PGCE Husband Support!

My wife has just started her PGCE course. She has been attending now for 2 weeks and already has loads of work to do. She is very stressed and tearful at times and more tired than I have ever seen her before.

I knew going in to this that it would be a tough year for her and I am right behind her ready to support her in any way I can. However I don't think I realised what a tough year I am going to find it. I thought that I would have more time to myself and be able to catch up on stuff life recorded TV series, drumming and the odd pc game. However I am realising this is not going to be the case. Housework and cooking seem to be constantly rearing their heads. I had got off lightly over the summer holiday as my wife was at home and had done most of the jobs.

Now quite rightly I am having to do lots of things, which I don't begrudge as it is part of marriage and my pledge to support her. As well as the emotional support required for any PGCE student I hear. It makes me realise how much she does in the background sometimes.

Now don't get me wrong I am not grumbling or regretting her doing this course. I am 100% behind it and think she will make a remarkable teacher. It has just taken me a little by surprise on just how much I need to step up to the mark to help her.

Is there anyone else who has shared or is going through similar things with their partner on a PGCE course? I would be interested to hear from you!

Cornwall how I love thee!

I recently came back from a week spent down in Devon. That's not Cornwall I hear you say. Well quite correct it isn't. We, my lovely wife and I, thought we would try somewhere different this year. Different in as far as the next county along from Cornwall. We stayed in a log cabin in a woods a few miles south of Barnstable on the north Coast of Devon.

Now the cabin was nice enough and had its own outdoor hot tub. It was very nice to sit in and watch the stars come out to play. That is until the last night when it was quite clear the chlorine content had gone mental and caused my wife and I mild chemical burns over parts of our bodies, but that is another story.

We investigated some of north Devon like Woolacombe sands and parts of Exmoor. It was nice and all that but it just seemed to be missing that sparkle and heart. The drivers on the narrow roads were quite unfriendly and you could tell when they were locals as they just barged through not caring you had to break hard and reverse etc... I don't know what it was but Devon just didn't do it for us. Maybe we were in the wrong part and the south is nicer for touristy type things.

As we were near the border we drove several times in to Cornwall and immediately felt better. I love Boscastle as a place and we had a fantastic Cream Tea in the Spinning Wheel cafe there. They are recovering well and I was glad to see that the Tourists are flocking to see it as they need the money to recover. In fact it is busier now than ever before.

I just love the coastline of Cornwall. I can always sit and watch the sea whatever coast I am at but Cornwall is special. It just seems more alive than anywhere else. I was pondering while sitting out rock from where I took the above photo what it was that calmed me when I am in places like that. I realised that it gives an inkling into the awesome power and beauty of its creator. Some places are like that and I am sure everyone has their special place. For me the rocky cliffs and sandy beaches of the Cornish coast seem to life my spirit, calm my heart and bring me nearer to God.
We sat and watched the sun go down over Widemouth Bay near Bude eating a takeaway fish and chips.

Widemouth Bay as the Sun sets. Stunning!

I would one day like to move to Corwnall. However there is not much work for a Computer person there. Oh well, stop day dreaming and get back to the realities of work etc...

Doubts voiced over emergency pill!

A recent article on the BBC website states the following:

Making emergency contraception more available has failed to reduce abortion rates, a family planning expert says!

Well 'No **** Sherlock' was my first though on that report. I know not a great thing to immediately think but nevertheless I did. Sadly the solution by the experts is better education in getting people to use contraception before and during sex rather than think of this as a form of adequate protection against pregnancy.

When will these so called experts see that it is a far wider issue than a bit of education or a pill that will fix the problem of high abortion rates in the UK. A GP on the news this morning said a sensible thing that she thought it was partly to do with the fact that it is now seen as more morally acceptable to have an abortion in the UK now than it was 20 years ago.

I think she is right and I think it is incredibly sad that we in the UK have the highest abortion rate in the EU and that is it socially and morally acceptable to kill an innocent child before it has the chance of living its life because a selfish person has sex and is not prepared to take the consequences of their actions.

Once again no one is saying that maybe the attitude to sex and contraception and the way sex education is done is failing and that teaching people to hold back and wait before having sex outside of a relationship strong enough to accept the birth of a child. It is a culture that devalues the life of a child by its definition of at what point a thing growing inside you becomes a child with the rights that endows.

What a crazy mixed up world this is!

The following link is an article that has a much more sensible response to the research.