Claire’s Dad Is Getting Married

Claire and I are off to Norfolk this evening, for her dad’s wedding tomorrow. He and his lady have finally decided that “living in sin” wasn’t for them, and they’re tying the knot.

Traditionally, wedding gifts were household goods, appliances, etc., but both John (Claire’s dad) and Pat both own their own houses, fully stocked, and so – contrarily – we might find that for this couple, who already own two toasters, two food mixers, two washing machines, etc., the best gift they could possibly receive would be an eBay account from which to sell all of the duplicated homewares when they formally move in together, soon.

It’s interesting to see how the traditions of marriage are having to grow to fit the times: with fewer and fewer couples for whom getting married is synomymous with “leaving home and starting a family of your own” – and particularly in this case, which two retirees exchanging rings – the conventional symbols of marriage (what does “their wedding night” honestly mean any more?) and weddings (what do you buy for a couple who’ve already started their lives in the bigger wider world?) are dying out.

For a moment there, there was a risk that I’d be perceived as a traditionalist, or, worse yet, as a fundamentalist: to the contrary – I think that the ideas behind marriage are well overdue for an overhaul, and, as many of you know, I have personal objections to marriage which mean that you’re not ever likely to hear wedding bells from anywhere near where I’m standing.

Nonetheless, weddings are a fun excuse for a party. Like funerals, they bring families together in a rare bonding moment, but unlike funerals you don’t feel so guilty for getting pissed and hitting on your cousin. And in the end, isn’t that what life is all about?

Operation: Ursidius Migration

Claire and I have sorted out where we’re going to live following the announcement that we were to move out of The Flat on Cambrian Place.

Despite a fruitless first few weeks of house-hunting we’ve finally found somewhere which is pretty much ideal: a little larger than The Flat, not too much more expensive, and still centrally located. More information on the move and the steps it will involve can be found on the RockMonkey page “TheFlat“, including a debate on naming the new residence.

We’ll be moving on Wednesday 14th December. Time to start cashing in on all those favours we’ve built up by helping everybody we know move house over the last three years! (Kit can be let off with not helping)

Fab.

ALP Property Management

What follows is a true account of my dealings with ALP, a property management and lettings agency in Aberystwyth.

READERS ARE REMINDED THAT THIS POST CONSTITUTES THE OPINIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS ONLY OF THE AUTHOR, AND THESE ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN AS REFLECTIVE OF THE OPINIONS OF ANY OTHER PERSON. (since this blogpost, ALP have phoned me)

Like many of you, I’d heard the horror stories about ALP, the property management/letting agency at the roundabout at the end of Alexandra Terrace, in Aberystwyth. A friend of mine reports that while he rented part of a shared house with them, an agent would frequently let himself in and refuse to leave until due rent was paid in cash. I’ve also heard reports of them witholding deposits without cause (until taked to court to reclaim them), among other atrocities.

But perhaps that’s just the way they treat the tenants of the ‘student houses’ they let out. Or perhaps these are isolated cases. In any case, they can’t be that bad. There’s certainly no harm in viewing a property they manage, is there? So Claire and I thought…

At half past nine we met up with ALP’s agent at their offices, and he took us out to see the flat we’d expressed an interest in: a third-and-fourth floor two-bedroomed flat on Albert Place, opposite the council offices. The agent unlocked the door and led us upstairs, where the usual tour began: this is the main bedroom, this is the bathroom, blah blah blah. We got to the door to the living room, on the upper floor. The agent tried to open it, but only got it ajar before it jammed against something. The agent put on a pleasant tone: “I’ve just got some tenants I’d like to show around,” he called in.

“Why don’t you come back at the agreed time, 2pm?” came the response: slightly shaky, slightly rehearsed. The agent pretended not to hear him.

“I said I’ve got some tenants to show around,” he repeated, pushing the door a little further. Through the crack, I could see that the tenant had wedged a chair against the door handle and retreated to the opposite corner of the room.

“Why don’t you come back at the agreed time, 2pm?” the tenant answered again. So this was a rehearsed response.

The agent pretended to the tenant that he hadn’t heard him, and continued to jiggle the door handle to try to dislodge the chair. He turned to us and imitated the tenant’s words in a mocking mime. The tenant repeated his message, adding, “You said you’d only bring people after 2pm.”

