More Map Twat adventures

Rest of the pictures are here, click on these ones for larger versions.

Twins of Evil

Juvenile puffball. My grandad used to fry these for breakfast for us. Mmmm

Crow over church/farmland

Distant kestrel

Brokeback geezers

Struggling up Corndon Hill

Rod Stewart is alive and well

At last, it's Monday

Good morning, and a happy Monday to you all. Saint Monday, by the way, was the icon invoked for people wanting to take Monday off. I'm taking the morning off - sort of. Going for a swim.

The weekend was full - building more bookcases with Neal on Friday, not getting my washing machine fixed (gits), going for a Thai meal with Neal in gratitude, an Open Day (farcical) and playing on Laura's Wii Fit and eating chocolate while I used her washing machine. Iustin very unkindly filmed me doing very badly on various balance games… I reclaimed my Moulton bike from my old house thanks to Gerry and Mark, then I spent the rest of Sunday finding new places to hide books, drinking from proper cups and saucers, and eating guinea fowl (delicious, by the way).

What did you get up to?

Sit back and relax, with the sounds of the seventies

Well, Monday again and I'm back in my otherwise deserted office, listening to the oddest song I've heard in a long time. Mark has an obsession with The Odd Couple, the 70s sitcom. Now he's discovered Tony Randall and Jack Klugman's cover of 'You're So Vain'. It uncomfortably reminds me of life with Neal!

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Until Monday, Farewell!

Further to The Culture, Cheese and Pineapple, Neal's cooking a Mussaman curry for Emma, Mark and I tonight. Then tomorrow it's Ho! for the British Fencing AGM. I couldn't face dinner with the buffers, but I'll turn up for the business and the mini-conference, hand over my UKSG welfare report and go home, hopefully unentangled by the politics. Ho ho ho.

Have a good weekend.

Mark ye but this

Mark has:

a three-legged cat

14,500 books

7 broken TVs

no ceilings

no number-plates

3 broken computers

one (semi-) working eye

no spectacles

and is a dear, dear friend and colleague. His research interests are porn, Charles Manson and other freaky stuff. And now he's completely knackered his back - can only shuffle, can't lift things etc - so I'm off to help him move office. He is, of course, in possession of the largest library in the university. See his library and cat here (and mine here)

A few more pictures of today's Old Devils trip

(That's a Kingsley Amis reference, by the way - a step up from Last of the Summer Wine).

Bits out for the lads

Neal, Gerry, Mark and I went to sunny Herefordshire today to see the Sheela-na-gig at Kilpeck, a 12th-century church with a bit of castle left. The carvings were stunning the scenery was beautiful, lambs were gambolling and trees were blossoming. We arsed around a bit, then went on to Hereford, Ludlow and Bridgnorth via all the back roads through Richard's Castle and the Clees, taking in fine beer and food in the 14th-century wattle-and-daub Black Swan in at Much Dewchurch. Lots of photos here.

Now the day is over…

Today was sort of successful: I didn't buy any books - though I did receive one, James Naughtie's The Accidental American, a biography of Blair. Thanks (and Happy Birthday) to Sarah, who spotted it in a library sale. Happy Birthday to Mark too!

Meanwhile in London, police were only allowing protestors to leave if they identified themselves and allowed themselves to be photographed. This just isn't legal. The police don't have the right to demand identification unless you've committed a crime. Photography seems to be a grey area, but why should innocent people go on a database unless they've committed an offence?

Know your rights!