Rock and roll has a certain effect on everyone really. It is a mojo voodoo thing that can, if you harness it, turn everything on its head.
Sadly, I feel I must mention that while we were at this conference, the terrorist attacks happened in London. Some of the delegates were travelling from London on that day – fortunately, all were safe. So, how aptly we were gathered then at a conference to think and learn and share about ways of co-operative learning and working together.
Right then, so, when you turned up at the East-Anglia Co-operative Education Conference 2005, these two fine ladies were the greeters.
Off to a good start, I think you’ll agree. The one on the left, Flo, is the daughter of Pam whose house I stayed at in the early part of the week, so I know her pretty well. It was the first time I’d met Claire, though, who recently began work at the Co-Op Education offices. It turned out she was a scream.
This is the main conference room as people were first arriving for the initial Thursday evening get together. You can see the three main trainers in black t-shirts having their last minute discussions, and people gathering into small groups. If they gathered with their mates, this soon got split up. There was no cliqueing allowed at this do! Notice C, by the way, who noticed the camera, as she always seemed apt to do, and raised a happy thumb.
After this session, oddly we all went to the bar. Hmm. Can’t understand that…
I snapped this picture early on, but things got more out of hand later that night. We ended up squashed in a kitchen in one of the accommodation blocks, drinking wine and whiskey and wondering if we were going to make it to the sessions the next day. The thing is, because I was a bit drunk, I didn’t take any pictures.
Friday was a busy day, and there were a few morning hangovers to shake off. There was hard work to be done, don’t forget, and because I was involved in the activities as a learner, I couldn’t take pictures.
The truth is, though it was always fun, the conference work was searching, demanding work. Really. A wide range of people from various areas of education and co-operative working were brought together and were introduced to challenging concepts of working across boundaries. The striking activities ranged from defined role-play on the one hand, to on the other, walking around backwards looking between your legs and quacking at everyone you met. Yes. And you may wonder what the hell use this is, but think of it this way: if you’re, say, a drummer, and exchange quacks with, say, a head teacher in this manner, believe me, it’s one hell of a leveller!
However, the reward was when the evening came round. After the evening meal, the games, and the speeches, it was time for the gig…
As you can see, the gig went pretty well. Everybody had a good freakin’ shake-down boogie, especially us. You might notice that we didn’t have any stage lighting so it was all a bit like playing in a cupboard with the door open. It’s the sounds that matter, fair enough, but even so, I guess if we do it again next year, we’ll sort some lights out!
Here we’re in the middle of a blues track by ZZ Top, Fool For Your Stockings, but in the pic sadly the bass player is cut off. So, here he is in all his glory. People, meet J, the Germinator.
Some of the more astute might have noticed that he’s one of the main trainers at the event. Cool, huh? You may also notice that in fact we did have some lighting – do you see the trail of Christmas lights across the floor? Oh yeah. We had three Christmas light strips. Way to go.
But like I said it was all fantastic really. We had a great gig, and afterwards, the wind down was as it should be for true rock and roll heroes.
As you can see, there may have been a little bit of drinking going on. Again some may not have noticed that there are actually four people in this pic. One has intentionally obscured himself at the back and spread his arms out. Minutes before this he had been running around giving out copious amounts of tequila slammers. It’s my opinion that this may have something to do with the glaze on my eyes…
Still, everybody seemed to be getting into the swing of things by this time, and were showing their appreciation for the evening’s entertainment.
As things went on, I often forgot to pick up my camera in time, but hey, I did catch the odd magic moment.
But you know what, sometimes there’s someone about to capture that special moment, that magical snapshot that seems perfectly to sum up the evening. Here then, is the photograph that says, in all ways, “Co-operators, good night!”
I’ve had various medications for my bipolar disorder over the years. In my twenties, prior to diagnosis, I took anti-depressants alone, because I would only end up in front of the GP when I was depressed. Later, in my thirties, when I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder, I was also prescribed mood stabilisers. Right from the off, I’ve had difficulty with taking the mood stabilisers, and for a number of reasons. Perhaps, on reflection, not least because I was already very much using one.