Hogwarth’s, no sorry, Oxford… (Balliol College)

It’s amazing that there are so many “little people” who tend the lawns, and maintain everything. It is very lovely. Leafy and genteel. And it has a graceful pace, far away from any gritty realism.

Anyway – it was great. We didn’t get to visit Pitt-Rivers. Duty called. But there will undoubtedly be other times, as long as the lovely timewarp of Oxford doesn’t decouple itself completely from the rest of the world.

Cheese tastes fantastic today. Oh yes, it is that time again.

There is so much going on at the moment. Logistics for the HFEA event, ethics (went in yesterday, hurrah), a variety of applications and submissions, work of course, keeping the children safe and sound on the mad carousel of life Mustn’t grumble, though – rather too many good things, than too few.

0-1 going strong!

The Nimbus Group met today, and 0-1 is doing very well in terms of downloads and return visits. It seems god 2.0 was a welcome addition!

You can download the app here (for iPhone). We are working on the Android version, which will be released soon.

And the world can breathe a sigh of relief

I, like zillions of others, followed the US presidential election with great interest. And I, like zillions of others, am glad that crazies like these didn’t end up in power:

It doesn’t even make me angry. It just makes me feel queasy to see this particular shade of stark raving mad.

A little bit of Brighton, and Irish Halloween

Laughter conference in Dublin – we had a splendid time. Halloween revellers brightened the evenings, and not even a failed attempt at pickpocketing (I felt it, and could intervene) managed to spoil the good times.

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Brighton Zombie Walk 2012

Some pics. I think the lollipop lady zombie was my favourite, but zombie Jesus and pingpong zombies were also good. Zombie moobs just grossed me out.

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Fiji underwater

Clement Attlee – wow!

Why is this man not mentioned more often? Clement Attlee was voted the best PM in the 20th century in 2004, by academics. The general public seems to have little awareness. But what achievements! He even had Margaret Thatcher’s respect (although she started the undoing of his work).

And his notorious tendency to be laconic in his answers to press and the like – how refreshing. I think I have a new hero.

No more things breaking, please

The past month has been hard. For various reasons. I am sort of beginning to look at the real collateral, and feeling pretty gingerly. But alive. And there are good things going on.

I don’t count the boiler packing up among those. Eeek. I wasn’t planning to spend nearly £400 on boiler repairs. But at least the roof is now not leaking water into the bathroom anymore – for which I am grateful. Not that I can have any baths in ice cold water, but I will eventually.

It feels somehow concerted – a degree of symbolic resonance – to all this clearing out, finally fixing, and so forth. Catharsis?

The personal has been challenging. The professional has been pretty good. And the kids have been great. There are things to be happy about, for sure.

Samuel L Jackson and a savvy little girl says “Wake the f**k up!”

I like.

The Man Who Envied Women

I was just reading about this film in Unmarked. I haven’t yet watched it, but this post is a reminder for me to do so!