The Musings of a Red Dalek

The Musings of a Red Dalek http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/ My personal weblog with the usual stereotypical posts about life, the news, politics and technology. But I do try to make it fun too! en-gb Nucleus CMS v3.64 © Dominic Self 2004-2010 Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://dominicself.co.uk/images/graphics/reddalek.gif The Musings of a Red Dalek http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/ <![CDATA[Off we go]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2012/01/off-we-go http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2012/01/off-we-go didn't spend the first ten minutes of the year running around in the road and bashing my nearest and dearest friends over the head with pillows\balloons. I could easily get used to its replacement, though, which involved cake, wine and a just-delivered-in-time Indian takeaway at Charlotte Speechley's housesitting gathering. And some inspired make-up artistry from Amy, too.

Since then I've pubbed with Sanna, dined with Oliver and Abi, drank with Joshua and Robert and manuevored my family and Grace's family to go and see News Revue together - not to mention going back to work for more dutiful and honest labour - which is hardly bad going for the first week of 2012. If I just declare the year a success now and stay in like a hermit I could also make good progress on my new years 'resolutions', which it usually never even occurs to me to make but this time have somehow solidified enough in my mind to be real. (I will read more books than last year, again. I will not keep conveniently forgetting that I'm supposed to be flat hunting. I will sign up to Code Year and learn something new. There, that's enough. Any more and I'll be forced to resort to that all-encompassing fallback target which we used to pull out at school when things were desperate - "I will improve my handwriting" - which no one ever really meant because anyone with bad handwriting is secretly proud of the idea that they are too busy to shape letters properly.)

I saw The Iron Lady today, which didn't do very much for me even though it was all very well made and everything. I think I just enjoy more plot and narrative beyond the framing device of "an aged and dementia-suffering Margaret Thatcher remembers the greatest political hits of the 1980s", and would have probably enjoyed a film more which focussed tightly on a smaller period of her life. (Then again, I might just have enjoyed a film more where young children sitting behind me didn't keep asking questions about what was going on. Hey ho.)]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2012/01/off-we-go#c Sun, 8 Jan 2012 23:22:42 +0000 <![CDATA[Dominic's Big Review of 2011]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/12/dominic-s-big-review-of-2011 http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/12/dominic-s-big-review-of-2011
January
SexFest On Tour gifted the art of midnight pillow fighting to Barnet's streets, and kicked off a month of some fabulously geeky activities. I'm talking about going to see The Room for the first time, starting Firefly with Jamie and Katie, hosting a Dr. Horrible sing-along in my front room, another evening of Science Museum Lates and - of course - getting memorable one-on-one time with Psychic TV. Tash K introduced me to Sherlock, Charlotte Speechley and I saw The King's Speech, and I happily failed to kill Matt and Caroline whilst cooking them breakfast.

Sunny California: this was my Februrary

February
In early February I said my goodbyes in unconventional ways: probing local homoeopaths with Tash K, and a memorable and mostly hilarious SFX Weekender with Abbi, Paul and David. And then I packed my bags and left for a month in America! Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco... and all the way showered in hospitality by friends and family who took me everywhere from a lecture theatre in snow-covered Harvard to a kayak on the glistening Pacific Ocean. An amazing time, leaving me with some very happy memories.

March
Tugging me back home, though, was a [date / casual sangria evening] (delete as applicable) with Grace. This went well. Later on we actually watched Eat, Pray, Love to make sure our relationship wasn't based on hating a film unjustly... and it wasn't. I also saw CULES perform up in Cambridge, danced for the Wii a lot at Emily's 18th birthday, went on the March For The Alternative, hosted more Geek Corner - with cake! - and conducted the first ever dominicself.co.uk Readership Census which revealed that over half my readers belong to Ravenclaw. So no surprises there.

