2026-09-08 16:40:06 - Paul D. Foy -
I'm going to put a comment in here because I think it concerns Robinson College but unfortunately it's a little sinister, to tell the truth, and not one I'm all that happy about, honestly. For example, in one of my first jobs (in fact my first real job), I was invited to leave the company because of a dispute that had arisen. I was represented by a union rep at that time. The words he used to me were: "The company is looking to get rid of you so I think it's the best course of action to leave" Well I've been suddenly told this is not how you conduct yourself. You've got to tough it out with these organisations because they're only playing a game with you. Then I went on to develop, as was diagnosed by the medical profession, a psychosis, a little mental illness. Now it seems to me that one is labelled as being ill when one takes as trust and fair value and accepts what is said by those that are appointed to help you. Rather it seems to me that what people regard as real life is taking a blind eye to lying and just getting on with what you want to do in spite of everybody lying, cheating, and deceiving you around you. It's very difficult to do that kind of thing. Frankly, one is influenced by people. I, for example, take on trust what people say to me. I don't see a healthy way to go about living otherwise. When it comes to Robinson College, I'm sure they'll know about this and I'm sure one or two of the students might know about this. When you describe somebody as being a good person because you believe they're willing to engage in friendly conversation with you (even though they might not feel they can engage in a girlfriend-type relationship), it is subsequently used and taken advantage of as though I'm making some sarcastic comment or something. Well I think very dimly about that, to tell the truth, very dimly indeed.

2026-09-01 16:46:27 - Paul D. Foy -
I thought I'd slip this one in here whilst we're reminiscing about Robinson College. It concerns something else that hasn't actually changed very much in the past 40 or so years and it's concerning a visit I made to the college after I graduated several years later. In fact it was the only visit I have made to the college subsequently. It was a reunion, a year reunion I do believe. Now here I happened to speak to someone. I think he was a physics lecturer. I think he may even have been a director of studies in physics. He looked very similar to my ex-director of studies in mathematics and he remarked to me that he was getting close to retirement and he'd just taken on an allotment. Now I didn't quite know what to make of this at the time. Is taking on an allotment something you do only when you're getting old or are university lecturers not paid so well so that they've got to scrimp and save and make ends meet for themselves in the later years, such is their meagre wage and pension? Well that might be true because I do remember my director of studies saying to me that he couldn't really afford to buy books, poor chap. For me an allotment has been part of my life, most of my life to tell the truth. I had an allotment when I was at school and I've had it for most of the period of my life, my working life. Yes I've had an allotment. I've even got an allotment now in my older age. I did have a short period of time whilst I was studying at Robinson College and during the early years of getting and establishing my working career when I didn't have an allotment but most of the time I have had an allotment.

2026-08-30 16:04:04 - Paul D. Foy -
I read with interest in the local paper, the Spemborough Guardian, this week that young people, students, had been getting their GCSE grades and it seems nothing has predominantly changed in the past forty years. I noticed that there were many photographs of large ranks, large lines of young ladies who had got very good GCSE grades. I can corroborate the fact that young ladies like to do their best in their studies to be academically quite conscientious because I experienced this when I was at Robinson College. Indeed my Director of Studies remarked to me that he had a lot of applications from a lot of young ladies that had got very good O-Levels. Indeed I experienced this conscientiousness amongst the female student body when I was at Robinson. They always seemed very conscientious. They were working in libraries. They were even neglecting to make friends, such was their earnestness to get on in life. Nothing much has changed but the hapless man still has his problems to deal with.

2026-08-17 12:31:33 - Paul D. Foy -
Students undergoing sex work during the course of their studies is not uncommon these days. It's quite a well-established route to take. They might engage in some kind of webcam session for money. There are many webcam sites. It's fairly important for them now because it's fairly expensive going to university in many areas, even in the UK now. It's an established development and not one that I disapprove of to tell the truth. Of course it did go on to quite a considerable extent in the past, sex work of students, but it was never admitted. They would always be undergoing some kind of higher moral purpose in some sense but it is about the very much the same thing. Actually it's more exploitive of the other person, which is generally the male.

