Retired:

This is what I said on my last working day - 30th October 2015

It was 1969 when I decided I was going to go into IT.

I was at Upholland Priest Training College doing detention in the library for arguing with the Religious Education Tutor. I found a teach-yourself book on basic programming and it was such a logical step to take. The priesthood wasn’t for me! Some years later a ah-em necessary marriage finished my schooling and I got a job as a book-keeper using a Comptometer. Then in 1972 I got a job operating a PDP-8 mini-computer at the University of Liverpool, Department of Mechanical Engineering. No-one in the world knows that I got the sack. We’d moved from Kirkby to Skelmersdale. I couldn’t afford the bus fare, so used to cycle the 16 miles each way. But I was often late.

I got the sack from my next job operating an ICL 1901. I’d devised a way of reducing the start of day computer operations from 3 hours to 1 hour, so didn’t need to get to work at 6am. An 8am start was early enough. For some reason, they didn’t like that idea.

It took me two years to blag my way back into IT as a programmer after a spell as a weaver. I got made redundant from that job. Worse than that, I was now living in Bury. But soon after moved back to Kirkby. 4 years later I got divorced (it’s like getting the sack but hurts a lot more). So I decided to move, possibly abroad, but starting down South to see if I could stand being away from Liverpool. Then I met Row and married her in 1985. And stayed down South, working for Tesco, then Argos from where I was made redundant, then Woolworth, before moving to the RSPB after a brief spell in the money-grabbing world of banks and card settlement solutions.

 

For the first half of my life I wasn’t a birdwatcher. It was Row, who knew what a jay looked like, that got me into it. I started keeping records in 1985: When I joined the RSPB in 1998 I’d clocked up 300+ species in 6 foreign countries. Since then I’ve added more than 400 species in 12 foreign countries. The highlight being the 8 days sailing around the Galapagos Islands after my first sabbatical in Ecuador. Other trips spent in the company of Keith, Dave, Terry, Tony and Peter include Spain, France, Greece and Estonia. I hope to keep up that tradition.

In my first week at the RSPB (17 years ago) I met with Steve, Melanie, Julie Wale, Mandy Clarke, Tim Pons, Chris White, Peter Hurn, George Smithson, Mike Pearson, Linda Brittain and Ludo Scaletta. I also visited St. Martins and attended presentations from KenyaNature, from the Griffin project and how the RSPB was going to maintain a million members.

In my second week I set to work on replacing the Stock Control system, the Library management system and upgrading the Estate Management system. I also got stuck in to the provision of Mapinfo.

In my third week I set to work on upgrading the Legacy system and providing a media-contacts system.

In my fourth week I started on the Volunteers database, Wildsquare and the Recorder 2000 project.

By that time I knew that I loved working for the RSPB and that I was going to keep busy until I retired.

In this book are a variety of plans showing all of the things I’ve been involved with. And in these books are 17 years worth of notes. A kind of social history.

 

Mostly when there’s a leaving speech, the person says they’ll miss the people. There are people that I will miss. There are many people throughout the society with passion.

I went to the Isle of Lewis for my second sabbatical. The RSPB staff there have passion and do whatever it takes to get their job done. Their working hours have no boundaries. Having spent 7 hours delivering roofing material to the Shiant Islands, Robin then spent 8 hours doing a golden eagle survey. Having spent 5 hours showing visitors the Red-necked Phalaropes, Vicky went to the library in order to get IT connectivity for 4 hours before spending a further 5 hours doing a night-time survey of Corncrakes.

Their customers (the birds) are valued. They are your customers. Please value them. When I managed people and set objectives, the first one was always. Keep your customers happy.

Look through the plans. You’ll see that the teams were high performing. You’re not high performing when you're following the rules. You’re high performing when you’re caring about your customers.

Rowena and I are embarking on a new stage of our life together. She is retiring too.

Next week is a week of anniversaries. It is exactly 17 years since I began work at The RSPB. It is 30 years since we moved to our now fantastic house in Dunton. And it is exactly 31 years since she first made me a Sausage Meat and Baked-beans pie.

We share our love of nature and travel and have many friends together. Luckily we’ve also got separate friends and interests. Horses and golf don’t mix. So we won’t have to spend every minute together. In two weeks time we’ll be in Cairo for a few days before taking a 7 night cruise on the River Nile. I’ll be hoping to add another dozen species to my bird list. And I’ll be taking my new video camera, which I’ve bought using the RSPB’s generous retirement fund and Mike Clarke’s timely salary bonus. And I’ll be using the gifts that you’ve kindly bought. And I hope to produce a video that comes somewhere near Keith’s standard in his Blomers productions movies.

Thank you all, look after your customers.

