Carrots handbags cheese toilets Russians planets hamsters weddings poets Stalin

One for anarchist_nomad: LHC Rap
One for scorchedflower: New Japanese dining opportunity (probably not worksafe, much less brain safe)
One for faerierhona Hedgehog

is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisibility_rule. Not much else to add for the moment. YHJLTG.

and syllopsium and other cat lovers.

Clicky

*heads bed-wards*

Wow. A fantastic weekend. The team did us all proud.

Workshops attended: relaunch of bi.org, third gender, transgender and sexuality, anonymous confessions, snog in, coming out and staying in at work, cover bis, future bicons, BSL/Deaf awareness.

Much debauchery was had, and quite a lot of drinking compared to my own usual levels. Bi snog-in was an achievement - huge kudos to bethanthepurple for organising it. Only got one comment from Other People, but didn't hear what they said due to getting carried away :-)

Highlights of the weekend were the Ceillidh and the picnic on the lawn on Sunday night.

Flat Cunt Monkey II was ace - consisiting of me, softfruit, glamcarnation, angeoverhere, johnnydefective, heiroglyphe, rainbowqueen, loopy_lorna and beadqueen.

It came to leaving time and I was a little dispondant that I would be the only one from BiCon on my particular train, though discovered mid-afternoon in the bar that C. would be on the same one so we had a chance to get to know one another and snuggle a little. Sorry it'd taken 3 years. Though in a way it's good that our community is so huge that we can't get to know everyone immediately.

The closing plenary is always a moving time as people say their thanks and the team are thanked and people are given awards. In particular, djm4's acceptance speech was very moving, containing the quote
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. - Jane Howard
It really hit home and made me weepy, though tears of joy :-)

BiCon comedown has been fairly minimal compared to 2002, though I do have a followup post to make at some stage.

Clicky - flash animation. Not worksafe in the least. Catchy melody though.

*luffs* to new friends.

For the Radio 4 listeners amongst you:
I win: http://pics.livejournal.com/mattp/pic/000453s5/
You lose: http://tinyurl.com/8a7fe

For duranorak and bethanthepurple: http://www.thedoctorsays.co.uk/thedoctorsings/index.htm

If anyone is in contact with alienfox, please can you let him know I'm looking for him? (Need details of tonight's party)

I was hoping to go to London on Friday afternoon, but decided to stay in Manchester for the day instead. Went shopping with _phuturatica_ and wandered around the German markets. Bought my first Christmas present - now I need to get the rest.

On Saturday I got the train to faerierhona's neck of the woods, rather than going via London. Dinner party was fab. Chilli and garlic were consumed in vast quantities and much geeky conversation, including weird-but-goot food combos and other topics which escape my mind. Fantastic discovery of the weekend was Vampire's Revenge from http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/ I so need to get some of that.
Was also great to meet shevek, and possibly have the opportunity for some contract programming work. Rah.

On Sunday I popped in to see my mum and my sister. One of my sister's friends was over, and she was enthusing about star gazing and satellite spotting. I told her about the http://www.wikipedia.com and the very funky http://www.heavens-above.com/ - it gives pass data for the next few days, including details of ISS, the planets, iridium flares and manmade satellites.

I stayed the night and got a rather late train back to Manchester. The rest of Monday is a haze.

Clicky: The best Christmas lights in the world? (5MB video)

I came up with a recipe a couple of weeks ago but didn't get around to posting it, so here goes.

Chop a few cloves of garlic and a couple of chillies. Looking back I don't remember whether I used an onion or not. I'm sure it'd work fine though.
Stir fry some diced chicken in a pan or wok.
Add the garlic and chilli and onion if you used any.
Add 2oz/5og of butter and squeeze in the juice of two limes.
It reduced quickly so top up with a dash of water if it gets a bit dry.

Serve with rice.


I must get around to making the recipe site I keep mentioning.

Clicky.

It's been a very busy past fortnight. I finally had time to catch up some time around Wednesday. There were 520 entries to read.

Last Thursday and Friday I was working in West Sussex. It wasn't an excellent job, but the hotel was FANTASTIC, particularly the food. I asked work to put me back there soon :-) I would've been back in London by 6pm (having left Eastbourne at 4-something) if it weren't for an accident and a section of the M25 being closed. I was listening to the radio so got to hear about this, but not until too late when I was in the affected area. I eventually took a detour on the M23, only for the same thing to happen. By the end of it all I arrived in Ealing at 10pm. 6 hours. That takes the fucking piss. Waited until midnight before leaving to allow the traffic do die, and brought ruth_sedina back to Manchester. Got home in the wee hours, around 3 something.

Saturday was the party.
Some stuffs I got for my birthday were: a model aeroplane, money for flying lessons and two DVDs (Falling From The Sky and Pushing Tin.

It was fab having ruth_sendina over for a few days and be able to catch up at length, rather than the flying visits I'd made in recent weeks when working in London.

TUesday (I think), I had a curry, having not had one for far too long and watched Falling From The Sky with Dave. It's a fantastic film. It's about one of the early 767 flights which was underfuelled, ran out, and yet still was landed successfuly.

Wednesday I was working in Oxford and went home via my Aunt and Uncle's house as I'd not seen them for a bit, and was fed. Such a shame that my uncle has had to give up flying, but there's not really a lot that can be done about a detached retina.

Thursday was supposed to be in Stirling which would've been a mamoth journey but thankfully it was cancelled. I don't mind the odd long distance journey but I've not been sleeping well this week (for some reason) so it was good to be in the office for a day.

WTF do shops put mayo in all of their sandwhiches? I had to walk out of 3 shops yesterday for that reason. Even the one labelled "Simply cheese and tomato" which upon closer inspection contained the devil's ejaculate.

Last night I went out for a meal for Russell's birthday in Chinatown. Simon was there; he, Russell and I all lived together in hall at uni. Such a shame that the warden from that era has left. He'd been there fore 33 years and was a HUGE asset to the place.

Clicky: one for duranorak and darkgoddesskim

Yesterday I went into town to have a meeting with the bank (just an annual review thingy) and then went for a wander around the markets. I found a very nice chilli marmalade, much like the one I bought in Gloucester in February. I'd like to learn how to make jams/marmalades at some stage. I also got a couple of pairs of knitting needles as I don't have the right sizes for the sweater I'm making.

Afternoon was a BBQ with angeoverhere, J. and softfruit. I ate a massive amount, as is typical for me at barbeque, then in the evening we watched Team America. That film has one of the best quotes ever. See the first one.

Lazy day today. I forgot to set an alarm, so only woke up about an hour ago. Hopefully this hasn't altered my sleep cycle too much.

Pondering going somewhere today but not sure where or to do what. It's quite hot to be outside.
Is anyone interested in going to see the Jodrell Bank telescope?

Clicky