bathtub 2

Today the bathtub made it to its final home - the english faculty. One excited drama-studio fellow helped us lug it down the stairs, and the world was happy.

in Cambridge, there is a bathtub...

In Cambridge, there is a bathtub...

It was thrust into the world many moons ago with a hiss of smouldering iron and clank of moulds. For a numer of years its history has remained elusive. No-one is really sure where it lived (though presumably in someone's bathroom) or what its purpose was (some suspect it was used as a bath). However, it was eventually picked up by the Cambridge ADC theatre who required it for a play, and it played the role of 250lb* cast-iron bathtub expertly; like no actor could have done**. However, its weight and unstoppable bid for the crown of King-of-all-rustedness led the prospect of its final days being lived out in the pouring rain with nought but a prop-filled skip for company. Its number was up, until a play was written. A play so perfect that it required a bath.

THIS bath.

Like greenpeace to an oil spil the directors of this play flocked to the bath's side with friends and taxis in tow to bring it to its rightful place back on the centre stage. After much scooping, de-watering, turning, seat arrangement, huffing and also puffing, it was positioned on the back seat of a taxi and transported to that so illustrious of Cambridge colleges, Clare. Here it was unloaded by a team of handsome muscle-men*** and was given its own room complete with central heating. So royal was this bath that mere "acting-removal-person" plebs were left to walk or cycle to Clare while the bath rode in its carriage of expense.

And so it was a happy day for the bathtub. Soon, oh so soon, it shall have its golden day once more, soaking up the applause in the English faculty like those goading sponges and their soap-water.


* estimate
** (the phrase "no human could play that part" springs to mind, but no doubt Andrew could have had a good bash)
*** Me, Vicky's friend Joel and a Taxi Driver. So awe-inspired by the life-story of this bath was the driver that NO questions were asked. And why would they be!?

The Ent last night was really good fun. We danced pretty much continuously (with the odd drinks break) from 10 till 12.30 when it closed. It was an indie/alternative set, so we got to hear such classic wonderments as the Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, and, really impressively, Doves (Pounding). Really good fun.

TDL SAVED!

In other important news. TUDOR DRIVE LIBRARY HAS BEEN SAVED! See the article in the Surrey Comet:

How to avoid lions, bears and catch up vaguelly on what I've been doing.

It's been a while again. I was being so post-worthy last month, and this month it has just died.

"Could you rinse a lion if it charged at you?" Apparently this is the best tactic should a lion be attempting to take-down your LIFE in a big field, try and rinse it. The best way to do this is to SHOUT and RUN and WAVE YOUR ARMS. Freak it out, just like you would a small cat in the road that has just stolen your chicken fillets. Just so you know. Don't try this at home (lions don't really go in suburban London), OR with bears. They get "scratchy".

So now you know.

In other news, I had a formal with Tiffin friends and Uni friends, which was really good fun. Rahul and me beat the buttery staff at pool, and Chris told us all about facebook. ALL about facebook. He really is the king of that place, though merely through total-man-hours-spent. Natalie is going to London to be a REAL LIFE DOCTOR, Andrew is cool, and Joe is the May Ball President! Hardcore!

Also, we went to see Tom perform at West Road with his quartet. He played Schubert, though not after we'd watched a concert pianist playing many a piece, each interspursed with violent, AROBTTH inducing bows. He was good, just bowed. ALOT.

Tonight is my "daughter's" birthday, so we're going to TeriAki (mmm noodley goodness - in other news a Wagamama is opening in Cambridge. Finally!), which should be really good fun. There's then an indie/alt Dj in the cellars, so no doubt we shall toddle down there.

Sorry for it being so long, hope you enjoy the album spinny chart below:

"An Essay Bastard: The illegitimate offspring of my brain." Alex

Spinny Album Chart

The soundtrack to my life.

