You may have noticed that there have been some changes around here - us pensioners have to find something to occupy our time particularly when there are so many restrictions on the freedom to just live as freely as we used to. 

I hope most of you find the site easier to use; the changes should make it easier to find your way around if you use a smaller screen on a tablet or mobile device. I mostly use a desktop so sometimes there has been insufficient testing on other devices and there will be some which I still haven't been able to test on so please let me know of any problems that you find. I intend to slowly work my way right through the site to make it easier to use and navigate.

Another change you may notice is the alternate site name of rhc65-85.org. This is to be more inclusive and it was not something I'd given much thought to until John Parker (who's organising the 2022 reunion) mentioned that he and a number of the alumni that were students right at the end of the seventies and into the eighties may get an initial impression that the site was not intended for them as well. The alternate name is just that - the rhc70s name will remain but most of the promotion for the next reunion will use the rhc65-85 naming.

I am also adding more details about the campus and the buildings. In doing so I have been surprised to discover just how much of the land on the other side of the A30 is college owned. I had always thought there were just a number of houses that were used by various departments for lectures and seminars but it seems that those houses were actually mostly small estates using up all the land opposite the campus other than the pub (The Packhorse, now but possible other names over the years)  and the student union acquired that a few years ago. I am mapping out some of that history in a new section called 'The Buildings'. The section will also trace the history of the campus from mostly woodland and parkland to what it has become. 

It would be great to have any contributions to add to some of these sections as my knowledge is appallingly scant so if anyone would like to write some articles do let me know; there must be some arts graduates with a much better grasp of article writing than I posess and the site could do with someone who can produce some intersting content.

John Parker is hoping to be able to sort out all the details for the next reunion and the most likely date will be September 10th / 11th 2022 so it's worth pencilling that in your diaries now and let's hope it is able to proceed without the need for too many limitations.

PS. I have now trimmed the beard and had a haircut but quite enjoyed my return to hippy-dom during the lockdown.

First and foremost, I hope you are all as well as can be expected after 15 months of social isolation and lockdowns.

I had my second Covid jab yesterday and whilst I had a dreadful 24 hours after the first one the second one has been very uneventful. The lockdowns and social isolation have meant I've done a lot around the house and garden (but am a little disappointed that it does not seem to have made a huge difference) and I've not been getting out as much. The most visible impacts of that are the weight gain and the hair growth. I have a feeling that the latter will be the easier one to fix and the former will take a lot longer, and a change to many habits that have developed over the last 15 months, before I get back to a pre-pandemic state).

Like all of us I have been trying to keep as busy as possible with a couple of Udemy courses completed, a family tree researched (which has taken some parts back to the 1600's) and eventually a rethink about the RHC70s website. I had been hoping that many of you would have been clearing out attics and garages and unearthing those photos you took in your students days - the ones you hid from your children as you were trying to warn them of the dangers they would be facing in the outside world and how they must behave responsibly - and there was be a flood of new photos for the website. Alas, we've seen a few more but not a deluge. I wait in hope!

The pictures already on the site I've tidied up a bit and hopefully made easier to find. For historical reasons (an excuse that means I cocked some things up years ago and its too late to fix them properly) the way they are organised and presented makes it difficult to find the ones that might inlcude people you remember. I can't make that a lot better but I am putting a layer on top which will hopefully make it easier to navigate your way around and find ones that may be of interest. I will be rolling out the changes over the coming months so you will see a number of differences and if you have any feedback it will be interesting to hear it. I also hope it will be easier to use the site on tablets and mobile phones (they were not very common when the site started) but since I can't test all of these and see how it looks and works if it causes problems please let me know. I will slowly be working my way through the site but who knows how long it may all take.

If you do visit the site then please leave a few comments about how you've fared during lockdown and some indication that you've visited. If you go through the photos then please leave comments about those where you recognise people. Where photos are part of a group then you need to 'join' the group in order to leave comments, but that's a pretty straightforward thing to do (though one of the things I hadn't realised when starting to use the software). 

There is still a hope that there will be a reunion next year that John Parker will organise but he will have to take into account where we are at with pandemics and the like and whether it remains a practical proposition.

It seems quite strange after three months of lock-down and social distancing to look back at our past reunions and recall how so many "elderly" people could possibly think it was a good idea to gather together in a confined space and hug and exchange greeting with others that we had known 40 or 50 years ago.

I had promised myself that one of the things that I would get done during this enforced isolation was to update the RHC70s website to make it easier to use and, more importantly, easier to use as a mechanism to keep in touch with friends. Needless to say that has not happened but this is at least a start to make some changes that suggests that I am not completely ignoring the site.

I will be tidying things up so that all the stuff about reunions is in the reunions section and nowhere else as at the moment that is one thing that immediately looks as if nothing has been done on the site since last September.

I had thought that the supply of photos that we would ever receive had dried up completely but was pleasantly surprised to see that more had turned up - thanks to June Poree. The enforced isolation is, of course, an excellent time to do some sorting out - so others of you out there that still have some old pictures stashed away please do share them. If you need technical help to do that then just get in touch.

I have spent the last three months (among other things) clearing out my garden shed that was full of boxes that were put in there temporarily when we had an extension built. That was 25 years ago and still they were there. Among lots of old children's things and bits and pieces that I had little use for (but couldn't bring myself to throw away) I cam across a set of old student day posters and some rolls of lining paper that I'd had blu-tacked to the walls of my various college rooms that had been used for writing quotes, witterings and doodles that various visitors had created. They are in a bit of a state but I plan to take pictures of them and add to the site (who knows when!!) but it would be great if anyone who recalls doing any of them would step forward.

It is yet to be seen whether we can hold any more reunions - until a vaccine for COVID-19 is available it seems unlikely that mass gatherings of us old people will be encouraged any time soon and whilst John Parker has volunteered to take on the task of organising the next event I'm not sure that it will be able to go ahead - and certainly not in its current form.

I hope you all remain well - but that seems a fairly lame hope at the moment - and that we will all be able to get together again sometime but in the meantime if you do visit the website then please leave a comment or a status in the community section to let us all know how you are getting on.

We now have over 300 confirmed attendees for the reunion - so a greater number than ever before. It means we have exceeded the capacity of the dining hall so we are overflowing into the common room as well - but I'm sure everything will be fine!

Please see the separate blog in the reunion section of the site for more regular updates on the reunion. At them moment I am putting together a pre-event guide which I'll be notifying people about and put on the site which will hopefully have more than enough info in it but let me know if there is anything missing.

At this stage things start to get very hectic so I may be a bit tardy in responding to individual emails or email responses will just point you to a location that already includes the information. If you can search around the website for information then please do so.