St John’s College
VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Getting it done NUMBER 21, OCTOBER 2012
FOREWORD John Harris, Domestic Bursar Looking back to the last edition we were remembering the Quincentenary year, and this edition has a rather Olympic theme. Not only did we have the Olympic torch coming though the College as part of the country-wide relay, but we hear from one lucky ticket holder. Elsewhere we reflect, as always, on the continuing building works which have kept many people busy, and look forward to the imminent opening of the Divinity School, and to showing it off to members and staff — watch this space! We have welcomed another set of Freshers who have just started their time in the College, as we also look back on those who graduated in the summer and whose hard work have contributed to the academic performance of the College — which is why we are all here! As always it is the ever-cheerful hard work and professionalism of all members of staff who have contributed to the success of the College across all
The torch passing under the Bridge of Sighs
its activities and I am glad to have the opportunity to say how grateful I am for such support.
CATERING AND CONFERENCE DEPARTMENT NEWS Bill Brogan It has been another busy summer for the Catering and Conference Department. The conferences have gone well through the summer and some very good comments have been received. The College’s Bed and Breakfast scheme is also proving to be very popular with very good feedback from customers and the College has received accreditation from Quality in Tourism for its accommodation, the BDR, Bar and Porter’s Lodge. Johnians returning for the Johnian Dinners also enjoyed themselves. A Jubilee Week was hosted in the Buttery Dining Room, with the room decorated out,
Crowds line the river in the rain waiting for the torch to come by
and early breakfast was served on the morning that the Olympic Torch came through the College. There are a number of forthcoming events being organised by the department which are open to Fellows, students and staff including an Italian-themed Dinner in November, a Tapas Event in February and a cheese-tasting class in March. Further details can be obtained from the Catering and Conference Office. New menus and wine lists are in place from 1 October, including new menus for the Buttery Dining Room together with a new range of sandwiches. Christmas menus are also ready for anyone wishing to hold an event in the College. The College still has some of the Pol Roger Champagne available but we are now on the last run of it, so order while stocks last! A number of the department’s staff have been on a range of training courses, including Jorge Santana, who attended a Master Barista (coffee) Class and Ray Stevenson, who went on an Entrepreneurship Course.
AN ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCE Mike Finch It just happens that, sometimes in life, you get an intriguing invitation that you can’t refuse. This happened to me quite recently, via one of our daughters and the local branch of the Wildlife Trust: would we like to go on a Glow-worm ‘evening experience’? Well, who could refuse such an intriguing, late evening invitation! Not knowing anything about these ‘worms’, we assembled at a local car park and ventured into the nature reserve opposite, at around 10.15, when the light was already rapidly disappearing. Once our eyes became accustomed to the evening light, our guides soon spotted one of the ‘worms’. Everyone looked and at first thought they had seen what they were supposed to be looking at, but it could have been the moon light reflecting on pieces of chalk, rocks or flowers in the quarry because nothing, and I mean nothing, could prepare you to the true Glowworm light! Closely related to the firefly, they have been around for millions of years. The females emit what can only be described as the most fluorescent green LED light in the tip of their abdomen (the chemicals luciferin and luciferase make a chemical reaction to produce a cold light), the brightness of which has to be seen to be believed. It is totally surreal in and amongst the natural vegetation! Starting life from an egg and then turning into larvae, the Glow-worm (not a worm at all but, in fact, a beetle) larvae follow the trails of snails, who
The female glow-worm and her ‘calling’ light
they then inject and slowly dissolve (like a child attacking a bull elephant!) in order to provide them with a food source that will last for the rest of their lives, enabling them to grow in size, to the stage of a pupa after a 24 month lifespan and then to the adult Glowworm. Neither fully formed male or females have any mouth parts, once they emerge as adults from their pupa stage. Also, since the female cannot fly or move further than around a metre all her adult life, she depends entirely on her light (which she can turn on and off at will) for attracting a male partner, in order to complete her life cycle. The trouble is she only has around 10 days to do so and the male, who can fly, is often distracted by artificial lights such as street or security lights!. If she does manage to attract a male and mates, she will then return to her day time hole and lay her eggs before dying. It’s a wonder that the species have survived so long! Next time you are out and about in the countryside, between June and July and where the only light is a natural one, be sure to look out for these amazing beetles and their light — then you will know as I do, where and how the LED light was truly first invented! For more information, try www.glowworms.org.uk.
OLYMPIC FOOTBALL Vicky Flack
stone’s throw of the ground and began our walk. I have never been to a match with such a large crowd before — over 77,000 — and enjoyed seeing all the beautifully turned out police horses, who seemed to take the vast numbers of people completely in their stride. Even though we were in Manchester the atmosphere was definitely Olympic! As was the security! There were queues an hour long to have your bags searched. Luckily we only had my handbag and had to decant the contents into four small plastics bags. We each carried one — much to my teenage son’s delight — to save queuing. We then had to queue at our entrance in lines of ladies and gents and have a body search before we were allowed in! Everybody took this very well and there were plenty of smiles about: if there’s one thing we Brits are good at doing, it’s queuing.