Courtesy of Jenjen,
How to make the soundtrack to your life…
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle/random
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

• Opening Credits: Sunday, David Bowie
• Waking Up: Vegetable, Radiohead (ahem!)
• First Day At School: A Whisper, Coldplay
• Falling In Love: Sebastian, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel (blimey!)
• Fight Song: The Hardest Button to Button, The White Stripes (amazing!)
• Breaking Up: It Ain't Necessarily So, Nicola Benedetti
• Prom: Gleaming Auction, Snow Patrol
• Life: Oh You Pretty Things!, David Bowie (so true...)
• Mental Breakdown: Paper Lies, Marillion (clearly I'll break down over money)
• Driving: Packing for the Crash, Tom McRae (scary... this is completely random...)
• Flashback: Billets Doux, Django Reinhardt
• Getting back together: Script for a Jester's Tear, Marillion
• Losing your virginity: Aftermath, REM
• Wedding: The Fountain of Salamacis, Genesis
• Birth of Child: The Hindu Times, Oasis
• Final Battle: You Fool Noone, Deep Purple
• Death Scene: No Cars Go, The Arcade Fire (aw)
• Funeral Song: Cave, Muse
• End Credits: Shine it All Around, Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation

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?

littlebluefiresprites

On Saturday morning I finished writing up my two practicals that I did last term. I have to hand in my book on the 18th of January, so they’ve been hanging over me, just like my essay, so it’s great to have got them done. I got some statistically significant results from them both, so I’m pleased. Dad introduced me to a new statistics programme called “prism”. It’s not as powerful as SPSS, but at about a millionth of the price, and a much smaller file, I don’t mind. Not that size matters to me now I have my 80GB WD drive!

Having done all the statistical analysis and written them up, I headed over to Worcester Park for an “old Westy” – a classic sleepover. It was great fun, and involved four grown men (including Westy’s dad) watching a kettle boiling… twice. But then if you saw an illumina kettle you’d probably do the same. It’s got a “stainless steel exterior” that magically turns clear when you turn it on thanks to the sexy blue light inside it, and as the water boils it looks like tiny little flames are bouncing up from the base of the kettle. We even got a cup of tea into the bargain. Great fun! Westy had also bought himself a Wii console just before Christmas, and we had great fun messing around with the incredible remote control powered games. We played bowling (I won once with a sassy score of 198 – Sean couldn’t beat it! Westy managed 237, but then he had played about 20 times before), tennis, baseball, and all the magnificent sports games. It’s so tempting to buy one as they provide such a greater “involved” experience for all the family. Even my Mum would love it!

Happy? Feet

I went to the cinema with Sean, Westy and Dan to see Happy Feet (possible spoiler warning) – that where-on-earth-did-this- obsession-with-penguins- come-from film starring Mumbo the penguin and his crazy dancing feet. We wanted to go to a 2.30 showing, but somehow it got fully booked, so we bought tickets for the 5.15 one. That resulted in us sitting in a pub nursing a single pint each for two hours chatting and wandering round HMV. Great fun! The film was actually fairly good – the first 30 minutes took a while getting over, but then a very vague story line began to emerge – Mumbo (with an immensely annoying accent – Robin Williams apparently. Jeez!) decided he had to find the “aliens”. Blah blah, queue exciting adventure, cool Mexican penguins, love interest lost and found. However, towards the end, it became incredibly dark – he swam and swam, and eventually ended up washed up on a beach somewhere, got put in a zoo. Queue manipulative anthropomorphisation on an unimaginable scale – was quite tear jerking. Go see it – just for the weird experience, and to see if my staccatoed review is correct.

Camera

Dad bought himself a new digital camera this morning, so, he has graciously allowed me to steal his old one! Huzzah! Finally I'll be able to take some half decent photos (though the old camera doesn't really like being turned on) Oh well!

I finished my essay! It’s been hanging over my head for ages while I’ve been working and during Christmas, and so it’s fantastic to have finally got it done. It’s 1935 words of surprisingly readable biology – if ever you’ve wondered what the environmental factors affecting neural tube closure are, then I am the man to ask. Unless you are a Cambridge student writing the same essay, in which case I am saying nothing – until I have my result anyway!
YAAAAY

Christmas time doobidoobidoo.

Happy Christmas everybody! Hope you all had a fantastic day! I’m actually writing this on the 1st of January as I’ve been lazy over Xmas and hadn’t updated the blog - but, here we are now!