April
When Joshua 'brings work home with him' it's cuter than most, and we spent a day obsessing over Munchkin the kitten during the hot and summery April - perfect for a NOMAD outdoor cinema evening of Strictly Ballroom, too. There was also my first visit to the Tricycle of 2011 (Brontë) and the annual QPCS extravaganza (West Side Story). Online, I had a tweet illustrated by the marvellous Irkafirka and also got into Kiva, the micro-finance charity. Plus, more smiles in more diaries

May
Jimmy Buchanan died in May this year. His funeral was a tribute to how many people loved him - a rare and wonderful chance to see so many old faces again. Thankfully, there was also an end to every conversation collapsing into "so, about the AV referendum..." as I hesitatingly made up my mind and voted, safe in the knowledge that it was about to be massively defeated anyway. (It was the same story at Joshua's Eurovision night, but with much more fun and laughter.) This month I also found my cocktail soulmate in Matt, attempted some couples badminton in Abi's back garden, was treated to a recording of QI courtesy of Jamie, saw Mark Thomas at the Tricycle and finally got to meet, argue and drink with the one and only Henry Balkwill. Oh, and I also completed my last little bit of work on School Wars and at long last joined the massed ranks of smartphone addicts.

June
Retro family fun in Clacton: a day at the seaside, complete with sandcastles, arcade machines and dodgem cars! Later in June my birthday was a joyful mix of picnic, pub and Pizza Express, and the very next day (because I was all old and everything) I started work at Groupon. In a proper office and everything. (Just six months later, it's incredible to look back to my first day and see how much has changed.) I also played some competitive games of Hungry Hungry Hippos in Cambridge, watched some classic films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, When Harry Met Sally and Alien) and went along to my first of Jaf's gigs one night in Camden.

@giantlawnmower; @reddalek

July
Plenty of summery things: my second Puntcon in Cambridge, Saoirse's 18th birthday picnic in Green Park and the QPCS Summer Fair, where Grace and I progressed from participating in the annual debate to judging it. Talking of Queens Park, my old Humanities teacher dropped in for a visit one lunchtime, as did a rain-swept Sanna and Theo, while Rishal and I saw the final Harry Potter film together. Caroline and I admired Matt and Laura's new flat in Balham, Saoirse and I saw the Out Of This World exhibition at the British Library, and Robert returned from America for an excellent Corrib reunion. Also, in the category of 'things I managed to miss out on until now', my boss bought me my first jägerbomb!

August
Talking of 'firsts', Paul's Stag Night was in August, where we all discovered Joshua's violent masochist side during paintballing. I caught up with several people I see rarely - lunch with Ellie, traditional 'how are you?' drinks in The Island with Harriet - and once again stole Oliver's air bed one weekend. Saoirse made amazing gnocchi for her dinner party - during which, so far as I remember, we actually avoided violent argument about the riots - and the days were generally long and warm enough for plenty of (Tastecard discounted

) meals out.

September
After a year of talking about it, it was gratifying to finally be able to hold a real, physical copy of School Wars in my hand as Melissa celebrated with not one but two book launch parties. This month there was also a memorable evening in Robert's flat, reunions with a Irfan, Sophie and Maryam, an accidental gatecrashing of Marion's birthday party (at which I convinced an irritating interloper that Charlotte Speechley ran BBC2) and - in competition at least for one of the geekiest activities of the year - a tour of the London Underground headquarters at 55 Broadway. Katie and I embarked on another television odyessy together - Fringe this time - and Grace and I spent a day rambling around Box Hill armed with some very precise instructions, galvanising hunger for a pub lunch and lots of goodwill. But the biggest event of September has to be Abbi and Paul's wedding, for which we all got dressed up and then danced all night.

October
If you've been following the story of Abbi and Paul's marriage through the months, you'll appreciate the all-important final stage which was finally accomplished at a dinner party in October: eating off their wedding plates for the first time. With Grace gone to uni, Charlotte and I huddled in the pub to compare survival notes, though she was soon back for a weekend riverside stroll in Greenwich anyway. At work, the infamous Hell Day brought the team closer together, I had my final Tricycle visit of the year seeing Walk In The Woods for my dad's birthday while mum, Katie and I also delighted in Matilda The Musical. And, to even more delight, this month I also unearthed my dad's Rag and Tag stories from a rediscovered audio cassette

November
All of the old arguments about schools were back with a flourish one morning in early November, as Hannah and I were invited into Latymer to argue our case before a room full of students. Abbi's birthday was celebrated with plenty of wine and cheese, Warwick student life was interrupted by me for a weekend, the indomitable Team Awesome enjoyed a heady mix of pizza and cocktails, while Simon and I laughed a lot at In Time. And not to omit a sustained Plants vs. Zombies addiction, a lovely sangria night with Lucy and Grace, finally getting Nic to North West London and the Groupon Editorial Christmas party!

