Hello again. Haven't blogged for a little while as I've had a cold, and been lying down rather a lot.

Tempting to say that a lot has happened, but it wouldn't technically be true. However, I am the last visitor still standing sitting down at Dobson H.Q., Adrian and Emma having gone off on Boxing day to see Emma's parents, Neil wandering back to Exeter leaving plenty of time to spare and Nicholas catching a ferry back to France.

A lot of my gifts had to go home with Neil (thanks) including the J&W Omnibus that Nicholas got me, even though I was half-way through The Mating Season - still these things are sent to try us.

The only time I switched on the TV in my room (I object) in a desperate bid to entertain myself while ill I light upon the 100 best musicals as chosen by the public and populated by a million people you've almost heard of - precisely what I needed I think. West Side Story was no. 4, which didn't disappoint me too much. Also, it so happened that Cabaret came free with the Times or something at some point and was lying unwatched, so I rectified the situation. It's an interesting film, but as a musical it wasn't particularly engaging I thought. "What good is sitting around in your room[...]?" Quite.

Went to town today, to try get some fresh air; posted some things, topped up my phone (can text again!) and had an abortive attempt to get some photos of Monica and myself developed which uncle Carlos took. Monica says she got a digital camera for Christmas - I wonder how that will work out, as she doesn't have a computer... Irene does, and I suppose that you can get them developed the same as normal cameras these days too.

Re-read Winnie-the-Pooh this morning, against which Wodehouse has Bertie Wooster say some very harsh and disagreeable things, and found it as politely charming as ever.

Hmm. As I say, not a great deal going on. Will be packing tomorrow, as leaving early on Saturday for Ancona. If anyone taped The Christmas Invasion, they might be interested to know about this commentary. Then again, they might not.

I could have had a better return journey, it wasn't too bad until I got to Yeovil Junction, and the unbelievably full train to Exeter turned up. I couldn't even get on the train and ended up waiting another two hours for the next train, which was only rather full. Next time I'm going to travel on the day after Boxing Day, I'm going to hire a car, but hopefully I'll get more time off next year.

Today was far more encouraging, only Me, David and Matt were working at the shop and I really felt that I achieved something, winding all the clocks in the shop, helping David out and getting further with a job I'd barely started before leaving on Christmas Day. The only difficulty was that neither David or Trevor had turned the heating back on since Christmas Eve, and it was freezing in the workshop!

Well then. Presents:

Mum and Dad: Kaiser Chiefs, Hard Fi, Peep Show, Cufflinks

Emma: Balloon-modeling kit

Neil: Gary Lucas, Street of Lost Brothers

Monica: No less than 3 books on St. Francis of Assisi, a blanket, and a set of rosary beads made with olive wood from Bethlehem.

The Fornis: Toiletries

The Garretts:One mid-size, extremely fluffy, red cushion

Nicholas: A Jeeves and Wooster Omnibus (which, it so happens is what I got Monica)

Adrian and Emma:Eddie Izzard on CD

Dash it I've lost track: Some wonky candles for Monica and I to wonkily light

Not to mention a hyouge box full of organic fruit-based drinks and ginger beer, picallili, mustard, madras, chocolate from Monica for all of us. Believe this partially represents and attempt on Monica's part to steer her roguish boyfriend away from the evils of alcohol; a mixed success - all drink is gratefully received. What with having the whole family plus Emma and some presents for Monica (which I'm not sure quite what to do with) the front room was very crowded. I believe my presents were well received too. Huzzah.

Had a good dinner, though subjected to jokes. Felt incredibly tired afterwards; dozed off under me new blanket. Been reading the Wodehouse, played Uno. Not an undiverting game, but very little brainwork required. Having said that, my brain is indicating that it approves of this holiday idea very much. Monopoly is being played. Declined to join in, but unleashed my factoid that Monopoly was invented by a Quaker lady to demonstrate the evils of capitalism - oh the irony.

Watched Dr. Who, naturally. More of the same, which will certainly do; bought a Troughton era one for Neil, which should be class. Well, might do something productive tomorrow, but kicking back would certainly seem to be the order of the day.

Hello again. Just been to this morning's mass, and I gather that everyone else is at St. Martin's, so may as well blog. Though I could organise the presents into piles for optimum unwrappage, which is certainly not without precedent.

Well, yesterday was fun, but I didn't do very much owing to a persistent headache-type deal. A headache doesn't heighten my appreciation of Bach's Mass in B minor it would seem. I guess I'll try again later. Radio 3 has got Bach right into my head at the moment - seem to be relentlessly humming it.

Midnight mass was very good, the morning mass was okay too. Did I mention that St. Peters and St. John's looks kind of like a barn? Well it does - a very apt Christmas venue.

Kerfuffle about contacting Monica, but she phoned this morning, which was lovely. They've opened their presents already, being an hour ahead. Apparently I've been announced in Italy now, so everyone's very interested to meet me.

Eep.

On the plus side, it prompted a toast, and I think I'm right in saying that no-one has ever toasted me before.

Well Nicholas is back; he won't get over-excited on his own - he need me to boss him into it, so I'd better get cracking!

Merry Christmas everybody - woo!

Hey hey, happy holy days!

Well, it's this time of year where I'm at my parents house with not a great deal to do but chill, with broadband to boot, so I shall be blogging not more of my non-exploits. Lucky old you.

I said goodbye to Monica for a week on Thursday evening, after a long day at work, and goodbye to Exeter for two weeks after a short day at work, which, nonetheless started rather early. As is my wont, left about three times the requisite amount of time in which to pack. Thus is was that I ended up watching some of the first series of Bottom. Hu, and indeed, zzah. I didn't want to take too much luggage to Italy, so I'm slightly concerned about my capacity for presents, not helped by the fact that some of Monica's presents are here. Ah well.

On the way to St. David's I saw a bunny. Aw.

Came to Reading on a whizzy train from Penzance. They put me on the quiet coach, which I didn't mind, but neither did I propose that I should be so situated. I wonder, do people request the quiet coach? Bit of kerfuffle with the trains to Blackwater, but it turned out nice again. Dad picked us up at the station and momentarily I was back in Camberley, with all the glittering delights thereof. Seems to be a bit of an ethnic shopping contingent growing up, which is interesting. If I want a veil I'll know where to go.

Cordially punched Nicholas in the stomach on arrival, bested him in a "try and strangle me" demonstration of his jitsu propensities and laid into Adrian's joke-telling capacities. Seem to remember making Mum crease up somehow. A collective effort that one I think. Anyway, a good time was had by all, and I had a Golden Glory, which, as Ben would say, is a lovely drop. Oh, and kedgeree, which is good.

Wow, Badger Direct! Not a site for the purveyance of bespoke badgers, which would be superb, but, almost as splendid, Badger Beers.

And that's Ciao, for now.

Today is the day I handed my notice in at payroll, with the intention of leaving at the end of February.

Hi there.

I'm currently killing time in the office; it's the payroll Christmas meal tonight, so I don't need to cook, and it's not worth going home as I've a choir rehearsal before that. Should be a fun evening, though I'm rather tired, and I must not be persuaded to go clubbing. Much as I'm looking forward to home at Christmas, it's a pity I won't get to sing all of the cool Christmas pieces that we're currently rehearsing at Sacred Heart.

Today has been ooooooooooooooooooookay. Had a rather depressing week due to various things, which, though not hunky dory, are now in a much better state than they were earlier, so I'm fairly content. Work is odd - my allocation of it has largely disappeared, so I'm doing other peoples' work and checking the work of others too. Most unusual.

No. Christmas. Shopping. Done. Whatsoever. Need to think about it - browsing just doesn't seem to work. Anyway, my Amazon wishlist is still here. Also, I think it would be pretty damn cool to have a phone with a loudspeaker so as to include more people in a conversation, and I told Mum of some other CDs that I would rather like. Yesterday Monica and I tried Christmas shopping, but all we got were some cards and a complete Winnie-the-Pooh.

Monica made me an advent calendar; she's great. She even said she liked some beer the other day - egad. Plus, it seems that she brings out my ability to cook fine omlettes, which can't be a bad trait in a ragazza.

I note with interest that The JCB Song is doing the rounds again. Are they aiming for a Christmas number one? Surely not. There's also a song that keeps cropping up on our local news, one which a Mum co-wrote with Billy Bragg for her daughter - wonder if that's in with a shot... it's not inconceivable that it could go national.

Apparently one of our managers bumped into the new Bishop of Crediton t'other day. Suspect he must be an independent church type, 'cos he didn't get episcopal vibes from the purple shirt. I suspect Crediton is an Anglican bishopric, but I'm not sure; Chris is Mr. Plymouth and there's a chuffing great Cathedral in Exeter...

