Signing off...for now

This is last post before I go to SA. I do not know whether I shall have easy web access there but if all goes well, then I should be able to post some pictures as the trip progresses. I have a satisfying wad of rand in my bag, all with pictures of rhinos/buffalo/lions on them. Mmmm, wad! On the day after I get there, it is N's bithday, which will involve a dinner for all her friends. It's going to be a baptism of fire! Probably for the best, in at the deep end and all that.

I still don't have a date for my viva, but to be honest, I am not particularly bothered about that at the moment. I trust that it will happen at some point: it's just that time of year.


Well, bye for now!

Kubrick and Greene

I wonder whether the two masterpieces by Stanley Kubrick and Graham Greene are linked:

Kubrick's 1964 film "Dr Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb"

Greene's 1980 book "Dr Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party"

I think we should be told...

(If you haven't read it already, Dr Fischer of Geneva is a must-read.)

Sturmey-Archer vs Derailleur

Are Sturmey-Archer gears a Good Thing? I cannot decide. I was given a long lease of a bike with S-A gears earlier this year. It is the first time I have ridden a bike with them, and I can see the advantages: the gears are not exposed to the elements, and are protected from snagging, kicking etc. However, when they go wrong, they are impossible to fix by any rational means. They have to be taken to a Mechanic. This has happened to me now. I suppose it could be compared to Word vs LaTeX. The latter is less intuitive, perhaps, but it allows delving. My bike turns out to be Dutch, and the mechanic has to speak to a friend in Wales to see if he can get the appropriate spare parts. In the meantime, I have to cycle in top gear. Thank you, Cambridge, for being so dully flat.

Scotland managed a 0-0 draw with Japan on Saturday, which meant that Scotland won the Kirin Cup. It's not much, but it is a start and is a continuation of the team's vastly improved form since Walter Smith took over.

Scotland 5 -1 Bulgaria!

Examiners obey some sort of mutual exclusion principle. The availability of my two nominated examiners seem to be pi out of phase. On current form, I am looking at an August date! I'll have forgotten everything by then.

In the shorter term, more pleasant prospects are hove into view. Namely, a trip to the Comedy Store on Wednesday. In a pleasing symmetry Tim, Joe and I will be there on the same night as the Champions League final - exactly the same situation as happened last year. Let's hope that Arsenal can maintain that symmetry and beat Barcelona.

A wonderful thing happened yesterday: the Scottish football team gave Bulgaria a thrashing! 5-1 it was, and the BBC showed the match live on the web. Unfortunately, the Guardian failed to mention it anywhere in today's sport section. Shame! We take on Japan tomorrow.

Enthusiasm mounting

As the day of departure to South Africa approacheth, I am becoming ever more excited. I just hope that my passport comes in time! Perhaps my head was not between 29 and 34mm high in the photo, perhaps I have become unrecognisable since 21 and I need a countersignature. So much silliness, but at least by renewing the passport now I should be able to avoid any biometricity for a good 10 years.

It will be a wholly new experience to cross the equator: to see new stars and walk on my head.
What's more, I shall make sure that the water flows down plugholes in BOTH directions as it does in the northern hemisphere. It will be novel to watch the world cup from outside Britain. Apparently, SA is extremely keen on football, even though their team is rubbish (cf Scotland!), so there should be a good atmosphere, especially as they are hosting the next world cup. My favoured team for the cup this year: Portugal, although I hope that Brazil entertain as usual.

Lassitude

Now that the thesis has been submitted, I feel lassitudinal. I applied for my passport this morning, and now there doesn't seem to be anything particularly urgent to do, although I still need to figure out what I will be doing and where I will be living over the next few weeks/months. Anyway, I cannot urge myself to deal with it.

Perhaps my torpor is due to my attempt to watch the last two sessions of the World Snooker final yesterday. I got to about 11.45pm, but had to give up because Ebdon was putting together a good comeback. If only he had just given up, it would have been over nice and early and everyone could have gone to bed. Dott doesn't seem like a winner; whenever Hendry, O'Sullivan or Williams get ahead in a final, they don't look like they will lose. However, Dott seems to be like the rest of us...he gets a lead, panics, starts to think about what he's doing and then loses his head. Very much like me playing golf, except that I never get a lead.

Even though the final was long and attrite (?), I still think that snooker is one of the highlights of the BBC year.

Re-Nationalize!

Why does the government still think that the railways should be under private control? Why do they think that competition and the so-called 'free market' would offer any potential benefit to a network in which it is impossible for companies to compete? The only way that competition enters into it, as far as I can see, is that every few years the companies have to bid for the charter. But we all know that that process is hardly going to be free from some sort of corruption, and who holds the company to account when they get the contract? The shareholders don't give a monkeys about the passengers. It gets me so annoyed when I have to get on the umpteenth bus replacement service just because there hasn't been enough continuous investment over the years. And I detest being called a customer: I am a passenger, and they are providing a public service, not 'selling a product'. When will they wake up? And now they are doing it to schools too. Grrr....