Our Site Editing team

December
OK, December deserves an apology, because it proved to be so busy that I didn't get a chance to blog. Not once. So I never wrote about the fourth Secret Vegetarian Festive Dinner (complete with masks and an erotic reading of What A Duke Wants), finally seeing The Ides of March, the happy night in the Chamberlayne with Grace, Charlotte, Alex and Rosie, or even the surprisingly amazing company-wide Christmas party in Shoreditch. I didn't get to rave about Black Mirror, tell you the story of how I ended up carrying Arwen's fish home on the Tube at midnight, be quietly chuffed about the Editorial Awards, or thank Ellie for hosting an exceptional Christmas dinner (& drinking games) for us all. There was also lots of family stuff (as befits the season): my parents' 25th wedding anniversary, deciding to watch The Godfather, Christmas Day itself - with a narrow victory for my team in the all-important quiz! - and a lovely day trip to Suffolk to see the other half of the family.

Oh, and Grace and I also embarked on an ambitious project to watch all of Buffy... but with only four episodes down so far, that's really a journey for another time.

Happy New Year to everyone!]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/12/dominic-s-big-review-of-2011#c Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:20:21 +0000 <![CDATA[Zippyboats]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/zippyboats http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/zippyboats Recently Seen:

Walk In The Woods at the Tricycle for my dad's birthday, an updated production of the 1988 play about the power play between two US and Soviet arms negotiators. Despite its depressing poignancy in capturing the futility of most international diplomacy, I was still bathed in warm nostalgia for the Cold War, and enjoyed it as much as I always enjoy the Tricycle: lots. (Yeah yeah, I was two years old at most at the end of the Cold War, but I can still induce faux-nostalgia in the same way that I can 'miss' British Rail sandwiches.)

This month I also went back to News Revue with Grace and saw In Time with Simon - a silly film which is not even particularly well made but entertaining all the same. We even laughed at the ending, where the characters actually go to the trouble of explaining to the audience why their plan wouldn't work and then proceed to carry it out anyway.

A weekend of catching up: Simon and Nic

Recently Been:

Abbi's birthday lunch a couple of weeks back was a very happy haze of wine, cheese boards and wrapping paper going up in smoke. (Top tip: candles are made of fire!) We also had 'Team Awesome Pizza Night' after work - 'Team Awesome' being my not-very-creative name for one of our regional teams which has stuck through the lack of a more creative alternative emerging - which moved seamlessly and very pleasantly from the 'pizza' stage to the 'secret underground cocktail bar entered through a fake fridge door' stage. And let's not forget the evening that Lucy, Grace and I went out for numerous jugs of sangria - a set-up which, admittedly, sounds worthy of a sitcom but was actually entirely lovely. Apart from the discussion of variable rents across the country, which made me weep inside.

I feel leaving this photo uncaptioned may be the wisest course

We also had our Editorial Party on Wednesday night, which was lots of fun but introduced me to the odd spectacle of a lot of colleagues saying "I should probably go home, I've got work tomorrow..." to each other. And - last but definitely not least - I spent last weekend in Warwick! Well, I say 'Warwick' when actually I mean Warwick University campus, which (as everyone knows) is essentially Coventry. But never mind that, because I got to meet the legendary Block 14, enjoy multiple pub brunches, visit Leamington, sample the student union bar and enjoy a moving rekindling of my relationship with Network West Midland's buses. (They still don't tell you where you are. They still come on an 'occasional-to-never' basis. They still charge you an exact fare only in coins and print a paper ticket. They are still home to tinny phone music from bored youngsters and to be honest I'm not even sure they've been cleaned since the last time I was on one. But I won't deny we have a bond.)

