The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

Once again, the country grinds to a halt at the slightest sign of snow. The regular community bus that brings OAPs to the library was cancelled because of the modest fall on Wednesday Night. The phone in the library was red hot with people ringing up to renew their book loans, as they did not want to venture out. The entrance to Ystrad Yard was so clogged up with snow that the Mobile Library was stuck. The Rhigos mountain road between the Rhondda and Cynon valleys was shut. What would we do if there was a serious blizzard that had lasted for days. The country would dissolve into anarchy. The library was shut at 3pm because of the weather, the actually instruction was given at 2:30pm, but I waited until the end of the digital imaging class.

Why is it, when there is the merest hint of snow, there is always a run on bread, eggs and milk, three of the most perishable foodstuffs there are. True, you can freeze bread, but if you buy to much of the stuff, there will be no room in your freezer for any other food. The only milk I have ever seen that was suitable for home freezing was Jersey Gold Top. It must be the high fat content that allows it to be frozen, the same fat content, higher than 5% saturated fat, that clogs arteries on sight.

I will always remember today, as it is the day that I said goodbye to the trees in my garden. They were old, and they were ill and they were in the wrong place, so they had to go. Not that I enjoyed seeing them go, I loved my trees, and I hope to replace at least one of them once my garden had been fully transformed from jungle into something nice. I am considering a Japanese Maple, but they take such a long time to mature, and I am already missing my trees, so maybe I will get a different tree. I do not think I will have another flowering cherry, as so many members of my family are allergic to the blossom. On the plus side, I can see my lilacs more clearly. I might get a lilac tree for the of the garden, the house name I chose, Gardd Lelog means Lilac Garden when translated from Welsh.

Season Seven – You’re about looking at the world as a whole, looking at the grand design of things, the way good balances evil. You are Buffy philosophy, and your best episode is “Conversations with Dead People.”
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Neil Hughes, the trainee lecturer had seen my coat sitting unattended on a chair, and me nowhere to be seen, so he took it into protective custody, taking it over to the departmental office. All well and good, but unbeknown to him, my wallet was in the pocket of the coat, as was my train ticket home, so I was stranded in Trefforest. I was already going down with a cold, so hanging around the campus of the University of Glamorgan, vainly exploring every avenue of investigation for my coat. Eventually I gave up, and phoned home. I love my sisters, and am very grateful that they dropped what they were doing to come and fetch me.

Was there ever a hospital in the 1960’s like The Royal? This is a “nostalgic medical drama” from the makers of Heartbeat. Just like the earlier series it is set in a small section of North Yorkshire, where the Sixties never stopped swinging. The Nurses still look like nurses, in uniform dresses with starched white aprons and silly hats perched on their heads.

The hospital appears to have only four nurses. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, there, but that is how it appears. One of the nurses is a Nun, who is an attractive young woman, so I cannot see her staying a Nun if the series runs much longer. The other is the battle-axe matron, played by Wendy Craig. I must be showing my age, but I can remember a time when someone else would be playing the battle-axe matron, and Wendy Craig would have the role of the sensible Staff Nurse. The rest of the named nursing staff seems to consist of the sensible Staff Nurse who recently lost her fiancé and is destined to become a battle-axe matron in her turn; and a flighty SRN, who happens to be the surgeon’s niece. When not in uniform, these two nurses wear very short mini skirts. The compliment of doctors inclueds a tyrannical consultant surgeon, a put upon Junior Houseman and two other doctors, one of whom who double up as anaesthetist and GP is married to the hospitals other doctor/local GP. Lord Peter Whimsey runs the hospital, with a constantly harassed manager. The dollybird receptionist just happens to be the Chief Porter’s daughter, although as there are only seem to be two porters, calling him chief is an exaggeration.

Despite this, I cannot miss an episode; I suspect the uniforms and the mini skirts might have something to do with this.

I did not receive any cards this morning. Once again, the Feast Day of Saint Valentine uncovered no secret admirers. I think if I did receive a Valentine’s Card in the post, I would be completely flabbergasted. Though today, I had other things on my mind. International Rugby.

First match of this season’s Six Nations Championship in Rugby. The Welsh National XV was playing at the Millennium Stadium against the Scottish National XV. I had a ticket for the match, so did my brother in law Gary, so we both went down to Cardiff on the 2pm train.

Arriva Trains had decided that a two-coach train set would be sufficient for the service. As if? By Ton Pentre, the train was full, by the time it arrived at Tonypandy the train was packed, and on arrival at Porth it was overloaded. If Arriva had tried to pack one of their busses that full, they would have been severely reprimanded by the Health and Safety Executive. As usual with the railways, it will not be until something goes disastrously wrong with the system that things will change.

Cardiff was full. Its pubs were full, its restaurants were full, and its shops were full. As it was a pleasant spring like day, everyone was in a good mood, looking forward to the upcoming game of Rugby.

The Millennium Stadium is a strange building, it has a grace and charm, but by no stretch of the imagination can it be called beautiful. It might look like a crashed alien mothership, but it is a damn site better than the building that was on the site previously. The old National Stadium, was the ugliest building in Cardiff, and it was not helped that it was build next door to the second ugliest building in Cardiff, the Wales Empire Pool. Both these concrete monstrosities were demolished to make way for the Millennium Stadium.

And for the first time in seven years, the Welsh XV won the opening game of the Six Nations Championship. The game was not the feast of great rugby football that the following day’s Wales on Sunday claimed it to be. It was a passable performance by the Welsh XV, against a young and inexperienced Scottish XV, still reeling from the retirement of so many of their veteran players at the end of last season. The Scots were allowed to score their consolation Try at the end of the match, Rugby Union Football is after all a game for gentlemen.

