How Utterly Random!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Orientation evening at Birkbeck tonight - the beginning of exciting times!

And a very good evening it was too. For the first time in 13 years I am once again a member of the NUS!

[Nyder]

I'm at The Barbican - for a work conference. This 3rd floor is bizarre. There's lush plant life amongst all the concrete. I feel like I've wandered into Kinda.....

[SiHart]

Sometimes it's best just to listen.

[Stuart Wallis]

Pardon?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

That's so true.

[SiHart]

Stuart or me?

[Si Hunt]

Very true Si. I always think, at any time you can be talking or listening. So in times when you are under pressure, just listen and let the other person have their say before you proceed.

Si.

[Simon R]

Katy Hill replied to my tweet the other day.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The photo they took of me at Southwark post office last week which is destined to adorn my provisional (and hopefully one day full) driving license for the next ten years is awful.

[Nyder]

Driving Licence / Passport photos are meant to be awful :-)

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

One can't help chuckle a little when reading in a book about Ancient Greece:
"Solon became magistrate of Athens in 594 BC..."

[Andrew Curnow]

[Stuart Wallis]

Katy Hill replied to my tweet the other day.

And one day she'll reply to my "fan letter"...

[Dirk Gently]

PEANUTS!!!

[Dave Tudor]

Chocolate mousse should never go to waste.

[Nyder]

I'm all out of orange & lime juice. Pah!

[Dave Tudor]

Time for another, I think!

[SiHart]

This is a much needed cup of tea! It's already been a morning and a half!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Apparently it's National Leave Work on Time day - not sure if I'm going to manage it today though!

[SiHart]

I have just been told I'm the best librarian in the world.

I'm surprised and delighted by this news.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'n not, you swine!

[SiHart]

Would you like to be Deputy Best Librarian In the World? That's still up for grabs for the days I'm on leave...

[Si Hunt]

New Doctor Who has given me this romantic notion of how fragile life is, and how fleeting it is. Particularly memorable was Torchood's rather chilling notion that when you die there is an empty, lonely big nothing forever, a concept I find just about the most scary thing I've ever heard. These two things have really affected me - they now imbue my entire attitude. This feeling that we are all like eternal, lonely mortals with one splash of colour and fun - our lives - makes me frequently feel so sad I want to cry.

Particularly the sadness of old age; fading looks, that sense that our moment is now - our one, glorious, fleeting moment, and it's rushing by and we can't stop it, but right here and right is our time - makes me want to cry and grab it and enjoy it. Someone casually said the other day "There is no tunnel of light, Heaven is now so make the best of it that you can". When I see an old person, their face lined and sad, their life long and lived, I find that the saddest thing of all. There's no time to hate, or hesitate, or - For God's Sake - kill yourself jumping out a plane. What if you wake up to nothing and someone says "That was it. In an eternity of nothingness, that was your party. And look what you did with it?"

There's little point in worrying that you don't look pretty enough. There are worse looking people in the world, you're stuck with what you're given so make the most of it. There's no point in ever saying "We should have done that...", it's gone, you can't change it, just get on with it and do it better next time. Life is not a rehearsal. "Shine bright like a diamond", this may be your ONLY chance.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

Would you like to be Deputy Best Librarian In the World? That's still up for grabs for the days I'm on leave...

When I rule the world...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I think it would be fair to say I'm feeling a little nervous about this evening. Goodness only knows why. It's next week when we'll find out whether I'm going to sink or swim this time round!