squadron, so he knew about how to look good. The only comment he had for me was to lower my chin by a few degrees. That pretty much means that I maxed the uniform part of the inspection – I was very happy about that. For the rest of the day we were doing command and leadership exercises in the ATF building and also in “The Hanger” used by the Officer and Air Selection Centre. Think of “The Crystal Maze” but without all the fancy sets. My leadership task went OK and the feedback was good. The best part of the week was having the Flight Sergeant and Warrant Officer commanding us over a particular obstacle set. It was great to be shouted at and have everyone working together efficiently. We also had about 20 minutes to talk to them about how to use these skills in the field.

Thursday evening we had a lovely silver service meal in the mess. The Red Arrows flew by as the RAF Officers on their IOT had passed out that day and the Arrows were planned as part of their celebrations.

The Friday was about a final few lessons, our individual feedback and our graduation. We weren’t allowed to graduate in College Hall and so we had to have our celebration in Daedalus mess. It is a shame as I have not yet walked across the “commissioning carpet”. There is a carpet in College Hall that only commissioned officers are allowed to walk across. This would have been the final part of our ceremony but I will have to wait for another visit to RAF Cranwell.

The week was great fun, I met some lovely people and above all I surpassed my personal targets for the week. It’s a shame it was only one week, two would have been perfect!

As we were told at Cranwell: It’s all about credibility.

June 28 2014July 22 2014

Station Visits

This communication is another in the long running series about my cadet experiences in the Air Training Corps. I have a sneaky feeling that I didn’t always fill my 3822 in all the time as I am sure there were more visits than this, but this is the only record I have. To see other communications on this topic just search for 3822 in the box on the right.

30 Jul 1986 RAF Neatishead – RADAR
22 Nov 1986 RAF Uxbridge – Range
26 Aug 1987 RAF Little Rissington
18 Feb 1988 USAFB Mildenhall – RADAR and refuelling
13 Apr 1988 Trodos Radar Station – RADAR
1 May 1988 RAF Alconbury – Propulsion
27 Jul 1988 RAF Waddington – Swimming pool
27 Jul 1988 RAF Cranwell – Leadership
16 Aug 1989 USAFB Lakenheath – Everything
17 Aug 1989 RAF Coltishall – AEF
18 Aug 1989 RAF West Raynham – Supply, RTU, Fire
6 Aug 1991 RAF Swinderby – Airfield
7 Aug 1991 RAF Newton – AEF
9 Aug 1991 RAF Donna Nook – Bombing Range

As a teaser the next set of communications considers my shooting career in the cadets and will, I assure you, be scintillating.

June 21 2014July 22 2014

Special Courses

Continuing the interestingness of my Air Cadet record of service I now give you the section on Special Courses.

Junior NCO Course – Carver Barracks
30/31 March 1989 L98A1 Training – Carver Barracks
21 May 1989 SNCO Drill Instructor – Carver Barracks
22 – 27 October 1989 Adventure Training – Blackshaw Moor
21 – 26 October 1990 Adventure Training – Anzio Camp

There will be more to follow. This was a short section of the 3822.

May 30 2014

Rio 2

This was a special film because it was #1’s first cinema trip. However, as a film, it was bad. There wasn’t really a decent story, or rather there was and it was just handled poorly. There were random songs all over the place. There was a football section (yawn). All in all it was pretty poor. The animation was pretty good but that isn’t enough to save a film, there needs to be a story. Even #1 got bored and he’ll watch any kind of rubbish.

I rated this film a 4 on IMDB. This score when standardised is really a 2 but IMDB don’t allow zero stars. See this communication here for more guidance on my IMDB ratings.

One amusing observation was that the cinema was full of grandparents looking after their grandchildren because it was half term and, I guess, parents were at work. One old dear in front of me was eating her sandwiches, which is better than all the crap they serve in the foyer. As my grandma used to say (she was an avid cinema goer, but didn’t like it when they swore):

You pay to watch a film, not eat your lunch.

She was a wise old lass.

