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Jim Woodall
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 11:29 am    Post subject: Jim Woodall Reply with quote

Does anyone know the whereabouts of Jim Woodall, of Edinburgh. Last I heard he was teaching in one of the universities in Prague. He has been working in the Czech Republic since 1990. pm me if you have any leads.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:15 am    Post subject: ?????????????????????? Reply with quote

I am still looking for the aged Jim Woodall, EFL teacher in Prague and Brno since 1990.

Any leads ?
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Albulbul



Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Posts: 364

PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2004 11:37 pm    Post subject: EJW Reply with quote

JW left Czecho for Scotland on the last day of April 2004. He is almost certainly now on licensed premises in Glasgow or Edinburgh getting rat-arsed.

Will he return to Prague ? Or Brno ? Or................................
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2004 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In fact Jim has been located but not through this forum. He is one of those old fogeys who still believes in the old-fashioned post office.

Does anyone else still write real letters ? With envelopes and stamps ?

And how have stamp collectors survived into this cyberage of electronic mail ?
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The sad conclusion of this is that Jim is in a Local authority long-term residential home with a diagnosis of Dementia.

Who will look ater YOU when you are old ?


Last edited by scot47 on Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
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khmerhit



Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 1874
Location: Reverse Culture Shock Unit

PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2005 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scot47 queried
Quote:
Who will look after YOU when you are old ?



The Maghreb Local Authority?
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Seeker of truth



Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 146

PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 1:51 pm    Post subject: Locating lost people Reply with quote

Interesting thread..it raises the question of what the best way is to locate missing people? The internet nowadays is a good start. But what else?
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Chris_Crossley



Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:44 am    Post subject: TV shows to help find and reunite people Reply with quote

They used to have all these popular TV shows whose aim was to find and reunite people, usually (but not exclusively) family members, who had not seen one another for decades. One of them used to be "Surprise Surprise!" presented by Cilla Black on ITV in the UK.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:07 pm    Post subject: internet Reply with quote

Internet is a powerful tool in searching. I am surprised by the number of people who have tracked me down. I am of course as always one step ahead of the authorities.

FriendsReunited.co.uk is one of the routes to go
But there are still lots of old fogeys that do not use this computer stuff !
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Visited the man again today. I felt like those war veterans who have described the mixture of feelings they had when the man standing next to them in the trenches "bought it". Elation that the shell did not get me, and then guilt at having that feeling.

Dementia is an awful condition.


Last edited by scot47 on Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
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corij



Joined: 03 Dec 2009
Posts: 26

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sounds as if you have great memories of the old days , care to share them ?
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was young, we were optimistic. That Age is over.
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Arab Strap



Joined: 25 Feb 2004
Posts: 246
Location: under your bed

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

corij wrote:
sounds as if you have great memories of the old days , care to share them ?


I heard many a tale from Jim about the legend that is Scot 47.......99.9% of which can't be posted here. Shocked
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have taken the precaution of advising my lawyers that there may be defamatory statements emanating from a certain quarter.
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kmactavish



Joined: 17 Dec 2012
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:25 pm    Post subject: Jim Woodall--tortured soul then Reply with quote

James arrived at the university just before classes started in October and was gone by Christmas. Two or three years later, I saw him twice on separate occasions near Jungmanova Square. He didn't see me, nor was it easy to catch him to have a word. His stride determined. His pace steady. I could have, but thought better of it. I had the same disease, and by that point my symptoms had become worse, yet the opposite of his.

We shared an office, kitchen, and living quarters in a building called simply H. It also had a library down- and classrooms upstairs where we taught.

He arrived with nothing. He said by bus from Prague. He wore the same clothes every day, to the casual eye clean and pressed. His shoes betrayed no surrender to his malignancy. But for a missing tooth or two, he was nice looking, clean and well groomed. He mentioned an abdominal hernia twice, but said he didn't want to spend the money to take care of it. Eating string beans from a can seemed to help somehow. The housekeeper reported, somewhat astonished, that there was nothing in his room when she cleaned once a week.

No books either, no papers. Apparently he had published or was a kind of authority on interaction, a language specialist with experience at home and abroad. At a departmental meeting before the term started, he demonstrated a way to assess students, documented on a folded typewritten paper with nothing on it to identify author or origin. We adopted the technique and clutched copies of his instructions.

He did not prepare for his lessons. Just appeared in the office a few minutes before class, borrowed a book and perhaps a piece of paper, and left for his duties. Afterwards, unprompted, he recounted what had happened with his different groups, and we easily visualized what must have taken place. We were familiar with the materials and the obligatory lessons that supported them. We heard nothing from his students. Apparently he survived classes unscathed, or they did.

It was during the day in the office or in the hallways that he manifested the symptom all could see but none could understand or accept. He talked and talked at length, punctuated now and then by a question that became rhetorical--the uneasy listener had no time to answer. Incessant it was; then abruptly, as if on some small cue received via remote sensing, it would stop, and he would politely apologize and continue on his way. Always on his way somewhere. Sometimes he disappeared for a few hours. Or into the evening. He came and went frequently from the city, again by bus.

Other than the unexplained disappearances when not working, he seemed to like gatherings. Meeting his students in class. Departmental get-togethers. Mealtimes in the kitchen with other residents. But some gatherings didn't especially like him. So talkative was he, often about interesting but unrelated things, that the lesser and younger among us began to shun him. It is hard to piss off others in such a short time, but in confined spaces one can. And he did. Never impolite or offensive, it was only the ceaseless flow of words that got to people. He was soon the object for evasive action.

A larger gathering took place where the administration announced changes that affected those residing in H. He attended and observed without contributing. Afterwards, commenting on one of his countrymen, he told how he could imagine this one who claimed to be an insulted English gentleman. He said his indignation would have been more effective if he had slapped the rector with his lace glove after the perceived affront. We had a great laugh as he slipped into silence and left for somewhere.

I invited him to lunch to talk about managing what was hurting him. We worked out a system. If things got going in the wrong direction, I would signal and he would know what to do. But it was too late. The words continued to flow not ebb, and grate. And I was not always around to befriend a man in need of the compassion that perhaps only I could give.

The university found itself in a budgetary crisis. (Don't they all?) And something or someone had to go by the beginning of the next term in February. He volunteered. He said he had an offer in Prague. He mentioned a specific school or institute. No one tried to dissuade him. He donated his final salary back to the university, saying he didn't need it. And I guess he didn't.

A friend had bequeathed him a flat in the center of Prague. And an uncle was it?, had won a lottery, or he had, somewhere, perhaps Australia. There was plenty of money in a bank account he could use if he wanted to. His wife and child had been killed in a car accident. [I re-read a letter he sent to me in '95 and can correct this. His daughter was killed in the accident, his wife from illness apparently.]

Jim was a person, a subject made object by his own behavior. He didn't deserve it. And forgiveness for not treating him repeatedly as a person escapes those who behaved so, but for their own dis-eases. What this courtesy takes remains a mystery, though surely it takes empathy. But the subject human heart is frail; frailer still if trapped in the cacophony or silence that can mystify others who would have us be otherwise.

The second time I saw Jim after he left, he appeared older and frail. I have looked for him in Prague since, meaning to stop him and visit if he would like. I have yet to run into him.
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