Monday 20/04/15

A foggy start then a lovely spring day - shame to be stuck inside.

Lot of new proofs for Megan @ the CL. Lots of temptation to kick the fucking shitty colour printer out of the window.

Again.

Saw a bloke putting up a sign by the park & cycle entrance saying that the barriers are going to be activated later this week. That's going to fuck up the builders who wont have university cards! I guess that means they'll have to park on Clark Maxwell Road, which is already crowded (and if they do, where will the rest go?).

After work met Lou at the quayside to drink beer in the evening sunshine. Absolutely lovely.

Popped into the Pickeral for a couple, meeting Stuart & Nathan, before going on to the Isaac. Wished Jo a happy birthday and, as it was quiet she sat down for a chat. Turns out she'd been back to Poland as her mother is pretty ill :¬(

Weekend 18/04 & 19/04/15

Saturday 18/04/15

Spent morning lazing about and then over to the Isaac for beer & F1. Got there at around 1pm, despite telling Lou that quali wasn't until 16.00. Three times.

Got Dick to put FP3 on though. Poor JB - crap car with comedy engine from Honda broke yet again so he couldn't even set a time so was plumb last on the grid.

Sunday 19/04/15

Went into town to 3 shop to see what they could do for us. The answer was effectively nothing as prices were exactly the same as if just walked in off the street for the 1st time. Think we'll be going elsewhere...

After trip to see if cheese in Lou's fridge was OK (it wasn't) we went to Sainsbury's. Dropped shopping home & met Lou & Heather in the Isaac.

Had to move as Dick had worked it that F1 was on top screen and Semi-final on bottom one. For a change I had a vege fajita which was scrummy - will deffo have that again.

Poor old JB - his crap Honda joke engine meant he couldn't even start the race. All in all a weekend to forget for him and deeply embarrassing for the team as some of their sponsors were there. Hamilton cruised to victory but there was good racing all the way down the field. The Renault engine is also a joke with Ricciardo trundling to a standstill after yet another power unit went up in smoke.

While all this was going on we were watching an insipid Liverpool blunder about aimlessly against Villa. Gerrard looked like he was picked for sentimental reasons and played like it. Sterling was completely anonymous & certainly not playing like someone deserving of a pay rise of £65k and definitely not like someone deserving of a pay rise of £150k.

We should have been playing with energy, hunger & belief. Instead it was Villa who displayed these qualities. Liverpool were listless and devoid of any of the standards their reputations deserved, not helped by Roger's tactical tinkering.

It says something when Balotelli was the best player after Coutinho (and he had a legitimate goal dubiously ruled offside)!

As you can imagine Jamie, Will et al were ecstatic with our defeat.

Fair play to Villa though: they were as good as we were poor and fully deserved their place in the final.

Rogers has now become the first Liverpool manager since the 1950s to not have won a trophy in his first 3 seasons in charge.

That, combined with poor recruitment and a disastrous campaign might make for an unhappy review of the season for Rogers as I doubt the owners will be very impressed at going backwards.

Friday 17/04/15

A LOT colder this morning. Where the frack did the warm weather bugger off too?

Some work to do today but not too much. Bruce was in late as went to hospital for blood tests. They still don't know what is wrong with his eye (worked out what it's not eg detached retina). Looks like he'll have to go in again for more tests once blood work is done.

Met Lou by LCC an went to the Architect. Had barely sat down when Will & Nigel came in & joined us. Had a nice chat and a few beers. Moved on to the Isaac and was pus=zzled by everybody in suits/dressed smartly. Turned out that it was Zep's ex-wife's funeral. A recovering alcoholic, she was getting her life back on track when she had an aneurism.

To cheer Joe up (and without Zep's knowledge) Andy Ralph etc had put a load of money together and bought him & his dad tickets to Wembley for the semi-final!* There were lots of jokes that the seats were in the Villa end & that they could only get tickets for Liverpool even though they'd tried to get MU ones.

Either way, it's a wonderful thing to do for Joe.

* Update - found out on Sunday that there's more money left and they are planning to add some more so that Joe & Zep can have a holiday in Spain or similar.

Thursday 16/04/15

A lot cooler in the morning (back to wearing multiple layers).

Printed & delivered a load of notes for the CL before Bruce got in. Other odds & ends came in through the day while Bruce did the big ones for Bob (each 1 of his python notes is around 1/2 a ream of paper!).

Bruce left early afternoon to go to hospital to see an opthamologist about the sudden blurring in his vision. Had Ben come in for some business cards. Spent most if the afternoon writing a story for Lou (which she didn't read).

Went to the Isaac and wondered why everyone was smartly dressed - turns out that Zep's ex-wife had died and they'd been to the funeral. Ralphy, Jarad et al then told Joe (who was understandably a bit down) that he was going to Wembley on Sunday to see the LFC v Villa semi-final (tyhey'd had a whip round and organised tickets for him & his dad).

Home to make a massive haggis/bean/veg/creme fraiche bake with a cheesy mash topping. Yummy :¬)

Let food go down for an hour before commenced on a very enjoyable activity ;¬)

Wednesday 15/04/15

Wearing Red in memory of the fans who never came home.

A pretty hot day too (just like 1989). Quite a bit of work in, mainly for the Computer Lab.

On the way back from dropping a proof off I heard a plane & looked up to see a Spitfire pootling along :¬)

Went for a nice long walk at lunchtime over the road to Madingley Rise & Greenwich House.

After work met Lou & went to the Granta for beers in the sunshine. Was unsurprisingly very busy, something that wasn't helped by 1/3 of the beer garden being cordoned off for a BBQ later.

Thence to the Isaac and watched the cricket & the PSG - Barcelona game (Suarez scoring twice).

Justice For The 96

On this day in 1989 Chief Superintendant David Duckenfield killed 96 fans when he ordered the gate at the Leppings Lane end to be opened.

Then he lied about it for more than 25 years, finally admitting he wasn't a competent individual to take chrarge of the match. He also admitted lying to numerous inquiries etc about his culapability.

I hope he's charged with perjury, at the very least.

His actions and the subsequent cover-up and smear campaign by the Police is a national disgrace.

How the families, who always knew the truth, have lived with this pain with such dignity is astonishing.

Justice for the 96.

Never Forget, Never Forgive.

Tuesday 14/04/15

Up late as going for audio test. Went to the Regal for nosh (fruit & yoghurt for me & sausages for Lou). Went to Lou's office to wait until it was time to go next door.

Test took about 15 minutes and the machine actually worked and I 'passed'. Looks like might not have to come back for another 3 years as all as good as it was in 2012.

Over to PandIS to look at the undercroft with Phil. Quite a but smaller but doors are large enough to wheel stuff in and out without having to remove table-tops and no mucking about with the lift. Looks like the move will be the 1st week in June (when I'm off).

Ambled back to RNB with signs of Spring everywhere

Quite a bit of work, including one bitch of a job from Mick that some clown had screwed up. Spent an hour sorting it out!

After work went to the Castle for drinks in the sunshine (while it lasted). Very pleasant!

Ambled up the hill to the Isaac and watched the Madrid derby/CL semi-final.