Imperial Othello

It's the British Othello Championship, this year at the Imperial Rooms in Matlock. Well, the smaller of the Imperial Rooms, we're not using both of them. But we've got a healthy turnout of 17 competitors, and I've been playing as well as might be expected from someone who's barely touched an othello disc in the past twelve months. Still, it's all to play for tomorrow, so we'll see what might happen. After four of nine rounds, David Hand leads the field - and regular readers will be pleased to know I still instinctively wrote down his name as 'David B' while taking minutes at the AGM before the tournament...

I'm going on a gluten-free diet

I've heard good things. I'll let you know if I die.

Travel broadens the mind

It's a long way to Brighton, it's no wonder I've never been there before. I'm still fairly sure that Skegness is the best seaside town, anyway. On the way home now after a day of memory stuff. I haven't had many days of memory stuff lately - I'm always thinking that perhaps I'm not in demand as a memory expert any more, seeing as it's been so many years since I was a world champion or anything like that, but then someone comes along and demands me again. Possibly it will never end...

This week I are been mostly doing memory man stuff

They always come in threes - today I've been preparing for my memory-based jaunt to Bristol tomorrow, and talking about the exciting possibility of another TV jaunt to China next year. I was also supposed to be getting a call from the journalist who's writing up the UK Memory Championship, but I think he must have forgotten.

I also bought a new toothbrush, and I was surprised to see that they come in a 'whitening' variety, just like toothpaste does. The packaging says that the bristles are arranged in some kind of special tooth-polishing way, but I'm pretty sure the 'whitening' ones are identical to the 'fresh breath' ones that I opted for. I examined them closely. Also, if I ever get to the point of worrying about what colour my teeth are, you can go ahead and shoot me.

Oh, the places you'll go

I'm going to Brighton on Thursday, to record roughly three minutes' worth of quickfire videos for students about how to remember things. Perhaps hardly worth an eight-hour round trip, but it's nice to get out of the house once in a while. And then on Saturday and Sunday it's the British Othello Championship! Which comes with the possibility of qualifying for the World Championship, back in this country again in November! A pretty faint and remote kind of possibility in my case, since with one thing and another I've hardly played a game of othello since last year's nationals, but still, it's all terribly exciting. And since the nationals are in Matlock, I can drive there and back and not have to spend money on a hotel room. Which is good, since I haven't got any money and would have to either sneak into a hotel without paying or sleep on the streets. Or, I suppose, in my car, but somehow sleeping on the streets is cooler than sleeping in a car. I don't know why that is.

Doctor Who?

It still sucks. I'm really in the mood to go on at length about the many diverse ways in which it sucks, and make vague threats to stop watching it, as if this would somehow strike fear into the heart of Steven Moffat, but I'll just stick with saying it sucks. I do remain hopeful it'll get better again some day, though...

C. K. Watt

Fawlty Towers is 40 years old, apparently. You know, you can probably tell a lot about the secrets of a person's psyche by which episodes of Fawlty Towers are their favourites - a lot of people say The Germans, but the ones that always make me laugh the most are The Wedding Party and The Psychiatrist...