Mug shot

Today's blip is NOT Ian Rankin as I didn't make it to the blipshoot at Waverley Gate. I was too busy working - imagine that! So the back up blip is the commemoration mug I received when Torry Nursery School closed.

I was the senior official responsible for taking through the closure process. It was sad as it had a long and proud history. The Nursery was one of the 3 nursery schools in Aberdeen that offered full-time places. During the war it was very important in the local community as it ran for longer hours allowing women to work in the war effort, knowing their children were cared for. There were campbeds to allow the young children to have afternoon sleeps. However, after the war, when women were supposed to stop working, it reverted to reduced hours, which were still the whole of the school day. However, once half-time nursery places started to be expanded in the late 90's it was no longer equitable to have some parents able to access free full-time places because of where they lived and even attempts to allocate by need didn't work. So, it was decided to close the full-time nurseries and re-distribute the places, on a half-time basis to local schools. There were other considerations too. the Torry building, built in the later 1930's had exceeded its life span and would have required a considerable amount of expenditure to upgrade it. So in 2005, after nearly 70 years of serving Torry, the school closed.

It was a productive day in the office with M up from London. The weather was shocking though. Thick mist and cloud in the morning, heavy rain in the afternoon. Ate too much at night and fell asleep in front of the TV, again - this is like winter.