Philosophising

on why certain students I could mention are so 'lastminute.com' with their assignments...

after a hard day's work, ferrying to & from rugby then saxophone, followed by preparing a sumptuous feast of Goulash, I have just reviewed a second draft of 'Gorgias' & 'the Ecomium of Helen' and am now giving myself a bit of light relief before pouring through a spot of 'Plato' in order to meet the prescribed deadline! Oh to have a life.....

Maybe I'll get awarded an honorary degree in heaven ;-)

...At least I shouldn't have any problems sleeping tonight :o)

Stand well back

One of the guys who’s leaving as a compulsory redundancy today wandered into the office and said “I’m clearing my office what shall I do with this?” and put an anti-personnel mine on the desk! Turns out he’s been using this thing as a doorstop for years despite the fact he wasn’t sure if it had been decommissioned! Mass panic ensued until it was cleared as being safe and transported away by security. Wonder how many other weapons are squirreled away in the mad scientists offices!?! ... it’s like working in a madhouse…

Gunpowder, treason & the mutt's lost the plot

Something terribly British about standing round muffled up in the cold, sulphur tinged air, with the glow of the fire warming your cheeks whilst your toes feel like they're about to drop off with frostbite...or is that just my masochistic tendencies coming out ;-) Won't be able to take the mutt for a walk tonight as he'll be too nervous with all the noise. He's pretty good about most things but this completely freaks him out. Same way as a pair of pumpkins outside a local house spooked him to such an extent he diverted across the road!

Reasons for the watershed

Namely to give parents a bit of breathing time...I naïvely agreed Minor Mayhem could watch "Spooks' that way we could all view in peace & quiet...theoretically. First time he's been allowed to stay up to watch it so he decided he needed to gen himself up. He spent ages watching old episodes on YouTube and asking six million questions about the characters, plots etc. felt like I'd inadvertently entered Mastermind! As if that weren't bad enough I had a constant stream of questions about Uranium and explanations on counter-espionage, bluff/double bluff, technical gubbins and terrorism throughout the episode...that'll teach me.

Make Love not War

Panda who works for Thales was at a grad recruitment fair in the Steel City today so scheduled coffee and a catch up with the starving student :o) They had a bit of fun trying to meet up ‘cos there were Anti War protestors outside & on the roof of the venue. You’d think they might realise the defence companies don’t actually instigate wars and I can’t help wondering if they think those oganisations are really less moral than other commercial companies eg Nestle or the big mining corporations. Have they really considered the ramifications of having no defence industry say in terms of terrorists or even basic stuff like employment or freedom of speech etc. Then there's the other angle like the technology that these firms develop being used in everyday items such as mobile phones, foetal heart monitors, airport radar and car/plane engines etc...hmm, maybe not...

Scouse!

for the Frosty family tonight...for the uninitiated according to Wikipedia it is "a common meal in working class Liverpool (so that's putting me in my place then). This culinary delight (a thick stew usually of lamb with vegetables slow cooked in a pan to make cheap cuts of meat more palatable) takes its name from the Norwegian 'lapskaus'."

Wiki also goes on to say "Inhabitants of Liverpool are called Liverpudlians but are more often described by the colloquialism 'Scousers'"...despite living all over the place, and inadvertently having my accent toned down, I reckon you can take the girl out of Liverpool but you can't stop her being/making Scouse ;o)

Halloween

The Halloween party Miss Sensible went to included a stint of trick or treating. One house they visited were staunch Christians who tried to instruct a group of teenagers about paganism and the occult then gave each of them booklets about Jesus!

Maybe that's marginally preferable to one of the guys at work who bought a big box of Ferrero Rocher, carefully unwrapped & ate them, then re-used the wrappers on sprouts, which he replaced in the box and handed out to the unsuspecting children telling them they were special treats so they should save them until they got home!