Dogs and Views.

The holiday is nearly over; it's only one day until I go back to Cambridge, and I'm surprised. My second summer holiday has essentially flown by and now I'm starting my graduation year (yeah I have 3 more after that, but it still feels a little significant). My bedroom is a pit, owing to the first attempts at packing I tried yesterday. It's surprisingly hard to take only select stuff; when I pack to come home from Cambridge it's much easier as EVERYTHING needs packing! I have finally thrown away my filthy sauce pan (ruined in Castle End by some unidentifiable tomato burnage, and non-stick scrapage, perpetrator technically unknown), and have bought some shiny new ones from Ikea.

I arrived back from Leeds on Wednesday; I only went up for a few days to say hello (and to keep Alex and her brother entertained while their parents were away enjoying the sun, sea and sand of the Devon coast. We visited Mary, which was great fun - she showed us many photos of her amazing trip to Kenya - Giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, leopards, buffallo, antelope, impala... everything you'd expect! We also walked the dogs to the top of the hill and took stock of the amazing view. Just one of many discoverable in the foothills of the pennines. Both Alex (Yorks) and Mary (Lancs) have views everywhere - within a few steps of their front-doors, something that I miss in the Kingston Basin, and in the Cambridge pancake. They seemed confused at my almost constant "Wow! Another view!" as we walked round. I also discovered that I like walking dogs. Thus two things for me to attain when I grow up are dogs, and views. You can see the amazingness of the landscape, Alex and Mary and the Dogs in the three photos I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

We also had a bonfire with a load of paper shreddings. There's something about fire that just fascinates me, and if I think correctly, every other human being on this planet. Maybe it's hardwired into our brains so that we can actually cook our food (and thus enable us to have lazy digestive systems(?)). We toasted marshmallows in the papery flames, and were merry.

• Films watched: 2. Some like it hot (v.good), and This Boy's Life (a bit dull and drawn out, but it finished well).
• Books read: 1. The Blind Watchmaker. Read it on the trains, and well worth reading. Just ignore the chapter about taxonomy because it's dull.
• Miles Travelled: ~500 including Alex's first venture onto a motorway behind the wheel (and very well she did too).
• Packed: 60%
• Kisses from drunk 30something's on tube trains: 1. My hand I hasten to add.

Darwin, Dawkins, God and Me. All in 417 Words

This is not a radical post – it is my opinion.

If, all those million years ago, the tiny life-like particles had come together and “discovered” a DNA-like way of copying themselves, but, one that was perfect, I mean 100% perfect, letter for letter, chemical for chemical, then we’d still be sitting in a primordial soup. The sheer fact that we cannot copy ourselves perfectly has enabled us to become what we are today, and isn’t that incredible? – Me, 2006

Evolution by natural selection is an amazing thing, and in my opinion, explains everything there is to know about the origins of us, and every other living thing on the planet. Richard Dawkins also believes this, and I am currently reading his book “The Blind Watchmaker”, and it is fantastic. Full of beautiful metaphors and well explained theories (though his analogy of DNA to the ROM of a computer was extremely confusing), it is well worth reading. However, I think if he is going to more widely spread the amazing news that is neo-Darwinism he is going to have to divorce it from his arrogant atheism.

Now, I’m not religious, and I don’t really believe that there is a God – perhaps I’m hedging my bets – an agnostic. As I’ve said, my beliefs about the origin of life are the same as Dawkins’s, but that’s not the point. That does not immediately disprove the existence of a God. God and evolution (even evolution by natural selection) are not mutually exclusive, it just simply gives a different role for a deity. All the species we have on this earth today are descended from an original (or a few original) ancestors, and that’s great, but so what? Maybe once all religious experts realise that evolution did happen, and that natural selection is the perfect, most logically perfect way to explain this, and people like Dawkins realise that while it may disprove the book of Genesis as a literal fact, it does not prove organised-religion to be a breeding ground for unintelligent, uninformed, brainwashed fools perhaps we can all get on. Religion in general makes a lot of people happy, and I believe has helped us set up a large majority of the moral codes we hold today. I have no problem with peaceful religiousness; it’s just not for me.

Aside from these religious misgivings, the book is well worth reading and shines a glorious light on all that is natural. Completely natural, and beautiful.

Anyone else’s opinion would be welcomed!

Tom

Snooker 4

Dammit! I lost. 13-11 he beat me. Grr.
But, the game we played after the end of the summer series I won 74-14 - that's what happens when the stress is off! Though I fear Rahul did not have *all* of his heart in it.

Whizzzzzz

Went into Kingston with Geoff and Rasselhoff yesterday. The exciting adventures kicked off straight away. Rahul's attempted to get a Hip-Flask engraved with £52s worth of text, as clearly three initials is nowhere near enough - he required 200 letters (he decided against it in the end), and we tested "Shakeaway", a weird new milkshake "restaurant". You basically go in, and chose some form of confectionary for them to whizz with milk and ice-cream. I got a bounty shake, and it was actually really really tasty!

