I'm not going to talk about the main story of the week. It's very sad, and the more coverage it gets the more likely someone else is to decide it's a good idea. Here are some other things that have been in my mind ( Read more... )

Busy weekend last weekend. The Saturday consisted of a bit of political campaigning (with yesterday's result showing that my partner is better at this than me), then some shopping, and then a very pleasant dinner party.

But, Sunday brought sitting all day in a draughty hall in Bethnal Green for the 2012 Boring Conference. Do go here for the ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago I attended my annual games tournament weekend. Last year I was in India, so I was looking to defend one title and remind everyone why I'm a threat across a range of competitions. I ended up managing an extreme example of a different characteristic in my games performances ( Read more... )

NoA film about the 1988 referendum on the rule of General Pinochet in Chile, with the main viewpoint that of the advertising executive brought in to help the no campaign get its message across. As I wasn't 100% sure of the referendum result going in, I'd better not mention it here. The film is an interesting discussion of political campaigning, ( Read more... )

Much of this week has been taken up with the London Film Festival, of which I expect there will be proper reviewing later. But first, a mystery has been solved. On my way out of the flat yesterday morning, I saw a postal worker emptying the nearby pillar box, so I took the opportunity to ask why all the boxes had been closed for several weeks. ( Read more... )

Today was the first proper day of term. After several weeks of wondering where all the students were, today a significant number of them turned up in the library. As did quite a sizeable number of new books, so the team had a decent level of normal work to do as well as the back office stuff I have been keeping them busy with. I, meanwhile, was ( Read more... )

Today's weather in London probably cut down on the popularity of Open House - it's not all that much fun travelling around in the pouring rain. But yesterday seemed to be a success. I've been busy, and not motivated enough to arrange big-ticket items requiring pre-booking. But I did have a look round a nearby recycling centre, which was very ( Read more... )

Last week, the pillar box by my flat was blocked up. I have seen this before, every so often, so while a minor disappointment it was not worthy of comment. This weekend I have been walking around the area, and have found, without really looking for them, three more blocked up pillar boxes, including one on a major road. Significantly, what I haven' ( Read more... )

A small family get-together on the south coast received an interesting start with staggered arrivals. This allowed different kinds of activity at different times, making for a fun and varied but still communal weekend. Then I returned to London to join a picnic in Hyde Park. Radio 2 were having a big party on the other side of the Serpentine, but ( Read more... )

Term will start very soon (early bird registration has already happened), so this weekend has been about relaxing and wandering around the local area. Fortunately, there was a music festival taking place in Southwark, across seven parks and a multi-storey car park. We looked in at four of the venues, with the variety being good, and the quality ( Read more... )