Right, here are the answers to the quiz. Apologies for not handing these out on the evening itself (and also to those of you who thought the quiz was too hard! Sorry!). Anyway:

( Click here for answers )

I hate the radio stations I am forced to listen to at work. This is quite a long-standing thing, so I don't know why I feel inspired to write about it now, but here we go anyway.

First of all, any song which tries to deliver the lines "Call me Mr Flintstone, I can make your bedrock" with genuine romantic sentiment should be taken off the airwaves ( Read more... )

So, this year we haven’t really been able to afford a proper holiday, and we’ve restricted ourselves to a scenic walk somewhere local in order to cut down travel costs (and reduce accommodation altogether). In fact, we’ve been extra cost effective since we chose to do the walk last week, to coincide with part of my birthday celebrations. We chose ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went round the lake, bag of slightly gone off bacon scraps in one pocket and camera in the other, in the hope of tempting the magpies and crows to stay standing in one place long enough - and close enough - to get some decent photos of them. But it turns out the crows and magpies on campus, unlike their urban counterparts, aren't ( Read more... )

As I stepped outside my office this afternoon after a typically dreary day I was met by an opening of the skies so intense it turned the whole of market square into a super-size paddling pool, and all the surrounding roads into miniature rivers. It was truly awe-inspiring! Even if it turns out my boots are not the slightest bit waterproof. Really ( Read more... )

Oh man I love David Mitchell

My first proper update for absolutely ages may follow at some point next week, when I should have finally completed all my essays for this year. Assuming I can tear myself away from Wimbledon, that is :-)

I had a strange dream last night. I was out for a walk with my Mum and we came across an injured bird, which was a seagull by the time the dream finished but looked much more like an overgrown starling at the beginning. But my dream-brain didn't think to question this. And considering how the rest of the dream progressed, that was the least of the ( Read more... )

According to an article I stumbled upon from our relevant business news page at work, the only 2 criteria you need to meet to be officially classified as interesting are:

1) Like using iPods
2) Have an account on facebook or similar.

Hmmm, I should be worried. By this assessment, I'm only 50% interesting.

Also, apologies for being rubbish at keeping ( Read more... )

So, haven't written in a while, in fact haven't written in so long that I can't even remember how far back I'd have to go in order to provide everyone with an adequate update to follow on from then, so I'm not even going to bother trying. Instead I'm just going to vent my enthusiasm about corvids - the family of birds to which (among others) crows ( Read more... )

Have just been practising some German with a few 'helpful' translations from Ilya. Read on to be enlightened:

Guten abend! - Who is bent well?

Mein name ist Norbert Schicker und ich bin Deutscher - I am Hitler

Ich komme aus Potsdam in der Nähe von Berlin - I am Pol Pot in Berlin

Ich wohne jetzt hier in Leipzig - Have you got any lipstick?

Ich spreche ( Read more... )