Paddington returns

:o)

Whiff

It's late spring, so there are lots of fledglings and young animals around.

There's also a funny smell downstairs, which I suspect is something dead. I can't find where the smell comes from, but the cat has been actively hunting the last few days. Somewhere, in a cupboard or behind some furniture, I think we'll find the remains of an escaped animal. Cats are vile sometimes.

:o(

Tuesboyz

It must be nearly a year since I last went out with the Tuesboyz in the evening, riding through the woods in the dark. I've been for road-rides more recently, and out by myself, but I'd been disheartened by always being at the back of the string on the night rides.

But last night I surprised myself. Yes, I was at the back for much of the ride. Yes, I'm damned slow up hills. Yes, I lagged badly during the last few miles through Long Ashton to the Nova. But for most of the ride I wasn't far behind, much of it I was in the "peloton" or its equivalent, and I know that I can keep up with anyone on the downhills and the twisty bits.

Now, the relative fun and keep-up-ness may be due to increased fitness, but I doubt it. It may be due to the change in leadership of the group so that the front isn't being so competitive, or it may be that I've got a better bike (the nice, slightly-too-large Litespeed) which lets me go faster, but I'm not complaining. I had a good time.

:o)

Honeydew and Nettles

I've got a hangover.
It's not pleasant.
My head hurts and my brain doesn't work, my tongue's thick and my limbs are heavy.

Simon and I had a quiet drink in the Cambridge last night, and all I had was two pints of Fuller's Honeydew. As beers go I rather liked it, as it has a sweetness and floweriness without a strong bitter aftertaste. Yet still, the beer hangover hit me. My body's just not set up for beer drinking; I'd have been alright on cider but the Cambridge only had one less pleasant brand on tap, which was the reason I stuck to beer.

How come some people can drink so much more than me, without getting a hangover? You can see them draining back the pints, eight or ten an evening, without painful after-effects, but two is my absolute limit for a morning without pain.

Now I'm drinking another new beverage for myself, nettle tea. It's soothing, warming, rehydrating and tastes like grass. My only complaint is that it's shockingly expensive for a drink supposedly made from dried weeds; I will have to collect and dry my own if I want more.

:o/

Ooh - a New Computer!

Since Moonface's laptop was stolen from her luggage on her trip overseas, we needed to replace it. She reckons that if she can get the receipt for a new one in with her expenses,it might be the easiest way of ensuring that the College (which insisted that she take one) would pay for the replacement.

So, on Saturday, we dashed out in the morning to that vile hive of consumer worship, the Mall, and bought the little netbook upon which I am typing this. It's the first proper typing I've done with the new machine, and it seems fine, possibly better to type upon than my large Dell.

So, what have we bought? It's small, it's a Samsung NC10, it seems to do everything that we will want include connecting to the web - so it looks good so far. And it fits into Moonface's handbag so she can take it to work for use when she's hiding outside her office to ensure that she can get some work done without interruption. And it was not too expensive, either, so that if the expenses claim is rejected, we won't be faced with a horrendous bill.


:o)

Moonface in Malaysia

I suppose that the heading should really read "Moonface is back from Malaysia".

Last week was her first ever business trip abroad, and for a first time it was a major one. She has only been at the College for six or seven months yet last month she was asked to go on a recruiting trip to Kuala Lumpur at short notice; a hard thing to turn down in spite of the efforts involved.

We're not sure why it was Moonface who was asked to go, as we would have expected either the College's international marketing manager, of their team or the head of the most involved department to make the trip, but instead it was she who was asked to go. We suspect that there was some deep internal politics involved, but whether it was thought that the obvious choices for the trip were not up for the job (good for Moonface) or whether they thought that anyone making the visit would be set up for failure (bad for Moonface) we just do not know. Or there may have been other reasons which no-one told her about.

Anyway, she's back, having had a couple of semi-successful meetings and presentations under her belt, a bit of tourism and lots of good street food.

On the debit side, she's gotten behind on her normal workload, had to travel via Singapore instead of direct to KL which took much longer, gotten rotten jetlag and had her laptop stolen from her baggage en route. So there were some definite downsides. We don't think that there was anything else stolen.

We now hope that the result will be brownie points for her, rather than criticism and assumptions that the whole trip was a pleasure jaunt.


:0/

Circles

I must have been neglecting physical exercise over the last few months.
Swimming for the first time this year (I've been three times this week, so far), I found that I have consistently veered off to the left when swimming the crawl. I guess that my right arm and hand are now significantly more powerful than my left, so I'm having to compensate by the shape of my stroke.

Lack of mountain biking, I guess.
And my left triceps is aching with the effort of trying to maintain a decent style and speed in the water.

Yet it's so good to be in the water again, and being able to meet so many acquaintances from the Lake again; just a few words to each to start the new summer of socialising.

:o)

Damn. The other side-effect is that the ribs that I broke or cracked in April when I fell off my bike, are now hurting again. It's the big breaths, baby.

:o(