November has come

298 days to go...

Blimey, haven't posted for a long time have I? I felt that I should really give it a rest as it was beginning to become the watcher's guide to Strictly come Dancing....

So, what has the geek been up to?

1. I'm very busy at work - we're currently going through Accreditation at my museum (a bit like an OFSTED report) so as far as the staff are concerned we're all running around like beheaded chickens. As I'm working on a 300+ page document at the moment my desire to type away at a keyboard when I get home has lessened somewhat (hence the recent dearth of posts).

2. I went to see Bill Bailey's new show 'Tinselworm' at the MEN arena. Very funny, although what was funnier was watching me try to eat a plastic cupful of ice cream with the smallest spoon known in Christendom in the interval.

(Actually it was before the show, but I just like typing the word interval because it's so velvety)

While I'm on the subject, please allow me to direct you to Bill Bailey's fantastic new site which can be found here: http://www.billbailey.co.uk/

3. I went to see the turner prize entrants at the Liverpool Tate. Fairly un-controversial this time around and I don't know whether I'm disappointed at that.

4. It was my birthday on the 21st (hurrah) and I am now 34. Some colleagues have already told me that this means that I am middle-aged next year (boo). I say that that is all just a load of mathematical nonsense (and tedious nonsense at that) so as a public service here are some other things you can tell me about the number 34 to avoid boring me in future.

-34 is the ninth Fibonnaci number

-34 is the atomic number of selenium

-34 is the traffic code of Istanbul

-34 is the number of the street in the film 'Miracle on 34th Street' (obvious, really)

-34 is the international code for direct-dialling Spain

-34 is the prisoner number of the Count of Monte Cristo

5, Went to the Memorabilia show in Birmingham last weekend. You may not believe this coming from a self-confessed geek such as myself but it's the first time I've been to such a thing. Definitely the most fun you can have with a laser screwdriver!

To give you a taste of the sci-fi goodness of it all here is a photo of myself and Tallulah being menaced by stormtroopers (one of which is a lady stormtrooper):

In the Most Strictly Confidence II

323 days and counting.....

Heaven forfend that this blog should become a running commentary on Strictly Come Dancing but Spanglepuss has indicated to me that I should comment on the furore that seems to have been generated by the result last weekend.

For those of you with better things to do (i.e. everyone but me - well, actually I do have better things to do but it's a good displacement activity) what happened on the last round of Strictly Come Dancing is that two good dancers got the lowest score overall and one of the likely prospects to win (Gaby Logan) got voted out.

(Oh, and one of the other dancing couples performed one lift more than they were allowed and got top marks. This is apparently a crime on a par with genocide if you're a ballroom dancer).

Some people seem shocked by this. Other people think that it is a tragedy.

I think that it's great simply because it shows that no matter how weighted the contest has become in favour of a particular outcome the great British public can always do something completely random.

This is a good thing, people!

All in all it's probably not surprising that two tall, thin, attractive blonde women didn't attract many public votes from a largely female audience. I leave you to decide why this might be and it will be interesting to see how the other good dancer who obviously had little public support last week - Penny "What first attracted you to millionaire Rod Stewart?" Lancaster Stewart - does from now on.

Blessed are the Geek!