I haven't written much of anything lately because I've been too busy doing stuff to reflect on it, and as it has almost all been fun stuff, this is, on balance, good ( Read more... )

I took advantage of a one-day sale on Play.com to plug a gap in my film library and pick up the de luxe most-complete-till-the-next-one box set release of Blade Runner at a bargain price. This will enable me to watch one of four, count 'em, different versions of the film, depending on how I feel, and see how much I notice the changes, or indeed ( Read more... )

Radio 4, led this evening's bulletin with the "news" that, it turns out, Diana, Princess of Wales, was not murdered as part of a murderous conspiracy led by Prince Philip, and what's more, Paul Burrell does turn out to be a big fat liar! Well I've lost those bets, then. I was waiting for the follow-up item, "Bogeyman found not to be in the ( Read more... )

Excellent. Oxford's freakishly tall (and mostly foreign) postgraduates who happen to be international rowers have beaten Cambridge's freakishly tall (and mostly home-grown) postgraduates who happen to be international rowers ( Read more... )

Unexpected side effect of BBC iPlayer - I have been entranced by the cycling World Championships, and have caught up on all the highlights of Team GB hoovering up the golds. I yield to few people in my capacity for watching sport (apparently people complained about the BBC showing three rugby matches in the same day recently - what's that all ( Read more... )

Cornbury is, of course, stereotyped as the festival for middle-aged, middle-class, white people, who won't be in the Glastonbury ballot because...well, their musical antennae may still be twitching but frankly they can't be doing with the mud, or the drugs, or anything which takes them away from their comfortable North Oxford lives, and might stunt ( Read more... )

Having registered my Creative media player when I bought it a year or two ago, I get the occasional e-mail from the manufacturers, usually attempting to beguile me with an upgrade, but sometimes offering useful suggestions, such as the adapter which means I can now charge my player a) without the need for an actual computer and b) abroad, thanks to ( Read more... )

You don't expect a friend who hails from Bolton to end up getting married in a small village near Toulouse (or, in fact, having left the matrimonial plans till his forties, necessarily to do it at all) but this is what has happened. The wedding isn't till May, but I decided I'd left it late enough, and booked my passage. If you accept such a ( Read more... )

Two unrelated events for digestion, which may be of the same stable ( Read more... )

I like it when England's cricketers have a winter tour in New Zealand. The games start in mid-to-late evening, and if, like me, you don't mind going to work feeling a little tired (I am honest enough to recognise that I work in accounts, not air traffic control - if I make a mistake, I'm fairly certain nobody dies), you can watch a good couple of ( Read more... )