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Hello Doglet,

I am probably going to disgrace myself, but I am afraid I will be supporting Wales tomorrow ! I like their game, it is a much more fluent rugby than England who tends to kill the game, pushing the opponent to the fault etc - particularly if they don't feel strong.

France better come first out of this 1st series of games, otherwise, more than likely, we will have to face New Zealand in the next stage. We can beat them when our team is good (we have done so in the past) but I don't quite trust the 'Bleus' this year !

England has a tougher group to start with than France though.

Good luck with pruning the tree, we have had all kind of weather too but it seems to be settling to sunny and fresh. Not too bad.

Good Morning everyone,

What a lovely sunny (though fresh) morning it is here ! Hope you are all enjoying this nice weather too.

How is everyone ? and why is this thread so lifeless ? We worked so hard to keep it going, and now nobody seems interested in it any more.

Even the general Forum is not as lively as it used to be. Have you all gone to another Forum? Poor Noah and Ash must be disappointed after all the hard work they put into it !

Hi, Pigale!
I'm afraid that this is a very brief 'look- in' as we are just about to go out.
Yes, it's beautiful here too, although bit cool. We are just going for a long walk in one of the more distant Country Parks.
When I logged off last night, there had only been ONE page of crossword queries! and no one on the PCT!
I agree with you that it is a pity if this all flags from lack of interest/ stimulation.......
Talk later- must away now while the sun is shining!

hi pigale and elle
Saw the red moon for once my lack of sleep had a good outcome,Seem to have been busy last week but this week is quite quiet,Very cold overnight but sunny for the rest of the day,cats have their heaters on and the dogs their cold weather beds.

Hi doglet et al
In my case it was the need to visit the loo that got me up at the right time to see the eclipse! I had to get dressed and go outside, as a tree was blocking the view from the window. It was a lovely still night with lots of stars. I was going to watch until the light reappeared, but suddenyly and surprisingly a fog developed, obscuring the view - I had been up for an hour anyway by then, so I gave up on it.

Hi there,

Stupidly enough, I knew nothing about it, hence missed it all ! I'm not sure I would have got up for it though, it was a chilly night and it would have been difficult to part from the warmth of my bed!

Chilly nights but beautiful days - bright sun and could be warmer if this North-Easterly breeze would give in; on the other hand it is this NE influence that bring us good weather. Crisp bright Autumn mornings;

Unfortunately we shall not have many mushrooms to pick this year, it has been much too dry here and under the surface, the earth is not damp enough. Shame for there is nothing like walking in woods to pick up mushrooms; Still, we had a brilliant summer, so can't have it both ways.

Hi there!
I'm afraid that I didn' t even know that there was to be an eclipse - let alone one that gave us a red moon!
Well done, Doglet , for seeing it!
I've been with my daughter to a Primary School Open Day today, as my youngest grandson will be going to school September 2016. She has to choose six schools in order of preference - so we have more to see yet!
There regrettably appears to be a big gap between state school education and private school education. Probably because the larger numbers in state school classrooms make it more difficult to teach the children - and also because of the rigidity of the system?
There now....surely I've lobbed a grenade in there....... maybe this will spark a lively discussion?!

Hello Elle,

Who knows ? Perhaps your grenade has killed anyone susceptible to rise to the challenge .....! :))

Seriously though, I can only speak about my experience in France and it is true that the teachers are much less under pressure, as you say because of a reduced number of children in each class - say 25/28 as opposed to 32/35.

They are also well chosen; only highly qualified teaching staff with extremely good credentials are selected in those schools which can afford to pay them well - thus they seldom go on strike whereas the state teachers usually take a strike action two or three times per term!

Another aspect is the natural selection that is (unfortunately) made at base, mostly because parents who can pay are usually (but there are exceptions of course) people who have been well bought up themselves, and who have given their children the same basic home education to their kids - less hooligans!

This is how I view it, but I am willing to stand corrected !

Morning Everyone !

Everything OK this morning?

As usual, nothing much to say but desperately trying to keep this thread going; perhaps someone has an interesting topic to trigger a decent discussion?

Hi, Pigale!
Everything is fine here, thank you - I have just been out and about for most of the day!
I thought when we began to talk about the current state of education that that would ensure a good discussion, especially as to some extent we were both playing devil's advocate in order to provoke a reaction! but it was not to be........
We've had another glorious day here - though the temperature is very much cooler than you are having obviously ; our mornings are decidedly 'nippy' - today it was only 9C when I went out early with the dog, but we've reached a high of 17C this afternoon.