Truth or Lies ... you decide

As usual our TABLEtalk evening began with some discussion around which professions we are inclined to judge as trustworthy or untrustworthy.  For the first time I divided our students in to a male and a female group ... not sure how wise a move it was with the guys accusing the girls are complicating the exercise. Oh well, such is life!!

One interesting factor was that of magicians who the girls judged as untrustworthy on the basis that their very profession is based around deception. Whilst the guys placed magicians in the trustworthy category because you're trusting them to do what they do, which is deceive (I wasn't really sure about the logic there!!).

Then we played the dictionary game, based on Call my Bluff. I am always amazed at the creativity of students in creating definitions for obscure English words they've never heard before.  Check out how you score on guessing the correct definition of the following words ...

BOMBYLIOUS
1. A person who is jolly in nature and likes to party
2. The accumulation of gases in the digestive tract
3. A mortal fear of popping balloons
4. Buzzing or humming sound
5. A person with a very good sense of humour
6. The feeling of being so angry you are about to explode
7. To feel overwhelmed by many things
8. A term to describe showing off, especially in a flirtatious manner

IMPAVID
1. An adjective that describes the separation of something
2. Someone who has impeded vision
3. Someone who is fearless, undaunted
4. Used to describe the feeling of being insular, lonely, low self-esteem
5. Adjective meaning non-confrontational
6. A stretch of road or pavement that is rough or unpaved
7. The condition of not being surrounded by a thing or persons.

ABDERIAN
1. A person who chooses to give up responsibility or power
2. The ability to challenge
3. A synonym of brobdyngnagian, meaning of monstrous proportions
4. A devout religious person who supports and maintains buildings and structures within an abbey
5. A person living in an isolated area with little or no knowledge of the present developed world
6. A librarian who is particularly poor at their work
7. Defines a group of people that have survived a particular calamity
8. Someone with incessant or idiotic laughter

Our winners were as follows:

BRONZE MEDAL - Rhandi & Wayne

SILVER MEDAL  -  Walter & Sonali

GOLD MEDAL  -  Nadya & Lesley

ANSWERS
Bombylious  (4)
Impavid  (3)
Abderian  (8)

On a personal note ...

Bank Holidays are always a blessing. This May Bank Holiday I've had my Dad and his friend (and my friend) Bill visiting.  I had promised them a 'mystery tour' which basically meant they had no idea where we were going for the day.  As soon as we hit the A2 we started playing '20 questions' in order for them to guess our ultimate destination.  Well done them, as they guessed correctly with 6 questions remaining :-)

Our final destination was Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War Two Codebreakers.


My Dad, outside Hut 8, the code-breaking hut where Alan Turing and others worked on breaking the German Naval Enigma messages

The Code-breakers wall commemorates a
variety of people for their wartime achievements.
Engineer Tommy Flowers was a part of the
design and construction of Colossus, the world's
first semi-programmable electronic computer.

Something I didn't expect to learn about was the role that homing pigeons played in WW2. We read and heard of many stories where homing pigeons flew messages from the frontline to bases throughout the UK, in the process saving thousands of lives.

Always like a bit of dressing up. One of things I liked about Bletchley where all the videos and interactive stuff.









           For those of you who have seen the film 'The Imitation Game', one of the people I wanted to learn more about was Alan Turing.  An English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist.

The world was a very different place in the 1940s/1950s and Turing lived in a time when homosexuality was still a crime. 
I find it incredibly sad, and so wrong, that after all his service to his country in a time of crisis that he was treated so appallingly in the post war years because of his personal lifestyle.
This amazing statue is one of the most beautiful and fascinating things I have ever seen. It is made from thousands of large and small pieces of slate and the detail in utterly incredible.

Thought for the week ...

Rochester Sweeps Festival

It was soooooooo cold yesterday, but several of us managed to venture over to Rochester for the annual Sweeps Festival.

The local Town Crier explaining to students
what his role would've been  ...
to the internet of course.

It was a long'ish day and a tad tiring.