May 23 2014July 22 2014

Annual Camp

This continues the dissection of my Form 3822, my record of service book for my time in the Air Cadets. To see others communications in this thread click here.

Attendance At Annual Camps

26 July to 2 August 1986 RAF Coltishall
22 August to 29 August 1987 RAF Brize Norton
7 April to 18 April 1988 RAF Akrotiri
23 July to 30 July 1988 RAF Coningsby
12 August to 19 August 1989 RAF Swanton Morely
4 August to 11 August 1991 RAF Waddington

I missed the 1990 camp at RAF Odium because I was on a pre-booked holiday. I missed a flight in a Chinook that year. Although I was in the cadets in 1985 I was not allowed on the camp that year as I hadn’t completed my basic training. I left as a cadet towards the end of 1991.

RAF Coltishall (above): I’m in the back row and on the right. This was my first annual camp and this is a photograph of just the 309 contingent of the camp.

For some reason I don’t have the photograph from RAF Brize Norton to hand. I will keep looking to see if I can find it.

RAF Akrotiri (above): I think this was just the East Essex Wing contingent of the Cyprus camp that year. I’m in the back row, five from the left.

RAF Coningsby (above): This was the 309 contingent at this camp although we also had one cadet from 414 (Epping) Squadron with us. I’m front and left.

RAF Swanton Morley (above): There are a few tales to tell about this camp. I shall dedicate a future communication to my memories from all these camps. I’m in the middle row of cadets just left of the flag pole.

RAF Waddington: My last annual camp and my first in proper billets. I’m on the steps, number six from the left.

These are all the official photographs that I have. I am going to put more photographs on this site over time. If you are unsure about the aims of this website then please read the homepage. It’s about me you see.

May 22 2014July 22 2014

Awards

This is a communication giving details of my time in the Air Cadets. See other pages here. Here I deal with the Awards section of my service.

Shooting – ATC Marksmanship Badge

22 May 1987
29 July 1987
29 April 1988
22 July 1988
29 December 1989
23 October 1990
18 December 1990
17 March 1991

The criteria for an ATC Marksmanship Badge was five shots within a 2p grouping over 25 yards.

Shooting – RAF Markmanship Badge

15 August 1989
17 March 1990

I don’t recall the criteria for a RAF Marksmanship Badge. I know I was happy to get mine, especially as I found target shooting enjoyable and I was good at it.

Swimming – RAF Proficiency Certificate

28 July 1986

Other Awards

16 March 1987 Squadron Model Competition
January 1989 Cadet Of The Month
May 1989 Cadet Of The Month
June 1989 Cadet Of The Month
18 August 1989 Inter-Flight Competition RAF Swanton Morley Annual Camp
October 1989 Cadet Of The Month
November 1989 Cadet Of The Month
1989 Mark Sykes Shooting Trophy
1989 Cadet Of The Year
1989 Harry Filler Bandsman Trophy
1989 Mustang Flight Trophy
1990 Inter-Flight Trophy

Being awarded Cadet of the Year by the Commandant Air Cadets

Sports Awards

1990 Wing Blue for Swimming

May 16 2014July 22 2014

Record Of Service

Recently I have volunteered to help with the cadet organisation at work. The RAF section of the CCF needed some staff and I felt it was time to get involved. I will occasionally write about my experiences on these pages but joining and entering the world of cadets for a second time made me reminisce about my time as a teenager in the Air Training Corps.

I spent a few hours recently searching the crap in my loft trying to find my Record Of Service book. I kept it and it records everything I did in the Cadets. Having found it I will use it to create some communications within this site and then package it safely and store it somewhere. It’s a little A6 cardboard backed booklet that has seen some busy times. It is now falling apart and has to be handled with care. Within the pages I found my Sargent and Flight Sargent rank slides that I used to wear. In the same box I also found some memorabilia that I shall write about another time. The booklet is called a RAF Form 3822.

I can remember being about twelve years old and chatting to my best friend of the time, Nick. We decided we wanted something to do in the evenings. Something like a club or sport. Actually it probably wasn’t sport as I wasn’t a sporty child. We were already involved with an amateur dramatics society after all that’s how we knew each other, our parents were heavily involved with pantomimes and plays in Hatfield Heath.