For the first time in living memory my sister had to be woken up on Christmas morning. I was also woken up as I had most definitely not spent the last hour reading as I was too excited to sleep. Oh no.
We were very civilised and had a fried breakfast before the crazy present opening began. I got some really cool presents including a Pierre Cardin shirt from my aunt, the new killer bunnies expansion pack from my Nan, a WD passport external hard drive from my parents (finally my computer will move faster than the athlete full of lead that it has been lately… so much potential!), a webcam (eek!), a really cool stubby Storm pen from Uncle Mike, some piggy cuff links from my sister and a tin car pencil case (complete with car-shaped chocolates inside) from my parents. I love Christmas – people always get me such cool (and useful) stuff!

In the afternoon we went down the pub to see our family friends in the local area. Frank and Greg were there, and I nattered to them for a bit (and was bought a pint by Frank who had to wait about 20 minutes to get served after the last-orders bell. If only you could have seen the panic on his face. Hehe), as well as seeing Dad’s friend Brian who probably hasn’t seen me since I was 14. He got a shock!

We ate at about 5.30pm; Chicken, Chipollatas, AMAZING cranberry and chestnut stuffing, peas, roasties and gravy. Mmmmmmmmmm. Pudding was of course Christmas pudding* - my favourite – especially swimming in cream. Mmm. How do you think I keep such a trim figure!? Cream!

*not just Christmas pudding, M&S Christmas pudding.

Dublin eh?

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Les Arbres, gay Paris, and Escargots.

It's been far too long since I last posted, but I've not really stopped since I got home from uni. I arrived back at home a Saturday that now feels far in the past, greeted by a slight nausea (from getting slightly lost in Staines) that was soon saved by a cup of tea and (surprisingly) a malteaser cake loving crafted by my sister. The following day, I started selling Xmas Trees, in my new post as assistant manager. A typical busy weekend, that had already been organised, so I just pitched in and did my bit! There are so many people, you just have to get people into a routine and it all goes well; I just ran round filling in all the gaps that started appearing! On Monday Alex arrived (in the evening, post-practical-purge), and the following day we donned to Eurostar and sped our way to Gard de Nord, Paris.

Excited vetscis (me saying everything in my typically awful franglais - I really couldn't help it!) met an excited Jen, and we jumped on a (shallow) metro train to her house, which was mini beyond all imagination! She'd warned us it was mini, but I wasn't expecting it to be as small as it was! Still, it's a good enough little home-from-home for her, even if she does get attacked by beans when she cooks, melts chopping boards that should be drying, and has to do a worm-dance to get out of bed - every little nook has been filled... some with a little bit of bad design! But, we bought a metro carnet each, and toddled off seeing all the things that people should see; Notre Dame, Crepe stall, The Seine, Crepes, Moufetard (hehe) The Eiffel Tower, The pompidou (PAMPLEMOUSE!) centre, the arc de triomphe, crepes, the Montmartre, Jen's Workplace, more crepes. All in all, a good couple of days were had, despite the fact that Alex was poisoned by an evil spaghetti bolognese of DEATH. Grr. And the fact that we nearly got blown to smithereens just standing by the Eiffel tower - it was so windy we didn't risk going up it. I got to try snails (mm. Taste like garlic), and a green Pistacio macaroon (amazing!) AND many crepes and croissants for breakfast, which I ordered myself! Huzzah!

En plus, we got home on Thursday night, and Alex went back Leedsward on Friday afternoon. On Saturday I began work selling trees again, and worked on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It is now Tuesday, my second day off! YAARGH! It's been hard work (did 53 hours last week), but enjoyable most of the time; it's much more interesting when you're vaguelly thinking about stock, staff etc. rather than just mindlessly selling. And the increase in pay is BON!

So, that's where I am. I'm going to scan in some paris photos soon and put them up, once I've done my Christmas shopping (which is my plan for today). First of all though, bacon must be eaten.

Much love,

Tom

Splurghts

selling trees merry xmas to you all sleepy will post properly after xmas maybe on day off.

