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The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.

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11:26pm on Wednesday, 12th December, 2007:

Bath Time

Weird

I was in Bath today, instead of at an important meeting defending my games degree plans from people who don't see the need to teach C++ for it. I would have taken some pictures, as Bath is very photogenic, but one of my daughters seems to have taken my digital camera and not bothered to return it, so I was unable to take snaps. Still, that's never stopped me before when it comes to vignettes...

Some random observations:

The shops didn't play Christmas music. What a relief! I don't mind carols so much, but those grating pop songs are enough to make me leave a shop rather than dawdle. Even the brass quartet in the centre of town were playing Frankie and Johnny instead of Merry Xmas Everybody. Mind you, I don't like Frankie and Johnny, either...
Sign: Nick Brain Hairdressing. Wow, the worst I've ever had from a haircut is a nicked scalp.
To the owners of The Mosaic Shop on Pulteney Bridge: you will sell more of your stuff if you are in your shop at the same time as your customers. I went in three times and there was no-one there. I could have taken anything; I was certainly unable to buy what I wanted.
There was a game in a games shop window, Where is Moldova?. As you can imagine, any game that "rewards luck, strategy and knowledge" isn't going to be my cup of tea (rewards luck?!). It seems to have a high trivia content, which, because I'm seriously attuned to trivia having just completed the compilation of 700 trivia questions, naturally I checked out. The first question on the box, presumably intended to give a flavour of it, was: "What is the name of Pluto's larger moon?". Ah, Pluto, I remember when it was a planet... I also know it has more than two moons, so that "larger" there should be "largest", and, since Charon is close to half the size of Pluto, it's debatable whether it's a moon at all — it's more like a binary (ex-)planet.
I don't know how many books they sell in the antique bookshop near the station, but to get into it you have to press a doorbell button and wait for the buzzer. I think they may have had problems with shoplifting in the past...
There was a freshly-squished dove (or maybe a white pigeon) on Pulteney Bridge, and a schoolteacher telling his class of 20 or so 11-year-olds who had just witnessed its demise that it died instantly and didn't feel any pain. That didn't stop the kids from being impressed by how cool it was, though.
That local West Country accent they have there really is the kind of Zummerzet lilt pastiched by generations of people who live elsewhere.

Oh, the reason I was in Bath, by the way, was to take my elder daughter to Bath University for an open day. Bath University has the same kind of glass and concrete 1960s architecture as Essex University, which is to say it's brutally ugly. My daughter gave her name to the person on the door, said nothing for the next 3 hours, but was impressed by what happens when you pour Fairy Liquid into Liquid Nitrogen (not that it's physics, which is what she's applied for). Apparently, the liquids cancel and you get Fairy Nitrogen.

Referenced by New Oldest.

Referenced by Robin Hood, Where Are You?.

Referenced by Railroaded.

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Bath Time

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