Life, the Universe and Everything

Regular readers - and I think there's at least two of you :-) will know that I don't do multitasking. Talk to me (or worse still, witter) when I'm dancing and it all goes to pot and I probably won't ask you to dance again.   But wait, at the Sidmouth Festival recently, I danced and talked with A all at the same time and it worked! And thinking about it, I've done that with her before.  So what's going on? Well, she's a very fine dancer. So perhaps she makes it so easy for me that my brain has the capacity for conversation? Could be.  Another possibility is that she has the sensitivity to know when I've got the capacity to talk and listen and when I haven't. Pretty good either way. Unfortunately, I think she has a boyfriend. Not surprising really...

BBC Radio 4 recently did a documentary on Hulme , part of Manchester. If you're quick, you can Listen Again   It's a fascinating story of Tamil refugees, deck-access flats, squatting, demolition, a no-go area for the police and a rich alternative culture. My connection? A few years ago, I got a day's work delivering some training to an organisation based there. In preparation, I used Multimap to plan a route. Having got a small-scale map of my approach, I zoomed in for more detail. Something went horribly wrong - the layout of the streets on the large-scale map was almost completely different. When I finally arrived, it was clear that a large part of the area had only just been rebuilt. Multimap must have used some mapping from before and after. Here's links to some less geeky stuff: Wikipedia on Hulme Photos of the old Hulme

It's a café in Cheltenham town centre between Tesco and the taxi office. It's old fashioned - a throwback to the 1960s. Not quite authentic - the ketchup is not in a tomato-shaped container and the wartime posters are reproductions. They don't talk about cholesterol, they just DO it. Popped in there at lunchtime today and realised I hadn't had a proper breakfast so I ordered one. They didn't bat an eyelid. The kitchen is in the basement so the girl leaned out of the back window and shouted the order down. All the puddings are served with the option of custard or ice-cream. They do coffee but don't get clever and try ordering cappuccino. It's probably the last of it's kind - I'm sure there are others in less sophisticated towns like Gloucester but we are Cheltenham Spa .

Our ancient and venerable legal system sent me a text. They've made me redundant - it's over. Quick reflections: It's interesting in parts But take a book for the boring bits

They gave us Monday off. Tuesday and today, we didn't even get into Court, sill less do any Deliberating because all the defendants decided to plead guilty at the last moment. While we were waiting for this to actually happen, we were let out into the car park for cigarettes and fresh air - an optimistic combination. Anyway, In one corner, near the public loos, I noticed an umbrella, a pile of bedraggled possessions and a man sat with them smoking. I recognised him as the guy who on the first day told me quietly "You're trespassing, pal". I would have tried talking to him again but the usher sternly told us not to talk to anyone. She did consent to convey a fag to him from one of the smokers. I popped into the office later and Mel knew about the chap. She thinks he's been living there for about twenty years! I tried Googling for information and found nothing. Maybe after this all over, I'll go back and talk to him.

Any of you could have sat in the public gallery and seen more of this interesting and unusual case than we did. You'd have got the lawyers arguments and all the fun stuff denied to us. The defendant was accused of committing some sexual offences last year. Unfortunately, over subsequent months his health had declined to the point that the judge said he was "unfit to plead" - we would not be hearing from the man at all. He wasn't allowed to tell us if he was guilty or not. He just sat there silently in the dock throughout. The question put to us was not the usual one of guilt - just whether he did the alleged acts with no account of what the judge called the "mental element".  The poor defence barrister pointed out that he was unable to present us with an alternative version of events - all he could do was pick holes in the prosecution case. So, after a couple of days, our foreman was asked if it was proved that the defendant had done the act . And all fo...

Starting to get to know some of the people on the jury with me today. Quite a mix. There are a couple of students, a barmaid, an engineer and a woman who complains about everything. We didn't get started until after lunch today because one of the barristers is trying to run another case in Swansea simultaneously. Once in Court, I'm still in creaky seat number 10 and will be until we finish this case. At a quiet point I look up at the public gallery and try to work out who might be friends and family of the people involved and who has just come in out of the rain. If you have the time, it's worth spending some time in the public gallery of your local court. There certainly are interesting and dramatic cases but under the rules, I can't say much more than that.