Panto #2

Went to see the panto again last night! It was the late show (10pm), so Tom and me arrived really early (before 9.30) to get in the front of the queue so we'd get better seats. However, Alex forgot her guitar (vital for Imogen's Woody-Allen-as-Gabriel Impression), so we powerwalked back to the colony, with Beethoven from Louisa's I-pod pushing us on, and were back in less than 15 mins. How impressive is that! We then queued for an hour to get in - there was no piano, or pianists - both had been stolen by the choir. Needless to say, Tom and my endeavours earned us our place in the queue and we got to sit right in the middle. Huzzah.

Cambridge Christmas

Cambridge Christmas!

Secret Santa came to visit us yesterday and gave me the DVDs of Ghostbusters I and II. I was always terrified by those films as a child, so am slightly worried about watching them again. Maybe it'll cure me, or maybe it'll reveal to everyone what a wuss I am. We shall see. Post Secret Santa, fajita Xmas Dinner and a little Cava (Taste the Difference no less. Save £4), we headed down to the cellars to see the Clare Panto, which, despite the fact that I was sitting behind the bass drum and couldn't see very much, was amazing. Really well written, acted and sung. It was hilarious.

Welcome to Hell. No singing, no dancing, no fun, no cycles, dogs, radios or picnics.

The Panto was "Paradise Lost" - which translated very well to panto form... though I would wager that the links were more then tenuous. Bethmo as a female, northern God was a sight to behold, and Alex's playing of Jesus as a troubled, mischeivous 12 year old teenager was hilarious.

Peeps!

Today I met -

• Chris Morris - As I was going into Sainsbury's
• Boycie - As I was coming out of Sainsbury's - He was trying to squeeze his bike next to mine so I moved mine along without looking to see who it was until he said "Tom!"
• Rahul - In Cindies! Were both a little over-excited. He bought me a drink. I gave him about 13 pennies, and in Cambridge, 13 pennies are worth at least as much as a drink in Cinidies.
  
• Sheldon! -As I was coming home from cindies - he was crossing over bridge street carrying some books to take to the library (he's at Magdalene). I babbled at him for a bit, poor lad.
  

Making Babies Crew hits Peterhouse

Peterhouse formal. I've been to Peterhouse three times this term, having never set foot in the place before, and the third time was certainly less weird than the 1st two. Their pool teams are weird, while going to formal with one of the rare Petorian girls who got our "Making Babies Crew*" tickets was good fun.
Peterhouse formal is very intense - all the wood (tables, wall-panelling etc.) is deep brown - mahogany coloured, if not darker, and it is lit only by candles. This results in an almost depressing experience. However, after having been pennied by a fellow before the starter had been served, it was all good. There's no wine limit... I missed the first lecture of the day... BUT was fine by 10am, and went to our presentation journal club session, looking better than many!

Quote of the Night

Katie: "So, what course are you doing Tom?"
Tom: "..."
Katie: "Oh god..."


*So named as we all do the embryology module - no sexier reason than that. This is Cambridge after all!

Went to the physiology library this afternoon, read 4 papers and wrote 1000 words of an essay!Yaargh. Unfortunately, they don't heat it at weekends, so I was typing with my gloves on. Is easier than you'd expect, but still feels mighty weird.
Also emailed my supervisor re. dissertation. Think I vaguelly have more idea where I want to go now, which is great. Though actually I don't officially know I'm doing it yet. Hmmm...
In other news, Alex and me got caught up in an uberstorm today on the way to the UL (via FML for Futurama*) which turned my new gigantic umbrella inside out. MAHUSIVELY. Was a job to get it back again.

