It’d be fair to say that I know a fairly mobile bunch of people — many of my friends from growing up don’t live in the ol’ neighbourhood any more, though having moved to different parts of Australia, or the world.  I’m going to assume this is pretty normal going by the number of places I’ve been on holiday where I’ve heard an Australian accent pipe up in the background (that is to say — EVERYwhere I’ve been, with possibly the exception of Mississippi).
Every now and again, however, I hear …

One of the reasons, it’s been said, that the rationalist/skeptic movement haven’t swollen their membership in the same way as say, an organised religion, is that there’s no obvious focal point for them to congregate at.  So in 1999 a group called Skeptics In The Pub was formed to provide a regular chance for people to experience lectures on “a rational approach to extraordinary claims” in a social environment.
On Monday Feb 15th the London Skeptics In The Pub were holding a meeting, so it seemed a good idea to pop along & …

England is a country rife with tradition & local custom, which gives rise to some fascinating events — I’ve written before about the tar barrel running in Ottery St Mary before, and alluded to but not gotten around to writing about the cheese rolling race at Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire.  In May I was lucky enough to be invited to Padstow, in Cornwall, for another distinct local gem — the Mayday ‘Obby ‘Oss Festival.

Mitch & Bill from our morris dancing team have been heading down to Padstow for years now …

Buying a ticket to see German industrial hard rockers Rammstein seemed like a good idea at the time, and then afterwards I started to have a few hesitations, as the fans give over a certain image being a fairly hard & intense crowd, and though I’ve survived Iron Maiden and Prodigy gigs before, I really started to wonder whether this might be a bit “next level”.
Turns out it was, but for entirely different reasons.
As it happened, I didn’t find a taker for my second ticket, so I did some neat …

It’s probably abundantly clear — because I clearly mentioned it several times — that back in December I was extremely fortunate to be able to get back to my hometown of Adelaide and spend a few weeks there, soaking up the sun and spending time with friends & family.
Organising relaxing holidays has never been my special subject, and this was no exception: there were only 19 days or so available to catch up with everyone, and so the mission was timetabled rigorously.  At this point it should be obvious that …