Recent travels...
Rastro
Mar 29, 2009 in Madrid 2009 | 40°24', -3°42'
After four days at ESAC, I spent the weekend in the centre, staying with a friend who had just started a post-doc here. Normally one of the things I like doing best in Spain is going to clubs and coming out after the sun has risen, but I was still recovering from my double [...]
ESAC
Mar 26, 2009 in Madrid 2009 | 40°26', -3°57'
ESAC was a good place to work. It was way out in the countryside, peaceful and sunny, and they supplied enough coffee to keep me happy. I got into a nice routine of walking from where I was staying on Santo Domingo up via San Bernardo and a few cafes to the bus [...]
Plaza de España
Mar 25, 2009 in Madrid 2009 | 40°25', -3°42'
After two days of workshop there was an early finish, and I was back in Madrid by 4.30pm. I’d last been here almost nine years ago, staying here accidentally on the way to La Palma. That time, I’d only just got back from adventures in Africa and so being in Madrid having only [...]
Madrid
Mar 24, 2009 in Madrid 2009 | 40°25', -3°42'
I arrived back at Heathrow from the US at 9am, looping around London and flying over Wembley, UCL, the Thames Barrier, a block of flats in Rotherhithe that I used to live in, the Wheel and Parliament. But this was no homecoming. I hung around at Terminal 3 for a couple of hours [...]
Willcox
Mar 22, 2009 in United States 2009 | 32°15', -109°49'
Heading back from Chiricahua to Tucson, we passed through the tiny town of Willcox. As we crossed the railway tracks, we saw a restaurant in an old dining carriage, and on a whim we stopped. The town had a remote air, and the railway reminded me of ‘Bad day at Black Rock‘.
The restaurant [...]
Other things...
UKIP: the coward’s BNP
Jun 09, 2009 in Pub quizzes
For something like the third time in a row, I am at the pub first. I’m not used to this and it freaks me out. Stu rolls up at about ten past nine and the quiz gets under way shortly afterwards. It’s an Evil Patrick quiz tonight, but despite that we start [...]
We’re claiming our entry fee back on expenses
May 26, 2009 in Pub quizzes
Oli and I make a last-minute decision to turn up tonight. It’s actually later than last-minute - I get there half way through round one, and Oli makes it just before round two. Probably as a result, we find ourselves mired in the mid-table.
The only bright spot is the beer round. Once [...]
The shame of finding out your husband watched ‘Ocean’s 13′… twice
Mar 31, 2009 in Pub quizzes
We’ve been coming to the Prince of Wales for almost five years now, and in all that time I think I’ve been the first to arrive no more than once. I still owe Oli dinner for losing a misguided bet that I could arrive by 8.30pm if I wanted to. Tonight, the tables [...]
Austrians have more genes in common with crabs than with other human beings
Mar 17, 2009 in Pub quizzes
We like our team name tonight. It’s great. Now that is scientific fact - there’s no real evidence for it - but it is scientific fact. Unfortunately no-one else in the pub tonight is a fan of Brass Eye, it seems, and no-one else finds it particularly amusing.
It’s St. Patrick’s day outside [...]
Quizmasters
Mar 03, 2009 in Pub quizzes
We’re back in the hotseat for our first quiz of 2009. The number of people who come to the pub each week varies according to factors that no man understands, and this week it’s absolutely rammed. We mark furiously between rounds and somehow manage to avoid over-running as much as we usually do.
Here’s [...]
