Have been here now for >48 hours - by two hours, precisely (the train I was on was late, and arrived about 25 minutes later than expected: that's the result of having a single mainline from the capital). Interesting greetings, interesting place. I'm sure I'll figure it out pretty quickly, tho - things will definitely settle down this week.

I wrote a little while ago about the UK Medical Careers Research Group survey of 1999 medical school graduates, and how I had answered (most of) the questions. I also mentioned that I'd been taking part in it for the past however many years - well, we've been surveyed a number of times. Now - revelation! - I was tidying up just the other day and came across the form from 2004-05. So I guess I didn't send it in. Is it now too late? Anyway, some of it I'd filled in, other bits are obvious, so I've included it below...

Introduction

I received this survey in the mail today - "Calling all 1999 Graduates" - it said. I've taken part (kind of: I can't remember returning all the forms) in the past surveys, and this is the most recent one to come out. I guess in part that I have always been ambiguous about the responses: it's very hard to know how to reply to a single-response questionnaire, when really you (one) wants to put several choices, and justify them.... Anyway, am filling in the current one and, as usual, there's not enough space, so thought I'd put additional comments on here.

When I was little, I used to fence foil. I recently returned to my old club where I was warmly welcomed back - and beaten resolutely by everybody; mostly due to my complete lack of fitness, but also (I say) due to the rules having changed. Indeed, everyone said that the timings are now different, with a longer contact time required and a shorter cut-off from the first hit registering, such that stop hits in foil now make the sport resemble epee. However, I just tonight discovered another difference that I've pondered about over the last few months and now discovered to be true: the lights have also been swapped over. See Laurent Harper's video of the 1993 British Championships (beating Nick Bell - another old name who I hear is still around) for verification that I'm not mad.

And as to everything, all good things, people and chickens come to an end.... I just checked my email to discover that, unfortunately, Mr Fox wins today:

Today at midday, the black chicken was killed by a fox. I had let them out and was sitting in the kitchen when the speckled one burst into the kitchen and jumped onto my computer.
I rushed out to discover some feathers by the trampoline and the body under the big tree. The orange chicken was nowhere to be found. Eventually, maybe two hours later the orange chicken re-emerged.
The upshot of all this is that I am cooking roast chicken tonight if you wish to join me.

House-sitting a flat in the city, large garden with grass and trees and railway at the end, it's a good place to sit and work during the day. Added bonus are the 3 eggs daily provided by my companions, the chickens. Well, was meant to be: was shown how to retrieve the eggs from within the "egg-loo" - essentially a chicken coop, allegedly designed and marketed by a company called OmLet who come and install it for you - on the first day by my friend (a relative of the owner)... returned into the apartment and back to the light (it was night outside) to discover his arm was alive with crawling things: very small, who knows what? Well, we figured that out quickly when we found a tube of "Red mite powder" on a shelf . Red mites? They're only little, but vicious, apparently - google returns a very informative pdf which explains that they are also known as Dermanyssus gallinae, a renowned chicken parasite that is seemingly impossible to eradicate and infects chicken farms (and other birds) throughout the country.

The title of this post is taken from Saul Alinsky's eponymous book, which I spy sitting on the mantelpiece over the fireplace, just a short distance away from where I sit. But that is not what I was going to talk about initially... instead, I wanted to highlight some topical news (of the week) about drugs in the United Kingdom: a report has been published, which follows on another report, which makes some suggestions according to some heavily-involved people in the industry (well, from the "establishment" perspective that is, doctors, police, drugs-workers, the like) that maybe the classification of drugs isn't quite so straightforward. And there beginneth the arguments....

So, you get to learn a little bit about me... such as I use firefox - if you haven't gathered that already..

Wow! So it's been about 6 weeks since I wrote anything on here - note: on here - mainly due to a profound lack of connectivity (and the need to prioritise other tasks) and writing offline and never getting around to posting... If I have a chance, I might post some stuff up retrospectively, but don't hold your breath.

And I've discovered how rubbish this site looks to some users: those who use micro$oft Internet Evil (TM) versions 5 or 6 - or probably any others as well. Well, tough, I'm afraid: there are no plans at the moment to fix this, although maybe in the longer term... Meanwhile, I suuggest you use firefox which suffers none of the same problems and is an infinitely more elegant browser.

Telephones - I'm not too good with them. I guess a lot of people could tell you that anyway, but I'm really not, and I dislike them, too - whatever happened to letter writing, sticking to agreements (like, i'm gonna meet you at such-and-such a time) or just doing the work cos it's a) enjoyable and b) got to be done - not watching the clock?

I'm reminded of all this as the phone just rang and I couldn't figure out how to answer it. Ha! It had rung yesterday and I'd assumed the battery hadn't charged properly because the phone might have been askew on the stand. Turns out, it wasn't charged again today, either, which prompted me to start pressing buttons at random. And, lo! It works.