| Thursday, November 26th, 2009 |
| 3:34 pm |
The Illy espresso bar in the new Liverpool One Waterstones might just be my new favourite coffee place. Really tasty and nobody seems to mind if you start reading a book you have no intention of buying! Today has mainly been crystal sample prep. for next week's Switzerland trip. Interesting but also repetitive and a bit dull. I'm looking forward to the weekend and the annual climbing club dinner in Caernarfon. May get vey vey sloshed and then get up for the walk the next morning. Fresh air is great to kill a hangover. |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 |
| 10:20 am |
Weekending and Spooks
Another excellent weekend concluded. On Friday we went to a nice curry & beer night with the caving club. After waking up after 11am on Saturday morning it was off to Newcastle to Jo's party which was unexpectedly attended by a couple of people I hadn't seen for maybe 5 and 10 years respectively - great to catch up with them. I wasn't very convinced at all by this week's Spooks. So, the terrorists are in an underground panic room in Hampstead and are broadcasting to the internet. Apparently MI5 can't stop the broadcast as the bad guys are 'switching servers'. So why not (a) cut all the power (b) cut whatever link is being used to connect to the net (from the bunker it has to be a hard line, surely?) (c) EMP the site.. I was highly amused by the idea that a satellite with a thermal imaging camera can detect individuals in a bunker which was described as '15 metres underground with a metre of reinforced concrete as a shell'. |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 |
| 1:48 pm |
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| 10:51 am |
Christmas Baebes
The Medieval Baebes are doing a Christmas gig at the Lowry on Thu 10th Dec. Very tempting! Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) songofnewday for the heads up. |
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 |
| 9:36 pm |
FAT!
I'm nearly back to being able to exercise which will be good. An inactive Mike is a grumpy Mike.. The Christmas season of lard is fast approaching, so my incipient portliness may continue. How far does one have to run to burn off an xmas dinner? Hmm... |
| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
| 11:46 am |
parties and lazyness
Excellent party for Rich & Ben's birthdays last night, although I'm glad I was driving so could avoid the roulette wheel of shots :) The T-bone steak Rich ate was a monster! Today I intend to do nothing at all :) |
| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 |
| 9:58 am |
We went to the AGM of the climbing club last night in Liverpool. It was a very short affair, as its really only an excuse for a slide/photo evening afterwards. I was impressed again by the older members of the club who are spending their retirements climbing big mountains and travelling the world. There was a great story about 3 of the guys on a via ferrata in the Dolomites. Ahead of them a British lady was coming back down, saying "I'm nearly 50 I'm too old for this!", to which the reply came "Well, if you say so, but I'm 60, he's 70 and Fred here is 80". The lady turned round and climbed straight up to the top. |
| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 |
| 9:42 pm |
Free TV
I don't suppose anyone wants a 28" CRT TV with stand? Free to anyone who can take it away... |
| Sunday, November 1st, 2009 |
| 2:16 pm |
One for the special team...
so I was putting an insulation strip around the loft hatch, from inside the loft with the hatch closed. All was well until my hand slipped off the solid frame and put weight on the hatch, which promptly opened resulting in me falling out head first while comically still holding the hammer. All things considered, I fell pretty well, landing on one hand rather than my head, and falling from a handstand position to whack my back on the floor. I have a nice big swollen graze on my back and loads of bruises and somewhat bent fingers. Ouch. Annoyingly the loft is not finished :( However, we did finish installing the big screen TV first Current Mood:  sore |
| Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 |
| 2:26 pm |
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| Sunday, October 18th, 2009 |
| 2:42 pm |
Morning after the night before
The party was excellent, although my brain stubbornly refuses to work today. Urgh! Still, very little to do apart from vegetating in front of the TV. |
| Monday, October 12th, 2009 |
| 9:24 pm |
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| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 |
| 3:29 pm |
Inverse xenophobia
Getting a little annoyed today. I use accelerator sources in quite a few countries (Switzerland, Japan, Grenoble in France) and my colleagues use them in Paris and Hamburg. Without fail, they are easy to get to and have efficient, streamlined systems to deal with paperwork, safety and logistics. Later in the week I'm off to the British one near Oxford. Its a complete contrast - horribly bureaucratic, confusing booking systems, dodgy website etc. Comically, having purpose built a huge 300 million quid lab on a fresh site and knowing the number of scientists who would be coming (mainly by car), they don't have enough parking. If you arrive by train, they expect you to take the bus. |
| Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 |
| 12:56 pm |
Bah..
I'm sure 3 months should be enough time for a pulled finger tendon to recover. Its most annoying! I'm now almost recovered from the weekend, mainly thanks to 10 hrs sleep on Sunday night. Its quite a busy week, but luckily not stressful. Tomorrow I shall be 'cough' working from home..'ahem' |
| Sunday, September 27th, 2009 |
| 6:20 pm |
Home again
I'm back from Riftworld, showered, shaved and de-redded. Another fantastic event, especially seeing the plotline for the finale from both the player and crew perspectives after my PC had a little accident in the warp on Saturday daytime. Very sleepy on the way home so I was forced to stop for coffee and the world's biggest chocolate croissant. The lovely Christine is now making me cottage pie. How good is that :) Current Mood:  happy |
| Friday, September 25th, 2009 |
| 11:55 am |
I'm slightly clockwatching today - hopefully will be away by 4.30 so I can get my tent up in daylight. |
| Thursday, September 24th, 2009 |
| 5:48 pm |
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| 12:25 pm |
FAO Katie B
Can you remember to pack the spear for me please? |
| Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 |
| 10:13 pm |
Riftworld
Hmm, packing for a camping game seems to be taking much longer than usual, even though my character kit is so much simpler than it used to be... Still, should be a great game. Effectively a starting character at the big finale event. Probable life expectancy of a chocolate fireguard :) |
| Saturday, September 19th, 2009 |
| 11:18 am |
Its been a busy week, so a lazy Saturday is in order. Between now and tonight, I need to 1. Pick up parcels from post office 2. Get a goddamn haircut 3. Drop stuff at charity shop 4. Laze about in my underpants Then its off to elektrobard's for the evening :) |