2026-08-11 14:15:53 - Paul D. Foy -
I'm not quite sure what goes on at Robinson College with the officers of the college or the students or between the students and the officers in particular in relation to me. They certainly haven't or don't share it with me in any sense. My suspicion is that it's not very healthy and that some of those people there, possibly the students, are not sure in their attitude. I didn't see it amongst members of the college. I've got some rather strange attitudes that come to mind. My attitude, and my attitude certainly at the time when I was a young man, was that there's basically very little difference between men and women. There's a 10% physical difference but so what? In these days of robotics and machinery and work aids and all kinds of things I don't think that makes a highly significant difference. Certainly at the time I regarded there being little difference between men and women. Indeed the only difference is the physical differences of their bodies, which I wasn't particularly aware of at that time to tell the truth. I had no understanding of the major differences as it were anyway so I regarded them as being my equals. I don't think they regarded me as being their equals. I think they were regarding me as some kind of undeveloped person who they wish to try and coerce in life in some way. That stupid attitude, in my opinion, because possibly I had a more sensible attitude than they had but I'm not sure they see it like that.

2026-08-08 04:56:14 - Paul D. Foy -
I think universities and Robinson College are going to have to think very carefully about what their raison d'etre is to tell the truth going forward. Emphasising struggling and learning by experience is a hard sell when the answer is perhaps only a couple of sentences away in chatGPT or one of the other AIs. I really think they're going to have to think exactly what their purpose and role in life is. It's true that a few will be researchers and furthering these AI offerings, these software offerings, mathematical offerings, etc. That is the traditional role will hold as universities are the providers of those developing the new technologies. I think the vast majority of people are going to be employed in more straightforward roles. I think the universities are going to have to position themselves as the providers of the manpower of those people doing the real things that are needed to be done in life: the genuine things, the growing of food, the providing of water, the building of houses, all the peripheral roles surrounding that. That will be for the vast majority of people I would have thought and that is what is life to tell the truth. I think universities and Robinson College may revert to their traditional role, the provider of education to the gentry, an experience for the offspring of the gentry, but now the gentry is everybody because everybody is paying (albeit via the state sometimes). While everybody is paying for the service I think it's going to be a bit disingenuous of universities and colleges to grade and assess people when they are the customers. That's not on really. You don't pay for being measured and told how you are, etc. , unless you're going for a medical exam or something. The university and college will be seen as and measured by: - how good its accommodation is - how good its restaurant is - how near it is to facilities - how near it is to athletics tracks - how near it is to the Mathematical Institute - the lecture rooms - the libraries - things like that I think Robinson College is ideally positioned for all those things. It's very near to the library, very near to the Mathematics Institute, and very near to the Athletic's Track so I think it's got a lot going for it here. Perhaps even an underground garage and friendly porters!.

2026-08-06 10:32:25 - Paul D. Foy -
Looks like the world of Cambridge and Robinson College is all about assessing people, assessing their sexual behaviour, whether they're getting friendly enough with people and not having too much sex. Assessing the amount of sex that's being had, whether it's penetrative sex or oral sex. Whether there's too much holding of hands going on or too much kissing or too much foreplay or something like that. Or trying to measure the amount of sex they've had and allocating grades appropriately to compensate for their lack or excess of sex, that kind of thing. Perhaps that's what the murky world of Cambridge is all about. Perhaps that's a legacy from the old school boy network or the public school boy network, which I knew nothing about but which my headmaster was a master of. The mind boggles. However what I am saying might be completely rubbish and it's all part of my mental illness. The fault is usually mine and people can't talk about these things if they're true anyway. We just have to live in the world of imagination and make-believe and murky goings-on, as is typical of this country. It's not my way.