On Friday 3rd August we travelled to Manchester in preparation for watching some Olympic Football at Old Trafford on Saturday. When the tickets were first booked we were anticipating seeing Spain play as the winners of their group, and the team my son supports, but as they played so badly in their group the game we actually got to see was Japan vs Egypt! The day was lovely and sunny and, after much debate on how to get from the hotel to the ground, we decided to risk driving. We managed to get somewhere reasonably priced within a
Our seats were high up in the stadium, but the view was amazing! The match was fantastic and many Mexican waves passed us by. The game was played out in the way the
VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE 2
PEOPLE LIKE US Since the last Newsletter we have welcomed the following new members of staff: Rebecca Costello (Development Office), Tom Pearson, Jaime Pineda Rodriguez, Georgina Radford, Dan Strasters (Catering & Conference), Jenni Morris, Jane Shardlow, Carly Walsh (Tutorial/Admissions), Linda Stacey (Finance), Paul Cooper (Custodian), Tracy Wilkinson, Yiwen Hon (Library), Mark Hollis (Maintenance), Emma Crothers, John Holland-Avery (Choir Office). A number of staff have left the College and we wish them all well: Urszula Dyl, Martin Zvolensky (Catering & Conf), Olimpia Stachowiak (Lady Supt Dept), Alan Pilsworth (Custodian), Peter Hutton, Ania Alford (Library), Jonathan Cox, Tim Jones (Maintenance), Melanie Stanford (Tutorial/Admissions), John Challenger, Basil McDonald and Francis Williams (Chapel and Choir). Promotions: Anna Tynska to BDR Supervisor in February 2012. Retirements: Carol McLean (Lady Supt Dept) retired on 30 June 2012 after 16 years’ service with the College (see the two stone lions below); Glynis Reynolds (Catering & Conference) retired on 31
July 2012 after almost 22 years’ service with the College (see picture right); Malcolm Underwood (Archivist) retired on 31 August 2012 after 38 years' service (photo below right). We wish them all the best in their retirement and look forward to seeing them at College social events in the future. Marriages: Sam Bailey (Library) to David Lewsey on 28 February 2012. New Arrivals: Cristina Remondo (Catering) and Andy — Matthew born on 5 April 2012; Stefanie Giblin (Development Office) and Stuart — Oscar Alexander Giblin born on 30 June 2012, 8lb 6oz. Deaths: Very sadly a number of pensioners have died. All are remembered with much fondness: Cecil Fletcher, Deputy Head Gardener, retired May 1985, died 22 December 2011; Brian Richardson, Painter, retired May 2004, died 26 December 2011; Angela Donald, Hostel Supervisor 2007– 2011, died 11 February 2012; Joan Clarke, Wages Clerk, retired in
whole Olympics seems to have been conducted: one of good sportsmanship. The final score was 3-0 to Japan. We may have been watching the new Olympic champions play! As we left the ground amidst much cheering of Japanese fans, I can say that this Brit was thoroughly proud to have been able to enjoy a very small part of the Olympics 2012.
On her retirement, Carol McLean kindly donated to the College a pair of stone lions which stand just over 2 ft high. These are currently living in the Master’s Garden.
VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE 3
August 1993, died 28 March 2012; Pam Ladd, Tutorial Secretary from 1962 until her retirement in 1993, died on 10 July 2012. Our condolences go to all their families. Two members of staff in the Catering and Conference Department reached 25 years’ service: Jackie Clarke in January and Malcolm Pearson in June.
NO BREAK FOR THE MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT Mike Finch As most people will already be aware, either through walking past the site itself (opposite Great gate) or by reading the regular monthly Newsletters as the work has progressed, the Maintenance Department have spent the last two years refurbishing the School of Divinity on St John’s Street. This is now due for completion and handover to the College in the Autumn and destined, we are absolutely certain, to be the subject of future articles in this Newsletter, highlighting both the finished building, with a completion write up
Brick- and stonework in the Divinity School, before (above) and after (below).
and photographs, and also the many planned future events, which will no doubt take place in the new building in due course. We are positive that it will provide the College with another fantastic, additional facility and legacy, to be enjoyed by many people, inside and outside the College over the forthcoming years. While the final stages of this project have been on-going however, we have already commenced with two other previously planned new projects, which are programmed to run concurrently, namely Cripps Phase 2 and the School of Pythagoras. Cripps Phase 2, will see the refurbishment of the accommodation staircases E & F, following on from the previous and successful refurbishment of staircases G & H and programmed to be completed and ready for re-use by the start of the next academic year in 2013. Not content with this, we are also running, in parallel, the conversion of The School of Pythagoras into a new College Archive centre, bringing together all the disparate areas of existing College archive records and storage into a single, central, state of the art facility by utilising the very appropriate, oldest campus building of the School of Pythagoras, circa 1200. (Just to whet your appetite, we have already discovered a Roman burial and a possible Mediaeval tanning-soaking pit!) Both these projects will again test the ‘contractors’ skills of the Maintenance Department in delivering a quality finished article for the College and will see a continuation of the upgrading of College buildings and accommodation that the Department have been undertaking now for the last ten years. We will again be producing monthly newsletters on both projects as they progress so members of the College can track their progress and, just to Left: Stencilling in progress in one of the rooms in the Divinity School
make sure we are not seen to be resting on our laurels, we will also start planning for the next stage of Cripps, Phases 3 and 4 (Staircases A, B, C and D), for a start later in 2013!
A WET SUMMER It’s now official: 2012 was the wettest summer for 100 years and these pictures taken in College during July back this up.
The ducks seemed happy with their new pond on the Backs but the Garden party in the Fellows’ Garden had to be moved to dry land in the Hall.
Diary Dates 24/25 November: Advent Carol Service Sat 15 December: Christingle Service Saturday 22 December: Staff Christmas Party Wednesday 9 January: Pensioners’ Christmas Party
Charity Raffle December 2011 Congratulations to Gerry Jakeman for organising the fund-raising raffle and coffee morning. Thanks also to those who supported the event, which was very successful raising a total of £315. This was split between RNLI and Make a Wish.
Please send contributions, in the form of news items, photographs, articles, or just your suggestions, to: Jane Jones, HR Officer, St John’s College