The agent made his little performance again, showing us what he thought of the tenant’s concerns. Then, having moved the door enough to get his hand around it, he manuevered the chair carefully out of the way and entered.

I needn’t even discuss the legality of what he did. We were sufficiently disgusted with the attitude towards tenants to not even consider renting property from ALP. As we left, the agent tried to belittle the problems with the tenant, implying that he was paranoid delusional. Whether or not this is the case is completely irrelevant, of course, to the fact that the agent unlawfully entered the home of a tenant, and, when asked to leave, continued to force entry, thereby technically being a tresspasser. God knows how intimidated the tenant feels by them to resort to trying to barricade the doors of their own home.

I’ve not sure I’ve ever been so disgusted by the actions of a company disregarding it’s customers’ rights. Sony’s rootkit‘s got nothing on ALP.

Troma Night

Troma Night last night was fantastic. I’m sure those of you who care will hear more soon, but I just wanted to make this little blog post to thank Matt P for his card (a heavily-adapted “100 Today” card) and to prompt Gareth to upload or otherwise get to me the photos he took, so the world can see!

The Rails Cafe

This Rails Cafe article made me smile. Rails really is a lot of fun. If SmartData gets the upcoming project I hope it does, I’ll be pushing for Rails to be the development platform: the project would lend itself very well to it. Perhaps I’ll hammer out a hundred lines or so in advance, in order to demonstrate my point when the discussion comes. Again, assuming the client takes our quote.

I’m limping a lot better today, almost up to a normal walking pace, and my foot hurts a lot less (except when I walk for more than ten minutes on end).

Claire‘s made a great start on looking for a new place for us to live, finding a few possible places already and arranging for us to visit one this evening. This possible new place sounds fantastic, but might be a little beyond our budget. We’ll have to do the maths this evening.

Still Limping

Well, I’m still limping, but I’m not in quite so much pain. Claire has parodied my attitude to my injury in the current episode of her webcomic, The Aber Effect.

In other news, I received a pipe-cleaner e-mail out of the blue from my old friend Gary, who I speak to about once every couple of years, recently. Apparently I’ve made a Scatmania-reader out of him, but I’d never have known, because he never leaves a comment. Ah well. Let this be him told.

Abnib Real Ale Ramble 2005

Well, Claire, JTA, Jimmy and I made it back safely from our weekend of rambling across the mountains of mid-Wales and participating in one of the biggest Real Ale festivals in the UK. Some photos are up on Abnib Gallery: all from my mobile, so far, but I’m sure that JTA and Claire will add a few that they took, soon. I’ve also put together a comic-book-esque collage of some of our activities [354K, JPEG], for if you just want the highlights and can’t even be bothered to read on.

Highlights (and other bits-of-interest) included:

  • Llanwrtyd Wells is even smaller than the maps imply. Jimmy went exploring, and 15 minutes later he’d seen pretty much the whole town. On another occassion he wandered into an unstaffed bookshop (breaking the door handle on the way) and took a book, leaving some money on the counter for the shopkeeper upon his return. Nevertheless, even with Jimmy’s directions, Claire and I couldn’t find the chemist.
  • We managed to have not only a “Geek Night On Location”, playing two games of Scotland Yard (a copy of which was conveniently left in the chalet we rented) but a “Troma Night On Location” too, watching The Machinist and Sin City.
  • Our preferred drinking establishment, the Neaudd Arms, had, at one point, 74 different ales on. There were closer to 40 by the time we got there, but several other ‘regular’ ales were also available on tap.
  • I think I’ve broken a bone in my foot (one of the ones from where my little toe connects to).
  • We did the 10-mile walk on the first day, and (with the exception of Jimmy, who wasn’t well) the 15-mile one on the second. Thanks to my limping, mostly, we ran late on the second day, and this, coupled with the bitter cold in the valleys, meant that the beer station operators had given up and gone home, leaving us to drink as much as we liked (rather than having to trade in tokens, as was expected of us). So we did.
  • On our first night, the chalet was so cold that we all repeatedly woke up shivering. Claire solved this, in a dream, by imagining some HTML tags helping to tuck in her duvet, and slept soundly thereafter. Jimmy – not knowing HTML, presumabley – had to suffice with turning on the fire.
  • For the weekend, we played “Jimmy’s Game”, who’s rules were as follows: none of us were to make any “another game, with the inevitable consequence that we all spent the entire weekend “out of The Game”.
  • We all want to go again next year, if not before!
  • The second day was so cold that beer left standing would begin to freeze after a few minutes.
  • We’d finish each day – perhaps in order to undo what health benefits might have been given by the walking – with a huge fried supper: sausages, eggs, bacon, mashed potato loaded with cheese, tomatoes, baked beans, and mushrooms. Plus desert of swiss roll or sweets. I’ve never seen Claire eat such a full plate before. Perhaps I need to make her climb hills more often.