My brain hurts

Saw an article in the Guardian today about autism. Brain scans of children with autism were compared to those without while viewing facial expression. Similar article in Scientific American. Thought this would be of interest to some readers/contributors.

Ho Ho Ho

It's suddenly got very busy on the musical side of things. Being in two choirs doesn't help, especially as one of them is church based! Last night was my Christmas concert with CAOS, Tuesday night is carol singing, again with CAOS (no rehearsals now, so we're off to the Christmas markets in town for mulled wine & pancakes), and on Thursday I'm singing with the choir at the Holy Name. I think it's the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which seems disturbingly close to Christmas to me...
On a tangent; if one of the Catholic readers of this august blog could let me know why Mary gets referred to as "Star of the Sea" in no less than three of the pieces we practiced this week, I'd appreciate it. It's an odd nickname for anyone & I can't recall anything of Mary's nautical adventures from the New Testament.

Back to the Christmas concert: the choir side of things was going very well. No worries about that. I was mostly concerned with the orchestra half. Since I don't play an instrument, but have been in the choir for much longer than is healthy (being a student society, 4 years of membership qualifies you for "furniture" status) Al asked if I wanted to do percussion. This resulted in me playing the cymbals in Verdi's Nabucco Overture and Tchaikovsky's Slavic March, the tambourine and the triangle in Carmen.
In the end it went really well. A couple of people said afterwards that I looked like I was really enjoying playing the cymbals (banging two big bits of metal together is quite fun!), and the tambourine part (which I was most worried about, since it's exposed & a little tricky with timing) was just right. I didn't go out of tune once!
It was good fun too. Al, Dan and Ping were the other percussionists, all long time CAOS people, and a good laugh. Think I might volunteer for the Easter concert too. Thanks are due to Emma for not complaining (much) about me spending most of the week listening to the orchestra pieces on CD whilst banging a biscuit tin.

Aftershow was fun: got to bed at about five, and got up today (just) in time for a rehearsal at the Holy Name.

Hmm. Random CAOS photos.

From bias free of every kind

Went to see Rock Trial last night. It's a rewrite of Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury with (can you guess?) rock music. Same words & harmonies, but in a very different style. Probably the most enjoyable thing I've seen on stage. The whole thing was helped by a pretty amazing audience: it was in a small theatre in the RNCM, so most people at the Saturday night show were ex (or present) MUGSS people. Before the show even started, there was a mexican wave, and chants of "Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, Rock Trial!, *clap, clap, clap*, etc...". Much of this was led by Al, the director, who was sat just behind Emma & meself.
Another reason for going was that Pete was playing guitar. It sold out fairly quickly; we only got tickets for that night because Alison kept a couple aside for us. Thanks Alison!
I liked the G&S version anyway (I was in it last year before doing La Cage!), but this was really well done. The leads were all very good and while the clever lyrical humour was intact, a lot of updated gags had gone in on top of those. As well as the leads, there was a huge chorus consisting of nerds, hippies, old people, groupies (of Edwin, the defendant), punks & such.

Brilliant night out.

I went to Bristol yesterday, the nightmarish traffic was just as bad as I remember, started with the Zoo, unsurprisingly it's changed a bit since I was last there. The penguin and seal enclosures have underwater viewing tunnels so you can see them swimming. I really liked watching the penguins and the seals appeared to be showing off to me and the wide-eyed toddlers. I decided to walk back towards the City Centre, stopping off at where we used to live, it's certainly changed, the exterior's been sandblasted, but I didn't have too many happy memories of Bristol to be spoiled by any changes. I also stopped off at a toolshop for some tools for work and the geology section of a museum.

It took ages for me to find anywhere I wanted to eat, half-two is very late for me. I only found one thing I wanted to buy, a PC game, but a previous mix-up of CDs in the part-exchange shop meant I didn't get it. The wind really started to get going, so I headed back to the station, and ended up waiting nearly an hour for a train running 40min late, and already rather full before 40+ people got on at Bristol. It's nice to know that Virgin Trains has improved its reliability.

Despite being rather tired when I got home, I quite enjoyed myself and the snow this morning has left me in a good mood, despite most of the snow melting.

As the "festival we shouldn't even be thinking about until mid-December", is approaching could you e-mail me some suggestions for presents for Monica, Nan and the Parents.

I been in a bit of a slump at recently, but things seem to be improving, several clock haven't been working properly with no apparent cause, with help I've been able to work out what I was not doing, and feel rather silly for not doing it in the first place. I suspect the combination of the clocks changing and a change in my working week threw me a bit out of step.

I've made a start on a craft project to make a couple of "pin pictures", with nails on a cloth-covered MDF board . This sort of thing http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/drawing/para1a.html Hopefully, tomorrow I'll draw out the designs on paper, then use the paper to guide where I hammer the nails in.

Apologies in advance

What's black and white and conquered most of the civilised world?

Alex Panda the Great.

I'm really, really sorry.

Slugs Ate My Parents

'Tis a band consisting of Dan from choir. He's got a few gigs lined up in Manchester (see website),
and you can listen to some Mp3s elsewhere on the site. I particularly liked "It is Wise to Fear the Mega-Spider".

The BBC said:

"Odd doesn't really do Slugs Ate My Parents justice. This is music from the insides of an asylum, where deeply frightening basslines back lyrics like 'Would you like a drink of water?/I’ve put poison in your water' and 'His name is Mr Jesus/And he don’t know if he exists'. It's a case of experience at your peril, but you really must experience..."

It's that time of year again

I can't think what I'd like for Christmas. This won't be a suprise to anyone who's asked me for the last 10 years or so, since I've tended to look confused, and then ask for money. Inspired by their campaign last year, I'd like to direct shoppers to Oxfam's website where they've got some rather cool things (donkeys, trees & such) which go to people who need them. You also get a card for the person you'd normally get a present for, telling them that you've spent the money usefully. Seems much more Christmassy that getting people stuff they don't need.

Actually, I'd also like Ziggy Stardust & Hunky Dory (Bowie), but other than that I'm out of ideas, so get a goat for someone who needs it.

Book Club seems to be working out at last, I talked about a duology of books in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, (Dragonsong and Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern). One person talked about a biographical book on an aircraft test pilot \ engineer who started during WW2. The other person talked about another Dragonriders of Pern book (Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern).
Quite enjoyable, I lent one of my Asperger books and Shatterglass (Tamora Pierce) to a chap who seemed interested in both.

Work seems to be improving a little, there's a bit of "edutainment" with a BHI-trained part-time repairer, him getting the education, us getting the entertainment from some of the inefficient practices such as thoroughly cleaning the movement in the cleaning fluids before and after doing the actual repair work. He's even keeping a work diary, which just seems a waste of time. Hopefully we can teach him some more time-efficient work habits.

My boss decided that he wanted a "robo-raptor", having seen this year's candidate for "the toy that all kids will be wanting for Christmas"in Debenhams. On Friday he was worrying that he would be unable to get there after work, so I offered to get it for him and wait for him in the car park behind Debenhams. He gave me £100 to pay for it, it turned out to cost only £90, so he very generously gave let me keep the change. His partner, a teacher was horrified that he'd bought it, and his cat was rather freaked out by the plastic dinosaur.

I've not done this much lathe work and soldering in a long time, the mainspring barrel for a fusee clock (the biggest, most powerful range of mainspring) was rather poorly assembled, it split apart when Trevor tried to improve the lousy joins! I've had to make a bush for the first time in ages for the same clock. Another chiming clock needed 35 holes bushes, including 6 (mainspring) barrels, and 15 of then required me to use two bushes because the last repairer had used a weird set of bushes. I normally don't need to spend over a week on just two clock, but these two defied belief.

I got a bit of a surprise when David told me someone would be coming in on Friday morning who would start working with us on Thursdays, then a second surprise when David asked me to consolidate my half-days and take Thursday off to give the new chap, called Chris, a bit more working room. I didn't mind too much, but a little more warning would be nice. Chris is a temporary worker, helping to reduce our ever-growing backlog of work, (now if we could only get our customers to deal with the backlog of stuff to be collected and paid for.) Chris has been working from home and wants to get a bit more experience from the variety of clocks we service.