I won't pretend there was a linking thread through this post, but at least I used full sentences

Other cool things this month: playing Plants vs. Zombies, finally finishing The Scramble For Africa, upgrading to Spotify Premium and many, many burritos.]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/zippyboats#c Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:03:49 +0000 <![CDATA[Retro Comprehensive Evangelism Day]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/retro-comprehensive-evangelism-day http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/retro-comprehensive-evangelism-day
Having taken the morning off work, Hannah (in the @HforHannah sense) were welcomed into Latymer Upper School - as ambassadors from state school world - to talk with, and be questioned by, a group of Year 10 students. (In this we were merely following in the footsteps of other QPCSers who have done the same thing in previous years, like Marion and Miles.)

I wasn't going to blog about the students too much, but suffice to say they were all engaged and open to discussing the whole state/private divide. Which is actually pretty brave of them, given that my aim is always to plant the idea that it doesn't have to stay that way. You don't have to send your own children to the same kind of institutions you were sent to - it didn't happen to me, for a start. But it can't be a 'sacrifice'. We have to prove that comprehensives really can do education better, and that starts by standing up and putting a human face on a system which will never compete in power and prestige. So, yes, it was really good to speak to them - and kudos to Latymer for allowing the whole exercise in the first place.

There was a slight weird coda to the day, too. Through an unexpected work connection I ended up seeing Andy Burnham speak in Tower Hamlets tonight, and after asking my obligatory question about schools he gave a long answer which effectively summed up School Wars! Nice to know these things are all a little bit circular

Blurry photos from the pub will recommence next post. Which may or may not be written entirely on the Tube home...]]> News & Politics http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/11/retro-comprehensive-evangelism-day#c Wed, 2 Nov 2011 23:24:48 +0000 <![CDATA[Snippets and things]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/snippets-and-things http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/snippets-and-things A whole chocolate cake

A couple of weeks ago I made a cool discovery: an audio cassette tape onto which I'd recorded my parents telling me stories as a child. (You can hear a baby crying in the background, so it was obviously at the expense of their other children, but never mind.) Listening back, one of the things I love most is their deadpan grimness. My mum didn't just invent a hungry fox, she invented a hungry fox monologuing rather manner of factly that "if I don't catch anything, I'll probably die".

This probably owed more than a little to Roald Dahl, whose dark humour and grotesque violence continues to save generations of children from too much happy-clappy chirpiness. So it was a delight to go and see Matilda the Musical with mum and no-longer-crying-baby Katie on Wednesday night - with the added bonus of music and lyrics by the wonderful Tim Minchin. And it reminded me that the scene of the Trunchball forcing Bruce Bogtrotter to eat a whole chocolate cake is one of the best moments of children's literature ever.

A small tax refund

Branded bottles

Since my educated guess is that drink at Parliament is still generously subsided, does drinking a bottle of House of Commons claret on Caroline's terrace count as a partial refund of income tax? Either way, it was another nice evening with Matt and Caroline, who are slowly getting over the fact that I still turn up from work in jeans and t-shirts. My defence is always that I'm in the entirely unambiguously profit-hungry private sector. So take that!

A pot of tea and some cake

Grace was down from Warwick last weekend to see relatives from Norway, and by Sunday we had ended up in Richmond: strolling by the river, having tea in a National Trust café - it's always been all about the cafés - and perhaps having second thoughts about the wonders of Scandinavian life. Yes yes, they might all be happy, long-lived egalitarians with money, snow and good schools, but is that really worth a lack of pubs? Or having to stay outside as a nursery child until it hits minus ten degrees? Let's not kid ourselves: we are children of cheap alcohol and wet play. (And perhaps unsurprisingly, apparently also rickets.)

An inauguration for the wedding plates

Two weeks back, Sanna, Saoirse and I made our way to Abbi and Paul's new abode with the usual quantities of wine, delicious vegetarian cooking and Saoirse's many, many, many baked desserts. (So many, indeed, that we had to samples back home, though obviously in my case this proved a simple matter of leaving them in the kitchen to disappear.) We were all quite honoured to be the first to eat off their wedding plates, during a meal where at some point I must have confessed to never having seen The Fast Show because by the end we were definitely watching episodes of that. And ah, weren't the 1990s such a long time ago? The hair! The clothes! The lack of smartphones!

