Furthermore: November 2007

November 26, 2007

Fitz and that

My old college had a reunion for mathematics on Saturday. There were some short lectures in the afternoon, so I went on my own for that bit - my old Director of Studies, Michael Potter gave a talk about some of the philosophical problems in maths which I found pretty interesting. I was very interested in this area at one time but it seems to have worn off - Dr P lent me a book of essays on the topic, but I just don’t find the issues of much moment one way or the other.

H joined me for the dinner, as Jay came over to babysit. The food was not bad, although they were a bit stingy with the wine (I’d forgotten how colleges are the last places that have those tiny glasses for everything). It was good to see a few people from my era (3 of the chaps from the year above me were there) and I got to talk to some others too.

November 13, 2007

Capturing Mary

I quite liked Joe’s Palace last week, so I thought I’d give this one a go as well. I really wish I hadn’t bothered. The main problem seemed to be that there was no real drama in the present, and the story in the past was all at one remove, so you never felt there was much at stake. Plus it was one-note - Mary and Greville, and how he (pretty much) showed her something nasty in the woodshed and she never got over it.

The remaining mystery of why he said “help me” the last time she saw him was not at all satisfactorily resolved by the encounter she has in the present day when she sees him again, unaged. Is he a ghost (she says not), or perhaps a hallucination? We never find out, and by then I, at least, was past caring.

The only way it makes any sense to me was if he was really some kind of projected aspect of the unconscious - we see him at the start telling everyone they’re not as good as they think they are. Perhaps he just represents those negative parts of our psyche that we must fight against. Still doesn’t make it a good story.

November 11, 2007

Behind the times

Still seem to have a cold dragging on. Good run time on Thursday though - 25.30. At the weekend I felt quite tired by my normal circuit round town, I sort of feel like I’ve lost the cushion of being able to run much further. Maybe I need to try to extend that run out a bit more - trouble is then it eats up so much of my Saturday morning.

November 7, 2007

Cold Crow

Still have the cold, which I think accounts for me slipping back to 26.45 on Tuesday. Still, I seem to be mostly fighting it off. Tomorrow I’m going to Joel Spolsky’s talk in Cambridge - you can still try to sign up here if you’re interested (may be full by now though). Quite a few of the guys from work are going, so I get to call it training.

At lunchtime I was sitting outside for a few minutes (I figure while it’s still mild I should make the best of it) when I saw a crow hopping around the grass. I haven’t seen one around the Vision Park before, but it seemed quite tame. It was croaking in a fairly pitiful way though, so I looked in the bin next to the bench and found a big apple core. I threw it down on the grass, and after a couple of exploratory pecks, the crow picked the whole thing up in its beak and flew up to the roof of the nearest building, thus proving its superior intelligence to the ducks who invariably chase each other round and round after finding the smallest crumb of food. It improved my day quite a bit to feel I’d done something for the crow.

November 5, 2007

Fireworks

I seem to be coming down with the cold Mrs F has had all weekend. Hope I shall feel better tomorrow.

We decided to skip the Cambridge Fireworks this year as it was on a Monday, and we’d have to take both the girls (E has been too young up to now, and so I’ve taken L on the bike) in the car, which would mean a very late night right at the start of the school week. Instead we went to the Histon and Impington fireworks on Saturday, which were excellent - I thought it might be a bit feeble, but the range of fireworks was excellent, and there were even some types I’d not seen before, as well as some kind of controlled fuel explosion that caused an impressive fireball.

Running went well too last week - after my 25.53 time on Tuesday, I got it down to 25.45 on Thursday. I’ll try to get down to 25mins and then see.

Friday I went to London for work, and then met up with my friend Kath for her birthday at Ruby Grand in Hammersmith. It was a good night out, but I don’t think it did much for my run on Saturday. I cut the circuit a bit short and did 50 minutes or so.

This week I feel quite lethargic - maybe it’s just the cold, but it’s difficult to settle down to actually doing anything.