It's been an unusual few weeks for me, with the DLA, Housing and Council Tax benefits in place and Working Tax Credit applied for. It seems very strange to finally get the support that I should have been getting since my condition was finally diagnosed. I was almost angry when I asked my colleague, Matt who gets a free "Motability" car rather than DLA, wasn't getting Council Tax or Housing Benefit, it seems no one told him he'd probably still be eligible for those benefits when he changed from receiving DLA to having a car. I've given him the phone number for the woman at the CAB, who has been helping me with my benefits, after asking her if Matt could probably get those benefits.
I feel rather drained after putting all that effort into getting the benefits, it's been hard to apply myself fully at work, not through laziness but from exhaustion. I'm considering taking a few days off work just to de-stress.

It's also been a busy period, I go out to see "Howl's Moving Castle" at the PictureHouse Cinema, turning my phone off shortly before Dad attempted to contact me, just a bit of bad timing. Dad visited me on his way back to Camberley, with a damp, non-functional mobile phone. Unfortunately, this is the same day as my first Resident's Meeting with an agenda point I've raised. It was about the status of the Book Club I attempted to get involved with, only giving up after four weeks of no one turning up. I turns out that it had shrunk to only two active members shortly before I attempted to join and petered out. It's been revived, and hopefully will give me an opportunity to socialise in the evening. I fed Dad after the meeting, his sabbatical seems to be doing him some real good, although he was tired, it didn't seem to be as deep rooted as it had been.

I had signed up for the Belmont Church event, "Feed a Fresher", however on the day there were far more providers than mouths to feed, It ended up with me being invited to Mark's house by one of his housemates for a roast chicken Sunday Lunch, very nice. I left a little earlier than I'd wanted to because I needed a break if I wanted to be able to attend the talk that evening at Belmont, about the book "The Da Vinci Code". The talk was quite interesting mostly because I'd only heard bits and pieces about the content and implications. The talk pointed out that The Da Vinci Code was very similar in content to another book based on an publicly admitted hoax, and the so-called accuracy of the "facts" was rather questionable. Despite the general Christian view that the book is nonsense, the talk tried to be fair and was well presented.

Today I went to the cinema with Mark and Monica, to see the "Wallace and Gromit" film, it was good, but I felt a little disappointed that the density of puns was a lower than I'd hoped for.

Quite a busy couple of days, went to Belmont Church with the parents and Nan, they seemed to approve, went for a walk and then had lunch with all the family in Exeter. It would be nice to see a bit more of Tamsin and Martyn, but between their busy lives and the distance between us it will take a bit more planning than seeing Mark and Monica.

Today was I worked on four different jobs, reworking one, disabling the strike on another, replacing the quartz movement on yet another and lastly servicing a timepiece. It's been a while since I've been able to work on so many clocks in one day. Quite satisifying.

Monkey see, monkey do

Having not played chess in a little while, and noticing Rosy had an account, I'm now playing chess on Gameknot. So, if you fancy a game, search for Adriand. That's me that is.

It's not like I do anything intellectual with the rest of my life, is it?

I'm back

We've regained internet access at home since moving about four weeks ago. That was in Emma's summer holiday, since when she's gone back to school to teach (avoid murdering whilst hoping they pick up some maths) the kids.

We've moved to South East Manchester (just past a "Welcome to Stockport" sign), which means the car insurance got cheaper, it's easier for Emma to get to work (round the M60), and I've got a five mile cycle to get into uni. Nice house with two bedrooms, one of which is Emma's study, and a garden with a shed. My shiny new bike lives in the shed. I treated myself to a new one, as I don't think it'll get nicked from here, and I'm cycling over 50 miles a week. My last bike was stolen from outside the old flat while I was on Skye at a maths conference. Slightly irritating as I'd only had it for 3 weeks. We've got a groovy metal staircase arrangement which someone with a spanner could easily booby-trap.

I'm writing up my thesis, which is painfully slow, to submit in January. Got 60 pages done so far, most of which will need some rewriting, and it'll probably be about 100 pages when it's done. It's currently sporting the catchy title "Real K-theory of Thom complexes".

Emma's (as I said) back at school, and seems to be managing very well with workload, and difficult children. I'm slightly worried about the increasingly sneaky methods of class control she's employing - it's contributing heavily to the "all Emmas are evil" hypothesis.

Hmm. That'll do for a general catch up. For more detail, however:
Thanks are due to Nick for helping with the move.
For details of (the end of the) housewarming party, try here.
Went to see the Sheffield Wednesday vs West Ham game with Pete. I feel I should point out that David Graham (not Brunt) hit the crossbar from 6 yards out, a strike which would have leveled the game to 3-3.
Watched the Luton vs Wednesday game round at Pete & Rosy's and then watched the Goonies.
That's covered up to Friday night nicely.

Saturday:
For her first day off in two weeks (yes, that includes weekends!) she headed off to Taekwondo, while I met up with Jon, a friend from school & university who I've not seen for a couple of years. Unfortunately I seem to have reached the time of life when some work is required to keep in touch with people. Otherwise I only see them at weddings. Humph.
Met Jon in town; his wife Liz had a GP training/conference thingy in Manchester, hence the visit, and we got some lunch & played some pool. Nice to catch up. Jon headed off a bit earlier than planned (conf. finishing early to avoid traffic from the Man Utd *spit* game), which meant Emma wasn't able to see him.
Instead, myself & Emma headed into town for an evening of food & film. More precisely; Pizza Hut and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. I'll have to admit to being a fan of both Roald Dahl and Tim Burton, and I loved the film. Emma's decided (as she does regularly) that I'm weird. I was particularly impressed with the Oompah Loompahs' song/dance routines following the dismissal of one of the vile children. Having re-read that, I think Emma may be onto something.

2nd Saturday with Mark and Monica
We got off to a good start and arrived at the Eden Project before it got too busy, I found the tropical biome too humid so I moved through rather faster than Mark and Monica, although I was able to read most of the information. While I was waiting for them to finish, I went through the warm temperate biome which was far more comfortable and frankly I found it more interesting. We had lunch and walked uphill through the outdoor section, and I was able to contribute extra information beyond the info on the plaques. We didn't spend that much time there both Mark and I were a little tired and the Eden Project was filling up fast.

After a bit of a break I decided to drive home to return the car, on Saturday night rather than Sunday morning, however I ran into several road closures, the diverting me onto the M5, rather than the A30, and a sign informed me that to get past the closed section of the A303, I should continue up the M5 and get off at Junction 25 and head down the A358 to Illminster. The problem came when I got off at the correct junction and couldn't see the A358 signposted, thinking I'd got off at the wrong junction I continued north on the M5, but by the time I realised my mistake I was getting close to Bristol. I resigned myself to taking the M4 back, which added an extra hour to the journey time.

I was just pulling into a services when I received a text from Dad, I called back thinking that they were in England, however I was wrong, and made it a short call. I was just leaving the car park when Dad called me to ask me to fill up the car, I asked if he wanted me to try and get the Saturday Times, but I had no success in finding a copy, even "24-hour" Tesco had closed by the time I got to Camberley, I had to buy milk from the petrol station for breakfast.

Still it was a nice trip even with being frequently dazzled by the headlights of 4WDs in the mirrors.

2nd Thursday Out
Decided to go to the Somerwest World (Butlin's) at Minehead, reasoning that Butlin's always has a good fun pool if nothing else and there's always the beach and town if I got bored.

My first mistake was to take the scenic route along the A396, nothing but winding country roads and one very strange junction that confusing enough that I took the wrong road twice before getting back on course. Then got stuck behind a white van, who in turn was stuck behind a learner on a moped and hence limited to 30mph. The only wildlife I saw were a load of pheasants all over the road in both senses of the phrase "all over the road", thankfully I managed not to kill any of the stupid birds but it was a close thing.

On arriving at Minehead I got a little confused about where to get the day pass and where to park eventually I got a very good parking space and went in. Somerwest World had changed an awful lot, the funfair was as cheesy as I remembered but the real shock came when I got into the main indoor area, just a food court with a row of shops. Beyond that it was a mixture of good and bad news, the good news was that the fun pool had greatly increased in size, the bad news was that none of the amusement arcades had anything other than slot machine, shooting games and driving games none of which appealed to me. I was hoping for a good shoot-'an-up or at least a skill-based game like Puzzle Bobble.

The pool at least made the whole trip seem worthwhile, wave machines flumes, jacuzzi and so on. I went for a short swim to warm up before I went on three of the four flume, the one I decided to pass on was the "Black Hole", I don't mind going fast, but I do mind when I can't see! The best flume was like the log flume at Alton Towers, except with rubber boats instead of logs, with flaps on the underside of the boat so water jets could push the boat uphill. The other one I liked was a pretty standard flume except at the end there was a large shallow bowl with a hole at the bottom. So if you have seen the "black hole"-simulating charity boxes you'll have an idea about the result. I got dumped down the hole face-first, being more than a little top-heavy, great fun. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to do so I went out of the place had had lunch on the beach using the blanket I'd brought. I went for a walk along the sea front and was starting to get tired so I returned home by a less scenic but much faster route, stopping off at St Loye's College, since I'd not been back since I started working for David, the room was massive now with the original three rooms merged into one large room, but now with 20-something students with only 2 instructors, yipe. How on earth do they manage to teach that many people in clock repair?