Cheers

Twist +2

So, day 2 sees me on Skye. I brought my waterproofs but they're no match for this weather. Curtains of rain. I know, I know, it's the west coast of Scotland. Never mind. The trip so far has been enjoyable. I left Dunton at 9am yesterday and stopped in super sunshine at Beckingham Marshes in Lincolnshire. A small RSPB reserve with bagfulls of Tree sparrows in the hedges and hedge sparrows in the ditches. There were house sparrows in the bat boxes on the Willow Barn. Apparently the only willow drying barn in England (so the sign said). And barn swallows flying over the fields.


On my way to Campfield Marsh RSPB reserve near Carlisle, I pulled into a layby on the A66  at the Cumbria border. There were lapwing protecting young, and snipe displaying, and a covey of red grouse AND a black grouse. With curlew flying around, too.

Campfield Marsh at Bowness on Solway is a very fine estuary reserve, well worth another visit.

Friends, who live on Hadrian's Wall, made a super stew plus rhubarb and raspberry crumble.

Today I also left at 9 and headed for Lochwinnoch RSPB reserve near Glasgow. That's over the border in Scotland.

Notice how England doesn't welcome you back

A pleasant stroll through a strip of woodland between the railway and the loch.

But then it was a mad 150 mile dash to Mallaig to catch the ferry to Skye. Made it with 5 minutes to spare. Then this rain started. And the wind got up. Ah well. I'm currently at a B&B that is 2 or so miles up a single-track road away from Portree.

Cheers

Twist -2

Hi,
I've been working at the RSPB since 1998. In 2006 I went to Ecuador on my first sabbatical. We get 4 weeks paid leave to do some conservation or learning work. (University lecturers get a year off for every seven years worked, but our's is still a great perk). In 2013 I was due another but firstly I was too busy to plan it and then too ill to take it. But in two days I'll be on my way.

Quis? Row is coming to join me for the second two weeks.
Quid? Corncrakes. Quid? Corn crakes
Quando? From Monday. We'll be home by 12th July.
Ubi? A hint is in the title. It will be The Western Isles Sabbatical Trip (Twist).
Cur? I'll be helping with the Corncrake survey. Sic. Sed. Cur?  corncrake.pdf
Quem ad modum? Listening for the creck creck call of the bird with a latin name of Crex crex.
Quibus adminiculis? I'm driving up to Carlisle on Monday to stay with Sandra and Dave. To Skye on Tuesday and then over to the Isle of Lewis on Wednesday, to Carloway. The survey involves driving around the island between midnight and 3am. Row will be travelling by train 1st class to Inverness

(Apparently Kipling got it from Hermagoras)

Cheers.

Blog 27 - Happy Anniversaries, Unhappy ones too

 

Blog 27 – Happy Anniversaries, Unhappy ones too.

 

It’s now a year since treatment ended. Yet again I’ve re-read some of my blogs. I keep trying to re-read them to try to make them every-day events rather than extraordinary, epic, occurrences. But I can’t. I shudder. I weep. Which I never did at the time.

On the anniversary of the major surgery – to remove the lymph nodes and teeth, I had to go home from work. I still had no dentures. A year! A tear. A temper. Yes, Frank. A temper. A trauma. I spent the day in the company of a bottle.

In August Row and I went to Iceland for our 29^th wedding anniversary. An intriguing country. Confident yet apologetic. Old, yet not. Potentially explosive. We were happy to celebrate.

Later in August I got my teeth. I could smile again.

In September, Row and I celebrated her Dad’s 96^th birthday. A meal in Stratford-upon-Avon at the same restaurant as last year, the day before radiotherapy treatment began.

 

Late September I had a throat infection. As painful as when the tonsils came out. When I had my six-weekly review at the hospital they wanted to be sure it was unrelated, so sent me for an MRI scan with contrast. I shuddered when I went into the radiology reception at Lister hospital. I shuddered when I put on the gown. I shuddered again when they put in the cannula (did you know it means a little reed). It didn’t hurt at all. It just cast shadows of the hundred needles that were not so deeply buried in the past. I couldn’t afford to shudder when I lay on the table, when I had the mask fitted, when the machine engulfed me, when the motors started, when the noise began again and again and again. I had to keep still. For nearly an hour. Remembering. Shhhh now. Shhhh.

 

In October I reached the age of 60. Phew. My sisters and mum came to visit. Mum was 85 the day before. A fine weekend.

 

I had to wait until yesterday for the results.

Nothing wrong with the throat.

But there’s something.

Don’t worry.

Come back in two weeks. When we’ve had time to study the information.

Shudder.

