mnc blog

In my ongoing quest to modernise this website (Greenhithe) I have added links to the fr_table.php page which lists students from MNC who have registered with Friends Reunited

By clicking on the last name of anybody listed you will be taken to a page showing the notes (if any) they have made on the FR website. The advantage of this is that you may now view details about people from the college without separately logging in to FR.

In due course I hope to combine the biography pages of the Greenhithe website with the notes from FR so that both are available in one location. This is an ongoing project and when I have reached a suitable marker point in the work then an email update will be sent out to the membership.

Paul

P.S. Despite the date this is not a joke.

In the beginning was a static[1] website that had pages written in HTML, student and staff names in static tables and a little Javascript for the rollover navigation buttons. This was fine when the website had only a few pages and didn’t need much updating. It became more of a problem as the site inevitably grew and updates and additions kept arriving by email.

Some years after the creation of the website in August 2000, I found a book by Microsoft which contained a chapter on databinding which I had read about in a magazine. This seemed[2] to be the answer to my prayers of being able to keep the student and staff names in a database and create a table that was only as long as the data available to fill it, without showing empty cells.

So it was that I spent three weeks one lonely Christmas manually converting all the staff and student data in tables to XML pages which data would be read into HTML pages by the ‘magic’ process of databinding. It worked but little did I know what a headache I had created for myself.

Some years later, while working on a contract for the RAF I met a programmer, he proved to be a friendly guy as well as a good programmer and when I put it to him one day that ‘my’ college website was in need of a technical makeover he said “use PHP/MySQL”.

Knowing very little about it, but curious, I first setup a MySQL database with the help of Martin Francis (who kindly hosted this website for some years), and then paid for UK hosting while learning more about it.

The end result is that after a lot of work converting the data from XML to MySQL (don’t ask), and using Dreamweaver to write the PHP code (I didn’t know how to at that time), we now have a website that has very few static pages and many dynamic[3] pages, giving great flexibility in appearance and maintenance.

[1] As opposed to dynamic pages created on the fly from a server as you browse the website

[2] This was a blind alley because the Microsoft route to web technology is long and tortuous

[3] The staff and student data is held in a database and copied from the server to the browser at the time the page is requested by the viewer, you, and the tables are created at that time, they do not otherwise exist.

Hi folks, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to write here. I’ve just ended a contract away which leaves me free to work on the site after a long absence.

Had to do some work on the site because Orchard (the website hosting company) had upgraded Perl with the result that the logging and search functions had packed up which is why you couldn’t look for anybody on the website lately, sorry about that! I’ve reinstalled both now and the search is working fine again.

Like the first cuckoo in spring I had an email yesterday (12/2/08) asking about the reunion. Much to my relief it is this year in the hands of another, Mark Croucher, landlord of the Two Brewers in Dartford, so if you have any questions please address them to him.

The 2008 reunion will be organised and hosted by Mark Croucher, landlord of the Two Brewers in Dartford, more details will emerge in due course, as to date, venue, and cost.

Attended (in order of arrival)

Tony Fish (local)
Paul Bird (Cambridge / Dover)
Simon Langlois (from Jersey thanks Simon)

Bob Payne (Tenterden)

then in no particular order (because I don’t remember)

Sally Chapman and partner (ex Port of London authority)

Mark Croucher and partner (former and future reunion organiser, landlord of the Two Brewers in Dartford)

Tim Strickland (Hastings College – former MNC lecturer)

Keith Forbes and brother

Martin King (Herne Bay)

Mike and Diane Ackers (Cambs)

Gary Little and wife

That totals 16 which is a respectable showing and I would like to thank those who made it.

Apologies

Apologies were received from David Flack who like Geoff Hudson chose Glastonbury instead, a week early(?)
Also from Roger Taylor (former MNC lecturer who had planned to attend but picked up a bug at a meeting on Friday and didn’t feel well enough). Sorry not to see you Roger.

Also from Richard “Tiny” Carlton who was in the country (as opposed to his normal home of Guernsey) for a wedding in Oxfordshire.

Proceedings
Tony Fish was the first to arrive at the Sir John Franklin before 7pm, I followed along a bit later rolling in about 7.15, late as usual, paid for the buffet (of which more later), bought a pint and awaited Simon’s arrival who had flown in from Jersey with fingers crossed for a good attendance. Simon walked in about 7.30, followed not long after by Bob Payne and the four of us chewed the fat for a while wondering if that was going to be it.

I drank a little too much [Guinness] too soon and so my memories of what followed are a little hazy but from memory and information gleaned from the morning after the night before the following arrived in no particular order and swelled the numbers.

Martin King (ex R/O now doing financials in Herne Bay) came along not a lot later, a welcome visitor having only got in touch the day before in his own words “Just found the site and the reunion at the Franklin (which up until recently was my local)” looking tanned and fit, and proceeded to entertain us, being mainly sparkies we all started swapping salty stories (sorry Tony – deckie). At some point Mike and Diance Ackers who had early on met up with Gary Little and wife, emerged from the beer garden as a foursome and joined in briefly but mainly spent the evening as a group of four catching up 20 years.

