Roll up, ladies and gentlemen, roll up! I’ve two scintillating sequences of events for presentation on the blogging symposium today, after which there will be an opportunity to ask questions and some light refreshments. Quieten down at the back now please. I open with Sanna’s visit on Monday which comprised of waffles, further waffles, being told that I was neglecting an amazing garden and socio-theological waffle which, as you may know, is the tastiest of all. No one tried to pick a fight with me, however, which I suppose rules out Sanna as the common factor. (Very slightly off-topic, by the way, but still worth mentioning, is the fact that Spotify fans can and by all means should check out The Lion King soundtrack… in Swedish. I still don’t know how to actually say ‘problem free philosophy’ but I can certainly hum it.)
Moving on swiftly, last night was the Peterhouse Politics Society dinner which I went along to on the basis that it was Andrew’s farewell event as President. (That’s what I said, of course, but the real reason was the food.) Those of you who have better things to worry about than arcane Cambridge trivia may not know that Peterhouse has a reputation for being a bit… conservative… so I made sure to go out and buy a red tie beforehand just to make the point. As it happened, though, I found myself amongst the liberals; you wouldn’t necessarily expect to be swapping praise for Ken Livingstone with the wonderful couple I was seated next to over port at Peterhouse, but there you are. In fact, known quantity of Caroline aside, I only tracked down one true Tory for conversation and he was very affably mad. (I mean that in the nicest way possible. He did want to privatise the entirety of state education, sure, but it adds character.)
At the end of the night I joined Andrew, Caroline and Cornelius for even more wine. (Cornelius, by the way, has bagged what is quite possibly the greatest name ever. I bet he never has any trouble getting the username he wants.) During the course of the following discussion I somehow found myself giving strategic and spin-doctory advice to Caroline regarding CUCA. Perhaps I was too drunk for it to be any good, but the fact remains that there are lines I shouldn’t cross, and actively suggesting ways to make the Conservatives more popular (as if they needed any help at the moment) is one of them. So, sorry!
Just back from seeing In The Loop with Owen, Andrew, Matt and Caroline. As a big fan of The Thick Of It I knew this was going to be good but, wow, I don’t know if there will be a film I’ll enjoy quite as much for a long time. Fantastic stuff: I laughed all the way through and (the mark of a good film) didn’t check my watch once. Go see this!
Of course, the flip side is that it comes across as a brutally realistic portrayal of politics. This, one could argue, is a tad depressing. Not unlike the prospects for the UK, actually, and Owen and I had a good time enraging one another on the way home by imagining the upcoming weariness of a Conservative government. It’s all so predictable already: watch out for the token right-wing nasties thrown to the back benchers at times of trouble (bribes for marriage! inheritance tax cuts! privatised police!) which will punctuate the mundane, day-to-day rubbishness. (I originally put ‘privatised police’ as a bit of a joke, but the more I think about it the more plausible it becomes.) This is nothing, however, when it comes to the threat of the BNP in June. People sometimes shrug their shoulders about this since they’ll never be more than a pungent smell from the sidelines. They’re missing the point. Powell didn’t win, either, but it sets a tone of racism which sinks deep into local communities. So, if you wouldn’t mind, could everyone who’s just received one of those pretty white poll cards for 4th June vote please. Labour, Lib Dem, Green, even Tory – I don’t really mind, but just do it 
Ooh, this is clearly going to come out as a bit of a rant. And they never get any comments! So here’s a funny picture instead 
Shameless distraction
(Oh, and I’m going to steal an anecdote from Owen because it’s a good one: he overheard someone proudly announcing that for his 21st birthday his mother had bought him private health insurance. Who does this?!)
It was only after writing today’s to-do list of revision that I realised it may come across as rather ambitious:
To-Do
Five-year-olds are cheerful, energetic, and enthusiastic. They enjoy planning, and spend a great deal of time discussing who will do what. They especially enjoy dramatic play […] Five-year-olds are more sensitive to the needs and feelings of others around them. It is less difficult for them to wait for a turn or to share toys and material. “Best friends” become very important.
This also seems like an appropriate time to mourn the imminent demise of GeoCities, on which this site originated. I know GeoCities sites had a tendency to be incredibly (some might say universally) naff and poorly designed, but I’m also quite fond of the days when people actually tried to hand-build their own websites rather than merely populate Facebook or the ultra-simple Twitter. (I realise this makes me sound like a grumpy old man, but I’m allowed a little bit of fondness ) And now that we have services with the ease and flexibility of WordPress I’m not sure that I would have even bothered learning how to create my own site had I come along a couple of years later than I did. So thank you, GeoCities, for being alluring enough to start me up yet rubbish enough to move me on at the right time!
My GeoCities banner
Yes, I am alive! A little worried about the short-term viability of this blog though, to be honest, because practically the only thing going on at the moment is revision, or talking about revision, or thinking about revision, or panicking about revision, etc. And one unfortunate side effect of spending your days immersed in notes, essay and past exam papers is a tendency to start to reformulate your entire life in the style of essay questions. So:
- Account for the success of Peggle in the friendship group.
- ‘Rambling for the first few lines in something which can only be described as drivel’. How fair is this as an assessment of Nic’s blogging style?
- Which was more important to the success of SexFest: sex or alcohol?
- How significant has chocolate fudge cake been for Dominic during the period 1989-2009?
- ‘I just assumed they were a couple’. Which couple?
I worry about me 
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
