Norman Lockyer Observatory

Now that I am 31 I need to do grown up things, so instead of a Saturday night at Rococo's (joke!)we decided to visit the Norman Lockyer Observatory near Sidmouth. He was the man who discovered Helium (He missed a trick, I would have called it Lockyerium if I had been him!), and also looked at many stars through telescopes. Can you tell my research is a bit shaky?



You can find out more at http://www.normanlockyer.org/ and it is well worth the fiver entry on an open night to see the 2 dinky little domes and historic telescopes.



Last night was specifically to look at Saturn, and we all got to look through the big telescope at it. Amazingly it did not just look like a blob, but you could actually see the rings sticking out each side.



There is also a Planetarium show which is very impressive, I was particularly impressed with the 60's technology that projected it!



Also in the last few weeks it has been my birthday, and we had a fun gathering at the flat, poker and the Wii were played, and I drank plenty of my new favourite drink, Westons Perry!

I have also won 2 out of the last 3 games of poker at the City Gate, so things are looking up!

Just a week now until our week in Cornwall, I will be very happy to have a week away from work and relax properly!

10 Things

There has been a lot of work this month, but it has not all been work. Here are 10 other things I have done this month so far.

1. Played poker at the City Gate. I toyed with the idea of giving poker a break as I had not played well since the new year. Last week though I came third (out of about 12) so that has boosted my confidence. Although 3rd is still a wasted fiver it is a lot closer to the elusive tenner and the even more elusive first prize than my previous 3 performances of being last out!

2. Pub quiz at Newton St Cyres. Now that Dennis lives out that way we have been going to the pub quiz each month at the Crown and Sceptre. It is a really friendly, traditional pub. The first Tuesday of each month is Curry and Quiz night. The Curry costs about £6, the quiz about a pound, and drinks bring the total cost up to about a tenner. Both times we have been our team has won a bottle of wine. I will try and get out there with my camera and do a Pub Guide on the place.

3. Met up with ex-SPCK employees. Great to see them all again, and pretty much all the staff (apart from one) came along. Great to see everyone is doing well and planning fun trips and getting new jobs and just generally getting on with life. We referred to the situation with the shops maybe once or twice, but mostly we were just catching up with each other, which was great!

4. Played Mario Kart and unlocked the Mirror Cup. To any non-players this means nothing, but was an exciting event in my life!

5. Went to see the film Milk. It was great to see the story of Harvey Milk told in such a high profile way, and the story is a very important and interesting one, but I could not help feel it rather brushed over some of the interesting themes of the way he approached his politics and a documentary would have told the story in a clearer way (in fact there was a documentary out last year which I must seek out). Still a worthwhile watch though.

6. Watched the original Frost/Nixon Watergate interviews on DVD. After watching the film we were interested to see what they were really like when broadcast, and Dave lent us a DVD of them he bought at the stage show a few years ago. Seeing Frost back then made me realise how great Sheens portrayal of him was, and some of the extras on the DVD confirmed that many of the incidents in the film actually happened.

7. Went out to The Orange Elephant farm shop to get some nice food in the shop and some coffee in the cafe. The newly built shop is really good, but I hope it never becomes as big as Darts Farm which is a bit posh and a bit soulless!

8. Decided I do actually really like the sitcom Not Going Out, and despite thinking it is formulaic and often stupid I still end up laughing loads the whole way through.

9. Booked a holiday cottage in Cornwall. In March we will get getting away for a week in a village near Looe. The plan is to get away from computers and work and Exeter and just slow down and relax. We hope to go to the Eden project at some point too.

10. Took some photos of Exeter today. Needed a bit of air and a wander so took my camera out and wondered about taking random photos.

The first two are peering through the window at the newly restored Mint Priory, I was quite astonished when I looked in, as last time it was an empty shell!





I wont caption these, but see if you know where they are!

Snow, Toad and Working hard

Well it's been over 2 weeks since I last updated this blog, so what has happened in my life in Exeter?

Well the most exciting thing was the snow. It is great how at the darkest most miserable part of the year nature decides to throw down a nice clean white sheet of snow to reflect the light and make things feel cheery again. Anyone who knows me knows that I love snow. Hours spend gazing out the window and checking the BBC Weather website.

In all the excitement I forgot to take any pictures, so it was starting to melt away by the time I took these. As you can see in fact it was glorious blue sky!





The snow did mean that a few people did not make it into work over the last few weeks, making an already busy time doubly as busy. A combination of factors has made it very stressful and manic at work, but I know it is only a phase and we will pass through it - which makes it a little more bearable!

I have been finding time to relax though, mostly either in the form of ploughing through an Ian Rankin book while sat with a pint of Black Prince (St Austell Ales) in the Mill on the Exe, or trying to complete all the levels of Mario Kart Wii (as trusty Toad, pictured!)

What?

Slower or faster?



The Guardian is confusing me.

3 Films

In the last week I have seen three films at the Picturehouse in Exeter, starting the year as I mean to go on!



