Today I've mostly bin...

[chazzie]

Good

[gill216]

Kicking myself! This venue is about 2 miles down the road to me. I've only just read it. It wasn't in my junk mail, I just thought it was sales blurb to read at a later time. That said I've never heard of these renowned chefs!

Dear Customer,

To celebrate being proud sponsors of the World Curry Festival 2011, we're inviting you to join us at The Headrow, Leeds on 23-25th September to experience a wonderful weekend of all things curry.

It's your chance to sample a range of delicious curries from across the globe as well as picking up some tasty tips from internationally renowned chefs such as Hermant Oberoi and Vivek Singh.

Register for your free tickets online today, so you don't miss out on the action!

[tricia]

desolate - it looks as thogh Scotland is going home from New Zealand

We have to beat England ...... sorry you know where my support will be


1 point ......Why was Dan Parks not more accurate

Tricia

[MBH]

.... having my first ever visit to a Comedy Club.

The title of the show was "God Laughs Too", and it was a charity gig set up by some of the local vicars. Rev Glyn is a football mad 'character', and seems to be looking for a sideline as a stand-up comedian.

There were a number of amateurs from different churches - some with a single joke, but 3 or 4 with decent length routines. Rev Glyn introduced the first half, and another gent John Sinclair (who looked far too like Richard Griffiths for comfort) he did the second half.

Talk about a mixed audience - lol - comedy fans, church people, all ages. There was certainly some comment about the age profile from the Pros - not your usual comedy club crowd - but it went down very well. [Vicars telling suggestive jokes "Sorry Bishop" ]

Two professionals rounded off each half. Andy Kind was very funny with observational humour based on life. Not crude at all (even when moving into the area of testicular cancer scares), and the cackles of laughter on the saucy ones was a testiment to the evil minds of older women

The other Pro was John Archer - Comic Magician. Totally brilliant. A big, loud Northern bloke that had to announce his title because to the casual observe he looks like a jobbing builder. He had a ukulele on stage that looked tiny against the size of him - but boy, could he play it.

Started off with Uke intros and very short songs such as the following. [First one is in particularly bad taste - avoid if you may be offended]


I put my Father in a liquidizer.
and now I'm drinking Pop.

They put me in prison for stroking a Smurf....
They put me in prison for stroking a Smurf....
They put me in prison for stroking a Smurf....
... so now I'm not feeling blue.

He also picked on people in the audience - which (in addition to the songs) could have put us right off him, but he chose well and everything was in fun.

The magic was comedy based, but he did have someone pick a random 2-digit number over 33 [the woman chose 50], and in less than 30 seconds he creatd a perfect magic square. Horizonta / diagonal / vertical / 4 corners / each quadrant / top2-bottom2 / left2-right2. There MAY be a formula for this, but I was impressed.

Then he finished off by getting his uke back and playing a perfect Bach minuete. Very impressive.

Had a great night of laughter therapy and donated money to a local hospice. Everyone wins.

[Scurra]

John Archer is very good. He was on Penn & Teller's terrific "Fool Us" show earlier this year, where the idea was that you needed to show them a trick they couldn't guess - and he did!

[LAT]

Sounds great fun MBH!

I've spent most of the evening working. It seems there is no-one in our head office capable of doing anything much with an Excel spreadsheet so I was bequeathed one nastily complex one and have to replicate it for 12 different countries. The first one took me about 2 hours but I've got it down to nearer 50 minutes now.(having done 2 more). This is in addition to my normal work (at the busiest time of the month) and overseeing the destruction of 93 large boxes of files/papers that are no longer needed. But at 25 minutes past midnight my brain is no longer capable of functioning properly (is it ever? ) so I am going to call it a day and go to bed I think.

[MBH]

It seems there is no-one in our head office capable of doing anything much with an Excel spreadsheet

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Scurra]

A classic example of one of the glaring flaws in our modern society. But as I like to kill threads that start to get political, I'd better not go there.

You have all my sympathy.

[LAT]

Thanks for the sympathy guys, and Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr was about what I felt.

[Bunnylump]

MBH That sounds like brilliant fun. I've never been to a comedy night (not really sure why!!) apart from once seeing Punt and Dennis (who were hysterically funny).

That is just SO unfair of them to expect you to do that, LAT. I have also been working silly hours (been working again today) but I'm doing it not because I have to but because if I don't, my boss won't do it, and then the children will suffer. I'm not totally blaming her (she's been given a crazy timetable, teaching English, general science, physics, CoPE AND maths, fabulous when she is our SENCo) but it is REALLY annoying that yet again, because I am conscientious, I feel obliged to be doing way more than I should. And this is against a backdrop of having received the official letter from HCC yesterday which begins "We are delighted to inform you..." and then goes on to say how they are cutting our sickness benefits and our London weighting. (This being agreed to without a ballot, by a union which I am not in. ) Still, I suppose I should be thankful that I have a job - there are so many others less fortunate than me.