George has been particularly spooked recently. And if you had bumped into your exact double, you might have been too. It happened last night. I had been up my Mother’s house, watching the first episode of the new series of 24 with the family. George had followed me out earlier that evening, doing whatever cats do, and I had paid little attention to him. He popped in at 8pm, I fed him, and then dashed back out again. Now, immediately after the first episode of Cold Cases, which is a very good series, I headed back home. I noticed all the local cats sitting on various vantage points at the top of the street, and I saw what I thought was George. Then I spotted the genuine article facing off this impostor. I started to wonder if I had fed the right cat earlier that evening, as they were identical in every way. I will refer to this new cat as Larry, as George got his name from an obscure reference to Steinbecks Of Mice and Men. (In a 1961 Loony Tunes cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the Abominable Snowman, the Snowman’s character had been based on the Lon Chaney Junior’s portrayal of Larry from Of Mice and Men. The Snowman had come out with the line “And I will love him, and hug him, and call him George”). Larry started following George home. Naturally, George was having none of it, he knows what side his bread is buttered on, and has no intention of sharing the comforts of his home with any other cat.

Yesterday was the Robot Olympics, the culmination of the second project in the Anthrobotics module. The five tasks took up most of the three-hour session. Fortunately, all the building and programming was finished on the robot. It is so much better working with nice people. First thing I noticed when I got to the lecture was that Lara had had her haircut, a change of style. I complimented on it, and she looked as if she had been hit by a falling piano, as neither her boyfriend Simon, nor her other teammate Allan had said anything. I said that you could tell I grew up in a house full of women.

For the event, we had to choose a name for the team. Neither Allan nor Lara objected to my suggestion of The Browncoats. Lara wanted to know what its significance was. I said it was the name of the losing side in the Galactic Civil War in Firefly. She was quite convinced that we were not going to do very well, so this seemed to please her.

• The first challenge was following a line with a single sensor. A ten metre long track was laid on white boards using black insulating tape, 2cm wide. The track had a number of random curves in it, which made the task far from easy. This was against the clock, so when our robot completed the task in 66 seconds, we thought that we had cracked it. We were in the lead right up until the last team’s run, when they stormed around the track in just 42 seconds, knocking us into second.
• The second challenge was following the same line with two sensors. This involved moving the one sensor from the middle of the robot, to the left hand side of the line and adding the second sensor to the right hands side of the line, and changing the software on the RCX. This time we were beaten into second place again, but this round was closer than the last one.
• The third task was collecting counters under the body of the robot. We did abysmally in this task, as every time the robot turned, the robot would lose far to many counters. We all agreed that the software running the task was spot on, but we really needed a better collecting device.
• The fourth test was robot Sumo. The robot was rubbish at finding its opponents. so we were regularly stuffed. However, at this point we were still first over all.
• The robot’s final task was The Mars Challenge, which caused no ends of problems, which is why the The Browncoats finished second over all.

The practical demonstration is just part of the robots was only part of the assessment for the task, on Friday there is a presentation. Lara is confident that describing the web site she has designed will be sufficient for this presentation. We then have to hand in a Programming Diary and a Construction Diary to act as documentation for the project.

The Only good thing that can be said about the snow is it has delayed the appearance of the filthy yellow weeds, commonly known as Daffodils. Most people greet the arrival of this saffron pestilence as joyfully, as a sign that Spring is on its way. For me, the only thing that is on its way is weeks of running noses and watery eyes. Yes, I am in an unenviable position for a Welshman; I am allergic to daffodils. A fact many of my English friends find highly is amusing.

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As it says in the title Al Green’s “I’m so Tired of Being Alone”. I am sick of being single. I hate being a household of one adult. I want a woman to share my life. I want company. I want friendship. I have never been obsessed with sex, but that would be nice as well. I have tried traditional dating agencies, I have tried Internet dating agencies, and I have even tried speed dating. All have failed miserably. I even asked a woman who was going to Kronos 1, who I liked a lot, but she was already seeing someone.

I know I am not gay, I find absolutely nothing attractive in the male body, whereas I adore women. So, what is going wrong. I don’t know.

{OK, I have had my moan. I will stop be pathetic now. Normal services will resume as soon as possible.}

I really don‘t know what was wrong with me last night, I was in bed by 9:30pm, reading my SFX magazine, and was asleep by 10pm. So far I have only reduced my Epilim by 200 milligrams for a week, it should not have had than much of an effect on me. If I had been having ridiculously late night recently, then I would not be surprised. As it is, why I should hit the hay so early is a mystery to me. Not that I am complaining, I had a great night‘s sleep, and woke up refreshed.

Simon from IT installed the new Counter PC this morning. There is money in the budget to upgrade from the Windows 95 machines, that are currently running as terminals for the Library System, to the latest Windows XP Pro machines. Unfortunately, there was no cash in the budget for a new monitor, so the old 15″ CRT is still being used. What is more, it is beige, so it does not match with the shiny new black and silver PC, mouse and keyboard.

Am I the only person who is irritated by the advert for Kellog‘s Special K breakfast cereal. It features stick thin women who do not need to go on a diet struggling into jeans that are obviously two sizes to small for them. DO advertisers still think we are all that stupid? Changing what you have for breakfast will not make you any thinner, especial as a bowl of Special K has exactly the same amount of calories as a bowl of cornflakes.