Nick Gibbins

Plant sale in the union today, so my office is now marginally more friendly with a pair of boston ferns and a pair of ivys. Unfortunately, they may not be with me that long; the ferns look a bit potbound, so repotting them is a matter of urgency, and the ivys are more battered than they seemed when I bought them (some runners are damaged to the point where I’ll just have to resign myself to six inches of die-off). I’ve also learned an important lesson about the office which (due to the lack of opening windows) wasn’t an issue… Read More »State of the Office

It’s been years since I’ve been there and had their chicken souvlakia, mainly because it’s been years since I’ve lived in Cambridge, but this is extremely good news.

Day two of the European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, and the network coverage is still spotty. I’m staying in Whittlebury Hall, which is in darkest Buckinghamshire/Northamptonshire (it’s about thirty kilometres from both Milton Keynes and Northampton) and within hearing distance of Silverstone. Lots of brrrm brrrm sounds on the breeze at lunchtime today. Not fantastically impressed with this place, for several reasons: The food’s a bit uninspired, and since we’re so far from civilisation, there’s no way for us to seek out the alternatives unless we a) can drive or b) are prepared to stump up the £20 that it costs… Read More »

Coo, lummee! Sultans MP3s online!

I now have my list of first year tutees for this coming year. Four out of the five of them are called Ben (well, one Ben, two Benjamins and one Benedict, but I suspect they’ll all prefer to be called plain Ben). This will make introductions easy, and keeping track of them very difficult, though I feel most sorry for the non-Ben: Bruce: Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce a man from Pommyland who is joinin’ us this year in the Philosophy Department at the University of Wooloomooloo. EveryBruce: G’day! Michael Baldwin: Hello. Bruce: Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael… Read More »Four guys called Ben

Now that the previous occupant has moved out, I now have an Office of my Own. However, I do not have: A desk Any chairs Any filing cabinets A desk lamp A telephone number (but one is on its way) My name on the door I do have: An antique telephone (redial? what that?) Plenty of shelves Plenty of blutak on those bits of the walls that aren’t covered by shelves A whiteboard Some random junk that was lent to the previous occupant by the minuscule canadian and not returned Two boxes of MS DOS 6 software on floppy disks

Some enterprising soul has put MP3s of the four Marvin-the-paranoid-android novelty singles online. Mmm.

My local supermarket (Safeways, now rebranding as “Safeways Compact”, but with Morrisons carrier bags) used to sell three different types of anchovies. It now sells no anchovies, but it does sell rowan jelly. That is all.