Another new academic year, lots of new students and building that are not quite ready! Normal!! It’s been a very busy, not to mention chaotic, start to the year. We seem to have more students than ever and we have had to make lots of adjustments to the timetables to be able to fit everyone into classes.
The new catering kitchens are now open and looking extremely impressive. They have got to be possibly the best kitchens in the Channel Islands! The students are certainly very happy now that they have started using the new equipment.
The restaurant is also taking shape and is going to be a very elegant, as well as functional, space. I can’t wait to try it out!
The installation of the wheelchair lift at the Russell Building hit problems when the contractors unexpectedly found asbestos and this has caused a fairly lengthy delay. It doesn’t look like we will have the lift in place until half term. However, the building itself is in reasonable shape.
There have been lots of events at the PRC over the past few weeks. Stephen Fry broadcast live from the Royal Festival Hall, Charles Dickens’ great, great, great grandson performing an Audience with Charles Dickens, another Guernsey Variety Show and a fabulous version of Giselle from the Wales Ballet. There was also a very interesting lecture organised by the Channel Islands Group of Professional Engineers who brought over a sports scientist from Sheffield University. He delivered a very entertaining and informative presentation about the science behind some aspects of the World Cup. I found his explanation of why the new World Cup football behaves in such an unusual manner, absolutely fascinating.
Coming up this week is the lecture from our current artist-in-residence, Marc Woodhead. He is giving his talk, ‘Paintings Within Paintings’, on Wednesday evening at the PRC. Then, on Thursday, we have the first in this season’s broadcasts from NTLive who, for the first time, are broadcasting a play from a different theatre. This will be ‘A Disappearing Number’ from the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. These live broadcasts are always exciting and it will be interesting to see a play from another theatre.
