Friday 27/02/15

A lovely, bright cold morning.

I was surprised to see that Grange Road was open again - thought that they were expecting the work to take 3 weeks.

Went to West's for tea & a croissant.

Yet more changes to the Computer Lab booklet, according to Megan, as missing the name of a sponsor. Something to look forward to on Monday.

A day of bits and bobs such as certificates for Paul/Dave J. Luckily I spotted one where characters were large boxes - turns out that it was a name with an umlaut.

PM was pretty quiet so got to finish 2nd MoPO book so can read the third one over the next few weeks in preparation of the new one being released at the end of March.

Met Lou in the Carpenter's and also met Kath & Toddy. They off to Sardinia on a cheep break: $45 for the flights & about £180 for 3 nights in a 4* hotel.

Over to the folk museum at 19.30 to find that they'd opened the doors well early and it was standing room only. They were doing a couple of black bar beers, bread from Cobbs bakery & a choice of Lincolnshire Poacher or Stilton from the Cambridge Cheese Co. We both went for the Old Museum Porter & poacher. Lou gave me a bit of stilton she'd picked up to try and it was nice so I got a bigger piece; the non-manky bit was nicely creamy but the manky bit was still like soap. Also found a hidden toilet under the stairs that was fine for Lou but a bit awkward for me. Pints&Pubs & his girlfriend Louise were there but didn't have a chance to talk to them.

There were some talks too. Alan Ackroyd from the bakery talked about where they get the wheat from (mainly from Wimpole Hall farm). We had a talk about Stilton from Jacky Sutton-Admas and finally Keith Jordan talked about hops.

On the way out I bought 3 bottles of the porter to take home.

Thursday 26/02/15

Payday! Woohoo!

Big team 'It wasn't me Guv!' meeting in the morning where Martin tried to explain the recruitment process & how it lead to 1 resignation & nobody from the former UCS getting a senior post in the new management structure. Also why Michelle got her new job despite being promoted prior to the process and not interviewed as Richard etc were.

Don't think Martin really convinced a lot of people TBH. I also noticed that when he was on dodgy ground he stammers a lot more than when he's talking about something he is sure of (eg CARET joining the UIS).

Finally got the go ahead for the CL booklets after another proof (due to Megan pasting the same paragraph onto the cover twice).

Bruce spent more time with Sarah making minute changes to a data centre opening invitation.

Over to the Isaac in the evening for nosh & footy (plus LOu giving Barbara details of counseling service she used). Liverpool spent the entire game going backwards against Besiktas - with a cutting edge we'd have put the game to bed with ease. Predicably they scored towards the end of the game ensuring extra time & penalties (our 5th being sent into the Bosphorus by Lovren).

Just what you need when Citeh are playing us at 12pm on Sunday. Not.

Wednesday 25/02/15

Not a great start to the day when discovering the snot goblins had visited my nose & installed a tap :¬)

Lots more odds & ends at work. Managed to make a transparent tiff for an invite Sarah & Bruce were working on.

Over to Lou's for the last episode of the fantastic "Wolf Hall". Watching a brilliant cast (especially Mark Rylance & Claire Foy) has been a genuine pleasure. Watched "Up The Woman" after as a nice contrast for the dark drama before it.

ITV, meanwhile were showing "The Brits" where an older American lady fell off stage. Madonna was feted as being 'a trooper' for getting back up and continuing. From what I gleaned for twitter etc one of her dancers was supposed to pull her cape (?!?) off and it didn't detach as planned leading to her stumbling down some steps.

Update: There is now speculation that this was a stunt designed to promote her upcoming tour. Evidence cited includes fact that dancers were round her, the fact that she wasn't trying to undo her Armani cape (as might be expected prior to it being whipped off) and that neither she or her dancers looked unduly alarmed at her 'fall'. Given her 2 days of practice & meticulous attention to details you might also wonder why the cape removal hadn't been sorted.

Either way it certainly generated world-wide headlines & a fillip for her current single...

Tuesday 24/02/15

Up & out relatively early and got a n email from Emma literally just as I was thinking of calling her to see if booklet was OK to go.

Did 281 copies and then booked van for the PM as two boxes.

Sue came down & was telling us about another example of MISD unhelpfulness. Needed to do a videconference and they denied it was their kit, despite it clearly having their details etc on it. Knobs.

Went over to CL with a job for Megan about 5 times as she kept making changes. And in one case, she'd missed out a word on the cover. Got caught at the start of a hail squall on one trip.

Over to Lou's on the bus for CL footy. Diverted route goes past Ridley Hall - had forgotten what odd architecture that has. Must go up Sidgewick Avenue with a camera one day.