After all that walking, we decided that a cinema trip was in order, and Black Dahlia was the film of the day (chosen after much indecisive deliberation). It was ok, but the fact that it was Orange Wednesdays may have helped me like it even more than I actually did *mm...money*. Nothing special, and it became a little unnecessarily convuluted towards the end.

After the film, Geoff went home to cook for his family (bless), and me and Rahul went to Tolworth for a snooker showdown. We were awful, and two hours and only 4 frames later, we were still tied at 10-10. It's best of 25 so the decider is coming up! Snooker was followed by an amazing chinese meal over a bottle of wine. So civilised, and really good fun!

Snooker 3

Was 8-8, today's result 2-2 before mid session interval (i.e. night-time). Current score, 10-10. Final session to come....

Gapless Playback

Thank-you Itunes. Finally you have come to your senses! I can listen to classical music without there being a little second of silence between each track! Huzzah! When you first install Itunes 7 it searches all your music, and, using some magic algorithm, makes everything right again! Not only that, but it now automatically updates your album artwork too which is fab, cos those were the only two features that wmp had on itunes.

Just tested it.. Works amazingly! Misplaced Childhood has never sounded so good.

Played golf with Dad today. 22 over par for a 9 hole course. Sounds poo doesn't it. Well, no. It wasn't. Golf is hard, and I did actually get two pars on the way. I also went out of bounds 6 times... but that's cos I can't always hit straight. And my excuse for that is that I haven't played for ages. Look at me, I'm defending myself on my own blog. How odd! AAnyway. It was great fun, and I definitely want to do it a little more often. Must remember to pick it up again at the START of holidays, as opposed to under two weeks before I go back. Oops!

Magic and vocab.

Have just finished Dr Bainbridge's Pregnancy tour-de-force. It was only a simple skimming over the science of pregnancy, but was actually extremely interesting, and should make re-revising my repro notes from last year much easier. As I was reading it it reminded me just why I am studying Development and Reproduction next year - just because it's as close to magic as you can get in science.

I've now started to second book in the Gormenghast trilogy - the first few pages required me to have a dictionary at my side. I realised how I read books and simply ignore any words that I've not heard of before. "With her arms akimbo" for example... would have glossed over it, but now I know that it means to have your hands on your hips and your elbows sticking out sideways. I've been writing the really complicated ones down in my old french "Lexique" book from GCSE year, so maybe they'll stick!

Oh God, He's pumping a Porshe

Sequence of events:

1. Small child outside stables in car park carrying a bicycle pump.
2. Small child sees Porsche parked in car-park.
   
3. Child decides that Porsche is looking a little flat (it's pretty low-to-the-road), and decides that it would be kind to give it a little air.
4. Child inserts pump through rear grill and starts, well, pumping.
5. Mother of small child turns round and exclaims "Oh God, he's pumping a Porsche".
6. Small child is removed from vicinity of Porsche.
7. Tom appears wheeling a barrow full of horse-shit.
8. Mother: "Oh god, it's not your Porsche is it?"
9. Tom. "No. I wish". <-- how witty.
   

Do I look like I own a Porsche? Would that be a compliment or not? Ideas on a postcard (or in the comments box).

Had riding lesson number 2 this afternoon. It was much better than last time, as I have more idea of what I'm doing. I got to do a rising trot, which is much less painful than a sitting trot which is, as you can imagine, bouncy and painful (particularly if you are male). You have to sit up and down with the gait of the horse. I'm still being led as am not good enough to be trusted on my own with the horse, and I succeeded in knackering out bill by trotting up and down the arena. Hehehehe.

The horses are still being a little naughty. I came to the conclusion yesterday that it was the heat that was making them cranky, but today they had no excuse. Though today it was mostly Tessie that was a pain. Maybe she's just decided she doesn't like me.

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Linkies!

Just added some new links - mostly people's blogs.

• ecuadorianrose: Lydia's new blog relating her adventures in Ecuador. Sounds like she's having an incredible time already!
• jenauparis: Jen has resurrected the jenbiscuit blog to tell us all about her year in Paris. We await her first post.
• ponytime: The long awaited Andrew-Bates centre of the internet. Wanna see his belly? Click here. And God bewithyou.
• Play Scrabble Online: Make Simon Spiro Proud
  

Naughty Horses!

Just got back from the gym - my 5th time so far, and the 4th since last week. Definitely think it's worth both the money and effort - hopefully there'll be calves lifted and bails of hay thrown before you know it.
Been to the Stables again this morning, and the horses were a little less co-operative than they were at the end of last week. This could either be because they didn't remember me from last week, or (involving slightly more congnitive capability than I think a horse has - though I'm sure some horseypeople will tell me otherwise) they have realised that I am no longer new, and so are not required to be on their 'best behaviour' anymore. Either way - Smartie, Tessie and Molly, who are usually charming horses (Tessie can occasionally be a pain) were gnawwy, reluctant to have their hooves picked, angry about being groomed and generally awkward. Oh well, it's all experience I guess!
Had quite a nice weekend. Spent Sunday wandering round Kingston with Hannah vainly trying to find some coloured clothes for her. Unfortunately neither Topshop nor River Island, H&M nor M&S, Gap nor FCUK, had anything suitable. Everything was either weirdly shaped or itchy. Nevermind! Bumped randomly into Rahul while I was in town. I was queueing up for a bottle of water in WHSmith when my sister whispered "Don't you know that guy behind you?" "Which one?" I replied. "Er, Rahul?". I turned round, and she was right. The girl who had never met him recognised him when I just strolled past. I'm such a man. Anyway, stopped for a quick chat and he introduced me to one of his friends from Selwyn (a Tiffin Girl), who had worked briefly at the same Stables as me. T'is a small world!
Today is also Mary's birthday. If you're reading this Mary, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Tom