The Reader

I went to see this one by myself, Ivonne was slightly worried that it would not live up to the book, and although it was not as good as the book (what films are?) it was certainly a faithful retelling of the story, and caught a lot of the original spirit of the book. It is annoying that reviews keep saying that Winslet plays a Nazi Guard, because that is not what the film is about, the film is about a love affair, and mostly about guilt about the past. I hope this wins some Oscars, as it has been rather overlooked in the recent crop of films.



Slumdog Millionaire

The most talked about film of the moment, and for good reason. Not, as the advertising would have you believe, the Feel Good Movie of the Year, although it does have a happy ending. This film is extraordinary, it follows a clever story telling device of questions in the quiz show being the way of the main characters life story being told. It is in places brutal, but over all makes you feel that life is good.



Frost/Nixon

This is a story that predates my birth by just a year, but I was totally gripped. The motives behind Frost wanting the interview stay fairly shrouded, but the themes of success, fame and notoriety are clear in both characters. The acting of the support cast is shoddy in places, but overall this is a thought provoking film that will pique interest in part of our recent history that you perhaps don't know much about.

Just a Minute

Yesterday afternoon we embarked on a mad afternoon to London, our friend Dave kind drove and got tickets for a recording of Radio 4s Just a Minute. So after a morning at work we drove up to London, parked up in a side street and got the tube into Oxford Circus to Broadcasting House.



It seemed surreal that in the morning we were at work, and then a few hours later standing on the pavement in London queueing to get into the home of BBC Radio. Two shows were recorded featuring Paul Merton, Clement Freud, Josie Lawrence and Jack Dee. It was very very funny and I can't wait to hear how they edit it all down into two half hour shows.





We then went for a bot of a wander to soak up some of London, and then set off home. Unfortunately we got stuck in a nightmare traffic jam on the M4, a serious accident closed it for at least 45 minutes and people (we men) resorted to getting out their cars and trying to ascertain what had happened up front!

Eventually we got home just after 2am, and I have been just a little tired at work today!

A great day out though, thanks to Dave for driving us all the way there and back - despite the late night I can't wait to do it again soon!

Exeter Winter Ales Festival 2009

I was invited to the Exeter Winter Ales Festival by my CAMRA card carrying friend Nick yesterday. I must point out that he does not have a beard, and has never tried Morris dancing (to my knowledge). In fact he works in a bank and is quite normal.

So after work yesterday we wandered up to the University for the festival. You first have to buy a glass to use throughout the day, then exchange your real money for a sheet of beer tokens. On the sheet is a few 50p tokens, a few 20p and loads and loads of 10p tokens. If real money was distributed in this way we would be having to carry suitcases of 10p coins around to pay for anything.



With over 80 beers and ciders I decided I needed a system, so I only had beers that had a prime number. This worked as good as any, as most of the beers tasted essentially the same. I said this to Nick rather to loudly and thought I was going to be lynched by men with red noses.



I realised it was the first time I had ever been in a room that had more beards than women in it.

Was a really fun afternoon, something I have never done before. I think it is a shame that the venue is so soulless and rather stuffy (the smell of warm beer and men... hmm) and I also think it is a shame they don't tell you a bit more about the beers, who made them and where you can purchase it. I would even like to meet some of the people who make the beer and ask a few questions. Will certainly try and get along to the Summer Beer festival though.



I stayed on for a bit as I bumped into some old friends, and spent the rest of my tokens. When I got home I fell asleep on the sofa - that's daytime drinking for you.

Frozen Exe

Anyone in the UK will have noticed it has been cold, very cold! Parts of the River Exe (mostly the flood relief channel) have started to freeze over. Seagulls are a little unsure what to do...



A heron has been wandering the stretch of river just outside our flat, but as yet has evaded mt camera. I will get a shot of him (or her) one day!

The ice has bee quite thick in some places, two boys were thwacking it with hockey sticks and not finding it easy to break through. One of the greatest noises of nature can be got from throwing a stone of bit of ice across a frozen river, it sounds a bit like Twhang thwang thwaaaang.



Some amazing icicles have formed on bushes overhanging the Weir.





I am starting to enjoy the cold weather, and kind of hope it hangs around for a few more weeks!

New Pound Coin

At last, the final piece of the jigsaw that is the new design of the British coins. Actually not so much the final piece, rather it's the jigsaw box!

Post Christmas period

"On the twelfth day of Christmas..." and the preceding 3 or 4 days it always feels a bit weird to me.

The combination of adjusting your body to a less rich diet - yet still having lots of chocolate hanging around, a forest of dead discarded Christmas trees in gardens and dumped under bridges and anywhere else people think of, a slightly philosophical time of year thinking about new starts and the year ahead

I have been distracting myself in several ways...

Ivonne gave me the latest Danny Wallace book Friends Like These which I am really enjoying. He is of course a Hollywood star (almost) now, but this book goes right back to the roots of Are You Dave Gorman and Join Me, a very relevant book as it is about Danny Getting older and hitting his thirties.

We have also been watching the comedy DVDs we got for Christmas, Micheal McIntyre and also Russell Howard, both were hilarious (although I think I laughed at Micheal McIntyre a little bit more).

The River Exe flood relief channel has started to freeze, now at least a centimetre thick across most of the surface, We will go out and inspect it later, and perhaps take a few photos.