*Yesterday I had a 5 episode futuramafest with Alex, Tom and Iona. Now we have 5 more. Eeeexcellent.

bananas

Banana smoothie. A few things to say:
1) Louisa has a smoothie maker. This is a work of genius, and allows me to pulverise my fruit. This enables me to eat an apple, two satsumas and a banana in the time it would take me to eat half the apple. This is good
2) Tom today bought 14 fairtrade bananas and 8 pints of milk.
3) This resulted in much smoothie.
4) My stomach can talk. I quote:

"There reaches a point where one just has to say - surely it is impossible for such quantities of banana to infiltrate one's sphincters in such a short timespan, but alas, I was mistaken in my beliefs. There is nothing left for me in this warm abdominal cavity that I call my home. I thought my irate response to haggis would have been enough to discourage you from further assaults to my absorptive capacities, but no. Again, I was mistaken. And so, it is with great sadness, that I extracate myself from your abdomen, with none of the glorious portentiousness of parturition, to make my way in the cold streets of Cambridge. 'Big Issue? Get it before the acid melts it'. Goodbye."

Monkey

The house of the orange monkey pure genius. In a monkeyshaped pot. Mmm.

"With internal organs of beans and kapok, a monkey like me is almost totally invulnerable to injury".

Late night ramble

I'm sure that each of the terms at Cambridge has had a single buzzword, and the word for this term so far is "tea". We've all been very civilised and drunk a lot of tea. I'm feeling so de-oxidised that... Tom tries vainly to think of a witticism that relates to anti-oxidants... I'll get back to you.

Only a week and a half left of term to go! Can ye believe it? Well, I can't, though looking back on the first day of term when Tom, Vicky and me went t't pub for dinner, it seems like aaages ago. The usual "I've been here for ages, but how has it gone so quickly" thing.

Work has been... interesting. I go through phases with embryology. It's fascinating, but it's also possible to look into something into so much detail that it loses all meaning... to an extent, I feel that's what's happening. Every gene is named... but as such, all these names are so arbitrary that there seems to be no point to them.. but then I guess all words are. Anyway - enough of the genetic biologist bashing. Some of it has been very interesting, for me the stuff on a larger scale (somite formation, mesoderm patterning, limb bud specification, that sort of stuff) is what grabs me. Fetal and placental is good at times, but gets so (necessarily) hormonal that the papers I'm reading are just a list of unconnected facts. IGFII does this, and is up regulated here, here and here, but down regulated here. here it does one thing, there it does another, unless it's Wednesday, in which case it goes shopping with Cortisol...

Humm... it's very early, and I should be in bed...

Was nearly late for my lecture this morning... went to get my bike, and realised it wasn't there - I'd left it outside old court when we went to see Tom's recital in chapel (very good it was too!), so, I had to powerwalk. Made it just in time. Missed her 1st few words, but no more. Hahah!

Tom played Brahms on Monday in chapel. A little thingie for piano and viola - started off quite simple, and really built on that in the 2nd and 3rd movements. He played really well, though I think the piano was a little too loud.. perhaps next time they should move the piano back a bit, and/or him forwards a bit?

I've submitted my dissertation applications! Stay posted for more details.

Sleeeeeep

I'm writing an essay - I've been trying to do it for 5 weeks on and off (mostly off) now - such is the problem when you have no deadlines. It's just impossible to do! Never thought I'd be complaining about the lack of essays, but they're actually really useful.

My apologies for the obsessive use of italics in this post.

Nightnight!

Random Geeky Blog

By the way - if anyone likes the new font rendering in IE7, to get it in the far superior Firefox, right click on your desktop, go to properties, then appearance, then effects, and in the second menu choose ClearType. Bargain!

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

I've been listening to Andrew's Itunes (ponytime) this evening, and have discovered some suprisingly good music. I'd never listened to Pearl Jam before, and the few songs that I've heard have been really good (like a cross between Nirvana (the guy's voice sounds a bit like Mr Cobain), and Porcupine Tree). Also, Kula Shaker, a phrase I use quite often, but a band I'd never dared to cross - really good! Nice indianny influences. In other music news, Battle (who supported TCTC at the Junction are amazing, a cross between Bloc Party and The Cure.

"Cats... licking our spoons." Iona.

just thought this should never be forgotten to the depths of time.

Yesterday was productive.