I got home and soon discovered that the reason for feeling tired was that I'd caught a cold. I went into work today but by half past two David decided that I'd best go home and recover. I just hope I haven't caught that nasty cold he brought back from his holiday. I'm hoping to go the Eden Project tomorrow, but I've warned Mark that I might not be up to the trip. I don't think it likely that I'll miss the trip but better to warn him than for him to find out on the day.

Friday

Sunday Trip
Only Mark and Monica came on this trip to Dartmouth Castle, in hindsight Ben and Zosia got the better end of the deal. We took a wrong turn and I had to turn around using a dirt track entrance. We later discovered had driven to the wrong side of the Dartmouth's bay and had to wait for the small car ferry to get across, Monica had never been on a car ferry before.

Dartmouth is an old town with small winding roads, something that I could have done without after a long confusing journey, at least we got there. Mark and Monica seemed to enjoy the castle, redeveloped several times for the changing circumstances including WW2. I took more interest in the building stones and wildlife.

On returning to Exeter we had Sunday lunch at the Malt House, my treat as I felt that after the journey we deserved a treat.

1st Saturday with Mark, Monica and their friends, Ben and Zosia.
A bit of a late start and signs to Paighton Zoo dying out, then meandering through Paignton's city centre, still we got there in the end.

It then got a bit rushed as we attempted to find the baboon's enclosure in time to see them being fed. Needless to say, we didn't make it in time, in fact we only got to the baboons in the last third of our stay. We did get to see the pelicans being fed with the seagulls attempting to steal a meal.

There was a bit of excitement a bit shortly after we passed through the area with the free-ranging goats in the "animal encounters" area. A peccary (a small pig-like animal) had escaped so everyone was asked to go to the restaurant\bar while they caught it. Not the most enjoyable part of the day I must admit, but how often do you get to be around when something like that happens?

I started to get a little tired about half-three, thankfully we'd seen just about everything and even though I suggested they continue if they wanted to, I headed back to the car, since I could just read for a bit while I waited. However after Mark's friends, Ben and Zosia, had bought some animal masks, they turned up after a relatively short time, followed by Mark and Monica, who took a little longer to find the car.

The return journey had only one delay caused by me misreading the signs and going back into Paignton again, (sigh). After dropping off Mark and co, I went home for a bit of a break, then went shopping at the big Sainsbury's. Mostly to get the things that I can't get at the one in town, but also just because with a car I can do a big shop and not have to carry it all the way back.

From the translators' preface to the NLT Bible, which I was perusing this morning - probably not too far off verbatim:

In order to ensure a translation free from personal and theological bias, a wide range of Evangelical scholars were consulted using the best exegetical tools.

I mean honestly. A thought-for-thought translation of this might read "Oh crap - we've reached the bit of the preface where we're meant to prove how unbiased we are and we've only consulted ourselves. Let's just borrow the accepted format for stating this and hope no-one notices the flagrant inadequacy of what is actually stated."

Personally, I think people with a bit of education should probably lean towards formal equivalence translations more; get as close as is reasonably possible to the original texts.

1st day of holiday, not very nice weather today, decided to go to Plymouth.

I arrived a bit before the National Marine Aquarium opened, so I watched the sea for a bit. Saw a pair of seahorses courting, found out that the Mediterranean Sea was formed when the continental plates of Africa and Europe met and was originally closed at the Straits of Gibraltar.
Went swimming at the Plymouth Pavilions, spent a lot of time sitting in the shallow end, just relaxing.

Today was very encouraging, a gentleman came into the shop and asked for "the lad who's always reading outside before the shop opens". Turns out that he teaches adult literacy and had found my love of reading quite encouraging in his work, he's also a 60-words/sec speed reader like me. Both embarrassing and flattering, but isn't encouraging others part of Christianity? It's nice to rediscover even when you're enjoying yourself, God can still work through you.

I'd almost forgotten how encouraging David is as an employer, thanking me when I reminded him about his breakfast. David: "What would I do without you?" Me (smiling):"Miss breakfast." He really seems to appreciate me taking extra care of him when he doesn't have Trevor or Norman to help in the shop.

Matt has kindly offered to work this Saturday so that I can visit Nan and the Fornis on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday make the long trip back to Exeter, possibly with enough energy to make a trip out on Sunday after church.

Call me cynical but... why is the fact of something happening usually accepted as evidence of providence?

Yesterday there was news, though it concerns someone whom I know but slightly. He got a job working for an organization that "does" Christianity in schools - don't know a great deal about it beyond that. Anyway, he did, and it made everyone happy. I'll take it as read that he prayed that the result of the interview would be God's will, as did the interviewing panel - I should hope that it's the done thing.

And there was much rejoicing; "Isn't it funny that God didn't give him any other jobs 'til now", or words to that effect - "It's odd, because it doesn't seem like his kind of job, but God clearly thinks otherwise."

Seems to me that being a Christian, and prayer, is regarded as an insurance policy against anything happening which is antithetical to God's will in one's life. Seems pretty unlikely to me.

pan·the·ism
n.
A doctrine identifying the Deity with the universe and its phenomena.[...]

Seems a bit like pantheism.

It was really nice to return home and meet up with everyone again, we just seem to slot back together as if we had only been apart a few days. I finally got the leftover rent refund cheque from my time at Exeter Foyer, £94 back is nice.

I'm beginning to get worried about the backlog of ready-to-collect clocks at work. We don't have that much storage space anyway, and I'm running out of bench space to put my completed clocks. It's hard to feel motivated to complete jobs when I've got nowhere to put them. I've tried reminding Norman to call the customers, but with David on holiday in South America he's too busy with his beloved watch straps. I'm not sure what I can do about this.

Today is going really badly.

I've got a job I need to do ASAP which has been delayed (I don't know how). PCFE kept ringing me with long queries involving prolonged paper-hunting. I finally got in touch with my landlord to find that my cheque's got lost in the post, along with my tenancy agreement (the tenancy agreement for the second time) - the £400 that I then owe him slightly outstrips my bank balance of £57.61. And I've got to move Irene's car, which I can do, but I wish I didn't have to - certainly not on such a manifestly crappy day.

Went to church last Sunday for probably the first time since moving to Exeter, tried Belmont Church as it was recommended by a friend of Dad. Pleasantly surprised by how much it reminded me of St Thomas in Sheffield. Although a computerised OHP and an e-mail address on the Welcome card were a bit of a surprise. The church attracts a healthy range of people from all over Exeter and seems quite lively. Although there were a lot of people, I didn't feel tired afterwards, it seems to be a good church to belong to.

However not all is good, my right thumb seems to be the target for a chain of mishaps, two blisters, one under another and yesterday the click spring on an American clock fell out while I was winding it and have my thumb a glancing clout. Well at least with going to Camberley I should be able to avoid further injury.

News:

I have a girlfriend, Monica. She's Italian, and as things stand at the moment, she'll have to go back to Italy mid September. However, she wants to stay in England, and she's trying to sort it out, so here's hoping she won't have to. We met through the chaplaincy, but that was about a year ago. She comes from a village which has a castle, and the nearest big place is Ancona apparently. She's a bi' (she likes my glottal stops) older than I am, but I shan't say how much - it doesn't seem like it anyway.

So there you go.

Not the most pleasant of weeks, picked up a nasty stomach bug, a few stomach pains on Saturday, and over an hour spent in the toilet. I feel better, and work the rest of the day. Sunday, fever and headache, going to the loo 2/3 times per hour between waking and ten, repeat until Wednesday, despite Imodium and, very annoying. I hope no one else gets this.

Went to work today, feeling better, had my first cooked meal since Friday (first filling meal since Saturday), almost did the Happy Dance. Had to pay Customs charge, must check out the limits on imported DVDs.
Still feeling fine.

The notion that I have enough time in a lunch break to do necessary things and blog about James' and Ella's wedding is laughable.

But James asked me to let everyone know he was still alive.

And married.

Weird.

I guess I might borrow Ed or Luke's computer to sum up properly at the weekend, but until then, that's How, for now.

