Happy St George's Day

Or so I'm told - it's not a holiday alas.

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."

William Shakespeare, "King Richard II", Act 2 scene 1

(Thanks Pete)

Things I love about England - there are no cockroaches! Well, I haven't seen any anyway and that's good enough for me.

There are no doubt many other things I love about England too but the things I don't like tend to roll off the tongue a bit more readily (I always say that the stereotypical whinging pom has nothing on this whinging aussie). So I dedicate this St George's day to thinking long and hard about everything I like here.

I will probably do that when I'm on my treadmill in that early period before I get too out of breath to think about anything other than not falling off. I've been a bit busy trying to finish a very long and boring report (that's what I'm doing right now, not writing this blog at all, oh no no no). After I've finished this very long and not very interesting report, which comes hot on the heels of another long report, and I'm going to write a short magazine article then a mid-length conference paper - my first. This could well result in a trip to Frankfurt to present said conference paper, here's hoping anyway. April's been a strange month so far, I've had at least one whole week in the office every day and trips only to Newcastle and London, not out of the country at all. Don't worry, I will fix that in May with a trip to sunny Nice at least.

Finally in this post of utterly random thoughts I thought I'd give an update on my technology progress. So far my list of household appliances includes:

• rice cooker
• treadmill
• kettle
• mini fridge
• mini toaster oven
• stove/oven
• washing machine
• ironing board and iron (mum bought that)

but does not include:

• TV
• proper size fridge
• dishwasher
• dryer

and all the other unnecessary luxuries of life. I've now been without a TV for over a year and I can safely report that I do not miss it at all (plus I don't have to pay the £200 or whatever a year for a "TV licence"). Of course, if I didn't have the internet/my laptop it could be a whole different story.