Posting for Mike

While in Ottawa yesterday I had half an hour loose so went for a walk on Capital Hill. Next to the house of parliament I spotted this. Focus on the Little Furry Object(LFO), not the blue anorak. LFO claimed to be the member of parliament for kicking horse pass, but I think he (or she, the voice was kind of neutral) was actually a Mountie in disguise to protect Ottawa against terrorist attacks. This suspicion was further supported by the local police nearby who claimed that the LFO who clearly was disguised as a groundhog, was in fact a gopher, very suspicious, unless, of course they were actually CIA agents from the US disguised as Ottawa Police, the CIA would undoubtedly think that Gophers and Grounhogs are both weapons of mass destruction and be unable to tell the difference between the two.

Anyway at last report, Parliament is still safe.

Mike

Names

Nobody is posting any more and I am really getting a bit perturbed by seeing Tom’s nether regions every time I check the blog.
So, just to prove that everyone’s lives our probably more interesting than mine. Here is my thoughts on names.
Cataloguing and ordering papers at work is often brightened up by laughing at people’s names. One of my favourites is Fartmann!
However recently I have been ordering papers on a specific somatic mutation. One prolific author is Mr Barstard another prolific author is Mr Randi.
Surely one day they must do a paper together. What joy that would bring to my life!

Deck chairs

Just to let you know that the family love of deck chairs is not over. While London was experiencing snow last weekend we were sitting on Deck chairs in the French Alps with Matt and Sue. Very nice time we had too.
Here is a picture of Tom, their airdale displaying dogly dignity. Really, Tom, put it away, you're not David Beckham!

Following on...

....from the conference-related story below, I was wondering if anyone has ever been to a conference or dinner where they had really excellent pre/during/after dinner entertainment, and if so, what was it? I find sorting this out even harder than keeping people awake after lunch (although that can be a challenge all day when talking about training software).

At the first conference I did two years ago we had a wine tasting challenge which was fantastic (www.tasteofthevine.co.uk) but last year we had a speaker who was just dreadful (so I won't include his website link). This year the favoured suggestion amongst the guys here is a casino night but I'm not that sold. Our audience are training/HR bods and range from graduates right through to those knocking on the door of retirement and is almost a 50/50 split male to female.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received :)
Love Kate xxxx

Graveyard spot

On Monday I went to a seminar at the British Library. Once again it proved to me that they keep the most boring speakers for after lunch when everybody is sleepy. Is there some kind of sweepstake among conference organisers to see how many people they can send to the land of nod?
Anyway, this time they excelled themselves. The bloke giving the talk was a substitute and he was clearly terrified! He was quietly spoken and had a strong Lancashire accent and he gabbled. He was incomprehensible. I tried to listen to him but after 5 minutes and I could feel me eyelids growing heavy so I decided to write a letter on the complimentary pad of A4 British Library paper they had given me.
When I looked round after 10 minutes or so there must have been at least 5 people asleep. There were others reading the brochures that had come with their welcome pack. Others were tapping away on their laptops - I bet they were playing spider solitaire. At least the speaker didn't notice as he never took his eyes from his notes or the screen. But it was toe curlingly awful. At the end of his talk the chairman who could obviously see everyone's inattention said: "Well, thank you, it's always difficult to deliver somebody else's talk"
The two guys in front of me were American and this speech (incomprehensible to everyone) had been proceeded by a talk by a Glaswegian! The last speaker before tea was an American and you could see them almost crying with relief!
Still, a trip to London is better than proper work. I got a lovely lunch and when I should have been networking at the lunch break I went for a little walk around the British Library and visited their lovely shop.