Yo Len!

Met up with Len today. He asked me what a "blog" is. I told him, and he doesn't believe that I write a bit every day. I said I'd mention him so "Yo Len!".

I am not a number

Went over to York today to visit number one daughter. We had a trawl around the shops and, by jiminey if I didn't come across a complete set of "The Prisoner", a sixties TV series of some renown, which I remember watching in short trousers many years ago. Priced very well as it was second hand, and so I couldn't resist.

Also bought a copy of a magazine called The Chap. I think I'm probably too young to take all of this to heart. But I do find it very funny.

Oh, and I took the camera along and the weather was kind to us.

Goodbye to Rich

Just said goodbye to Rich. He was a student I interviewed when he applied to the department (he reminded me of this - I'd completely forgotten). He came here, got a first class degree in Computer Science, won a departmental prize, did one of the best MSc by research projects that I've ever seen.

And now he is leaving to work at Southampton, right at the sharp end of his chosen field.

I'm going to miss him coming into my office and asking me questions I don't know the answer to.

Good luck sir, and keep in touch.

Shiny Car and Food

Finally got my new car today. It is ever so shiny. They put it in the showroom for me to admire before collection, and so I did. It has taken four weeks from buying it to actually getting it, and bearing in mind that I only get a new car every eight years or so, this was quite an emptional experience.

We took it out for a meal (that is we did the eating - the car does not run well on Chicken in mushroom sauce) and had a very nice time. A tip for readers, the Fergusen Fawcett in Walkington does excellent pub grub at really good prices and, although it can get very busy at weekends, on a Thursday night it seems fairly quiet (at least it did tonight).

Nanny MacPhee - warts and all

Crazy Rob as film reviewer....

Went to see Nanny MacPhee tonight. Not actually my kind of film, but seeing that number one wife has accompanied me to a large number of space opera type stuff over the years (and actually managed to sleep through most of the battle scenes) I thought it only fair.

It is a childrens film. Nothing wrong with that, so is "The Best Film that Rob Has Ever Seen" (tm) - Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit since you asked.

However it has children in it, which can be a problem. Furthermore, whilst number one wife had the charms of Colin Firth to admire, all I had was the warty visage of the Nanny hersef. Except right at the end, where her wart all drop off, she loses ten stone, has her teeth fixed and wanders off into the sunset. (I found this very hard to understand - if by some quirk of fate I ever become good looking the last thing I'm going to do is leave town)

It has to be said that everyone plays their parts with gusto and that there is a lot of visual flair to the scenery and costumes. But it was a bit too worthy for me, and the children changed from evil imps into little angels a little too readily to match with my experience. If you like kids films (or are a kid yourself) you could well love it - after all it has the word "fart" in it a few times - once even said by a baby - but even so I can only give it six or so out of ten.

Oh and I have just had a wonderful idea for a film where a warty old women comes to your house, sorts out your kids and then clears your computer of virus infection. Book now for seats at Nanny McAfee.