Tim Strickland from Hastings way had said he was coming, thanks I think to a phone call from Roger (who sadly couldn’t make it) so thanks Roger, and Tim proved to be entertaining. Several “catch ups” were made that evening with Tim recognising people he’d taught years ago and as the evening wore on the stories all started emerging, and the jokes, which are all probably better left in the pub. It was good to watch and we all had related stories to share about times at sea.

Sally Chapman ex POLA and her beau dropped in for an hour, unexpectedly but no less welcome for that, thanks Sally, sorry I didn’t get to speak to you more but thanks for coming along.

Keith Forbes and his brother came in unexpectedly and added to the ex-sparky numbers so that line of conversation continued and all in all it turned into a Sparkies reunion (sorry Deckies but because the Phases were all at different times it’s difficult to get lots of deckies together).

Later on Mark Croucher and his partner came in which was good news because he and I were able to discuss sharing the planning for next year’s reunion. He has plans for a good venue but I won’t say more until it happens.

Buffet

The buffet was a disappointment. It’s probably just as well that only five of us went for it, there did not appear to be £37.50 worth of food and what there was was execrable. Diane was quite correct in pointing out that the roll’s filling was covered in a white sauce which disguised the contents. I cannot recommend the Sir John Franklin catering on the basis of what I saw last night and I’m sorry I bothered. By contrast the Pier’s turnout last year was excellent and well worth the money so guess where I’d go next time?

There was a brief altercation with some git who spent the evening stealing the buffet food with extraordinary cheek and when challenged used the words “Don’t be brave”. Given the quality of the food we were probably better off having less of it but he was astonishingly rude.

Photos

There aren’t any. There was no suitable moment to get everybody outside at the same time given the dispostion of groups in conversation and so it didn’t happen.

Comments

If you were there and think I have mis-represented what happened or want to add to it please register and comment.

If you were not there and wish to comment on what I have written you are equally welcome to register and comment.

Reunion 2008

Mark Croucher has kindly agreed to organise the 2008 reunion and details will emerge in due course. Keep an eye on this blog, and the Google Groups site at http://groups.google.com/group/mncg

Best wishes

Paul Bird

In a few days from now, a small group of us will meet at the Sir John Franklin (better known as the White Hart to students of the college) for a reminisence about old times. This happens every year at about this time and provides a welcome link with the past, especially now that the college buildings have gone to be replaced by a housing estate.

You are welcome to get in touch at any time to ask about, or to make suggestions for, the reunion, whether location, advertising, who goes, or to volunteer to help with the organisation, to the usual address of paul@greenhithe.org.uk

Today a surprise, received the following to my inbox:-

Hi Paul

My name is Michael Adkins. I am a journalist on Kentish Times Newspapers.

It would be great to speak to you about your website and the Merchant Navy College as we are running a piece about the Cutty Sark and its link to Greenhithe.

Could you please e-mail me a contact number or call me on 0208 269 xxxx extension xxx.

Thanks

Michael Adkins

So I did, and he wanted to know about the period in the 1930s when the Cutty Sark was moored at Greenhithe so I put him on to the Worcester crowd via their contacts page and he said “is there anything we can do for you?”, when I hesitated he said “what about the reunion?”. After a moments thought I replied that would be great and so we are going to get a few lines to tell the people of Kent about the reunion. Some badly needed publicity coming fortuitously, although I am sorry it had to be this way since the Cutty Sark has long been a favourite of mine.

Dover coastguard came and went – I had a few months work there but decided it wasn’t for me – not because of the coastguard role but rather the other work tagged on, miles away and unappealing. So now it’s back to taking exams and improving my C.V. www.camtutor.co.uk if you’re interested.

From last night the website has a Google Group – at http://groups.google.com/group/mncg which has a member’s gallery to post photographs and a discussion board.

The reunion is not far away now – June 16th from 1900 onwards at the former White Hart, now the Sir John Franklin, buffet available if paid for in advance, cheques to me, you will most likely already have received an email with full details, if you haven’t please contact me directly to paul@greenhithe.org.uk

We moved house in December, and slowly room by room we are making it habitable. The neighbour’s cats have decided we will do as alternative staff so we now have the joy of looking after two friendly felines for half the day with occasional feeding and lots of affection.

The website gets looked at now and again, and the reunion planning is coming along well. Current indications show a likely attendance of about twelve people and I look forward to trying out the Sir John Franklin (known to all as the White Hart), which is roomy inside and has a good outside yard with seating for the smokers.

This blog is read only because it’s just easier that way but if you do want to talk please get in touch to paul@greenhithe.org.uk or call me on my mobile 0771 2668093

The website update is over for the next several months.

Owing to our moving house, changing jobs, Christmas, and generally having a life, ten hours a day in front of this flat screen is over.

May I wish my reader a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and look forward to the next time I get a chance to update this website.

Until then, goodbye.

Paul