That’ll do for the highlights. I’m sure you’ll be able to read more on other people’s weblogs soon.

Further reading:

We’re On The Move

Always a fan of double meanings.

This weekend, Claire, JTA, Binky and I are going over to the Real Ale Ramble in Llanwrtyd Wells. It’ll be fun. I just have to find some warm clothes and wash them, first.

But we’re also “on the move” in that Claire and I are going to have to move out of The Flat in January. Suppose we’d better increase our househunting efforts, then.

Any suggestions for a “Final Troma Night @ The Flat” themed party would be much appreciated. Get your thinking caps on.

And on that note, I’ll upload this weekend’s Dan & Alex comics and get “on the move”…

God’s Debris

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) has released as a free e-book God’s Debris, a short fray into religion and philosophy. I’ve read several of Scott Adam’s books before. Most of these have been comic books – compilations of Dilbert strips. Others have been his interesting, satirical books on office life and tongue-in-cheek guides to survival in cube farms. God’s Debris is somewhat different. It is a work of fiction which centres on the conversation between two individuals with, at least to begin with, radically different views on the nature of God and the universe. The elder of the two, the self-defined “Avatar”, talks little of his beliefs, instead choosing to speak widely and knowledgeably of facts he is privy to: facts based on assumed premises such as free will and, in a roundabout way, creationism. The younger – the protagonist and a blatant representation of “the majority” – is a non-commital monotheist who has neglected to put more than a modicum of thought into his beliefs. Like most of the monotheists I know, I guess. And, sadly, many of the atheists. The two talk about the nature of the universe through a series of short, well-written chapters, loaded with comprehensive analogies but with a significant amount of “thinker material” if the reader cares to delve deeper. The book is designed as a thought experiment, and has moderate success. Spoiler Warning – what follows is a discussion about some of the significant points of the book – if you’re going to read it (it doesn’t take long: I read the whole thing in just over an hour) then go read it and come back here later. Or to jump to the conclusion of my micro-review, scroll down until you reach the “end of spoilers” section. I’ve had a closer look at the chapters of the book:

