Happy Birthday Marlene

In memory of Marlene here is my Teddy Tuesday contribution. Marlene seemed like such a lovely, kind and thoughtful person who was deservedly very well liked and loved by fellow blippers.

He’s an old Stieff hand puppet from I’m guessing the 1950s maybe ? I hope she’d like him.

Also found out today my old Law professor has sadly died, Christopher Harding. His sister wrote a piece about him in the Guardian and a fellow blipper forwarded it to me. He supervised my somewhat random (and in hindsight directionless) dissertation on the perceived differencing in sentencing for ‘White collar criminals’ versus ‘Blue collar criminals’. As part of the process I wrote to lots of members of theHouse of Lords, Prison governors and judges (oh and Ken Dodd about his tax evasion case) and I looked at sentencing decisions/ tariffs. I got some lovely and interesting letters in response. What was I thinking ?

At the time I really fancied being a barrister and did about 4 mini pupillages and a work experience stint with the CPS but financial constraints meant that studying further along that route was prohibitive. I got an offer at Law College in Chester to study but that meant becoming a solicitor which felt too much like an office job and I surprised my self by not accepting. Life circumstances at that point directed me towards teaching which I did for a while and really enjoyed. If he knew what I was doing now with my career I think he’d be somewhat surprised but pleased. RIP