Nottingham

On Monday and Tuesday this week I was on yet another trip, this time to Nottingham to visit the researchers there who are in to airport operations stuff. Not a huge amount to report, except that it was a little odd to be so close to Loughborough without going there (I flew in to East Midlands Airport), and that otherwise it was quite a productive meeting. I now have lots of work to do!

Each visit that I do I get a picture of the room - though as you might expect they all look surprisingly familiar!

I've not been to the  University of Nottingham before. The CS department is huge - they have a building to themselves. The Jubliee Campus, where CS is based, is relatively new. They've gone for an upside-down library just like Loughborough's (although less concrete and more wood)...

Otherwise, the campus is fairly nice for a city-based one. In the background you can see part of the cigarette factory that it apparently replaced.

Of course, one of the nice things about being away is getting sent pictures like these:

Naomi has started getting dressed by herself a lot of the time - here she is being quite proud of her achievement

You know you are a parent when...

just for a bit of fun

You know you are a parent when...

1. You are drowning in clean laundry...

2.  Your draining rack features as many craft items as it does eating utensils...

3.  For everything you own that is dangerous (and therefore interesting) you have a fake/toy version...

4.  You consider yourself lucky to have gone to the toilet and only returned to this little mess...

5.  Every cupboard that has something breakable in it features a plastic equivalent...

6.  Running out of bananas meant you had to use all your best peace keeping skills (and make an emergency trip to the supermarket)...

7.  Finding cream cheese on your hair brush isn't odd...

8.  If you fancy a bath you must first wade through this lot...

9.  Getting to put your feet up for a few minutes is a note worthy event...

10.  You have no idea how you would function without these...

11.  You love your small people more than words could ever express...

Cloudy

I've been in London the past few days for a work meeting. All in all a productive few days but very tiring! Jay took the girls up to see all the grandparents - I gather this was much enjoyed by all - more to come on that.

Anyway, this morning I decided to walk to work to get some nice clean Scottish air into me. The clouds were looking really good this morning so I thought I'd share:

I also spotted this picture of Miriam on my phone, from a couple of weeks ago. She's getting the hang of this eating business - just need to get a little more of the food in the mouth...

Afternoon Fun

This afternoon Naomi asked me to "play the computer on the telly".  This means she wants to play some of the games on my Wii Fit.  Because they rely on balancing on a board and not on pushing many buttons she gets on quite well with some of them, in fact she can play the skateboarding game substantially better than I can!

That said, I am not sure Nintendo had this in mind for the penguin balance game. I hope the change of camera angles aren't too bad, it only changes twice, although it occurs to me that for part of it at least you might need to turn your head to the side!

Miriam loves her doggy

Just a quick video to show you how much Miriam loves her doggy, almost anything will be stopped to give him a quick cuddle.

We wanted to put on a video of Miriam doing the actions for twinkle twinkle but she has recently become a little camera shy and stops doing them as soon as we start filming.  Hopefully that one will be online soon, mainly because it is very, VERY cute!

Running

For those who don't know,  I have taken up running as a means of keeping fit.  I now run about 5k (just over 3 miles for those who prefer it in old money) in about 30-35 minutes so try and do that two evenings a week and once at the weekend.

Having not been out for a fair few days I decided to go out despite the rain,  in fact light rain is about the best weather for running as it is refreshing but not too cold. That said,  about half way into my run the rain came on hard and although I still enjoyed the run I was pleased to get home and have a bath!