b o o k s

Currently Reading: A Visitor Within (The Science of Pregnancy) by David Bainbridge. Written by one of my lecturers no-less, the infamous Dr Bainbridge. While this is going to be a relatively basic coverage of the science of pregnancy, seeing as I'm doing development and reproduction next year it can do no harm. It'll also be fascinating to read one of his books!

Just Finished Titus Groan. It was fantastic. A surprisingly simple story of the first few years of Titus's life, interspursed with the foreground of Steerpike's rise to fame within the Castle ranks. Well written, and thoroughly enjoyable. 10/10. I'm going to read the other two books in the series after Dr Bainbridge's. I'll feel better about reading some fiction when I've read a book relavent to my course!'

I'm really enjoying this stable work that I'm doing at the moment. It's really nice to actually get some one-on-one contact with an animal, rather than generally dealing with them "in bulk" as you do on farms. I'm less daunted by the horses, and so they're less scared by me, and generally things are getting easier. I can now tack-up by myself, and have generally got more confident around the animals as a result of mucking out, leading around the stables (finally managed to decipher head collars!), grooming, and the riding lesson I was given. I also led Sherry out with two other horses on a riding for the disabled hack around the local estate.

Yesterday after work, I wandered into Kingston to meet up with Geoff and Boycie. We had lunch in Wagamama's, caught up and did a little bit of shopping, though I didn't buy anything apart from someone's birthday present. Was really nice to see them - the last time was back in Cambridge, must have been sometime in July!

Mahler's Resurrection

Just been to the Royal Albert Hall with Dad to see Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (Symphony No.2). It's an amazing piece, and, I'm no musical journalist, but I know what I like, and the power and awe-inspiring greatness of this piece amazed me. It was as much a show of how an orchestra can be used as much as it was a fantastic piece of music, and the RAH was perfect to show it off. There were two brass bands up in the galleries, giving their parts a distant, separated feel that you can never experience on a CD, along with two huge chorusses (The BBC and London Symphony Choruses), and a huge orchestra (including 7 percussionists). It's unbelievable, if you ever get the chance to see it, go!

image from here

Gee-up

Just had my first day of Horse-keeping. I mucked out, got stood on (my poor bloodied toe), led horses around, groomed, wormed and drank tea. All before noon. Fantastic! Don't know if the smell of anti-fly cream will ever leave my fingers though!

Met up with Sean in the afternoon for a bit of Gymmage - was good to see him again - has been a while. He's just been to the Edinburgh festival, and was raving over "rolling mystery-machine film pickups" across the streets of Edinburgh, amongst other stories. hehe

UCASBacon

Got up late today, and was greeted by the smell of bacon and a still hot grill - there were no two ways about it, bacon it was for me. Today has also been the day of personal statementising. I can still remember the pain I went through trying to get mine right, and now it's my sister's turn. We had a good bash though, and I think Hannah and Mum got there. I've also baked, and mowed the lawn. Such a productive day, that I even blogged!

I'm reminded of a beautiful advert layout I saw in one of Alex's magazines a few months ago. The left page was an article about slimming, and the right page was that danish bacon advert - the one with the REALLY BIG picture of a bacon rasher. Hehe. It wasn't the same as the pic here, but you get the idea - it was very similar. Fried egg instead of sandwich.

Muse Live

Saw Muse live at the Leeds Festival last Sunday, and was suitable impressed. All through the day there had been some weird spirally plastic things, like giant tumble-drier outlet pipes behind the curtain at the back of the stage. "Bet they're for Muse," Alex said - and sure enough, they were, along with ten amazing colour screen things - 5 of which levitated (on strings - even Muse can't defy gravity). Their new album sounds incredible live - they closed on "Take a Bow", which, despite seeming simply written, is always going to be a crowd* pleaser. Especially when they end with a huge spark of flames!

Also saw the Futureheads, who were a bit rubbish really. When you can stop looking forward to the crowd-splitting "uh-oh-oh", song, cos you've already heard 6 exactly the same, they have no interest for me. Dirty pretty things were alright, Feeder were, well, Feeder - you know what they're like. I have a t-shirt, but I must admit that I find them a little boring - and the lead singer's close resemblance to Adam-the-Mathmo does nothing for me.

*thanks to Dad for spotting the spelling mistake. Sure it was a cloud pleaser too.

m a n i c s

Currently Listening to: Am going through one of my annual Manic Street Preachers fortnights. Can't get enough of them at the moment, as can be seen from my last.fm profile! Also listening to alot of Led Zeppelin.