2026-08-06 09:59:28 - Paul D. Foy -
Courtesy of the machinations of Robinson College and what was begun there, I don't know who began it, Elizabeth Schulthorpe, possibly, people like her, but it was encouraged, I believe, by members of the college, not the kind head porter there. He seemed to be a nice man. Everything I do from then on, the comments I make, have been labelled as me being ill or disturbed in some way. I'm unable to have a genuine conversation with anybody without being labelled as agitated or disturbed. My mother physically assaults me. I reported her to the police. This is genuine. It is not made up. It is real. It is a physical assault she has conducted. If I speak out of this, if I say anything, I'm labelled by my brother or anybody else or the doctors as mentally ill and this is ridiculous. I have no challenge of it. The only challenge I have is to take my mother to court to give her a criminal record. That is the only challenge I have to what is going on. I am labelled as ill, as disturbed, if I comment on an unusual event in the community, wherever I am or at work, and denied any proper help. I'm labelled as ill, disturbed, difficult to manage. It is always my fault. I'm always the one to blame and this has ensued from Robinson College and the actions of the people there onwards in my life, I believe.

2026-08-06 09:37:18 - Paul D. Foy -
Perhaps I'll mention a few conversations with Fred Boyne, head porter at Robinson College and a retired ex-sergeant major, I do believe. The first conversation I had with Mr. Boyne was rather a difficult one in that I was trying to carry my suitcases or possessions or something. I can't quite remember. It was very early on from the car or the storage cupboard or something like that and I said, "I'm in need of a porter. You're a porter aren't you?" That made him furious. He didn't like me saying that. Perhaps that's a naive thing to say for a young man but I said it anyway. Anyway the relationship went very well strangely with Mr. Boyne and he was by far the kindest person to me at Robinson College because, as I've said previously, I kept a car there. He said to me, words to this effect: "You just want a quiet life whilst you're here you can keep your car in the garage and if anybody gives you any problems or comments on it just ask them to see me. That's fine. " He's a very nice chap and I think I understood him finally and I think he understood me so that's quite nice. I appreciate that and I appreciate all the help from some of the junior ranks. I'm not saying he's a junior rank but okay.

2026-08-06 06:52:31 - Paul D. Foy -
Perhaps I should mention here that I didn't take any special exam on entrance to Robinson College. I just took the standard A-levels, of which I received an offer, I remember, of three As. I felt okay about accepting any three As at A-level. I had an offer of something like an A in Mathematics and two Bs from Durham University so I accepted that as well as my fall back position. I think that was the case. I was with fairly high offers across the board in my A-levels for Mathematics but I wasn't too worried about this because I was fairly confident at that kind of a level. Now I didn't take any special exam at Cambridge. I went there for an interview, which was a bit of a strange affair because they didn't ask me any difficult questions particularly. I remember it was in a student bedroom or something or perhaps it was in the director's studies room or something. It was just a normal student room in the place. I don't remember too much about it, don't remember any difficult questions. I do remember an embarrassing moment where I thought the interviewer was an interviewee, that is, a student, and he corrected me on that. That was Dr Thomas. My headmaster thought the offer was an excellent offer and a very, very rare kind of offer to get that from Cambridge for some reason but I considered him to have slightly dodgy judgement anyway. I don't think I was aware of any special entrance exam for Mathematics at Cambridge at that stage. I don't know whether there was one or not. I can't remember. That was all there was to say about it.

2026-08-05 08:59:26 - Paul D. Foy -
I recently received a communication from Robinson College that they are stepping up their support for students taking the Cambridge entrance exam in Mathematics so that they can get better grades so that the college can visibly display that better grades can be achieved. I am not quite sure which direction this is taking, to tell the truth, or whether it is the right thing to be emphasising. Should we be all taking more examinations in our private lives or doing examinations as hobbies and leisure activities? I'm not quite sure.

