I have never heard anyone so excited about pyrex bowls as I did today.

More later.

Or maybe I'll just leave it like that actually, seems quite magical.

Comic Tales of Criminal Insanity

Porters with concerned looks wandering around Braeside have just reminded me of the "prolific burglar" who's imminent release from prison we were warned about. This prompted much increased security measures (not a bad thing), and CCTV photos being circulated, and so I put in a maintenance request to have a lock put on one of my windows (the one without a lock). When the maintenance man turned up the next morning with a yale lock and a confused look on his face, I had to bite my lip. None-the-less he soon realised what I wanted, and I am now secure.

A week later, said prolific burglar is back in custody. AFTER A WEEK OUT OF PRISON. How.. just how can you do that? Either he is a klepto of the highest order, or just REALLY good at leaving clues........

SAVE TUDOR DRIVE LIBRARY

Have just been on the phone to my sister, and I have been given insider news (that I am now going to share with the whole of the internet) that it is proposed that Tudor Drive Library will be closed in the next few months as part of "money saving" cuts courtesy of our wonderful local council (Kingston this is, not Cambridge). So we say goodbye to the local library I have used all of my life, and goodbye to the ladies at the desk who have been there for as long, if not longer. And, goodbye to my poor sister who will be made redundant at 18. Hah.

Intriguingly, the entire library was extended, refurbished and had a new roof fitted only two (possibly fewer) years ago. Surely it would be stupid (not to mention and immense waste of capital investment) to close it, along with the fact that a huge number of local people rely on it. It is an invaluable resource for both young people, for whom it's convenience to an estate which is otherwise isolated (relatively) from local resources, and for old people who cannot walk the few miles to the nearest library.

I'm not talking closure on a rural scale here - it's not like we live in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere where the nearest library is 8 miles away, but it's the principle of the thing. It's so well used, and closing it is going to enrage alot of people. Surely a better money saving idea would be to close each of the libraries in Kingston for one extra day a week - thus reducing wage and running costs?

Save Tudor Drive Library.

Daily blogs - what is happening!

I seem to be blogging daily! This is clearly because I am not doing enough work. Well, actually, as my lectures still haven't really got going, and one of my courses is exactly the same as one I did last term, I'm feeling quite lazy. Thankfully it's giving me time to concentrate on my dissertation, which is proving very interesting. Hence the heron - I've just been finding out how they hunt fish underwater despite the refractive distortion of the water surface... I'm going to see my supervisor next week, so I may well start writing up soon! 0 words, 6000 to go.

We had another pool match yesterday, but unfortunately lost 5-4 again. HOWEVER, Matt unfortunately knocked the cue on the white when taking what would have been a winning shot on the 8th game, and our (nameless) opponents jumped on it and demanded a foul. How unnecessary.
Bethmo, Emily and the other inhabitants of Wilflete had a party last night, so we popped over and showed our faces for a bit - played "What's the worst thing that could happen to your friends", which was surprisingly entertaining for a game with possibly the most depressing title ever invented. It included people getting stuck at the age of 10, going blind, going on big-brother and marrying Jade Goody, getting stuck in an Eden project bubble, performing religious faux pas while saving cows and the country splitting in half. Was quite eye-opening.

Marillion - Somewhere else #1

Post number one (of which there will probably be many) about the new marillion album . It's available for preorder at www.townsend-records.co.uk/marillion. For £11.99 + a free DVD. Yaaargh!

12:58 - just preordered mine. Roll on Easter Monday!

"It's nice to see a natsci... over there... leaving," were the words Alextheboy used to sum up our formal last night. Surely tongue-in-cheek and slightly confused - no doubt he didn't expect to give a speech on Tom, Reece and Iona's birthdays, but when none of them would stand up after a round of "Happy Birthday", the onus fell first to Alexthegirl to say something, followed by Vicky, and then, not to be out-done, Alex. He was, of course, refering to TomT's englingness, despite two years as a natsci. Was pretty funny.

Formal was nice - the food was amazing (Fish-cakes to start. Really tasty fish cakes. Then we had some delicious beef for main, and a white chocolate and amaretto chocolate cream cake for pudding. Wow!)

Oh, and I wore the pig cuff-links that Hannah got me for Christmas, and amazing they looked too!

no news ever turned up re. the power cut. My curiosity rages. Curiosity also fed by J.Fro's little poser..

