Recently British Gas sent out 4 energy saving lightbulbs to all of their customers. Of course, they didn't bother asking whether or not your lights had that particular style of lightbulb, as there are several popular types in the UK. So it ends up that none of them fit my lights. But it did prompt me to buy a couple bulbs that would fit for the bathroom and the hallway lights. I don't use them much so I doubt it will save much energy, but a little is better than none I suppose.

I've also installed two LED bulbs in the kitchen to replace one halogen bulb that burnt out. They are not quite as bright as I might like, but with two of them it is enough. Together they use about 1/8 of the electricity compared to the halogen bulb, but even better I don't have to change them as often - since the halogen ones seem to burn out after 6 months or so. These are supposed to last about 25 times longer than the halogen ones, so I hope to be long gone from the flat by the time they burn out.

This week has been pretty busy in the evenings. On Wednesday I went to Helen's house for a faux-Thanksgiving dinner. We had pumpkin pie (from when I made them from scratch on Tuesday), but the dinner was spaghetti and meatballs (however they were the best meatballs I've ever had I think). Then on Thursday I went to Fired Arts to paint a bowl. Hopefully it will come out as well as the mug I did in July.

Yesterday I went to a Cluedo party (Cluedo is the original name of the game called Clue in the US, it was created in the UK) and I dressed as Reverend Green (called Mr. Green in the US). It was hosted by my new(ish) neighbors downstairs, who are really nice and friendly. It was pretty lucky I was there as I got extra food supplies from upstairs when they ran out of some key things (we were making personal pizzas). All in all a fun week but I am seriously behind on my course readings for this week.

Thursday I went to a pub quiz, and I managed to win two awards. My team got first place, which was pretty much not down to me due to the fact it was entirely about music. I think I knew about 5 answers out of 80, though I did guess the name of one of the songs that no one knew and it turned out to be right.

The other award I won was a little trophy for best mustache. There was a general mustache theme to the quiz, owing to the fact that a group of people involved in the quiz were doing Movember, which is a grow-a-mustache-in-November charity event to support prostate cancer. So at the quiz they were selling mustaches for anyone who didn't have one, but I made my own at home from a pink cereal box and taped it to my face. It won the best mustache competition probably because it was fairly weird looking and bright pink, plus there was a bit of a picture of cereal in the corner.


Photo courtesy of Robin Gissing

I've applied for a promotion at work as well. Just have to wait to see how that goes I guess. There's two big assignments due in the next month for my course as well, so I'm keeping quite busy.

The doctor seemed to think my progress was going ok, though he did acknowledge my joint was fairly stiff with downward movement. He's suggested just walking around with regular shoes now, and doing some toe exercises to try to stretch the range of the toe. Hopefull that will help.

Biggest problem I've had so far is going down steps. I just can't do that same rhythm to go down them, and I've nearly tripped several times. I think it is the fact that my left foot is now much lower to the ground, because my right shoe isn't a platform shoe anymore. I guess it will just take some getting used to again.

Tomorrow I am away at the Sheffield Park Hotel for an LTI 2 day residential. I'll be back Thursday night. Hopefully it will go well.

Well, thankfully the election turned out positive for Obama. I went to bed around 10 with my alarm set for 4:30, but I woke up at 2:15 so I went and watched about 3 hours of election coverage, as the states started to come in then. When there weren't any huge upsets in the northeast and they called Ohio and Pennsylvania, everyone was predicting an Obama victory, but I waited until the speeches to go to bed. I was hoping they would have the NC result before I turned it off. Little did I realize it would be so close, with only 12,000 votes separating the two, and no one getting a majority. Seems like the same thing happened in Missouri, with neither candidate having a majority. I don't know what they'll do. Is it worth having a runoff in a situation like this where it won't matter to the wider presidential election?

Most interesting thing of the election last night was the guests they had on the BBC. David Dimbelby, one of the BBC's most famous newscasters, attempted to interview Gore Vidal with fairly disastrous results until he gave up. John Bolton was also in a right bad mood, sitting on the panel for the first part of the election. Apparently everything was the fault of the liberal media bias.

Today is Guy Fawkes Day, meaning another night getting a feel for what it must be like living in a war zone, with the constant sound of explosions throughout the night.

I wish I could stay up to see the results like those of you in the US. England needs to be west of the US in timezones, not east. Instead I am going to bed now and waking up at 4:30am to see what results are in. Unfortunately, some news stations are already predicting it came down to my lost postal ballot in North Carolina: