Prior to the Sunrise Conference 2011, we held a pre-filming event for those speakers who were unable to make it on the day. James Murray was on his way to Stockholm while Nicola Jackson was heading out to Uganda to do some volunteer work, so both had to pre-record.
In August, Simon Wellings delivered a talk to Leeds Skeptics in the Pub entitled “All you wanted to know about the credit crunch (but were too afraid to ask)” looking at the problems with the economy and how money reform could help.
Recently, I signed a petition to retain the ban on the death penalty.
Initially, I didn’t think it worth it. Why? Because Parliament would never approve the death penalty being brought back into British society, and even if they did, Europe would just override them anyway. We don’t have to worry about the death penalty coming back.
However, having initially rejected the idea out of concern it would give the debate some genuine legitimacy, I in the end decided to sign it because if enough of us do, we don’t even have to have the faux-debate. I’m proud to see more pople standing up to say of course we don’t want the death penalty back, than people signing up to say we do.
As I write this, the petition to retain the ban currently has the 5th most signatures of any petition, the most popular bring back the death penalty petition is only 8th.
Recently, we headed over to James’s house for a bit of a party. It was interesting to see the exact same bag and printer at his house, but in the end we decided that he hadn’t burgled me, then got home quicker than we could get to his house and pretended he owned everything all along. So, in the end, a good night all round.
A few weeks ago, myself and Elina headed up to York for the York Brights monthly meetup.
It was much nicer than last time as we weren’t in the middle of a torrential downpour, so I could actually see the road in front of me. The meetup itself is held at a pub called Ye Olde Starre Inn, which those in York will no doubt be familiar with.
Having missed my mixed grill the day before (all you can eat steak is subtly different), I decided to go for the mixed grill. While it was very enjoyable it was certainly a little unconventional – it was basically a mixed grill, crossed with an all day breakfast with egg and beans. Crazy, buy never the less enjoyable.
Having hit Fazenda last month, and then again a few weeks ago, I took one more trip there recently, to celebrate Jonni’s birthday.
As usual, they delivered some good meat, though with us being there on a Tuesday, they seem to suffer from a lack of turn over, as the meat was often slow coming. This was a little disappointing, though ultimately we ate to bursting point, so we didn’t have any less food.
We also got a free cocktail for checking in – they weren’t shy with the alcohol either.
I think it clearly has a critical mass point though, so if you’re going to go, I would recommend going on a Saturday evening when there are plenty of people and plenty of meat coming round.
A few weeks ago, we held the first Margarita Monday.
Having recently watched Franklin & Bash, our policy was, if two fictional lawyers in Los Angeles can party on a school night, so can we. I actually felt reasonably well the next day, which isn’t bad given I got through seven shots, two cocktails and a bottle of cider.
In any case, it is definitely a winning idea, if a little time consuming in terms of preparation when you are having to make vegan pizza.
While I’ve enjoyed playing poker at Grosvenor recently, I think to learn the game I need to play against good opponents and a lot of the time at Grosvenor you have to play past a lot of bad players before you get to the real players.
As such, I decided to head down to Alea for a few tournaments. They don’t get the turn outs that Grosvenor do, but as I’m not playing for the money (well, obviously I am playing for the money, but I’m not expecting to win quite yet), it isn’t too much of a problem.
So far, it’s not gone so well, but I’ve learnt quite a bit. I figured it was probably worth blogging about my experiences so that anyone who is good at poker that reads my blog can point out when I’ve made silly mistakes.
The first tournament I entered I ended up going all in on a pair of pocket queens pre-flop, and two other players followed me in with pocket kings and pocket aces. Despite hitting trip queens on the flop, a king came out on the turn.
The second tournament I entered, I was sitting on pocket aces and with a flop of 3, 7 and 10, all off suite, I check-raised all in. Someone called with an ace, 10 and hit a third 10 on the turn.
A few weeks ago, we dropped into the Golf Bar down by the train station.
While it seemed a nice enough place, with an outside area overlooking the river, the staff seemed somewhat shocked when we actually turned up and tried to order a drink. I always thought that was kind of the point when running a bar business, but maybe I’ve misunderstood.
Recently, I bought a fish from the market. Like a whole fish. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to do any Finnish fish, so I had to settle for a Norwegian one instead. It was alright, I decided it was too mean to tease Viki in the end, so I just settled for cooking and eating it.