1. Got up at 7.30, left at 8.40
2. Met up with another project supervisor at 9 to discuss a project. Not one I particularly want to do, but you do have to have contingency plans!
3. Found Alex in paperchase - bought more yellow paper (for Journal notes)
4. Sat in Starbucks for an hour and half nursing a grande coffee - read through two papers, one on angiogenesis (apparently there is a simple and secure 2 stage plan to ensure that segmental arteries and veins form in the same number, and alternatively AVAV etc.), and one on Kidney Tubulogenesis. GDNF and RET are the most important proteins in this, though you must not overlook the importance of the inhibitors BMP4 and Fox.
5. Went to the library, and printed off a paper for next week's journal club (one we have to give a paper on), and printed a Dissertation reading list that I made yesterday.
6. Lecture on the initiation of Parturition
7. Lunch - in Buttery. mmm.. cold couscous.
8. Went to the UL. Found two useful dissertation books, read in the West Room for a bit, and had tea in the tea-room.
9. Went to the physiology department (to photocopy some of said books), and popped in to the UCS on the way to ask about Alex's questionnaire hosting.
10. Came home in the pouring rain, read another paper, had dinner, showered, slept.

LOTS of work for one day. Was out the house 9 till 5.30... hardcore!

No Lectures = Marzipan

10 am lecture cancelled - so I had a lie in. Muwahahaha. Soon I shall go out for coffee and (possible) marzipan rings, before a quick 12 o'clock lecture. Then lunch at Braeside followed by an afternoon of libraryage to get my reading back up to scratch.

____

Update - there was no fitz billies, but we did go to the M&S cafe, which kindly gave us a cup of tea and a cup of coffee with2 biscuits for £2.60 - sounds expensive (which it is), but nowhere near as much so as starbucks.

Argh, it's been a while again. I've been working hard!

I've been up for about 50 mins, and my room is a tip. Mostly because I did washing yesterday so there's a huge washing line contraption stretched over my floor like the dark lair of some enormous arachnid. Still, it dries in about 24 hours there, so I'll be able to put it away when I stop typing.

In work news, I've chosen an assessed essay to do for my "portfolio" to coin an artsy phrase. It's based around neural tube closure and the environmental factors affecting this. Should be interesting, and I've found lots of stuff. I'm also currently going through the rigmarole of choosing a project - one of the theory projects looks really interesting, but isn't related to development at all... maybe it'll be good for me to do something different! I've applied and the supervisor thinks it'll be ok - so fingers crossed!

Tom

JenBiscuit

Jen visited! Yaargh! She came down on Wednesday and went back on Saturday, so we got to see her for a few days - ate out, went shopping (she came from Paris to Cambridge to do this ;) ), danced in Fez, drank an aftershock at 5.55 in the afternoon (hehe), ate Nandos with Omega, ate Fish and Chips, and generally did entertaining things. It was good to see her... it's been almost 5 months since me and alex blabbered at her loudly and drunkenly at the end of term last year.

I'm trying to write an essay and the smell of Curry is drifting through my window from one of the two minging kitchens. I put up a notice in one of them asking them to please use the extractor fan, but unfortunately this just moves the smell into my room from another direction. I don't use the kitchen myself as stepping across the warped floorboard and into it's misty and mouldy ether makes me want to vomit.

Ccccold

Cambridge Has gone really cold - Freezing no less. The sky has been clear for about 6 days now, and as such all the warmth that was ever in this town, either residue from the Summer, geothermal energy from the deep crust, or warmth from the collective brain that is the PDN department has left...

Brrrr...

A Summary: Essays, Textbooks, Trees, Pool and Formal

Sorry - it's been a while again. Tis much harder to keep this up when you know there's work to be done! I wrote my first essay last week, on Fetal Kidneys, so hopefully it'll be ok. Was hard having to reference everything, though it made it seem much more professional and scientific!
Making a Vertebrate is still very tough, mostly due to the poor quality of the lectures. We've been thrown in, and some vitally important factors have just been skipped over in the lectures. I'd assumed lectures would be for covering the basic general stuff, and that we would read around for some more information. Not the way it works! I read my amazing text-book (Principles of Development by L.Wolpert) yesterday, and it explained mesoderm induction so well. Helped by the vitally important 4-signal theory that was mentioned in passing in the lecture. Seems that the textbook is going to be my friend this year.
In other news, I am going to be selling Xmas Trees again this winter, which is fantastic. The money (and probably exercise) will be very welcome! I have also been appointed Clare College Pool Captain, which was a little unexpected, but welcomed - will be a challenge, but good fun!
Last night was a vetty formal at Fitz. It was really good to see alot of them again, but certain people disgraced themselves by starting a boat race and ploughing under the tables while the fellows were still in the hall. They were escorted out, and all was a little awkward. Hopefully the college will be ok about it.

ps - happy birthday alex!

