Today I was supposed to meet a chap from Finland and another from Nottingham in Bristol Parkway station to discuss an EU research bid. I decided to take the train, although it’s only 45 mins by car. The train got as far as the Severn Tunnel, which was closed. We then diverted to Gloucester. After waiting around for a bit I was told I would need to continue on to Swindon and then get a train back to Bristol. By this time I would have missed my two hour slot with the EU team, so I turned around and came home again. A completely wasted day. Still, this is Gloucester station.
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Poshing up porridge
To the disgust of Scots everywhere, I added nuts and blueberries (and apple juice and cream) to my porridge, to make it a nice lunch time treat.
Castle through the posts
This is a poor quality photo, I should’ve taken another one. In principle I like the idea of the shot – Castell Coch viewed through the uprights of the rugby posts. I’ll take my good camera and try again one day.
An energy temple
Rather belatedly in life I realised that _everything_ is about energy (in the physics sense, not the mystical sense). Society, food, evolution – it all comes down to the transmission of energy. Jared Diamond is very good on how the move to farming freed up time to start developing specialist roles such as priests and soldiers. Everything we have in society follows from that. And that was all about getting energy more efficiently. So although we often bemoan electricity pylons for messing up the landscape and as representative of our desire for power that is driving global warming, perhaps we should also see them as symbols of this endless struggle to gain energy.
And kinda pretty from a certain angle too.
In among the flowers
It is a wet, miserable day out there and we will likely spend much of it playing Zelda, so here is a picture of something pretty and wholesome.
Abandoned shack
Did an 8 mile run up through the forest today and passed this house/shack. I always like coming across old buildings in the middle of the woods, although I half expect some leatherface, chainsaw wielding psycho to leap out.
Noirish
Venetian blind effects always remind me of those great noir films.Of course for the full effect there should be smoke curling across them. And maybe a gun and a blonde. But here, just the blinds.
Garth Hill
Taken while out on a run today (have bought an Olympus Tough for taking pics while running). This is [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Hill]Garth Hill,[/url] or Garth Mountain or Ffynnon Garw. It is the inspiration for the fictional story in the Hugh Grant film, The Englishman who Went up a Hill.
MacIrony
There are fewer less creative commons inclined organisations than Apple so having this sticker on my MacAir can be seen as some kind of postmodern techno-joke. Or just hypocrisy. Or pretty.
Finisher (at least)
Apologies for a) back blipping and b) marathon related blips. Back to normal after this. As I said yesterday, was a bit disappointed I’d struggled at 4.5 hrs around the marathon, but as my wife pointed out the t-shirt doesn’t say ‘Finisher in a rubbish time’, it just says ‘Finisher’. I guess, finishing is good enough sometimes
