The first two student archivists at school are now at university, so it was a great pleasure to meet them for coffee and lunch during their Christmas vacation. Not least because one of them was well enough to come following major surgery.

The Library of Birmingham (shown here) is rising above its surrounding hoardings and will, when completed, house the 'back up' archives for my old school, as well as those for the rest of the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham: the largest private collection in the city.

Last summer I had sought to photograph, for only the second time in 81 years, the trustees of the Aston Old Edwardians Memorial Ground. On that occasion they had declined on the basis that not all were present and, having been given no warning, were not suitably attired! I was expected to achieve the necessary result at their next meeting in the depths of winter. This time they were appropriately dressed (as you can see here): but three were still missing!

An away fixture for two of AOE RFC's teams at Bridgnorth enabled me to meet up with a contemporary who lives nearby. Whilst watching 'our' first team being thrashed 31-3 we were able to reminisce about people and events of sixty years ago. Behind us, and across the river Severn, rose the picturesque 'High town'.

Without much expectation I took part in the RSPB's annual Birdwatch. The 'haul' was a blackbird, a coal tit, and two feral pigeons so it is hard to believe that this proved of much value to them!

A young friend recently had all but one of his university tutorials cancelled in one week without explanation, let alone an apology. Another gets a 'reading week' each term in which no lectures are delivered. If I were paying £1000 a term in tuition fees, I would demand a refund. The universities are ripping off the students and the taxpayers who loan them the money. They should be providing a minimum of 20 hours' tuition per week, and more where laboratory work is an integral part of the course. And if I didn't get at least a 2:1 at the end, I would sue for breach of contract. The National Union of Students should be onto all these issues.

How cathartic a 'rant 'can be!

January saw the 11th anniversary of the death of my mother, Gladys Perkins.