Getting started

So apparently I've been granted access to post here too. Having occasional glittering insights into the oddness of things I say, this doesn't bode particularly well for sane reading but we'll give it a bash anyway and see what happens. I'm also conscious that this is dangerously close to social networking; I've had my jabs but am thoroughly prepared to feel dizzy soon.

I guess the main thing that's worth writing about is the motivation for moving to Loughborough in the first place: my new job. The first couple of days were a little slow getting going but already it's been so fun getting back into the academic world. I remain grateful for the previous job I had - indeed I got quite a lot out of it - but I'd begun to realise I was missing this research malarkey a lot. I have a mound of papers on my (albeit temporary) desk which I'm enjoying delving into, I don't know how many would agree with my rating of that on the fun scale but there it is. This morning I tried implementing in code some stuff I'd been reading about, and hopefully in the next week or two I'll be getting some experiments on the go. (it's a sad part of the business that computer scientists don't wear lab coats that I've noticed - more on that another time I guess) I started out by speccing up the kit we'll be running things on and sending away for someone to buy it all; lots of new toys on their way soon! One of the best bits has been all the flexibility that comes with the job, and tomorrow morning I'm working from home for a bit while I do some reading.

Now a miniature roundup of the weekend. Saturday mostly involved unpacking related stuff but in the evening we went to see Gill and Jon, two of the few people we know of in these parts. Quite a fun night all round, with obligatory fireworks and bonfire. For Sunday, I'm sure Jay will be most pleased that I'm including a reference to bra shopping. From my point of view anything like this is highly entertaining as it involves sitting in the waiting room with a bunch of other guys who all look about the same - somewhere between uncomfortable and forcibly casual. It's also amazing how interesting one's shoes get! The only other highlight of our trip to Nottingham yesterday morning was the loss of our parking ticket. It's one of those stupid things that really annoys you, to the extent that rather than just paying the extra ten pounds to get your car back, you go on an hour long hunt for the ticket in the slim hope of finding it. (needless to say we didn't) At least we had some amusement near the end of it though. On pressing the "press for assistance" button at the car park, we actually got put on hold! We then had to stand next to the machine for ten minutes listening to the loud voice telling us how important we were. They might as well have a big light marked "IDIOT" flashing away for everyone walking past to see how clever we were (or rather me, I lost the ticket).

We also went to church yesterday afternoon. This was a bit wierd as it was once of the first places I really felt like we had moved on being really conscious that we weren't at Oldmachar any more and this might be the new place. We're still trying to work out where God wants us for the next couple of years so more on this from at least one of us later. If you'd like to see what kind of place we went to their website is here: www.openheaven.org

Finally, I'm also going to come over all British and moan about the weather. Those sunglasses I packed for travelling to England have only been used once - and that was in the Scottish part of the journey here! What's the deal with that?