2026-07-18 06:36:27 - Paul D. Foy -
I was training regularly whilst I was at Robinson College in Cambridge. Interval training, repetition: 200 m, 100 m, 300 m, 400 m, that kind of thing. Long-distance runs occasionally as well. I sometimes train twice a day but I think I was doing it about once a day. I'd regularly go to the track at Milton Road, quite a distance away to get there. It wasn't very good in the winter either, not a particularly good track to tell the truth. It was an asphalt track. It was waterlogged in the winter and you had a groundsman chasing you off saying, "Haven't you got any common sense or something. " He was right actually but I thought it was important that the track was kept open to train from my point of view. Anyway I think in my second year that was when I got my car there and I became a bit more adventurous. I think I went up to Milton Road by car and I remember making a trip to Harlow where there was a redgrae track, as it's called. Synthetic tracks are much better. They're all with their tracks. There was one very close to where I lived, the synthetic track, which is one of the reasons I got interested in athletics perhaps because I could have run very readily. That was in Cleckheaton but there wasn't one very near Cambridge and they weren't very common at that stage. In fact that was the time when you could just turn up, pay a fee, and have a run on the track. It doesn't seem quite like that these days. It seems to be a bit more secure, with a bit more structure to it. I miss that freedom, to tell the truth, of being able to do what I like when I like, and we seem to have lost something there for various reasons.

2026-07-17 20:27:32 - Paul D. Foy -
I'd like to slip in a general comment here which applies in many scenarios. These scenarios may be: - The mathematics course at Cambridge - The software development and programming languages - The availability of library books - The cost of buying something - These kinds of things If you generally make something inaccessible, or too exclusive, or too expensive, or too unavailable, people will generally rail against it. They'll find ways of avoiding it. They'll find ways of paying less. They'll find ways of understanding something more easily. They'll find ways of developing software more easily. For example the marketeer, the salesman at MATLAB, wouldn't let me have a copy of MATLAB to use on my home computer for free of course. Ultimately I wrote my own mini version of MATLAB in mathematical-services. co. uk. If you make something too expensive, people will strive to do the same thing of the same quality for less because they can't afford, for some reason, the more expensive version. If something is too difficult for some reason, people will find ways of making it easier, of explaining it better, of doing it differently in some way so that it's more accessible. I've come across the phenomenon of students tearing out a vital page in a book. I don't condone that, of course. It's completely wrong but I've come across it. The particular bit I wanted to look at was missing for some reason. People work to do things about this. They developed AI so that all books are digitised and regurgitated back to you. That takes away the library, doesn't it? You don't have to bother with whether the book is available or not. You just type it into chatGPT or Google. It applies in all phenomena. The thing is I'd ask somebody who is making something in that direction, too exclusive, too expensive, too unavailable, that kind of thing, what their motivations are. Whether they are good motivations, because if somebody is rearing against you, it may not be a good motivation and it might not be a generally good one to develop that motivation. You have to think very carefully about yourself and what you're trying to achieve.

2026-07-17 11:37:37 - Paul D. Foy -
I'd just like to make a further comment as to why I appeared to stop doing athletics in the 400 m actively in my third year. It seemed to raise a few eyebrows amongst my fellow students, members of the athletics club, that I had in some sense given up trying to better myself or pursue my 400 m interest. Well that's my nature. I'm a very practical person and I made the decision that, as far as this 400 m running was going to go, I think it had largely run its course. The reason why I came to this conclusion is that I'd run quite a few 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m in the West Yorkshire Track and Field League and elsewhere. My best 100 m time was 11. 8. I was doing a lot of 12. 0s. My best 200 m time was 23. 8 and I was doing a lot of 24s around that kind of time. I made the decision that I was going to really struggle to get my 400 m time much faster. I was never going to be an Olympic athlete or even a national athlete in some sense, perhaps just a good club 400 m runner, not even perhaps a good club 100 m or 200 m runner. I made the practical decision to try and concentrate more on my studies and less on girls, young ladies, and running if I could. That's generally what I did and that's the basis for how that direction in my life went.

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