Off to Nottingham tomorrow

[saundra]

have a lovely day enjoy it
used to love nottingham in my youth(shopping)
safe journey xx

[Lozzles]

Have fun

[Kaz]

Thanks everyone It was an interesting day, a lot of travelling at well over 100 miles each way The Brackenhurst Campus where B would be based is about 12 miles north of the city itself and very rural. It is also the smallest of the campuses (campii? ) at just over 1200 students (NTU has 26,000 students in total) so it is small with a homely feel Becky really liked it there, liked the look of the course, and the accomodation was good..........so Nottingham is still first choice, although we have an Open Day at Bristol the weekend after next to check out as well That would be my first choice in her place as the course is attached to the zoo (what fun!!!!!) but then it isn't me studying

Debih

Uni is very expensive these days, the student loan just about covers the accomodation costs (almost 5k pa!!) the govt. pays the tuition fees but they need paying back at some point too, so students have to find their own living costs or else tap the bank of mum and dad! The course is spread over three days per week so B will be looking for a job, although I'll be subbing her for a while until she finds one!

Aggers it was quite a packed schedule so no time for pubs There is a small town - Southwell - a mile down the road where the students can shop for food and that has a pub or two, but mainly they catch the buses which go right past the campus into the city

[pederito1]

I have nice memories of The Trip too Aggers from a while ago. Simon (son) lectured at Nottingham for a time. Hope she likes it there if she goes, Kaz.

[saundra]

glad you enjoyed it
but what alot to find (cash)
isent there a racecourse at southwell
that might help B with a job
problem will be not being near nottingham for a job
lets hope things work out
take it easy today kaz

[Kaz]

Thanks Pederito, I'm sure she will What subject did your son lecture in? Not animal conservation I suppose

We had a very interesting lecture in the afternoon, including being divided up into groups (parents too!) to discuss which out of four endangered species we would save if we had the money. The lecturer used to be a biggish cheese in the WWF and is a good friend of the current UK boss of the WWF and said this is the kind of decision organisations like the WWF have to make all the time. The four species were tigers, UK wildcats, orang utans and pandas. I offered up my usual theory about pandas which is that if one believes in Darwinism then pandas should be allowed to die out - they need encouraging to breed, use up huge resources to feed etc so are (in my theory) coming to the end of their time here on earth and are moving towards natural extinction. Amazingly to my mind the lecturer agreed with me, but said the WWF would have a hard time getting that past the public as pandas are one of their 'flagship' species

Tigers are very unpopluar in their own habitats as they steal human babies to eat so it is hard to persuade the human populations there they live to conserve them - plus they breed like rabbits (his words) in capticity so are no endangered in that way.....

UK wildcats in Scotland are breeding with local domestic cats and that is diluting the breed - the only way round that would be to neuter every tabby in the North of Scotland - not popular with cat owners..............

We came round to the orangs - my favourites - not an easy choice however as the habitat has been lost to the production of palm oil, which stoops the local population from starving..................so there was no 'right' answer really but it ws a very interesting debate

[pederito1]

No, Kaz it was maths. Pandas are certainly one of evolution`s mistakes and no doubt would soon die out if not kept alive for the amusement of humans.

[Kaz]

That was my conclusion too - very very cute but utterly hopeless

[Ally]

Glad it went well Kaz.

I love Nottingham..it has a really nice vibe about the place.

[JoM]

Glad it went well Kaz! What is the actual course that B wants to do?

I agree with Ally, Nottingham has a great vibe to it.

I'd have struggled to choose between pandas and orang utans. One of my ambitions in life was to see a panda so we did an overnight detour when we were in California 5 years ago and went to San Diego Zoo (which was incredible) to see them. I cried, they were wonderful.