Which reminds me, actually, of the scene in Matilda the musical where her dad threatens to have her banned from the library for the rest of her. "No more books! No more reading! No more stories!". Naturally, it was at this point that Katie leaned over to me, shrugged and said "hey, she could just get a Kindle". ]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/snippets-and-things#c Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:28:53 +0000 <![CDATA[A "fairly strenuous" walk ]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/a-fairly-strenuous-walk http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/a-fairly-strenuous-walk something. (I remember a discussion at uni when we all realised what boringly pliant children we'd been, and that this probably wasn't a coincidence.) Anyway, the point is that while these attempts at indoctrination clearly failed - parlez-vous anglais? - when it came to going on long walks I think I got a bit of Stockholm syndrome instead. I'm quite sure I didn't used to approve of being dragged across Hampstead Heath, but this long ago transformed into a middle aged urge to stroll, which explains Grace and I actually spent her last Saturday in London going on a ramble. An actual ramble. In the actual countryside.

Well, Surrey.

Genuine countryside. We haven't photoshopped this.

It was my idea, obviously, although at this point I must make a major shout out of gratitute to the legendary diamond geezer because when I got home at one in the morning on Friday night I still hadn't the foggiest clue where we should go. Thankfully my slightly inebriated brain followed the sound logic that "bloggers know everything and are always prompt e-mailers", so by the time I woke up in the morning I had an itemised list of six potential destinations complete with links to past blog posts and travel instructions. Utterly amazing, and even if one day I discover he's actually an elaborate PR-front for London's tourism industry and written by a team of creative writers, fact checkers, proofers and site editors I'd still be very grateful.

In the end I plumped for Box Hill, found an awesomely detailed walk (which fulfilled my main criterion of having a pub in the middle of it) and set off to get lost, get back on track again, say nervous hellos to people passing in the other direction, locate the approximate clearing for Hagrid's hut, upload photos of maize because neither of us knew what it was and still get the train back in time for Doctor Who. Determinedly uncool fun with unnecessary technological flourishes... I think I've just written my life's mission statement

Look at this - I've rambled on (aha) for so long that I've run out of time to mention the two book launches - "sorry, I know we've just had a nice conversation and everything but you're Alastair bloody Campbell so I definitely need to be embarrassing and get a photo with you now" - or the myriad of fun drinks, dinners and Daily Mail bashings recently. I just thought I'd prove that I do occasionally leave the city.

Read it and weep, anyone-with-uncommon-letters-in-their-name

(By the end of the week this had mutated again into a Rebecca Black-esque celebration of Friday. Made me smile.)]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/10/a-fairly-strenuous-walk#c Sun, 2 Oct 2011 23:13:13 +0000 <![CDATA[Abbi and Paul's Wedding]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/09/abbi-and-paul-s-wedding http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/09/abbi-and-paul-s-wedding April last year - somehow it seems like a lot longer, but only because they're such a great couple who are so definitely right for each other. So congrats guys

And thanks for giving us all an excuse to get dressed up and dance embarrassingly for many hours! (Photos will find their way onto Facebook eventually - but if you want the whole lot now, just holla and I shall e-mail.)

Wedding: livestreamed. Because we're all so freaking modern.

When you think about, that's about 10% of class 7P right there

The Abbi and Paul Royal Wedding Party

Our unnecessary detour down Greenwich tunnel

Lots of dancing!

Awww

"Awww"

Now one of my favourite ever photos

]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/09/abbi-and-paul-s-wedding#c Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:28:08 +0000 <![CDATA[Summery catchup]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/summery-catchup http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/summery-catchup now that's referencing!) of friendships, and specifically how the working class experience of friendship differed profoundly from its middle class equivalent. Note that this was social history and is almost certainly no longer applicable for a host of obvious reasons, but I still find it helpful when thinking about the modern evolution of 'friendship' into the twenty-first century Facebook 'you've been tagged...' version. It was this: the working classes were much more likely to have one main 'set' of lifelong friends who were each connected in a multitude of ways. This happens if you all grow up in the same area, go to the same school before progressing to work locally together and have low rates of migration in and out of the area. The middle classes, on the other hand, would accumulate lots of little 'pots' of friends over their lives from growing up, going to school, university and then working with all sorts of different people in different places. Your friends, on the whole, don't know each other - from your perspective, the entirety of your social relationships orbits you.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, naturally. The middle class version is great for networking, variety and - depending on how you feel about this - living out different personas. It's also less vulnerable to great social changes that affect a whole community: whole industries suddenly closing, for example. But it might also be more vulnerable on an individual level, prompting feelings of alienation ('...do I have any real friends?') and demanding quite a lot of time and energy to keep it all going. It's not that it lacks 'community' as such, since it's a hotchpotch network of bespoke communities, it's just that no one community is geared to look out for those people who suddenly drop out of all friendships.