I discovered an interesting property of the lovely duvet cover Mum made for me, it swallowed almost every item except my pajamas and clean underwear for tomorrow, highly interesting. A less enjoyable re-discovery was that brambles hurt when you don't notice them hanging over the pavement. However I took a calm, reasoned approach and on my return journey brought my worn-out top-cutters with me and did a little public spirited pruning:).

On the house to home transition, I've bought some picture hooks to so I can hang up some pictures to break up the monotony of white walls, and requested the maintenance guy to put them up for me as they staff prefer. I'm intending to get a book on vegetarian cooking to see if there's some nice meals I can make without overloading my tiny freezer compartment with frozen meat. I've given Mark my old blackout curtains since the ones in his new bedroom aren't very good, helping him and getting them out of storage.

Selling some of my old videos on E-bay is going well, I posted five off on Saturday, on Monday my new DVD arrived, £10 profit without any loss to my viewing library.

Took the test my DOB no.1 was Abba's Take A Chance on Me, not too bad, but then I checked the no.1 for my 18th birthday. Take That's How Deep is your Love, The Horror, the indescribable horror. Even The Mr. Blobby song would have been better both in musical quality and lyric quality.

Went to a nice BBQ in the car park of my place actually met some people, unlike the multiple no-shows of the people in the Book Club. A little tired but OK

New from Bebo, doodle crap, and say that people smell, on online whiteboards...

Number one on the day I was born was Boomtown Rats - I don't like Mondays. That suits me I think. I'll go with that for my theme for life. I can't recall the one that was number one on my 18th birthday.

Victor found this thing that tells you what was at no 1. on any given day since the US and UK charts started. Feel the misery:

What was No.1 on the day you were born?

[...]

Ebony & Ivory - Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder

[T]ry your life's theme song which is the No.1 on your 18th birthday

[...]

Bound 4 Da Reload - Oxide & Neutrino

And, on the understanding that that was my life's theme song, suicide would of course come onto the agenda.

Quick blog before work:

Well, ably assisted by Will I've finally moved in. Will seemed surprised at how rapidly it went, but he should know that I like to be prepared. Norris has been at my new place for a few days; he came back on the day I left, being disspiried about cleanig the place. This is not surprising - it is not by any stretch of the imagination a job that one person should try to do in two days.

Place is good - I find that a place on the cleaning rota precedes me, which I find cheering. I should have brought my quilt and pillows with me, as there's only a bed here, so I'll try and see if I can.

Anyway, 7:30, so I can start work now. See ya.

Nghh.

Just realised I've had my new address details for ages, as Luke is in my Bebo address book. Here they are, if you're not already signed up. It's an online dynamic address book, which is a very good idea, but you have to create an account yourself.

Found an entertaining website http://www.manatheater.com it's a spoof of the Secret of Mana game of the SNES, a little South Park-y, a little Simpsons-esque. Very Silly

I hate humid and hot weather, I finally have the time to exercise more and I'm too lethargic from the heat, and feeling sweaty to want to do anything other than sit in front of an electric fan with a cup of squash. At least the forecast for the weekend says that the humidity should drop on Saturday which should feel much nicer.

Another week of minor frustrations and successes, unusually David was in on the Monday, arriving just as I was about to e-mail and fax the timesheets to the accountants so we'd get paid on time as he'd asked me to do last week. Thus interrupted, I assumed he would send the timesheets late on in the day. At the end of the day I asked if he'd sent the timesheets as was written in his office diary, he hadn't so I offered to send them the next day first thing, which I did.
The shop's rent check seems to have got lost in the post, I may be partly responsible as I forgot to post it on the way home on Wednesday of last week , I posted it first thing the next day but it hadn't arrived, rather worrying.
Trevor finally started to final check the seven clocks waiting to go, some of which have been waiting a while, however some of them required some finally adjustment which was a little annoying, but hopefully I'll have some free bench space again.

Yesterday's terrorism provoked an interesting chain of thought. Actual terrorism generally doesn't normally produce any beneficial results for the terrorists. The IRA bombings hardened England's determination to stay in Northern Ireland and the attack on the World Trade Centre provoked America into invading Afghanistan, and so al Qaeda lost a friendly government.

It occurred to me that mishandling of the aftermath of a terrorist attack can actually help to sway people towards the terrorist's point of view.
Terrorist carries out terrorism and claims responsibility, victim government(s) clamp down on Terrorist's ethnic or religious group (i.e. house arrests, Guantanamo Bay), media fuels public suspicion of group. Terrorist's ethnic\religious group or feels discriminated against and some will become more sympathetic towards Terrorist, especially the easily influenced.

So other than cleaning up the human consequences and property damage, would the best course be for the government to carefully and tactfully find out who was responsible and take them to court in the public eye, exposing them as the deluded fools they are?

Gah. Today has just been a series of problems - no work done. Rubbish.

Just to further break the monopoly, here's another blog to add to the list. Mahinda seems to be involved in all things am. dram. in Manchester, and also runs a hockey game each week which I've been failing to turn up to for some time now.

Well I finally have my own Internet connection, Yay!
It's working obviously since I'm blogging now, I was amazed by how much in the way of updates for all my important software there was, thank goodness I don't have a limit on Internet use during the first month. Don't have a new e-mail account yet, so just keep using the old one for now.

Although there was a little difficulty with getting hold of my modem. Apparently ParcelForce are unable to consider the possibility that in a block of flats calling the office is a good idea if the person is out. Alternatively there is the option of leaving one of their "I sorry, we were unable to deliver this". After finally getting hold of them I arranged to go to their depot and collect it. A good brisk walk of 50min got me there. And I was able to collect it at last and take a bus most of the way home. Sigh, such is life.

Some more positive news, my stuff is unpacked and organised at last, it's really feeling like home now, Kate, my support worker, resembles Abigail, a little disconcerting at first, but like Abigail, she's a nice person to talk with. The Book Club was a little disappointing, no one else turned up! Kate has volunteered to help me meet with a book club member so at least I should know next time if it's been cancelled.

I don't make any claim to understand this, but it still raised a smile - which isn't an obvious fringe benefit of maths by any means. S'from the guy Adrian asked me to add to the blogroll.

The blurbs for today on Universalis are quite good. I expect they were lifted from somewhere, but they're uncredited.

St Peter:

"I do so love St Peter," says a friend of mine. "Whenever he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it".

She is right, of course. Whatever else St Peter may be, he is not the model of a wise and noble hero. He walks on the water – but then panics and starts to sink. He makes the first profession of faith – and moments later blunders into error and is called Satan by the Lord. He refuses to be washed, and then, when the purpose is explained to him, demands to be washed all over. And, of course, he betrays his master soon after having been warned that he will and having sworn not to. If Peter is the rock on which the Church is built, what a fissured and friable rock it is! How much better, we think, to have chosen the Sons of Thunder, for their energy; or Judas Iscariot, for his financial acumen; or John, because he was loved the best.

The choosing of Peter teaches us a lesson. The Church’s foundation-stone and its first leader is not all-wise, all-knowing, good, heroic, and beautiful. He is a very ordinary man who makes about as many mistakes as we would in his place, and kicks himself for them just as thoroughly afterwards. If St Peter had been a hero, we could easily have despaired of ever becoming like him. If St Peter had been great, and noble, and good, we could have told ourselves that the Church is for the saints, despaired, sat down, and not bothered. But the Church is not just for saints: it is for confused, impetuous, cowardly people like us – or St Peter. The rock crumbles, the ropes are frayed, the wood is rotten – but, although that improbable building, the Church, is made of such inferior materials, it grows (on the whole) faster than it collapses, and it is grace that holds it together.

In the end, it was grace that gave the coward the courage to bear witness when it counted, grace that gave the fool the wisdom he needed to set the infant Church on her way, grace that taught the impetuous man patience and forbearance.

We none of us admire ourselves, however much we would like to; let us not try to admire St Peter either, but admire instead the grace he was given, and pray that, weak as we are, we may be given it too, and may use it.

St Paul:

St Paul is not an attractive figure today. We are still knee deep in the overripe fruit of late romanticism: we admire men who feel, not think; who enchant people into following them, not argue them into submission.

There is even, nowadays, a fashion for saying that Paul invented Christianity as we know it, that he set out with the cynical aim of fashioning an enduring institution; and that the real Christianity, the Christianity of Christ, is something quite different from and far nicer than the Christianity we know.

Yes, Paul’s mind did shape the early Church. Yes, without him things would have been different. And all the information that we have in the New Testament is entirely consistent with the whole thing being a Pauline conspiracy.