 

Estonia

21st May 2014 we flew to Tallinn, capital of Estonia, using Ryanair from Stansted. Dave and Phil had played golf in the morning, then Terry and I met them for lunch in The Coach House, Potton. Peter, then Keith and Tony joined us briefly. Tripods, washbags, books and waterproofs re-distributed amongst the hold bags, then away we went. Tallinn  is a bijou airport. Emptying as we arrived - the last flight in for the day. 

 Outside is a decent view over a lake - we had plenty of time to look at this as our hire-van had turned up 12 hours earlier and unsurprisingly had gone home. Tony arranged for him and Peter to go by taxi to their office where the owner brought the mini-bus and business was done. Meanwhile the rest of us listened to Corncrake, watched Arctic and Common terns and also saw a Marsh harrier.

A 2 hour drive during which it didn't quite get dark, brought us to our hotel in Tartu at half past midnight. The receptionist was on duty, there were beers in the fridge and the rooms were airy and comfortable. A Thush nightingale serenaded us all night.

What about Estonia? Well, it is flat. Average height is 50m above sea level. Highest point is Egg Mountain at 318m. It's got Russia to the right, Latvia at the bottom, the Gulf of Riga and the Vainemari Sea to the left, and the Gulf of Finland at the top (these are all part of the Baltic Sea). Compared with the UK, which has a rising population density of 257 people per sq km, Estonia has a falling figure of 30.5. (By the by, in the EU, Iceland has the lowest at 3.2 and Malta the highest at 1327!).

The first morning we went to the Aardla polder complex to listen for and look at birds, from the ground and from the air. We found our first target bird - Citrine Wagtail and one I wanted - a Common Rosefinch. My photography isn't up to the standard of some of the others, so you'll have to wait for Terry's trip report, or better still, Blomers' video.

In the evening we went in search of our second target species - the Great Snipe. It lives with mosquitos.It's supposed to come out to play in the evening.

In flat, water-logged, fields.

When the sun goes down. 

But they didn't, so we went back to the hotel for a beer (you might have seen Blomers' beer of the day on Facebook). Early next morning, Tony and Keith went out to see what was about. The next morning, so did I and found this Thrush nightingale.

 

Singing

http://youtu.be/id3QJffhgWc

And a fuzzy Pied flycatcher.

 Later Keith showed me the a place where I saw my first Marsh warbler. But I missed out on the Barred warbler.

Later that day we went to find the third target bird, the Great spotted eagles.

These can sometimes, and only, be seen at the amusing Hollywood Hill.

Which happened to overlook where Great snipes aren't. And a cafe where the hamburgers are to die of. Oh, the Great spotted eagles weren't there - but we did see Lesser spotted ones.

Some people do live in Estonia.

Estonia is one of the least religious countries in world, with only 14% of the population declaring religion an important part of their daily life.

We stopped at a supermarket to buy food. In the carpark was a Nuthatch nest.

 On day three we went up north and stayed in a posh chalet

We went up north to see bears in this forest.

From this hide with 10 windows and 10 bunk beds and seven blokes and one long drop.

This is the view from the window. Can you see the Raccoon dog?

Raccoon dogs are canines from Japan and China, but where introduced to Russia for fur. They've spread a bit. We saw up to 8 of them. We also saw two foxes. And a Turtle dove, and some pigeons. Later it went dark. And we saw a bear - most of us were asleep, but the 1.30am shift woke us up. We were amazed at how large it was.

It went away about an hour later. Most of us were asleep again when the 6am shift saw a second bear. It was light by then. Fabulous!

The owners of the hides put out food. Honeycombs, marmalade sandwiches and animal carcasses. The latter two were underneath plywood boards that the other animals couldn't move, but the bear certainly could.

 The bear hung around for half an hour. That meant we could get a bit of shut eye. We weren't allowed to leave the hide until 8am.

There was one other chap who stayed in the two-man hide to the left, the dark brown one, apparently, had openings for lenses for photography.

 

The fourth day we went to a different wood.

Where a barmy bloke tramped us around telling us all about Flying squirrels.

We then went back to the chalet and had superb supper of wild boar.....

.....before going out again at 9.30pm to see a real live Flying squirrel emerge from a roosting hole in a tree, scoot up the trunk and jump (unseen) to another tree then away into the darkness. I didn't take my camera as I knew it would be just a few moments and wanted to make sure I was watching.

Next morning there was a wryneck.

We set off to the seaside and saw a female Montagu's harrier.

Then we saw the sea.

 And had a nice lunch.

 Before going, through a rainstorm, to do some sight-seeing in Tallinn before the flight home.

In Tallinn are new bits.

And old bits.

And picturesque bits.

In Estonia, I saw/heard 130 different species including 6 I'd not seen before. Well worth a visit.