  • Introduction (Introduction, The Package, The Old Man) – the story is set-up well, quite obviously as a work of fiction. Several mentions are made to thought processes of the individual and behaviour in accordance with society’s rules, which will be referenced later. The writing style of the introductory chapters, like the rest of the book, is charming and welcoming, and approachable on many different levels. The deliveryman and the Avatar – the two characters in the story – are introduced, and the latter is done so with an air of mystery which I feel is possibly unbefitting of the status (“level 5”) he later declares. Probability, which forms a major part of the story and of the Avatar’s beliefs, is introduced through a coin-flip metaphor, but, again, the level of mystery and suspense induced is perhaps too much for a small, easy-reading volume such as this one.
  • Free Will and Determinism in Omnipotence (Your Free Will, God’s Free Will, Science, Where Is Free Will Located?) – The concept of free will is introduced; that is, that a thinking organism can have control over it’s own activities, and the discussion turns to that of determinism: if there is a single entity in the universe which truly knows everything, including the future, then there is no free will for any entity, but there can be an illusion of free will. As a determinist, I have no problem with this statement, which is presented as being bold and world-changing, however Adams seems to try to present it as something shocking; perhaps to cater to readers who may not have entirely followed the free will vs. determinism thought train through. However, the characters then go on to dismiss the idea of universal determinism, without further discussion, which left me feeling somewhat cheated. Thankfully I carried on reading regardless, drawn on by the excellent writing style, because (as you’ll see below) I found the book very enjoyable despite the fact that the author seems almost to expect that the reader will agree with him on basic premises like the existence of free will. These chapters go on to discuss God, the soul, etc. in a way that, for a moment, made me fear that the novel was going to continue to use these “woolly” terms to avoid having to talk about any real philosophical, moral, or religious issues at all! However, I was proven to be, again thankfully, mistaken…
  • Facets of Belief, and Religious Incompatibility (Genuine Belief, Road Maps, Delusion Generator) – The Avatar and the deliveryman go on to discuss the value of religion and where it comes from (again, of course, in the belief set of the Avatar), in what turns out to be a well thought-out couple of chapters. Analogies are drawn which let the reader begin to think about religious teachings and their place in our world, which are referenced wonderfully by the later chapter Curious Bees. Several well-written chapters. The nature of abstraction and the need for mental models through which to understand the world is touched upon, although not in a terribly detailed manner.
  • Understanding God, and The Avatar’s Beliefs (Reincarnation, UFOs, and God, God’s Motivation, God’s Debris, God’s Consciousness, Physics of God Dust) – At long last, the Avatar goes in to detail about the nature of the universe as he understands it: that there is/was (the temporal difference is subtle) an omnipotent God, and the only possible thing that an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God could be motivated to do is to bring about It’s own destruction (Adams repeatedly uses “He” when referring to God, which irks me slightly, but not enough to count against his book). The Avatar’s reasoning is this: that for such an entity, any other course of action or inaction is entirely pointless, as there is no motivation to do so. There is no motivation to do so because all possible other states can be conceived already, and, through their conception, they exist (that they exist as “thoughts” is irrelevant, because the perception of the universe as we experience it can not be demonstrated to be more than a thought belonging to some deity with a wandering mind). As a result, the Avatar reasons, the only experience different to universal omnipotence for a universally omnipotent entity is to cause Itself to become something that is not omnipotent: the Avatar believes that this is what the universe is – the remains of a God that destroyed itself.This line of reasoning doesn’t sit well with me. Wouldn’t an entity with ultimate power and knowledge in an (obviously) determinist reality equally be able to appreciate the results of even such an operation? And if not, It has demonstrated Itself to be subject to rules such as “existence”. As I see it, if there is an omnipotent entity, It has a form which resides outside of the rules of existence, which leads us back to the original conundrum that It would not be motivated to do anything at all, and it would be entirely undetectable in any form anyway. I’m far more comfortable believing in one of two God scenarios. The first is, as hinted above, of an omnipotent God of which the universe as we understand it is a fleeting figment of It’s perception. The second is of a non-omnipotent God, of the type that most theists seem to believe in (even if they think they don’t). A non-omnipotent, or, shall we say, flawed, God could have a great deal of motivation to do anything, including “working in mysterious ways”, creating a universe, talking to mortals, etc. As Adams says, it is an imperfect existence that causes motivation to act. And in every religious text I’ve read, the descriptions of God point to a belief in a non-perfect deity. In any case, I’m babbling, and the conflict between my beliefs and that of the Avatar do not make the story any less good. But from this point on, it’s important to realise that the majority of my interest in the book came from the same source as my interest in other people’s beliefs in general: that I’m fascinated by religion and belief systems.
