Firetop

Last night I attended the Autumn Reception of the ‘Academic and Professional Division’ of the Publishers Association (there’s a mouthful!). The evening featured a guest appearance from the Shadow Minister for Higher Education – Boris Johnson. Boris was his usual cheeky self but this time not commending parents on feeding junk food to their children through playground fences. I felt very much that he had modelled himself on TV detective ‘Columbo’ – portraying himself as a man who isn’t really with it, blundering his way through a speech as required… but beneath it all being completely switched on. In his speech to the fifty or so of us present at the Royal Society, Boris made one thing completely clear – he isn’t scared of Google despite what some academics in the room had discussed with him prior to his visit to the lectern. (more…)

I’ve dined at Smithy’s in Leeke Street, more than twenty times in the past six years, consequently it really deserves an entry on this blog. I found the perfect excuse yesterday when my colleagues and I went there for lunch to celebrate the arrival of two of our American counterparts. Smithy’s has both a main bar area for those requiring a liquid lunch, and a separate restaurant area for those with rumbling stomachs. They have a fairly decent menu, with various offerings such as pork medallions, chilli prawns, pumpkin soup etc. However, you just can’t beat their burger and chips; as one of my fellow diners commented yesterday ‘I think that’s the best burger and chips I ever had’. What makes the dish so much better at Smithy’s is the presence of ‘fat chips’ and home made burgers – none of your factory cut potatoes or meat here. On a Monday it’s unlikely you’ll need to make a reservation, but it’s a definite requirement for those visiting on a Thursday or Friday. (more…)

I’m getting married in January and at the moment there’s quite a lot to be sorted out. On Sunday Suzie_Q and I took a trip to the wedding fair at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking. We weren’t sure how much we’d learn, since we attended the previous fair back in March. We didn’t pick up anything new - most of the exhibitors were the same, various purveyors of wedding rings and wedding cakes, a magician, harp player, and florist. Denbies hire out their venue for civil ceremonies and wedding receptions so have a stand to promote that service. Suzie_Q and I did consider choosing them for the reception, but upon lunching there last week with Dorking’s entire population of grey haired residents, I realised the conservatory restaurant reminded me too much of Littlewoods café in Stevenage, despite the lovely building design. (more…)

Channel Four very kindly broadcast ‘Celebrity Sex Tapes Unwound’ a week or two ago… not a show you deliberately set out to watch but hey, if it’s on late at night you’ll watch it for sheer amusement won’t you? It featured a run down of the top ten celebrity sex tapes of all time. The order was based on the number of returned results in Google, I got quite annoyed (shouting at the TV etc.) because this implies that there are millions of people downloading this stuff all the time. In addition, the programme makers seemed not to understand that the number of text references to a given video, does not dictate real audience popularity in terms of downloads. I decided to take 5 minutes to see what the real order should have been. Channel Four can thank me later.

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