One lovely sunny summer’s day [all the days of my youth are sunny, I don’t remember it raining before 1990] we were wandering around the village festival and saw a stand for the local Air Training Squadron. We chatted to them and Nick decided he would join. I had to wait until I was 13. A bit later when walking past the stand again they called me over [I’m making this bit up, I can’t remember what really happened] and asked me to join the band only [as I could play the clarinet] and then later, when I was old enough I could join the Squadron properly. This was the summer of 1984.

309 (Sawbridgeworth) Sqn Air Training Corps was formed at the end of January (I think) of 1984. Before that they had been a Detached Flight of 2317 (Harlow) Sqn.

On Friday evenings I now went to Church House in Sawbridgeworth and practised with the band of 309. I was given a uniform and I had to learn how to play a fife.

We didn’t wear uniform, we had a laugh and we learnt how to play our instruments and how to perform band drill. I remember my first real band engagement was a Wing Field day at Southend Airport. Nine hundred cadets on parade and the Commander of the ATC at the podium. I couldn’t march and I couldn’t play much. I just had to concentrate on marching and being in step. They placed me on the side furthest from the Commandant for the march past so I had less chance of being seen. It was probably the scariest experience of my cadet career. I was twelve and a half.

Once I passed 13 I had been involved with the cadets for about nine months and it was time to join up properly. The rest of the squadron paraded on Monday nights and so I attended twice a week. I was at a slight advantage within the squadron as I knew a lot of the cadets already and could, by now, march and understand the mechanics of marching and static drill.

My Record Of Service book is an RAF Form 3822. This one was kept in my back trouser pocket throughout my entire ATC career and so I am surely forgiven for it looking a little “worn”. The earliest date in my 3822 is 23 June 1985. That is the date signed by my commanding officer on the parental consent page. My parents had obviously signed form 3822A. My formal enrolment into the Air Traning Corps is dated the 17 Dec 1985. I think this is when I would have completed my basic training and have taken my Cadet’s Promise in front of the squadron and the squadron’s Padre. It would appear that I promised loyalty to my unit and the ATC and also:

I further promise to be a good citizen and to do my duty to God and the Queen, my country and my flag.

I left the cadets as a cadet in Sept 1991. This was when I went to university. I then spend a couple of years with 309 as a Civilian Instructor helping out with lessons and the musical aspects of the band. On a few occasions I put uniform back on and joined the ranks for a major band parade. I once marched down The Mall as part of 309 band which was an excellent experience.

I returned to 309 in 1999 as a CI while I worked at a school in Brentwood. I had been part of 25 (Parkwood) Sqn for a short while before that, helping out with lessons. I transferred back to 309 when I moved jobs. My loyalty in Essex Wing belongs to 309 Sqn, which is based in Hertfordshire. Another couple of years as CI and I eventually moved back down to Kent and left the Air Training Corps, maybe for the last time.

I am still in contact with my old squadron and I feel a massive sense of loyalty to them. I spent a great deal of time during my teenage years with the ATC and had an excellent time. I experienced many things of which I will write about over the next while using my 3822 as a guide.

I have returned to 309 recently to celebrate some anniversaries. I attended the 25th Squadron Anniversary dinner in 2009 held at Great Hadham Golf Club and this year, 2014, I attended the 30th celebrations held at the Cricket Club in Sawbridgeworth. To give you an idea of what 309 does have a watch of the video below.

I make appearances in the video at 3:54 [charity walk], 6:03 [RAF Coningsby], 6:08 [RAF Coltishall], 6:24 [Crowborough], 6:54 [The Mall], 7:06 [Hatfield Heath Festival], 7:40 [First Aid, Church House], 8:19 [A Rock, Snowdonia].

I have now joined Maidstone Grammar School Combined Cadet Force as a member of staff. I am a member of the Royal Air Force unit within the contingent. It is a little different to the ATC but the similarities are enough that all my knowledge and experience is coming back from the depths of my brain. I am looking forward to paying back to the system, again.