But so what? "Consistent with" is a treacherous phrase. The evidence of my eyes is entirely consistent with there being an invisible lion in my fireplace, because you can’t see invisible lions; but I still don’t believe there is one. I trust the world, I have faith in it, and invisible lions are not part of that faith. I trust God, I have faith in the Holy Spirit – I say so out loud on Sundays – and I believe that God called Saul because he needed him, and that the renamed Saul did and said what needed to be said and done.

Paul is not some cold and remote intellectual – just read the Epistles, and see if that stands up. Paul is always reminding people of his weakness – look, I know what I ought to do, and I keep on doing the opposite – look, I have this thorn in my flesh and God absolutely refuses to take it away. Paul is not all mind – he does have his troubles too.

But yes, Paul does have a mind, and that raises problems in an age that doesn’t, that uses "clever" as a term of abuse. Remember, though, that we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. Perhaps we cannot love St Paul very much nowadays; but let us at least pray for the grace to love God with our minds, as he did.

Four things

1. Could we add Craig's blog to the list at the top? He's a nice chap in my office who's keeping a blog of his mathematical exploits.
2. We're off to Alton Towers on Thursday!
3. For anyone unaware, for a limited time you can download Beethoven's Symphonies from the Radio 3 website. I missed out on symphonies 1-5, so if anyone got them, please get in touch.
4. I'm off to my first (since I was at a Catholic secondary school) mass tomorrow. I've not suddenly decided that we need a Pope or anything, but I've joined the church's choir, so I'm off to sing!
   

Morning all,
I've just returned from a week on the Isle of Skye, on my first international maths conference. I'm not sure that it counts as international for me, even though it was a twelve hour bus/train/bus/train/walk a bit/bus journey to get there, but people had come from all over the place.
Goran, Dave and my self didn't register in time to stay at the college (the whole thing was held in a Gaelic language college right on the coast of Skye), and had a two mile walk to the conference each morning. Very pleasant though, and Goran only got locked out of the hostel once during the week - having got back at about 1am - the hostel locks up at 11:45.

I achieved something I'd never done as an undergraduate, making it to four 9am lectures in one week. Most of the talks were very much over my head, due in part to the specialised nature of UK maths PhDs. My first year was spent getting up to speed, as there's a large gap to bridge before any research can be done, leaving two years to focus almost exclusively on a single area in order to produce a thesis. In contrast, American PhDs take five years, and will provide a much broader education. The extra time is needed though, as a US undergraduate degree contains far less mathematics - they'll have "majored in maths", rather than studying it exclusively for three years.
Having said that, there were two lectures in particular I thoroughly enjoyed, and it's been valuable to have time to step back from my own work. I feel like I've got a clearer idea of where I'm going now, which is handy, as I'm planning to submit around Christmas or so, which doesn't leave very much more time for research.

Evening activities were fun, and included a Gaelic singer, whisky tasting & a Celidh. The excursion to climb a mountain wasn't on the best day - visibility was hampered by the thick cloud covering the hills. I came down with a pretty grotty cold towards the end of the week, so I'm quite glad to be home for a bit of a rest. The schedule was quite tough, but it was well worth going.

Now I just need to decide whether I should aim for a job as a professional mathematician or not...

Well I've finally moved to my new bedsit and things are going well, 80% unpacked 40-50% organised. But it looks like a home now, so when I have the time, I'll probably sort out the rest.

The very welcome assistance of the Foyer staff enabled me to get almost everything was moved in record time. Far cheaper than hiring a van and thankfully less exhausting, I've gone for the traditional boxes of chocolates as a thank you.

It was really nice to come back and see Mum returned from work, looking as good as when she used to go to Frimley Park Hospital. She seems much happier and hopefully when she's back on the shift system she'll be able to go out and do more with Dad which should help with dispelling the last remnants of the rut FPH dragged her into.

Once I've got a telephone and checked that the line's working I'll send my new land line number to every other Dobson, Garrett and Forni that wishes it.

This man has kindly provided video clips of himself practising juggling so that you too can learn the joyous skill of it:

Just a quick note to say that I have a house again!

Hello there. I now have a new phone. People who are on Bebo already can get it from them, and anyone who isn't can sign up. It's that or pay even more to text everyone.

I wonder if this inspired Mr. Shakespeare:

Now Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And when it was told him, "The man of God has come here," the king said to Hazael, "Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD through him, saying, 'Shall I recover from this sickness?'" So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, "Your son Ben-hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, 'Shall I recover from this sickness?'" And Elisha said to him, "Go, say to him, 'You shall certainly recover,' but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die." And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept. And Hazael said, "Why does my lord weep?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women." And Hazael said, "What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you are to be king over Syria." Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to you?" And he answered, "He told me that you would certainly recover." But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place. - 2 Kings 8:7-15

Things are getting a little busy, I'm trying to stockpile boxes rather than attempt to buy them. One of the Foyer staff thinks she'll have some info about transportation by Friday. I'm going to take some measurements at Mortimer House tomorrow. I've got an appointment on Thursday to try and sort out some benefits.
Isn't moving house just the most exciting thing to do? *Sigh*, well I don't have enough free time to worry about this, just getting on with what I can do is enough.

We're having a run of crap clocks to work on at the shop, oily worn-out low-grade tat which we have to restore to working order. And let us not forget the ham-fisted bodgers who worked on these before, using only the horological knowledge gleaned from Antique's Roadshow and DIY skills at the limit on wobbly shelves. Preserve us from the metalwork teachers who think that they can safely make their own fusee barrels, designed to hold the largest, most powerful springs in common use. We can only warn them of their peril.

I've got a place at Mortimer House, and can move on Monday 20th June.
However, the booking in can take 2 hours, so what's the best way to move my stuff?

Suggestions will be gratefully received.

Humph.

Just thought of another pun I'll never be able to use:

Kyrie elision.

Grammar and the liturgy - these are a few of my favourite things. If I were Nihil Obstat I could maybe use it, but it's probably for the best that I am not.

What a cool article of the day.

It is not unpleasant to be called an angel.

In other news, I may have compromised the telephony of my mobile by excessive paddling after our bank holiday jaunt to Dawlish. Watch this space.

A quiz on morality.

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.[...]"

Last Thursday, I had a look at the prospective new place (Mortimer House, Grendon Road, EX1 2NL), looks very nice, separate kitchen and bedroom, bath and shower combo. Tons of storage space, on a quiet road surrounded by nursing homes.
A mixed perk is that I can pay BT £75 to put a phoneline in and thus proceed to having full-time internet access, so I think I'll put my recreational budget on hold for a while.
On the downside, I would need to buy kitchenware (pans, crockery, cutlery etc), bedsheets (inc quilt and pillow) etc. Trevor has kindly volunteered to lend me some kitchenware if I need it. I think that the kitchen stuff, I used at university is still in the garage in Camberley, so I may be able to use that.

However, I have not yet had an interview although I have received the "we have your application and are processing it" bit of paper. I've been advised by the Foyer staff that making use of the support facilities on a regular basis would be a good idea, especially at the beginning.
A bit of praying would be much appreciated.

I am rarely more annoyed than I am right now. I hate Plymouth College of Further Education.

Has anyone ever conducted a study to see if there is any correlation between opining that glasses are half-empty and levels of pessimsm tested in a more thorough manner?

Somehow I doubt it.

The payroll control supervisor is on maternity leave at the minute, but she just pitched up to introduce Daniel to us, and he seems like a charming, peacable sort of a fella. Perhaps it's a different story when he wakes up.

I decided to consolidate my half days this week with the bank holiday. Worked all Tuesday and Took all of Thursday off and it's been quite a productive day so far. I was the first one in the polling station this morning. Went for a swim and did 20 lengths in about 25 min without stopping.

On returning, I read for a bit before going to a meeting with my support worker about this possible new place. It's called Mortimer House, the rent's £66.51 pw for a bedsit (kitchen, bathroom and bedroom) or £68.27 pw for a flat (kitchen, sitting room, bathroom and bedroom) However the actual floor space seems very similar according to the support worker. I would need more stuff for the kitchen (crockery, cutlery and so on), the bedroom (pillow, quilt and bedsheets). But I believe that it would be a good step towards independant living, not to mention more storage space.
I've got an appointment on Thursday next week to check out the place.

This is only partly to do with my rent increase from £240 to £300 every 4 weeks, but also due to the increasing level of nightly disturbance from passers-by both walking and driving. David has noted that after I've had a bad night's sleep, I tend to be a little testy sometimes and we both feel that moving to a quieter area would benefit us both.

More fun with computers, Norman asked me to help research a broadband provider, this took a little while. But I think that if he gets his son to do the set up things should go OK.