Anyway, none of this is particularly helpful for anyone interested in making a choice between the two since we've all surely moved inexorably towards the 'middle class' way of friendships. Don't get me wrong - I like it this way - it's just rather complex and intricate. And also, it makes it harder to blog. I've had many fun times over the past couple of weeks, and caught up with lots of good friends, so it's hard to know where to start. Robert's back from America. Saoirse hosted a really fun dinner party and made some delicious gnocchi too. Harriet and I seem to have settled into a twice-yearly routine of going for a drink in The Island. And... well, instead of just listing things, I'll spam you with recent photos instead

One of my favourite photos of the summer (thanks, Joshua!)

Paintballing at Paul's Stag

Alex and Grace (not 100% in focus, but still smiling)

Waking up at Oliver and Abi's last weekend

Money saving tip: live on the pavement

Money saving tip #2: this one's obvious

Lovely lunch (and impromptu yoga?) with Eleanor

Ben and I started at Groupon together. We both approve of pie.

]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/summery-catchup#c Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:09:43 +0000 <![CDATA[A few things I have learned after two months in a proper office]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/a-few-things-i-have-learned-after-two-months-in-a-proper-office http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/a-few-things-i-have-learned-after-two-months-in-a-proper-office really feel like you're a fully-fledged member of the team comes not through performance appraisal, sharing food or being given a nickname, but instead when being asked for help in a classic alcohol-plus-vomit misadventure at a leaving do. (Happy to help!)

• When someone says "hey Dom, you look like someone who might be good at Excel..." it isn't necessarily code for "hey Dom, you look like a loser". They might just want help with Excel.

• Everyone should have an office frenemy: someone equally willing to participate in a long-running conceit that you detest each other when, actually, maybe deep down you don't think they're quite so awful after all. (He is pretty awful though.)

• My voice still says 'conservative' to some even though I am very street and totally down with the kids, m'lord. Sadly this fails to bring the social opprobrium it probably deserves.

• The geography of Ireland, both physically and politically, is not entirely well-understood by everyone.

• Those with sufficient catering training (or just decent enough motor skills) to carry a large number of mugs of tea at once have my unwavering respect.

• And on a similar subject, tea, coffee and milk are all free and will magically restock themselves during the day. If for some reason this doesn't happen it is more than acceptable to go on little sorties to other floors to fetch some. Just try not to get caught.

• Some people still stumble across this blog after becoming Facebook friends and naturally expect some content. So this is for you!]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/08/a-few-things-i-have-learned-after-two-months-in-a-proper-office#c Sat, 20 Aug 2011 14:16:54 +0000 <![CDATA[Snapshots from recent weeks]]> http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/07/snapshots-from-recent-weeks http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/07/snapshots-from-recent-weeks

Matt and Laura's incredible duck collection

...saw the final Harry Potter film with Rishal, and in general thought this flawed franchise went out on a high. I was probably best positioned for it - enough of a fan to know what on earth was going on, but not enough to notice all the deviations from the books. And more importantly it was pretty nostalgic, coming back on the same bus that we used to catch after exciting trips to Brent Cross when we were 15...

All bosses do this, right?

...was introduced to Leila last weekend, Tash K's utterly adorable baby sister. And she didn't even cry when plonked into my arms! Very very sweet...

When in doubt, sticky note it

...just caught up on my cousin Alix's axe-wielding zombie-fighting action in World of the Dead with the family, pausing only a couple of times to explain to mum what zombies actually were. Ahem. And in fact, I might have to open up a family product promotion page on this blog, cause Melissa's book is now out for pre-order on Amazon...

Jane and Tarquin visiting London

]]> General http://dominicself.co.uk/blog/item/2011/07/snapshots-from-recent-weeks#c Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:58:56 +0000