In search of a good meal I headed back home yesterday as I also needed my dad to fix my car 😀 . Thankfully both services were provided so my car is once again oiled up and I’ve had a proper meal (as much as I love my sandwich dinners on the go) so it was well worth the trip.
It is certainly a sign I am getting old though, we ended up clearing out a lot of my old crap that I still have stored at home and there is so much stuff that I had as a child, all on it’s way to charity shops or landfill sites. Thought provoking times.
Christian Voice having been defeated in their challenge of the atheist bus ads, they are probably wondering what to do next. Being the nice person I am, and also bored at work, I knocked together a few counter ads for them.
The exam period being over, things were back to normal at A-Soc this week even if the union managed to lose our room bookings and end up putting us in Meeting Room 4 without a projector. Good times.
The social was a big success though with a rather large crowd having formed by the end with plenty of people both coming down from the meeting and joining us there. Ironically the one week Liz wasn’t there was the one week all her men turned up!
January 27th, 2009 |
Life
Ah the days of being a student. 2 for 1 meals at the pub for lunch every day.
The Deer Park running such an offer during January we decided to head down yesterday to grab some dinner as you can’t beat Deer Park food for as cheap as it used to be at the student pubs. Good times.
Sunday evening having rolled round again I headed out for dinner with the gang from work (even though Craig now works at a different store, Zoe doesn’t work there at all any more I only have two shifts next month!) to grab some food. The destination of choice this week was Pizza Express which I haven’t eaten at since we were down in London.
I started with the Salsiccia al Forno. I had no idea what it was when I ordered it and I have no idea what it is now. But it was very nice so I’m counting it as a victory. My Pollo ad Astra was very nice too despite them having run out of onions.
The one issue I do have though is that I always feel like we’re fat bastards when everyone sits round with an entire pizza to ourselves. I’m sure it’s actually no more food then when you order a big steak or whatever other dinner but it just seems a lot, perhaps because it is thin and stretched over the entire plate.
To be fair if I had felt that bad I probably would have said no to dessert but then who honestly can? Turns out I really should have because I was insanely full afterwards. Never the less though it was a fine meal and ended at the traditional way with more food at Colton Mill (for those who could fit any more in, I couldn’t lol).
Having enjoyed the usual Saturday night at work I hauled myself out of bed at noon on Sunday for a bit of Sunday lunch at the Deer Park with Si. Not that I actually had any kind of traditional Sunday lunch but I did heartily enjoy the steak.
Liz was in a rather talkative mood, even for Liz, but never the less we managed to get a few words in edgeways, enough to briefly summarise our weeks anyway.
Despite Si having headed off to the cinema with Ant and Tilly, it being the last Friday before Perspective kicks off, a night at the Deer Park was much in need. And so myself, Kate, Michelle and Greg headed down for some good old fashioned fun. The Ember Skewered Chicken comes highly recommended.
Moz having bailed on us last night (to which I though there was then a real lack of Moz jokes made in the show) we settled in for another evening of podcast. This time with a number of celebrity guests including the long awaited return of Fonze. It’s a shame he isn’t on the show as much anymore as there are so many great jokes to be made 😉 .
The discussion topics of the night were “The AHS” and “Be nice to Muslims Day” though by the time we had got through the regular segments at the start of the show, most of the show was gone lol.
Yesterday I headed over to York to attend the local Brights meetup. Nick having pointed out that you can drive as fast as you can get the train over, I decided to brave the roads and eventually found myself in York city centre parked up by the river.
The parking machine not taking credit cards or notes I ended up registering with York’s phone parking service which of course is needlessly unuser friendly but eventually I managed to get it sorted and headed out to find Stonegate.
This was an interesting challenge and one I missed by quite a long way but luckily the very helpful Nick Nav service managed to guide me into the road and I had soon located the pub.
The turn out was good, there was about fifteen people in total which is enough to make sure the conversation kept flowing. There was quite a mix of interesting characters including one guy who essentially rejected Einstein’s relativity in exchange for his own acceleration relativity.
All in all though it was nice to be around another group of like minded individuals. York is a beautiful city and quite an active one it would seem as well with this group, North Yorkshire Humanists being based there as well and a Humanist Society at the university, even if they don’t answer anyone’s emails.
The ASA have ruled on the atheist bus ad issue and decided there is nothing wrong with the adverts. In their statement they said…
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has concluded that the “There’s probably no God†bus ad campaign by the British Humanist Association is not in breach of the advertising code. The ASA will therefore not launch an investigation and the case is now closed.
The ASA carefully assessed the 326 complaints it received. Some complained that the ad was offensive and denigratory to people of faith. Others challenged whether the ad was misleading because the advertiser would not be able to substantiate its claim that God “probably†does not exist.
The ASA Council concluded that the ad was an expression of the advertiser’s opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation. Although the ASA acknowledges that the content of the ad would be at odds with the beliefs of many, it concluded that it was unlikely to mislead or to cause serious or widespread offence.
This was to be expected given the consequences of making a different ruling but never the less a welcome decision.