My Apologies

Finding time to post is surprisingly tough. Most of my time has been taken up with doing chores, eating, working or having fun with friends - whenever I come back to my room there is work pressing and so I've not posted yet. Maybe that is a little excessive - this is supposedly the "doss" third year after all.

So far, PDN has been a varied bunch. The first few lectures in "Fetal and Placental Physiology" (here after known as FPP) were amazing (if a little speedy), and the papers I've been reading have been really interesting. Making a Vertebrate (MAV), that I thought would be really good fun turned out to be a bit of a haul, as the first few lectures we've had have been a little poor to say the least, and I spent alot of yesterday translating them. I've spent alot of time in libraries so far, rooting through hard-bound copies of age-old scientific journals. I even ventured into the UL (And as everyone has to, found many books with crazy titles. "The Correspondence of Rubens, Tomes I-VI" entertained me most, though "Mammals of the Soviet Union, Vols I and II" was pretty shocking). Almost makes me feel like an arts student, but not quite.

Alex has dived headlong into a world of Biological Anthropology, and is just about picking through the mounds of species and behaviours she has to get her head round. She keeps piping out interesting facts like "female chimpanzees have pink bums", and "infanticide is selected for sexually". It's all very interesting really.

Tom Taylor is now an Engling, and as such is to be found in the Braeside reading Pope, Wordsworth or whatever else takes his fancy, occasionally piping up with some fascinating, but incomprehensible quote. He's really enjoying it though, which is fantastic.

Well, that's a quick summary - perhaps I should maybe go back an backdate some stuff... How much more convenient it is to keep this going regularly.

Tom
xxx

p.s. Today is my Dad's birthday, so if he's reading, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Very quick message, as time is limited. a few things:

1. Sorry I havent posted for ages. Am back at uni, and only recently got internet access. Lots of reading to do - and people in the library are using ALL the journals I need. Why can't they just read one-at-a-time!?
2. Clare formal is going up in the world!
3. Out of time. Will post properly soon

Formal

Ah, it's been so long - and it's so much better than we remember. This could be a result of our extended summer holiday, but the presentation of a "filo pastry swan" with pastry wings and neck, a chocolate coated beak, and a creamy body makes me think otherwise. This could be due to two things:
1) They're trying to impress the freshers to get them addicted to formal
2) They have a new chef (Hooray!)
3) They have a new chef and have concurrently raised the price without telling us (there's no way to tell when you book tickets).

Post formal, we went to Fez to dance the night away to Fat Poppadaddies. We were gonna go to Soul Tree, but we heard reports that it was rubbish, reports that we later found out to be well-founded.
The night went well, until Reece was ejected for unknown reasons. He was neither drunk, nor naked, nor gay, nor violent, nor anything... maybe the bouncer didn't like his face??? Anyway, we followed him out, went to Soul Tree, realised it was EMPTY, and so came home. Crayzee night, but good fun.

p.s. it's Hannah's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH

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.

tomthevet.blogspot.com NEW and IMPROVED

I'm now using blogger beta, so there've been a few changes. Each post now has some labels associated with it, and you can use these to help you navigate to the posts you want to see. When I'm at uni, and if exciting stuff happens there, then that's the label I use. Any posts with photos are labelled and so are all the posts related to vetty or farming related things. You get the idea. Find them all at the bottom of the sidebar.

