So andy in my office wants to make comments on this here blog despite my previous hatred of the idea I will be trialing it for a limited time.. right you lot .. let us see what you can do.

Now most of you will be thinking "dam this boy is really depressed these days.",the answer is not far from the truth .. I am not having a great time with my phd but I have come to expect nothing less from this sh*t but never the less I want to tell you all I am not really unhappy with life .. just a little stressed and ,at the moment, this blog is my one way to tell the world my pet hates which makes me feel a little better about life.

So my new one is excuses... If you don't want to do something, don't come up with some crap excuse ..just don't do it. Tonight was supposed to be my poker night ( it has been cancelled due to a mirriad of excuses and cancellations) and we had at some point asked a young lady to be our dealer. Now I never expected anyone to allow them selves to be put in that position with out monetary recompence. It is objectification to some extent so would have laughed it off if she had said no, but instead she says yes.. so naturally I have to tell her not to do it .. for both her sake ..and well mine .. I don't like the way guys are in copetition when girls are around. So I am a gentelman, I take her out for ice-cream and in my own charming way tell her not to come.. then she revels to me she never planned on coming in the first place, she was going to txt on the day with some excuse. This did annoy me. It made me make time,expand effort and go out of my way to tell her.

To reuse a statement from the regan administration .. next time "Just say NO!"

Some of you will remember my little rant here about free vs fair trade. Well today I have been reading about Anita Roddick and The body shop and though I quite like her take on trade instead of aid, there are a couple of things about the whole thing that just don't sit right with me. Some of you will be saying it is cos she sold out to L'Oréal which personally I think is fair enuff ..she has made a shit load of maney doing it, which I cann't begrudge. She was after all a business woman. Some might say it is cos the woman stole her whole consept from a small store in the Bay area... but no she took it further then they did and bought them out fair and square.

I think it is that bullshit middle class syndrom of trying to justify themselves in what they percive as bad. I think if from day one this woman had got up and said "yes this is organic .. yes it is fair trade ..yes it is not tested on animals but I am in the business of making money.. and by god I am going to do it." instead of this stupid hippy bullshit where she pretends to care about the state of the world. You look at her blog and she seems more like a political editorial correspondant then a entrepreneur.

I donno if there is a right or wrong way .. I can see this has worked for her. I guess I would like to see a third world figure head who is a major player instead of mass murdering fuck heads or athletes. Africa needs a hero ..someone who can can come to play with the rest of the world instead of just in africa.

I am a fairly affectionate person .. people I care about I tend to be okay with touching. Hugs are good for people you know well ... cheek kisses for familiar but friendly people of the opposite sex. But for the love of god when did we become people that kiss on the lips with friends.

A couple of my friends have now started to do this, but they are not friends I would classify with major intimacy... they are passing acquitances. It seems like as we go along our actions become more intimate to show meaningless throw away encounters .. it is quite disturbing.

NOw I realise it is not often that a guy complains about the faux lesbianism that seems to be predominant in our culture but I have to say after 4 years working in a club .. it is really beinging to wear thin.. I like a little lesbian action as much as the next man .. and I am all about freedom of expression .. but the staged psuedo lesbianism that two girls who just want people to watch them .. it isn't attractive. Ladies .. whoever you are .. ur short skirts .. ur fake tans ... ur insessent need for boys to watch you ... you are not wanted.

Other thing bugging me is a girl right now ..dancing with asome serious concentration .. I think she thinks she is the dogs ... alas she is so far off the beat she has to be deaf.

I seem to be stuck in this language rut .. once I get an expression in my head I use it all the time. "Fantastic" .. "cool" .. and now "excellent". It is begining to annoy my friends and even me.

So I realise I have been ignoring this for a while and probebly the few readers I do have, have now forsaken me to other blogs ... I would weep but I don't care that much. Never the less I thought I should explain myself to you ..the internet .. my one true love.

So on the 19th of april I had to go to exeter to present a poster on the work I do for my phd .. there was one minor problem ... I didn't have any results (btw. this is a continuing problem now with the up coming IWCE conferance.) so I had to focus and actually do some work . Now those of you who know me intimately now this is quite hard for me. Partly because I am never happy unless I have a few things on my plate .. one thing will bore me ... but mostly cos I am a lazy time wasting <insert expletive>. but never the less, forsaking my reputation as a laziest person on the planet, I went about the work of research for a good couple of weeks only really taking time off to work and to see jen. This stint of hard work stopped on the 10th as that was the deadline for my poster. At which point I stopped faffing around with my code, tried to sort out my visa for austria and the promtly went on a tour of england..well southern england.
One of my mates sophie lives in hitchen which by surprising coincidence is also where jen lives. So this was the start of my great british journey.
I would like to take this oppertunity to say to all aspiring travellers that if you are planning a trip in england the place to start is not hitchen .. it is a hole .. it has some good people .. but it is still a hole ..I got a static page on the side you can read abotu it.
It was fun though. I got to see the places jen hangs out and she took me to a pub with loads of underage rock kids called "the white heart" or something.. I never felt so old b4. We also took a day in cambride wish was fun. I had a full breakfast there that was amazing .. served in a yorkshire pudding ..aww am now getting hungry just thinking about it.
Anyway after the party town on hitchen I went to stay with my aunt in claygate .. well an aunt of sorts .. I am not sure how we are related but I know we are. Around easter I gt quite home sick so it is nice to be around people u can count on as family.. I belive her daughter spent easter with my mum so it was some kind of child exchange programme. I got fed well and looked after. Spent some time with my 12 year old cousin ... wierd the way he is growing up.
During my stay in claygate I went to see a mate of mine in kent and spent the day in dover .. you can see the link on the side.
I also spent a bit of time with my cousin in london .. she is working toward being a charted accountant .. I don't think I ever really realised how cool she is. It was good to see her. In some ways I still remember her as this little girl that I used to see around my house in Zambia.
The last place on my little mini tour was exeter (link on the side) that was cool. Spent some time hanging out with rob ..that was cool.
Anyway so that is abotu everything .. I am sure I missed out bits but maybe l8r I will tell them all.

So I have added a few more pages about the places I went to..
check em out.