There's some exciting stuff going down in Cambridge today. I got to my lecture at 9am, and was turned away due to a powercut. It turns out that the whole of the sciences site (a Big site) is down. Rumour says a psycho digger maybe to blame. Hopefully some more news will come in later. The plus side is no lectures! Huzzah! Unfortunately the snow melted quickly at about 10.30 when the sun came out, and so it was not a fabled all-the-schools-closed "snow day". Nevermind.

The sky is a strange hue of peach, and the world is white. What a lovely morning. I don't mind the cold, or the fact that I'm up at 8am anymore.

Freezing my nagits off.

Man it's cold. I'm doing washing so all my windows are open (to stop my room becoming wetter than the eden-project on a day when the sprinklers get stuck on) which means it's freezing. Luckily, Alex is wonderful, has constructed a draft excluder for her door, and is letting me camp out in her room, and letting me steal her internet (for Kingfisher research (apparently they have 2 foveas) and for blogging. ahem).

Brrr.

How I wish I could speak German: Free Translation:"The eye of the kingfisher (Alcedo attis attis) possesses a temporal, very eccentric lain Fovea next to the nasal central pit of the retina. Accordingly we find a lens of the form of a lying egg whose sharpener is on the other side of pole of the temporal Fovea. Also the Ciliarkörper correspondingly asymmetrically is constructed. The form of the lens is stipulated through the edge bulge. It is to be supposed that the unusual lenses form serves in addition to sketch in the immersing of the bird after fish prey on the temporal Foveen a binokulares picture if through omission of the breach power of the cornea in the water the picture becomes on the central Fovea fuzzy. The building of the central Fovea shows an especially intense differentiation of the layers."

Slowslowquickquickslow

Yes, last night I danced. Like I have never danced before - in a way that could not only be recognised as dancing, but could also be quantified step-by-step. Alex and I went to the University Dance Club beginners' ballroom class, and danced the cha-cha, waltz and jive. We danced so well that I infact dreamt that I was being shunned for dancing so appallingly in clubs or at bops. But, it was only a dream, and I shall carry on dancing stupidly, BUT with a hazy knowledge of a little bit of ballroom. It was really good fun, but got progressively harder as we went on. I'm bad at leading, and the Jive, despite being full of easy steps for the man was probably the hardest to lead, and that confused me. Aside from that, and a little toe crushing in the Waltz, we were really good!

YAAY!

c u r r e n t l y l i s t e n i n g t o

The Cooper Temple Clause - Make This Your Own.
The band released this album in its entirety for streaming on the NME website a few days ago, and upon first listening it was awful. The thrashy-synthed, slightly angry TCTC that I had grown to love seemed to be dead. The songs seemed poppy, badly produced and dull. However, having taken the plunge and, against my better judgement, bought the album anyway out of loyalty, it's actually not too bad! The album is much better produced than either the previous releases of the songs, or the NME stream, and, while it contains a few duff songs, the majority are still recogniseably TCTC.
The song "All I See is You", is amazing. It starts with the quiet rolling eerie noises I loved from their first album (e.g. the track 555-4823), and ends with Panzer Attack guitars and shouty singing - so unmistakeably TCTC. I could not describe how happy this made me. #AAAAIII will fiiind a waaaaaaay to youuuu#. It even ends resonantly like Talking to a Brick Wall, My favourite song they have done.
Even the songs that start poorly (like Connect) do eventually build into something, which has calmed my worries of a "Four Day Hombre" style album. They've made use of the other singers in the band, which in my opinion is a bad thing (Ben Gautrey just sounds like TCTC), and songs like Isn't it Strange and Take Comfort suffer for this, though they tease with All I See is You by starting with another singer but ending with some classic Ben.
Overall, this album is much more of a success than I ever expected. £9 well spent!

Three Strikes...

I have mining heritage. My father is from Lancashire, which is not very miney, but, though I may have forgotten when reporting on Bop-Japes(TM) to my Mum, most of the people on the Welsh side of the family were infact miners. As would be expected. So, when I donned charcoal and STRIKE NOW sign (lovingly penned by Alex) last night for our 20th Century bop I poked those saddened Clareites from their slumbers, and got a few "Solidarity" shouts (mostly from those wearing hammer and sickles), and a few "Strikes" from Reece. Yes, strike has two meanings. Ouch.

Bops are fancy-dress, and the theme was 20th Century - hence the hammers and sickles, and minerisation. Reece went as a cowboy (with Aviators), Alex went as a flapper (complete with bright lipstick and MANY coats of mascara) and Vicky went as a beatnick (complete with beret).