Anyway, I'm not doing any more for today, so I suppose I'd better catch up with all the washing, cleaning and cooking instead.

[kathlyn]

I'm just glad I don't work anymore. You have my sympathy.

[Bunnylump]

My son's gone into his new university today to try to find some more normal people on his Masters course. I don't think it's occurred to him yet that people who do a Masters in Scientific research are likely to be a little, um nerdy? Mind you, he's quite odd himself, so you never know. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been SWELTERING. I can't believe this weather!! I am actually back in shorts and a vest top.

[MBH]

MBH That sounds like brilliant fun. I've never been to a comedy night (not really sure why!!) apart from once seeing Punt and Dennis (who were hysterically funny).

It was good, and full marks the the general 'members of the clergy' putting themselves up for the fun. [The Bishop was in the audience, and he got some stick ]

John Archer's advertising mentioned the Penn & Teller incident, and I was very pleased to find it on our old friend YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfjCUeCPMM

A lot of the things he says working the audience are staple parts of his act (since they are a repeat of what I saw last night - including his introduction of himself) - he does seem a dab hand at picking who to target in an audience No offense take by anyone.

Thanks for the sympathy guys, and Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr was about what I felt.

That response from me is frustration because (for some minor remuneratons) I could FIX that lack of knowledge. A bunch of Council workers have been shown the wonders of CountIf and the power of absolute rather than relative addressing, and basically having their minds expanded on the ideas of using a Spreadsheet like a Database to give real information. Since I work for the Council too, they're effectively getting this training for free

[kathlyn]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been SWELTERING. I can't believe this weather!! I am actually back in shorts and a vest top.

SWELTERING - temp in our garden this afternoon registered 100!!!!!!!

[LAT]

That response from me is frustration because (for some minor remuneratons) I could FIX that lack of knowledge.

Trouble is it wouldn't be minor remuneration. These are people in Memphis (so a return flight and hotel accommodation would be needed!) some of whom probably think of leaving Tennessee as foreign travel. One girl looks up exchange rates between all the currencies in which we operate worldwide and issues them to us for use each month. We were asked a few years ago when a branch office opened in Japan if it was part of the Eurozone!

I added some COUNTIFs to the spreadsheet

[Cenwulf]

The magic was comedy based, but he did have someone pick a random 2-digit number over 33 [the woman chose 50], and in less than 30 seconds he creatd a perfect magic square. Horizonta / diagonal / vertical / 4 corners / each quadrant / top2-bottom2 / left2-right2. There MAY be a formula for this, but I was impressed.

There is a formula: this method appeared in Johnny Ball's book 'Think Box'.
It starts with a basic magic square 1 to 16:
14 01 12 07
11 08 13 02
05 10 03 16
04 15 06 09
Note the four numbers in red, as they are the key to the trick.
The number chosen has to be over 33 as the base square magic total is 34.
To get the square for the new number, subtract 34 from it: 50-34=16.
Now add this to each of the four red numbers: the square now looks like this:
30 01 12 07
11 08 29 02
05 10 03 32
04 31 06 09
The new magic total can be reached in the following ways:
The four columns
The four rows
The two diagonals
The two pairs of two-square diagonals
The four quadrants
The centre squares
The four corners
The corners of the four 3x3 squares
The central squares of the horizontal and vertical edges

[Bunnylump]

Working all day, coming home to get changed / have a cup of tea and pop in here for 5 mins and then going back to work for the whole evening (Open Evening tonight). I so badly don't want to go back and be charming to parents and year 6 pupils when I SHOULD be lounging around in front of the telly, but there you go... I don't foresee finishing until about 10pm. You can all think of me...

[giraffe]

It was open evening at Lally's school last night and they have literally thousands attend, you cannot move in the corridors. The school was closed today presumably so that the staff can recover. I made the mistake of going to the open evening once when K was applying, and I made sure I went to one of the slightly less busy open mornings for Lally.

[Bunnylump]

It was a complete nightmare. We've left all the resources and display stuff in the room, so I'll have to be in early tomorrow to clear it all up and put the desks back. And we have a FULL DAY tomorrow to look forward to.

I have to say though, that we had some of our SEN pupils helping out - and they were completely charming, helpful and enthusiastic all evening. They were a complete credit to the school. I can see a postcard home to each of them being sent out tomorrow.

[Bunnylump]

...Out to a quiz night. And we WON. I have to say my general knowledge is rubbish, but they had a round which was a whole page of dingbats. So I polished them off nicely, which I believe was the clincher... Mind you, horribly embarrassing because we didn't win the customary set of bottles of wine. No, instead we won a TROPHY, and we had to have our photos taken!! :shock