  • Free Will Revisited (Free Will of a Penny) – Now within the context of the Avatar’s viewpoint, we revisit the idea of free will, and apply the idea that the probability in the universe (alongside matter/energy, part of the remnants/being of God) is universal in scope, and that it is as valid to say that humans have free will as it is to say that a penny has free will to determine what side it lands on when it is tossed. The analogy is perhaps un-necessary, but, like some earlier examples, it would illustrate the author’s point in a way that is approachable to anybody.Surprisingly, these ideas are not put forward with the “shock value” that it felt some of the earlier ideas were supposed to: the writing style is changed in order to present the information more fluidly. I, for one, found this more readable, but I’m interested to hear how other readers found it – presumably we’re supposed to face the revelations of the previous chapters as facts for the purposes of understanding these ones. Which is fine.
  • Evolution, Skepticism, And ESP (Evolution, Skeptics’ Disease, ESP and Luck, ESP and Pattern Recognition) – What follows are the best-written chapters in the book. The Avatar and the deliveryman discuss skepticism and how inexplicable phenomena – such as extra-sensory perception (ESP) – fit in to the Avatar’s model of the universe. Some wide and varied explanations tease the reader with ideas that invite further thought and comment. ESP is described as the result of probability on the mind, or perhaps as the acute perception of forces elsewhere. Having already discussed gravity and magnetism, earlier, we are reminded that every thought is characterised by physical transformations in the brain – chemicals, electrical impulses, matter changes – which, of course, exert fields such as gravity into the universe. As a result, like it or not, thoughts do travel through the air, although this isn’t in a form that might be recognisable as a thought.
  • Light (Light) – A quick examination and hurried explanation of the more confusing points of general relativity follows. Those of a physics disposition or even a physics interest may find this a little patronising, but a point is made at the end, by way of excessive analogy. One is left wondering to what degree Adams – or, at least, his fictional Avatar character – understands some of the more interesting properties of light (such as that it is affected by gravity, or that it’s speed is not necessarily constant), and this casts a shadow of doubt across other things he’s stated as fact. Nonetheless, an interesting chapter.
  • Curious Bees (Curious Bees) – Using a great analogy involving bees looking through the different colours of stained glass window of a church, the Avatar talks about the nature of religion. Superficially, the chapter is similar to Road Maps, but goes into greater detail about the Avatar’s belief in the necessity of human models by which to understand the world. It’s also a lovely bit of writing.
  • Willpower (Willpower) – A further examination of free will and relativity, this time from the perspective of humans. Issues of the subjectivity of morality are hinted at, but not at a level that would excite a philosopher. The chapter uses some interesting metaphors, but if you’ve read books on philosophical morality before, you won’t find anything new here.
  • Prelude To The War (Holy Lands and Fighting God) – The Avatar incites a discussion with the deliveryman about the nature of religious artefacts and their irrelevance, and hints at the purpose of an Avatar – to facilitate improved communication between intelligent individual entities in order to get closer to the state of understanding of the God from which all probability originally came. It is implied that the Avatar believes this to be “the great plan” of where the universe is headed, and it makes fascinating reading, despite my inability to facilitate his beliefs. Later, it is implied that there is to be an important war, fuelled by religion, and I’m left wondering why Adams didn’t take the obvious opportunity to make reference to this idea before, during – for example – Curious Bees. Or maybe he did and I just didn’t notice.
  • Relationships (Relationships) – The Avatar dispenses some general advice on living life in a way that improves the value of the lives of others, and, by proxy, yourself. This doesn’t really feel like it belongs in this book, but is good reading nonetheless, particularly if you’ve had any formal training in skills like active listening.
  • Affirmations (Affirmations) – In another ‘aside’, the value of human thought and determination is explored. This ties in more closely with the rest of the story than Relationships did, talking again about ideas of probability and of noticing the results you want to notice (the same kinds of phenomena that cause superstitions to be reinforced). Good reading, but, like Relationships, you’re not sure why.
  • Fifth Level (Fifth Level) – In a slightly pompous way that feels unbefitting of it’s own definition, the Avatar declares himself to have reached the fifth level of consciousness, the level at which God’s nature can begin to be understood. In order to try to alleviate the tension caused by this revelation, the Avatar explains the importance of other levels, with particular reference to the most influential political and religious leaders, who are typically of lower levels (as it is valuable for them to be able to close their minds to particular outside ideas). The whole chapter’s a little woolly around the edges, but prepares the reader well for the final revelations.
  • The Religious War (Going Home, After The War) – It is implied that in the years that follow there is a great religious war of the kind alluded to by the old Avatar. Now the former deliveryman is the new Avatar, and he himself is old, having survived the religious war (who’s build-up is described, over several chapters, in terms that are chilling when explored in reference to the political climate of today’s real world). It’s suggested that the Avatar is responsible for ensuring that the war ends peacefully, as part of a longer-running plan to reunite the many distributed facets of humanity into the “great plan” of a re-assembled God, but other suggestions are hinted at, too.