We just had a power-cut. Everyone's PC turned off, and not a moment passed before the majority of the room said "Ooh." in unison.

Rather than receiving cake on one's birthday in the office, it is customary to bring one. Dad, if you're reading this (I don't have your e-mail to hand) do you think you could send which ever recipe Mum uses to make her spectacular jam sponges?

I'll need to make it this evening or tomorrow, so I suppose it'll be an ascension day cake. Supply your own pun about rising.

The relationship between the Law of God and the Christian

Christian Tradition Selector : Question 2

James and I are taking it in turns to explain why we, in our arrogance, have definite beliefs that allow this quiz to categorise us as 100% Catholic.

In case anyone was wondering why this mattered anyway, I wrote a post about the resurrection a while back, which I like to point people to from time to time.

In any case, here's question number two. James does not follow the MLA manual of style, which I thoroughly recommend. Just for now, I'll mimic his crazy formatting:

2. What is the relationship between the Law of God and the Christian?

a. "We are not under law but under grace" - This statement not only means that the Law cannot condemn believers, but also that they may live whatever life they want and still be saved.
b. Only those portions of the Law that are re-stated in the New Testament are binding on believers - all of the Old Testament has been set aside for the Christian unless re-instated in the New.
c. Only the ceremonial (and possibly judicial) portion of the Old Testament Law has been fulfilled, and believers are still obliged to obey the Law, though it no longer condemns them. If they violate it without repentance, however, they show they are not Christians.
d. Not sure

Better start with answer a. I don't like to say it, but this really has to be answered by looking at context.* So here we are:

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:[...] your faith is proclaimed in all the world. - Romans 1:7-8

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? - Romans 6:12-16

So Paul is speaking to the faithful, Christians, in Rome and is presenting them with their choice; sin and death, or obedience and righteousness - life by implication. The simplest thing to say therefore is that Paul has clear instructions for living so as to be saved, and that does rather suggest an alternative. So far as I can make out, the actual quote is the part I have put in bold, the more convincing passage for the purpose of defending this view I have put in italics. Using the bold part seems to me like an exegetical suicide attempt, but part of being contextual, in looking at Scripture as an authoritative revelation of God, is making sure that you don't leave out the bits that don't float your boat. This answer is more to do with "sin will have no dominion over you" to my mind, but this is obviously future tense, and it seems to be conditional on yielding to God in any case. If we make God our master, we will not be mastered by sin, we have the grace of God's protection from the penalty of the law. Otherwise we don't, and it is Christians who have this choice, as much as those who do not currently know God in this way.

B seems like the most intuitive way of approaching the relationship between law and grace. It accounts for the ambivalence shown towards the law in the New Testament. Not having read James' entry for the Scripture and Tradition, I can't say with certainty how this answer will overlap, but I think that it will because the adequacy of this solution rests on the adequacy of the New Testament as a complete record of the revelation of the Word. In light of the force of Jesus' words about the eternal validity of the law, we need a stronger reason to take this view than we have:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:17-20

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. - John 21:24-25

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. - 1 Thessalonians 3:13

To [salvation and sanctification God] called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. - 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15

I don't really have much more to say. The passage from Matthew is not readily reconciled with any kind of palliation of the force of the law. Suffice to say for the moment, that it cuts against the idea that only re-stated portions of the law are binding, and I can't think of any Scripture which does explicitly support it, so I can't really accept it.

I'm not convinced by the wording of c, but it approximates to the answer that I would give. I'd like to suggest that the law is not neatly divided into sections so that you can lift out those in the category of "ceremonial" and "judicial" and be left with that part of the law which binds believers. Frankly, I think that this question of law vs. grace is still too difficult for me, and I though I agree with this in principle, I still depend on the guidance of the Catholic Church, under the protection of God, to see where that line may safely be drawn. I think I would like to re-word the final part, if it doesn't do an injustice to the original thought - and believers are still obliged to obey the Law, though it no longer condemns them because both their righteousness and protection come from the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, in which the whole law finds its' fulfillment. If they violate it without repentance, however, they show that they are not participating in the life of Christ.

As I say, an ambivalence towards the law exists in the New Testament, and I simply think this is the best way of reconciling these attitudes.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" - Galatians 3:10-13

And I think that's all I have to say about that.

As to answer d, I don't blame anyone who feels over-extended in trying to feel their way through this, but it really is a pressing question.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? - 2 Peter 3:10-11

I think that to answer this question you have to think about the relationship between law and grace.

* The notion of context having been debased by it's use as a magic word to discount other, necessary words.

I should also mention that Sheffield Wednesday have secured their place in the League 1 (Division 2 last season or Division 3 if you remember football before the Premier League!) playoffs, by beating promoted Hull City at their ground.

A little bit of self-promotion here.

I'm a little worried, as I've not finished writing the talk yet. In my defense, I've been working on other stuff, having (I hope) got over a two month block of not getting anything done. This week, I've finally be able to describe a rather awkward object in nice terms. This means I should be able to complete a rather awkward calculation, which will form an important part of my thesis. Woo!

Bum.

Michaela just found an amusing (honest) web-page about one of our employees, but not only would it be unethical to post it, it's probably illegal too!

Bum.

A slightly unpleasant surprise. I discovered that I had misunderstood about the timing of my pay rise. It's actually coming up now which coincides with a rent increase. However I'm annoyed that becuase David hasn't given me my payslips since Janurary I've not known about this.

Still David has been distracted by his mother needing an operation, and has at times shown the strain. I prayed for her safe recovery.

On a lighter note the I heard Mr Howard being grilled on Radio 2 between 12 and 1, most entertaining.

That's about it for this week.

As well as getting the pay award, I seem to have got an increment as well this month.

Worryingly, the increase in my annual salary is £666.

Ben's started a blog. It's provisionally in the A list, and has alphabetical supremacy, but browsers of a nervous disposition should note that it has a mismatched title and URL.

Some guy wrote this, uh, "quiz", intending to reveal your Christian denomination.

Write your own disclaimer. Kills some time.

Edit: Somewhat predictably, a request to know "how I did."

1: Roman Catholic (100%)
2: Eastern Orthodox (67%)
3: Anglican/Episcopal/Church of England (56%)
4: Lutheran (54%)
5: Presbyterian/Reformed (43%)
6: Congregational/United Church of Christ (36%)
7: Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene (36%)
8: Church of Christ/Campbellite (28%)
9: Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker etc.) (26%)
10: Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God (21%)
11: Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinistic) (17%)
12: Seventh-Day Adventist (17%)
13: Baptist (non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist (8%)

Hmm, if I subscribed to pluralism, I could be more than 100% Christian.

[cough]

I have a Guernsey 5p.

How rare.

My word; I forgot to eat my sandwiches at lunch yesterday.

I sent Mark a text: "Words like woo-ha come to mind." he replied: "Answer is YES. How excitiing!" - Not exciting oh no - excitiing.

Congraturations Benedict XVI!!

Hmm. Well, just so long as you're aware that cataloguing your typographical errors would probably exceed a lifetime's work...

Mark, I'm aware - but cataloguing?

I wish people wouldn't pose words as questions - it's too ambiguous. If you are querying my spelling, you should know better, and if you're suggesting that I thought you were cataloguing my mistakes, then you're making unwarranted inferences.

Another quiet week, more clocks ready to go. Some were actually collected.

I managed to go swimming on Sunday again but, due to a bit of a late start the pool was a little crowded.

I've checked out Exeter's last election results apparently Labour's held it since 1995. The "Who you should vote for" test on Nicholas's blog shows I'm more in favour of the Lib Dems, however with apparently little chance of the Lib Dems taking control here I may vote Labour.

It's good to hear that Mum's almost finished at Frimley Park, any job that can get her stressed and exhausted is one she's better off out of.

Date for the diary...

General Election The Churches Together in Central Exeter have arranged a meeting with all the candidates
for Exeter in the General Election. The meeting will take place in the United Reform Church, Southernhay
on Sunday 1st May at 8:00pm. Everyone welcome. If you have any questions that you wish to put to the
candidates, please send them in advance to [...]
no later than Wednesday 27th April.

For a musician ear training is one of the most important tasks.

Good Ear helps you to develop good ears. It works within your browser.

I say, that is nice of it.

I don't seem to be doing anything today, but the phone's been very active. I find myself thinking very uncharitable things before I pick it up now.

This is bad.

A busy couple of weeks since I last posted, mostly due to the fact that after you've had a holiday there's always a load of "little jobs" that you need to do.

