This email that I (and a few million other people, presumably) received a few months ago brought back some nostalgic memories.


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Okay, this is a rating I can live with:

Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69

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As in previous years, we spent most of February in Gran Canaria, to avoid the worst of the English winter. It wasn't a total success, mainly because the apartment above ours was being renovated. Among other things, they were replacing all their floor tiles. So we were subjected to a continual noise of drilling, banging and hammering all day long.

In ( Read more... )

Last week we spent a few days in Prague, using a low-cost airline to spread our carbon footprint across the globe. I was last there in 1992 when they were just emerging from communism. As you would expect, there have been huge changes since then, especially now that the Czech Republic is part of the European Union. Shops that were previously ( Read more... )

Our younger grandson had his fourth birthday yesterday. Davy is a cute little guy, very good-natured and cheerful but distinctly odd. For a start, he isn't toilet-trained yet. He doesn't really interact much with other people except for his older brother Tom. He plays on his own for hours, in a compulsive way, with toy soldiers or animals, and pays ( Read more... )

About a year ago, Mary announced that for her 65th birthday present she wanted something special: a trip to Japan in springtime to see the cherry blossom. So what could I do but agree? We started looking for a package tour. I didn't think it was feasible to organise a trip there on our own (seeing as how neither of us speaks a word of Japanese), ( Read more... )

March already, so where did January and February go?

Part of the reason they went by so painlessly is that we have had one of the mildest winters on record. Mary always insists that we go away to somewhere warmer during February, so as to avoid the worst of the winter, but this year we need hardly have bothered.

Not that I'm complaining about our ( Read more... )

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As usual on the third weekend of November, we have been in London. The main reason for the trip is to attend the annual dinner of the math society, which took place on Friday evening. There were lots of old friends and colleagues there and it was a very happy occasion.

We stayed for two nights with our friend Gill who lives in north London, close to ( Read more... )

Journal entry (What I Did This Month (not a lot)).