Yaaaaaargh.

H****** S******** to a M*******

I spent the morning (yes, I got up at 8.30am) finishing off a paper for my dissertation, from which I found 6 references, two of which are unavailable in cambridge, and the other four of which are all in different libraries. AARGH! I also listened to the new tracks from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; unfortunately they were no where near as good as the tracks from the 1st album. Reece's warnings were not unfounded. I then met Alex in town after her lectures (hehe - I have none till Monday), and we had coffee and cake. Mmm.

I had organised our first Pool Team practice session for the afternoon so I battled through the extreme winds to the cellars where we had a good two hour session. We definitely needed it, and I think it was worthwhile. Plus we got to use the new table. And what a sexy beast it is too!

The evening was spent discussing a fascinating publishment idea (see post title), and drinking Martini Asti in Vicky's room. Was really good fun, particularly with Bethmo's Jewish country music squealing in the background. No, I'm not being sarcastic. Genuinely really funny.

We then went to Fez, but the strange Electro-House music scared us, so we only stayed an hour.

Tomorrow I give blood --- once more unto the breach...

Term No. 8 Begins.

I'm back in Cambridge! I returned early on Saturday morning, before being treated to a slap up breakfast at the Copper Kettle. So far this week I have:

• Made two trips to my department in a vain effort to get a signature for my practical book. Made it in the end!
• Eaten SPICY curry-a-la-Vicky. It was delicious, just mouth wateringly, hiccough inducingly, nasal hair burningly spicy! Luckily Fosters doused the flames.

• Watched The Lady from Shanghai - a creepy, short black and white film starring Orson Welles. Next film on the list is "Passport to Pimlico" a slightly more easy going Ealing Comedy.
• Eaten mangos. Half price in Sainsburys. Yaaay!
• Been beaten, along with Andrew and Alex, at Killer Bunnies by Mary. Got to try out my new lilac cards though - very exciting. The "Insight" card was a very useful introduction, and the 20 sided dice is warhammeryly OTT
• Done a little bit of dissertation reading. Found some really interesting stuff about Jumping Spiders and their 8 eyes which unfortunately doesn't fit in with my current birds vs insects idea. Nevermind
• Rearranged the furniture in my room, so as to keep the internet and phone wires out of my face while sleeping. I also have a nice little work-corner now.
• Decided to recycle our plastic bottles. Apparently there's a bottle-bin nearby, so I'll be doing my little bit for the environment

	Me with Bananas on my head. Won some from Sainsburys due to their 5-a-day push competition cards you get with more than £10 spent. Also, why not have bananas on one's head!
	Erika, Bethmo and Tom at the pinacle of Old Court, having visited Reece and Vicky. Erika is saying "I DIG you baby", while Bethmo informs me he is saying nothing, but usually looks like that on Sundays.

70 pints a DAY!?

The ITV News yesterday showed a huge 10 minute piece about the offspring of a cloned cow that had been born in this country about a year ago, and proceeded to launch into an "analysis" of what the risks to consumers might be. As far as I can see this is just shameless scaremongering - the only risks to cloning cattle to produce 70 pints (yes, 70) of milk a day is that to the animal. Before the intensive selective breeding of Fresian/Holstein (and Jersey to an extent) cattle they produced a fraction of the milk they do now. This was clearly less efficient, but seeing modern dairy cattle walking around with hugely distended udders, covered in scratch marks, and the high rate of mastitis present in the UK dairy herd makes you wonder. The metabolic strain that producing such high quantities of such a product must surely take its toll, and eventually lead to premature culling.
Cloning cattle to massively increase yields is wrong, but the human biased angle put on it by ITV was shocking. I hope that consumer worries stem from a welfare perspective rather than the implied health perspective given.

Русская

Today Alex learnt me Russian (though clearly I still struggle with English). I can now vaguelly read the alphabet, and know some words:

кοрοвa в кοрοвный - (korova v korovni?) the cow is in the cowshed.

гοстинaя (gostinai?)- living room?

This may be wrong. Any Russian speakers out there are welcome to correct me.

I cheated and found the word for "Russia", which must read Russka on t he internet. Thinking about it, it probably means "Russian"

Bond, James Bond.

Today Alex took me to see the new James Bond film, Casino Royale. It was as good as everyone (with the exception of Mary) told me it was going to be. Full of amazing action, a decent storyline and cool James Bondiness, I was suitably impressed. You think it's gonna finish, and then a house collapses. Pure genius. Can't wait for Daniel Craig's next outing.

