Yak & Natter

One of the BNM list members, Tristan, is doing the London to Brighton bike ride on. It’s in aid of the British Heart Foundation, so go on, sponsor him.

Last night we were at a photo exhibition at the
Gardner Arts Centre called
It’s Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware. The trigger to go was the combination of having a copy of Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth and also loving the Billy Bragg song that the title is taken from (New England).

It was a free exhibition, and it was of a size that occupied us for about 15 minutes.
There was a mix of stuff: official NASA prints (my personal favourites), photos of the Russian space programme (best: a cosmonaut ready to go, but sitting on a nasty 70s sofa in what looked like someone’s living room), plus fake space shots: pictures of pancakes that resembled the moon, and windscreen bug splat that looked like the night sky.

We watched a new tv programme – Six Feet Under – last night (it was actually shown on Monday, but I’d got Tivo to record it because the Guardian had said it was a must watch). It was really entertaining and very well put together (Alan Ball, producer of American Beauty, is one of the directors). From the show’s website

“One of the most acclaimed shows of the 2001 season, SIX FEET UNDER takes a darkly comic look at the Fishers, a dysfunctional family who own and operate an independent funeral home in Los Angeles. Patriarch Nathaniel Fisher is no longer living (except in the hearts and visions of his family). So his wife Ruth, sons Nate and David, and daughter Claire are left to cope with the routine and not-so-routine aspects of life in the grief-management business.“.

As usual, we’re trailing behind the Americans here, and they’re already on to Season 2.

One of the more annoying things was that I recognised the actress who plays Brenda Chenowith – Rachel Griffiths, but couldn’t remember where I knew her from. Thanks to her biography I find that it’s because she was Rhonda in Muriel’s Wedding (which incidently is one of our favourite films).

The next episode is showing on Channel 4 on Monday evening at 11.10pm – set the video for it.

Well done Ireland. We’ve just been listening to the Ireland v Saudi Arabia game on Radio 5 in the office and it’s been a great game to listen to. I’m planning on watching the highlights on the tv later tonight. Now, I just want England to do the same tomorrow and get through to the second round as well. Come on England.

On Friday evening, after the football we went out for a few beers with Jeremy and Kirsty. As we were leaving the pub (the Three Jolly Butchers in Brighton) there were a 4 people with white scientist coats on and a large bin on wheels. We decided to see what it was all about and found out that they were giving out packets of Shoks (new crisp snacks made by Hula Hoops).

We tried them today, we had a packet of Totally Cheesy and a packet of Full-On Onion ones. They’re like hula hoops, only smaller. The onion ones weren’t particularly oniony but the cheesy ones were okay. Both tasted of artificial flavouring though.

Yeah! England beat Argentina for the first time in years, about 30 years I think. The last 20 minutes was nail biting stuff though.

Someone on BNM posted a link to Showing The Game Information Service. This is being run in Sussex during the World Cup as a pilot scheme, and it sounds like a great idea. An easy way to make sure that you find a pub that is showing a game, and also get an idea on whether the pub has a big screen or just a normal tv.

We’ve been out searching for office space this afternoon and unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be that much quality space available in the Brighton area. We only looked at one place today and it reminded me of a student house, dark and a bit dingey. It was a flat really, not purpose built office space and it had a pale pink and black bathroom, complete with a bath! Not very professional looking really.