h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Temperatures up to 28 or even 30 today, according to the Beeb 5-day forecast. Mind you, that changes every 5 minutes, sometimes I wonder why they bother.

Anyway, the garden at work is looking fabulous - we have a section with sunken beds with a pond and fountain in the middle and at the moment it's full of irises and lupins about to be in full bloom, plus lots of other pretty border plants which I don't know the names of.

Not much to do in the office this week - there was a big mailing which I was getting slightly worried about, but my lovely boss came and helped me with envelope-stuffing for an hour on Wednesday and we got it all done between us.

Today we had a 'going on maternity leave' party for our Head Housekeeper. There was a collection to buy her a present, and as well as an activity cradle for the baby and some nice bubble bath etc, the main present was ... a tumble-drier! Needless to say, she was completely overcome, but managed to make a little thank you speech before dissolving into tears.

That was at 11 this morning, in one of the College's beautiful meeting rooms. After a couple of glasses of wine, I went back to my office in a slight alcoholic haze, but was able to sober up with coffee and (very rich) chocolate cake at the Pudding Seminar - last one this term. It was another science one, so hard to understand for me - and many of the rest of the audience, judging by the questions! After the student giving it had been speaking for 5 minutes, the chairperson interrupted to ask if she could give a simple explanation of what a semi-conductor was. The speaker looked amazed that anyone could not know this, but went on to create some brilliant analogies to explain other aspects of her project, e.g. how many chairs you can fit on two square of a carpet pattern, knitting, etc.

I finish work at 4 on Fridays, so cycled into town and booked some cinema tickets for this weekend: the new Godard (Notre Musique) tomorrow and Mondays in the Sun (with Javier Bardem - swoon, thud!) on Monday. Sat in the bar at the Picturehouse for a bit with a pint of soda and lime (only 50p!!) and the newspaper.

Cycled home across Parker's Piece, a big green space in the centre of C., populated in weather like this by groups of foreign language students, either playing football or sitting round chatting.

Should really go to the supermarket this evening, but it's too hot. As I haven't got a car, I try to do part of my weekly shop (basics and heavy things like fruit) on a Friday evening, but I think I'll just have to make two journeys tomorrow - it's only 5 minutes' walk, so can't really complain!

Sounds idyllic Annie, teh old town, the university life, the bike, the shopping. Why on earth bother with Godard, once a fraud, always a fraud. And so smug.

I love those pudding seminars and it's thrilling to see that girls are doing so well at science; explaining what a semi-conductor is in simple words is a tough one.

Well yes, I must admit that I came out of the cinema thinking that the film belongs firmly in the category of what a friend of mine calls PFC (pretentious French carp) - not, I hasten to add, that I would ever use such a term to describe the illustrious M.Godard's oeuvre!

Of course it could just be that I am not intellectually up to the challenge? Anyway, thankfully it is quite short, so I didn't have to feel ignorant for too long. The man next to me went to sleep, quite noisily and had to be poked in the ribs by his companion. Several people walked out, one of them about 10 minutes into the film and another - bizarrely - only 10 minutes before the end.