Watched "Screenwipe" & "The Simpsons" before popping to Sainsbury's. Watched news until time to turn over. Pablo was supposed to be coming over but said he'd be a bit late. Which meant he missed Dzeko catching one 'amidships' *still wincing at the memory of that*

He also missed Suarez scoring a short time later but he did see their 2nd (LS again). When he got there about 15 mins in, Barca were running riot. Citeh were much better after the break (or Barca had taken their foot off the gas). MCFC got one back  then went down to 10 after Clichy was sent off.

Drama at the end when Messi won a penalty. Hart saved it, diving to his left & palming it back to Messi who, with the goal at his mercy sent a diving header wide from 5 yards.

During the match, Lou & Pablo discussed the 4CMR situation - looks like there will be less than 6 people moving to the NMS next year as everybody else will have left (assuming Doug doesn't get any more money). Pablo homself is OK as he's paid by the Chilean government but he'll have to go back for 2 years after he & Jessica have qualified.

After Pablo left we listened to "The News Quiz" & then ambled home.

Monday 23/02/15

Up late and into town around 08.00 for breakfast. Lou decided half way there that she wanted to go and talk to Doug about the job/grant money situation.

Was going to stay in the Regal until 09.15 but a load of Americans came in so I moved outside for some quiet. After getting nosh in M&S (the "Greek style" yoghurt is delish & will deffo be having that again!) went over around 09.15. Was surprised to see some stuff had been done already: Phil said the Chinese cunts had taken a long time on Saturday so he's pottered about while waiting for Nick).

It was cold but the light was good

Had the legs off the tables by the time Phil came over and we had it all done in an hour (apart from extra stock which Phil took back on the trolley).

Ambled over to West Cambridge - still amazes me that so many can ignore 'no parking' notices. Should get tickets/towed but will get away with it.

After work went to the County, sorry Architect then over to the Isaac. It was Dušan's 25th birthday celebration (his actual birthday is the 24th) so his mates got him balloons & a rude cake.

Anna turned up in a micro dress showing that she had great legs - something that left Benno a little light-headed/drooling.

Weekend 21/02 & 22/02

Saturday 21/02/15

Most of the morning was wasted in bed as knew it would be cold later. Went out with Lou as she was off to the office to play with her fimo clay. Got a coffee from Costa's and sat on the wall watching the plonkers pass by. Got into the marquee and turned the heater on (to the joy of the staff on the CARO stand) and got things going.

Graduation was quite slow and only had a bit of a rush at the end from all the poxy colleges like Lucy & Wolfson. As usual a bunch of Chinese turned up after we had turned stuff off wanting to order stuff (aka "The Yellow Peril"). Where they had been for the previous hour was anyone's guess (probably sucking each other off round the portico).

I wasn't wrong about the cold - everybody was in coats/hats/gloves even with the heater on. 

Met Lou in the library and went to the Mitre but it was packed so we went next door for a couple of pints. Home for some fun and games.

Sunday 22/02/15

Got up early(ish) and went over to Newmarket Road. 1st stop was PC World where we looked at laptops & TVs before turning attention to tablets which was reason for coming. Disappointingly half of them weren't working so we couldn't really compare them. Suppose we could have asked but that often ends in a pressure sales pitch.

Next stop was Argos (didn't have gun had seen online) and onwards to Homebase. Here we looked for an something that would serve as a central part of the proposed rocket pack. Couldn't see anything really. Then we reversed course a bit & went to Tesco's for some of the nice paneer they stock, which they didn't have. Did pick up basis for a couple of meals (nut roast etc).

Final stop was Hobbycraft for ribbon/rope. Then a slow (and increasingly painful) walk home.

Put stuff in freezer & met Lou in the Isaac. Watched West Ham fuck up a 2 goal lead to Spurs (Harry Kane doing a dive Greg Louganis would have been proud of) then Everton v Leicester (EFC managing to fuck up/LCFC coming from behind to win all 3 points) before our game v Saints.

Blimey that was a tough one (could have been 2 penalties & a man down inside 20). A brilliant goal from Philippe opened for us and Raheem added another in the 2nd half. A good win and our 5th on the trot.

Friday 20/02/15

Busy morning - MSM had some more printing (despite claiming a few weeks ago that they didn't).

Went over to Senate House to set up stand - got there at 13.55 & still on my own by 14.15. Mick & Phil finally turned up about 10 minutes later. Main topic of conversation while setting up was Richard and the storm his resignation has engendered. Even MB had head the dissatisfaction and has changed the staff meeting to deal with it. Sent an email saying he want to outline the process that left 2 MISD with new jobs but nobody from UCS (aka the 'It wasn't me guv' defence).

Finished and went over to Lou's then onto Bath House.

You know when you say things out loud? Couple next door exploring eachnother's tonsils & I exclaimed 'Give her one from me!' TBF it had the desired effect as they stopped and then left in embarrassment.