Post Bond, we went to Wagamama for ramen, as we often do. It has been come our restaurant of choice when not in Cambridge, where, as a Wagamama is lacking (and because one needs some variation in one's diet), we go to Pizza Express (much MUCH better than the name implies).

Backdated from 11/01/07

Little Red Car

Got up at 8am as I wasn't sure what time Mary was arriving, but it turned out she wasn't getting here until 12, so it meant I had plenty of time to get ready, and watch some Green Wing before she arrived. I crammed myself into her little Toyota Yaris, which was full of boaties and bags, and we started our way North. I managed to navigate to the M4 from memory - Huzzah. The journey was really enjoyable. Holly and Ed slept for the first two hours, so Mary and me just chatted on the way, and then we stopped at a service station, thus waking said boaties up, before making the final leg to Leeds. However, we realised it was 4pm on a Friday, and that getting into Leeds would be hell (let alone Mary getting out again), so we drove into Bradford (gulp), where Alex met me at the train station. There are two stations however, and we needed the other one, so a rapid trek across Bradford ensued. An odd Polish guy shouted at me, we were accosted for money while buying tickets, though we smartly refused. We eventually arrived at Alex's at about 6*, where tea was waiting. Eeexcellent.

Backdated from 11/01/07

Latics

As anyone who has ever asked me what football team i support will know, I support Oldham Athletic, a team who have languished in division 2 (league 1) for many a year. I was only 8 when their fall from the premiership kicked in. Still I just about stuck by them and, they have won every game over the Xmas period (4 games, 12 points, 14 goals, 2 conceded), putting them second in the league. This is an exciting time my friends. EXCITING!

2006

In true J-fro style, here's a summary of all the cool stuff I did last year...

• I Got pissed at Mary's
• I Saw Babyshambles. They Were Late
• I had an adventure in London
• I went to the Tiffin Reunion Dinner
• I worked 17 Hour days for 2 weeks
• Worcester Park Wonders WON
  
• I went to a Chocolate Formal
• I had a parrot on my shoulder
• I went to the Clare May Ball
• Saw Sachin Tendulkar play cricket and had fish and chips. All in one day
  
• I finally got accepted to PDN
• I went to the Cotswolds
• I Farmed Pigs and Horses, 2 new species for me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• I DROVE A DIGGER!
• I Joined a Gym 1, 2
• I went to the Leeds Festival
• I saw Mahler's resurrection at the Royal Albert Hall
• I played golf
• I visited Alex and Mary
• I became the college Pool captain
• I ventured into the UL
• I bloated myself with bananas
• I went to Selwyn Snowball
• I visited Jen in Paris
• I sold Xmas trees again!

so not a bad year then!

Maps from the New World

Just bought a gigantic book from Borders about Maps from the New Worlds. It's full of loads of maps from the ages of discovery. You know you've reached a strange time in your life when the phrase "I've always had a bit of a thing for cartography" starts getting bandied around!

tomthevet or poor tom?

I was reminded the other day of the wonder that was "poor Tom" as made famous by the ally-todd-skating-band (animated by M. Power). Should +++tomthevet+++ become Poor Tom? THIS is the question on everybody's lips...

www.atsb.co.nr (excuse the popups)

Ally Todd is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as being the front man of the UK outfit the Alastair Todd Skating Band. His name has become to mean a number of words
1) Noun. (a) An Ally Todd, one with unrivalable charisma, brilliance, an intelligent person, a wise person (b) To do an Ally Todd. To perform a miracle
2) Verb, Infinitive Ally Todd. to fly, to rap, to beat, to win, to skate
3) Adjective. Ally Todd. colourful, loud, skillful, incredible, magical, unbeatable.

2007!

Happy New Year everybody! Sorry it’s been a while again. Hope you all had fantastic Christmas’s and had new years rivalling millennia! I was quite happy to have a quiet new year this year, spent it at home with my Mum and Dad, my sister was in Norwood of all places at a party, so it was just the three of us. I got trounced at Who wants to be a millionaire – I only won £3000 in 3 games. Dad won with £33’000 overall. We didn’t all do fantastically! But, the new year was welcomed in (to the sound of Naïve by the Kooks. AArrgh! Stupid Jools Holland. Why didn’t he at least have the Zutons playing closest to midnight?