Works progressing fine, especially since Norman finally started to unpack the clocks in boxes that had been sitting in the way for several weeks. Moving them away from the "Completed Shelves" where they had been making winding up and regulating the clocks a real pain. Literally when one attempt to work round them strained a muscle in my side.
He also asked everyone to write a list of what jobs we were working on and which ones were ready to go. The latter being rather redundant since they are usually running, showing the correct time and apart from the wall clocks, on the completed shelves. Not to mention the paperwork has been brought to his attention, often repeatedly and ignored in favour of putting price tags on watch straps.
I just have to keep telling myself that he will eventually get around to it, and he's not doing it to be awkward, but it is so irritating sometimes.

I've started going swimming on Sunday mornings again, despite the numbers of small children they're less inclined to stop and gossip in the middle of the pool than the OAPs and teenagers. Also they're so cute sometimes.

I've certainly seen worse summaries of prepositions:

Well, something worth blogging's come up. I suppose I could blog about the passing of JPII, but much has already been said by people both more knowledgeable and people less knowledgeable than I. Suffice to say I think I've been privileged to experience his papacy.

What I meant however, was that I seem to have a place for next year, with Luke, Hannah, a girl called Cake and, I believe, a guy called Matthew. I can't remember the address, but if you want to know it, you could enter yourself on this online address-book thing, and when I know it, and update it, so will you:

Hi

I am updating my address book and it would be very helpful if you could click on the link below and enter your contact details for me:

http://www.Bebo.com/friends/12533133a540579206b65

I am using a service that keeps contact details current. Just update your own contact details and then the changes appear in selected friends' address books. When I update my contact details you will see them in your address book.

Thank you for helping.

Mark

I've already sent this to most people whose e-mail addresses I know, but I wouldn't want to leave anyone out whose e-mail address I don't know.

Why is it that when you specify "no sugar", you always get sugar? I suppose the most sensible thing to do is never to mention sugar, lest the idea form in a tea-lady's head that you would like some.

Vile, vile, vile.

Yechhh.

I don't even understand why - I mean, I like sugar, and I like tea, but the combination repulses me. Kinda like mango and salt I guess.

[A]s a certain teacher of this world has said: "No one dances when sober unless he is mad."
- St. Ambrose. Concerning Virgins. Book III.

I wonder who said it first?

Neminem saltare sobrius, nisi forte insanit.

Ah, Cicero.

Lord, open our lips.
And we shall praise your name.

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein;
for he has founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the rivers.

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD,
and vindication from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory!

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Been learning the Greek alphabet properly, and now to write it. This is a good thing, as I should be able to write out my own declensions and so forth wihout trying to find a font and enough time on James' computer. Huzzah!

While I'm here, I guess I could practise it again:

alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lamda, mu, nu (I think I may well be spelling these all wrong by now, but I can definitely pronounce them), xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega.

You might have to take my word for it that I can write them.

I didn't have the best Saturday last weekend, everything started to go wrong. A clock stopped for no apparent reason and has since been going all week. The glass spontaneously cracked in a clock waiting to go, and assorted other not-my-fault problems occured. Unsurprisingly having started the day feeling down, I did some therapeutic crying in the washroom. David kindly allowed me to go home once I had composed myself. Dad suggested that this might be to do letting out some of the disapointment and hurt from my university farce and later IT dead-end career attempt. Somewhat reassuring.

The rest of the week has been quite reasonable, although I may start paying my rent in cash to prevent their delay in paying in my rent check from mucking up my budget.

I ended up working longer than the usual half-day on Thursday, in order that David wasn't alone in the shop since, two of his staff were off and the other one was attending a funeral in the early afternoon. Still it means I can finish two and a half hours earlier one day if I so choose.

I'm in Camberley for this weekend, enjoying the time with my parents and enduring (sorry enjoying) Nicholas's company.

Emma's landed an interview at Sale Grammar School after Easter. I reckon she's doing something right - after sending off four applications, she's had interviews at three schools. Her school broke up for Easter today, so hopefully she'll get a well deserved rest from her PGCE course. She's got a ton of work to do over the two week break (well, two and a bit - it includes Good Friday) but is hoping to get it out of the way in the first week.

We'll be heading up to Kendal to see Mum & Dad at the caravan and maybe a bit of youth hostelling while we're there.

I think I'm getting sufficiently involved with my studies: I'm starting to view holidays as an interference with mathematics, rather than a break from it. Scary, eh?

Well, fancy that:

First General Grant
Third General Grant

I believe in God
Christian doctrine
Mental prayer
Reading of Sacred Scripture

I was having a really crap day, but, on the plus side someone just opined that I have a "Christian attitude" towards the people who call us (they're not exactly customers...).

Score.

As I've not blogged for a while, I should probably update on the state of my PhD. Feel free to study this text in detail if you're having trouble sleeping, if you're a masochist, or if (bizarrely) you're genuinely interested.

I'm in my final year, so probably need to think about starting to write up my thesis. I get paid for three years, but don't have to hand it in at the end of that period - I can take up to four years - but that's probably not a great idea. I still need to eat!

I managed to get a couple of calculations that I've been working on finished. I would write down the results, but I don't know how to import .pdf files (just need a line or so - let me know if I can do it!). The techniques used seem likely to generalise and I'm confident about churning out similar results in the near future. The good news is that a pattern seems to be emerging, so hopefully I can prove a general result - which would be ideal for a nice thesis - the tough part will be proving it.

This tickled me: In response to America's new willingness to try diplomacy & financial aid to encourage Iran to halt their nuclear weapons programme, Iran is offering to send George Bush truckloads of pistachio nuts if he will dismantle America's huge nuclear arsenal.

Iran is now my favourite country.

Are you up to the challenge of local democracy?

Some Psalms (and a canticle) that I might try and write music for.

5th Sunday of Easter
6th Sunday of Easter
Ascension - God goes up with shouts of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast. Ps. 46
7th Sunday of Easter - I am sure I shall see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living. Ps. 26
Pentecost
The Most Holy Trinity - To you glory and praise for evermore. Dan. 3:52-56
Corpus Christi - O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Ps. 147
9th Sunday of the year
(n.b. St. Justin, Martyr)
10th Sunday of the year - I will show God's salvation to the upright. Ps. 49
11th Sunday of the year - We are his people: the sheep of his flock. Ps. 99
12th Sunday of the year
13th Sunday of the year
Ss.Peter and Paul
14th Sunday of the year - I will bless your name for ever, O God my King. Ps. 144

More fun with American clocks, sigh

I had a clock returned on Monday, apparently the striking mechanism was jamming the time part. Solving these problem required dismantling the clock to shorten one of the springs. An unenviable position because American clocks don't normally have anything to hold the very tightly wound mainsprings while your dismantling. Trevor found a couple of C-shaped bits of wire that were supposed to solve this issue. Only one of them did its job properly, thankfully I didn't get injured thanks to holding it in a death grip with thick work gloves.

I started on another American clock a little later in the week, this is a fine example of why clocks should be regulary serviced. The pivots were deeply scored and at least four of the hole are so worn that they move well out of proper alignment. On the other side it's a unusual movement, there's much more brass in the plates than is usual for an American and it will strike the half hours by means of a passing strike, very odd.

Good word of the day:

Word of the Day for Wednesday March 17, 2005

cabal \kuh-BAHL; kuh-BAL\, noun:
1. A secret, conspiratorial association of plotters or
intriguers whose purpose is usually to bring about an overturn
especially in public affairs.
2. The schemes or plots of such an association.

intransitive verb:
To form a cabal; to conspire; to intrigue; to plot.

[...]

Cabal derives from Medieval Latin cabala, a transliteration of
Hebrew qabbalah, "received," hence "traditional, lore," from
qabal, "to receive." The evolution in sense is: "(secret)
tradition, secret, secret plots or intrigues, secret meeting,
secret meeters, a group of plotters or intriguers."

And qabbalah is what that Madonna woman was getting up to - gnosticism by a different name I suppose.

In other news, someone seems to have replaced my trousers with sheets of lint.

Bordering on ageism or We think we're cool, but we're not

So Fr. Paul intimates that the Catenians, a group of Catholic businessmen, considerably older than yow, who come to the chaplaincy once a year for a mass and a quiz, come because they want to be exposed to more exciting liturgy than they get in their "parishes" (if I could, I'd replicate his tone of voice). Proceeds to pick the sort of songs we sing all the time. And then Kris suggests that the entrance song might be a bit much for them.

"Hmm", I think.

Presently have my "Hmm" vindicated by the loudest rendition of Be Still I have heard for some time. Naturally they have a tolerable knowledge of the other two songs as well.