I hope you like the new layout! Remember to keep on commenting, whoever you are - it's great hearing that people do actually read this. Infact, if you fancy, just say hi on this post :p

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.

g o r m e n g h a s t

Currently Reading: Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (1st Book in the Gormenghast Trilogy). I randomly picked up the entire trilogy in Victoria Coach station on the way to Alex's, and it cost me £15 so I hope it's good. I read the first 90 pages on the coach, and must admit that although nothing happened, it was great fun to read. Mervin Peake's writing style is vividly descriptive, and simply in describing the daily lives of a number of characters within Gormenghast he kept me hooked. Hopefully this bodes well!

Childhood Dream #1 -- Fulfilled

This particular activity was so incredible, that it deserves it's own post. While on the pig farm, I fulfilled a childhood dream... I DROVE THE JCB. Yes, I was a digger driver for a day. I had to reverse it out of the farmyard, through a gate, over a hill and then lower some milk-churns full of water over an electric fence (I may have accidentally electrocuted the farmer, but it was my first time!) and then drive back. More fun than I could ever have imagined. Luckily it had an automatic clutch, which was handy as I wouldn't have fancied clunking the gears on a 2 tonne soil-shifter.

5 Reasons why pigs are smart.

Pigs. Pigs pigs pigs. They are smart little things. Many reasons:

1. The little buggers can learn how to open gate-bolts. And once they learn, they never forget. Oh, and they can lift gates off their hinges. Yes.




2. Once the boar smells his ladies, no amount of coaxing will get him to go in the opposite direction. And he has big teeth - and unlike a cow and it's immense strength, he knows how to use them*
3. Piglets are powerful, and they know how to flail.
4. They can somehow root around in their own filth all day without getting noticably ill, or throwing up.
5. They will only defecate in particular areas, and will keep their bedding areas clean, if given space to do so. This does actually make them, in my opinion, the cleanest of all the domestic animals I've worked with (excepting cats).

Overall, it was a really good week. The farmer had pigs (breeding, rearing and finishing - was great to see the whole process, though sadly I missed any farrowings - the two sows that were due while I was there had aborted a month or so before - clearly they knew I was coming!), cattle and sheep, and as a result I got to do a huge variety of things, including de-maggotting two fly struck sheep, jabbing a lively little piglet with some antibiotics, going to 2 farmers' markets, and 3 different abatoirs. He also had his own butchery so I got to try my hand at a spot of mincing - plus the bacon at breakfast was insurpassable!.

*I never actually got skewered by a boar, don't worry - he wasn't very good at standing up - looked like he was trying to walk on stilettos.

Just got back from the gym. It's the first time I've been since my initiation on Tuesday, and I quite enjoyed it. I went along with Sean and Don (who are both surprisingly strong!), and did my whole workout twice as the guy said. I'm glowing now I'm home, and hopefully as I did the stretches again I won't be too tough.

All of Hannah's friends are round at the moment having a BBQ, so I'm staying out of their way :)

Scrabble

Have played alot of Scrabble over the last few days. Played Sean three times today, he was beaten, and despite the harsh verbal stabbings we both received we enjoyed it. Apart from the last game, which stretched into 26 rounds of pain. Such awful letters. Truly awful. Though we did discover the word "suq", which is quite useful.

Aches and Pains

I ache. I booked into a gym yesterday cos I decided that I need to be able to lift calves. The guy in the gym thought this was a strange goal, but clearly he'd never been given a brief like it, and took it to heart. He gave me a few weights and explained how they would help me to throw sheep, and others to lift stuff. Think he quite enjoyed it.

But now I ache - not as much as I expected to, thanks to some smart stretches I was taught, but I do ache. Particularly my backside. Bloody ergs. Luckily today is a day of waiting for the gas man, so I don't have to do anything. Will probably go again on Thursday with Sean and his Bro. Coolio.

photo courtesy of this website.

Two More Species to Add to my Repertoire

In just over a month's time I will have completed 4 weeks of EMS. I'm working for 2 weeks with little northern piggies as of next Monday, and my September will be begun in the stables of some lovely horses from down my road. That will leave me needing only 2 weeks to finish off my 12, having already done 4 weeks of lambing and 2 weeks of dairy work.
picture taken from this website