Sunday, Mar. 29, 2009 - 21:04

Trouble is, though I had essentially a pretty similar time as I did last year, going to Cambridge to see my mates and celebrate my god-daughter's birthday, and though I enjoyed my time there, I think these year I was a bit tired and a bit overaware of my own shortcomings in social situations (shy in the presence of a lot of peeps rellies, perchance). Was fun though, I just wish I was more confident in such situations and not the miseryguts I probably came over as.

In European football this w/e, England got a 4-0 friendly win against Slovakia - despite crocking three of their own centre fowards in the process (Heskey, Carlton Cole and Crouch all had to be taken off through injury) in preparation for the match against Ukraine in midweek.

Rep Ireland drew 1-1 at home to Bulgaria, but look favourites to qualify for the playoffs by finishing second in a weak group. Northern Ireland beat Poland 3-2 but may still struggle to prgress, Wales lost 2-0 at home to Finland and look buggered, and Scotland too had a poor result - losing 3-0 in Holland. That said, the Scots might manage a second-place (i.e. playoff entering) finish if they can win their home games againt Iceland and Macedonia.

LISTENING TO:- Fluffy 'Black Eye', which I bought second hand on the strength of a recollection of them being one 'new band to look out for' in the opening pages of NME or Q back in the mid nineties. They're quite good actually - bit like Distillers or Yeah Yeah Yeahs in places, a bit more like Elastica or Hole in others.

On the train home yesterday, some Japanese woman was watching a (pirated illegal stream/download - naughty naughty!) copy of 'Genova' in the seat in front of mine, with the result that I was able to watch it in mirror image, with no sound, as a reflection in the window.

It was an odd experience - 'watching' a film you were only paying attention to 80% of the time, a slightly blurred visual, and no audio. Parts of this arrangement (esp. the lack of sound) took me back to secretly watching films after bedtime when I was a teenager.

From the reviews I've seen in the paper, and the synopses I've just read on IMDb, I don't think I missed out on a massive amount in what I didn't 'get' by half seeing the film in this way. Beautiful but.. benign and a bit meaningless. Willa Holland is pretty, though. Plus, it was nice to make the final realisation that Catherine Keener was Maxine in 'Being John Malkovich' and was also the love interest in '40 Year Old Virgin'.

Today's been a bit blargh. I was up and had an OK morning at leisure, but this afternoon came over all sniffly and went for a lie down. I was woken a few hours later when I felt acid reflux coming up into the back of my throat, so had to jump up (which discombobulates oneself, as I'm sure you can appreciate) to avoid vomming on my bed.

After composing myself a little (I was dreaming about being at the train station in nothing but a dressing gown, where I was flirting with one of the lab supervisors from work) I went to make a coffee, and whils doing that decided to empty my clothes from the tumble dryer. Whereupon I found that I'd left paper in my shirt pocket, and hence had quite a lot of white bits stuck to my clothes. Aaah bugger! What's the best thing to do in such circumstances - just pick off what you can and rewash, or handwash to facilitate the same means, or what?

I was thinking about proprioception the other day in bed, esp. with regard to stuff that was written in Oliver Sacks' books. I hence amused myself for a little while by bringing my index fingers together with my eyes closed (I dunno why - it was dark, so I couldn't see them anyhow) and also gave myself a 'dead leg' in an attempt to try and work out what it'd be like to have a severed leg in your bed :-)

Having a couple of hours kip this afternoon (well, four hours)

I remember reading recently about the amusingly amazing fact that it's been proven that sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children. 'Double blind trials have shown no difference in behaviour between children given sugar full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or those considered "sensitive" to sugar. In fact, it was found that the difference in the children's behaviour was all in the parents' minds.

When I told people in the offica about that, they rubbished my statement, suggesting that their observations were to the converse. Which I guess is a pretty good example of self-centric justification/bias. I wonder whether it's also indicative of the fact that I, as a scientist, am more prone to attribute importance/truth to scientific findings than the average person in the street is likely to?

Cricket.. it rained between innings, and (as I write this now, at nine p.m.) it looks like they'll call the game off.

I'm going to iron some shirts now. Plus I'll have some dinner. I think I'll do the latter first actually, just to be a prink.