End of spoilers – if you skipped the bit above, it’s safe to start reading again here. The book is an interesting one, with some well-presented ideas (behind a little bit too much woolly thinking). I’d have no problem with recommending it to anybody with an interest in religion, or to anybody who needs their theism or atheism challenged. However, if you’ve explored an interest in philosophy or religion before, you’re unlikely to find much that is new or that can excite you in this book, except for the story it wraps inside it. The book takes a very direct route to it’s destination without exploring any of the alternative beliefs: for example, I disagreed entirely with one of the earlier premises, but the story as told by the protagonists left no room for dispute, and just pushed onwards towards it’s inevitable conclusion. This made little difference to me: I was reading it because I enjoy trying to understand the beliefs of other people – even fictional ones – but I can see how it could infuriate people who don’t expect their beliefs to be dismissed at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, it’ll only take you a few hours (at a maximum) to read it, and it’s free, so go download God’s Debris and make an afternoon of it. I’ll be delighted to discuss in finer detail the book with anybody who’s read it.

Naruto Night

Yes, Naruto Night is on tonight.

That is all.

Snow!

Okay, so it isn’t actually snowing, so the title of this post was a little bit of a lie. But it has been: walking to work this morning, I passed a number of cars (presumabley having come down from the mountains) with small drifts of snow on their rooves (not just frost, like those in town have). Winter’s picking up pace. The weeks and weeks of rain we’ve had have at long last stopped, giving us a week of clear skies and frosty, crisp days. Wonder if we’ll get snow in Aber this year. I want to have another try at getting Claire sledging.

Went, last night, to the future history of the future of the thing that was historically The Future History Of Comedy, “Gorilla Monsoon”, Aberystwyth’s alternative comedy/open-mic thingy, with Claire, Jimmy, Matt, and others. Matt’s said a lot about it already in his review, so I won’t go over old ground by telling you everything in as much detail as he already has, except where I disagree with him.

Our MC was Bryan Patrick, who I found to be good throughout. His quips at things were spot on and his crowd interactivity was good, and he seemed to do a good job throughout of getting the crowd motivated and making them feel connected with him on a personal level. I’ve seen Danny Furness a couple of times before at Future History, and his performance has always been… variable… but last night he really shone: a particularly spectacular act which repeatedly made me laugh out loud. Anton Pique was next up. I saw this guy once before at Future History, where he did a wonderfully morbid and dark act which was one of those “funny but you don’t laugh at it” things we see so rarely, like Chris Morris’ Jam. Last night, however, he seemed to be struggling – perhaps trying too hard to maintain a dark, subtle humour while simultaneously trying to appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps not. All I know is that he didn’t tickle me quite so well as he did when I first saw him. Nick Page was our headline act, and, as Matt says, he was very good, delivering a stream of well built-up, developed, thought-out gags with a hint of “what-next, graduate?” loss that I can’t help but empathise with. Witty, intelligent humour with which to finish the evening.

Here’s a thought: who’s Wes Packer (he claims to have been performing last night)?

Not Quite Where We Planned To Be

Claire and I are in Preston. Let me explain how this came about.

As I mentioned, we spent Friday night and most of Saturday in Gregynog, a beautiful stately home owned by the University of Wales and used as a conference venue. Every year, the Computer Science department ships almost the entirety of the second year out there to learn how better to get a job, in anticipation of hopefully getting an industry year placement the following year. Claire, as a department staff member, was invited along to help organise a group of students. I was invited along as an representative of the computer industry, there to give mock interviews to students of the kind that they might expect when applying for computer science related jobs for their industry year or for graduate positions.

It was a lot of fun. I met some interesting people and, with their help, got to grill students. Perhaps my favourite part was successfully catching out students who had… how shall we say it… exaggerated a little on their CVs. One fellow, I remember, had, while boasting about his web development proficiency, stated that he was familiar with HTTP. So I asked him what the fundamental differences between a GET and a POST method were. I’d have accepted something about request parameters being visible on the address bar, but no: no such luck. It was also good to be pleasantly surprised, such as by the database-proficient claimant I met who successfully, with a pause, disassembled the huge database relationship diagram I gave to him. My co-interviewer says I’m evil. I replied that I was merely thorough.

On Saturday night, in accordance with our plans, we continued on to Warrington to visit Gareth and Liz‘s new place. Gareth didn’t seem quite ‘with it’. But the food was good and I regretted eating so well at Gregynog that I couldn’t guzzle more, and the company was even better. After the party came to a quiet end, we dropped off Jimmy at his home in Runcorn, and decided to move on up to Preston to say “hi” to my folks.

Needless to say, my mum was at least a little surprised when Claire and I waltzed into her bedroom. We didn’t waltz, mind. More of a polka. But she was surprised, regardless. My dad returns from Vietnam today, so we’re hoping to catch him and have lunch before we return to Aber.

Paul: I bet, despite her trying to remind herself on several occasions, Claire’s still forgotten to call you to tell you that we’re unlikely to make the 2:30 screening of Howl’s Moving Castle at the Arts Centre, so I hope you read this before then.